Birth Stone

by Kate Kelley

  “What do you know? What haven’t you told me?” He barked, his eyes boring down into her.

  Lyra frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  Terrin sneered. “I gave you the benefit of the doubt, ever since Persimmon had described Edwin in connection to Abner. I said there’s no way you have anything to do with the enemy. I bought the innocent act. But now, I’m going to need those letters from your fiance. And I’m going to need you to tell me where he is.” His tone was laced with unrelenting fury. Lyra’s jaw dropped. as anger began simmering low in her gut.

  “You have got to be kidding me. I just found out my fiance is working with a dark sorcerer who has a connection to my very near death on the mountain three days ago, and possibly the disappearance of my brother, and you have the gall to suggest that I have anything to do with that?”

  Terrin cocked his head, his body closing in on her. The heat from his body warmed her as he peered deeply into her eyes. A buzzing started in her skull and she threw her mental shield up. The buzzing stopped.

  “Don’t you dare try to get inside my head,” she growled.

  “Why not? You took advantage of my kiss and got inside of mine. I’d just be returning the favor,” he replied, an intensity in his gaze that unnerved her.

  “I didn’t do that willingly. It--just happened!”

  “Mmm, I’m not sure I’m buying the innocent Lyra anymore. Truth be told, you learned magic and combat much too quickly. Probably was an act. For all I know, you were sent by Ganymede himself to infiltrate my sources of information.”

  Lyra snarled, her aura rising into her palms.

  How dare he doubt me. After all I’ve been through for him.

  She yanked off the ring Edwin gave her, some sort of action to prove herself, but the instant she did, despair hit her soul, icing her heart. She looked down at the ring, a magnetic pull causing her to replace it, until the despair disappeared.

  Terrin’s jaw tightened as he shook his head. Lyra looked at her finger in shock, unable to understand why she had just put the ring on again. Suddenly a memory flashed in her mind, when Edwin had put the ring on and kissed her…

  “I was giddy, when he put the ring on. It wasn’t his kiss…” she murmured, mind reeling. She realized now that the feeling wasn’t a result of Edwin’s kiss, but a result of the ring. For some reason, the ring elicited joy and power when she put it on, not unlike the pendant she wore around her neck. Edwin had tampered with it somehow with magic.

  Fury ignited inside her again, her aura rising, and she yanked the ring off again with a growl, forcing herself to pocket it. She looked back to Terrin, who stood watching in disgust.

  As soon as her magic ignited, it cooled again, despair replacing fury in her heart. She looked at him then, directly, her pain visible, her mind open. She raised her hands in truce.

  “Read me, then, Terrin. Enter my mind. Clear my name,” she said softly, “And when you’re done, I don’t want you to speak to me ever again,” she said softly.

  Pain flashed in Terrin’s eyes for a fraction of a second before it evaporated as if it were never there. He studied her, his eyes roaming her face. Candlelight flickered over the planes of their faces as they stood inches apart.

  He seemed to be wrestling internally with what to do. Finally, determination masked his face and he raised his hand to her cheek, cupping it in a surprisingly gentle caress, and bent his head to hers.

  Lyra’s stomach erupted into butterflies as Terrin’s mouth met hers. The pressure of his mouth was light, the touch of a feather, his soft breath warming her lips. She grabbed his arms to push him away, but Terrin’s gentle kiss abruptly morphed as he moved closer, pulling her tight against his hard body and crushing his mouth to hers. He forced her to open, and slipped his tongue inside. She met his force with passion, despite herself, craving the man with all she had in her.

  She hated herself for it, and that fury drove the kiss deeper. She bit his lower lip, drawing blood. Terrin’s thinly veiled attempt at control snapped, and he smoothed his hands down her back and further, cupping her ass in his hands and lifting her against him. She responded by encircling her legs around him, her thighs clenching his waist tightly, her dress riding up to her hips, her fingers clawing through his hair.

