As a Piscean herself, she has the same talent for natural magic that Lavina does. I’m glad Jayla is exercising her skill. It’s a good thing to have around, but I don’t love these two spending time together. More to the point, I don’t love my mother spending time with Jayla. I don’t trust her. She left us and we just don’t know what she’s been up to the past fourteen years. However, I will ask her for help, if it’ll save Amara.
Jayla brushes her chestnut hair out of her face self-consciously and I know why she’s actually here. Her sister died and she wants power. She craves it now, to keep us all safe, to find our friends.
“Aaric, I know you want to find your sister, but you can’t be mouthing off to the king like that.”
“Sorry, Lavina, but the time for being a mother is long gone.” Again, I sound like more of an asshole than intended, but I just don’t care. Time is not on our side here and I am not going to waste it being nice to a woman who has never shown any interest in me or Amara. “I’m here because you need to convince the king to go after my sister.”
“Aaric, I can’t—”
“Jayla,” I cut off any protests my mother might have, never taking my eyes off of her. “Would you give me and my mother a moment alone, please?” Normally I don’t care about my audience when the mad, village boy comes out, but what I’m about to use as my bargaining chip is not something that needs to be spread around the palace. There is a fine line between being mad and being stupid.
Jayla takes one look between me and Lavina and decides she does not belong here for this. “Sure, Aaric.” She spares another glance for my mother before leaving us alone, wisely shutting the door behind her.
“Aaric—”
“Stop talking.” Anger ripples off of me and even my mother is smart enough not to challenge me. She’s heard the whispers of the broken boy with ether powers beyond our very own comprehension, beyond those books Haven loves, the ones that explain what each element is capable of. What I can do is not in any book. “The day of the funeral you told me that the king had affection for you once. That must still be true otherwise he wouldn’t have left his doors open for you once your husband stole away his son’s Zodiac.”
“That’s not going to be enough.” That’s all she has for me. Just six words. Part of me wonders if it’s all she says because she’s afraid I am going to cut her off again, but all I see is her not being willing to do everything it takes to get her daughter back.
“She mourned you ya know.”
“What?” she whispers.
“Amara. She doesn’t remember it, but I do.” I cross the room, moving toward the mantle above the fireplace where there are pictures of her and Aaren, the only one of us she looks at with any sort of true affection. “She cried for days once she realized you weren’t coming back, once I had to tell her you weren’t coming back. Kara never left her side. I think the night you left is the night they became best friends. They haven’t spent a day apart since. Now they’re as far apart as they can get, under two different tyrants, in two different countries. They may never see each other again, because of him. Because he didn’t protect them like he swore that he would. He used Amara to further his own agenda and we forgave it. I will not forgive so easily if I do not get my sister back.”
“The king cannot go to war for one girl.”
“That girl is your daughter!” My voice crackles with anger and the favorite son is at the door in seconds. He says my name from behind me, but I ignore him. “Your only daughter! You don’t know her. See, I—I know her. I know that when we were half-starved before Dad got his job in the Mines she pretended not to be hungry so that I could eat. I know that when I broke my leg when we were twelve she never left my side. I know that, if given the time, she would have forgiven you for everything you’ve done to hurt us. Because that is who she is! She is good and not like I am or Aaren or Felix, but flawlessly good. And I know, I know she is counting on me to save her and I will not disappoint her. If you won’t help me I will find her on my own, but I cannot guarantee I will come back alive.”
My mother’s expression is unreadable. She seems to be absorbing everything I’ve just said. Finally, she speaks. “There are ways of getting her back without starting a war. I’ll talk to Theron.”
I clench my shaking hands into fists at my side and nod. “Thank you, Mom.”
Her gray eyes flick up to me at the word. “I can’t guarantee anything, Aaric, but I will try. I will fight for her.”
With my mother working on Amara I can work on Kara so when I leave the parlor room I head for the library.
We’d found things on Theon in that library only months ago when our Zodiac was on a mission to protect Amara from him. There has to be something on this Nexus.
