Servants and staff gawked as she chose to ride the railing down the grand staircase into the entrance hall rather than spend the time walking, but Beth didn’t care. Of course, it might have also been because of the weird outfit she’d donned, but at least she was warm and covered. What else was necessary anyway?
She nearly knocked over the footmen carrying a large floral arrangement through the front door as she spun off the stairs and twisted toward the library. Several people dashed forward to help steady the large vase, but Beth barely registered them in her peripheral vision.
She could still hear Rose’s screams reverberating around her seemingly cavernous head. She had to get to her. She felt almost compelled to lay eyes on her sister.
Completely ignoring the manners drilled into her since she’d come to call Hollyburn home, Beth flung open the library doors without knocking or requesting entrance. She was surprised that Theo and Hugh weren’t impatiently pacing the hall, as they had been during her Rite of Passage reading.
Rose, dwarfed in a huge, high-backed leather chair by the unlit stone fireplace across from their grandfather — Chancellor Madoc, Hugh’s father — twisted toward Beth’s sudden appearance. The Chancellor held Rose’s hands and stared at the girl, but his eyes were strangely dimmed, washed out, as if clouded with layers of vision. Thousands of books, always neatly shelved, spanned the high walls on either side of the room, with some shorter rows perpendicular in between. Light flooded in from the far windowed balcony, though the Chancellor usually insisted that the heavy curtains be drawn to prevent the books from fading.
“Beth,” Rose whispered, looking startled but unharmed. “What is it?”
“Sorry … I thought … I thought … never mind.” Beth stuttered and mumbled as she tried to retreat, but the Chancellor called her back.
“You thought what, child? Did something happen?”
“No, no. I just thought I heard … something.”
“Were you dreaming?”
“Maybe. But … but I can still hear it. Like echoes in my mind.”
“Echoes,” the Chancellor repeated. Then he dropped Rose’s hands to rise from his chair and cross toward Beth in the doorway. “Stay with your sister,” he snapped, though Beth wasn’t sure if he was speaking to her or Rose. The command was the same either way.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Beth said.
“Not at all,” he answered, as he brushed by her to exit the library. “This is more important. I’ll go to your mother. She and Hugh are waiting just down the hall.”
“But …” Beth called after the Chancellor’s retreating back. “What if it was a dream?”
Her grandfather strode off without further explanation.
“But I don’t … I’m not … it’s not like I see the future,” Beth lamely trailed off, and then turned back to her sister.
The library was empty.
Rose had somehow left without her noticing.
Beth hurried through the library between the fireplace and the massive wood desk that was usually covered in Hugh’s parchments and books to look out the balcony window. The balcony was the only other possible exit, and the door looked to be slightly ajar.
The view from the library was as magnificent as always. Hollyburn castle was situated on a mountain directly overlooking the Great City and the Salish Sea. However, Beth was more interested in the small figure picking her way across the courtyard, through the fresh snow that had fallen during the night, toward the front gates.
Rose. She must have exited the library by way of the balcony stairs, though why she would do so was perplexing, especially after the Chancellor had ordered them to stay together.
Beth flung open the balcony door and stepped out. The press of the cold wind made her immediately pleased that she’d thrown on a sweater and boots. Her sister must be freezing in only her blue silk gown. “Rose!” she called, as she headed for the stairs. Her feet slid in the icy snow that coated the stone of the balcony. It was early for such a large snowfall. Even the city looked as if it had gotten a dusting. Though it was far enough below the mountain that the buildings looked like miniature toys, and it rarely saw snow. “Rose!”
She was halfway down the steps when Rose turned back to her. Her sister was partway through the yard, closer to the front gates than the castle. Her long, no longer perfect curls lifted in a gust of wind.
Then the evergreen trees sprawled behind the castle grounds and across the mountains began to tremble. Trees didn’t usually tremble, did they?
“Beth?” Rose cried, and clutched her skinny arms around her torso.
“Where are you going?”
