Igniting Spirit (Gathering Water Book 3)

by Regan Claire

  “I’m alright, y’all. You can let go now,” Cash said from under the pile that was his parents. I was grinning, couldn’t help it, and just watched as they ignored him for another minute before finally getting up.

  Ellis used her sleeve to wipe her eyes, even though I knew she always kept tissue in her purse. Connor’s face was a little wet, too, and if I hadn’t already been crying, I would have started at the sight. The three of us were forced to stand back while a doctor came over and checked his vitals. They put his bed into an upright position so Cash was sitting. After several minutes of the doctor going over the same things again — checking his eyes and nose especially — Cash finally spoke up. “Dude, I’m fine. You can go take care of actual sick people now.”

  The doctor didn’t leave, but did stop examining Cash, contenting himself with checking all the machines and talking to the nurse that had come in with him.

  “Oh, honey. We’re so happy that you’re okay!” Ellis reached down and grabbed her son’s hand.

  “Me too, Mom. I think you guys need to tell me what’s been going on. I started becoming aware yesterday, I think. I’m not sure, it was pretty foggy, but the Balints were here? And I heard you guys talking, but I... ” Cash’s voice trailed off, with a small frown gracing his lips.

  “You’ve been awake?” Connor asked.

  “Uh, maybe? I’ve just been aware, if that makes sense. Once the darkness cleared, I had a basic understanding of what was going on. I could think and hear you. Which is why I know this —” he gestured to himself. “ — is not the most important thing on everyone’s plate now that I’m all the way alive and stuff.”

  Connor nodded his head at his son, not necessarily agreeing with him, but maybe realizing that Cash might need something else to focus on. He walked over to the doctor, and after a small exchange, the doctor left. The nurse stayed, but kept to the corner and my Uncle created a sound Shield to keep her from overhearing. I was pretty sure Uncle Connor had instructed only people in on the secret to work with his son, but even those aware of my family needed to be kept in the dark about some things.

  “The Clade that ordered that attack on you has gone AWOL. We’re not sure exactly what his next move is, but his ultimate goal is to open the gate to the OtherRealm.”

  “Was Derek here?” Cash asked.

  I nodded my head, but my Uncle spoke. “Yes, he came by last night after speaking with Della and some new allies.”

  “Okay, I heard that part then. About the council coming, and thanks to Della’s bright idea, there is potential civil unrest on the horizon among the Elfennol. Oh, and she has the hots for the son of our arch-enemy.”

  I opened my mouth to defend myself, but stopped. It didn’t feel right to yell at him when he was still in a hospital bed. I hadn’t realized Derek had come back, and clearly they had discussed Ezra and his parentage.

  “Cash, sweetie, Della saved your life by going to the Clades. I still don’t understand exactly how they did it, but she brought the only people that could have helped you. Ezra was one of those people, dear. Without him, you wouldn’t be with us right now.” Ellis defended me using a gentle voice, as far from scolding as it could be since it cracked on the last sentence.

  “I know, Mom. I was just teasing her.” The side of his mouth pulled up in a sad almost-smile.

  Of course he’d been teasing me, and if I hadn’t been standing there feeling sorry for him, I would have known that immediately.

  “You’re welcome, Cash. Y’know, for the ‘breathing’ thing that you’re doing right now.” I tried to add the same teasing note I usually used with him, and if it was a little off, then I just hoped he would ignore it.

  “Careful, Della. You don’t want me to embarrass you in front of the parents and Alexander by kicking your butt,” he threatened, as if it were a possibility even with him at one hundred percent.

  “You and what leg, gimpy?” I responded without thinking. Bantering with Cash was more second-nature than breathing was — all it took was a little reminder.

  Silence in the room. Besides a small gasp from Ellis and the ever-beeping machines, there was utter silence.

  Cash responded first with a grin. “I was wondering if you’d take the bait.”

  We all sighed with relief.