To my surprise, when I arrive, Roman is already there, combing through a pile of books spread out on the table in front of him. We need no words to communicate what we both plan to do. Let’s dig in, his expression seems to say.
So that’s what we do. We spend hours in that library trying to find something, anything on this Nexus, something that will tell us what Theon might use it for, and why he needs my sister’s power to do it.
It isn’t until well into the night hours that I say what we’re both thinking. “There’s nothing here.”
It’s like Roman was waiting for me to say it first because the moment I do he tosses the book he’s currently reading into the pile of discarded books in front of us. “Not a thing.”
“Alright. Well, let’s think of this logically, shall we?” Suddenly Bay is there, sitting in a chair across from me and Roman, shoving the books between us out of the way so that he can see us. I am stunned by his sudden turnaround, but he doesn’t give me the chance to speak. “What is a Nexus?”
“I already told you.” Aaren appears next with Niykee at his side, both of them taking a seat at our table. “It’s a dark object with—”
“The ability to infuse all six elements into one, yeah, I got that, but I mean the actual definition of the word.”
“Wait, I—I found that somewhere.” Roman shoves a few books aside and grabs hold of one leather-bound book sick with age, but somehow still in one piece. “Nexus: a connection or series of connections linking two or more things, a connected group or series. The central and most important part or place. It derives from Latin, meaning to bind together.”
“There.” Bay points at Roman excitedly. “To bind together. Theon is on a mission to stop the persecution of Serpentarians, but to do that he’s going to need power, and a lot of it, right? It’s why he’s so fixated on Amara. Because Amara has presented more power than any other nether user he’s ever come across. The Nexus has the ability to infuse all six elements together, but that does not mean it has the power to begin with. What if there’s some way for Theon to steal Amara’s power and place it into the Nexus?”
“Amara’s the last nether user.” Niykee breathes.
“Say that again.” Aaren points at Niykee, seemingly onto something.
“Amara’s the last nether user.”
“Yes, she is the last one, right?” Aaren presses on. “If he can do what Bay said it would be nothing for him to get his hands on a Zodiac with all the other elements. Fire, water, earth, air, even ether. But Amara is the only person with nether, that we know of anyway.”
“But Theon’s a nether user. Why would he need her?” Niykee makes a good point.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Felix makes his own appearance, knocking a few books off the shelf he’s slumped against as he stumbles over. “He’s a thousand year old Zodiac without half the power as a seventeen year old girl who hasn’t had her powers for more than six months.”
“Fee, are you alright?” Niykee asks.
“He’s drunk, again.” I jump to my feet and rush over to Felix, catching him before he can tumble to the floor. “Alright buddy, I think it’s time for bed.”
“Don’t touch me, Aaric.” Felix slurs his words. I suppress the urge to step
back from his alcohol-soaked breath.
“Fee, let me help you.”
“Don’t you think you’ve done enough?” he sneers at me.
“Excuse me?”
“Tristan is dead, Aaric. Dead. You did that. Does it make you feel really good knowing that he died thinking you hated him?”
His words sting and I step away from him, trying very hard to rein in that explosive temper Amara always accuses me of having. “That isn’t true, Fee. I—we—we made up before…he knew the truth.” For all the speeches I’ve given today, I can barely keep my words straight now. But then, no one had accused me of being the reason Tristan is dead, even if it’s the truth.
“You used him to get Kol’s soul back, a traitor, and Tristan is dead because of it.”
“Alright, Felix, it’s enough. You need to go sleep it off.” Aaren says, coming to my rescue as only an older brother can.
“No,” Felix shakes his head. “It’s not enough. It’ll never be enough.” Felix trips over a book on the floor and almost bites it when Jayla rushes up behind him.
“Sorry, guys. I was trying to get him to bed and he disappeared on me.” Jayla explains as she begins to drag Felix off. “Come on, Fee. Let’s go get some rest, huh?”
