by Ellie Margot
“Guy.”
“No, we can’t freak out and try to unmake up his mind. If he wants to do this, maybe he’s supposed to. Frankly, I think there’s some kind of vibe there.”
She had wondered if she was losing her mind when she thought she noticed a shift in the air between Cassian and Samantha.
“But she’s with Damian.”
“The idea that there’s only a one to one ratio allowable is something that only limited-view cultures subscribe to. Maybe mages are more evolved.”
“Are they?”
“I don’t know. I kind of make it my business to avoid them typically, being an Elf and all.”
“But you knew Sam,” said Riette, remembering clearly the betrayal that almost rocked their friendship to the dust initially.
“Knowing and being best buddies with are different things. Yes, I knew she was with Damian, but frankly, she shared an interest in you.”
Riette’s face flushed. She hadn’t imagined that either. “Maybe she likes me a bit.”
“Hell, you could take Cassian’s place in a moment, if she thought you’d be agreeable.” Guy stopped talking for a moment, considering. “Of course, Cassian would never allow it, but still.”
“Cassian isn’t my Maker.”
“Of course not,” Guy said, smirking yet again.
“If I wanted to go along with Sam, I could.”
“Do you?”
“Of course not. It seems like a special kind of suicide.”
“And that’s why you hate the idea of Cassian doing it?”
“Yes, of course. It’s going to kill Trinity, seeing it.”
“I think your boy wants it to happen.” They both looked at Cassian. “I don’t think even he knows why yet.”
Riette swallowed. Maybe he was right, but what did that mean for the journey they were on? For their friend?
Riette was sure she didn’t know.
Many steps later, Samantha made the announcement that they were to set up camp. The area was a little off of the beaten path, and it was strangely reminiscent of the times they had camped trying to find their way back to Corin.
They set up as they usually did. Each of them, with Trinity and Corin excluded, had their own tent, and the pairings were typical. Guy and Riette were to have tents to themselves, and after setting hers up, Riette let Bark and Barry loose inside. She closed the structure behind her to keep others from seeing them. She had snuck them food and had checked on them when she stopped for her own needs.
Riette watched Guy when she stepped out of her tent. Cassian and Trinity were notably missing. Damian made a fire between all of their tents. His hands were steady and sure, and she guessed that he could do it with his eyes closed and one hand suspended, though she wasn’t eager to tell him as much.
Guy walked over to where Samantha stood watching Damian work. Though her eyes met Riette’s over the growing embers, Riette saw her turn and follow Guy a little ways away from the rest. They kept their voices hushed and spoke quickly with each other.
Riette’s eyebrows furrowed, and she had to make a conscious effort to relax the tension that she could feel building in her shoulders. She knew if she didn’t, the sensation of wind rippling over her skin and warmth growing behind her eyes would soon follow from the ideas causing anxiety in her mind.
Guy walked away from Samantha first, but they both looked stern. When Guy caught Riette’s eyes, she hadn’t stopped watching him since she saw them walk off together. He offered a small smile, but it didn’t reach the parts of his face that it should, and that shook something in her that she couldn’t set still.
“What’s happening?” she asked when he got closer, but the answer she knew he would speak lingered between them before he could confirm it.
“It’s about time for the soul-tie,” he said, and he smiled an apology. “She wanted to do it now. Something about this time of day being good for it.”
“She wanted to do it before we changed his mind, more likely.” Riette hated the truth in her words.
“You ruin things with that brain of yours,” Guy said, smiling.
“You’ve been relatively quiet for all this.”
“I’m getting used to the crazy decisions.”
“So, you admit it’s crazy?”
He looked over his shoulder at Samantha. “Of course, it’s bat shit, but life wouldn’t be life without bad choices.”
“Calling it a bad choice doesn’t make me feel better.”
“The main thing is that it isn’t our choice. It’s Cassian’s, and he wants this.”
“Or he thinks he’s saving us by doing something that he wouldn’t let any of the rest of us do.”
Guy said the next part in a smaller voice. “But it’s still his choice.”
Cassian walked out of the tent with Trinity holding his hand behind him. He stopped moving when he caught Riette’s eyes.
“It’s time?” he asked.
Riette watched Trinity grip his hand harder. The force, from what Riette could see, would have jerked him back to her.
But as he was standing still, Riette could only see the slight jerk of his arm before he looked at her and looked back toward the rest of them.
She turned back toward Guy quickly. “You think it’ll be okay, though? That Cassian will be okay?” Her voice could only reach him. She made sure of that much.
“I think people make decisions with their hearts instead of their brains or common sense all the time, and sometimes, it works out okay.” Guy’s voice took on an optimistic tilt.
“Like now?” asked Riette.
“Oh no. Cassian may be fucking himself, but I’m allowed to sound romantic every once in a while.”
Chapter 14
Riette sucked in air quickly. The air suddenly seemed thick and unyielding.
It was fully dark then, and every minute took them further into the night that seemed unrelenting.
Cassian gave her a small smile, and she returned it. Mekhi and Corin came out of their tent. Corin’s hair was a little worse off than it was when they had first gone in.