  “How could I not?” I smiled back. It wasn’t cool, or really funny, but Cash seemed to need to gloss over how serious it was. Maybe for him it wasn’t serious. Hell, it wasn’t that big of a deal compared to what had been going on before. He almost died, and I hadn’t given a second thought to his leg until I’d been certain he was going to live. Leg, shmeg. I couldn’t feel sorry for him, couldn’t let him see I felt guilty for it happening. We all needed to adjust, to be okay with what was now, and above all, to be thankful that he was still with us.

  You know what can hold a person back more than an amputated leg? Being dead.

  Besides, Cash wasn’t the type of person to let that hold him back. He’d get his peg — or a real prosthetic — do his therapy with the same vigor he approached our lessons with, and continue with his life with the same zeal and humor he always had. At least I hoped he would.

  “Is there anything else that has happened that I didn’t overhear last night or this morning?” Cash asked us.

  “Your father has called a lot of the European families to keep a lookout for Kaylus. It might be time to fully explain to everyone who can help what is going on in our world, and precisely who it is that’s threatening it,” Ellis told him, leaning forward to brush a stray bit of hair out of her sons face while speaking.

  “Okay. So, what do we do next?” he asked, tone serious. He didn’t want us dwelling on him, I could tell. Suddenly, I remembered that my cousin was a bit of an Empath, thanks to his matriarchal line, and a stronger one when with people who knew him well. I didn’t know exactly what Ellis was able to do, if she could read that from his emotions — or mind — but I was glad I’d already decided to stop feeling sorry for him.

  Now, I would stop hurting as well. Because if I was hurting for him, and so was Ellis and Connor, then Cash would feel that, and add it to whatever emotional pain he might be feeling himself right now.

  “Son, maybe you should —” Uncle Connor started, but I cut him off really quickly.

  “I was thinking the next step should be to tell the other Dunamis here. They all already know about our alliance with the Elfennol, right?” I waited, and then when Connor gave a nod, I continued. “We need to let them know about the Clades, as well. They need to know the truth, and the truth about how our family joined with the Elfennol in the first place.”

  I remembered the story that the Elders had told me, about Delilah Deare and how she came to join with the Elfennol. “Everyone should know how far back Kaylus’ depravity goes, and exactly how dangerous his abilities can be.” I wouldn’t let anyone underestimate him. He’d been able to drain Cash from a symbol that a lackey placed on him. That was scary all by itself.

  “What do you mean?” Connor asked me.

  “Uncle Connor, do you know how the Deares and the Elfennol joined together?” I asked. He looked confused for a moment by the change in topics.

  Cash is the one who answered. He was already looking so much more like himself and was sitting up, resting an arm over the bent knee of his whole leg. “About Delilah Deare? Yeah, he used to tell me the story when I was a kid.”

  “Can you tell me? I heard the story from the Clade Elders, but I’d like to hear what our family has said about it.” I wondered if the two stories matched, and if not, which one was true. No one from my human family was alive when Delilah was, and things can be warped in the retelling.

  “Do you want the long version, or the short version?” Uncle Connor looked a little confused by my curiosity.

  “Tell her the short version, Dad,” Cash answered for me.

  “Delilah Deare, and her twin Analisa Deare — who would become Analisa Neale, but that’s another story — were the beginning
of our families here in America. They lived apart from other people for the most part. Their mother had fallen afoul of a medicine man in the nearby tribe when she was pregnant with them, and his curse caused the two of them to remain wary of others, but they were still well known for their control over the elements.”

  “Were they the first in the family to have abilities?” I asked. I didn’t know much about our family, other than what we were now. I had no idea how we came to be.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. When my mother would tell me the story, she would say they were affected by the magic that transformed their mother and it changed them into something more than they would have been.”

  “Transformed?” I asked.

  “That’s in the long version, but has nothing at all to do with Elfennol. It’s a good story, though. Make sure Dad tells you at some point,” Cash said, smiling, while his father just ignored our interruptions.

