Occasionally, we helped each other out in more ways than one. In this case, I’d decided to snap Field out of his emotional limbo; he clearly felt something for Aida, even if he didn’t know it yet, and there was no point in dragging it along without doing something about it.
Maybe it wouldn’t work out, but if he didn’t try he would hate himself for the rest of his life, and since Azazel and the destruction of everything we held dear loomed heavily above us, that life seemed shorter than ever.
“I can’t believe he didn’t see it,” Phoenix said, amusement lighting him up.
“I know, right?”
Vita
Aida, Serena, and I went for lunch once I felt steady enough to stand up. The Daughter was kind enough to get the wards to change the menu a bit again. It felt good to diversify our food. It changed the atmosphere around the house in a way, breaking the routine.
I then left the girls to their own devices and went out into the garden. The sky was painted in soft pinks and vibrant oranges when I sat down beneath the magnolia tree, once again facing the dark green jungle beyond the protective shield.
The air was relatively dry, and a warm southern wind swept over the tall grass. Birds sang in the trees, their trills bringing me a sense of comfort. I had always loved nature and its sounds. My connection with it transcended the material. It was emotional, and the elements spoke to my soul in the bird songs and rustling leaves. It was a conversation in a language that I had yet to understand.
I placed three candles I’d brought with me on the grass—thick wax cylinders in clear mason jars. I needed the practice, and I’d realized that communing with the elements always brought me relief and comfort. I was in short supply of both since my visions.
The image of Eritopia reduced to ashes and dry stone, of Draven dying and Azazel laughing maniacally as he prepared to march into our world to pillage and burn everything down—it had all landed heavily in the pit of my stomach. My shoulders slumped, and my soul felt drained, as if hope slipped out of it, and I had no way of stopping the leak.
A few hours passed as the sun set beyond the jungle in lazy shades of red and purple. Darkness crept up on the world, but I was too busy playing with fire to notice anything. I had trouble concentrating, and I couldn’t amplify the flames as much as I wanted to.
The thought of watching the people I loved as they died lingered in the back of my head, breaking my focus while I struggled to keep three flames burning high. I swayed them with different hand movements, but the fire didn’t listen all the time, and I wound up frustrated when it flickered and died on its own.
I sighed and rubbed my face with my palms. The smell of wax was embedded in my skin.
The sound of footsteps in the grass made me turn my head. The Daughter approached me slowly, her violet eyes curiously set on me. I smiled and patted the ground next to me.
“You can sit with me, if you like,” I said gently.
I figured I could do with a little company, and her timid behavior reminded me of myself. In a way, she came across as a kindred spirit to me; she had enormous potential but didn’t know how to tap into it. I had nowhere near her goddess powers, but I recognized the struggle and frustration that she dealt with.
The Daughter nodded and joined me on the grass, crossing her legs and tucking strands of reddish pink hair behind her ears. She looked at the candles, then at me.
“Playing with fire?” she asked.
“Trying, yes.” I sighed.
“How do you do that?”
“Do what? Manipulate fire?”
She nodded. That was a good question, come to think of it. How did I control fire? How could I explain my entire being to this creature who had yet to fully comprehend who she was?
“Well, it’s based on a connection. Something inside of me, a part of my being, is connected to the natural elements. My soul resonates with nature, and I guess we have established a conversation of sorts. The biggest challenge is to get the elements to talk back to me. I’ve been talking to them for years.” I laughed lightly.
“So, you speak to nature, and it responds?”
She managed to summarize my fae abilities eloquently with one sentence.
“You could say that. I commune with the elements, I open myself up to the possibilities, and, if I concentrate enough, I can manipulate them and have them do my bidding. I am a fire fae, which makes fire my strong point, my life force in a way.”
The Daughter nodded again, slowly, and looked out into the distance.
A moment passed before she spoke again. I watched her quietly, trying to figure out what was going through her head.
“And you’re an Oracle, as well?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know about that until recently.” I shrugged, not sure how to explain something that I didn’t understand very well myself.
“Phoenix is an Oracle too. And Aida,” she said. “He told me an Oracle touched your mothers’ bellies and that you were born and became Oracles, too.”
“In a nutshell, yes. We didn’t choose to be anything. It just happened.”
“I understand that. I didn’t choose to be me. You don’t know who you really are. I don’t know who I really am. But we both know who we are supposed to be, right?” Her question baffled me.
As quiet and clueless as she came across, the Daughter was able to present my condition—and hers—differently than how I had pictured it. She had a point. I knew what being an Oracle was about, because I had been told about it. It was the same for the fae side of me.
I wondered if it was time for me to stop listening to accounts of what I should be and focus more on being. The Daughter looked at me with a half-smile, and it felt like she could see right into my mind. A light flickered in her violet eyes as if she knew what I was thinking about.
“Think less. Feel more. Just be,” she replied.
I hummed my approval and looked at my arms. My skin had become bronzed from the time I’d spent outside. I wondered if the runes I had seen earlier would return in a more permanent form every time I had a vision. The thought made me shudder.