“Do you need some help?” Aaren calls after her.
“I got this.” Jayla assures Aaren and then turns the corner with Felix in hand.
“Just let them go, Aaric.” Niykee warns me, sensing my desire to go after them. “Jayla lost her sister, Felix lost the closest thing he had to a brother. Right now, Jayla is the only person in the world who can understand how he’s feeling right now.”
“He’s not the only one.” I mutter under my breath and then return to my seat. “But he’s right. Theon wants Amara because, while he won’t admit it, she’s more powerful than he is.”
“So, what? Theon wants to infuse the Nexus with all six elements and use it to fight his war?” Niykee asks skeptically.
“Maybe.” Roman mutters. “But what if—what if, once the Nexus is infused with all six elements, Theon can somehow absorb its power?”
“If he did that he’d be the first Zodiac to ever possess all six elements at once.” Niykee guesses.
“Yes.” Roman’s terrified green eyes meet mine. “If he were to do that…”
“He would quite literally be unstoppable.” I finish for him.
Silence falls over the group for a painful few seconds before Niykee speaks up. “Right now, we know Amara, at the very least, is being kept alive, right?” Niykee says to me. “So I say we buckle down, we figure out where this Nexus is, and we go find it ourselves to stop something even worse from happening.”
“Like world domination?” Bay jokes.
“If we don’t do it, who will?” Aaren adds.
“Let’s do it.” I agree. I can find that damned Nexus and then go after my sister myself. I am not foolish enough to believe that my mother will succeed in talking to the king. I’m not foolish enough to wait around while she does. “Let’s go, right now.”
“Aaric, we can’t go right now.” Roman objects.
“Why not?” I stand to my feet. “We know what Theon wants. If we get it before he does it will render my sister completely useless to him. She’ll be safe from him at the very least.”
“Because we don’t even know where it is, Aaric. We’d be going in blind.” I shake my head, brushing a hand through my hair in frustration. “But hey,” Roman grabs onto my shoulder. “The moment, and I mean the moment we know where to find it, I will be right by your side.”
“You’ll come with me?” This surprises me.
“Hell yes.”
That’s enough for me to wait, because Roman would be invaluable in a mission like this. He knows this world, this land, these people. With him, we may actually survive this. “Okay. I’ll wait.”
“How are we going to find this thing?” Niykee asks the million dollar question.
“We’ll read every book.” Roman shifts his eyes to her. “Pisceans created this thing. We’ll ask every one of them, talk to everyone who knows anything about the Nexus. We’ll figure out where it is and then we’ll go after it, together.”
“Well then we should all get to bed.” Bay speaks up, moving up behind Niykee and Aaren. “Tomorrow, our search begins.”
—CHAPTER SIX—
KARA
TRIGGERS
My world is but a blur.
I can still see it, even behind closed eyelids. Theon rushing me to the infirmary, doctors swarming me, the pain. The kind that brings you to your knees. My screams fill the air and, an invasion into my mind. I can still feel the remnants of Amara there and suddenly I know this Echo is real because I know she was here with me, through all of this. I can almost hear her cries in the back of my head.
Like an echo.
My eyes flutter open and I find Clea staring down at me from my bedside. Part of me thinks I am merely imagining it, but the moment she sees my eyes open she lunges forward, grabbing hold of my hand. “Kara, Kara, can you hear me? Kara?”
“Yes, yes, I can hear you.” I say irritably.
“You’ve been in and out all night. You kept waking up crying. I haven’t left.”
I shift against the pillows, moving into as much of a sitting position as I can get without causing myself anymore pain. My eyes rake over her, blue eyes dark with what one can only guess is sadness. “Clea…” I say softly. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you being nice to me?”
“You’re my best friend, Kara.” she says innocently and then something seems to occur to her because her eyes light up with realization. She glances at the door to make sure the guards there aren’t paying any attention to us. Then she leans forward. “I’m back.” she whispers to me.
I blink at her, confused. “What?”