“Something is wrong, Beth. Something is terribly wrong. Stay there. Stay right there!”
Beth stepped off the last stair, grateful to have her feet on less slippery ground, and paused to consider Rose’s warning.
The horses started screaming.
Beth had never heard a horse scream before. It was terrible sound. She damped her impulse to run for the stables, which were situated behind the castle on the complete opposite side of the yard, and instead just craned her neck in that direction. From this diagonal, she could hear them more than see them. A few mounts in the exercise ring were bucking away from their handlers in wide-eyed terror. The horses in the stables sounded like they were throwing themselves against their stalls.
The sheep and goats in the fields to the southwest of the stables started bleating and racing around in circles. Some of the rams were battering the fences.
The cacophony rose so much that Beth had to place her hands over her ears. She could feel herself starting to panic, but then Bryan burst from the kitchens at the very back of the castle and raced toward the stables. She felt his presence before she saw him dart across the yard. His focus so completely on the panicked horses that she doubted he even saw her or Rose. Even before he’d been Spirit Bound, Bryan had an affinity for animals, horses specifically. Just feeling him near calmed Beth and she turned back to Rose.
But Rose was screaming now.
And screaming … like she had been in Beth’s dream.
Rose stood in the center of the front yard, her back once again to Beth, seemingly staring toward the city as she screamed and screamed.
She screamed as if she was being attacked, but Beth could see no danger. Nothing was near Rose at all. Even the guards along the walls and at the gates were frozen in place, just gaping at her sister.
Then the ground began to shift. It shuddered as if alive, trying to buck Rose off her feet.
“Stop it, Rose! Stop it!” Beth yelled, frightened that Rose could even move the earth in such a way. She tried to move toward her unresponsive sister, but the ground rippled toward her, lurched beneath her feet, and threw her off balance.
Beth fell back against the stairs and clung to the side of the castle in an attempt to steady herself, but she could feel that even the castle was fighting against Rose’s power over the earth. A piece of stone broke from the battlements directly above her, almost landing on her head.
People began to flood out of the castle. Beth could feel that Theo was nearby, but she had eyes only for Rose.
The earth cracked beneath her sister’s feet, a jagged line zigzagging out through the gates and back toward the castle. The edges of the fissure surged and then widened.
Rose fell.
Beth gasped and felt her heart slam against her breastbone, just once.
She surged toward Rose, springing forward as her sister fell into the fissure that had opened up in the earth beneath her feet.
Her heart beat a second time.
She wasn’t going to be able to reach her in time, but still she flung herself toward Rose.
Her heart beat a third time.
She felt her hands wrap around Rose’s wrists.
The earth continued to open up underneath them. It tried to swallow Rose.
Beth fell face forward and felt herself dragged by Rose’s weight to the edge of the mass
ive crack.
She was going to follow Rose down into the very earth. Who knew how deep the crack went?
Something heavy landed on her legs and stopped her from being dragged down over the edge. She hung forward by the waist. The earth bucked again, as if determined to devour her and her sister.
Rose twisted her hands until she grasped Beth’s wrists in return. Below her, Beth could see nothing but darkness. She locked eyes with her sister and didn’t look away. “It’s not me,” Rose cried, spitting out the bits of earth and rock that had fallen into her mouth.
Beth felt like her arms were going to rip out of their sockets, but she wasn’t letting go. She tried to smile.
The earth stopped bucking beneath them.
Beth, unaware she’d been holding her breath, exhaled. Her heart started racing, which was odd, because shouldn’t it have been racing the entire time?
Still hanging into the chasm, she turned her head, dirt and rock pressed into her arms and chest and cheek. But it didn’t matter, because she realized that, even from this weird angle, she could see Theo.
Her mother stood in the very center of the front entrance of the castle, her hands spread open toward the wide fissure that had opened in the earth before her. Hugh stood to Theo’s right with his hand on her shoulder; Rhea stood in the same position on Theo’s left. Dougal was beside Rhea, with the Chancellor beside him. Peony had her hand on Hugh’s right shoulder, Ren’s hand on her right shoulder. The adults had formed a human chain across the entrance to the castle.
