The scorned, p.6
The Scorned, page 6
“The Queen of Cups,” Orion said, glancing at the card with a smile before tentatively handing it to me.
Queen of Cups was etched into the bottom of the card in reflective silver. In vibrant, rich colors, a woman in a baby blue cloak and gown sat upon a throne on a rainbow pebbled beach. The ocean encircled her in gentle waves, and as I continued to inspect, the card came alive like the paintings in the castle’s gallery. It was a subtle flicker of movement, only in the ocean's lull, the clouds rolling across the sky, and the sunlight as it reflected in the woman’s golden chalice and her medieval crown adorned with seashells.
“If you focus, you can get a taste of the energy and meaning of the card,” Orion said. “The deck’s magick is meant to be subtle—for you to do most of the work with your own intuition and craft.”
I followed his direction, reading the richness of the woman’s emotions, her nurturing, motherly care, and her compassion and openness.
“It’s Celeste’s card. Feels just like her, don’t you think?” His tone was gentle.
More tears sprung to my eyes as I met his. I nodded and smiled. “It does.”
I handed it back to him, and the uncertainty in his aura mirrored mine.
Wren approached us, his features warm. “I think we’ll give you two some space to talk, and then we can finish discussing the rest.”
Our friends gave me a little wave as they dispersed with Jesco and Wren, heading toward the huddle of energy vampires still gathered closer to the ocean. Some vamps still stared my way, and I couldn’t deny the unnerving waves of craving and hunger radiating from many of them.
I looked back at Daelon, the only one not moving, and Orion followed my gaze.
“This is Daelon, my partner,” I said. “He’s from our coven.”
Orion smiled warmly. “I see that. Jessa and David’s son,” he said as he studied the planes of Daelon’s face. “I was gone before you were old enough to remember me.” A shock of pain rippled through his energy, and it hurt me too. He looked back at me. “I heard rumors from dimension hoppers still in active addiction. They said you were working with the King’s Commander of the Guard.”
“That was Daelon,” I said. “He infiltrated the castle to protect me.”
Orion’s eyes widened. “Had no idea,” he murmured. “Thank you. For doing for Áine what I could not.”
Daelon shook his head. “I will always protect Áine.” He studied us a moment longer before relaxing his shoulders. “I’ll be right over there,” he said, nodding toward our friends. I knew he still didn’t entirely trust any of the vamps on this beach, and his words were equal parts a reluctant gesture and a threat.
Orion and I sat down on a piece of smooth white driftwood, digging our feet into the soft sand. He nervously fiddled with a silver crescent moon ring on his finger, just like the ones my mothers wore.
“I couldn’t get to you, not while you were in the castle. I felt your energy a couple other times since you first appeared on the energetic map, but you were always gone by the time I discovered your whereabouts,” he said as he watched the ocean and monitored the movement of his people. I realized he might’ve been looking for signs of trouble just as Daelon was. “Once, I felt your mark at the Beach of the Nameless and Formless, and another up near the slums of Hod Peak. And again when you went back to Earth, but there was no way I’d be able to make that kind of jump twice.”
He was talking about all the times Daelon hadn’t been shielding my power. He’d been actively looking for me. When I was in the castle, my power could still be felt all over the realm. That was how Cyrus found me after I accidentally called to him on this island’s shore. When Daelon and I visited our coven’s beach, and the waves had pulled me under, I sent out a signal then. And again when I fought the energy vampires in witchy Norway, which was apparently Hod Peak.
An image of the energy vamp I’d nearly burned alive flashed in my mind, along with the sickly smell of rotting flesh. Daelon had stabbed him with the cursed blade the vamp nearly used on me. I couldn’t help but compare the frenzied, red-haired man we’d killed to Orion, and nausea churned in my stomach.
How could this gentle, intuitive healer have been an energy vampire? The more pieces of this cosmic puzzle that fell into place the more confused I became.
