The hunted, p.19
The Hunted, page 19
What we learned was that all who pledged their lives to restore Aradia were automatically connected to my power, strengthening both me and the allies. However, it was far more pronounced when I was in the same physical location as the linked witches, and the amplification seemed parallel to Lucius’s shadow magick boost. It was like an antidote, or the inverse mirror image. It allowed everyone to harness frequencies on the fly to a much greater extent, rather than relying on the more time-consuming witchcraft, rituals, and invocations.
In other words, it turned these peaceful, reverent witches into warriors. Warriors that Daelon and the older, wiser witches could train and direct.
I still didn’t know how I felt about it all. I wanted to free Aradia and restore balance to the realm, and I didn’t have a problem using violence to do it. I just wasn’t excited about future battles like Jesco or Daelon. I didn’t want to harm people who didn’t know any better, who had the misfortune of being born to a land drenched in lies and propaganda. The power I held inside me could be vengeful, but just as Wren had said, its core was love. And war was the very opposite of love.
Sometimes I wished I was more like Taryn. I knew she would’ve loved this. She would’ve worn some kind of badass warrior princess outfit with knives strapped to a garter belt or something equally sexy and dangerous. She would’ve reveled in combat training, especially if she got to make men feel inferior.
I smiled at the thought, imagining her with all of my new friends. She would’ve made Prairie wary with her intensity. She would’ve made Skye do his magnetic, deep belly laughs. She would’ve had the best banter with Alejandro, flirting with and testing him until it made all of us uncomfortable. She would’ve loved to hang out with me and Meredith and talk about all the parts of Aradia that Mer had seen but Taryn and I had never gotten the chance to.
My smile shifted into a frown. A lump grew in my throat. Here I was, worrying about a disrupted bond between me and the love of my life when witches like Taryn were being tortured and murdered all across the realm. While I felt guilty about future bloodshed from the safety of a free coven, masses of witches were climbing all over each other in a foul, underground dungeon, while others fed off of and destroyed each other’s souls in decaying cities.
I started to notice heads turning in my direction, confused.
Are you okay? Daelon asked. I think because everyone is channeling so much of your power right now that they might also be able to feel your strong emotions.
I found Daelon in a far corner of the gym, where he was helping Skye and Meredith learn how to enchant daggers. Meredith was currently throwing one at a target board with her mind, and Skye seemed to be attempting to infuse his with fire.
They’d all three halted and turned to look at me. I gave them all a thumbs up and forced a smile.
I’m okay. Just missing Taryn, I told him. I pushed aside my worry and focused back in on the witches around me—the witches who were going to help me free my friends, find more allies, and, if it came to it, fight the war it would take to force Lucius back down to whatever hell he belonged in.
Try to practice some of the techniques we used in the cabin to disconnect your emotions from what we’re channeling, Daelon said softly, his words infused with care.
Alejandro was outside, as his gifts were water-dominant and best practiced in the open air. It was fascinating that the trio were all three elemental witches. Meredith was in tune with air and Skye with fire. I joked that they clearly were missing a soulmate, and their earth witch was still out there. Skye responded with more grumblings about sleep.
You could stand some training too, you know. You don’t have to sit there all alone and bored, Daelon said.
I wouldn’t want to show off, I replied. Or be a distraction.
Those are two very good points. But I think you will always be a distraction to me.
I smiled and stood. I glanced around the gym, watching sparks and swirls of magick fly this way and that. I saw Jesco and Wren going head-to-head in a close combat duel. Both pairs of hands were crackling with electricity. Wren made a jab and Jesco ducked and rolled, leaping up just as nimbly as any young witch.
I was enthralled.
I channeled the winds of travel and movement, teleporting myself to where they were on a setup of black floor mats.
When I appeared Wren startled, allowing Jesco to reach out and nab him with a low voltage shock.
“Damnit,” Wren muttered, rubbing his arm and Jesco howled with laughter. “That was clearly Áine’s fault.”
I crossed my arms. “Now, Wren. Wasn’t it you who said we should be prepared for anything, to be able to keep fighting no matter the obstacle, at this morning’s pep talk? Or was that all it was? Talk.”
Jesco’s grin was enthusiastic now.
“You movin’ around like a damn apparition was not the kind of obstacle I was speaking of,” Wren muttered, smiling in spite of himself.
“Show me what you’ve got, chosen one,” Jesco taunted, shifting to a low offensive crouch.
“I really don’t think you want that,” I said.
I gasped in shock when Jesco charged me, the electric field on his palms flashing tendrils of white light.
I teleported before he could reach me, landing just behind him and delivering a low voltage bolt of my own to his shoulder. He yelped.
“Cheat,” he said. He spun around.
“How is that cheating?” I laughed. “We’re supposed to be tapping into our natural gifts, are we not? Plus, you came at me with absolutely no warning.”
Nearby witches had stopped their work to watch us, already distracted by my presence just as I knew they would be. I recognized Charlie’s father, Calico, to our left, rising to his feet with a man I didn’t recognize. They’d been in some kind of trance like state, possibly working on mental shielding or other psychological magick.
