Flicker and Flame: Magic Bound Book One

by Willow Hayes

  As we step through the opening I feel the tingle of magic press against my skin. Once we have entered it becomes clear that Nakoa’s guess of a maze is likely correct. The stone walls reach high above us, and we have no choice but to move forward down a narrow passageway. We don’t have far to walk before we are faced with another pedestal and alcove. We approach the pedestal, and I read the riddle aloud:

  I weaken all men for hours each day.

  I show you strange visions while you are away.

  I take you by night, by day you take back,

  None suffer to have me,

  But do from my lack.

  What am I?

  I turn to face the guys. “What do we think?”

  “I think it’s the sun,” Luka states confidently. “The sun weakens, can cause headaches, and goes away at night.”

  “You’re wrong, Luka,” Teo says with his head cocked to the side. “The sun can cause people to suffer, so it can’t be the sun.” Teo’s tone surprises me because it’s confrontational and not his usual mellow approach. Teo and Luka then exchange heated words about the validity of Luka’s guess.

  Nakoa places a hand on each of their shoulders, “Knock it off you two. We need to agree on something, so let’s look at other options.” I peer at Nokoa because something is off. The words he’s saying are definitely ones he would say, but his cold, abrupt tone shocks me, and suddenly he seems so distant.

  “What would someone suffer from not getting enough of?” Callum asks the group.

  “Food or maybe water,” I hesitantly offer up. Callum turns to me, and his normally warm midnight blue eyes are frosted over with coldness, and what I see confuses me.

  “Yes, but neither of those would weaken men.” Again, like Nakoa, Callum’s words come out icy, confusing me further and my forehead scrunches up in thought. I try not to take it personally, but his tone is so cold it’s hard not to.

  “Don’t talk to her like that,” Teo’s voice is almost vicious with his command. Then they are all fighting about tone and answers and getting into each other’s faces.

  I watch in horror at what is unfolding between my Chosen. As my mind races to understand the sudden nastiness between my men my magic gives me a nudge, and I realize what must be happening. When I felt the tingle of magic as we walked through the wall it was to create division and strife, just like the verse warned about.

  “Shut up!” I yell at the four of them. They abruptly stop talking and turn to me with harsh expressions. Having all four of them face me like this I study their faces and body language and know that magic has touched them. These are not my men. “Arguing is not helping, guys. We need to do this together. Callum, I think you are on the right track starting with asking what we would suffer from not having.” Teo turns and growls at Callum. “Teo, I appreciate your desire to defend me, but let me defend myself, okay?” He does not look happy about this prospect but agrees. “So what would we suffer for not having that is also tied to the movement of the sun or moon?”

  I take a deep breath and blow it out through pursed lips, grateful that some of the tension has bled out of their exchanges. The guys throw out a few more guesses, and more arguments break out. I struggle more and more to rein them back in with every guess.

  “What about sleep?” Luka asks, his face hard, already prepared to go on the defensive.

  I step in before anyone can say anything. “Let’s walk through each line of the riddle and compare, okay?” A series of grumbles of agreement answer me. “Does sleep make someone weak during the day?”

  “I suppose you could see it that way. When night falls we are tired,” Nakoa reasons grudgingly.

  “Great, so it weakens men. What about strange visions while you are away?” Before anyone can answer an idea hits me though, so I say, “Dreams! Dreams come from sleep, and you could say dreams are often strange.” The guys nod in agreement, confirming that we all think the answer is sleep. “So who is going to stand on the circle thing?” I can see another argument brewing, so I step in, “Nakoa, why don’t you do it since you stepped on the first one?”

  I move aside to give him room to stand on the knot. He says our answer, and this time the path on the left opens and lights up brightly. We walk through the opening, heading down the narrow passageway until it opens to another riddle and glowing knot on the ground. I decide that, given the magical state of my Chosen, I will have to take the lead in this portion of the trial, a super exciting thought given my distaste for riddles, and step up to read:

  I can be short and sometimes hot.

