Enemy Of My Enemy (Price Of Power Book 1)

by Laura Stephens

  My eyes close slowly. I’m not surprised, but I haven’t accepted it yet either. “I’ll be killed if I go.”

  I glance at him just in time to see him nod in agreement. “I’m not a teacher. I was assigned to you simply because I have an elemental ability. Ben is the highest ranking out of the three of us and already had too much on his plate, Kaleb flat out refused. You need someone who knows how to instruct another.”

  My stomach sinks. I don’t care who trains me, it really doesn’t matter. The idea of not having a reason to spend time with him is an entirely different matter. I’ll have no one to bicker with or yell at or stare at. More times than I can count, Emmy’s accused me of liking Lincoln. I denied it because I thought it was simply lust. Judging by this feeling, it’s more than lust.

  “You and I are going with the Watcher. He said that he will train you. You may still not be ready in time, but it’s better than what I can offer you.”

  That sinking feeling starts to lift. “You’re going with me?” I ask him. When he nods, I almost sigh. “Where? When?” Did he say that the Watcher volunteered to train me? A God volunteered to train me? I tell myself that this is a good thing, but I hardly believe it.

  “He’ll be here tomorrow night to take us to his house. He said it’s isolated so it would be an ideal location.” Like he can read my mind, he continues. “It’s odd. I don’t think there’s a soul in Strega that knows where he lives. He also doesn’t participate in our lives either. It seems as though Aetheries isn’t the only one interested in you, Violet James.”

  With a snort, I climb out of the bed. There’s a large hole in my leather pants from where the shard had been, but the visible skin is flawless. “I need to change.” I don’t want to begin to think about how bad I look right now, but I’m still too groggy from just waking up that I don’t care enough to take a shower.

  “Emmy is with Damon and Ben. She’s moving some of your things into Ben’s house. You’ll stay there tonight and Emmy will be there while we’re gone.”

  “Extra set of eyes?” I ask him while piling the only clean clothes I can find into my arms.

  “Better safe than sorry. Damon is fully capable of protecting Emmy. I’m not as worried about her as I am you. But, just in case, Ben will watch over her as well.”

  “Tessa will be there too,” I tell him. “She’s the seer. If anyone broke into her house, wouldn’t she see them coming first?”

  “It doesn’t work that way.”

  I stop in the hallway between the only bathroom in the house and my bedroom and turn back to him. “Then how does it work?”

  “Ask her yourself tonight.”

  The bathroom door slams closed just before I roll my eyes. I hate prying into other people’s lives. That’s Emmy’s thing, not mine. Whether I like it or not, I plan on questioning her, specifically about the telling her mother had about me.

  Despite my best efforts, my hair refuses to cooperate so I simply tie it off into a low bun at my neck. Having curly hair is easy. You don’t need to spend hours fixing it because it normally dries in an already fixed state. Once the frizz sets in, though, there is no controlling it. I find Lincoln sitting on the kitchen counter with his legs swaying below him. The first floor is pristine and I know that Emmy must have spent hours cleaning up all evidence of what happened between me and Riley.

  “Ready?” I nod.

  Together we walk to the end of the path and around the corner. Children play in their front yards unwatched by their parents as though there is no danger inside the walls of the settlement. I’ve always been a firm believer in ignorance is bliss. But no one in this clan is ignorant. They know about the killings and they should be more proactive in protecting each other.

  “Maddox told the clan about what our plans are, about the war.”

  So everyone knows, then. Word had it that Maddox wanted to keep it as quiet as he could for as long as he could. Only specific people knew why there were large orders for weapons and armor and potions. “How are they taking it?” Hopefully the soldiers are more gung ho about it than I am.

  Lincoln shrugs his broad shoulders as we make a left, turning down another residential path. “Pretty well actually. I think they are all ready for it to be over. The fact that Rovente will be with us helps as well.”

  “I thought Pensatore wasn’t friends with Rovente?” I ask.

  “We aren’t. But there’s no denying their magical strength. Especially the Reapers.”

  Reaching Ben’s house, Lincoln holds the front door open, letting me enter first. I’ve only been here once but it still reminds me of home. There’s something about the aroma and décor that just sets me at ease. It smells of honey and freshly baked bread. Tessa somehow made this stone house warm and inviting.

  Emmy and Tessa round the corner into the living room to meet us. Emmy is in her black Alchemist uniform which looks eerily like scrubs. The whites of her eyes are bloodshot and I immediately know that for all the time I was asleep, she was awake tending to everything for me.

  Lincoln gives Tessa’s cheek a quick peck as she does the same to him. “Ben is at the castle with Maddox,” she tells him.

  I glance around the small house, looking for an annoyingly familiar dimpled face. “Where’s Damon?” Perhaps it’s what happened to Adam that is making me particularly protective at the moment, but it doesn’t matter. Damon spends most of his days with Emmy, but he’s still grown on me over the past several weeks and I don’t want anything to happen to him.

  “He’s in the kitchen, probably eating anything and everything he can find,” Tessa answers.

