Unlit

by Keri Arthur

  When she realized this, she raised the knife and flung it. It flew straight, unhindered by the turbulent air, but she was no knife master and her aim was far from true. It hit the wall, drawing sparks from the stone as it dropped to the ground. It came to rest with its hilt across my right foot; almost immediately—and rather weirdly—the blade began to glow with a rich blue fire.

  Pyra screeched and rushed at me. But the floor was now heaving with ever-increasing ferocity, and massive cracks appeared across the stones that lay between us, forcing her to slow. Yet for all that the air screamed, for all the noise the earth was now making, no help had arrived. There was no one to stop her, no one except the wind, and she could only help me so far against an air witch as strong as Pyra. My one chance was the earth—if it would only rise up and trap her….

  The thought had barely crossed my mind when the huge slabs of rock punched up through the floor, one after the other, until Pyra was completely encased in a prison of stone.

  The air pinning me suddenly swung around, attacking the stones in a useless attempt to draw Pyra from her prison. She screeched again, and the air became violent, flinging the furniture around the room, until it became a dangerous maelstrom of razor-sharp edges that could skewer flesh as easily as a knife.

  None of it touched me. The wind, although she couldn’t entirely deny Pyra’s commands, was providing me with a small cocoon of safety.

  I dropped to my knees, my head swimming and my whole body shuddering with the effort of simply breathing. For several minutes, I didn’t move; indeed, couldn’t have moved, even if my life had depended on it.

  But help was coming. I could feel it in the tremor of the stone under my legs.

  “Mother of mercy, what on earth is going on here?”

  It was Trey, arriving to help, even if it was a little too late.

  “Neve,” another said sharply, “control the wind.”

  And of course he’d brought Kiro. Damn him. But the words didn’t leave my lips, because even though I hated the thought of him seeing me like this, I also understood Trey’s reason for bringing him here. There were dark deeds afoot in this place, and that was far more important than the fate of an unlit soldier who could hear the wind.

  But I couldn’t obey his command. This wind wasn’t mine.

  I hugged my body against the pain running through me, and fought the urge to weep. Tears wouldn’t help, but I had no idea what actually would. The sensitivity was back again, fiercer and sharper than before. Not only could I feel the presence of the two men in the thrum of their energy beating through the stone under my legs, but also Pyra’s fury, the cry of the wind, the demands of a voice that was both one and many, all of them foreign in tone….

  I blinked. The voices that both Saska and Pyra had spoken about were real.

  But why could I suddenly hear them?

  “Neve,” Trey said, voice sharper, “control the wind.”

  “Not,” I somehow ground out, “me.”

  “Some of it is,” Kiro snapped, “otherwise you’d be dead.”

  “No,” I denied, even though the truth was evident in the small bubble of air that protected me.

  The stone began to rumble again. I forced my eyes open and saw that the prison containing Pyra was retreating back into the earth, revealing the fact she was pinned by two boots of stone.

  “Release the air, Pyra.” Trey’s voice was flat but hinted at the fury I could feel via the stones. “Or those cuffs encasing your feet will spread to your entire body, and you’ll become little more than a pretty ornament in this place.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.” Her fists were clenched, her eyes wild, and her voice clear despite the roar of the wind. If she felt any trace of fear, it wasn’t evident. “It’d be considered an act of treason under the laws of this place.”

  “Not if he has my blessing,” Kiro replied equably. “The Forum has given me full freedom to use whatever means necessary to uncover what’s going on, and you, my dear, are part of whatever it is.”

  “And what of her?” Pyra flung an arm out, pointing at me. “She’s caused this mess. She tried to kill me; I was only defending myself.”

  I licked my lips and somehow said, “He’s a reader, Pyra. He’ll uncover the truth of it soon enough.”

  The violence within the alien whispering got sharper. Pyra shook her head, as if denying what they were saying. Fear flashed across her countenance, but it was more fear of those whispers than what Kiro might reveal.

  “I am indeed a reader,” he said, “and it would be far easier on you if you willingly revealed whatever information you hold.”

  I shifted slightly, trying to ease the ache in my leg. Something cold pressed harder against my shin. The knife… and as even as that realization went through me, the voices sharpened and became clear.

  But they were only saying one word that was repeated over and over—kill, kill, kill.

  “Pyra, no!” I screamed, even as I reached for the wind and tried to stop her. Pain unlike anything I’d ever felt before hit me, and the plea shriveled on my lips.

  Leaving me to do nothing but watch as the wind swung around and all the deadly missiles that had been rotating within the room were suddenly aimed at the woman still pinned by the stone cuffs.

  They shredded her. She didn’t even scream. She didn’t have the time. The wind died with her, and what missiles remained clattered heavily to the floor.

  I closed my eyes and sent a silent prayer of thanks to the forces of earth and air. If they hadn’t, for whatever reason, helped me, the bloody mess of body parts staining the white floor would have been mine.

  “That,” Kiro said eventually, his voice soft, “was not what I’d been expecting.”

  “No.”

  Soft footsteps approached. Trey, not Kiro, the stone told me. He knelt in front of me, his gaze a heated caress that skimmed me. Even though he made no immediate move to touch me, I couldn’t help whispering, “Don’t.”

