From Spirit and Binding

by Carrie Ann Ryan

And then Seven smiled at me, her voice still echoing in my ears as light shined through her. And then, she was gone, fading into the mist as if she hadn’t been there at all. But her words shocked me.

  My mouth went dry, my body shook, my knees went weak. Her voice echoed the second half of the prophecy again, but just for my ears, as if the mist of herself surrounded me, choking me, cloying. I fought not to lean to the side, attempted to keep steady. But it wasn’t enough.

  Easton grabbed me, holding me close as my legs went out from under me, and I tried to make sense of what she’d said.

  What could it mean?

  What did all of this mean?

  Chapter Fourteen

  Lyric

  * * *

  Seven appeared again in front of us, and I pulled away from Easton, my body shaky. I had to be strong. There wasn’t another option, and I honestly didn’t want there to be one. My knees shook, my palms were damp. I ignored it all. I didn’t know why I’d almost passed out, other than that it was too much, and I had been overwhelmed.

  I couldn’t let it be too much.

  “What did you mean by all of that? By everything you just said. Can you explain it?” I asked Seven. I knew she wouldn’t answer. Because nothing was ever that easy.

  The others around us didn’t say anything, as if they knew that this had to be me. After all, it was all coming down to me. Easton stood by my side, his hand brushing mine. I didn’t reach out and grab it. I knew I could if I needed to. He wouldn’t push me away, wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. Other than what had already been done, of course. Easton wasn’t cruel. He was cursed.

  “I have been here for so long, sent here so long ago, that sometimes it feels as if I’ve always been here. And yet it’s as if I haven’t been here at all.” Seven looked off into the distance before staring at me, her eyes so intense, I had to swallow hard, my mouth going dry.

  “You are the daughter of the daughter of the daughter of the daughter of the first Spirit Wielder, who had a lust for power but had a good heart. She was the mate of the first Dane. She left, holding her daughter to her breast as the Fall began, and our realm started to crumble and shatter. When we were no longer Maisons, but Wielders who were forced to fight against one another rather than coming together as we should.”

  Seven took a breath and continued. “You have always been of both, though never within this realm. You were sent to the human realm because of the blood within you. You were born there, as was your mother, and her mother before, and all the other mothers going back to the original Spirit Wielder.”

  She tilted her head, looking at me so intently, I could feel her gazing into my soul. “That Spirit Wielder had such shallow powers, she could barely hold a wisp of a soul in her palms. She couldn’t dream walk, she could do nothing except be who she was. As I mentioned, that kind heart loved another. The first Dane. The one who had his powers stripped because the crystals were abused.”

  She took another deep breath as if she’d been waiting to unload all of this forever. Yet I couldn’t keep up.

  “When the great kings of old—Easton’s grandfather, and Rhodes’ grandfather, as well—when they died, the first Dane was born. And that was of your line also. No one knew beyond those two who would come. That Spirit Wielder knew you would be the one to save us all. That you would come. They knew that they would die in the human realm. They had to live as humans, even though there could have been other paths laid before them. They chose to live for their young.”

  My breaths came in shallow pants as I tried to comprehend it all. That was where my blood came from. That was why I was the person I was today. Why I was the chosen one. Because it had been destined long ago. During the Fall.

  I didn’t know how this woman knew. She did, though, and everything she said sounded like the truth.

  “Why couldn’t we find her bloodlines, then?” Rhodes asked. “We looked. That’s how we searched for so long. Until we found her,” Rhodes said.

  “The lines were erased,” Seven said, not looking at Rhodes but directly at me. It was eerie, a little unnerving. In that moment, I had a feeling that all Spirit Wielders were a little weird.

  Seven had talked about holding a soul within someone’s palm.

  I didn’t understand it. I was a little afraid of what would happen when I gained that fifth element. I didn’t even know if I would still be me. Because look at what Spirit Wielding had done to the person in front of me. To the man we’d met before.

  “You found her because it was your destiny. Because it was a Seer’s wish. Nobody knew of the bloodline. They couldn’t.”

  I swallowed hard, listening.

  “Your parents didn’t know. They do not know of this realm. Nor should they ever. Their parents before them and so on couldn’t know either. Because your line was sent there for a reason. They were sent to live, to learn, to be pure of heart and mind. For without that, the Spirit Priestess would never have been born.”

  I shook my head, so confused. Pure of heart and mind? I wasn’t pure, not in any way. I’d made mistakes, I’d made so many. And yet I was supposed to protect us all? I didn’t even know how to save myself.

  “What am I supposed to do?” I asked again. I needed a map. Something. All I had were words that made no sense.

  “When the time comes, you will know.”

  I fisted my hands at my sides, my Fire Wielding licking at my fingertips as Air blew through my hair, and Earth rocked beneath my feet. Water slid out of my pores, dousing the flame for a mere moment before it flared again.

  “No, I will not.” My voice was firm, almost a shout. I couldn’t hold back. The others looked at me. I ignored them, my focus on Seven.

  “Calm down. Be calm, Lyric,” Easton said into my ear. I risked a glance at him and glared.

  “Let me do this,” I snapped before looking at Seven again.

