“I promise.”
“All right.” He blew out a breath and hoped he would not regret his decision. He pointed to the center of the floor. “We'll stand there. If the fire goes higher than the trees, as the spell indicates, I don't want to scorch the walls.”
Meaghan picked up the paper and followed him to the center of the room. “Should we be touching for our powers to work together?” she asked.
Nick shook his head. “It's not necessary. And if a column of fire is going to erupt between us, I don't want to be embracing it. Stand here,” he said, gesturing toward a spot on the ground. “Don't move.”
He walked two feet away from her and marked an X on the dirt floor with his finger. Then he moved two feet further away and faced her. “We need to say this together. Read it aloud for me, please.”
She read it to him, and then peered over the paper in curiosity. “Can you memorize it that fast?”
“It comes with practice. This isn't my first complex spell.” He nodded toward the spot he had marked. “Focus your power there and start reciting.”
She glanced at the paper in her hand, and then stared at the X on the floor. “Fire to rise above the trees. A column sought in upward breeze. Cost not life amid this strife. A call to four, now hear our plea.”
Nick recited with her, focusing on the warmth of his power. It surged, but nothing else happened.
“Nick,” Meaghan started, worry lining her face once more, but stopped when he nodded toward the paper, indicating for her to continue. “Water born to flow and freeze. Air that swirls we cannot see. Earth that shakes, stills, and quakes. Fire to sear as it will please.”
To his surprise, this time he saw something. The warmth in him turned to an almost unbearable heat. It jumped to the X, igniting a fire on the ground no bigger than half the size of their backpack. He nodded at her again. She glanced down and recited. He focused harder on the flames they had created. “Flames cast high above the ground. A column lit to bring help 'round. In this try, a desperate cry. Master of the four be found.”
The small bonfire began spinning. Faster and faster, it turned until the orange and red of the flames separated into two columns dancing together in the moonlight. For a heartbeat, he wondered if he had been right about the tornado. A tornado of fire could still be a possibility, but his instincts told him to keep going. If their combined powers had grown this strong—stronger than he had ever anticipated—he felt certain he could control the flame enough to dissolve it in short order. He nodded one last time at Meaghan, and she dropped her eyes back to the paper.
“Power born for great renown. The air, the earth, the water bound. This fire we share into the air. To hear the great Elementus' sound.”
Their voices recited in perfect unison, growing louder as the fire responded to their surging power. The column thickened, swirling faster as it cast off heat, singeing the hair on Nick's arms. When it began to pulse, he stepped back, nearly severing his connection to it, but then it pushed into the sky, a beacon searching for companionship with the moon overhead.
The column spun faster, and out of the flames boomed the voice of a groggy and somewhat drunken man, “Didn't I just get rid of you two?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“WE'D BE happy to go away again if you'd like,” Nick remarked, barely covering the amusement flickering the corners of his mouth. “Or you could use the fire to see why we called you. It's your choice.”
“Like I really have a choice,” Cal grumbled. “One moment I'm sitting beside my wife, the next I'm yanked outdoors to,” he hesitated, “where am I?”
“You can't see?” Nick asked. “Aren't you using the fire the same way you always do?”
“I can see, but this isn't the same.” The fire slowed, and Nick realized Cal controlled it now. “If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're in the ancient residence.”
“We are,” Nick confirmed. “What do you mean when you say it isn't the same?”
“I mean my power splits my awareness. I can usually see both where I am physically and what the elements are showing me. At the moment, I'm only here. Neiszhe probably thinks I passed out.”
“Would it be the first time?”
“Hardly.” Cal chuckled, and then turned serious again. “You used a spell. My guess is the one by the door. Not only is that one risky, but you shouldn't be able to pull it off with just two people.”
“It seems our powers are stronger than we initially thought,” Nick told him. “And we took the risk because—”
“Meaghan shouldn't know this building exists,” Cal interrupted. “Why did you show it to her? It's against the law.”
“I wanted to give her a lesson on the protection spell,” Nick answered, matching the annoyance in Cal's voice with irritation of his own. “I didn't think the law should apply to the Queen.”
“That's not for you to decide. The Elders made these laws for a reason.”
“I see.” Nick narrowed his eyes. “That's the second time in recent memory you've deferred to the Elders' wisdom. It's not like you, and I'm beginning to suspect you're hiding something.”
“It's nothing sinister,” Cal responded. “Now that Meaghan's home, I'm starting to see things from a different perspective, that's all. These laws protect her, too. Just having knowledge of some of the ancient sites could put her in danger.”
“I'm aware of that, but as you pointed out, it's her right as our ruler to have all the information. The Elders shouldn't be keeping anything from her any more than I should, so what's the real reason for the change of heart?”
“I meant you shouldn't as the King and as her husb...” his words grew muffled and then faded. The fire waned, dimming to pale amber before blazing into a thick column again.
“What was that?” Cal asked, his voice returning with full strength.
“I don't know,” Nick responded. “The column—”
“That was me confirming you're lying,” Meaghan interrupted. “I wasn't sure if my empath power would work without you physically standing in the room with me, but it does. Sorry,” she said to Nick. “I didn't realize it would weaken the spell.”