  “I have to go for a few hours,” Lincoln says to Emmy and me. “Both of you need to stay inside until either me or Ben can go with you.” He stares me down specifically. “I mean it.”

  “There’s nothing to worry about Lincoln,” Tessa says in her naturally sweet and motherly voice. “Violet,” she waves me towards her, “let me show you up to your room.”

  I’m halfway up to the second floor when I hear the front door close behind Lincoln. “Thank you for letting us stay here,” I say to Tessa. “There was actually something I wanted to talk to you about as well.”

  “Of course,” she responds.

  My brows furrow as I actually pay attention to her walking up the stairs, to her hand that is clenched firmly on the handrail. “How old are you, Tessa?”

  She laughs lightly. “I’m thirty. Why?”

  You’re arthritic.” I can see that her joints are swollen and stiff. She seems to be struggling more than a woman her age should be. “Have you gone to the Quarter?” As soon as I ask, I realize how stupid the question was.

  “I see Ivy once a month,” she answers. “Sometimes more.”

  Emmy mentioned seeing her at the Quarter once. “And she can’t heal arthritis?” If Healers can tend to sword wounds and broken bones and giant holes in legs, then that condition should be easy for them.

  “It’s not that simple, unfortunately.” Instead of veering off down the second floor hallway, she continues up the stairs to the third floor. “Lincoln told you about your energy being the fuel to your magic, right? A seer is different than most magic users, Violet. We don’t have a source of energy like you do. Instead, when a seer has a telling the magic feeds off of them. It takes its energy from our very beings. The stronger or more important the telling, the more damage it does to our body. The Healers are unable to reverse the damage and can only help with the symptoms and quality of life.”

  The toe of my boot catches on the top of a stair and I nearly fall. “You mean that your magic will kill you?”

  “In time, yes it will.” She doesn’t seem as upset as I’d imagine she would be. If you grew up knowing that this was your future, maybe it would be easier to accept.

  “How many tellings have you had to make it this bad?” I ask her. I don’t try to tiptoe around it and I think she appreciates that tactic.

  She reaches the top of the stairwell and starts the wal
k to the end of the hallway. There are only two doors, one of which – if the layout is the same as our house – one will lean to a rest room or closet and the other to a spare bedroom. “One.” She looks over her shoulder at me. “Yours.”

  Somehow I manage to keep my expression neutral until she faces away and then my jaw drops. My telling did this to her? One powerful telling hurt her this badly? I can’t begin to fathom what that means for me and I don’t want to.

  “This is your room. Emmy will be staying here as well so the two of you will need to share tonight, I hope that’s okay.”

  It takes me a moment to get my head out of my own fear before I nod. “The Watcher told me how I ended up on Earth. How Emmy and I ended up there. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “I’ll help you in any way that I can, Violet. I hope you already know that.”

  “He said that a witch named Evie, a seer of Pensatore, had a telling about me when I was still a baby. Apparently she went to the Rovente settlement and informed my mother of what she knew. All I know about this telling is that I was in danger and needed to be protected. Do you know what the telling actually was?”

  Her dark pink lips sag at the corners. “She never said anything to me, which is understandable. A telling is meant to remain between the seer and the intended recipient. Exceptions will be formed if there are unforeseen circumstances such as in your situation. The first telling, you were an infant and unable to understand the situation so Evie would have discussed the matter with your parents. The second telling – mine – you were in the human realm. I had no other choice but to tell others so that they could find you and bring you home.”

  “I don’t get it,” I reply as I plop down onto the mattress. “For some reason I needed to be protected before I could even walk. Now, I have a power the elementals believed to be extinct. I can overpower even the strongest among them. Then I have a second telling lingering over me like a dark cloud threatening a hail storm.”

  “Violet, I know you’re frustrated that I can’t give you the answers you seek. Even if I had them to give to you, I still couldn’t. The future isn’t something that should be taken lightly. Every action we take changes something later on. If Strega wanted us to know every last detail, it would be so. But that’s not how this works. All the pieces will fall together when it’s time. When the telling comes true, you will know exactly what it means – what you’re supposed to do. Until that time comes you need to set it aside and try to forget. It’s said that the recipients of powerful tellings play a large part in our history, due to actions, sacrifices, and even leadership.” Her fragile hand rests on my shoulder, rubbing it gently as her eyes delve deeper into mine. “For as long as the seers’ history has been written, there has been only one who has ever received two tellings … you.”

  “Right.” I don’t know how my life has become this complicated so fast.

  “Do you want my honest advice?”

  I nod, desperate for any information I can get my hands on.

  “Live your life. Do what you want to do when you want to do it. Life is too short not to celebrate each day. I know you want to figure it all out and have the answers now. But you should push it all aside and ignore it for the time being. It’ll do you some good. When you’re old and gray, you don’t want to be regretting all those moments you spent panicked about the future. You want to think back to all the fun you had. You want your memories to bring a smile to your face.”

  The advice is true and applicable but it’s also rehearsed. It’s probably a speech she’s been telling herself for years, but that doesn’t make it any less valid.

