by Maria Amor
“Why are you mad at them?” Dylan raised an eyebrow. “I mean—I’m not saying you shouldn’t be mad. But why at them?” He gestured to the room they’d left. “You don’t know if it was anyone in the room that started that rumor.”
“I just…” Julia sighed. “I feel like I can’t do anything and that everyone has more control over my life than I do.” She closed her eyes and took another deep breath, letting the energy pass through her instead of accumulating, willing the wind outside to die down to a manageable level. She opened her eyes. “Did you hear about it before just now?”
“No,” Dylan said. “But it makes sense. If you’d think about it for a few minutes beyond being pissed that someone’s trying to pair us off, you’d realize it too.”
“We spend a lot of time together,” Julia admitted, “but that’s not even—just because we spend a lot of time together doesn’t mean anything.”
“Are you sure no one’s heard about you kissing me in the dean’s office last year?”
“I’m sure,” Julia said. “Besides, it’s not like one kiss—to get us out of trouble—is even...like...a thing. Plenty of people kiss and then never end up pairing off.”
“Of course,” Dylan said. “I’ve kissed a few and I’m sure I wasn’t your first kiss.” Julia felt her cheeks warm up with a blush.
“No, that wasn’t the first time I’d kissed someone,” she said tartly. “Which is entirely the point; just because we kissed doesn’t mean there’s anything between us. Why are people insisting on this? Who even started this rumor?” She had to take another slow, deep breath. “We need to get out of here soon.”
“You’re having a hard time keeping yourself under control,” Dylan said tentatively. “Do you have any more of the potion?” Julia opened her purse.
“A little,” she said, finding the tiny bottle. She hated it; the first few doses she’d had to take hadn’t been bad, but the more often she had to drink it, the more the flavor—a mixture of lavender, dill, and rosehips, amongst other things—disgusted her. At least the potion she’d started to have to take almost every day, the one that was milder, didn’t leave a taste in the back of her mouth for hours afterwards. Julia opened the dropper-top of the bottle, squeezed to fill the little dropper, and closed her eyes. She could take two droppers full every two to three hours without risking a bad reaction.
Quickly, Julia took a full dose and felt the unstable, volatile energy coursing through her body begin to fade, to drop out of her. “Sometimes I wonder what non-supernatural humans feel like,” Julia remarked to Dylan. “Have I ever told you that?”
“I think it’s safe to say that you couldn’t find a potion on the planet that would make you feel like a non-supe,” Dylan told her. “Feel like everything’s under control now?” Julia scowled at him slightly.
“You’re making it sound like it’s me that’s out of control,” she said.
“Not you, but the energy surging through you,” Dylan countered. “And I think we both know that you don’t have good control over that on your own; that’s why you have the potions.”
“Don’t talk down to me,” Julia said irritably. She took a slow, deep breath. “Yes, I feel more like the energy is under my command, and less like it’s going to take command over me.” That was the way her grandmother had explained it, and Julia thought it was actually pretty apt.
“Let’s make a few more rounds of the party, and then make our excuses,” Dylan suggested. Julia nodded, not exactly enthusiastic but knowing that she had an obligation. She managed to keep the smile on her face, and ignore a few pointed looks she hadn’t noticed before as she made her rounds; but behind the pleasant, charming mask that she’d put on, Julia’s mind was hard at work trying to figure out who could have started the rumor about her and Dylan. Dylan was right that it wasn’t the fault of the people at the party; they were just repeating the rumor. The fault belonged to whoever had started it.
But who had started the rumor? Julia didn’t think she would ever—truly—know, but her agile mind worked at it anyway. It would, she thought, need to be someone who stood to benefit from people either considering her or Dylan to be unavailable. Someone who was after Dylan would want people to believe that he was already spoken for; the same for someone who was after Julia. But what point would there be in spreading the rumor that we’re already spoken for if they don’t come up to actually make a move on either of us? She accepted a glass of punch from someone and smiled a little more brightly.
By the time they finally made it to the waiting car, Julia had narrowed down the possibilities further. “Someone would have to benefit from saying that we’re taken,” she told Dylan as the driver made his way back towards Ruth’s compound in the middle of nowhere.
“Right,” Dylan agreed.
“If it was someone who wanted one of us, I’d think we’d notice their attention,” Julia said. “Don’t you?”
“Maybe they’re hanging back, waiting for the attention on you to drop off, and then they plan to make their move,” Dylan suggested.
“Why me? It could be you, too.” Julia gestured up and down along the length of Dylan’s body. “You’re cute enough and you’re strong in your element.”
“Strong, but nowhere near the strongest,” Dylan countered.
“Still—cute, musician, strong in your element, and obviously in good standing with the queen of your element, so still desirable.”
“I still think it’d have to be you,” Dylan insisted. “And—so like, considering how much time we spend around each other, isn’t it possible that someone just jumped the gun and assumed that there was something going on?”
“But we’ve explained the whole spending-time-together thing,” Julia said. “Everyone knows why we’re spending so much time together, and it doesn’t have anything to do with being into each other.”
“But people always see things they want to see,” Dylan pointed out.
