Daniel winced. “I’m sorry.”
“What for?” She cocked a brow at him. “Not like it’s your fault. I’m not a fighter. Witches aren’t.” Her tone was sad.
Seph’s tone was gentle as he murmured, “But you’re both, so that means one side of you is, Gabriella. Whether you like it or not.”
When her jaw tensed and her back stiffened, I knew she didn’t like his answer, but it was the truth, nonetheless.
She was both, and she’d need to start embracing that.
Soon.
❖
Gabriella
“Can you use light in a fight?”
I blinked at Matthew, then reached up and swiped my face with a towel. We were in the stadium and in the middle of the maze where we were training before we were going to take on the assault course.
For three days straight, I’d been practicing using the wind in swordfights.
I could do it with my eyes open now, which was definitely a leap forward, but, more than that, I could fight at twice the speed I had before.
In the grand scheme of things, that wasn’t very fast, but it was better than it had originally been.
Ever since that afternoon, we’d settled upon an uneasy truce. None of us mentioned what they were to me, or what I was to them, and instead, we focused on fighting.
That meant they’d done nothing but assault me ever since.
Of course, by assault, I meant it in the fencing way. Assaults were, bizarrely enough, friendly bouts. Unlike with each other, they aimed for first blood, with me, they were just trying to get me up to speed.
Oddly enough, my magic was facilitating me. Even though I’d only been practicing the spell a short while, the wind was getting accustomed to me using it as a means of eavesdropping, so I thought it saw nothing wrong in anticipating the way a blade would cut through the air.
But what Matthew was suggesting now?
I had no idea, and I told him as much.
“How can I use the light?” I questioned, dropping to my knees in an attempt to get my breath back.
Even though I’d never been as fit in my entire life as I’d been at the Academy, where Phys-Ed was a daily torment, the fights sapped my strength. They were slowly starting to use maneuvers with full force, even if I was nowhere near their level of capability. Not yet, anyway.
Gaia, that was not going to be fun when they decided I needed to take things to the next level.
Ugh.
I truly thought I’d prefer to speak with my mother than engage them in a fight at full force, and that was saying something—especially as it was my turn to ignore her calls. Just as she’d ignored mine.
Petty?
Yep.
And I’d own that pettiness all the way to the damn bank.
“You could use the light and shadows to see where another opponent is,” he reasoned, breaking into my bitter thoughts.
“You mean you want to use it as an extra sense?” I thought about that when he nodded, and shrugged. “I don’t see why that wouldn’t be possible.”
“But you don’t know how to do it?”
“I can call on light to illuminate somewhere,” I mumbled, allowing myself to fall back onto my ass so I could rest. “So I don’t see why I couldn’t use the shadow to tell the light where someone is blocking it.” My brow puckered as I thought about how to cast a spell like that.
My magic was growing used to my calling on it, but I knew why it was behaving better—the guys. I’d have liked to say it was all off my own steam, but I knew it wasn’t. It had never behaved this well for this long, so either I was right, or I was going to eat crow soon.
Still, behaving or not, I wasn’t used to configuring spells of my own. In the past, I’d always used the ones my grandmother and mother had taught me. What Matthew was asking required unique spells that I’d need to think about.
Daniel crouched down in front of me and passed me a protein bar. “Eat.”
I winced. “Do I have to?” The last thing I wanted was a heavy bar.
“Yeah, you do. You’ve been exerting a lot of energy, and you need to keep your strength up.”
I knew I was whining, but I was tired when I grumbled, “I thought we were going to do the maze now and then give up for the day.”
“We are,” Matthew said drily, “but you’re not going to get through the maze with no energy, are you?”
I winced. “No. Guess not,” I mumbled, reaching for the bar. I used my magic to open it and took a bite without using my hands.
Daniel shook his head. “Have you noticed your magic never wears out?”
