Steam started rising off of her brother. Satisfied that he was going to be okay, at least for the moment, Beth started trying to organize her own thoughts and fears.
Calla’s actions didn’t bother her. She felt that a lot of that blame fell on Bryan. He should have known better. Bryan should always know better. Though she understood how upset the healer was, the fact that Finn could sense his sister interested her more. “You can feel Calla? Can you communicate?”
“If I had anything to say to her.”
“Is that a twin thing?”
“It’s our thing; I don’t know about other twins. I haven’t met any other than Uncle Dougal and the Apex.”
“And they aren’t exactly the sharing types.”
Finn snorted, but didn’t continue the conversation. Beth picked up her pace and stepped up beside Bryan.
“Bryan, you said … should you be able to communicate with Theo … with Mom this far away? Your connection is … better than mine, and — “
“It’s too far. Maybe when we’re back at the castle. And if it is true that my connection is stronger than yours, that has nothing to do with Mom and everything to do with you.” Bryan strode off ahead of Beth and she dropped back to walk with Finn. Tyson still trailed behind them.
“Bit nasty with you, isn’t he?” Finn muttered.
“Not usually,” Beth said. Clasping her wrist in her other hand, she ran her thumb over the bond mark on her inner wrist. “This is just stress.”
“Yeah, but you always find out who people really are when they’re in difficult situations. Calla’s only an empath. She can’t make him feel things he doesn’t already feel. She just heightens emotions, and she dropped their connection as soon as you called her on it.”
If that was true, about finding out who a person really was when put in difficult situations, Beth worried about how she was making out. If she — if some version of her — was creating this situation, she wondered what that said about her, and about all the deep, dark places she could go. She also wondered if Bryan was actually angry at her, not just stressed from the situation, and what that anger meant. Did he blame her? Did he think she was causing all of this and putting their siblings in jeopardy? And what if she was? What if she was just that dark?
Beth let her hand fall away from the bond mark on her wrist. She didn’t even try to reach out to Theo with her mind. What was the Spirit Binder going to say when she found out they’d lost Ari and Rose? Beth couldn’t even begin to comprehend what anger would look like on Theo, and she certainly didn’t want to witness what her adoptive mother would be capable of under such circumstances.
It felt like everything was crumbling around her, this life that Theo and Hugh had carefully constructed for them all. Even though she’d had an inkling it was just some facade up to this point, Beth had always been waiting for the next bad thing to happen.
She bit into the edge of her tongue, not enough to draw blood, but enough to inspire a small vocalization of pain. She felt Finn look at her with concern, but she didn’t look at him. The pain cleared her head of the darkness, and she tried to just focus on the bright-white snow that lay all around them. If she just focused on the snow, she could white wash everything else from her mind.
∞
Beth’s toes were completely numb from slogging through the snow. Finn had insisted they take a different route back to the castle, so they were less easy to track. Bryan was seriously outpacing her as he strode on ahead. His broad shoulders never lost their tension, and he never turned back to make sure they were following him. He just assumed.
She thought about the compulsion he’d used at the lake with Tyson, and was pretty sure they would both have a hard time not following him after being hit with that. She wondered if the power that always leaked off of Bryan just a little bit had him questioning Calla’s attraction to him from the beginning. She wondered if he ever felt tempted to use it to get all the little things he must want in life. But then, she knew what the weight of Theo’s mark felt like. She understood the responsibility of that mark, even if her older self didn’t seem to, and she knew Bryan felt that as well. The marks were made through mutual acceptance, not that she clearly remembered the instance of her bonding …
And for the first time, Beth realized she was happy to be nowhere near as powerful as Bryan or Theo. The few friends she had, namely her siblings, liked her despite her introverted, often withdrawn, behavior. And now there was Finn … she cast a sidelong glance at him. His hair didn’t seem quite so pale against the snowy backdrop, though his eyes, which he’d just slanted toward her, were even greener. She looked away before she could be accused of staring.