  “You will be the Spirit Priestess,” she reiterated. “You are the Spirit Priestess. Nothing worth fighting for is easy, Lyric,” she repeated from my dreams.

  “You always say that.”

  Seven just tilted her head, giving me a sad look. “And you never listen.”

  “I don’t know how. How do you expect me to do this when I can’t even control my powers? When people are dying beside me, and I can’t do anything for them. Why can’t you just tell me what to do? If you do, I will do it. I promise. You only need to tell me.”

  Seven just gave me a small smile as tears slid down my cheeks. The others gathered around me, Braelynn pushing against my shins. I leaned down to pick her up, rubbing my chin on her forehead as she cuddled into me.

  My best friend had died and then came back as this. Something I didn’t understand. And yet, no one would tell me what I needed to know.

  “We cannot help you,” Seven said. “We are not of this time, or of this place.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I am only here because the power wills it, but I am not here forever. When the time comes, you will learn to find the others, the ones who will help. The ones you seek. The ones that are no longer.”

  “They’re dead? You’re saying they’re all dead? The ones in my dreams? Even the man I met in the northern Spirit territory?”

  Seven reached out and scratched behind Braelynn’s ears. The cat leaned in, purring, and I had to wonder if this was a dream. “He was gone for longer than I. He came back to help. We all did.” She looked down at Braelynn. “You’re such a strong one. I cannot wait to see what becomes of you. You know, though, don’t you, little one? You’ve always known.”

  I looked down at Braelynn and then met Rhodes’ gaze. He just gave me a slight shake of his head.

  It seemed they were all as confused as I was.

  “You can do this, Lyric,” Seven continued. “When the time comes, you will find the final element. You will discover a way to piece the world back together.” She looked at me, the sound of silence so loud in my ears, it was nearly deafening. “For if you don’t, the en
d will not just be for us, but for all.”

  Before I could say anything, before the others could speak, she drifted away once more, her body going indistinct before she was nothing but mist.

  I just stared at where she had stood, holding Braelynn to my chest as Easton leaned into my side. I had to wonder: What on earth just happened?

  What were we supposed to do next?

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lyric

  * * *

  As soon as Seven disappeared, a storm blew in, sand and high winds shaking the ruined city.

  We hadn’t been able to stay long, there was no place safe for us to hunker down, so we left the ruins and headed back towards the Obscurité Kingdom.

  We didn’t have the crystal with us, or any way to easily travel with the magic so depleted within the realm itself, so we moved along the path we had taken to the ruins and headed towards the Earth and Spirit border.

  We passed the portal where I’d first come into the Maison realm when I was with Rhodes and the others, looking for Rosamond, so unsure of what we would see.

  And then I came through there again when I was on the hunt for my destiny.

  It was odd to think that it hadn’t been that long ago, though it seemed like eons.

  We didn’t speak much on the journey, our faces covered with cloths and linens so we didn’t swallow sand.

  It was a hard trip, my body aching from it. Nevertheless, we pushed on until we made it to the camping site that was very close to where I had stayed that first night with Rhodes and Luken and Braelynn and Emory.

  We had stayed here, trying to figure out our next step before we slid through the wards into the Earth territory.

  Emory had left us here, and that was the last time I saw her in her normal state.

  I still didn’t know how she was, or what I could do to help her. We had been so focused on everything else that I had put Emory on the back burner.

  When we got back to court, I would figure out what to do. Because I couldn’t leave her to rot in that cell. If she was even still there.

  It wasn’t fair to her. It wasn’t fair to anyone.

  “We’ll take first watch,” Wyn said, gesturing towards Teagan.

  “Why are we always first watch?” Teagan asked, grumbling as he slid Fire Wielding through his fingertips.

  Fire, the one thing I wasn’t good at. He was so casual about it, just like Easton was. And it showed the strength of his Wielding. I could do that with Air. The others were a bit harder.

  I needed to learn though, because I had to be proficient. Beyond proficient if I were honest with myself.

  “Because I don’t trust anyone else to make sure that we at least get the lay of the land.”

  She looked over at us, shrugging. “No offense.”

  “None taken. I like throwing you out into the line of fire,” Easton said, smiling, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. I wasn’t sure any emotion reached his eyes these days. Either that, or he shielded from me so well I could never tell.

  “Now I feel like I should go with you,” Rhodes grumbled.

  “Don’t worry, princey, I wasn’t talking about you. I’m sure you can take care of the big bads, and everything will be fine.”

  Wyn fluttered off, Teagan grumbling as he tromped behind her, even as he grinned.

  Rosamond pulled Rhodes away to speak with her brother, even as he started to mumble.

  Wyn sure loved antagonizing him. I didn’t blame her. He had been the symbol of the enemy for so long, and now we were all trying to work together. It had to be weird.

  And it seemed hard to believe. Though, of course, most things these days were hard to swallow.