Nick shrugged. “Now you know. I'm guessing the spell actually transports Cal's presence to the fire, instead of only calling his power. That would explain why you can sense him.”
“It's a possibility. He's definitely hiding something, though he's unhappy with whatever it is, and ashamed of it.”
“Ashamed?” Nick frowned as he studied the flames and then he understood. “They made him an Elder.”
The swear echoing from the fire confirmed Nick's suspicion.
“Why would they do that?” Meaghan asked. “I thought they didn't get along with him.”
“They're running out of options,” Nick said. “There are supposed to be five Elders on the council. Four is better than three in terms of ensuring there's at least one Elder alive when the war is over.”
“And they may fight with Cal,” Meaghan reasoned, “but they trust him.”
“Exactly. Plus, giving him the responsibility seems to have mellowed him some. It's a good political move on their part.”
“I'm still in the room,” Cal reminded them. “I'd appreciate it if you'd talk to me instead of around me.”
“Why? So you can lie to us again?” Nick glared into the fire. “How long has it been? How long have I trusted you with my secrets while you hid yours?”
“I didn't—”
“Answer me.”
“Since shortly after you moved to the cabin, once they found out I knew where you were.”
“They wanted you to spy on us,” Nick realized. “You weren't trying to help us as much as you were reporting our progress back to the Elders.”
“That's not quite—” Cal started to protest, but his remaining words disappeared when the column of fire dissolved, leaving only silence and darkness.
Meaghan opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Nick stormed from the house. He wanted
to keep walking, into the field and into the night with nothing but the grass and small rodents to keep him company, but the protective boundary only extended so far. He halted at its border, mindful of the warning shimmer it emitted, and paced, wearing grooves into the soft dirt.
He ignored the Mardróch dotting the horizon, but Meaghan did not seem to have the same ability when she joined him outside. Her eyes locked on a pack of them and she stepped backward, giving distance to the boundary. It suited him fine. His anger did not allow him patience for company.
“I think you're overreacting,” she said and his anger spiked. He tossed it in her direction.
“What would you know about it?” he asked, and stopped pacing to stare at her. “You said yourself you can't always determine who to trust. He's been spying. That isn't a small thing.”
“You don't know for certain he's spying on us.”
“He didn't deny it.”
“You didn't give him the chance. We didn't even have enough time to warn him about the Mardróch.”
“He betrayed us,” Nick replied. “I didn't feel he deserved the courtesy.”
“Courtesy,” Meaghan echoed and frowned. “Warning him, and the rest of the village, isn't about courtesy. It's about protecting them. It's our duty, even if you don't feel Cal deserves it.”
Nick shook his head and started pacing again. “They'll be fine. They're under stronger protection than we are, and we're the ones standing in the middle of danger.”
“You can't be certain of that,” Meaghan challenged. “Too many villages under strong protection have already been destroyed.”
“Maybe,” he said and her words melted some of his anger. His eyes found the horizon, and the Mardróch he had ignored earlier. He pushed his hands into his pockets and faced her again. “There's nothing we can do about it now.”
“We can recite the spell again.”
“You're not strong enough to do it twice.”
“I'm not?” she asked. Her arms tightened against her sides. “Last I checked, our powers balanced when we were wed. Or did you forget I'm no longer weaker than you?”
“That's not what I meant.”
“Forget it,” she snapped. “I'm done wasting time on your excuses. I'll try it by myself.”
“Meg,” he started, and then sighed when she turned from him to reenter the house. He followed her.
“I'm not interested,” she said and pulled the spell from her pocket. She held it in front of her. “Fire to rise above the trees.”
“You can't—”
She raised her voice to speak over him. “A column sought in upward breeze. Cost not life amid this strife.” A flame began to flicker on the ground, and then disappeared as fast as it had formed. “A call to four, now hear our plea.”
“Damn it, Meaghan, stop!” Nick commanded, using her full name in the hope it would startle her into breaking her concentration. Her fingers trembled, but her eyes remained fixed on the X in the ground. She lifted the paper higher.
“Water born to flow and freeze.” A flame flickered again, and this time it remained. “Air that swirls—”
“Enough,” he snapped. His hand shot out, latching onto her wrist. He tightened his fingers, twisting her arm so she let go of the paper. It fluttered to the ground, landing where the flame had formed seconds before. “You'll hurt yourself.”
Her eyes widened in shock and he released her arm. “Let me finish explaining.”
“Like you let Cal explain?” she asked and bent down to retrieve the paper. “You deserve no better treatment than you gave him.”
“That's not fair. I only meant your powers are new to you. It's easy to get exhausted with these spells. Cal intentionally—”
“I wasn't talking about what you just said. He kept one thing from you. One,” she raised her finger to punctuate her point. “And you cut him off like some sort of traitor. How many secrets have you kept from me since I came to this world? How many are you still keeping from me?”
“I'm not—”
“You've given me plenty of reason not to trust you,” she continued, charging through his protest. “Yet I still do. I have to because we won't get far if I don't.”