  He slammed her against the nearby wall, moaning as their mouths joined again, a deep rumble that vibrated against her wet, hot center. She bucked her hips against him in an uncontrollable movement as he moved his mouth to her neck, kissing a rough trail down to her shoulder. He tugged the material away from her skin there as Lyra arched her back. His mouth was back on her, kissing his way to the top of her breast. He muttered in frustration, his eyes glazed, and shoved at the material again, ripping the cotton until her breasts were completely exposed to the air, causing her nipples to pebble. He stared down at her, transfixed, molten heat in his gaze. His callused hand cupped her breasts, thumbing her nipples, the scratchy sensation delicious on her silken skin. A moan excaped her throat and she arched her back again. She needed him to end this madness. She needed him lower.

  Too many clothes between us.

  A hard knock on the door caused Lyra to still. Terrin kissed a trail between her breasts to her navel, pulling her dress down as he descended.

  The knock sounded again. “Open the door, Terrin.”

  Oriel.

  They were both breathing heavily, the urge to continue hard to resist. He rested his forehead on hers, attempting to gain composure. The hard knock sounded again. Terrin snarled.

  “Just a moment,” his shout directed at the disembodied knocker. Slowly, he set Lyra back down to the ground as she pulled up her bodice and smoothed her skirt. She hurriedly crossed to the other side of the room and threw a shawl over her shoulders to hide the tear in the fabric of her dress. Terrin swung the door open to find Oriel standing on the other side. His eyes widened slightly as he looked between the two. A small smirk ghosted his lips as he entered the room.

  “You may want to learn the arts of dampening your arousal, both of you. Not that the ruckus and the noises didn’t give you away anyway,” he said, amused. Terrin glared at him. Lyra’s face heated brightly.

  “We didn’t...do that. He was...entering my mind,” she said, in way of explanation.

  “Is that what we’re calling it these days?” Oriel said with a wink. “He doesn’t need to kiss you, or even touch you to do that. Just your lowering of your mental shield will do.”

  Lyra turned a cold stare to Terrin. She could have sworn he flushed, though the dim candlelight made it hard to tell.

  “I needed to know if she was working with Edwin,” he said, shifting uncomfortably.

  “And?” Oriel asked, head cocked to the side.

  “What do you think, Oriel?” Lyra asked hollowly.

  Oriel looked at her then, a solemnity washing over his face. “Never. You’re too pure for that,” he said softly. Gratitude and pain simultaneously filled her heart.

  “Thank you for trusting and believing in me, Oriel,” she said, tears stinging her eyes.

  “Seems like trust is hard to come by these days,” he replied, glancing back to Terrin for a second before returning to Lyra. “I’m sorry you had to find out about Edwin that way. But at least you know now.”

  Oriel turned back to Terrin, pulling the parchment from his pocket. He hesitated before posing his question again.

  “Is Lyra clear?” he asked.

  Terrin nodded once. Pain lanced through Lyra’s heart again.

  Bastard.

  She turned away from Terrin stiffly, covering her emotions in ice. She could never speak to him again.

  Oriel opened the parchment and set it down on the small table near the bed.

  “There’s something else that will clear Lyra’s name. Here,” he pointed to a line of the document, a name.

  “Wasif Addisonia,” Lyra read, dazed. Confusion coursed through her. “Ganymede..this sorcerer...killed my father?” She looked down at the par
chment again, reading the next name.

  ‘Rumi Claire.’

  My mother.

  She slapped a hand over her mouth, that icy shock returning to her veins. She shook her head. Images of her parents, dead on the floor of their home, the dark-robed killer standing over them, flashed through her mind. Ganymede.

  Oriel shook his head. Terrin’s jaw clenched.

  “Why?” she breathed, her eyes becoming unfocused. “My parents weren’t threats to anyone.”

  A bell rung in Lyra’s mind then, a connection.

  “My mother’s pendant,” she said slowly, piecing it together. Her body was trembling.

  “But why would Poppi have your necklace if Ganymede killed your mother for it?” Oriel asked.

  “Why would Poppi be spying on you, intercepting your letters from Edwin?” Oriel continued with the incessant questions, causing Lyra’s head to spin.

  “She’s working with Ganymede, of course. Though I know in my heart that Poppi is an innocent in this. She’s a slave to that Princess bitch.” Her voice came out much more bitter than she intended. Bile rose in her throat. She breathed through her nose to slow the flow of fury slamming into her, threatening to choke her.