“Aaric kept his promise. He came back for me.”
And then it hits me. I’m back. Clea has her soul back. “Clea—”
“Shh.” She hisses at me, sparing the guards another glance. I nod my understanding. “I know where Amara is.”
“What?”
“I was with her, when she was taken. I told Theon I don’t know where she is and I suppose that’s partly true, but I know who has her.”
“Who has her, Clea?”
Clea’s about to answer when we both glance up to see Kol at the door talking to the guards there. “You’re finally awake.” he says, sauntering over to us.
“She just woke up.” Clea tells Kol, shifting out of his reach. Kol smirks. Their behavior tells me he knows her soul is back. That cautious look in her eye also tells me that she is afraid of him, which is surprising because the Clea I know isn’t afraid of anything, with or without her soul.
“Theon will be glad to hear it.”
The mention of Theon reminds me of the odd talk he and I had in the courtyard. And then…my babies.
“My babies,” I wrench forward on my bed and clutch my stomach protectively. “How are they? Are they okay?”
“Sit back, sweetheart. Relax.” Kol places a hand on my shoulder, pushing me back gently. “Your babies are fine.”
“Get away from me, Kol. I wanna talk to Taya!” I demand frantically.
Kol has to push me back down again and this time he does it with a little more pressure to keep me in place. To keep me down. “Kara, sweetheart, I need you to calm down, otherwise we’re going to have to sedate you again.”
My eyes fly to Clea. “Again?” I breathe.
“I told you. You kept waking up crying.” Clea looks over at me apologetically, pleading with me to behave. She is acting very skittish around Kol and it leads me to believe he’s threatened her in some way, maybe even hurt her. It’s an odd change from the soulless bitch she’d been since the Zodiac ball months ago where Theon’s ether user had resurrected her.
“Kol,” My voice quivers in my anger. “If you don’t let me see Taya right now I will burn you alive.”
“If you’d only
sit still I’d be able to heal you and then I can go get her.”
“Heal me? Heal me from what?”
“From those.”
Clea eyes my wrists and I gasp when I see what she means. All along my wrists and arms there are claw marks. I’m about to ask who did this to me when I see the dried blood under my fingernails. “Did I do this?”
“It’s why we had to sedate you.” Kol says.
I start to ask myself why I would do something like this, but I quickly realize I already know the answer. I wouldn’t. That is an Amara thing. Whenever she’s letting her anger get the better of her she digs her nails into her palms or wrists to rein it in, hurting herself instead of someone else. She’s done it ever since we were kids. At least now we know it’s because Serpentarians have explosive tempers.
Another clue is the fact that apparently I was crying all night. I don’t cry. Amara does. Not because she’s weak, but because she feels things a lot harder than I do. Looking in Clea’s eyes now it seems she’s come to the same conclusion I have.
“Is this because of the Echo?”
“Like our magic, the Echo is triggered by pain or anger. Your Echo does more than let you sense each other’s distress. Your minds and emotions are linked so whenever one of you is angry or in pain it triggers the other. Once you get a handle on it you’ll be able to communicate with each other through your Echo.”
“So I did this because Amara was doing it to herself?”
“Yes.” Kol says evenly, looking away from me. Her being in pain hurts him. I can see it in his eyes. This boy is giving me whiplash.
“Amara was probably crying herself to sleep and what probably started out as scratching turned into full-fledged clawing at skin.” Clea explains.
“And when I was having pregnancy cramps last night it’s why I could feel her in my head. She was in pain because I was in pain.”
“Gives all new meaning to the words when you hurt I hurt.” Kol mutters.
“No kidding.”
“Will you let me heal you now?”
“How can you heal me? Your element is water.”
“Just sit back and let me do what I came in here to do.” Kol keeps one hand on my shoulder and then his other moves toward my arm. To my surprise his palm starts to light up the same way Aaric’s does when he uses his healing powers. Very slowly I feel the pain from the scratches start to subside. I even feel the subtle cramps fade away.
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