Enemy Of My Enemy (Price Of Power Book 1)

by Laura Stephens

  My feet start to slide through the wet sand, leaving a deep trail behind me. Closer and closer he pulls me towards him. I throw bolt after bolt, using both hands the way the Watcher taught me.

  The stranger is a pusher, using his telekinesis against me. I know about this power because of Ben. A pusher can only move objects such as people and lightning. He continuously flings my magic away from him, directing it anywhere he chooses. More lightning rains from the sky, the heat building as more electricity sizzles in the air around us. Not a single bolt hits him.

  I keep sliding closer and closer. There’s nothing to grab onto, nothing to slow me down or stop me from reaching him. I try to force my feet to act the way I want them to, but they won’t listen to me. I am not the one controlling my body – this man is.

  My hands slam down onto my thighs as though tied there. My feet continue their slide against my will. Lightning falls but he pushes each bolt away easily with a simple flick of his fingers.

  Chunks of ice fly past me, close enough that I can feel the wind against my cheek. Lincoln. Dozens of icicles zoom past, none of them reaching their targets. Realizing the same thing I already have, Lincoln’s attack stops. Water dribbles from the stranger’s lips, his chest heaves trying to cough up the water so he can inhale. I know what he’s going through and despite my better judgement, I feel bad for him because drowning has easily been the worst experience of my life.

  The stranger, now bent over at the waist, sweeps his arm around, launching Lincoln into the air a second time. I watch as he tumbles head over feet through the air, landing with a sickening crunch as his head hits a rock. My eyes go wide not only out of worry for Lincoln but because if he’s unconscious then his powers are no longer working. The stranger stands up straight, the water now gone from his lungs. The man looks at me with a ravishing hunger in his eyes that makes my stomach churn.

  Not a victim. I am not a fucking victim. Power builds in my chest, radiating through my veins until it feels like my blood is boiling. If the lightning won’t work, the heat will. The stranger won’t be able to change the trajectory because heat isn’t an object. My power bursts forth from me, creating a suffocating blanket around us. He grunts and falls to his knees as the weight of the air presses on his shoulders.

  His power leaves my body instantly due to his distraction. Hands now free, I pull my axe from my belt and throw it. He reaches up, flinging the axe away from him like swatting at a fly. I smile because while his attention is focused on the first of my two weapons, the second is already soaring towards him. His black eyes look to the gleaming metal a mere second before it strikes him straight in the chest. When it hits him, there’s a look of bewilderment on his black veined face. He falls to his knees, looking down at the throwing axe sticking out of his chest. Blood dribbles from his lips and without a sound, he collapses.

  For a moment, I hesitate, staring at the man that I just killed, knowing that he will only be the first of many. I swallow and run to Lincoln, the sand kicking up in my wake. He’s still unconscious, but his heart beats and that is a good sign. If I could heal him I would but my healing power hasn’t resurfaced since that day in the arena and I’m starting to think that I imagined the whole thing. I yell for the Watcher, screaming until my throat burns.

  “Where were you?” I ask as a bare chested Watcher appears before me. “Heal him!”

  He yawns and stretches his arms out in each direction. I stare him down until he sinks to his knees and his hands begin to glow purple. Lincoln wakes up a few moments later, the gash in his head healed to reveal flawless, tanned skin.

  I let the Watcher and Lincoln tend to the body as I sit perched on a large boulder, letting the ocean breeze dance in my hair and across my face. I try not to watch as they drag the lifeless man across the sand. I killed someone. The most unsettling part of it is that I’m not that upset about what I did. They round the corner with the body and when they return the body is gone as though the man never existed.

  Lincoln stands in front of my rock, his hands shoved into the pockets of his leather pants. “Are you okay?”

  I smile. Not because I’m happy, but because the question is that absurd. “No.” I’ve just had my first true experience with fighting in a magic battle and I’m not feeling optimistic that this war will end in our favor. “This war will be a mistake.” When Seraphina first arrived, the only two people that had been against her plan were Maddox and Emmy. I didn’t see it then, I didn’t know what was really being discussed or about the death that would come of it. I was wrong. We all were.

  The Watcher walks up from behind Lincoln, places a large hand on his shoulder. “Give us a minute,” he tells Lincoln.

  Lincoln hesitates, but finally leaves the two of us alone. The starlight shines off of the Watcher’s snow white hair as he stands in front of me. “You finally stood your ground instead of listening to me. It took you long enough, Violet.”

  My eyes roll. “I’m really not in the mood for another teaching moment right now.”

  “Well, you’re getting one and I suggest you listen.” His thick, muscular arms cross along his chest. “I was in love once. I tried to stop it before it really started but she was relentless. I told her more times than I could count that nothing good would come from the two of us being together. I’m immortal and there’s only one ending for love and that’s death. I would have to watch her age and die while I stayed the way I am now. She didn’t care nor did she let it stop her from burrowing her way into my life. It’s forbidden for me to fall in love with a mortal, yet I did it anyway. And it was worth it. Those brief years of happiness are worth every minute of agony I now suffer. I wasn’t even there when she died and that mistake will haunt me for eternity.”