“I know what the runes on your body said.” The Daughter’s statement pulled me out of my musings, and I turned my head and the upper half of my body to face her.
“You do?”
“Not all of it,” she replied. “Some of the runes seem familiar, but I can’t put my finger on them yet. Like the words are stuck in the back of my head, and I can’t reach out to them. But I understood one phrase.”
My pulse raced. I took a few deep breaths, mentally preparing myself for what she might say. Given the dark omens in my visions of the future, I didn’t want to get my hopes up of the possibility that the runes could send a more positive message. My stomach churned.
The Daughter noticed my silence and cocked her head.
“When darkness swallows everything, it is up to the light to bring salvation upon us,” she said.
I mulled over the words, trying to figure out what they meant. Was it a glimpse into the future like my visions, or was it a warning? Or a piece of advice from some superior deity sending its messages through our Oracle bodies, telling us that there was hope?
“I’m not sure I understand what that means,” I ultimately replied, hearing the defeat in my voice.
“You are fire. Fire gives light.”
Once again, the Daughter was conservative in her use of words yet infinitely more coherent than I could ever be.
“When darkness swallows everything,” I repeated. “Given our circumstances, I believe the darkness is Azazel’s doing, or Azazel himself. So, when darkness swallows everything, it is up to the light…” I trailed off, as the idea forming in my mind became clearer.
“To bring salvation upon us,” the Daughter completed my sentence, never taking her eyes off me.
I knew what I had to do. If the runes were correct, then my inner fire could help against Azazel and the destruction he brought with him. I gave the Daughter a faint smile and
turned my focus back on the candles.
Time wasn’t on my side, and I had yet to get close to mastering my fire fae abilities. I took a few deep breaths, trying to empty my mind of everything that cluttered it, particularly my recent visions of death and the freaking apocalypse. But something kept holding me back. I felt it clutching my heart.
“You know, my mind sometimes wanders in different directions,” the Daughter’s voice broke my failing attempt to concentrate. “It gets overwhelming because I don’t know what is what, and I get dizzy and weak and frustrated with my own shortcomings. But then I think of Phoenix, and everything clears. All the pieces fall into place, and I can see where my mind needs to go. The many thoughts I have in my head unravel one at a time, and I can focus on something. Phoenix helps me think. Is there someone who helps you think like that?”
“You never cease to surprise me.” Astonishment warmed me.
The Daughter was accurately tuned into everything, including myself and my thoughts it seemed. I figured she was in perfect unison with Eritopia as a default setting, given that she had been birthed by the world itself.
I was in touch with the natural elements—elements that were the same as back home. Fire, water, air, and earth. So, in a way, the Daughter and I shared some kind of common ground, which explained why she was able to understand me and identify the feelings that tumbled around in my chest.
Most importantly, she was right. The first time I had successfully communed with fire and manipulated the flame was when I had abandoned all thoughts except Bijarki. Even during breakfast that morning, my mind had run toward him as I developed that flaming sphere above the table. Bijarki was my catalyst, the only thought that helped me harness the fire within.
I put my palms out above the three mason jars and invited the image of Bijarki to take up residence in my head. The clearer he became, the quieter my other thoughts got, to the point where all distractions were washed away by the incubus who had been causing extraordinary chemical reactions in me.
I channeled my energy, using him as a cable of sorts, and pushed it outward onto the candles. Their wicks lit up on their own—yet another wonderful first! I gasped and moved my hands outward, beckoning the flames to follow my motions. One by one, the flickers grew and combined into one large sphere of pure fire.
I glanced at the Daughter quickly and noticed her wide eyes and silent enthusiasm. Overcome with gratitude toward her selfless support, I decided to show her something worth looking at.
I took a deep breath and allowed the idea of Bijarki to flow through my veins. I thought about his skin against mine, his silvery eyes drilling right into my soul, and the strength of his arms wrapped around my body.
The more I thought of each sensation that he had ignited in me that morning, the bigger the fire sphere grew. I stretched my arms out fully. I stood up and held the sphere in my hands. The flames licked my skin without burning it. It was as if Bijarki, even in his absence, was giving me the courage I needed to explore my unique relationship with fire.
I walked ahead with the incandescent sphere no longer connected to the candles. Heat coursed through my veins. It was delicious. The excitement fanned over the fire, and I raised my arms above my head as the ball swelled further outward until its diameter was bigger than the magnolia tree’s crown.
I laughed and threw another glance at the Daughter. She stood up with a bright smile on her face and her hands clasped together, waiting to see what more I could do with my ability. I licked my lips and filled my lungs with air. Then, I clapped my hands once, and the fire ball burst into billions of sparks, bound together by some kind of gravity.
I turned around and moved my hands, mimicking a ballerina’s pirouette, and the incandescent sparks flowed around me like ribbons of liquid fire, swaying with the wind and following my motions in perfect harmony. I could control fire through kinetics!
The happiness that rushed through me was impossible to describe. My heart was close to bursting out of my chest as I danced across the grass, followed by a wide stream of white sparks that burned as hot as my soul. I laughed, and the Daughter watched me revel in my newfound skill.
