by Rachel Red
Elizabeth furrowed her gingery brows. "Just wait a second, here. Kate, have you even ever levitated a person before?"
I actually hadn't. "No, but a few days ago when Julia and I were bored, I levitated one of the long tables in the great hall, and those weigh several tons each. Easily. And the only reason I didn't lift it the whole fifty feet to the ceiling was because Julia and I heard people coming down the hallway and I just felt funny about being seen levitating a table. This definitely wasn't the only time I've practiced my skill lately. I've been practicing a ton."
I really had been.
Elizabeth chewed her lip. "Well...let's just see if you can levitate a human being in the tent, here, first. Go ahead and try to lift me. Maybe just a foot or so off the floor."
"Okay."
I looked at her, concentrating, thinking about how I wanted to lift her off the floor and picturing it actually happening. But I felt no tingling in my wedding ring finger. And she didn't levitate an inch.
Julia looked from her to me. "It's okay. Just try again. Just keep trying."
I did try again but without success. My palms began to sweat, and I wiped them on my shorts. I tried to levitate Elizabeth, even just an inch, yet again. After my fourth still-unsuccessful try, Elizabeth told me I didn't have to keep going.
"You gave it your best."
"Well, I have tried but...." I sighed, wiping my sweaty palms on my shorts again. "I just know I can do it. How can I pick up a several-ton table and not be able to levitate a human being? Or several? I just need a few more tries. But I know I can make it happen."
Elizabeth said okay, give it another go, and I did. I looked at her while imagining her rising a foot in the air, while wishing for it to happen, willing it to happen with every fiber of my being, still nothing happened.
I looked around at Brook, Rose, Elizabeth and Julia, sighing. "Bear with me, guys. Just hang in there. I can do this."
Julia glanced over at the tent's entrance. "I believe in you, and I know you're trying your hardest and hurrying, but...just keep on hurrying, okay? Because...." She swallowed, glancing over at the tent flaps again while Miles continued talking with his men in a loud voice not far away. "Because I think we're running out of time."
I nodded. "I know. Just let me give it another try. I'm hurrying."
With perspiration dampening my forehead, I looked at Elizabeth again and wished for her to levitate. I pictured her rising in the air. But she didn't. She just sighed instead.
"It's really okay, Kate. The force field Miles has around the mountains will lift soon, and then the men will come. There's a chance one of them can break whatever force field Miles erects around this encampment. And I really don't know what kind of a chance, maybe not the greatest chance in the whole world, but it's still a chance. Our men are strong."
Julia glanced at the tent flaps again, cringing. "They're going to rape us in front of our husbands. Sam will be in absolute hell. Kate, you've gotta keep trying."
I agreed with her. I knew I couldn't quit. I took a deep breath and prepared to try again, my hands beginning to shake. But Rose suddenly told me to wait.
"I just have a quick question before you try it again."
"Sure. What is it?"
"Well...how are you feeling when you usually do this? Are you usually scared, like right now?"
I thought about it. "Well...no, not at all. Every time I've done this before, I'm just how I usually am, which is pretty relaxed."
"So maybe that's the problem. You're not relaxed now; you're scared. And you're maybe...you're trying too hard."
I knew she was right. When I'd first levitated something, the wineglass in the hot springs, I'd been completely relaxed, and not only had I not been trying too hard, I hadn't even been trying at all. I'd just been vaguely, lazily wishing for my wineglass while in a state of complete relaxation.
I nodded at Rose. "You're completely right. Thank you."
Julia glanced at the tent entrance again. "Okay, then, Kate, just...just totally relax as fast as you can."
Elizabeth sat up a little straighter, her gaze on me, and brushed a long red curl out of her face. "What makes you feel completely relaxed and at ease? Is it the hot springs? Or being in the sun? Or how about-"
"Victor."
I hadn't even needed to think.
"Okay, then, you've got to think of him and try to clear your mind of all other thoughts. Not going to be easy, I know. But just give it a try."
Despite the loud, rising and falling voices of the Oppressors outside, it wasn't hard. I closed my eyes and thought of Victor: his deep gray eyes, dark brows, the strong angle of his jaw, his muscular arms and me, wrapped in his muscular arms, safe, protected and completely at ease and relaxed. The tent didn't seem as hot anymore. My hands began to feel a little less shaky and my palms stopped sweating. I pictured Victor and nothing else, thinking only the vaguest, haziest half-thoughts about wanting Elizabeth to rise a few inches off the ground.
I hadn't been thinking of Victor even a minute when my wedding ring finger tingled. Julia made a little gasp and told me to look. I opened my eyes and saw Elizabeth, her own eyes wide, sitting several feet in the air, holding her criss-crossed legs beneath her. Her head just skimmed the top of the tent. One of her legs began slipping out of her grasp, and she grabbed it at the ankle.
"Wow. You really did it. This is amazing. Now see if you can gently put me back down and do it again."
Silently, while looking at her, but really still seeing Victor in my mind's eye, I did what she had asked, and several times, for good measure.