Beth could feel her heart beat, just once, again.
Theo was glowing. She was the most beautiful thing Beth had ever seen. It hurt to look at her, and she knew, just knew, that Theo had stopped the crack from swallowing the castle. Time had seemingly slowed, as if this single moment was paused.
Then, Beth’s heart beat again.
Theo was somehow forcing the fissure to close.
She and Rose were going to be crushed.
“Climb, Rose! Climb!” she yelled down at her sister.
Then she gathered all her remaining strength — hopefully she had enough left — and pulled Rose’s arm up over her head until the girl could grab onto her sweater.
The crack continued to close toward them.
Rose found, or perhaps created, footholds in the earth and climbed up Beth’s back. Whoever had stopped them from falling into the fissure reached over and hauled the girl part of the way out.
Peony fainted, but Ren caught her before she hit the ground.
Something clicked in Beth’s mind and she realized that her adoptive mother was channeling magic, the Spirit, from the other adults in order to close the crack. She’d never seen Theo do such a thing before, but it was what she was famous for. It was why she was called the Spirit Binder.
The Chancellor collapsed next.
Strong arms pulled at Beth, dragging her out of and away from the fissure. She hadn’t lost her hold on Rose completely, and somehow found herself cradling her sister as they were both pulled to safety. She couldn’t tear her eyes from Theo.
Her great-uncle Dougal stumbled but didn’t fall.
The crack in the earth closed and then sealed, as if it had never been.
Beth felt the channeled magic wash back over her as it returned to her mother. She was aware that she was lying in the arms, and against the hard chest, of someone who really shouldn’t be holding her so intimately, but she didn’t feel like moving. She wasn’t actually sure she could command her arms. They didn’t feel like they belonged to her anymore.
Theo swayed as if she might faint, but didn’t. She wasn’t glowing as brightly as before. Then she dashed forward with Hugh at her side, as if he was afraid she’d fall. Beth had never seen her mother move so fast, and in what seemed like an instant, Theo was on her knees before her. She gathered Beth and Rose to her, but the magic still sparking off her skin was painful, causing Rose to cry out.
Theo drew away, though she seemed pained to do so. “My girls!” she cried. “Hugh! My girls!”
Hugh reached past Theo to run his hand over Beth’s head and down the side of her face. Then he did the same to Rose. “They’re all right,” he said. “Theo, they’re all right.”
“I didn’t do it,” Rose declared and began to sob. “I felt it coming. Like it was inside of me, but I couldn’t stop it. It wasn’t me.”
“Of course not, baby,” Theo moaned. She had her arms wrapped around herself, as if to physically prevent her from touching the girls again.
Then Bryan was there, lifting Rose out of Beth’s arms and carrying her into the castle. Beth imagined he’d raced from the stables as soon as he’d discovered that Rose was in danger. He never would have left the horses so quickly otherwise. Theo followed closely behind. Hugh placed one of his hands on top of Beth’s head and the other on his chest, over his heart for just a moment.
“Your arms look too hurt to move, Beth. Can you wait for me to find a healer?” Hugh asked in a hushed tone, as if he was trying to be careful what the still distraught Theo could hear. She nodded and he hurried away.
The yard and keep were full of chaos and people. Beth could hear Dougal’s booming voice giving directions and orders. Still, she didn’t move from the shelter of the strong arms that continued to hold her, even though they were sprawled in the dirt and snow in the middle of that chaos. No matter that everyone dashed around them, no matter that everyone could clearly see them sitting there together. Practically entwined.
“I didn’t think I could get to her in time,” she whispered.
“But you did,” Finn murmured from behind her. “I’m not sure how you moved so fast. Suddenly you were just there.” The sound of his voice only reconfirmed her suspicions that he had saved her and Rose from falling into the fissure. Where that chasm would have taken them, she didn’t know … perhaps to the very center of the earth, most likely to their deaths. Now she owed him a life debt. The thought should have scared her, but she had no emotion left.
