Sullivan stepped forward, hands in his worn black jeans. “They were lurking around the bushes, watching us.”
The female narrowed her all-black eyes. “Why were you spying?” When we didn’t reply, she continued, “Why is Moya the Maiden with you?”
A male shifted in his gaudy seat. “Did the Lord of Summer send her?”
Julie was like a steel box, refusing to give them anything. My mouth gaped open as words blindly spilled out. “We… know nothing. I swear. We don’t have the answers you’re asking for. And we didn’t see–”
“Well, if you have no answers, no information, then you’re of no use to us,” the male said as his fellow vampires sat by idly. He regarded them before nodding a chin to someone at the back of the spacious room, and a swarm of vampires closed in on us. Trapping us in a circle of bloodthirsty predators. The male on the platform grinned wickedly. “Except for one thing.”
My heart pounding, I looked to Julie with a hopeless expression and reached for her. She grasped my hand, and the female vampire snapped her fingers once, signaling the swarm to close in more. A mix of black eyes and ones with varying colors of contacts widened with delight, and white teeth flashed. They were going to eat us.
Julie and I huddled closer over Moya’s body, and she whispered, “I’m sorry,” before ducking her head down in defeat. What could we do against a circle of a dozen vampires?
But I wasn’t ready to give up. I gripped both her hands tightly and closed my eyes, searching for that speck of sunlight that roamed around in my body. That drop of power I possessed. Please, I begged it. Help me.
Something warm blossomed in the gallows of my gut, so slight I nearly missed it, but I dove for it, for its warmth and protection, and I clutched it. The ball of light grew and grew, flooding my body and pulsing at the seams that held me together. Almost as if asking for permission. I gave a mental nod, allowing that power to explode from my pores like a sun flare. The pressure and force were almost too much to handle. And my back arched as a scream erupted from somewhere deep inside me. A scream matched in sequence from voices in the room.
Then, like an elastic band pulled too tight, my power snapped back to me, and I collapsed on top of Moya’s body. I felt her stir under my weight. Slowly, I peeled my eyelids open and looked at a stunned Julie; her face gone utterly white as she gawked at me in disbelief. Both our chests heaving.
Ash rained down on us and, as I tore my panicked stare from my best friend and we both took in the scene around us, I noticed we sat in the center of a perfect circle of ash. The vampires were gone. All except the ones sitting in chairs on an elevated platform.
Sullivan appeared from behind a closet door, his expression like Julie’s. Only he smiled and pointed at me. “You!”
Moya groggily came to, and I saw the rushing impact of the scene snap her to full attention. She tensed and looked at us. Then to Sullivan with a glare. “Traitor.”
“You’re one to talk, sea witch,” he replied. “Looks like you’ve been holding out on us.” Those brazen eyes glided to me.
Julie grabbed me and touched Moya’s back. “Go!”
In an instant, we were gone. The last image I saw was Sullivan running toward us. We plopped right in the middle of our apartment, where Moya immediately collapsed on the couch. The rush of magic, so much magic… left me humming.
“Are you okay?” Julie asked Moya, whose skin had lost that coppery shimmer. Dark circles formed beneath her eyes.
Lattie appeared, and we brought her up to speed. Moya already looked better, the magic replenishing and seeping back into her skin.
Julie turned to me with a thoughtful expression. “Is that what you did with the kelpie? The light thing?”
I shook my head. “No, what happened with the kelpie was absolutely nothing compared to what I just did.”
Moya sat up, all signs of wear gone. She was radiant. “That was you? The vampires, the… ashes.” Her deep-sea green eyes widened at me. “Did you do that?”
I nodded. “I went to see The Blood Reader again. He told me–showed me–that I have Summer blood in my veins.” I stretched out my fingers in front of me. “I can summon sunlight.”
Moya stared off as she took it all in. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
Julie paced. “I should have done something. I should have been able to….”
“To what?” I shrugged. “Jules, we’re fine. We got away.”
Her eyes glossed over. Her cheeks flush. “No, I should have done… something. You shouldn’t have had to kill all those vampires. I totally freaked. If you hadn’t–” She turned to Moya. “Can you teach me to wisp?”