“That's not the same—”
She stepped forward, forcing him against a wall. “Right. You were trying to protect me while he was obviously trying to betray you by taking a promotion, by stepping up to lead in the same way your mother did. You seemed to be happy about her promotion, so why not Cal?”
“Cal can't be our advisor if he's an Elder,” Nick answered. He tucked his hands behind him and slouched against the wall. “It's a law the royal family enacted to keep one person from having too much authority. Cal knows that, which means he lied to me about wanting to be our advisor.”
“It wouldn't be the first law we've bent,” she pointed out.
He shook his head. “It's not one I want to bend. We can't have an advisor who reports everything we do to the Elders.”
She studied him for a moment, and then stepped back. Her anger had been tempered by fear. “Are the Elders our enemies now?”
“They could be,” Nick responded, and straightened. “After what we're planning to do, they may consider us to be theirs, and if Cal is reporting back what we tell him...”
“They already know,” Meaghan finished when he hesitated. Her eyes trailed to the X on the floor. “We shouldn't assume he's told them. We need to let him explain.”
“There's no time.” He brought a hand to her cheek, his eyes scanning her face for the anger that had held it rigid only moments before. It did not return. “If we do the spell again, we won't have time to talk to him. We'll only have enough time to show him the danger. You won't be able to hold the spell longer than that.”
She frowned. “I'm not as weak as I used to be. I'm not even tired after performing the spell.”
“You've never been weak,” he corrected. He drew his other hand up to frame her face. “You're the strongest person I've ever known, but this isn't about strength. It's about training.”
“I don't understand. I've been training. I'm faster, stronger, and I have more endurance than when we started. I also have better control over my powers.”
“And if that was all you needed to perform the spell, you'd be fine. But spells are mentally and physically taxing, and when they take too much from you, the decline is quick. One moment you're fine, and the next, you're suffering from exhaustion so deep you can't lift your head. Trust me,” he said and pressed his lips to the bridge of her nose. “I learned that lesson the hard way and wound up sick for two days. If you really want to test your limits, I won't stop you. But I'd prefer you did it someplace safer than here.”
“Two days,” she muttered. “I've been sidelined enough already. I think I'll just take your word for it.”
He chuckled. “In the meantime, if you want to try the spell again, I'll agree to it, but only if you stop when you feel faint.”
“Okay.” She focused her attention on the X. “I think we should stand farther back this time, though. I felt like I stood inside an oven before. Shall we start?”
“In a minute,” he said, and placed a hand on her shoulder. With a gentle touch, he brought her attention back to him. “I'm sorry. I truly am.”
She shrugged. “I misunderstood what you said. I didn't realize spells were—”
“No,” he interrupted. Dropping his hand, he looked away from her. “I'm sorry for keeping things from you. I didn't realize how it felt to be on the receiving end of that until now. I feel betrayed by what Cal did, and I can't imagine you feel any differently.”
“You were trying to protect me,” she said, and laid a palm against his chest. “You may have gone about it the wrong way, but I understand why you did it. I don't feel betrayed because I know your intentions were good. And I think until you know why Cal did what he did, you should hold off on judging him. You had your reasons. They weren't entirely wrong, and I suspect his may not be either.”
“You say you understand, but you're still mad at me.”
She lowered her hand. “I guess I am, although I didn't recognize it until today. Understanding what you did is a lot easier than accepting it. I need time to sort through it.”
“And to trust me again,” he said.
“I trust you.”
“Because you feel you have to, not because you want to. I didn't realize how much damage I'd done to our relationship. Can it be fixed?”
She held his gaze for a long minute. For the duration of that time, fear gripped him. He could not bear the thought of a lifetime of distance between them. She looked away from him, and his fear turned to ice around his heart.
“I'm angry because I'm hurt,” she said. “I trusted you with my life. I gave up my entire world and followed you here, and you couldn't trust me enough to share the truth with me.”
He wanted to protest, to convince her he had always trusted her, but any words of denial would be another lie. When he had brought her home, he thought protecting her meant sheltering her. And in doing so, he had seeded distrust. She had been capable, but his own fears of losing her had prevented him from seeing it.
“I don't know what to say,” he told her. “Except I'd do it differently if I could.”
“But you can't,” she replied. “The past is done. It's not what you say, but your actions that matter now. You started sharing the truth with me last week. And tonight, you trusted me enough to show me this house. If you continue to trust me, we'll be okay.”
He nodded and hoped she was right.
“We should get to the spell,” she said. “Where do you want me?”
“By the east window,” he instructed. “I'll stand by the one on the west wall. Are you ready?”
She took her place. He mirrored her, and then gestured for her to start. They recited the spell once more. The column of fire shot into the sky between them and a moment later, Cal's worry broadcast from the flame.
“Took you long enough. I thought something happened to you.”
“I cut you off,” Nick said. “I wasn't in the mood to listen to lies.”
“I see,” Cal muttered. “Listen, Nick. I didn't mean to—”
Aerenden: The Gildonae Alliance (Ærenden Book 2) Page 14