  When displayed, I rarely impress.

  What am I?

  At first I feel thankful the riddle is short, but when we start to puzzle it out and find that with few clues to compare against we are having a harder time proving or disproving ideas and therefore agreeing. Nakoa, Teo, and Luka are set on ‘a pepper,’ but Callum stands firm on his guess of ‘a temper,’ and I have no fucking clue.

  “A pepper is short but isn’t always hot. Peppers aren’t much to look at, so they wouldn’t impress,” Teo argues for their answer one final time.

  “Tempers can be short as well as hot and are rarely impressive!” Callum fights for his answer. They all turn expectant eyes on me, waiting for my vote.

  “Right, well I guess we’ll have to go with majority rules on this since we’ve been going round and round with no consensus. Nakoa please stand on the knot and speak the answer.” Their arguing is starting to wear on me, and I find myself longing for my guys. Not the crappy, venomous version I have in front of me, but the thoughtful and passionate guys I walked into the trial with. I sigh and turn to watch Nakoa speak the answer. The left path opens again, but this time the only light is provided by torches on the wall.

  “Well…shit.” As we walk into the narrow passageway I can’t help but wonder if the lighting is related to the validity of our answer. “I’m pretty sure that our answer was wrong, guys.” They all open their mouths to argue, but I cut them off, “The verse at the beginning of the maze said that if we got the answer right there would be light, but if we got it wrong we would get lost. The light here is definitely not the same as the first two passages.” Damn, this is spooky. The lack of light and grumpy nature of my men is getting me.

  As we walk down the shadowed passageway the ground begins to rumble and shake. My heart races in fear, and I watch in horror as pieces of the floor begin to crumble and fall into the blackness below. Nakoa and Teo were walking in front of our line and barely managed jumped in time to a section of floor still intact. However, the distance between where I stand with Callum and Luka and the intact floor is too great for me to jump. “Um…guys, how do we get across?” I squeak out, panic causing my voice to rise.

  “I can run and jump to stable ground, but I can’t take you with me.” Even in Luka’s magically altered state the idea of leaving me has agony twisting his features.

  “I can use air to lift her across,” Callum speaks with such certainty I start to hope that we will get out of this. Luka agrees reluctantly and jumps to the other side. Callum turns me to face him and says, “You must not move while I am lifting you across. You must stay completely still, Kenna.” His words brisk but not quite as icy as before. I nod my understanding. “Close your eyes.” The idea sends my pulse racing. “You will be fine.” His words grow slightly more impatient with my heart’s response.

  I reluctantly close my eyes and tense my body, willing it to stillness. I feel my hair lift as air whips around me, and my feet leave the ground. I can’t help the squeak that escapes me, but I force my body to keep still. I feel the movement across the abyss, tucked within the arms of the wind. My feet touch the ground, and the wind slowly dies away. I feel warm arms wrap around me, and finally open my eyes. Luka is holding me close and murmuring an apology. I wave his words off, and watch in awe as Callum floats across the blackness, wrapped in a cocoon of wind.

  Once we are all together again we begin warily walking through the pas
sageway. It isn’t long before we arrive at another riddle, and I step up to read it once again:

  I can be hot, I can be cold,

  I can run and I can be still,

  I can be hard and I can be soft.

  What am I?

  “Okay guys, I’m pretty sure we got the last one wrong, hence the abyss of doom. Let’s make sure we don’t move forward until we are all in agreement. Deal?” They agree, and we work on the riddle. The tenuous truce from before shatters quickly as we work.

  “So the two answers we are comparing are a person and water. Let’s go through the riddle again.” As we move through the riddle I decide that I am quite glad I do not have children right now because I imagine this is what parenting feels like, and I am exhausted and frustrated.

  “Water can be hot or cold, run like a river or be still like a pond, be hard like the crash of a waterfall or soft like a trickling stream,” Nakoa lists the points one by one.

