by Sara Thorn
“You want to have sex here?” He looked stunned but not completely dismissing the idea.
“No,” I laughed. “Here, sit with me for a minute.”
I held out my hand as I sat down on the ground. It was warm, but not too hot. Cassius looked hesitant. I supposed that sitting on a volcanic surface wasn’t the smartest idea ever, but I was trying to do an experiment.
“Kiss me,” I said as Cassius sat beside me.
He looked confused but interested as he leaned forward and our mouths met. I reached my left hand up to hold the back of his head as I pulled his mouth against mine and felt his tongue push between my lips. It didn’t take much at all for the two of us to ignite into a longing passion that made us want each other with a fiery heat. It didn’t matter if we were sitting on top of a tectonic plate or an iceberg; the desire to have each other was always burning just below the surface of our skin. The kiss continued, and I reached the palm of my right hand against the ground as if I could seep right through the surface of it and pull out its innards. When the kiss ended and we were both now significantly wanton for it to go further, Cassius gingerly pulled his face from mine, and the sight of what I held in my right hand caught his eye.
I looked over at my outstretched hand, too, and saw exactly what I was hoping to see. There, oozing between my fingers, was a moving fire. Just as the vines had pushed out of the earth back at the castle, now the molten lava that was hiding beneath the surface had pushed up and into my hand, and as my fingers curled around it, the tendrils of thick, burnt-orange liquid coiled around my knuckles, down my wrist, and onto my forearm. Cassius looked stunned.
“Doesn’t it burn?” he asked as he watched it move and wrap around my arm.
“No,” I said. “Strangely enough, it doesn’t feel like it has any temperature at all.”
Cassius reached out to touch it, but as soon as his fingers made contact with the moving orange liquid, he quickly withdrew his hand as if he had touched something hot. “It burned me,” he said.
But that was impossible. I could feel the molten liquid moving between my fingers and tickling the inside of my wrist, but I couldn’t feel if it were hot or cold or anything else in between.
“That’s incredible,” he said, not attempting another touch at it.
After we had watched it for a few moments, I set my hand back down against the surface of the ground, and as soon as I did, the tendrils began to untwist themselves and drop back down and become one with the earth again. We both stared at the creeping fluid until it had reabsorbed back into the surface from where it came. That was the first time that I was able to somewhat call to the power of the land myself. It came on cue, and I was sure that there were other ways to invoke the power, too. Maybe there wasn’t just one particular way to use the magic; maybe there were thousands of different ways. We got back up and continued on our path. I had just wanted to see if I could reach for the magic, even here in the volcanic wasteland.
While we walked, I started to think about something that I had seen and read about in the historical archives, which seemed to now be playing out in regard to the dhampir prophecy. I wanted to share it with Cassius, and I hoped that he would be open-minded enough to entertain listening to it, even the parts about Quinn.
“There is a part of the prophecy that told about the three forces of magic in this world,” I said. “Magic, nature, and power and about how Mystreuce would begin to break apart if those forces weren’t united.”
“Yes, I’ve read about that, too,” Cassius said. “Even though the prophecy surrounds a dhampir, there are many other pieces to it. Although I’m not really sure how the pieces all come together.”
“I think I may have an idea about that,” I said. “I think each of us—Quinn, you, and me—represents one of those three forces—magic, nature, and power.”
I clenched on the inside, knowing that he would likely disregard anything I said if it followed the mention of Quinn’s name. I was hoping that our talk in the coffee shop would at least help him keep an open mind about things when it came to Quinn without immediately launching into a fit of jealousy that closed-off everything else.
“How so?” he asked.
“Well,” I continued, happy to see that he might be actually listening about it, “there are three of us, just like there are three forces here—nature, magic, and power. I think I represent nature since I seem to be able to pull the power straight from the land itself. I think Quinn represents magic because he is a powerful fae and because of the curse that tempts him so with shadow magic. And I think that you represent power. You are the strongest and most powerful of the three of us. You are also—at least when you’re not flying off into a rage-fueled temper tantrum—the most capable of bringing everything back under control after times of chaos.”
“Rage-filled temper tantrum?” he said sarcastically. “Do you really think that is an accurate depiction of my moods?”
“Are we supposed to be honest here?” I joked before changing my tone back to the matter at hand. “What if a part of that prophecy is happening now?”
“What would make you think that?” he asked.
“It’s just a feeling. I have another feeling, too, but I don’t think you’re going to like it very much.”
“What is it?”
“I think you need to make peace with Quinn,” I said.
“I already have made peace with Quinn. We talked about this at the coffee shop.”
“No, I mean really make peace with him. You haven’t done that yet. You made peace with me, but not with him,” I said.
“I don’t know what you want me to do,” Cassius said. He threw his hands into the air as we walked. “Like give him a hug or a handshake or something?”
“I think that whatever force I that prophecy is connecting the three of us can tell when there’s a rift. I’m sure you can tell that’s true, too, can’t you?” I asked. “I mean, just look at how Mystreuce responds to us. If you don’t truly make peace with him in your heart, I don’t think any of this is going to work.”