  “What’s your point?”

  He runs his foot through the sand, drawing some kind of pattern. “Don’t focus on the things that you can’t change in your life – regrets or paths not taken. Focus on the good while it’s there. Don’t second guess whether your choices were right or wrong. Just learn from them, embrace them and live. Enjoy the good and tolerate the bad. Maybe this war is a good thing, maybe it’s not. Regardless of the outcome, enjoy what it has given you.”

  “It gives us nothing but heartache.”

  He looks down the beach, towards Lincoln’s black figure. “That’s not all it gives you.”

  It had been one kiss and he’s acting like its true love or something. That one kiss, while wonderful, isn’t part of the bigger issue. Our impending deaths – for a war that wasn’t our idea – are.

  “It’s time to go.”

  My eyes go wide, knowing that he means to go back to the settlement. To go back to Emmy. I leap off the rock, grimacing from the impact that I feel the most in my knees. “Then let’s go.”

  He teleports us to Lincoln only long enough to grab his shoulder and then we are sucked back into the blackness.

  22

  Lincoln and I stand side by side, confused by what we are seeing. Row upon row of dirty white tents are set up. Soldiers dressed in the black leather of Pensatore are scattered about, some carrying firewood, others cooking food over fires, most, though, are just sitting around talking in a group. “Where are we?” I ask Lincoln.

  “A camp. They must have left the settlement weeks ago.” He spins around looking for someone. “The Watcher left. I can’t believe he waited this long to bring us back.”

  I analyze every soldier that’s close to me, I don’t see bandages on any of them or blood – fresh or old and dried. “It hasn’t started yet. The war, I mean.”

  “We should find Ben and Kaleb and figure out what the hell is going on.”

  His fingers lace with mine and he tries to tug me along behind him. “Do you think Emmy is here? I need to find her.” Part of me wants her to be here so that I can see her and talk to her. The other part is willing to rip into whoever thought bringing her to a war camp was a good idea.

  Lincoln releases me, going to the closest group of so
ldiers and asking where Ben’s tent is. One of the soldiers points to my right and mutters something that I can’t hear.

  “This way,” says Lincoln.

  “What about Emmy?” I ask as I practically run after him. “Did you ask about her?”

  “No. Ben will know if she’s here or not though.”

  We stop a few rows later, asking more people where we can find Ben and Kaleb – they keep pointing to the center of the camp. “Lincoln,” I say while trying to catch my breath. “Is it just me or are all of these people part of Pensatore. Isn’t Rovente supposed to be here too?”

  He stops and looks around, seeing the same thing that I did. Black leather. It’s the standard uniform of Pensatore soldiers and guards. Rovente has a similar outfit but theirs is made of a brownish red leather instead. He grunts then keeps marching towards the center of the camp.

  Lincoln opens the flap to one of the larger tents that I’ve seen so far, letting me enter first. Ben is standing in front of a large wooden table that is littered with maps and little figurines. Other men that I’ve never met circle around it and I know that we just barged into a meeting.

  “Leave us,” Ben barks at the men when he sees Lincoln. Once the room is clear the two brothers approach each other, grabbing forearms before embracing in a makeshift hug.

  “Where’s Kaleb?” Lincoln asks as he glances around the tent.

  Ben’s face drops, his shoulders doing the same. “He didn’t come back.”

  “What do you mean he didn’t come back?” Lincoln pulls at his hair in frustration. “Why are the soldiers here then? Did you have a telepath try to reach him?”

  Feeling very out of place, I approach Ben. “Is Emmy here?”

  “Where is he?” Lincoln demands. “What about the telepath?”

  Ben glances between the two of us like he’s trying to decide on who to answer first. His attention lands on me. “She’s here. She should be in her tent. Take a right once outside, then two tents down on the left.” I nod and rush to the opening of the tent. “I don’t know where he is Linc. He never came back and neither did the Hunter he was with. Maddox and Seraphina made the decision to leave without knowing what he found out. And yes, I did try to send him a message, they weren’t able to get through to him. He’s either too far away or …”

  My heart breaks for what Ben is telling his brother because it means that Kaleb is dead. I don’t wait for Lincoln’s response and head toward Emmy’s tent. I enter without announcing myself and find Emmy laying on her cot, with a feathered quill in her hand, a bottle of ink sitting on the floor, and a leather notebook in front of her. “Emmy?”

  Her face jerks up from her writing and she leaps off the cot, barreling towards me. I immediately wrap my arms around her, pulling her in tight. Her warmth. Her smell. Of course I missed her, I just didn’t understand how much until this moment. After a long embrace, she releases me and returns to her cot, patting the spot next to her.

  “Why are you here and not at the settlement?” I ask her, as I sit down next to her.