It would be nice right now to ignore her trepidation and just focus on the warm feeling she got when Finn looked at her. A feeling that Beth had never gotten from Bryan, even though she’d been pretty sure she adored him. But thoughts of the other her, the one who wore her older face and might just be snatching and using her siblings in some sort of game, kept intruding. Not that she had any proof that any of this was being caused by the stranger in the tower. She hadn’t actually seen anyone snatch Rose or Ari, but it would be odd for all these things to be unrelated.
“Did you see it, Finn? When Ari disappeared?” she asked, even though it was almost a painful question to voice. She was horrible at sharing her feelings or fears, and opening a dialogue about this situation with someone she hardly knew was beyond difficult.
“I saw something. Could have been her. Same cloak.”
It must be nice to have warrior senses, Beth thought, not for the first time. Though seeing the intense way Finn gripped his sword and constantly scanned the area for danger, maybe there was some comfort in being sense-ignorant as well.
“You’re worried she’s you, even though that should be impossible,” he said, continuing the conversation Beth was having in her head.
“Wouldn’t you be?”
“Yes.”
“She looks like me …”
“Edgier, meaner, but yes. We know of one spiritwalker, so there has to be more.” He meant Hugh. However, the mother from whom Hugh had inherited his dark skin and unusual power hadn’t been from Cascadia. She wasn’t even from this continent. Maybe Spirit manifested as different types of magic and powers in different parts of the world.
Ten years ago, Theo had fundamentally altered Spirit for hundreds of miles around. Mages still held yearly pilgrimages to the Aerie, the Chancellor’s castle, to study it. It seemed Spirit was ever-changing, or perhaps ever-changeable.
“But if she is me …”
“Why is she, or rather you, doing all this then? What is she trying to stop or change? And how does she seem to know the future? That is what she was implying.”
Yes. There it all was in a neat little package of sentences. But …
“Her power, if she was the one snatching the girls, is completely different than mine. I have no idea how that could even be done or what type of magic that is. She led us out here … with Rose as a lure, jumping from spot to spot, didn’t she?”
“Transportation? Without a magical device? You think she’s some sort of transporter?”
“I don’t know, maybe. She also couldn’t even open the locked door. Those are all arguments in favor of her not being me.”
“Except … how do you get all those locks open? What exactly are you doing if you don’t just break the wards or crack the mechanism?”
“I always thought it was like I could make a key and that key could open anything I wanted to be open.”
“Is that what you do? Visualize a key? Turn a key?”
“No.” Silence fell between the two of them. He was probably letting Beth work it all out in her head, but if she had answers she wouldn’t ask so many questions.
Behind them, Tyson’s breathing was labored, like he was taking air only through his mouth, and his nose was plugged. Beth didn’t turn around to see if his eyes were red from crying. He hadn’t spoken since he’
d screamed Ari’s name at the lake. She’d never known him to be so quiet.
“Can you feel Ari, Tyson?” she asked her brother, but he made no response. She guessed that meant no. She wondered if Tyson would even be on his feet if not for Bryan’s compulsion-laced command. She spoke to Finn instead.
“Are you still tracking Rose?”
Bryan’s shoulders tightened at her question, and Beth took that as a sign that he could hear their conversation just fine, but had chosen to not participate. To not help her work out the puzzle.
“Yeah, I got her,” Finn answered. “We’re heading toward her now. I figure she’s back at the castle, but I can’t tell you for sure until we get closer.”
“And Calla?” Bryan’s breath came out in a little puff of steam when he spoke.
“You care now, do you?” Finn sneered.
“I didn’t plan on any of this happening,” Bryan said. And for some inexplicable reason, he chose that moment to stop and turn back to them.
“She forced you, did she?” Finn clutched his sword much differently than before, his hand tight rather than just at the ready. His voice was edged with an anger he’d obviously been suppressing.