“Why didn’t they tell me about you?” I asked, unable to hide the anger in my voice.
Orion swallowed. “So you wouldn’t go looking for me, I would imagine. I’m grateful they didn’t tell you. It was the only way to keep you safe and away from my chaos.” A wave of regret and shame overcame us. After a pause, he continued, allowing pride to overpower the pain. “Your comrades have already gone over the basics of what you’ve accomplished so far. It’s done wonders to fill in the gaps of what I know to be true of the cities and realm outside secret covens and castles.” His eyes gleamed as he looked at me.
“What’s happening in the cities?” I asked. “Daelon saw a vision of resistance building.”
Orion grinned. “Yes. Entire uprisings against royal officials, police, and soldiers. Witches remembering who they are and hearing about what the King has done. They…” His aura flashed bright white. “Everyone is talking about the Salvator Mundi, the savior of the world, and how she died and rose from the dead four days later.”
I swallowed, my palms and cheeks warming. “Oh, yeah. That.”
Orion burst out into laughter, and it was so magnetic and warm that I laughed too. “You’re exactly who I hoped you would be,” he said softly. I didn’t know what to say, so I was grateful when he cleared his throat and continued on. “It’s messy. And violent. A whole lot of folks are still confused. No one knows their place in the world or how to make things better. Angry, spiteful bloodshed just as much as the faithful, intentional kind of organization and action.”
“A couple energy vampires helped us escape in Thora,” I said. “They were dressed like soldiers.”
“The energy addicted… we’re not who you think we are. Not all of us, at least, or not anymore,” Orion said. “We were the first to resist, with no one knowing or suspecting it. We’d long been written off as the useless leeches of Aradia. Bums and criminals and nothing more. At first officials would kill us or send us to the dungeons, but then the orders changed. We started getting ignored instead. They pushed us out to the cities that had already fallen into squalor and chaos, allowed to do as we pleased as long as we didn’t cause so much trouble that we made it on the King’s radar. In fact, now that I understand how the King generates and hoards power, it makes even more sense why he allowed us to grow and multiply.”
“You were doing his work for him,” I said. “Perpetuating systemic pain and shadow.”
“Now the dungeons are reserved for so-called heretics seen as an actual threat, witches with more life force to drain and pollute. Not us. I think more painful than a society hating you is a society that pretends you don’t even exist.”
Again, I felt his pain as my own, his words evoking a vision of that tattered-clothed man in the alley, finishing off his victim before staring forward with haunting, empty eyes. I saw energy vampires begging for food on the streets, spat on by police and wholly ignored by witches on their way to dinner or parties or work. I saw loneliness and desperation so vast that it flooded the streets and alleys and swept them all away.
“Invisibility became our greatest weapon,” Orion said. “In the haze and sorrow, I forgot you were out there. I forgot about everything that mattered—where I came from and what the realm used to be like before the Order. And then I felt you, one cold autumn night, just after I’d drained a man on the streets of Aventurine. Your power was so bright it shone right through Earth and up into Aradia, through to me. I reached for it—just a tiny sliver of moonlight in a night sky without stars—and just as the warmth touched my skin it exploded into a galaxy so bright that it woke me up. Then I saw a vision of you being attacked by someone like me, his hand around your ankle as you lay injured. I saw someone save you, and I’d never felt more relief and shame and love in my entire life.”
That was the vision Lucius had showed of Orion. Orion just finished energy stealing and looked straight at me, as if he knew I was there. That hadn’t been current; it was a vision of the past, from months ago. It was my last night in New York City, when Daelon saved me from an energy vamp and then took me home to Aradia.
“After that, I got to work,” he continued. “I didn’t know any energy vampires who’d ever tried to go back to who they were before. I’d heard ‘I’ve gotta quit’ from folks more times than I could count. But no one I knew had ever actually done it. There were plenty of people who’d quit elixir, though. There were groups for that.” He smiled sadly. “They wouldn’t even let me through the front door.”