I shrugged. “I have a lot of stamina with it. Even though it was always volatile, because I had to hide my wings all the time, I think that might give me an edge.”
“Interesting,” he mused.
“Not really. Don’t forget, witches aren’t like Fae. Yours might run out before the next solstice, but ours doesn’t. It recharges.” Just in time for them to steal it again.
He nodded slowly as he thought about that, but it was Joseph who, as he crouched down in front of me too, pointed out, “You also haven’t been turning shit pink.”
When that left just Matthew at a distance, I had to admit to myself that I preferred it when they were close at hand.
Whether or not my abuela had been bullshitting me, and these weren’t my Virgo, I couldn’t hide from the fact that things were changing between us.
I didn’t know if they felt the same way, but they were giving me less crap than they had before. Although, that might have had something to do with the fact that I was throwing less shade their way and was actually trying to train.
“The glow is definitely new so I can’t say why I haven’t been turning shit pink as you so eloquently phrase it,” I mocked.
He smirked at me, then reached for one of my free hands as I took another bite of the bar. He unfolded the bandages he’d placed there earlier, and grunted at the sight of the bruises on my palms as well as the sweat sores and calluses gathering on the tender flesh. They were proof I’d been working hard, and I knew they appreciated it.
For myself? I appreciated what I knew he’d do next.
Raising it to his mouth, he blew on them, shedding gold magic as he did. The second the dust fell onto my skin, it was instantly soothed and the bandages that he’d let fall underneath it were cleansed as well.
When he began to wrap my hands up once more, my bones were close to molten. Instead of turning into a puddle of goo, I squeaked, “You guys don’t use a lot of magic. Why not?”
Daniel murmured, “I’m from an admin caste—we’re not given that much to use in the tithe.”
Matthew, approaching our little group, shrugged. “My family is under punishment. We’re not given as generous a tithe as the other warriors.”
Well, that was news to me.
“What did they do?”
“My uncle sided with a dictator in the Bosnian war,” he replied tightly, his jaw like stone. “The line was rightly punished.”
I’d heard about Fae being exiled before, but that Matthew’s line had been shunned came as a surprise to me—his arrogance didn’t mesh with what I’d just learned. Or, did it? Was his arrogance a protective façade? A means of keeping others away?
It also explained why our success as a troupe was so vital to him.
As I thought about that, thought about him, I asked, “When will the punishment be over?”
“Not for another five hundred years, or until one of the line redeems it in its entirety.”
I whistled under my breath. “That’s a big ask, isn’t it?”
He shrugged. “As it should be.”
“What would you have to do to make it right?”
“I don’t know. Won’t know until the Assembly pardons us.”
“But that’s what you’re working for, right?”
“Yeah. That’s the end goal.”
I looked at Joseph who I was starting to think of as just ‘Sep
h.’ What a difference a few days made, eh? “Why don’t you use magic?” I queried.
He grunted. “You don’t want to know.”
“Wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t,” I told him softly. That in and of itself was a huge evolution in our relationship. A few days earlier, I’d have snarled that at him, instead, I just made the remark with little heat backing it.
“Tell her, Seph, she’ll find out eventually,” Daniel reasoned, and when I looked at him, surprised at his words, he shrugged at me. “All Fae know of the vil der Luir line’s captives.”
“Captives?”
“He means slaves,” Seph rumbled under his breath, his thumb tracing over my newly bandaged palm.
“Slaves?”
He blew out a breath. “You know how we gain our magic, do you not?”
“First term’s lessons came as a huge shock, that’s for damn sure,” I rasped, unable to hide my anger at another example of Fae treachery.
My grandmother had taught me that, as was our way, Fae magic had a source. Ours was nature-bound, theirs was Divine.
But it was bullshit.
They mined ours, used our magic as their own, and their house bands were how they called upon it.
“My father wasn’t the first vil der Luir to do it. Nor is ours the only noble house to do this, but the more unusual witches… he captures them. Calls them his cirque du freak.”