“He meant Rose, and now Ari, disappearing,” Beth said, neutrally. She didn’t want to seem like she was taking Bryan’s side; he certainly didn’t deserve her support. But she also thought it was a bad idea for Finn to resort to violence.
“We should try to join up with her,” Bryan continued, as if Finn wasn’t threatening him. “Is she nearby? It’s not safe for us to be separated.”
“Oh, so suddenly that’s an issue for you? Maybe it’s not safe for us to be together,” Finn countered. “Maybe this is just a vendetta against your family. Maybe Calla is safer where she is.”
“You’re welcome to leave at any time.” Bryan mockingly swept his hand to indicate the forest surrounding them.
“And leave Beth and Tyson undefended?”
“They have me.”
“Exactly my point.”
Bryan’s hand went to his sword, but he left it in the scabbard as if he realized instinctively that he was no match for a warrior of the Elite Guard. “They are both powerful,” he whispered. “No one is capable of catching or confining Beth. And Tyson, well … it’s best to stay far away when Tyson gets mad.”
“And if you open your mouth, no one can resist you,” Finn added with another sneer.
Bryan stared down Finn’s challenge. Beth had never seen him look so dangerous … even mean. “I don’t have to be able to speak, actually.”
A sudden wind rippled through the trees, as if they might be reflecting back the tension building between Bryan and Finn. Once again, Beth was glad she wasn’t a sensitive. She imagined the power must be coming off the two boys in crippling waves.
She didn’t know how to make the situation better. She was surprised that Finn had lasted this long without challenging Bryan. Warriors were known to solve problems with their swords and only worry about ramifications afterward.
She also wasn’t sure that Finn wouldn’t crumble if hit with a directed compulsion by Bryan. Losing a battle on that level could be psychologically crippling for a warrior, or it could throw him into some sort of berserker rage as he fought the compulsion.
Of course, none of this posturing was helping Rose or Ari in the least, and Beth was opening her mouth to say exactly that when Tyson started yelling. “Why have we stopped? What does any of this have to do with Ari?”
The younger boy pushed between her and Finn, knocking Bryan with his shoulder as he passed. He began to cut a trail through the snow. The compulsion must have worn off; Beth was surprised it had held Tyson for even that long.
“I agree with Tyson,” she added. “The important thing is getting Ari and Rose back, and for that we need Theo.” She turned and walked in Tyson’s footsteps. The boys could resolve their issues or not.
“I’m sorry,” she heard Bryan murmur behind her, and figured he was running a hand through his hair. “But, honestly, we didn’t … we didn’t —”
“I don’t want details. Calla makes her own choices,” Finn growled.
“I didn’t compel her.”
“No, I don’t imagine you’re stupid enough to do so. Magic like that leaves a mark. You’re the most carefully diplomatic of us all.”
The boys’ voices receded as she and Tyson moved farther away, but at least they didn’t seem to be coming to blows.
‘I didn’t plan on any of this happening,’ Bryan had said, and Beth did wonder about the role of fate or destiny in all of this. It was said that Theo and Hugh were prophesied to be together, and that Theo was prophesied to be the Spirit Binder. Hence, it would follow that the events at the Aerie Rising were predestined. So, did that mean that Beth and the others were destined to be the so-called Spirit Bound? Did that mean that she’d been fated to confront the other her in the tower? If that confrontation hadn’t happened, would Rose and Ari be missing? Would they have caught Bryan and Calla together?
If this was all destiny, did that mean that nothing they did could affect the outcome?
The older Bethany had talked of ‘making life right,’ saying that there would be things in Beth’s future ‘that she could fix.’ This seemed to indicate that Bethany, at least, believed destiny or fate could be altered somehow.
If Spirit was benign goodness, like they were taught in the Worship of Spirit, why would bad things ever happen? If there was no such thing as fate or destiny for anyone without a prophecy, did that just leave everyone like Beth lost in the vastness of life? Flung around and affected by the actions of more powerful people?