“Yes, I can. But it’ll take some time.”
“Whatever it takes.” Julie squared her shoulder. “Things are changing. Stakes are higher. My magic can only do so much to protect myself and Avery. I need to be able to get us out of a bind at any moment.”
“Then I’d suggest learning from the best. Aya and Brie taught me. I’m sure they could teach you much faster than I could.”
Julie nodded dutifully. “Sounds good.”
I cleared my throat. “Moya, can you take me to the Temple of Dreams soon? The Reader had said I’d find answers there. About what I am, what I can do.”
Moya smiled. “Of course. I’d just confirmed everything with a priestess today. We can go now, or do you wish to wait?”
It didn’t take a second thought. “No. I want to go as soon as possible.” It was the middle of the night, but there was no way I could sleep. “I’m done not knowing who or what I am.” I remembered then, Julie, how she’d never visited her homeland. “Will you… come with me?”
“To Faerie?”
“Please?”
She beamed. “I’d be honored.”
I gave Moya a single nod, and she gripped both our hands.
And then we were gone.
Chapter Twenty-One
We stepped out of the milky fabric of space and time right into the hollowed hallway of a castle. No, not a castle. I glanced around, shielding my eyes from the blaring sun that forced in through the stained-glass windows, arched with pointed shapes and trimmed with stone carvings. Not a castle, but a temple. The walls reverberated with the hum of deep chanting, a calm hum that caressed my nerves.
“Come,” Moya said. “This was the only route I could secure on such short notice. We can’t waste any time.”
We fell into step on each side of her, and Julie asked, “How did you wisp directly into the temple? I thought there were wards up the wazoo?”
“There are,” she replied with a knowing smirk. “But I have a friend here.”
I remained silent as we sped down hallways and around several corners. My mind and body still thrummed with the aftermath of using my unknown power. We passed several tall figures draped with golden cloaks that dragged on the floor behind them. They didn’t raise their hidden faces at us as if we weren’t even there, and I wondered if Moya had some sort of glamor over us.
We seemed to be slowly spiraling down through the belly of the temple. Past holy people, altars of candles and Faerie symbols, statues, and elegant carvings set in the stone-built walls. Open arches replaced the stained-glass windows, letting in a warm, sweet breeze laced with floral hints and something familiar. Something I couldn’t quite place but tickled some dormant part of my memories.
A smattering of rooftops wound around luscious fauna outside and far below the temple. A village, an entire town, skirted the temple, but I couldn’t make out the smaller details. We must have been hundreds of feet up. The Temple of Dreams was a tower.
“If the Territory of Dreams has no Lord or ruler, how do they govern themselves?” I asked. “How–why do the other Territories stay away?”
“It’s protected,” Moya replied as we descended to lower levels. I could feel the cold of the earth creeping in. “The Seelie King, long ago, before he disappeared, set the most powerful wards around Dreams to protect what’s most valuable
to us. Our knowledge, our histories. So, no one with ill intent may enter.”
“And the people govern themselves. Living peacefully with one another. Mostly farmers and holy people.” Julie studied everything with the same wondrous awe that I did, reminding me she’d never been here. She’d studied her homeland, knew almost all there was to know about it but never stepped foot here. I wondered what she was feeling.
Moya led us down a few more levels until the stone beneath my feet felt sturdier, solid. A ground level. A cloaked figure waited for us by a large wooden door held in place with thick, golden hinges. Moya walked right up to them and bowed her head.
“Solenna,” she greeted.
The priestess gripped her hood and pulled it back, revealing her face. Beautiful and ethereal but regarded us with ancient wisdom. Skin and hair the color of clouds melted together behind eyes rimmed in gold. She smiled at her friend.
“Moya Seaborn,” she said. “You’d said the matter was urgent, but I had not realized just how soon you’d be coming.”
“Is it ready?” Moya asked hopefully.
Solenna nodded with a calmness I admired. “It is.” She swept a hand toward the wooden door. “I haven’t done a Revealing in a few decades. What a treat.” She glanced between Julie and me. “Which of your companions will I be working with?”
