I arched an eyebrow and placed a hand on my hip. Meanwhile, Felice turned her right palm up toward the sky, whispered a word in her—our—native tongue, and a small ball of violet light burst to life, hovering about an inch above her hand. It was mesmerizing to look at. The magic swirled and moved and shifted, though it always returned to its circular shape. The light inside of it strobed softly, like a slowly beating heart in her hand.
“That’s impressive,” I said. “What was that word?”
“Lune,” she said, “It’s our word for light. Why don’t you try it?”
“Try what? Speaking to my hand?”
“How did you blind that captain of that ship?”
“I thought about what I wanted to happen, and it happened… kinda. I don’t know if the guy is permanently blind, now. I hope not.”
“Okay, so, just do that again, but try to make a ball of light like mine.”
I felt stupid doing it, but I followed Felice’s instructions, turned my palm up at the sky, and made my fingers into a cup. I concentrated on the space between my fingers and visualized a ball of light just like hers bursting into existence, only in my mind, my light was gold. That just seemed right to me.
“Lune,” I whispered, holding the thought in my mind as strongly as I could, but nothing happened.
“Huh…” Felice trailed off. The magic ball in her hand snuffed out and dissipated to nothing.
“Huh? What does that mean.”
“It’s supposed to work just like that. Try it again.”
“You want me to do the exact same thing again? You realize that’s the exact definition of insanity, right?”
“You’ve gotta be a little crazy to use magic. Try it again.”
Dammit. I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right, and even though I didn’t care about the people watching, I kinda cared. I didn’t like messing up. There were very few things I’d attempted in my life, or at least from the point when I arrived on Earth, that I wasn’t good at, but I wasn’t good at this. Still, I concentrated again, really focusing my attention on the palm of my hand this time, birthing that little ball into existence with only the power of my mind and a spoken word.
“Lune,” I whispered, and slowly, not all at once, and not in a burst like Felice’s, a candle-light’s worth of magic pushed its way into the world like a seedling sprouting out of the ground. Dumbfounded, I watched the light grow and grow, a white center surrounded by rings of golden light.
Then it happened.
The pain struck swiftly and viciously. It was like I’d been hit in the back with a sledgehammer. I couldn’t keep standing, I had no choice but to fall to my knees, gritting my teeth against the agony ripping its way through my body. Felice spoke, but I couldn’t hear her. My mind was muting the sounds around me and blurring my vision, forcing me to concentrate only on my thundering heart and the throbbing pain pushing through me.
Felice grabbed my arm and pulled me up and off the floor. I tried to stand on my own power, but my knees were weak. She said something about the infirmary, that much I caught as my own consciousness throbbed with the pain, my vision darkening and brightening. Someone else moved into the picture now—a tall, dark shape that sped toward me, scooped me up, and started carrying me across the courtyard and through the halls. I must have been slipping in and out, my mind playing tricks on me as a result, because it wasn’t Felice I saw was carrying me, but Draven.
By the time the pain had started to subside, I was being set flat on my back on a bed in a room I didn’t recognize. There were many beds here, not just my own, and candles arranged around the room to provide illumination—though not too much. I blinked hard and fast, shaking my head to wash the daze away, but my brain was still swimming and I couldn’t yet hear anything properly.
Someone rushed to my side, while two other people spoke at the foot of the bed. I heard the person standing next to me say a couple of words I couldn’t understand. It sounded like a question, so I nodded. A second later, he placed a hand on my stomach and a warm, tingling sensation moved through me, numbing the pain and returning my senses to me.
“Lias?” I said, angling my head to the side.
“How does that feel?” Lias asked. His hand was glowing with warm, soft, green light. He was the one healing me?
“Like I just had sex with the entire band in the back of a van,” I said, “Not that I would know what that’s like.”
Lias blushed, his cheeks turning rosy red. “Is the pain still there?”
“It’s going. You’re a—” I was going to ask him about his qualifications as a healer, I thought he was a prospect, but then I noticed Draven at the foot of the bed. He was talking to Aaryn, and both seemed engrossed in their discussion. I decided on a change of topic, seizing the chance by the throat. “Could you tell me where Fate is?” I asked.
“What?”
“Fate. My friend. You’re the last person I saw her with. Where is she?”
“I don’t…” he started to say, but his eyes betrayed the secret he was trying to protect.
I noticed the way he’d glanced at a bed on the other side of the room. There was a sheet around it, and through the flickering candle light I could see the shape of a person lying on it. “Is that her?” I asked. Lias didn’t immediately answer. I grabbed his collar. “Is that her?”
“I’ve been told not to talk,” he was trying to keep his composure, but I could tell he was intimidated by me. Good.
“What are you talking about? I want to know where my friend is and if she’s okay.”
“Fate is fine… she’s just sleeping.”
“Sleeping?”
Lias glanced at Draven, then back at me. “One night she started coughing, the doctor didn’t know what was wrong with her and his healing magic didn’t work, so she was put under a sleeping spell to make her comfortable.”
Coughing… oh, Fate. I thought she was getting better, or that this place was keeping her stable. We both did. “You’re telling me she’s been put into some kind of coma?”