“Why would people who want me to be available to form an alliance want me to be paired off already? No—someone started this rumor somewhere along the line, and I want to know who.” Dylan snorted. “What?”
“You realize that you’re an air-aligned Guardian, complaining about gossip,” Dylan replied. “That is pretty funny.”
“I’m allowed to be annoyed at people telling lies about me,” Julia said firmly.
“They don’t know that the things they’re saying are lies,” Dylan countered. “It’s possible that not even the person that started the rumor knows it’s not true.” Julia rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest.
“All I know is that I want to get to the bottom of it, and I want the record set straight,” she said. Dylan chuckled again and Julia let out a little frustrated groan at the sound of it.
“You might as well just ignore the rumor,” Dylan told her. “Even if you could find out who started it, just telling people it’s not true isn’t going to fix the situation.”
“I need to do something,” Julia insisted. “I can’t just sit around.”
“That sounds more like it’s a bigger problem than just one rumor about you,” Dylan pointed out. “It sounds more like a life statement.” Julia rolled her eyes again.
“I’m going to talk to Ruth about it as soon as we get back to her place,” Julia said.
“You seriously think that your grandmother is the source of rumors about you already being paired off to someone?” Dylan raised an eyebrow. “Why would she send you out to meet potential mates if that was the case?”
“Because she wants me to have the best possible mate,” Julia said, rolling her eyes again. “If she makes people think I’m already on the way to being taken, then they’re not going to try as hard, or the ones who don’t have as much to offer won’t bother.”
“That seems more like an air-aligned trait than a water-aligned trait,” Dylan said mildly. “Just as a thought.” Julia rolled her eyes, but kept her own counsel as the car made its way
back to her grandmother’s home, telling herself that she would—one way or another—get to the bottom of things.
By the time they arrived at Ruth’s house, and the car had pulled up to the top of the driveway, the wind blew at the force of a relatively strong summer storm, influenced by the force of Julia’s thoughts. She didn’t bother to try and tamp down the energy she could feel whispering in her veins, whistling through her body, blowing through her in a higher and higher pitch. She was frustrated with everything—seemingly—being taken out of her hands, down to where she could be, what her social calendar looked like, whether or not she could cut her hair and what she did with herself at any given time. If she wasn’t at school, she was on a strict regimen of potions at home, with only limited ability to go out with Dylan or her friends, or she was at Ruth’s place in the middle of nowhere.
The wind snatched at the door and Julia disregarded it, stepping into the house without so much as looking at the member of staff who’d come to let them in. Dylan followed in her wake and Julia could feel his energy trying to flow into her, trying to calm some of the unstable, volatile irritability that Julia had started to embrace in herself. “Grandmother?” Julia walked through the house, listening to the wind rattling at the shutters, at the windows themselves. Let’s see what she has to say for herself.
“Julia,” Ruth said, from the formal den. Julia stepped through the kitchen and dining room to get to the less-comfortable area. “I can see you’re irritable about something,” Ruth continued, as Julia came into the room.
“I was informed this evening that everyone thinks I’m going to end up with Dylan,” Julia told her grandmother. “Do you know anything about that rumor?” Ruth met her gaze levelly, and if her eyes widened for a moment, Julia wasn’t sure if it was because she was surprised by the rumor or because she was surprised Julia heard about it.
“Of course, there are rumors about you and Dylan,” Ruth said. “You’re young and both fairly well-connected, and you spend almost all your time together.” Ruth raised one eyebrow slightly. “Are you going to sit down and discuss this with me like an adult, or are you going to act like a child throwing a tantrum?”
“I want you to tell me honestly that you had no part in starting the rumors,” Julia said, meeting her grandmother’s gaze. She could feel the energy flow out of her with the words, running up against the fluid wall that made up Ruth’s psyche, and almost started at the sensation; she’d never done anything like that in her life. It felt as if some part of her leapt out to attack Ruth’s presence, the other woman’s energy. But it was not the time to examine that. “Say you had nothing to do with this and tell me the truth,” Julia repeated.
“I didn’t even know that it was a rumor until you just told me,” Ruth said steadily. “I certainly wouldn’t be spreading a rumor like that when my goal is to introduce you to as many compatible potential partners as possible.”
“Maybe you wanted to drive the stakes up,” Julia suggested. Ruth half-smiled, glancing from her to Dylan, then outside, before looking at Julia once more.
“My dearest granddaughter, I have more than enough convoluted politics on my plate to meddle in your life. Besides, I don’t have to intervene for the stakes to be plenty high enough.” Ruth held her gaze and Julia had to admit that she believed the woman. “Please kindly get your energy output under control, before you fell a tree.”
Julia scowled at the older woman but took a deep breath, pulling the energy that flowed through her body together, willing the wind to die down outside to what it had been before their arrival at Ruth’s home. “Was she like this the whole way home?” Ruth asked Dylan.
“Yep,” Dylan said.
“It’s a wonder the car wasn’t blown off the highway,” Ruth said, and Julia could hear the disapproval in her voice. “I know you were probably upset at the rumor, Julia, but I had nothing to do with it. It probably came about naturally from people seeing you and Dylan together so much.”