Moya took one step toward me. “This is Avery. We believe her to be a mortal Seer. But she also possesses a dormant power. We’d like to find what’s blocking her connection to it as well as its limits and how she might wield it.”
I bowed my head. “Thank you for helping.”
Solenna smiled. “Of course. It’s my pleasure. Shall we?”
She gripped the large lever of the door and hauled it open. We followed her into a spacious candlelit room empty of furniture or windows. A golden circle was painted on the stone floor. She guided me with a gentle hand into its center as Moya and Julie remained by the wall.
Solenna took both my hands in hers as she turned, and we faced one another. “I’m going to do a Revealing on you. It’s a simple process that won’t cause you any harm. I’m simply going to connect with your magic and follow it to reveal more. Alright?”
I just nodded, surprised at how safe and calm I felt in her presence. Her fingers curled around my hands, and the same humming I’d heard when we first arrived pulsed from her chest as she closed her eyes. Something like static crackled where our skin touched, and I focused on my breathing, keeping it steady and calm while Solenna channeled magic through me. I could feel it, her power, like a hunting dog sniffing curiously inside me. Stirring my belly and creeping around my mind.
She dropped my hands, and our eyes opened in unison. But her face was wrought with concern.
“What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s a block, indeed,” she replied, sizing me up. “Something keeping your magic contained. But it’s…” I tossed a quick glance at Julie and Moya, who waited patiently. “There’s a Made bind. Someone wove it into your being. To hide not just your power, but to hide… you.”
“Who would do such a thing?” Moya asked. “To a mortal girl.” She arched an eyebrow at me. “Your aunt?”
Julie and I let out a chortle, mine a little more nervous than hers. “Tess? God no, she doesn’t even believe in ghosts, let alone magic.” I mulled it over for a moment. Why had my parents been murdered in the night? The killer was never found, and no motive could be reasoned. “Could maybe my parents have known? Maybe they did it to protect me? To keep me away from the magical world. If they’d known I would be some sort of Oracle….”
“It’s possible,” the priestess said. “The only way to know for sure is to find the one who performed the bind.”
“But that’s impossible.” I shook my head.
Julie uncrossed her arms and stepped closer. “What sort of being could perform such a thing? A Lord?”
“Yes,” Solenna replied. “Also, a Healer.”
Moya paced around the painted circle we stood in. “All magic leaves a mark. An essence. A… map. If a Healer was the one who contained your magic, then another Healer could map it out more easily than anyone else.” She urged me with her eyes. “We could possibly find the origin, the mark left behind by the creator. With it, we could release your full power.”
I chewed at my lip as I stared off in thought. Then it hit me. “Oliver.”
She smiled. “Yes. I’m betting Oliver could help you learn more. That is… if you want to.”
It only took half a second to consider. “I do. I need answers.”
Solenna rolled back the sleeves of her cloak. “I can aid in your search. While I can’t remove the bind, I can create a way around it to your magic. If you’re ready.”
I took a deep breath. “Yes. Whatever it takes. I’m ready.”
Once again, the priestess held her hands out, palms up, and I placed mine on top of them. She wrapped her fingers around my hands and closed her eyes, but the painted circle on the floor lit up with a golden hue this time. The light grew and rose around us like a wall, and when it met at the apex of a dome that formed above my head, Solenna disappeared, along with the rest of the room, leaving me in darkness.
“Hello?” my voice rang out in the blackness and echoed back to me. I crept around, my footsteps loud and clamoring. There were walls, somewhere in the darkness, for sound to reverb off of. As if I wandered about in a pitch-black warehouse, empty of everything.
Almost everything.
Far in the distance, a speck of golden light formed on the floor, and I followed it. Beckoned by its silent call. It grew the closer I got, taking shape and form. A rose. A single golden rose, glowing with the light of the Summer sun.
The image flickered, and I blinked to focus. As the flower grew, its shape morphed into something else entirely.
Tiny sobs trickled outward, and I realized, as I finally reached the light, that it was a figure… a person, huddled in the fetal position on the floor. Not covered in the glow, but made of it. But the person was… me.