  Terrin shook his head. “If Edwin, Navi, and Poppi are all working for Ganymede, on the same side, why would Poppi intercept Edwin’s letters?” he asked.

  “Perhaps Navi isn’t working for Ganymede,” Oriel surmised, “It’s possible she bought the pendant off of a merchant and Poppi stole the pendant as a child.”

  “If Poppi worked for Navi all those years, Navi would have noticed that she was wearing the pendant. No, Navi gave it to Poppi. The question is why would Navi give Poppi such a powerful stone? If she knew of its power, she would not have given it away so freely. And besides, if they aren’t working for Ganymede, why was Navi having Poppi spy on me?” Lyra concluded.

  “Personal vendetta? Jealousy of your closeness to the King?” Oriel theorized. No one answered.

  “I was never close to the King. And it still doesn’t answer why he killed my parents,” Lyra said, voice hollow.

  A heavy silence filled the air. Lyra felt Terrin’s eyes boring into her.

  “The only way to find out is to go to Ursa and demand answers,” Lyra said, turning to Oriel.

  Oriel nodded. “I agree,” he said.

  “No. We’re too close to the Eclipsa portal. We need to go there and see what you can do, if you can open it,” Terrin said to Lyra. Lyra stiffened, refusing to acknowledge his words. It might be petty, but she intended to follow through with her silent treatment.

  “I disagree,” Oriel said firmly, “If Ganymede is at large, if he catches wind that we know he’s involved, he might be there waiting for us. After all, he’s the who must have been following us.”

  Another drag of silence.

  “We need to act fast. Without a ground portal, we won’t get to Ursa and back to the Eclipsa portal fast enough. Time is not on our side,” Terrin said, fists clenched. Lyra itched to ask Terrin why he suddenly had a time line to open the portal, but her promise not to speak to him again stopped her.

  ‘When Hecate shades Sol…’ Gaia’s prophecy rang in her mind.

  What does it mean?

  She gritted her teeth against her question.

  A movement from the doorway caught Lyra’s attention. Persimmon stood, arms crossed. She walked into the room as if she owned it, cocking out a hip.

  “Is no one going to consult the scholar?” she asked calmly, examining her nails.

  “What do you know?” Lyra asked wearily, her tone far more biting than she intended.

  Persimmon looked up, a wicked smile curving her beautiful face.

  “Abner wasn’t very careful with some of his information. I know of a portal directly to Ursa in the Dair valley.”

  ✽✽✽

  Lyra sat upon a new horse, trotting quickly across cracked, dry land. The midnight sky sustained a deep indigo hue, with brilliant stars dotting through like incandescent paint splatter. It was a new moon, so the stars alone lit the way to their destination.

  Persimmon rode ahead, leading the way. Oriel was close behind her, then Lyra, with Terrin taking up the rear.

  They had ridden for an hour now through the tundra, this part of the valley devoid of civilization, or even much life, besides the Evergreens marking the perimeters of the vast, desert land.

  “How much farther?” Terrin called from behind her. He was getting antsy.

  Persimmon held a hand up, halting the line of horses. “He said a pool,” she murmured.

  “A glowing pool, called Gaia’s Eye,” Oriel corrected, eyes sweeping the land. “It seems it would be hard to miss..”

  “It should be...there!” Persimmon exclaimed as she pointed ahead where a glimmer shone in the starlight. They approached slowly. Lyra made her way to the front, peering at the landmark.

  Her eyes widened.

  A giant eyeball peered from the earth. The perimeter bubbled with white foam while the majority of it glowed a fiery, burnt orange. The iris was an emerald green with a bottomless black hole in the dead center like a pupil. Lyra shuddered to think of how deep that hole went. Even so, the giant eye beckoned her forward. She trotted her horse closer.

  “Stop!” Terrin shouted, walking beside her horse on foot. Lyra rolled her eyes, but stopped her horse. Terrin stretched his arms toward the pool, a green glow emanating from his hands toward it. He muttered a curse and severed the connection.

  “It’s acidic as hell," Terrin said grimly, "And hot enough to melt the flesh in a matter of seconds. There’s no way anyone of us are getting into that pool and getting out alive. This can’t be the portal.”