  “No,” he repeated. I had a vague thought he knew precisely what was happening to me. “Lord Kiro, it would be best if you go back to the masque and reassure everyone that nothing of consequence has happened. Some would have heard the anger in the wind, and many would have felt the tremor. I’ve asked the earth to whisper reassurances that the tremor they felt was a minor event caused by an untrained child, but still—”

  “I will,” Kiro said. “But what of Lady Pyra? We need to know what went on in this room, and what part Neve has played.”

  “Yes, but she’s in no state to deal with questions right now.” His gaze still hadn’t left me, and my body shook under the force of it. But the strange awareness was growing stronger—deeper—because the wash of his breath, soft and distant, felt as fierce against my skin as any summer storm. “As for Pyra—the earth will take care of her.”

  “They all know she left with Neve and will suspect wrongdoing.”

  “Which may yet play into our hands.”

  Kiro’s gaze joined Trey’s and I felt like weeping under the double pressure. For freedom’s sake, what was happening to me? If the wind knew, she gave no answers, and the earth had never deigned to even help me until today.

  “There are questions that desperately need—”

  “Yes, but she undoubtedly has just as many. Pyra tried to kill her, Kiro, and the quake was the result of protecting herself. This has to be dealt with now, and then we need to bring her fully into our confidence.”

  There was a long silence then, “You will perform the ceremony?”

  “Yes. We have no option right now.”

  “And yet the ceremony is not without its dangers. We can call in a priest—”

  “There isn’t enough time. Look at her, Kiro. The power all but consumes her.”

  Consumes me? My whole body might be on fire, and every breath—every quiver of movement might feel like a blow—but I wouldn’t have said the sensations were so intense that I’d fall under the pressure of them.

 
Kiro hesitated, then said, “Be careful, Trey. We’ll continue this on the morrow.”

  “Come back at three. Not before. And tell the maidservants to keep well away until then.”

  “As you wish.”

  The stone trembled under the weight of Kiro’s steps as he walked away. As the suite door closed and the sound echoed around the broken room, I forced my eyes open and looked into Trey’s. There was sympathy there, as well as understanding.

  And desire so fierce perspiration began to dot my skin.

  I swallowed heavily and said, “What is the deal between you and Kiro?”

  A smile tugged his lips. “Of all the questions I expected you to ask, that was not one of them.”

  “You know what’s happening to me, don’t you?”

  “Yes, and I’m afraid the cure will make things a whole lot worse before they can get better.”

  “I don’t think that’s possible.”

  “Then you’d be wrong. As to what’s happening—” He took a deep breath and released it slowly. “What you’re experiencing is the end result of raising magic you neither understand nor fully control.”

  I frowned at him. “But I didn’t—”

  “You did. Who else was here to raise the earth? It certainly didn’t answer Pyra’s call.”

  “But how is that even possible? I’m unlit—”

  “The hows and whys aren’t important right now. We need to perform the ceremony of Gaia immediately. It will bind you to the energy of the earth and stop these uncontrolled events. You’ll still need training, of course, but it will ease the risk to both you and everything around you.” He hesitated, and the wash of his desire increased, making me tremble under its force. “But I have to warn you—the ceremony is sexual in nature. Given we have no time to call for a priest, I’ll have to take his place as the earth’s representative.”

  While I was all for having sex with Trey, any sort of touch in this hypersensitive state would be nigh on unbearable. “What happens if I don’t do the ceremony?”

  “You’ll be torn apart by the forces you cannot yet control.” His voice was grim. “And you might just take a good portion of Winterborne with you.”

  “Then there is no choice.”

  “No. Can you walk?”

  I snorted—a soft sound that somehow hurt. “You already know the answer to that.”

  “Given your propensity to keep doing things you shouldn’t, I had to ask.” He paused again, and the amusement that had briefly flirted with his lips fell away. He reached to the side, picked up a smooth piece of what looked to be the remains of a chair’s leg, and said, “Place this in your mouth and bite down into it.”

  Fear stirred through me. “Why? What do you intend to do?”

  “Pick you up.”

  He placed the wood against my lips. In my current state of being, I could taste the varnish on its surface, feel the eons of life from the tree it had once been. Could smell the minute droplets of blood that had been sprayed across one edge.

  “Trust me,” Trey said softly, “you’ll want this.”

  After a moment, I opened my mouth and accepted the gag. He shifted to my right side, the movement washing waves of air across my skin and sending another shudder through me.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  No, I wanted to say, even as I nodded.

  He hesitated, then slipped his hands under my knees and behind my back and, in one smooth movement, lifted me. It felt like every nerve ending in my body was being ripped apart. The pain I’d felt before was bad, but this—this was a tsunami. I bit down on the chair leg so hard my teeth cracked its surface, but it didn’t stop the scream that ripped from my throat. Nothing could.

  And though he held me so very gently against his body as he carried me from the bedroom, the rub of his silk shirt against my flesh felt like sandpaper tearing away layers of flesh.

