Gregor stood tall, regally, and said, “In the absence of authority, we must continue to protect Britain’s holy mission to bring Christianity to the world. Nothing shall prevent this. These stones must never be found or used against us again.”
Gregor called upon his three greatest remaining knights and charged them and their men to take each stone, save one, to the farthest reaches of the empire. Each Templar would be unknowing of the other locations. They would hide and protect the knowledge of the stones at all costs.
Gregor told Goudin that he had learned, or felt in a flash, that each held a particular portion of a dragon’s power. He paused, as if there were more about them he knew, but thought better of it and kept something to himself, something about dragons themselves.
Goudin couldn’t explain why Lorcan had not become omnipotent. He told them he assumed Lorcan had not possessed the heart long enough but felt there was more to it. He wondered if touching the stone had given Gregor special knowledge.
Everything had changed. The monarchy had died, which left a power divide. Because of the attack and treachery, a deep hatred of magick had formed. When Gregor and the priest entered the decimated castle, he found the barons, the heads of each region of the kingdom. They stood in a circle around the dead king, wondering what they must now do.
“Who will be king now?” one asked. Several of them claimed the crown, arguing amongst the rubble as to their own righteous claim.
Goudin looked on Gregor, his face lined with concern. He suggested they hide the stone Gregor possessed, as Gregor had charged his knights to do with the other pieces.
“No, England must become strong again,” Gregor interrupted them. He lifted the pouch with the stone piece in it. “I have seen what we must do.”
Now infernal instruments of steam choked the clogged streets of England. The corrupted Council used the Knowledge Stone without true wisdom, and Britain dominated half of the known world with a navy of powerful airships and ungodly weaponry borne of ill-gotten fruit.
Smoke swirled and consumed everything. It evaporated, and Gavin stood in a field surrounded by war, his glowing hands clasped around something. The choked voice of the Monk broke through the hazy world.
“Nothing is as it should be.”
Touched by the Heart of a Dragon
VICTORIA STOKED the fire and embers floated across the air. Gavin and Orion sat in stunned silence a long while, shocked at what they had been shown. The Monk settled back after expending much of his energy in creating the vision they had shared. Orion knew to share thoughts within was unheard of, but here they were. He gazed with scared admiration at the Monk, who sat eating the stew. Orion turned to study Gavin.
“What does that all mean?” Gavin asked.
Orion waited, knowing the story was meant to convey what he already knew about Gavin, that his future was tied to the stones.
“You already know what it means, boy,” said the Monk. He set down the stew and grabbed Gavin by the sleeve. “Don’t you?”
Gavin tried to step backward, but the old man had greater strength than his frame conveyed. “I don’t know anything. I… just…. What did you mean when you said nothing is as it should be?”
Victoria broke her long silence. “Corigan Lorcan held far more power than any one man before him, but he misjudged it and that of the faithful who opposed him. He may have poisoned England’s warlocks to his side, but he failed to account for the power of a knight and his mission.” She glanced to the Monk, and her face betrayed a moment of compassion. “His mission for God.”
“I don’t…. What does that have to do with me?” Gavin asked.
Orion sat silent and observed the interactions from within his shaded green cloak’s hood.
“Things in the empire were heading down their natural path until the Mage sought to control the last dragon’s heart stone and changed the course of time.” Orion perked up, his interest truly piqued as Victoria spoke.
“Dragon… heart?” Gavin asked.
“The Dragon Stone, boy, is the heart of the last grand powers of the air,” the Monk whispered.
“A real dragon? You don’t truly believe that, do you?” Gavin inquired. He looked at first to Victoria, then to the Monk, then to Orion. “Zachariah? Orion, or whatever your name is? Do you put stock in this tale?”
“Yes,” Orion answered. Gavin gazed at his hazel eyes as they danced in the firelight. “The legends are true.”