“They had to. She wouldn’t stop. But she’s safe, okay? Nothing’s gonna happen to her.”
I didn’t believe that, not for a second. She was in some kind of magically induced coma, and Abvat had decided to finally change his tactics and come for her. How long before he managed to snake his way into the infirmary? How long, then, before he figured out where the stone was, and how to retrieve it?
Lias could say what he wanted, but Fate was not safe here.
Draven turned to look at me, and I let go of Lias’ collar. “It’s not polite to try and throttle your caregivers,” he said.
“We were just talking,” I said, trying to keep my eyes off Fate. “Is this the part where you tell me what just happened to me? Because that would be great.”
“Could you tell us what happened?” Aaryn asked.
“I used magic and it hurt. It’s not the first time it’s happened, either.”
“And where is the pain?”
“My back. My shoulders, in fact. It’s always there. What’s going on with me?”
“I think it has something to do with your kithe… I don’t know what, exactly, but an Aevian’s magic is empowered by the presence of their kithe. Maybe since you’ve never used yours… how long did you say you had been on Earth?”
“It’s been ten years.”
“Ten years… that’s longer than the Order’s lifespan. And you’ve never used your kithe?”
I shook my head. “Not once. Is that bad?”
“It isn’t good. I’d like to keep you here and have the healers run some tests on you.”
“Keep me here? No way, I’ve got trials to finish.”
“Finishing the trials will be impossible if you have no magic,” Draven said.
“That didn’t stop you from putting me through the first trial, or throwing me to the Caretaker. Why the concern?”
Aaryn and Draven exchanged a look. “The training and trials should’ve started to
unlock your potential by now,” Aaryn said, “The fact that you’re still… repressed… and now this, it’s a mystery I’d like to explore.”
“You would be no better than a human,” Draven put in, “And humans are useless to the Order.”
“Charming,” I said, “So, does that mean you’re gonna murder me and Fate too, for the crime of being useless?”
Draven turned to Aaryn. “I would like a moment alone with our patient,” he said.
Aaryn didn’t argue. She called to Lias, and the two of them quietly stepped out of the infirmary and into the hallway. Being near him was difficult, especially without someone else present. Proximity to him made my heart hammer against my chest, it made me feel nervous, and vulnerable. He had this way of looking at me, this stare, that made me feel like I was under intense scrutiny. Although, seeing as how his eyes were entirely black and I had no sense of where his pupils were, there was no way of telling exactly what part of me he was looking at.
Except now. He was looking into my eyes, directly into them. That much I could tell.
“I am sorry,” he said.
My words caught in my throat. Of all the things he could’ve said, that was furthest away from what I’d ever expected to hear. “What?” I asked.
“I do not know the extent of what you are going through, but I know what it’s like to experience a great deal of physical pain.”
“This… has to be a trap, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why are you being nice to me, all of a sudden? The last time we spoke, you couldn’t wait for me to leave your room.”
“Our differences aside, you are a prospect undergoing her trials. Your wellbeing is my responsibility as long as you are within these walls.”
I narrowed my eyes. “So, what happens now?”
“Now?”
“You said yourself I can’t finish my trials if I can’t use magic. What does that mean?”
He inhaled deeply through his nose, considering my words. “I will need time to think. Until then, stay here where the healers can watch you. I will be back for you soon.”
“That’s it? Wait here until you can decide what to do with us?”
“You are here to finish your trials. You will finish them. Until then, you and Fate will not be harmed.”
Draven’s stare lingered, then he turned to his side and left. My head relaxed into my pillow, I sighed deeply, and slowly, my heart started to relax. Casting my eyes to the side, I saw the silhouette of Fates bed through the white sheet. All I had to do was stand up, walk over to her, and I’d be able to see her. I waited, maybe for five minutes, then I set one foot on the ground and slowly stood, but the door opened just as I was about to slide out of bed and go over to where Fate was.
I let myself fall back onto the bed, hoping my movements weren’t spotted. They weren’t. But it wasn’t Aaryn and Lias returning to the infirmary—it was Abvat and the other two Naga.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Shit, Seline, think! The three Naga slunk into the infirmary, Abvat leading the infiltration, Vishal watching the door, and the unknown female moving between them. I knew it wouldn’t be long before they spotted me because I was one of two other people in the infirmary, including Fate, and the Naga had a reputation for having sharp senses—except one.
I chanced it and rolled off the bed and onto the floor, planting my chest against the cold stone and keeping as still as I possibly could. The Naga, like the snakes of this world, had poor eyesight and while they’d have been easily able to smell me if they’d gotten close enough to where I’d been laying, they may not have noticed me move, assuming I’d been fast enough.
A second passed, then another. My hands starting to sweat as I waited.
“Is the coast clear?” Abvat hissed.
“For now,” Vishal said. “But hurry, someone will be here soon.”
“Understood.”
I let the breath out of my lungs and started breathing normally, allowing clarity to return to my panicked mind. From my angle on the floor I could see three sets of bare feet sticking out of black jumpsuit bottoms, the Naga clearly preferring to walk on their own feet rather than use the boots all prospects had been issued with. I knew why they were here and what they wanted, there was no question; they were here for Fate, and as they moved closer to her bed, my fears were confirmed.