“Whoever started it is getting their name dragged in the mud,” Julia told her grandmother. Ruth all but snorted; and then her face relaxed once more into the same level of hauteur she normally assumed.
“I’d suggest you take some valerian and lavender, have a bath, and get some sleep,” Ruth said. “You’ll be exhausted in the morning.”
“I’m not a child,” Julia told the older woman firmly; but in spite of her bravado she was already feeling the effects of the energy coursing through her for so long, so intensely. The last thing she wanted was to trigger another power surge, another spasm; of course, Julia thought wryly, she might have one anyway while she was trying to sleep.
She walked past Dylan in the direction of the bedrooms and bathrooms, not saying another word—but she was determined to get to the bottom of the rumor.
CHAPTER FOUR
Dylan came into the room where Ruth waited for him, seated already, with the tea service on the coffee table in front of her. He’d known when she’d asked him to spend the afternoon with her that there was something big going on—and he had been even more certain of it when Ruth had given Julia an unaccustomed day in the city to shop and unwind a bit; but when he saw that there was someone seated on the couch that he’d never met, and that the tea was already served, he knew it had to be something very big indeed.
“Dylan, this is Mistral,” Ruth said, inclining her head in the direction of the guest. Dylan took a moment to look at the woman; it took him a moment to know for sure that she was a woman, and at that it was difficult for him to say what gave him that overall impression. Mistral had short, black hair that framed an androgynous face, with big, hazel-gold eyes that were almost unnerving to look at. In spite of her jeans and blouse, Dylan concluded that Mistral probably wasn’t her real name—that it was probably something in the Sylph language—since the woman seated on the couch appeared to be one of the fae.
“Pleased to meet you,” Dylan said, inclining his head in her direction. “What’s this about?”
“Julia is showing signs of developing a type of talent that sometimes happens in air-aligned Guardians,” Ruth said. “Generally, it doesn’t manifest until after Guardians achieve their full abilities, but the other night gave me the impression that Julia might gain the ability before her birthday—and I’m almost certain she’ll have it after.” Dylan considered that as he sat down and checked that Ruth and Mistral both had tea, before serving himself.
“You mean compulsion?” Dylan looked at Ruth and then at Mistral, still wondering why the fae was there.
“Higher order persuasion, yes,” Ruth said. “I don’t think she realized that she was using it against me, but the other night when she confronted me about the rumors regarding the two of you, I felt it.”
“She tried to use it against you?” Dylan nearly spilled his tea in his surprise.
“Again: I don’t think she did it consciously. I don’t think she tried to do it, but the push of her mind against mine was there.” Dylan raised an eyebrow in surprise, looking at the older woman as he tried to make sense of what Ruth was saying.
“So, you think she’s starting to try and use it without knowing?” Ruth nodded.
“I think that she’ll come fully into the ability to use it consciously by her birthday,” Ruth added. “And I think that if you’re going to be an effective companion and protector for her, you’re going to need to be able to resist her.”
“I wasn’t aware that was even an option,” Dylan said doubtfully; he suddenly had an idea of why Mistral was with them.
“It’s difficult to do, but it’s worthwhile,” Ruth explained. “Of course, over time if she used the ability on you often enough, you’d learn to resist it.” A brief smile twitched at the old woman’s lips. “By then, of course, she could tell you to do all kinds of things and you’d already have—at her will—put her at risk.” Dylan couldn’t quite see the humor in that, but he smiled anyway.
“So we’re teaching me to resist her,” he confirmed.
“Mistral, being one of the fae, has the ability as well,” Ruth explained. “She agreed to visit, to help you get a baseline ability to resist my granddaughter.” Mistral nodded.
“We’ve all been very excited about Julia’s transition,” Mistral said. “Of course, the hope is that she’ll become active in affairs between this world and Faerie, amongst the others; but no matter what, she should be protected.” Dylan had the feeling that there was more going on than he knew about—or was privy to—but decided not to bother trying to get more information that might only make him uncomfortable around Julia. Already, knowing that she was likely to inherit one of the more dangerous air-aligned abilities that the supernatural world knew about made him feel less than confident of his ability to continue working as a check against her impulsive, overpowered nature.
“You’re sure we can do this?” Dylan glanced from Mistral to Ruth.
“I learned to resist in a very similar way, long before Julia was born,” Ruth said. “Mistral’s aunt helped me.”
“Claudine prefers to stay in Faerie, so she sent me instead,” Mistral explained.
“So how are we going to do this?” Dylan looked from one woman to the other doubtfully.
“I’m going to teach you methods to resist, and Mistral is going to test you,” Ruth explained.
“And you’re keeping this a secret from Julia?” That part of it struck Dylan as the most questionable. There were things that Ruth had taught him without Julia being present; but he’d never gotten the impression that she was specifically trying to keep Julia from knowing about something that she taught him.
“She doesn’t need to know about this yet,” Ruth said firmly. “Once she’s closer to her birthday, I can advise her about this ability, and once she fully has it—then, of course, we’ll refine and control it.”
“But you want me to be able to resist it first,” Dylan said, almost making it a question.