Gavin scoffed. “They are really broken pieces of an honest-to-God dragon’s heart, and England has one, and has used it to, what, change the course of time? What can I possibly have to do with that nonsense?” Gavin squirmed where he sat, uncomfortable in his own skin.
“You know already, do you not?” the Monk said. At this, Orion tilted his head toward them with apparent interest.
“I have no earthly idea what I have to do with this,” Gavin declared.
“You are destined to sway the fate of the world.”
Gavin was up on his feet and pacing around the fire. His clunky boots kicked dirt into the air as he stomped. He glared down at the Monk, and waited for, no, demanded more. Orion also looked on them with great interest.
“You are a warlock,” Victoria stated with finality.
“No… no, I am most certainly not.” Gavin stopped pacing. He glared at Victoria. “I can’t be a warlock, no matter what conspiracies crazy people in the woods concoct.”
“I have seen a portent of what you will do. Now, so have you,” the Monk began. “We all have a role to play in this life, and yours is to reunite them and bring peace.”
“No,” Gavin said softly, almost so soft no one could hear. “It can’t… be true.” He clenched his hands and squeezed them until his knuckles whitened.
“Yet it is. I sensed it. This warlock sensed it, didn’t you?”
Orion responded to the Monk with a nod and by pointing to the dust that had been kicked into the air by Gavin’s boots. The dust pulled toward Gavin’s clenched hands, which faintly glowed an orange hue.
Gavin plopped down on the log bench, which sent dust drifting to the ground. His chin trembled, his eyes grew wet like he was holding back a floodgate of tears, on the knife’s edge of sanity. “I don’t care what anyone says.” Orion slid closer to Gavin, his face showing caring and calm.
“It’s true,” Orion whispered. Orion slid his hands across Gavin’s back and rubbed them back and forth. It must have felt good, since Gavin’s body slumped. Gavin nodded.
“What now?” Gavin asked. He lifted his head as if raising a great weight.
“Orion will train you,” Victoria declared with such an air of authority that no one disagreed at first.
Orion tried to hide his pleasure behind the drape of his cloak, never believing his plan would go so well and that these people would help push Gavin toward him. Did they really know what he would do? If they did, why were they still helping him?
After a moment, Gavin’s face wrinkled up. “Train me? No, I can’t use magick. I’m already wanted by my—” But Gavin cut himself off for some reason.
Orion raised his eyebrow, intrigued by the near declaration.
“Orion of Eíre will train you in the ways of the mages,” the Monk said. “Without his instruction, you will be susceptible to the future in the prophecies instead of being a force used to rectify the wicked path we are on. You will begin training him at first light.”
“Me?” Orion feigned discomfort. He wondered how well his acting paid off for him. “I am not an instructor. You should do it since you have so much experience with magick.”
At that, the Monk raised his eyebrows as well. “I… cannot.”
Gavin stormed away, not waiting to find out what they were going to do about him. Orion turned on Victoria and the old monk when Gavin had left.
“I’ve heard tales of the rebellion. You know that my people are well versed and prepared for the lies of Britain. So I would know if your story rang false. I also understand w
ho you truly are,” Orion said, his speech growing tense as he glared at the Monk, who simply waited in silence. “No one has details like that story you told, not without having been there. My people have heard of you, the wanderer, doomed to never die but also to no longer live. I know it was you, was it not?” When the Monk did not answer, Orion continued, “In weakness you sent the world down this path. And now you push an untrained boy to do what? Stop the war with a day or two of learning our ways?”
“Fate.” One word. That’s all the Monk said. Victoria smiled.
“I have my own life to live,” Orion said.
“You have your own mission is what you mean to say. Do not speak untruths to me, son of—”
“Hold your tongue unless you want war with me,” Orion threatened, his anger quickly rising.
The Monk continued calmly, “I know your needs and what you intend to do to that boy to get your way. You must face your truth.”
“And what is that?”
“You seek personal rewards.”
“Personal? You have no idea what I seek.”