“How many of us do you think you could take?” Calico asked, one of the corners of his lips tipping up in a crooked half-smile.
“All of you,” I said. My power roared to life in agreement.
Chapter 18
Despite the doubt and fear that came with imagining these witches fighting a war, I realized there was a part of all of this I did enjoy. I might not have been as outwardly cutthroat as Taryn, but if I could get past the dread of bloodshed, I couldn’t deny that the ineffability of my power was a high like no other.
I didn’t want to think about what that said about me. Or how it might’ve been what Lucius loved most.
“Want to try it?” Calico asked.
I bit my lip, glancing all around and finally spotting Daelon. He was in a black T-shirt and gray, athletic style pants. His arm muscles were flexed and primed, and his jaw tensed as he realized what was happening. Meredith and Skye were close behind him, all joining the growing crowd.
Not quite what I had in mind, Daelon muttered inside my mind, and then aloud, “Not a good idea. Not much we can do if you’re all injured and unable to train.”
“I can try to be gentle,” I said. “But I can’t make any promises.”
Calico grinned, wringing out his hands. He exchanged a look with the man next to him, and soon several witches looked like they were going to charge me.
“I think we’re all too curious to resist seeing what you can do,” Alejandro said. I hadn’t noticed him join the gathering.
“Is that your stance? When you’re inviting twenty witches to a battle?” Daelon scoffed, noticing that I was planted with my feet close together and my arms crossed.
In response I sent him flying backwards onto a mat behind him, barely flexing a muscle in the process.
You are so getting punished for that later, Daelon growled.
“The answer to your curiosity awaits,” I said sweetly, nodding at Calico.
His hand twitched at his side, and I realized that Mer was lending her own strength to fortify his, both of them channeling air. The gust would’ve been enough to pull me toward them if I had been anyone else. My immobility made Mer’s face contort into adorable confusion as she exerted her strength.
I carefully sent the same frequency back, lurching them each in opposite directions to land lightly on the ground.
Alejandro had managed to conjure fire with Skye’s aid, and Daelon made a noise low in his throat when the flames formed a crackling orange bow and Ali began shooting fiery arrows at my head.
“Not your best form of flirting, Ali,” I said with a faux pout. I heard Meredith’s low chuckle as I concentrated on dispelling each arrow into smoke before they reached me. “Also, I feel like maybe we should move this outside.”
Jesco entered my line of sight. “The room is warded against wear and tear. It won’t lose its structure no matter what we throw at it. Rest assured we won’t be able to burn down the ICC and subsequently be murdered by my dearest soulmate.”
Okay, that was good to know. I caught one last arrow and reached into its magickal makeup, pulling at and expanding it as I backed away from the crowd. I grunted in exertion, and everyone leapt back as the fire traveled out to form an angry dragon. It was long and animated, standing guard between me and everyone else in midair.
Alejandro tripped over a training bench, much to Skye and Meredith’s amusement. I felt Skye battling me for control of the fiery beast, which was a move I hadn’t expected. His energetic imprint weaved through the elemental makeup, coaxing and calling to it as if it belonged to him all along.
I managed to get out a curse before the beast turned on me, its fiery head poised to incinerate me into ash.
Daelon’s power surged forward, creating a barely perceptible shield between me and the fire.
This is starting to irritate me, he said.
You are literally the one who said I needed to train, lest I grow bored and lonely. I am merely following orders.
I climbed deeper into my magick, and the answers began flowing through me like a natural river of wisdom. Water. I needed water.
I dispelled Daelon’s shield with a flick of my wrist, and this time his telepathic message was merely a note of displeasure. I channeled deeply, and I realized that much of my power was naturally water dominant.
That was what Ruth had said about my coven, too. It was probably a gift from them, which made my heart skip a beat. This magick was my birthright. It was what yearned to be returned.
A flood poured from my palms, wrapping around the dragon in a swirling blue mass and suffocating it until it was nothing but steam.
“Practice working together to shield from what Áine sends our way,” Daelon instructed the crowd.
I reached out for the water, holding it and letting it coalesce into ocean spray that I could send back to the Icierans. It rained down upon them, pelting the makeshift shield they’d constructed.
“Good,” Daelon said.
He was behaving very commander-like, which I knew should’ve been a massive turn off. But I was finding it quite the opposite.
His head snapped back in my direction. He raised a brow, a slow smirk spreading on his lips.
Of course, he now knew every time I was aroused. That seemed unfair.
Suddenly a dagger flew in my direction, and I was so distracted by Daelon and all his growls and talks of punishments that I almost didn’t stop it in time. I caught it right in front of my nose with a frown. I cast it to the floor.
“Hey!” Daelon bellowed. “Too much.”
“My bad,” Meredith said sheepishly.
I grinned at her. “Try again.”
Daelon glared. If you don’t stop defying me…
You’ll get over it.