I watched as more witches moved to the beach, some Icieran and some Aurora Aurea witches. One group approached a sect of energy vampires, encouraging them to join a pickup game of something akin to soccer. My heart melted as the vamps’ bewilderment transformed into excitement, passing the ball around with the others.
My eyes flickered back to Orion’s, shifting when I realized he’d been watching me.
He smiled. “I wasn’t the only one who felt you. You became the one we spoke of only in whispers,” he said.
That was what the energy vampire we killed had called me. So many things were starting to make sense.
“My old draining buddies became my comrades. Not all of them, but enough to lessen the weight of figuring out how to be a person all over again on my own. At the beginning we moved to only feeding on royal officials and the like, limiting ourselves to only taking enough to quell withdrawals but not enough to forget who we were and what we were doing. Lots of trial and error, and a lot of witches never made it past that stage. They’re still there,” he explained. “Many more wanted nothing to do with your light. They weren’t ready to stop or even harm reduce. Some might never be.” He looked down, his shoulders drooping.
“The witches here…” I trailed off.
He looked back up to my eyes, his back straightening. “Sober. I would never bring anyone near you I thought was a risk to your safety,” Orion said. “That being said, witches of the Sophrosyne Coven—my coven—will always be vulnerable, and your power might evoke feelings of inner conflict. You embody the light that saved us and the ultimate high we have always craved, both at the same time.”
“Sophrosyne,” I pronounced. “I’m sorry for calling you all energy vampires. That’s not who you are.”
Orion waved his hand. “No apology necessary. I understand. This is the first time we have revealed ourselves as how we truly are—a secret army lying in wait, a new coven who replaced our addiction with fire for the revolution. Our ways and methods have spread. The witches who saved you in Thora could’ve been some of ours or witches working alone or in another rehabilitation group, I’m not sure. I didn’t give the orders. These past months while we’ve learned to live without energy stealing and sharing, we’ve been building something—a network of connection between the cities, infiltrating ranks and lying in wait for opportunities to fuck shit up.”
I smiled. “I had no idea.”
“That was kind of the whole point,” Orion said with a chuckle. “Some of the King’s men started spying on me and my inner circle the last couple months, but they never interfered or brought me in for questioning. I assume it was because they uncovered who I was to you. The King’s had too much to worry about with the rebellions and uprisings—and, I’m guessing, with you—to notice that the nature of so many energy addicts had changed. Nor did he and his men notice or, perhaps, care that we were the ones who restored half a fallen city. Nevertheless, I’m glad we were able to leave when we did, because the King’s sudden interest in me put everyone at risk.”
Looking at him, I was processing so many questions, and yet the only one that seemed to matter was this one: “Who are you to me? My father?” I asked, and the nervous yellow notes of uncertainty flashed between us once more.
“Biologically, yes, but as Jane’s brother, I was only ever meant to be your uncle. Your moms also wanted me to be your soul father—at least that was their intention before I left the Coven—so I guess my role has shifted, now that they’re gone.” He raked a hand through his hair, fumbling over his words. “But you—I don’t have to be anything to you now unless you want me to be. I wasn’t there for you when you needed me, so I’ve lost that right. I left behind what your mothers needed to conceive and carry on our family lines before I left, and I didn’t stick around to be there for them when the Goddess answered their prayers.” He let out a breath, dropping his gaze. “I was a coward. And all I can do is apologize and promise to do anything you want, anything you need, from now until the day I see your mothers and our coven again in the great beyond.”
I wanted to reach for his hand, but I didn’t know how. Being vulnerable with people other than Daelon was still hard for me, just as Wren pointed out when he gazed into my soul. He’d been right. Losing my mothers and being abandoned in the wrong realm, fighting my way through the New York City foster care system… that trauma still lived in the fibers of my heart, still made me wary of connection and family in ways I was only beginning to understand.