  “A person can be hot from the sun or cold from snow, can run or be still, and can be hardened by circumstance or softhearted like our Spitfire.” Teo’s comment and accompanying smile help to soothe my aching heart. The guys argue back and forth, but slowly they all manage to agree on one.

  Nakoa stands on the knot and looks to the ceiling. “Water.” I wait with bated breath because the next passageway will tell us if we are forever lost to the trial, or if we have found redemption. My breath leaves me in a relieved whoosh when the wall on the right opens and reveals a brightly lit path like the first two.

  I fight the tears that want to fall in relief and frustration of the conflict that continues to stir in my Chosen. We repeat the process for three more riddles, each as exhausting as the last. The longer we are in the maze the sharper their words become, and I fight against the desire to curl into myself.

  Thankfully we answer the three correctly and encounter no more death defying moments. The passage we walk down is short, and we stop in front of the next riddle the maze brings us to:

  “You can touch me,

  You can break me,

  If you want to be mine,

  You should win me.

  What am I?”

  “Is this something tangible then? It can be touched and broken,” I wearily offer up, wishing I knew when this part of the trial would end.

  “Whatever it is can take possession of something, so it’s likely not an object,” Nakoa remains cold and analytical. I work to remind myself, yet again, that it’s the magic talking and not truly him.

  “How would one go about winning this object or whatever it is?” I ask, confused.

  Luka starts muttering under his breath, obviously trying to work something out. “I think I’ve got it! I think it’s a heart because you can touch someone’s heart, and you can break it. A heart is where love originates, and to get another person’s heart you have to win it!” There is some debate, but surprisingly we are able to agree in short order. Nakoa speaks our answer, and with a tingle of magic the maze dissolves around us.

  Forty-Seven

  Kenna

  We’re back in front of the stone table, except this time there is a simple silver dagger set on it. With the second trial complete, I turn back to my Chosen, hoping that they are themselves once again. They are each shaking their heads as though to dislodge something that was stuck. Their eyes grow wide when their gazes land on me. I can see the apology dance across their eyes, and I know they’ve returned to me.

  I throw myself at the four of them, and the tears I’d been holding back begin to fall. “Damn it, you guys! I hated every minute of that goddamn trial!” my voice is restricted by the knot in my throat, trying to keep my sobs in.

  “Spitfire, I am so sorry.” I feel Teo stroke my back.

  “Stop, don’t apologize. It was the magic. I figured it out the minute we started to solve the first riddle in the maze,” I reassure him, all of them. I pull back and wipe the tears from my face. “I’m so freaking happy that you’re back.” I look away with the force of the emotions the thought of losing them has brought on. They each give me a tight hug and try to mumble another apology, which I promptly stop by kissing each one on the cheek. I clear my throat and shake off the moment. “Let’s finish this, shall we?” I turn back to the table and read the words now etched on the stone:

  “If your heart was proven true,

  In trials one and two.

  You have no need to fear,

  That which lies here.

  If the Vasílissa and her Eklektós alike,

  Would gladly sacrifice their light,

  To keep those they love from peril,

  Then this quest will bring you no more toil.

  A drop of aíma from each,

  Will seal the desmós made by magea’s reach.

  “Can we be done with the riddles please? My brain hurts!” I throw my hands up in frustration.

  Callum’s look of concentration as he studies the words is crazy sexy. Who am I kidding he could be covered in mud, and I would still think he was crazy sexy. “Aíma means blood, so a drop of blood from each. Desmós means bond, so the blood will seal the bond made by magic’s reach,” Callum easily translates the old tongue for us. “I think the passage means that if we protected each other during the first two trials our job is done, but the blood seems to finalize it somehow. Perhaps it will read something from the magic in our blood.”