Meredith stepped forward, and I realized most everyone was back to just watching now. Eyes were wide and awestruck, jaws slack. I didn’t even think I’d been trying that hard or showing them my best.
Okay, maybe I was enjoying all of this a little too much. Daelon looked downright bloodthirsty. That only got worse when Mer started telekinetically lifting daggers to throw my way.
I cast each aside, and when she threw multiple at once I teleported, letting them all clatter off the stone wall behind me.
I landed next to a very grumpy Daelon. I leaned into him, and he put his arm around my waist and pulled me close.
“Thanks for coming, everyone,” Daelon said through only partially gritted teeth. “I’ll be leading this same style of training again tomorrow for a different shift of witches, but, as always, you’re welcome to double up if you have the time.” Intensity bled through the shield, and I could tell the light enthusiasm he fed into his voice was more than forced.
I looked around the room as Daelon finished his concluding remarks and talk about future sessions, finding my friends’ encouraging eyes in the crowd. Alejandro winked at me.
My smile faltered, the strangest sensation creeping along my spine. It was like someone was watching me, but not quite. It was more like…
I tensed. Lucius’s dark, sickening energetic imprint was on the outskirts of my mind, and I remembered his ability to use telepathy across long distances, including between dimensions.
Why were you fighting? And whom? he asked, his tone urgent.
No. Absolutely not. It was bad enough he was able to haunt my dreams, but I would not allow him to torment me in my waking life. Not when Daelon and I had fought so hard to be free of him. I tried to block him out, and he wrestled with me to keep the communication channel open.
I will stop after you answer me, Lucius said, anger seeping into his tone.
I attempted to keep the irritation off my face. I had dozens of witches looking at Daelon and me right now.
I wasn’t fighting anyone, I snapped. Not that it’s any of your business. Panic flooded through me. How? How are you able to know anything about what I’m doing?
Do I really have to dignify that with a response? I know you are more intelligent than you’ve been acting lately.
Leave it to Lucius to say something that was at once both an insult and a compliment.
You’re fine, he said, and it sounded more like he was talking to himself. You’re stronger than all witches but me and my armies, after all. Carry on with your valiant heretic power plays. We’ll talk soon.
We will not talk soon! I hurled a slew of half-formed curses and insults that were lost to the wind as Lucius closed the channel.
“Áine?” Daelon asked, and I realized the crowd was beginning to disperse and talk amongst themselves. “What in the world are you thinking so hard about?”
Nothing. It was nothing. Lucius and his lies were nothing, and they would remain so.
“Nothing,” I said aloud, fortifying the word with my intent to continue ignoring and suppressing everything about the false king’s latest torments.
Daelon released his hold on my waist and turned to look at me, as if searching my face for clues to what I hid.
“There is some serious intensity going on between you two today,” Mer teased, fanning her face and saving my ass in the process.
“For real. I couldn’t tell whether Daelon was going to join us and fight you or if we were about to witness a different kind of show entirely,” Alejandro said, throwing a lazy arm around Mer. “Don’t elbow me. I worked out this morning, and I’m sore,” he said quickly.
Meredith pursed her lips, clearly fighting the urge.
Daelon’s stoic expression revealed nothing, save but a flicker of humor that lit up his eyes.
“You know what’s great for sore muscles?” Ali asked. “The spa.”
Skye shrugged. “I’m down.”
“Me too,” Mer and I said at the same time. That was the perfect opportunity for me to forget about Lucius’s annoying telepathy and Daelon to forget about my elusiveness.
“Do we need swimsuits… or…” I trailed off when I saw that they were all staring at me blankly.
“What in the human realm is a swim suit?” Alejandro asked, pulling the two words apart and spitting them out like they were a different language.
“Well, okay then.” I raised my hands up. “Silly of me to ask.”
You being naked is not at all going to help the mood you have put me in, Daelon said, his voice like a warm shiver, thick with the energy I associated with the soul bond.
Sounds like it will be a fun challenge for you, then, I replied.
You are being particularly provocatory today, and I wonder if you truly understand what’s in store for you when we are alone.
I swallowed, heat traveling to my core.
“Aw, I’m just teasing Áine,” Alejandro said, removing his arm from Meredith’s shoulders and moving to drape it across mine. “I love all of your human quirks. The modesty one is particularly endearing.”
I said my goodbyes to anyone who approached. Alejandro moved his arm from my shoulders to instead link with mine as we walked toward the exit.
Daelon hovered behind us with Mer and Skye, and I could feel his scorching heat reach for me like a brand.
“I’m thinking we do the hot spring cave,” Alejandro said. “I feel like it should be named after me given how much time I spend there.”
“Ali is half fish,” Skye said.
“I think the same could be said for Áine. She almost drowned me in our sacred ocean once,” Daelon said.
I laughed. “That is a gross misrepresentation of events. It would be much more accurate to say I almost drowned myself. Many, many times.”
“I’m lost,” Mer said.
I explained the metaphor I used to sort through and control my power, as well as how it reflected the ocean our coven worshipped.