My eyes widened at that. “He does that when he was a Virgo?”
Seph gritted his teeth. “Yes. And that makes it a thousand times worse than I ever believed it.”
“How could he?” I breathed.
“I don’t know,” he answered gruffly, his thumb pressing into the soft flesh of my palm and massaging slightly. “But he does, and I’ve never approved.”
“Are you just saying that because of me?”
His brow furrowed. “I know it might seem like that, but no.” Then he winced. “The tithing might seem barbaric to you, but it’s just normal for us. It’s what is done. It is how it is. But with personal coteries?” He shook his head. “That is what I don’t approve of.”
“How can the tithing not seem barbaric to you? You’ve basically enslaved the witches for your own gain. We’re the more powerful entities, and yet you use us—” I shook my head. “Then this with your father. I don’t understand how you can let it slide.”
“Is that not what slave owners do?” he rasped.
I jerked my hand from his. “Yes, it is. But to perpetuate the cycle is disgusting.”
He cut Daniel and Matthew a look, and since they both seemed just as uneasy, I knew they understood what I was saying, but this was generational. This was ingrained in them, and all the more disgusting for it.
The witches and the Conclave were oppressed by the Assembly. We had no power that wasn’t given to us through them, and yet, they had no power of their own. They used our magic to browbeat us. It was beyond crazy to me that they’d been getting away with this con for so long.
And learning that powerful Fae had their own witches to mine?
This shit was just getting sicker, all the while my life was getting more and more tangled with a world that was abhorrent to me.
“I’m getting tired,” I groused. “I think we should start the maze.”
“Maybe we should take a break,” Daniel suggested, his hand reaching for mine, but I pulled away.
“No. I’d prefer to get this over and done with. I need to have some idea of what I’m going to face.”
Matthew shrugged. “If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure,” I ground out, getting to my feet and picking up the sword I’d dropped to the floor.
Weapon in hand, I moved away from them. Though they weren’t to blame, they were a part of the problem, and if they couldn’t see that there was a problem in the first place, then how it could be resolved?
It couldn’t.
That’s how.
Just because something was the status quo didn’t make it right, and that was something I doubted we’d ever see eye to eye on.
I tightened my grip on the sword and pushed off into the air. My wings felt heavy from fatigue, but I persevered. Ever since I’d stabbed him in the foot, Leopold had been leaving us alone more and more, so they’d been teaching me the things he ought to. Jeanien, back in the beginning, had said to find air flurries to make flight easier, but she hadn’t told me that quick bursts with my wings often created them, meaning I could use the wind beneath my wings once I’d soared above twenty feet. Their suggestion was making me a remarkably speedy flyer, and with more practice, it would really be a boon to my small list of abilities.
With the wind flowing through my feathers as well as supporting me, I felt cocooned in the air. It was a wonderful sensation as I felt both equally protected and shielded.
I knew the others would have flown to their own corners of the stadium where the starting points of the mock-up maze could be found, so I waited on what I knew would be a loud foghorn. They’d already shown me a video of a trial, so I had an idea of what was going to go down.
Everything within the maze was a simulation of what had happened when this was used as the actual exam. On the day itself, instructors were the ones behind the attacks, whereas projections replicated their moves and stances in the mock-up.
On the day of the trial, I could be hurt. In a mock-up, the only person who could hurt me was myself, and considering my ability with a sword was forged in magic, I wasn’t sure how I’d fare against a projection so I was anticipating a few wounds before this was through.
When the foghorn sounded, I began to walk between the high walls of the maze. In exam conditions, we couldn’t use our wings to escape, so I kept mine folded away and tucked out of sight for comfort.
I knew the others would have theirs out since they were accustomed to the balance of having the weight of them on their backs, but for myself, it was a relief to be without them.