Slowly, I moved under the bed next to mine and started crawling across. I was careful with my movements, sticking as closely as I could to the ground, making sure I didn’t accidentally knock the underside of the bed with the back of my head. I wanted to call for Draven, or Aaryn, or even Rey, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t work. I’d been told a few times, by different people, that I was being watched, and yet this seemed to be happening in some kind of blind spot. Was this Naga magic at work? It had to be, because otherwise these three Naga were the smartest people in this entire fortress, and that couldn’t possibly be true.
As I got closer and closer to Fate’s bed, I knew, I was the only person standing between her and Abvat. I had to get to her, and I had precious few seconds to do it in.
“How do you know she has it?” the female Naga asked, her voice harsh, husky, and serpentine.
“You did not see her face, Sila,” Abvat said, “The moment I mentioned her friend, her eyes… they revealed to me everything I needed to know. This crippled little thing has the stone, and we’re going to take it from her.”
“But how?” Sila insisted. “You don’t know what kind of magic protects it.”
“Those two do not have enough magic between them to light a candle. Whatever they did to the stone, I’ll be able to draw it out.”
“Then do it fast,” Vishal hissed, “Our magic won’t last long.”
They know Fate has the stone. How had I given it away? Crap. How was I supposed to take on three Naga on my own? They’d already killed one prospect, and I was sure that prospect had at least a little magic to their name. I didn’t. I didn’t even have a weapon I could use. I was entirely outclassed, and every second that passed was another second that Abvat got closer to the stone. If he tried to remove it the wrong way, he could kill her. I had to do something.
I reached the last of the beds on this side of the room. Vishal was still keeping guard at the front door to the infirmary, while Abvat and Sila stood beside Fate’s bed. Already I could feel the faint hum of that dark, Naga magic I’d seen these people use many times before. It pulled at the pit of my stomach, turning it inside out but very slowly, the sensation itself intensifying over time. I was glad, at least, that Fate was asleep and wouldn’t feel what I was feeling.
When the pull of magic became too intense for me to stop from groaning, I slid out from under the bed and quickly came up to my feet. Sila was the one who spotted me first, the female Naga’s almond, reflective eyes narrowing on me. “It’s her!” she hissed.
Abvat turned his eyes up and scowled. “What the hell are you doing here?” he snarled. “Kill her!”
“Wait!” I yelled, putting my hands up. “I know what you want, and I can give it to you, but you have to leave her alone.”
Abvat’s hands were already wreathed in dark magic, tendrils of it stretching from the tips of his fingers and disappearing into Fate’s chest. He was searching for the stone inside of her. Smart. He was cleverer than I gave him credit for, and that had always been my problem with him. “I don’t need you to do what I have to do,” he said.
“What you’re doing won’t work. If anyone but me tries to take it out of her, the stone will break. It’ll be useless to you.”
His expression hardened. He flicked his long, forked tongue as he stared at me, and my skin crawled. “You’re lying,” he growled. “Kill her!”
Sila hissed and lunged at me. I took a step away from her, scanned my surroundings, and grabbed the first thing that was in reach—a tablet computer I’d seen some of the member of the Order carry with them. This Naga was fast, but my hands were faster tha
n her eyes. By the time she reached me, I was already mid-swing.
The tablet collided with her face, the glass screen smashing as it hit her. Sila staggered to the side and toppled over and across the bed I’d slipped out from underneath, falling into the gap between beds. Abvat hissed, his canines extending to four times their normal size, but his magic connection to Fate never broke.
It was Vishal who came at me next, abandoning his post at the door to try and take me out.
“Siren!” I called out, “I need you!”
Just as Vishal moved into attack range, Siren’s green, ephemeral form manifested, leaving him swiping at the air like he’d just moved into a cloud of billowing steam. I turned the smashed tablet up to hit him with it, but instead of getting close to him to attack him, I threw it at him from where I stood. The tablet hit him in the chest, knocking the wind out of his lungs and pushing him back a few steps.
Man, the Naga really couldn’t take a hit, but Sila was already getting up, and I hadn’t managed to fell Vishal with one strike. I was still outnumbered, and every instinct in my body told me I was going to lose this fight.
“Abvat, listen to me!” I yelled, “If you want the stone, you’re going to have to let me get it for you, otherwise you’re going to destroy it, and then what?”
The balding Naga stared at me, his mouth hanging open, his enlarged canines dripping with poison that dribbled down his chin and neck, disappearing into the collar of his jumpsuit. His teeth shrank, his mouth slowly shut, and he licked his lips. “If you’re lying,” he snarled, “I’m going to make good on my promise, and I’m going to rip that tongue out of your mouth.”
What are you doing, Seline? I had no idea what I was doing. I only knew I had to keep Fate safe by any means necessary. Whatever that magic Abvat was using, it wasn’t going to be good for her. Who knew what kind of damage Abvat had already done to her. Siren, who I’d almost forgotten about in all the excitement, stared at me, smiling blankly. She obviously couldn’t see what was happening around her.
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