  “All the Alchemists are here, just in case. We aren’t going to battle though. We will remain safe here at the camp while the war happens a few miles away.” Safe here at camp? I barely stop myself from snorting. Nowhere will be safe. “We arrived here yesterday morning. Three of the Reapers showed up an hour ago and said that Seraphina is bringing her soldiers as we speak. They should be here soon.” Her face drops as she studies her hands. “They think Kaleb was killed. Once Rovente arrives, they are going to war blind.”

  I’ve been gone a month and it seems that I’ve missed more than I had thought. I never expected to be brought to a war camp instead of the settlement. I never expected all of this to happen so quickly.

  “How was it?” she asks.

  There’s a million things I want to tell her, my kiss with Lincoln being damn near the top of that list. “I killed someone today.”

  She shifts on the cot, inching a bit closer to me. “What?”

  “It was just a few hours ago.” I haven’t even had time to clean the blood from the edge of my axe yet. “He was a pusher and a strong one. It took both me and Lincoln to fight him off. I got lucky. He was stronger than I expected. And his eyes were black and his skin covered in spider veins that were like spilled ink and –” She cocks her head and I can see her mind going 90 miles an hour. “What?” I say.

  “Was he Aetheries?”

  “Yes.” He was, wasn’t he? The ones that attacked me in Miami didn’t have eyes like that. “He was too strong. I got in a lucky shot. He could have easily killed two raw elementals. That doesn’t bode well for the outcome of this war.”

  “Wait.” She gazes into space the way she always does when she’s thinking hard about something. “You said he was a pusher?”

  “Yeah you’re missing the poi …”

  “No. You’re missing the point, Vi. How sure are you about his power? Could it have been something else?”

  “That’s what he was. There’s nothing else he could have been.”

  She jerks up from the bed, pacing across the tight quarters of the tent.

  “What?” I say. “Just tell me!”

  “Aetheries is a clan of rogue elementals. Previous Rovente members. The warlock you say you killed – the one who attacked you – was a pusher.”

  It takes me a moment to realize what she’s getting at. The warlock was a …“He was a … wait. What?”

  “He wasn’t an ex-Rovente. He was an ex-Pensatore member,” Emmy says simply.

  What does that even mean?

  My lids slam shut, my fingers tugging at the roots of my hair. How could I have been so blind when the warlock attacked? How had I not realized what I was seeing?

  And then it all clicks. I know what’s going on. What it means.

  I grab her wrist and together we barge into Ben’s tent. My breath is short and rapid and my head throbs. “He lied to everyone.” I say before thinking about how to put my thoughts into words. Looking around the tent, I see Maddox sitting in the corner. He was the last person I expected to see in here with the brothers right now.

  “What are you talking about?” Lincoln asks. His face is bloodshot like he’s barely holding back his emotions after finding out about Kaleb.

  “He lied to all of us.” I point to the elderly man wearing his signature navy blue robes. “Didn’t you Maddox?” He stares at me with pure fury. “Tell them. Tell them how you lied to them. Tell them the secret you’ve been keeping from them. Tell them how your clan members ended up with Aetheries.”

  I recognize the expression on Lincoln’s face because it’s the same one I had only minutes ago. Ben, however, looks utterly confused. “What is this all about Violet?” he asks.

  Maddox clenches his jaw for a moment and then he cracks. The fury he held seconds ago breaks and pure misery covers his face. “Five years ago I had to make a choice. I’ve regretted that decision every day since, but I had no good options. I made my decision and I stand by it even now.”

  “What are we even talking about Maddox?” Ben asks.

  The old man turns to face him. “Five years ago something happened, something that I still can’t explain. An illness swept through our settlement, hurting hundreds of our people. It wasn’t until weeks later that I heard about how bad it had gotten. They were sick, not physically, but mentally. They were hurting themselves and anyone they could find. But they were my people. They were my responsibility.”

  His voice cracks as though speaking about it hurts him anew. “They were a danger to the rest of us, though. I couldn’t let them kill everyone. I had to do something before there was no one left to protect.”

  “You banished them,” Emmy says softly.

  Maddox nods. “I banished them because I had no other choice. I had them taken into the mountains and we left them there. I prayed to the Watcher that they would live through the winter. I prayed that they would find a way to the Aetheries settlement and join them.”

/>   The two brothers ignore Maddox’s pleading gaze and focus on each other. “Why do we not remember this?” Ben finally asks.

  “No one does,” Maddox explains. “There are only two people in our clan that remember. Me and the witch that removed the memories of every person in my clan and those that were sick.”

  Lincoln’s brows shoot upwards in surprise. “You altered our memories?”

  “I had no choice.”

  “That’s bullshit and you know it, Maddox.”

  “It’s not,” he says. “My people aren’t like Rovente. We love and cherish each other. Had the memories remained and the clan found out what I did, they would have gone into the forests in search of their people. If those I banished remembered, they might have returned to our settlement and killed us all. I had no choice but to rid memories of the entire situation as if it never happened.”