“To help one person is personal. No matter how dear they are. But you have a different path you must take. You must set things right,” the Monk said, sharply focused on Orion’s eyes. The light blue swirls of his own reflected Orion’s silver storms, brimming with magick. He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply and slowly before opening them again. They showed pain and sorrow and a tiredness Orion had only seen in the face of Queen Siobhán. “Do not make the terrible mistakes I have.”
The Monk stood and walked away.
“Set things right? Fate? Destiny? Do you know how this sounds, even to me?” Orion challenged to his back. “I see your truth as well. You want me to help you with your little revolution. You want me to train the little British boy so he can be your puppet, so you can replace one Council with one of your own. Or will she lead your precious fated empire as queen?”
The Monk turned back toward him, his blue eyes ablaze in the light of the dancing fire. “To bring peace, to right the great wrong, is more important than you. Or your kin.”
Orion stood, stunned. How dare he question the value of the queen? And how could this old man know his secrets? The Monk walked away. Victoria stoked the fire. Orion glared after him until Victoria broke the silence.
“Go to him, Orion. It is what you need, what you are meant to do.”
He stared at her before he turned to go find Gavin. His heart was full for his aunt, his mind raced with infinite choices, and he wondered about the justness of his path and his will to do what must be done.
Hard Lessons
ORION WATCHED Gavin sitting under a tree, his head in his hands. He looked like he might have been sobbing. It tugged somewhere deep inside of him. What it must be like to come from where he was from, to be raised with such hatred toward warlocks, only to find you were one. His mind spun with ideas about how to use that to his advantage to get Gavin to trust him, to take him to the stone. He hated himself for it.
“It must be terrifying,” Orion said. Gavin jolted upright in shock, wiping his face. He had been crying. Orion waited, attempting to give Gavin his space. And he waited. And after a long silence, it seemed Gavin wasn’t going to say anything. Orion ventured forward. “To be around me must be very difficult for you.”
“Huh?”
“Well, I’m glad you can still speak. What I mean is it must challenge everything you know to be near me and know what I am.” Orion paused to let the thought hang in the air before he gently added, “What you are.”
“And what am I?” Gavin asked.
“What I saw you do back at the fire, lifting earth from the ground to you, I know what that is. You have magick in you. The mad monk is right about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“If you don’t learn to harness it, you will be consumed by it before long,” Orion said.
“How do you know what will happen to me?” Gavin asked.
“I come from a land of magick, Gavin. I have seen it before; the untrained lose control.” Orion paused again for dramatic effect. He had actually seen what he spoke about, and it was even worse than he said. “Imagine something powerful pulling at your soul every moment, getting stronger with each passing day until your skin crawls with it. Then that power climbs over you and spills out onto those whom you love, on strangers, on children, in violent, unpredictable ways. Frankly that would not serve anyone.”
“That sounds awful,” Gavin said.
“It would deprive us of you.”
Gavin raised his head. “Um, what do you…. What does that mean?” Gavin asked nervously.
Orion circled Gavin slowly and took him in from all angles. “How could one lad be so blind to himself? You don’t know that you are a warlock-in-waiting, and you have no idea how beautiful you are.” Gavin froze like a rabbit that had spotted a nearby wolf. Orion stepped close. “That is your charm.”
“I….”
“I know, Gavin,” Orion said and stepped in closer to Gavin’s face. “Let me train you.”
“No,” Gavin said, shaking his head inches from Orion’s. “No, I can’t.”
“What holds you back?”
“I’ve seen things. Visions. Horrific things.” Gavin broke their eye contact and withdrew. “I can’t let those things happen by using magick in any way.”
“Surely you understand that you are fated to fulfill that prophecy by now? Simply doing nothing lets this power fester. Trust me, my friend, when I tell you that power builds over time. Without control, you will surely do the things shown you.”
Gavin paused in his retreat. Orion sensed Gavin struggling with the idea. Was he worried about becoming the evil destroyer?