  “But I’m not sure I believe that. Who knows, though. Anyway, the sisters were approached by a small group of men who discovered that Delilah was able to see things through the Elements, and demanded she help them discover a way home. They were Clades, of course, and Delilah reluctantly agreed to help. But Reading the Elements is difficult, and the information they needed was so detailed, that it took months to decipher what she was seeing. Of course, she found out that their home was so dead that, if the gate between our worlds was opened, it would destroy our home as well. She refused to help them anymore, but started having visions of other things. I don’t know if you knew this, or you Cash, but when you spend too much time Reading the Elements, you start doing it by accident. You start having visions. I know my grandmother had them frequently, and my mother had them a few times. It doesn’t seem to adversely affect anyone, other than a small space-out occasionally —”

  He was starting to ramble. Under other circumstances, I’d be cool with learning new tidbits about the fam. But I wanted the rest of the story; it felt important to know everything, and now that Cash was safe, I could let myself really pay attention to it.

  “Uncle Connor! What were her visions saying?” The Clades Elders hadn’t mentioned this part, so this was new information.

  “It was of the man she loved dying by the hand of one of the Clades who had come before. Her lover had his own abilities of some sort, and she made him promise to make himself an amulet for protection. He did, but her vision still came true — when the time came, he gave her his amulet instead, and without that shield against death, he was murdered by one of the Clades that had come earlier. She and Analisa spent the next several years looking for a way to get revenge when they came across the Elfennol, and joined them in their war against the Clades. The amulet from Delilah’s love was passed down through the Deare line, for protection. It’s the key that Gabby left for you, though I think it is more a reminder of what’s at stake, rather than something that can actually offer protection.”

  “Wait, did you say Shield against Death? Are those the words that your mother used, or did you add that for theatrical flare?” I was standing, and didn’t even realize it. Ethan had made the key that my mother had left me? It was an amulet.

  My uncle stood, too, seeming to realize exactly what it could mean. “It’s how she would always say it. ‘A Shield against Death.’ Della, where’s the key? Do you have it with you?”

  I instantly reached for my neck before remembering that I’d taken the key necklace off when Cash had been injured.

  “I used the chain to make a tourniquet when Cash was injured,” I said with a hollow feeling in my stomach. Connor immediately rushed from the room, probably to get a doctor to find out what happened to the stuff Cash came in with — stuff which might literally hold the key to protecting ourselves from Kaylus’ insidious use of power.

  “Wait. Why is that important?” Cash sat upright in his bed. Apparently, he hadn’t heard about Kaylus’ ability.

  “There’s an element that’s opposite Spirit. It’s a sixth element: Death. That’s why all his people have that tarnished quality to their aura’s, we think. He’s infected them, somehow, with his power. He lets them live, though. It’s the reason you only just woke up. You were infected, too. Your Spirit was being eaten away, and if Clara hadn’t been anchoring you, you’d be a goner. There was hardly any of your Spirit left for her to weave more onto when we got here yesterday.”

  “What? When I asked ‘what else happened,’ this is the type of stuff you tell me!”

  Aunt Ellis was suddenly up, as well. She’d been so quiet, I’d forgotten she was there. She rushed around the bed to the little table that was next to Cash, and opened the drawer. Inside was a plastic bag with a few things inside.

  “I should have known. Connor!” she shouted out for him while upending the bag on the bed near Cash’s foot.

  A wallet, Cash’s car keys, a thing of chapstick… and my key.

  “Mom, you’re a genius!” Cash said.

  “Well, it just seemed like a logical place for the staff to put your belongings.” She was smiling, though.

  Connor got back in the room right as I picked the key up. “Uncle Connor, I don’t see the chain anywhere.”

  He’d already crossed the room to stand by me, looking at the key that I held in my open palm.

  “The chain was new. Dad got it for Gabby when she turned sixteen. She had the key on a piece of ribbon that belonged to our mother before that.”

  “Do you think it could really protect someone from Kaylus’ ability?” Ellis asked, I looked up at her, and realized the four of us had circled the key, staring down at it in my hand.