  “Well that’s intense,” I deadpan. I grab the dagger, ready to be finished, and prick my finger. I watch in fascination as the crimson drop fades into the blade instead of rolling down the surface, leaving no trace. I hand it off to Callum who pricks his finger, and the dagger is passed down the line. Teo is the last, and as soon as his drop of blood fades into the blade it begins to shimmer with magic.

  As I watch, transfixed by the dagger, the shimmering magic flares, and a thin gossamer thread leaves the blade and floats to me. The moment the magic touches my chest it nearly brings me to my knees with the force of the pain. It’s all I can do to stay upright. The magic seems to invade my every cell, and I watch as the gossamer thread connects to each of my Chosen until it has created a loop.

  As soon as the last connection is made the magic, dagger, and stone table vanish, and my mark sears with pain once more. When the pain has stopped I pull at my shirt to look at my mark. Where my gold crown and ruby accents previously sat alone an intricate knot now nestles between the two center rubies. I look to the guys and see that their marks have all changed as well. Then it hits me, “We really fucking did it!” The guys laugh in relief and at my reaction.

  Teo wraps his arms around me in celebration. We laugh together as he spins me around, clutching me tight to him. When he puts me down on the ground he gives me a brief but passionate kiss that leaves me feeling a bit dizzy. “One of these days Spitfire, you are going to finally realize just how much of a badass you really are.”

  As I step back from Teo another warm pair of arms grabs me and holds me tight to his chest. Luka nuzzles my neck and softly says, “I never had any doubt we would, Princess.” He places a kiss to my neck and straightens. As he looks at me, his face is filled with such tenderness and something much deeper, and my heart clenches at the sight. I lift my hand to his cheek, and lift up to my toes to kiss his lips. When my lips meet his he sighs and grips me closer. The kiss is full of all the emotions we can’t speak, and we both pull away breathless.

  When I step out of Luka’s embrace Nakoa is there to wrap me in his safe, large frame. He holds me tight for a few moments before he places his hands on either side of my face and says, “Firefly, one of these days you’ll stop doubting yourself. Until you do, we’ll be here to remind of you how amazing you are.” My eyes sting at his words, and I blink back the tears threatening to spill over. He leans down, and for a moment I think he’s going to kiss me, but he only places a tender kiss on my forehead before stepping back.

  Callum is next to wrap me in a hug, his arms gentle as he holds me tightly to him. When he steps
back he cups my cheek, and I lean into his warm touch. “My agapiméni agápi, you are stronger than you know.” My heart skips a beat at the beautiful but unfamiliar words and eyes full of emotions. He leans down and kisses my forehead, lips lingering as though he doesn’t want to let me go.

  When Callum steps back my eyes trace the faces of each of my Chosen. Somewhere along the way these men have begun to feel like home. The home I have never had. My eyes fill with tears at the onslaught of emotions that single thought stirs. I blink them back and smile shyly at them. I’m sure my eyes and voice are both full of the emotions I feel, but I don’t try to hide them behind the mask I’ve worn most of my life, “We did it.” My words are simple, but buried in them are all the things I can’t say.

  We make our way back to the SUV, and I reflect on everything that has changed in my life over the past few months. I still miss parts of my old life, but I truly have gained so much since my magic marked the guys as mine. The memory of when I marked the guys brings to mind the last line in the passage Luka read from the Queen’s Chosen book. Once the queen-to-be seals the bond she is free to take the throne. What does it mean that my guys and I sealed the bond? Could we have done that if I wasn’t able to take the throne yet? “Hey guys, something just occurred to me. The Queen’s Chosen book said that when the queen-to-be seals the bond she is free to take the throne. If I am free to take the throne how is queen bitch sitting on it? Does this mean her reign is built on a lie? Like when we were talking with Akira?”

  “If I were to make a guess I would say she falsely holds the throne, but that would be difficult to prove,” Callum speaks to the group.

  Teo’s voice growls, a hint of his wolf coming through the low rumble, when he says, “I think regardless of whether she reins through lies or has the right to sit there, she sure as fuck doesn’t deserve to be there.”