Orion sensed the resolution waning and knew, just as in fencing, that his time to strike had come. He moved around slow enough to circle his prey and keep a breath away. He stepped in until his lips drew dangerously close to Gavin’s cheek.
“I can teach you. Let me. You will learn to guide your magick, and together,” Orion said before his lips touched Gavin’s neck, “together we can find these objects so you can fulfill your destiny.”
“You really think you can help me?” Gavin asked. He sounded desperate and vulnerable.
“Yes. I don’t know what it is about you, clockwork boy, but with you I am forever moved. Feeling your heart makes me want to give you promises, but I cannot promise you anything I cannot give, although I can give much. I will vow that.” Orion’s heart beat violently in his chest.
“All right,” Gavin acquiesced.
Orion placed a finger on Gavin’s chin and raised it to his face, dipped his own head ever so slightly, and softly placed their lips together without pressing the kiss. He held steady and waited for what felt like forever. He left the real choice to Gavin.
Orion knew he was playing with a fire that threatened to consume him.
GAVIN SMELLED the flowers and smoke from the fire mingling on Orion’s chest as the two of them stood so close together. He’d wanted to kiss Orion, and when Orion grazed his lips, Gavin gave way to abandon. He ran his hand up in Orion’s cloak, grabbed fistfuls of hair in the other, and felt them slip through his fingers. He let his hands explore the fine bones of Orion’s cheeks.
They kissed passionately. Gavin enjoyed Orion’s sweet taste and could feel Orion pulling deeper into the kiss.
“What the hell?” Lucas shouted, which startled them apart.
Gavin saw the look of devastation and betrayal on Lucas’s face and wanted to die. He couldn’t think clearly. His emotions were too elevated. He had kissed Orion and knew that was what he wanted to do. But when he saw the pain on Lucas’s face, he knew he also cared so deeply for the boy whose heart he’d just trampled on. His chest ached, and his vision blurred with tears as they clouded his eyes. Lucas turned awkwardly, almost tripping over his gigantic boots, and ran away from them.
“Lucas! Lucas, no, come back,” Gavin pleaded.
“Let
him be,” Orion said. Gavin’s face tensed in frustration.
“I can’t just let him think….”
They stood in silence while a heavy weight hung in the air between them. “You can change the entire world, Gavin. Leave him be. He doesn’t matter.” As soon as the words left his lips, Gavin stepped back and Orion winced.
“Lucas matters!” Gavin shouted. Orion stared at him, longing on his face. Gavin turned away from Orion, and ran after Lucas.
“Gavin,” Orion pleaded.
“Wait!” Gavin called. Lucas had seemed to run out of steam and slowed down after he dashed toward the room they had shared earlier in the day. People seemed to stare at them as they passed in the night. Gavin wanted nothing more than to make Lucas feel better, to be forgiven.
“Do you love him now?” The pain on Lucas’s face was palpable. Gavin’s heart pushed into his stomach. He wanted to retch.
“I don’t know him. Not really. Things are just… so complicated right now.” He almost said catastrophic. He was being hunted for wielding magick, faeries were after them, and his own father wanted him dead for his part in some faerie’s predicted future where he killed a lot of people. Instead complicated seemed to work. It all felt like weak excuses before Lucas’s aching torment.
“I want you to be my moon. My heart calls out to yours in the cosmos. Do you hear my heart? Do you even have feelings for me?” Lucas’s tears dripped down his pale cheeks, his long brown hair dangling in his face making him look young and wounded. Gavin leaned forward and used his fingers to brush the hair aside.
“Of course I do. But… I… I have so much going on right now.”
“I followed you, Gavin, through a war with faeries, for God’s sake. I followed you halfway across the country.”
“To be fair, it’s only Bath, not—”
“Is that really the point here?”
Gavin shook his head.
“I’ve made myself clear about who I am. Why can’t you do the same?”
Absolute Heart Page 17