  19

  The warm water splashes onto my face as I stand beneath the shower head. It’s amazing what a shower can do for a person, it’s a way to clean away the day, a way to forget all the problems and issues and just close your eyes and enjoy the steam surrounding you. Soap suds smelling of lavender cover my warm, pruned skin. I could stay in here for days, where it’s silent and peaceful. Where there’s no magic or wards or Aetheries people hunting me. Emmy pounds on the bathroom door to remind me that I can’t stay here, I can’t keep blocking out reality no matter how much I wish I could.

  It’s not a war and magic that will greet me tonight, though. That would almost be ideal over what’s about to happen. I can already hear the loud voices and laughter coming from two stories below me. Tonight I have to mingle and I’m officially late.

  Drumsticks and wings and vibrant colored sauces line the counters in the kitchen. Ben, Lincoln, and Damon are fighting over the plates, trying to get first dibs on the meat. Emmy and Tessa are in the living room, sitting in two cushioned chairs that have been moved in front of the fire place. I cut in front of the boys as they argue about nothing and stack four drumsticks onto my own plate and several buttered and still steaming rolls. I decided to not delve into the yellow and lime green sauces and instead to simply pour myself a cup of shine before heading into the living room.

  “How did the two of you meet?” Emmy asks Tessa, ignoring me as I gnaw on a drumstick.

  “I met the brothers when we were children actually,” Tessa says as she crosses her legs and leans back in the chair. “Kaleb wanted nothing to do with me because of my ability, which I can’t blame him for. Lincoln tried but always kept a distance. Ben was more open to the idea of befriending not only a girl but a seer as well. Nothing happened between us until I was well into my teens and then it just happened. We mated last year and are hoping to start a family soon as well.” Tessa’s face sags a bit at the sentence, as though the idea of having children makes her sad.

  The three men enter the room, elbowing each other in a somewhat playful manner. Lincoln breaks ahead of the other two and rushes to the couch that I’m on, sitting so close to me that his thigh touches mine. My cheeks blush at the contact until I see the other two cram onto the sofa as well, with Damon being crammed between the other two men.

  I take a large bite from a roll, chewing at it more aggressively than I should. Lincoln didn’t intentionally want the contact; he just didn’t want to be the one stuck in the middle. He reaches toward my lap, snagging the drumstick on my plate and takes a bite out of it, giving me a cocky, playful smile in return.

  “That was mine!” I try to yell at him. Instead, a massive spit soaked piece of bread flies from my mouth and lands with a splat right on Lincoln’s stubbled cheek. Eyes wide and horrified, I try to wipe the bread off his face. His lips are curled into a smile like he’s more entertained by this than actually mad.

  No one is watching or even seems to notice what is happening between the two of us. The room is silent as everyone finishes their food, Damon being the loudest as he sucks at the marrow in the bones of the wings. Lincoln sits there watching, his food forgotten for the moment. I hate intense moments like these. Most women consider them romantic but I am not one of those women. It feels like he’s trying to dig into my soul and find out all of my secrets with a single stare. I hate it.

  “When will the Watcher be here?” I ask him, trying to take his focus off of me. Lincoln shrugs, which doesn’t surprise me. I barely know the Watcher, but from what little I have gathered, the man works on his own schedule and will show up when he’s ready. I’m more nervous to train with him than I ever was with Lincoln. I know that Lincoln is an upper ranking person in this clan, but he’s not the Watcher and the God status is intimidating to say the least.

  I told Emmy about an hour ago and she didn’t take our pending separation easily. We’ve never been apart from each other for more than a few days at a time. I don’t know how long I’ll be away this time. Maybe a few days, maybe a few weeks, possibly months. I hate leaving her but I really don’t have much of a choice but to go. If I have no control over being a participant in this war, then I need to at least know how to stay alive during it. “Any word from Kaleb?” Seraphina and Maddox won’t move their men before hearing back from Kaleb and Roman, not ideally anyway.

  Ben lea
ns forward, looking past Damon, towards us. “No,” Lincoln says. His voice is gruff and there’s worry hidden in its depths.

  “When was he supposed to be back?” Emmy asks. She’s always been affected emotionally by things that don’t really have anything to do with her. If she heard of a fatal car wreck, her eyes would fill with tears by just imagining what the person’s family was going though. This situation is no different.

  “A week to get there. A week to get back. He should be back any day now,” Ben answers after clearing his throat. I pull up my inner calendar, trying to remember when he left. Has it already been three weeks? Has it only been three weeks since he headed to the Aetheries settlement?

  “So he’s not late yet?” Emmy’s thoughts are on this creepy man’s safety. Mine are on the fact that once he does show back up, I’ll be headed to battle. It’s moments like these that I have no idea how we bonded the way we did over the years.

  Tessa rises to her feet and straightens out her pale yellow, knee length dress. She wanders to each of us, collecting our plates regardless of whether we are done eating or not. With her condition, she shouldn’t be doing this when each of us is perfectly capable. Ben doesn’t strike me as a selfish or lazy type of man. They seem to genuinely be in love and I know he would help her if she wanted or needed it, so I stay seated and hand her my plate when she passes by.