The final time I put her down, she gave her head a little shake. "This is incredible. But here's the real test. Can you lift all four of us at once? And yourself?"
I imagined Victor's strong arms around me. I thought of him gently putting my head on his hard chest how he sometimes did. I thought about his clean, masculine, woodsy scent filling my nostrils. I thought about how safe and loved he made me feel. And within seconds, my ring finger tingled, and all five of us in the tent, including myself, rose several feet in the air. Rose stifled a giggle with her hands.
I set us all back down, looking at Elizabeth. "I can do this. I can levitate us all into the clouds. I can get us to safety. I think we have a better chance doing this than taking a gamble on whether or not one of the men can disable whatever force field Victor's going to do. I even think our husbands would want us to do this. They'd want us to take the best chance at getting out of here before anything really bad happens."
Elizabeth looked at me for a long moment and then nodded. "You're right. Let's do this. But...." She glanced at the tent flaps. "How exactly are we going to do this? They'll see us if we leave the tent to levitate but if we don't, we'll have to take the tent with us. And they still might see us. Do you think you could just kind of shoot us into the air really fast, which I'm sure will draw their attention, but maybe we'll already be in the clouds and out of magical spell range by then?"
I had no idea.
Rose crawled over to the tent entrance, her dirty pale blonde ponytail hanging over one shoulder, and peered through the tiniest fraction-of-an-inch crack in the flaps. She didn't look long before crawling backward and taking her seat on the ground again.
"It's gotta be now. Miles is doing this thing his brother used to do before battles. He's showing them all some things in the dirt with a stick. He's showing them all exactly what he wants them each to do during the fight. All their backs are turned away from us. So we have to go now. We can just take the tent with us. The stakes are in soft ground and shouldn't make any noise when we lift up. We can throw the whole tent off when we're in the clouds. So, let's do this, right this second. Let's rise."
I didn't even wait for any kind of signal of approval from Elizabeth. Fairly relaxed, my thoughts still on Victor, I began levitating us all. We rose silently and braced our hands on the top of the tent to take it with us.
Only when we were maybe thirty feet in the
air did it occur to me that everyone would fall to instant death if I couldn't sustain the levitation. While this thought sunk in, crowding out all thought of Victor, we began slowly descending. But only for a second or two. I immediately closed my eyes, pictured his face, and focused on that and that alone. We began rising again, and a little faster this time, I could feel. And before long, I felt something like a cool mist on my skin. I heard a bit of giggling and Julia saying that we were definitely out of earshot now.
I opened my eyes and saw we were actually inside a cloud. Misty white vapor swirled all around the inside of the tent, which we still all held. I dared pull my mind away from Victor to take in the experience, figuring that as long as I remained calm and relaxed, we'd be okay.
And we were.
I looked around, giggling a little with everyone else. "This is amazing."
Elizabeth beamed at me. "Yes, it is. And you did it. You did it, Kate. I guess we didn't need the men after all."
After a bit more giggling and looking around, I began navigating our levitation again, and we glided in the direction of the mountains. We moved through patches of cloud for a while, and at the first real clearing, we ditched the tent. We all watched as it fell hundreds and hundreds of feet to a grassy meadow below. Soon after, Elizabeth mentioned with a completely straight face that she thought she was officially over a fear of heights she'd had since childhood. She hadn't meant to be funny, but Julia giggled; Elizabeth cracked a smile and then laughed; and Rose, Brook, and I joined in. But we all stopped suddenly when we saw dark shapes in the distant sky. Dark shapes that were way too big to be birds. And they were heading straight at us.
Julia gasped. "Our husbands in dragon form! Quick, Kate; better put us down before we crash right into them!"
I turned my focus to putting us all safely on the ground, and we began descending, slowly. We were maybe a hundred feet from the ground when Victor and his men got close enough to really see us, and us them. With his massive charcoal-colored wings beating the air, Victor flew just a little bit ahead of all the other dragons, all at least two dozen of them. Julia began shouting and waving her arms just as she, Elizabeth, Rose, Brook and I touched the ground.
The moment Victor's long dragon claws touched the ground, he shifted into human form and then scooped me up and held me so tight my breath whooshed out of my lungs.
"I was coming for you. I was coming for you, my beautiful angel."
"I knew you would be. I knew it. But I had to save the others and myself because you might not have been able to get to me. Miles was going to set up some kind of force field barrier thing around the encampment, like you probably ran into outside the mountains. And the kind of barrier he was going to do, no Keeper could cross it. We knew you might be able to break his magic, but I couldn't wait. I had to act."
Victor planted kisses all over the side of my face, still squeezing me and holding me off the ground, kind of rocking me from side to side in his strong arms. "And you did beautifully. You did brilliantly. I couldn't be and more proud and honored to be the husband of such a brave, beautiful, intelligent woman."
I buried my face in his neck, smiling and squeezing him back.
But he soon abruptly set me down and quickly looked me over. "Are you hurt anywhere? Did he...did he or any of the others violate you? In any way?"
"No, to that. Thank God. But he...he slapped my face. But that's it."