The walls were forged from the ivy decorating the front of the Academy. It had gold—stolen magic—rippling throughout each vein, and if the sunlight could penetrate the gloom of the footpath, it would be twinkling down here more than Edward in New Moon.
Cautiously, I began walking down the path, waiting for whatever the Sol was supposed to be thrown at us.
As I’d been learning, I let the faint breeze whistling down the maze’s corridors spread out in front of me on the hunt for any sounds that might come my way. If the wind could catch them before I was attacked, then that could mean the difference between me taking a hit or holding one off.
When the wind carried the sound of scraping toward me, I tilted my head to the side as I tried to discern where it was coming from. Then, when I took a hesitant step forward, I felt the ground beneath me change. As it began to cascade out from under me, I used the wind to keep me upright, surfing it like it was a wave when I saw there was a bear trap at the base of the pit.
Peering down into its metallic maw, I grunted, because that was definitely no projection—Sol.
Almost as though the thought triggered it, it closed and opened again. Repeating the gesture every few seconds as I stared on with a gaping mouth.
The wind leveled me out and helped me slip past the pit. My wings would have saved me from falling, but I wasn’t accustomed to calling on them for aid. Thanking Gaia for the wind, I took my first steady step on seemingly solid ground.
When it didn’t give way beneath my weight, I sucked down a relieved breath and began to head down the path.
It was dark, and unlike the Fae, my eyes weren’t as sensitive. I could barely see, and though I could try to call on the light as the guys had suggested, there was no light to call on. It was pitch-black, and when I tilted my head back to encompass the twenty feet high hedges, it was no wonder. I couldn’t even see the sky thanks to the lack of uniformity to the hedgerows, which grew in wonky, disorienting lines and weren’t pruned neatly like every other piece of flora in this fucking place.
Al
l I could do was put one foot in front of the other, my wings and affinity with the wind ready to catch me if I fell into another pit.
My heart was racing. Even though I was in no immediate danger, I was in some danger. Something could hurt me at any moment, and I knew I had to expect at least one sword fight somewhere within the maze—I was getting better with my pointy stick, but I was no Musketeer.
My heartbeat throbbed in my ear, diminishing my ability to translate the power of the wind’s call. Though I tried to take calming, deep breaths, it wasn’t working. Every instinct inside me was on red alert, and the adrenaline was only making it worse.
Deciding it was safer to stick to the side of the hedge, I clung to it, taking slow steps forward. When it suddenly gave way, I shrieked in surprise, and then as I twisted around, I saw it was just a turning.
In response to my shriek, however, Daniel roared, “Gabriella? Are you all right?”
There was something in his voice, something I hadn’t noticed before. My mouth grew dry in response to it.
He was panicked for me.
Angry for me.
The sound, oddly enough, soothed my heartbeat.
“Y-Yes, I’m okay,” I called back, letting the wind carry the words. When he didn’t reply, I pouted a little, then chided myself for acting like a ten-year-old girl.
Squinting into the darkness, I called on all my senses, witch and human alike, and tried to figure out what I should be doing. I had the irritating notion that the others would be waiting in the center for me, twiddling their thumbs while I chased my tail for an hour.
My mouth pursed at the thought, and I tried to speed up, but something on the ground was clinging to me, slowing me down. I peered up, saw a slither of sunlight make it through the hedges, and groaned with relief as I fought with my magic to create a means of using that to see what I was standing on.
The wind seemed to like me, so I tried to use that to spread the glow further, and when it worked, when the tiny slither turned into a puddle of light, I blew out a relieved breath.
Until I saw what I was standing on.
At first, it just appeared to be caked mud. But as I watched, using the sunlight as a flashlight, it began to move in rivulets, breaking the surface and letting slick dirt out from underneath, which caught in my sneakers. As I stared down at my once white shoes, I grunted as I saw the rivulets begin to snake. They wiggled from side to side, undulating in a way that was pretty mesmerizing.
The Ascended: The Eight Wings Collection Page 14