  “I’m going to go get us some water, and I’ll take Braelynn with me.” Luken gestured towards the cat on his shoulders as she licked her paws, her bat wings fluttering. I nodded, watching the two of them go. They seemed content, even though I didn’t think either of them knew exactly what they were doing. Braelynn wasn’t Braelynn anymore. She would never be. And Luken understood that, at least as far as I could tell. It was like he had a friend now, maybe not the relationship he once hoped to have, but it was something. It was better than what I had.

  I held back a groan at that thought, hating the self-pitying tone even in my head.

  As everyone dispersed, I was left alone with Easton. We hadn’t really talked. There wasn’t much to say. He was cursed, and The Gray could possibly take him at any moment. We didn’t know what to do.

  Yes, Rosamond was doing her best to See into the future and try to figure out when that might happen. But we just didn’t know.

  Not to mention what Seven had told Easton about his prophecy. It was all convoluted, and I didn’t like that I still didn’t know if I could trust him. I didn’t know if I could trust him with the prophecy, or with my heart.

  Leaving him back at the Obscurité Court hadn’t been an option. Not when he knew the best ways to get to the Spirit territories, and he had the power to do so. He would have just followed us if we had tried to leave him behind anyway. And I knew he was already hurting enough, I didn’t want to hurt his soul any more. His feelings. Not that I knew if any of that mattered since the world was going to end.

  Great, now I was lamenting about everything that could happen, rather than what was actually happening in front of us.

  “Rosamond said she was taking Rhodes to get us some extra food. We have enough in our packs, but it’s always good to be careful.”

  I looked over at Easton, startled that he was speaking to me. He’d done a very good job of not doing that since his return.

  “And if a Seer tells you we might need food?”

  He snorted, his eyes brightening just a little. That was good. I had missed his smile. I missed seeing something in his eyes other than confusion and darkness.

  “I don’t think it was that. I think she just wanted Rhodes to get away from the others. Usually, she gets a little more deep and poetic when she talks about an actual vision.”

  “Ah. Yeah, sometimes it’s hard to follow what she says. Much like Seven.”

  His brows rose. “Seven? Was that her name?”

  I shook my head as I reached down to get my tent out of my pack. He knelt down next to me, his fingers brushing mine, and I involuntarily sucked in a breath.

  I hated that he could do that to me. That I knew he was my soulmate, the one person who was supposed to be by my side to help me traverse this new world. He couldn’t be.

  So, I pulled my hand back without looking at his eyes.

  I didn’t want him to see my pain. I didn’t want to be in pain.

  “No, she was one of the twelve from my dreams. She stood where the seven would be on a clock. That’s how I thought of them. Like hours on a clock. They never told me their names, so I just named them after their position numbers.”

  “That makes sense,” Easton said, helping me with the rest of the supplies. We set up the first tent, then went to erect the others. He didn’t say anything to me for a long while, and I was afraid that he wasn’t going to. I hated that I wanted him to.

  I loathed this feeling, the thought that I wasn’t good enough. That he couldn’t even fight against whatever was pulling him away. Even as I thought that, though, I remembered that I couldn’t be the center of everything.

  We had more important things to worry about than my heart.

  Like the fact that The Gray was out there. Watching.

  That he could be orchestrating everything even now.

  And we didn’t know what the King of Lumière was doing.

  We knew nothing.

  All we had was a bunch of words that together formed a prophecy that was supposed to help me save the realm. It all sounded like it was going to take something from me, something I didn’t even know I had, and leave us all broken in the end.

  So, yeah, it didn’t sound as if my heart breaking over a boy should be the most important thing.

  “What’s wrong?” Easton
asked as we set up the final tent.

  I looked at him and just blinked.

  “Where should I start?”

  He laughed then, and I shook my head.

  “That really was an asinine question.”

  “Maybe. Or perhaps there’re so many things wrong, it’s kind of hard to keep up these days. But to answer your question, I was just trying to think of the prophecy.”

  “I hate when things don’t make sense. You would think after all these years they would give us a nice roadmap.”

  “I don’t think there’s ever going to be that.”

  He looked at me then, and I wanted to reach out and brush that lock of hair from his forehead. I didn’t.

  It wasn’t my right anymore. Not that it ever was.

  “We should only have to camp here one night, and then we’ll make our way through the Earth territory. It’ll probably take us a few days, but not as long as it would have if we had to cut any corners.” He pointed up, smiling at me. “The Obscurité Court is just north. I would rather be on our side of the wards before we start traveling that way.”

  “Is there a reason we didn’t go through the wards today?” I asked, sitting down on a log as he joined me.

  I tried to ignore the heat of him next to me, the way his skin felt as his forearm brushed mine.

  I hated it.

  And I craved it.

  “Because I don’t really know what’s on the other side right now. I never do these days, not with Slavik and his pirates doing their thing, and the Lord and Lady of Earth acting like they are.”

  “You do know that Rhodes and I owe them a boon, right?” I asked, looking down at my hands.

  “I do. You told me before. They kept you alive. Mostly, I think they were trying to use Rhodes for that boon. After all, he is the enemy.”

  “He’s not anymore. We’ve all said that. It’s not Lumière versus Obscurité any longer.”

  “I know. But I’ve had centuries of hating him and everything he stands for. I don’t think it’s going to take just a snap of the fingers for me to like him.”