“I would have fallen if you hadn’t anchored me.”
“Seemed like the right thing to do.”
Beth became aware of just how cold her body was sprawled in the snow because of how warm Finn’s breath was on her neck.
“I should move.”
“Wait a second, Calla is coming.”
Indeed, Calla was pushing her way through a crowd of people to dash toward them. Her striking face was etched with concern as she knelt beside her brother and reached out to touch Beth’s face.
Calla hesitated. “May I heal you?” she asked.
“Am I hurt?”
“Yes, your face is badly scratched … your arms …”
Beth looked down at her arms; they rested loosely at her sides. Almost all the skin was scraped off from her wrists to her elbows. “Oh.”
“Probably happened when you slid forward over the rock,” Finn said.
“It doesn’t hurt?” Calla asked. And, as if the question had released it, pain spread up Beth’s arms and through her shoulders and neck.
“It does now, and I think there’s something wrong with my shoulders … I can’t lift my arms,” Beth murmured through clenched teeth.
“May I?” Calla asked again.
“Yes. Please.”
Calla touched her fingers to the palms of Beth’s hands, and Beth could feel a tingling sort of warmth run up her arms. She watched the skin heal over as if it had never been damaged. Calla was a powerful healer to fix such a wound with a single touch.
“Spirit Bound,” Beth whispered in awe.
“Yes,” Calla answered. “Though I believe it is the combination of your and my magic that makes such quick work of it.”
“Why do you think they were so careful to place us with such formidable parents?” Finn said. “We are too powerful to be on our own.”
“This is not the time for your stupid theories, Finn,” Calla snapped. Her tone had turned suddenly ugly, in a way that Beth wouldn’t have thought possib
le for such a pretty mouth. “Can you stand, Beth?” The healer’s voice was sweet once more.
“Yes. I think so.”
“I like her right where she is,” Finn teased.
“Of course you do,” Calla muttered. “You always like an impossible challenge.”
The healer reached out a hand and helped Beth to her feet. Beth’s back was cold where Finn had been in contact with her.
“Nothing is impossible,” Finn snapped back at his sister. “At least I don’t throw myself at every easy mark that comes along.”
Beth took a step away from the squabbling siblings. Her own dramatic duo, Tyson and Ari, were racing from the castle toward her. She reached out her arms in a gesture she hadn’t offered them in years, as she swept her frantic siblings to her. She held them as if they weren’t already taller than her, and let their concerned chatter buoy her even though she yearned to lie back in the dirt, safe in Finn’s arms.
The echoes of the dream were so overwhelmed by the reality that she didn’t even think to question how she had some hint of what was to happen moments before it had.
∞
Though the frosty glass was making her hand ache, Beth couldn’t pull herself away from the balcony window.
Outside the library it was snowing. Big fat flakes covered the stone of the castle, the grass, and the trees in the fields. A comforting blanket of snow. But at the base of the mountain, at the edge of the sea, the Great City was crumpled. Literally. Down there, the weather would only add to the chaos.
From her vantage point by the window, it looked to Beth as if the earthquake had tried to swallow the entire city. The bridge that led to the city was skewed, as if the magic that once held it in a straight arch over the inlet had been disrupted. Even the park on the edge of the city looked ruffled, as if many of the grand old firs and cedars had toppled over in a swathe. She tried to hide her terror in reaction to this view underneath a chilly facade. The cold from the window helped with that, but she was aware that every muscle in her body was tensed — her jaw actually ached — and that she wasn’t the only one feeling this way.
Beside her, Ari and Tyson attempted to occupy one of the leather reading chairs without touching each other. Beth tried to remember whether they’d always been that way, or if their growing powers had begun to make them more incompatible. Water and fire certainly didn’t exist cooperatively in nature. Rose was curled, sleeping, in the second high-backed chair by the window. Her sleep was anything but restful, as if she’d just shut down after the earthquake.
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