Within a blink, Victor went white. He didn't speak right away, the muscles in his jaw working.
"That's it?'"
"It really wasn't even-"
"That's it?'"
After being called brave, I didn't want to be a baby about the whole thing.
I rubbed my cheek. "It honestly doesn't even hurt that much anymore. See? It really doesn't."
Victor pulled my hand away, examined my cheek, and spoke through gritted teeth. "He gave you a bruise."
"I'm really okay, though. And it's over now."
Victor chuckled, but it wasn't his usual kind of chuckle. It was a short, harsh sound.
"Over for you, yes, and thank God, and thank all the stars in the heavens for that. But for Miles, it's just beginning. He's going to regret the very first fraction of a moment that the thought of him raising a hand to strike you first entered his brain. He's going to regret it with every fiber of his being. I'm going to make him beg for death. But first, answer me this. Did he or any of his men harm Julia or Elizabeth in any way?"
I shook my head. "No. Nobody even laid a finger on them. The two slave girls I levitated with us have been abused horribly, though."
With his expression unreadable, Victor took my hands and gazed over my head into the distance, seeming to be thinking. After a few moments, he kissed each of my hands, released them, and turned to face everyone else behind him.
Most of the two dozen or so Keepers stood a good distance back, talking in low murmurs, all of them in human form now. A few of them seemed to be attending to Rose and Brook, who both stood twisting their fingers, appearing unsure of how to react to concern. While asking Brook something, one Keeper who'd ripped a strip of cloth from his t-shirt gestured to a fairly fresh cut on her arm that I'd noticed at the encampment. She studied him for only a moment or two before nodding and offering him her arm, which he began bandaging with the cloth. Julia and Sam, and Elizabeth and Michael seemed to be finishing up their own little reunions, and soon Victor gestured for Sam and Michael to come over to him, which they did, right away.
His face still pale with what I knew was some sort of white-hot rage over what Miles had done to me, Victor looked at them both. "I know this was supposed to be a three-on-three fight, and I know you're both probably even more eager to fight now that Miles abducted Julia and Elizabeth. But he didn't physically harm either of your wives and he did mine. Will you let me take my revenge and kill him myself?"
Michael said of course.
Sam nodded. "You take the kill, and we'll handle the others while you do it."
"No." Victor paused and seemed to be thinking for a few moments. "No, I want all of them, all dozen of them or however many exactly are at the camp. I want all of them, to avenge the harm that was done to Kate. Neither one of you is to help me or step in at any time, for any reason. On pain of being excommunicated as a Keeper and being sent from the mountains. Is this absolutely clear?"
Michael nodded. "Yes."
But Sam swallowed, becoming nearly as pale as Victor was. "But...all dozen of them? What if you get in trouble, and we need to –“
"You'll do so on pain of being excommunicated as a Keeper and being sent from the mountains. Is this absolutely clear, Samuel?"
Sam swallowed again and nodded. "Yeah. Yes."
"Good."
I stood a foot or two away from Victor, feeling as if I was going to be sick.
I folded my arms across my chest and looked at him. "No. No, I'm not letting you do this. This is crazy. Going one against a dozen Oppressors? Just to avenge a little slap? No. No, this is not happening. I won't allow it."
CHAPTER FIFTHTEEN
Victor looked at Sam and Michael. "I need a moment alone with my wife, please. Please tell the others what I intend to do and the consequences for stepping in to assist me at any time, for any reason."
Sam and Michael both nodded and went to join the others, who still stood a ways back, talking amongst themselves while Julia and Elizabeth seemed to be introducing Rose and Brook to everyone in little groups of two and three Keepers at a time.
Victor put his hands on my shoulders, heaving a sigh. "I appreciate your concern. I really do. But –"
"No." I tightened my folded arms across my chest even tighter than they already were. "No. This is not happening, one of you against a dozen or so Oppressors and their leader? That's not even remotely a fair fight. Let Sam and Michael fight with you."
Victor heaved another sigh. "No."
I waited for him to continue, but he didn't seem like he was going to.
"Just
...no?"
"Correct. Just, no."
I hugged my arms to my chest so hard I actually hurt my ribs. "Look. You may be the lord of everyone in Stonebrook, but I'm your wife, and I –“
"Kate, do you trust me?"
"Of course I do, but I –"
"Then I need you to put that trust in action right now. Your husband isn't a stupid, impulsive, reckless man and I think you know that."
I did. So I didn't say anything.
"I know you're concerned about a dozen or so Oppressors against one of me, and I know you might be concerned about Miles' advanced magical powers. And I appreciate your concern; it shows your love and care. But although Miles is seemingly able to display some magical powers the likes of which us Keepers have never seen before, he's not the only one with new powers. I haven't been exactly sitting outside on my hands these past few days. I've been working, incredibly hard, developing some magical skills once thought impossible for a shifter to possess. I wouldn't take on Miles and all his men if I didn't have confidence in these new skills. So does this help you understand my thinking a little better? Does this help you understand that I would never recklessly dive headfirst into any situation certain to make my beautiful, beloved wife a widow?"