  “This is what Abner described. An eye-shaped glowing pool in the Dair Valley desert,” Persimmon retorted. Oriel frowned at the eerie pool.

  “Are you sure he wasn’t leading you astray? Maybe he knew you were listening in,” Oriel suggested.

  Persimmon shook her head. “No. It was in writing, to Edwin. I happened upon the letter in his office. Abner left to send it himself, but I was nosy enough to read it before he sealed it.”

  Lyra chewed on her lip, staring at the depths of the pool. She stroked her pendant.

  “Let’s turn back. It’s not too late to go to the Eclipsa portal, see what Lyra picks up there,” Terrin said, mounting his horse in one swift movement. Persimmon and Oriel followed, turning their horses around.

  No. I need answers about my parents. I need to know why Poppi had my mother’s pendant. I need to know if Navi is working for Ganymede. If somehow, by some stretch, Navi knows how to get to my brother.

  Lyra dismounted her horse, approaching the pool carefully. It was probably fifteen feet by thirteen feet. Her boot kicked a rock on the way toward it, launching it into the pool. The rock splashed with a hiss and disintegrated.

  Gods.

  “Lyra. Let’s get back,” Oriel said softly behind her on his mount, waiting patiently.

  Her heart sank. She stared a moment more into the pool, lost in despair, when the colors inside rippled, catching Lyra’s attention. She blinked. The bright hues swirle, the water draining away down the hole, while grass covered the dry dip in the ground where the pool used to be, and a large obsidian stone rose in the center like a rocky sprout. Lyra’s eyes widened as she watched it unfold. She turned back to Oriel, who still watched her with sad eyes.

  “Oriel, do you see this?” She gestured wildly to the new formation that replaced the pool. Oriel looked at it, chagrin crossing his features.

  “I see an acidic hot spring shaped like a giant eyeball, just as before,” Oriel said slowly, not catching on.

  “What?! You don’t see the obsidian? The water drained, the grass?” She looked back over to the spot, making sure it was still there. It was.

  Oriel frowned at Lyra. “Are you alright?”

  I’ll just have to show them.

  A distant voice--Terrin’s-- echoed across the land. He was cal
ling them back and he sounded impatient.

  Lyra stepped forward. She didn’t see the acid pool at all anymore. It was just lush green grass and a giant, beautiful, black stone in the center.

  “Lyra, what are you doing?” Oriel asked, his voice cautious. She felt his alarm, his aura shield slipping as he started to panic. Lyra heard him dismount, his boots thudding as he landed.

  Lyra took her chance. She sprinted to the stone, Oriel’s panicked shout trailing behind as her boots smashed the lush grass. When she reached the stone, she almost touched it, but remembered she couldn’t transport by herself. She spun, looking for Oriel. He stood at the edge, gaping at her.

  “The land has changed!” he exclaimed, “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

  “Oriel, you’re too close to the edge!” Persimmon’s scream was close.

  She must not be able to see the change yet.

  Oriel walked into the grass, jumping once, and laughing.

  “So, it is a portal,” Terrin said from his horse as he reached them. Lyra looked at him, but the shadows of the night guarded his expression. He dismounted and walked into the circle, with Persimmon following suit.

  “How in the hell…” Persimmon began, walking toward the stone in wonderment.

  “I’ve heard of glamours,” Oriel murmured, “disguising entries into lands with magical illusions, but that was a uniquely Fae power. Only powerful Fae could cast glamours. Only other Fae could see through them, blocking other magical creatures and humans alike from their lands.” Oriel studied Lyra through the dim light.

  “We clearly don’t know the extent of Ganymede’s powers,” Terrin pointed out.

  “Do you think this is the portal to Ursa?” Lyra asked Oriel.

  “Only one way to find out,” he replied with a shrug, peering up at the towering stone. Persimmon took her place by Oriel’s side, grasping his hand. She went to the other side of Oriel, and grabbed his other hand. Oriel kissed it, his eyes sparkling.

  “As much as I’d love to escort you across, only a pair can touch at a time while crossing. Otherwise, you pack too much flesh into a small space and you could lose parts on the way.”