I kneeled down. “Hey, it’s okay,” I cooed gently and placed a hand on its back. My back. The figure responded to my touch and turned over to reveal my own face, stained with golden tears, staring up at me. I smiled and tipped my head in wonder. “You don’t have to be alone anymore. I’ve found you.” I offered my hand, and she just stared at it, like a scared stray, unsure of what to do. I inched closer, and she flinched. “Don’t be scared, it’s… it’s me,” I told her and placed my palm to my heart. “You’ve been waiting for me, haven’t you?”
After a moment, she nodded. Her gold-rimmed eyes glowing with wetness.
I smiled. “I’m here now. I’m sorry it took so long for me to find you.”
I offered my hand once more.
My light form reached out with trembling fingers, and the moment the tips touched my own skin, she exploded into a plume of golden rays. Each one shaped into a curled finger that dove for me, forcing itself into my body through every single orifice. Filling every crack of my existence. It was warm, too warm, but I relished in it. Like a missing piece of me had finally been put in place. I was… whole.
I stood in the darkness, me and the light-form now one, flexing my hands and arms in front of me. Strength and power hummed over my skin and under its surface.
“Avery!” someone called in an echo. Moya.
I searched around me, but there was only darkness. Thick and murky, slowing my every movement.
“Avery!” someone called again. Julie.
The sound of my name rang off the confines of the mindscape like a bell. Clamoring back to my ears. I walked and ran and searched, reaching blindly for the exit. Panic fettered in my chest.
“Avery!”
And just like the release of a drain, it sucked me back to reality. Only it wasn’t the same as I’d left it. The windowless stone room we were standing in was now shrouded in impending darkness, a dense shadow crawling across the floor with cla
wed tips.
Solenne kept it at bay with a shield of crystal white magic as she swung her arms in the air while Moya and Julie toed the circle I stood in, panicked and wide-eyed, desperate to get to me. But I realized… they couldn’t enter the ring.
Without another thought, I lunged for Moya’s urgent hand just as Evaine smashed through the priestess’s cover of magic. The ear-gouging sound boomed off the four walls as bits of rock crumbled to the floor. Julie gripped my arm and shoved me behind her as she and Moya stood with Solenne and formed a new shield of magic.
Evaine’s solid form manifested from the inky shadow, rising from the floor as if absorbing the darkness. Only… she wasn’t as I remembered from Ironworld. No, this was a beast unlike anything I’d ever seen in my life. The skin of a corpse. Matted black hair that almost looked like it was made of black smoke, with two twisted horns of raw bone curling upward through the mess. Wings of war-tattered leather dragged on the stone as her soot-covered feet padded across the floor, her wild eyes fixed on me, and she crooked a clawed finger with a devilish sneer, revealing rotten teeth.
Death incarnate.
“You’ve no business here, hell fairy!” Solenne bellowed and blasted a shot of white light at Evaine, forcing her back. But not enough. “You know the laws of this Territory.”
Evaine cocked her head unnervingly. “Just hand over the girl, and I’ll gladly be on my way.” Her lips curled back in a frightening attempt at a smile.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I spat, surprised at my own audacity. She could crush me in the blink of an eye, no doubt. But I would not back down. I would not show fear again.
“You have some nerve coming here, Evaine,” Moya spoke as if they were old friends… or old rivals, and Evaine rolled her eyes. “I suggest you leave–”
Four inky whips shot out from Evaine’s body, whipping through the air and wrapped around each of us like elastic bands. The black tendril choked the life from me as I gasped for a breath that wouldn’t come. Evaine dragged me across the floor in the blink of an eye, my arms tight at my sides while my friends yelled for the hell fairy to stop. I kicked off the floor as I reached her and drove both feet into her gut, but it was no use. She was as solid and unmoving as a boulder. Pain shot up through my legs, buckling my knees. But something stirred inside of me. Something warm and assuring.
A Kingdom of Iron & Wine : New Adult Fantasy Romance (The Ironworld Series Book 1) Page 28