She couldn’t decide which was worse — having no control and walking in fate’s footsteps, or floundering lost with no power to affect any great change.
That there was perhaps another, even deadlier option, never occurred to her.
Beth tugged her knit hat farther down over her ears, and struggled through the snow toward the safety and comfort of home. She’d always preferred to be indoors …
CHAPTER SEVEN
The trap laid for them was subtler than before, but still had a huge impact.
By the time Finn and Bryan caught up with Beth, she’d lost Tyson. They had cut back to the hiking trail, which was still referred to by its name from the ancient times known as the Before, when the Vanquished had populated this area. Once, the trail had spanned the mountains from sea to sea, but the forest had long since reclaimed everything beyond a three-hour hike in any direction from Hollyburn Castle. Beth didn’t often pay much attention to history lessons, but her adoptive father, Hugh, was always talking about the trails and the woods. Being a spiritwalker whose preferred animal form was a wolf, Hugh knew every inch of the forest and loved to share his knowledge.
Though there were rumors that many beasts of pure magic, such as trolls, claimed the forest as their territory, Beth had never been scared of the woods. No matter that she preferred to be indoors. But then, Hugh or Bryan usually accompanied her in the wilderness, and with them at her side, what was there to fear from magical beasts?
Still, she had also heard rumors of people who dwelled in the forest and didn’t live by the same rules that dictated the behavior of the people of the castles and the Great City. Beth wondered if those rumors were the reason the trails never extended any farther than when they’d walked them as children.
In the moments after she lost Tyson, and had yet to be found by Finn and Bryan, Beth felt the dark-tinged disquiet in the trees that gave rise to all the tales and rumors.
The two of them had been trudging along through the snow. In fact, she was rather blindly following Tyson, who hadn’t spoken or paused since he’d chastised Bryan and Finn. Beth hadn’t even noticed when he cut back to the main trail. Everything looked the same to her, all covered in snow.
When they’d been following Bryan, who knew the woods better than anyone except maybe Hugh, there had been no concern with finding their way back to the cast
le. Tyson must have felt the need to find the old trail in order to find his way home.
It turned out that Finn had been absolutely correct about not using the trail. He’d been worried that it made them too visible. Beth and Tyson had only been on the path long enough for her to realize they were wading through less snow than before, moving along the same trail they’d already broken on the way out, when Tyson shouted.
A hand-knit wool hat hung from a nearby tree branch. Ari was the knitter in the family. Every time Beth tried to knit, the stitches unraveled, as if by magic, though this was probably due to her being bored out of her mind rather than some secret power. Ari knit pretty lace patterns for all the girls, and manly, ribbed hats and scarves for the boys. Beth was currently wearing an older hat of Bryan’s. She was less a fan of lace than she was of keeping her ears warm.
The hat hanging off the branch was Ari’s. Unmistakably so, as it involved cables and lace and lots of colors beyond solid pink, as it would have been if it were Rose’s.
Tyson grabbed the hat off the branch before Beth could yell a warning. But nothing happened.
“She was here,” Tyson cried, and began to search about for other clues to Ari’s whereabouts.
“No, Tyson,” Beth pleaded, as her brother went from being practically comatose to completely riled in an instant. “Please, what if it’s another trick?”
“What if she’s leaving us clues, Beth? What if she’s trying to help us find her?” Tyson circled the tree, and then, spying something off the path, took off at a run.
Beth followed. No matter that she couldn’t stop anything that might be about to happen, no matter if it was a trap. He was her brother, distraught and quickly becoming unhinged. “Bryan! Finn!” she shouted over her shoulder as she followed Tyson further off the path, though she worried they were already too far away for the boys to hear her.
As Tyson grabbed a scarf — also Ari’s — off another tree branch, Beth could see sparks rippling through his ginger hair. That was not a good sign.
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