  I closed my fist around it and let the metal dig into my fingers. “I don’t know, but I can find out.”

  I walked over to the door, and peered my head out. “Alexander!” I shouted. We were probably driving the hospital staff crazy, but oh well. I looked out the door for him, while turning the stone in my armlet yellow. Alexander was keyed into my armlet, and one of his would change to match when I turned the colors in my own. He was nowhere to be seen, but he never told me he was leaving, which is unusual for him. Soon, I saw him running down the hall towards the room, bags of food swinging awkwardly from his hands.

  “Della? Is everything okay? I posted guards to watch every entrance, including the windows to the rooms in this hallway. I assumed you would be ready to eat soon.” He sounded so apologetic.

  “That’s great, Alexander. Just, come here please.”

  Once he was inside the door, I handed him my key. “Do you know what this is?”

  “It’s the key from your necklace,” he said plainly.

  “Is it possible that it’s a protection rune?” Connor asked, turning his body so that he was facing us, but not turning his back towards Cash and Ellis.

  Alexander’s eyes crinkled as he turned the key over in his hand. “I don’t recognize it as one, but my forte has always been combat and strategy, Dux. Etta is the strongest rune-worker among the Elfennol, but the Clades might know things that are unknown even to her.”

  “Uncle Connor just told me the story of Delilah again. The family version leaves out the fact that her lover was a Clade, but has an interesting addition. Delilah had visions of Kaylus murdering Ethan using his ability. She made him create an amulet for protection against it. The story says it’s a ‘Shield against Death.’ That sounds like our cup of tea now, doesn’t it?” I asked Alexander.

  “I’m not thirsty. But I am intrigued by this. If it is a rune that can give protection from Kaylus’ power, then we may be able to duplicate it for all our people to wear,” he said, a hint of excitement in his voice. Even a hint was a lot for Alexander, so I chose to not rib him about the “not thirsty” comment. He, like most other Elfennol, tended to take things too literally. Laurel had filled multiple wallets full of cards made of real gold when I’d mentioned getting a “gold card” for my first trip to Bermuda.

  “Ethan? Was that the name of Delilah’s slain love? Did you say he was a Clade? Is th
at true?” Uncle Connor asked.

  “According to the Clade Elders. He was their best rune-worker. I believe they were under the impression that Delilah killed him after tricking him into falling in love with her, since after he died she joined with the Elfennol. It never occurred to them to look inside their own ranks for the murderer,” I told him.

  “It seems both factions of Ethnos are guilty of this type of shortsightedness,” Alexander piped in.

  The room was silent as we all thought about how true those words were. I know enemies aren’t supposed to chat, or anything, but they could have solved their problems centuries ago if only some line of communication had been open between them. If the Elfennol hadn’t been so stubborn and certain about their purity and the Clades’ corruption.

  Of course, there was more wrong with the Elfennol than just their dislike of Clades. Like their dislike of half-Dunamis Ethnos. They had been so consumed with being the good guys — with preventing their fall from light — that they had let their fear taint them just as surely as they thought the Clades were tainted.

  And now look where they were.

  Aunt Ellis waved her hands at us all, and when she caught our attention, she pointed to Cash who was nodding off. He wasn’t quite asleep, but was so close to it that he didn’t notice when we all tiptoed out of the room to let him rest.

  The four of us huddled in the hallway, and I saw Alexander immediately take a position facing the nearest exit.

  “Uncle Connor, Aunt Ellis, why don’t you two head home while Cash is sleeping? I can stick around for a few hours.” I was sure there was something else I could be doing, but nothing that couldn’t wait until later in the day — if not the following one.

  My uncle looked at his wife, gauging her silent response to my suggestion, then looked at me and nodded his head. “I think we will, Della. Thank you.”

  They each gave me a warm hug, said their goodbyes, and started walking away.

  “Della,” Alexander said quietly, before my aunt and uncle were more than a foot away.

  “Yes, Alexander?”