  We moved outside, onto the patio. The icy air stung my skin, drying the blood on my face but providing no release from the heat and the pain. I could feel through the night’s vibrations that the party still went on above us, could hear the music and the violence of the sea far below us, but none of it came close to the overwhelming sense of power and desire coming from the man holding me so close.

  He didn’t stop at the railing. He simply climbed over the capstone and stepped out onto the ten or so feet of dangerous wilderness that now separated us from the long drop to the sea.

  “Are you intending to throw me over that cliff?”

  It came out more than a little garbled, given the chair leg, but he obviously understood, because he laughed. It was a soft sound that caused both pleasure and pain. “No, I most certainly am not.”

  Good. But this time, I didn’t say it. Couldn’t.

  “When I set you down, Neve, I need you to kneel and hold out your hands, palm up. Can you do that?”

  I nodded. He stopped, carefully placed me on the ground, and then pulled away. The pebbles and twigs that littered the ground felt like knives digging into my skin, and the wild grasses became lashes of leather. I bit deeper into the chair leg, fighting the bile that rose up my throat and the blackness beginning to affect my vision, and slowly, carefully, assumed a kneeling position.

  Knees touched mine. The contact was skin on skin and electric. My heart began to beat a whole lot faster. I forced my eyes open and discovered he was as naked as I. And lord, was he beautiful; his brown skin gleamed like warmed chocolate under the moon’s cold light, his arms and his chest were well muscled, his abs well-defined, and his erection thick and fierce.

  Whatever doubts I might have had about his desire for me were in that moment irrevocably shattered.

  He carefully removed the chair leg from my mouth, and then placed his hands on top of mine. Though his touch was light, it burned through my nerve endings and sent a shudder through my entire body. Despite that, energy stirred between us, energy that was sexual and yet not, and came not just from him, but from the very ground underneath us.

  Ground that was heated and beginning to heave anew.

  I carefully licked parched lips and somehow said, “What does this ceremony involve aside from sex?”

  “We have to raise the power of the earth and immerse ourselves completely in her.” He paused. “You have to trust me, Neve. What follows will first undo you and then heal you. But you won’t be alone. I’ll be your anchor, both physically and metaphysically.”

  “That doesn’t explain anything.”

  “No. But we’re out of time.” He slid his hands up to my wrists and held them tight. It felt like I was being branded.

  I swallowed heavily, and then nodded. I had no true understanding of what was going on or what might happen in the next few minutes, but I trusted him.

  He took a deep breath and released it slowly. His body was trembling with expectation and there was a fierce light in his eyes, one that spoke of desire and something more. Something that was as deep, as powerful, and as old as the earth itself.

  “I will tell you what to say,” he said softly. “Do not worry about the forces that rise. I’ll not let you get lost in them.”

  I nodded. And so it began.

  What he said, I repeated, and with every sentence, the earth grew warmer, the night became sharper, and that intangible, heady rawness that had been surging between us grew ever stronger, ever deeper, until contact was not just hands and knees and the sheer force of the energy we were creating threatened to tear the world apart.

  And then it did tear apart—the earth rose, wrapped warm earthen fingers around us, and drew us deep into the heat of her ample bosom. The sky and the stars disappeared and there was nothing but the heartbeat of the earth around us. It was a force that swept through every particle that made up the entirety of my being, inspecting, judging, and testing. The strands of my DNA were stretched beyond the possibility of breath and life, and all that the earth mother was, and all that I could be, became one and the same. And oh, it felt so beautiful, so enriching
, to be a part of such power, that I didn’t want to let it go. Even as the earth began to reassemble my being, I fought to remain, to languish in the heat and the wisdom of all those who’d come before me, and whose spirits now resided alongside mine. But there was iron at my waist and thick heat in my body and the urgency of such could not be ignored. As the earth opened her fingers and gently deposited us back into the world, the power of our joining reached a crescendo more powerful than anything I’d ever felt before—one that tore a scream of pleasure from my throat even as it left me weak with satiety.

  Awareness returned slowly, and with it the true realization of what had just happened. I was sitting on Trey’s knees, my arms wrapped around his neck and my chest pressed hard against his. His shaft was becoming flaccid within me and his hands were pressed firmly against my buttocks to hold me in place.

  “You really didn’t have to go to such lengths to seduce me,” I murmured, not wanting to move. It felt warm and safe in his arms, and the pain and heightened sensitivity seemed to have fled, leaving my body tired but at peace. “I would have said yes had you but asked.”

  He laughed softly, a sound that rumbled rather delightfully through my breasts. “I’m afraid Mother Earth demands more than just an oath. She demands complete immersion of body, soul, and passion before she accepts an initiate into her being.”

  I frowned and pushed away from him. “What?”

  He brushed the sweaty strands of hair away from my eyes, his touch gentle. “She has accepted you as one of us.”

  I stared at him for a long, rather stunned, silence. “But I’ve never heard the whispers of the earth, only the wind—”

  I stopped abruptly, but far too late.

  “And so the secret we’ve long suspected is finally revealed.” Amusement touched his voice, but there was concern in his expression, and it sent a shiver of trepidation through me. “It was you who directed the wind to cut that trench into the ground.”

  “Yes, but you said that was impossible—”