Riette smothered a laugh, both because of the timing of it and because she didn’t want to call Cassian’s attention to what just obviously happened.
Samantha and Damian had gone into their tent after she had met with Guy. Riette thought she could hear the muffled sound of her voice coming through the fabric, probably comforting Damian for what she chose to assume was a hard time for him as well. How could it not have been?
Chills ran over her skin, thinking about the lengths Samantha was willing to go to in order to keep them all together.
“What is it going to be like?” asked Corin. Unlike back home in Vitan, her voice was small and tinny. She was worried for her brother. Riette was sure of it. It showed on the lines in her soft face.
“It’s kind of like camp in a way,” said Guy.
“Camp?” asked Mekhi, his brows furrowed.
“Camp? You go away from your family with other kids and play.”
“Your family sends you away?” asked Riette. Something thundered in her chest, and she wondered softly if it was her heart thinking about her mother and demanding its own attention.
“No, not like that.” Guy sighed. He turned toward Trinity. “You know what I mean.”
She shrugged. “Not really.”
“Children.”
“Hey,” Trinity barked.
“I didn’t say the children were defective, but they are a little like that. Unfamiliar with the world. Inexperienced.”
“They lived differently than us,” said Trinity. “And I’m sure I lived differently from you.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t kept in a pretty, naturally lit cage,” said Guy.
“Watch it,” said Riette, her face growing hot like the palms of her hands. She wanted to save her land. Problems and all, it was her home. That was why they were all there. She couldn’t let Guy bash it.
“Hey, I said it was a pretty cage.” Guy looked a
t all of them. “Okay. It’s like a pinky swear with blood.”
“Like a blood oath?” asked Corin.
“A little bit, at least initially, but there’s an incantation, and then the two fuck in front of everyone.”
“What?” Trinity yelled.
Guy had said it all with a straight face, but then he started laughing. “I made up the last bit.”
“Fucking dick,” said Mekhi, rolling his eyes.
The color had left Trinity’s face. She was fair usually, but the comment had made her translucent. Cassian turned around, held her, and told her something in her ear that the rest of them couldn’t make out.
She nodded, but the color didn’t return.
Cassian walked back to the tent, leaving them for a minute.
“I think that might be half of homeboy’s problem,” said Guy. “Not getting any.”
Trinity bit her cheek and then looked at Guy. “If that is his problem, as you so put it, he won’t have it for long.”
“My ears,” said Riette as she covered them. “They’re fucking bleeding now.”
Cassian walked back out of the tent and headed to where the rest of them stood. He looked at each of them. “What?” he asked.
When no one answered, Riette did. “We were talking about whether or not you’ve ever had the pleasure.”
“What?” exclaimed Cassian.
Chapter 15
They left Samantha and Damian to it as the night grew quiet around them. Insects sounded off in the surrounding woods, and Riette wondered quietly if they were there to witness something beautiful or if they would be a backdrop to a horror they would all see.
Riette had offered to help, but Samantha had wanted to work alone. Or rather, she had wanted to work with Damian by herself. It was their last act as a team of two, and whether Damian liked it or not, Cassian would be part of their tapestry from then forward.
Before following the others, Riette stole some time to herself to check on Bark and Barry. They had made her little tent into a home. Leaves were on the ground inside of the tent, and that sight made Riette pause for a second to consider Bark. He tilted his head at her perusal, and she noticed what she had been trying desperately to ignore as the bag had continued to grow heavy on her back.
They were getting too big to be kept. Deep down, for ages now it had seemed, she had known it, but seeing them both looking at her, she wondered how they ever really fit in her bag at all. They seemed larger than life in front of her. Two beings that depended on her for everything. Two little creatures that she loved.
Barry came up and nuzzled her hand, and she, now used to the rows of teeth in his wide mouth surrounded by blue fur, petted his ear affectionately. He leaned into her hand, pushing against it.
Bark, not wanting to be left out, eyed them warily but came to Riette’s other side. They examined each other, and to be truthful, Riette expected them to fight. It was only at night that they fully got her attention, and the guilt that coursed through her insides, like lava heading down her intestinal track, was a heady thing.
They didn’t fight though. They had gotten far too used to each other by that point.
Barry would always be small. Riette knew that. She thought about all the creatures lost now to the sea and the sheer bloodlust they had had in their eyes as they boarded the ship she was traveling on. They were angry little shits, but they were small, almost all of them. Of course, there had been rare exceptions to that, but by and large, they weren’t much bigger than Barry was now.
Bark would be the one who would need to get roots soon. It was neglectful of her to not have them already. She knew that. It didn’t make her feel better though, and she couldn’t stomach the idea of leaving him away from their home, where she would have to travel long distances to see him again.
She would need to come clean about them soon and figure out a plan.
Riette had been so focused on getting to the next step, doing what she could to find Zeke and get answers to the blank pages in her book, that she hadn’t let her mind think about much else, as selfish as that might make her.