As much as I loved the people I’d gotten close to in Aradia so far, I had to admit that it wasn’t as easy for me to accept and reciprocate vulnerability as it was for my Icieran friends. To them, loving and being loved was their first language. To me, it was foreign and daunting, no matter how much I valued it on an intellectual level.
I wanted to tell him it was all okay, that he’d been through enough and didn’t have to carry so much shame on my behalf. But then the lonely, wounded inner child inside of me protested. Where was he when I needed him? When Momma Jane and Momma Celeste needed him? she asked, and I had no answer.
Actually, I did.
He wasn’t there.
Before he’d gotten sober, he’d hurt people. He harmed witches like my new family, the ones who fought for me before they even knew me. He’d been chasing a high forever out of reach, running from his pain as his family braved the shadows without him.
I let his sorrow and love flood my energy in silence, sending him back the same in response. I knew he felt what I felt without me having to voice it. He was an empath and healer, just like me.
“I want you to be in my life, and I want to have more conversations like this until we figure out who we are to each other,” I said. “Thank you for sharing your story.”
He nodded, his features relaxing at my words as warmth traveled to his eyes. “There’s so much more to say. So many more stories to tell. Thank you for listening, Áine.”
“I’m glad you’re here. And that all of you are safe now.” I looked out over the Sophrosyne witches, wondering what they felt to be here in Aurora Aurea after living in hell for years, or even decades.
“The greater the capacity for pain, the greater the capacity for joy,” Orion said, as if reading my thoughts. “We feel in contrast. And our contrast runs deeper than most.”
I wasn’t sure if his use of our was referring to me and him or to him and his comrades, but it felt true either way.
Chapter 7
The conversation with Orion had emotionally drained me, so Daelon and our friends accompanied me back into town. Cyrus remained with his elders, handing out food and water to Orion and his coven while more accommodations were prepared and allocated.
“How was your talk with the energy—I mean, the Sophrosyne witches?” I asked the group. I’d told them about my own conversation with Orion, or at least as much as I wanted to share.
Daelon hadn’t let go of my hand the whole walk. “It was really good,” he said. “I take back what I said before. They really do deserve to be here. At least, as much as I deserve to be here.”
Skye clamped his hand on Daelon’s shoulder in a brief gesture of support. It made me melt every time our friends showed Daelon how much they valued and accepted him when he’d felt unworthy for so long.
Mer smiled. “What they did for Aventurine, rebuilding what had crumbled and housing the houseless, it was really beautiful to hear. As was their journey back to themselves,” she said. “Their strength and passion were humbling.”
“Do you think more witches will follow? Witches who are called by my power?” I asked them.
“The Aurora Aureans seem to think so,” Prairie said. “This land is meant to be a safe haven, a beacon calling covens and lost witches who are ready to unite and rise against the Kingdom. All of those who aren’t already fighting and organizing in the cities.”
“We’re building an army, aren’t we?” I murmured, and a familiar tide of panic arose. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to me. This was what we wanted, needed. It was the exact energy that Lucius had stoked when he poisoned my soulmate, and it was the promise of fire and fight that had led me to leap into an active volcano.
Yet, something still didn’t feel right. Two opposing armies meant war.
“You’re worried that a war would only make him stronger,” Daelon said. He’d been watching me carefully, no doubt digging through the soul bond for evidence of my thoughts.
“I’ve been thinking about that too,” Skye said. “But war doesn’t always look the same. It doesn’t necessarily mean only literal battlefields. Take what Sophrosyne has been doing, for example. Their fight has still been fueled by love, healing, and justice. They’ve restored just as much as they’ve destroyed. They’ve been crafty and brilliant in their moves. Violence will be necessary, but I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to do what’s best for Aradia along the way. We have to.”
Mer kissed the side of his head. “Well said.”
Skye blushed and stopped to pull her in for a longer kiss on the lips.