Aida
By nightfall, the more positive energy I’d accumulated from my conversations with Vita and Serena had slowly fizzled out, leaving room for doubts and the harrowing possibility of a full Oracle transformation.
I made my way into the banquet hall after everyone scattered around the house. I didn’t feel very sociable, and I constantly checked myself for runes. I’d seen none since I’d awakened from my visions that morning, but I couldn’t shake the thought of them returning permanently.
The warming plates were still out on the dinner table, and I was pleased to see the effects of the Daughter’s intervention with the wards once more. I uncovered a hot dish and dipped my finger in it. Delicious.
I ate my dinner quietly. I’d changed into a pale green velvet skirt, settling for a soft ivory shirt with long sleeves and ample lace ruffles adorning the collar. I wanted to cover up as much of myself as possible, despite the high summer temperature. The less skin I could see, the smaller my temptation to give myself a once over for black runes.
As I chewed the last of my food, the double doors opened behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see Field walk in. The black trousers he wore hugged his muscular thighs, and his off-white shirt was unbuttoned halfway down with the sleeves rolled up, enough for me to see his broad chest and toned forearms. His long hair was tousled, and his left jaw was slightly red. Heat seared through my chest as my gaze lingered on his lips. I willed my gaze back to my empty plate.
He pulled out a chair next to me and sat down, leaning into his elbow on the table and purposefully facing me. I could feel his eyes on me, and all it did was further raise my body temperature. I replayed the morning I’d spent in his embrace in my mind, when I’d just woken up from the visions, still shuddering from the sight of my runes.
Neither of us said anything, until I finally gathered enough courage to look at him. His turquoise gaze was fixed on my face, but I couldn’t read his expression. His eyebrows were slightly arched, though, enough to make me think that he was wondering about something.
“What’s up?” I asked, my voice barely audible and higher than normal.
“Not much. Just had a sparring session with Jovi. It got rougher than usual, but it serves him right,” Field replied with a satisfied smirk.
“Who won?”
“Who would you have wanted to win?”
His question confused me for a moment. I was unable to look away from those two blue-green pools of wonderful unknowns that made up a creature like Field.
“He does need to get some respect kicked back into him once in a while. I’ll say that much,” I quipped and took another sip from my water, grateful to have an excuse to look away before I lost control over my senses.
Field laughed and poured himself a glass.
“It will please you to hear that I wiped the floor clean with your brother, then.”
I felt myself smiling but my heart wasn’t really in it. I stared at my fingers on the glass, once again reminded of the runes. The persistence of my impending transformation was unbelievably frustrating, to the point where I realized I wasn’t even able to laugh at my beloved brother’s expense.
And Field noticed. “What’s wrong, Aida?”
The sound of my name in his voice made me look at him once more. My body softened under his inquisitive gaze. My knees weakened, and my spine tingled.
“I…I can’t get those runes out of my head. Every time I see them I’m reminded of my possible future, and it’s not something I’m looking forward to. I don’t want to go blind.” I ended my brief rant with a heavy sigh.
Field held my gaze without saying anything. A dozen thoughts darted through my mind. I wondered what went on in his. His poker face was exquisite, and I found myself both loving and hating the mystery of it. Not knowing what he was thinking was a double-edged blad
e.
He broke the silence. “Do you trust me?”
There was a familiar twinkle in his eyes. He most likely had an idea. Back home, that usually meant upping the danger level on my GASP training with the addition of new weapons. I wasn’t sure what it meant in Eritopia, but I trusted him with my life and soul and everything else I could give him.
I nodded, unable to utter another word.
He stood up and offered me his hand. I looked at it for a second and took it. His fingers gently folded over my hand, sending hot flashes through my core. He pulled me to my feet and tore off his right sleeve. My eyes went wide—both at the sudden gesture and the sight of his tanned skin stretching smoothly over his muscles.
He held the material up by both ends in front of me, and gave me a reassuring smile as he blindfolded me. I felt his breath tickle my cheek as he leaned in to tie the fabric behind my head. I felt hot and overwhelmed and tried to keep my breath steady.
Field took my hand again, while I got accustomed to the darkness. The thought of going blind caused a numbing pain in my stomach, but I followed his musky scent and the sound of his footsteps as we went outside. I heard crickets chirping somewhere nearby and a subtle breeze above us.
He stopped, and I bumped into him. I forgot to use my brain properly with his body so close to mine. I held my head down, not sure what to say or do next.
“I need you to trust me, Aida,” he said in a low voice that made my soul vibrate.
“I trust you,” I whispered.
He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close. I held my breath as I felt his body against mine, a perfect match of forms. He held me tight, and I lost myself for a moment. I heard his wings flap, and the ground disappeared from under my feet.
I squealed and locked my arms around his neck, holding on for dear life and gasping for air.
We were flying.
The air rushed against my skin, getting colder as we reached a higher altitude. The wind whistled in my ears. My core ignited, and my heart fluttered in my chest. I was soft against his firm body, and I relished every sensation.
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