She heard a rustling outside of her tent. She couldn’t force them into her bag, not when she didn’t absolutely have to, and she had set up her tent slightly away from the others, so she knew whoever was outside had come to her on purpose. She decided to head them off and go out before they could come in.
Riette opened the flap to her tent, closing it quickly behind her, and she saw Corin in front of her, by herself. She had a small smile on her lips, but her eyes, lit by the overcast moon above them, showed wetness of tears threatening to fall.
“Corin?”
“I just wanted to get away from the others for a second, you know?”
Riette nodded. Hadn’t she been doing the same thing?
“How are you holding up?” she asked, and quickly, she realized how long it had been since she had been alone with Corin.
“Life has been bizarre in general, but Cassian? What’s going on with him?”
Riette shook her head. “He thinks it’s something we need to do.”
“Why though? Why do we need Sam so much?” Corin took a step forward. Her eyes creased in the corners like she was squinting or looking for something, some clue, that Riette was hiding.
“It’s the only way to find Zeke. From what I understand, the regular mages refuse to admit Zekariah is even alive. They’d run us dry if we tried to get their help. Only dark mages like Samantha will discuss the truth about the First Mage. She’ll offer us guidance and protection.”
“At the cost of my brother.”
“He knows what he’s doing.” Riette reached out to her, and Corin let her arm be touched. “He’s never done anything without thinking it through.”
“Everyone makes mistakes, though,” Corin said. “You said it yourself. He’s overdue for a bad decision.”
“Then we’ll be with him to help him, no matter what comes, okay?”
Corin looked up at her. Her eyes were wide, and she looked young all of sudden, run through with innocence. “You promise you’ll protect him?”
“With my life, just as he would do for any of us,” Riette said, nodding. She meant it. Cassian was family, as much as Mekhi, as much as her mother was before everything went poorly, and even still.
Corin seemed sobered by this and nodded again. She squeezed her hand on top of Riette’s and then turned to walk back to the others.
After another quick check and food replenish for Bark and Barry, Riette left her tent to do the same. It had to be close to the ceremony time. She could feel it like an impending storm heading their way, but she knew they could face anything together.
The group came together and then walked away from the main camp, but they could see the twinkling of lights behind them. Each minute seemed to add more light to the flurry. Riette kept stealing glances behind her to see the display that Samantha was putting on. Taking a look at the others, she knew that the curiosity wasn’t just her own.
“She’s putting on quite the show,” said Trinity. She forced lightness into the situation and into her voice.
“It’s all part of it,” said Guy. “Or it can be. They do it in a church or holy setting a lot, if it’s available. If it’s not, you have to compensate with other means to make it seem special.”
“That’s part of it?” Riette asked.
“It needs to feel special because it is,” said Cassian, but his eyes were downcast.
“It is,” said Trinity. “And it isn’t permanent.”
“It kind of is,” said Guy, but Riette elbowed him in the stomach.
“But we’ll do whatever we need to to get him out of it,” said Riette. “It’s not going to be something you’re going to live with forever.”
“And if I do, it’s not a one-way street,” said Cassian. “She’s stuck with me too.”
“No one would call themselves stuck if they’re with you,” said Trinity. “And you know it.” She tried to tease, but
it felt flat and colored with bitterness.
“She’s a powerful mage, and we can use that to our advantage if we need to. She can help us.”
“Or keep you trapped forever,” said Corin. She looked as sad as Riette knew Trinity felt.
“I’m not trapped. I’m not helpless. She is stuck with me.”
“Til Death do us part,” said Samantha, appearing at the edge of their group.
“We didn’t mean anything by it,” said Riette. She felt the need to smooth things over with Samantha, even though she knew that probably wasn’t for the best. Maybe it was the look Samantha gave when she joined the conversation.
Samantha looked at her and then at the rest of the group. “No harm done. He’s right. We’re going to be a team.” She paused. “That’s the whole point, isn’t it?”
Cassian gave a curt nod. Samantha watched him and then broke eye contact to look back at Riette.
“Won’t be too long now,” she added softly, so unlike herself that Riette wondered who this new Samantha was and what they were to make of her.
She felt someone at her elbow and looked up to see Trinity pulling gently at her arm.
“Can we talk?” Her tone was hushed and lilted.
“Yeah, of course.” Riette was hesitant to leave the others, but Samantha and Cassian, and whatever current was ricocheting between them, halted, and Samantha turned to go back to Damian, who waited for her just at the top of the small hill that led to the campsite.
Riette followed Trinity a few yards away.
“Is something wrong?” Riette asked.
“Other than the obvious?” Trinity asked with a laugh that was hollow.
“Other than that.”
“I know this isn’t the time, but I did want to say that I talked to Cassian about you two, your history, and as fucked as this whole situation is becoming, I want you to know that I’m okay with everything.”
Riette’s eyebrows pinched at what she felt was the top of her head. “I’m sorry?”
“We’ve talked a lot, what with everything coming, and I’m okay with everything. Anything you two may have shared previous to all of this—for lack of a better term—shit show, won’t get in the way of our friendship.”