“Well, then we’d better hope that there’s another option built in to the prophecy. Because if you’re waiting for me to embrace Quinn as though he is some sort of third pinnacle in our love triangle, that isn’t going to happen, Mara. I love you, and you and I belong to each other. There’s no room in that for Quinn.”
“I don’t want us to have a love triangle,” I said as I scoffed at the ridiculous assumption. “I just don’t want us to continue pulling each other apart. There has to be a way for the three of us to coexist without destroying each other.”
“There is,” Cassius said. “And it can start with him not touching you again.”
I sighed. I knew the dynamic between the three of us was complicated on a million different levels, but things would be so much easier if they both weren’t so stubborn and bull-headed.
We walked for what seemed like endless miles until my boots were scraping my feet raw, and the heat in the ground was starting to melt the treads. Still, there was no sign of anything changing in the landscape up ahead. It was still a wide, red, barren stretch of land. There were no trees, no plants, and it suddenly dawned on me that I was super thirsty, and there was no water. I was just starting to get a bit panicked about it when I saw something move up ahead in the distance. It was way up ahead, and so I could only make out a few tiny moving dots, but Cassius saw it, too.
“There’s someone coming,” he said. “Maybe a few someones.”
I wanted to run up ahead to see who it was, but Cassius grabbed my arm.
“We don’t know where we are or who those people are,” he warned. “Keep the same pace, and when we cross paths with them, then we will see.”
I noticed him reach for the waist of his pants where the hilt for his dagger usually hung. But since Bree and I had essentially ambushed him into going to Earth, he hadn’t brought it with him. If the people ahead of us were hostile, neither of us had anything to protect o
urselves with except for our power.
“Cassius,” I said as we got closer to them, almost to the point of being able to make out who they were. “If something happens and we need to fight, I’ll pull the molten from the ground again. Can you do something with it if I give it to you?”
“What, like make a make a weapon out of it?” he asked with a raised brow. “It’s a liquid, and it’s not anything that’s going to harden fast enough for me to craft a blade out of. Besides, I can’t even touch it without getting burned, remember? If you can use it, then do it. Pull it out of the ground and use it as a whip to hurl at anyone who might try to hurt you.”
“But what about you?” I asked.
“I’m the most powerful one, right?” he winked. “You said so yourself.”
I rolled my eyes at him, and the heat in the air made them sting. Then I squinted to try to make out the image of who was walking toward us. The air here was hard to see through; it hung in a hazy smoke as if we were trying to see through clouded glass that had been smeared with handprints and the fog of breath. But at each step that we took closer to them, I was able to piece together a clearer and clearer view. There were two of them, no wait—four. And the likenesses of the two walking in front started to come into focus.
Quinn and Bree.
I ran toward them even before Cassius had figured out who they were, so he was quickly on my heels, worried that I might have been running toward danger.
“Bree! Quinn!” I shouted.
I felt like when I called Quinn’s name, Cassius ran even faster to make sure he stayed at my side. As soon as they realized it was us, they all started running, too. That’s when I saw that it was Sylva and Norr behind them. I wondered why they had come, but I was so happy to see all of them care or question it.
“Oh my God, I’m so happy to see you guys,” I said as I threw my arms around Bree’s neck. When I let go of her, it was almost a reflex for me to throw my arms around Quinn, too, but I didn’t. I just smiled at him and the others instead.
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked.
“Looking for you.”
Chapter Thirteen
I was amazed at how much better Quinn looked now. He appeared to be almost entirely back to normal.
His green eyes flashed brilliantly, and the only discoloration on his skin that remained were the tiny lines on the tips of his fingers that looked like fading spider veins. I was glad to see him looking so well, and even though I was sure Cassius wasn’t happy to see him at all, I knew he would be glad Quinn wasn’t on a rampage to kill anymore. Not that Cassius wouldn’t have liked to have a chance to knock Quinn down, but we had other things to do at the moment.
“What made you come all the way out here to find us?” I asked Bree, who looked worried, which was never a good sign.
“When Quinn described the gateway that he pulled for you, I figured that it was here,” she answered.
“You opened the gateway for us?” Cassius asked him.
Quinn nodded.
“Where are we?” I asked. “Is there still a long way to go before we’re back home?”
“Oh, yes,” she answered. “A very long way. It’ll take us a few days to get back.”
“Why did you come to get us?” Cassius asked her.
I figured that they came just to help us find our way back, but his tone made it seem like he knew there was another reason.
“Mystreuce is breaking,” Bree said.
“Honestly,” I interjected, “for such a powerful world, it sure seems like Mystreuce falls apart on a near-daily basis.”
Bree laughed at my comment but then got right back to being serious. “I think all of the things that have been happening to the land are all part of the same prophecy. That’s why it seems to be snowballing. Things have been set into motion, and Mystreuce is trying to fulfill its part.”
“That’s strange,” I said. “We were just talking about the prophecy when we saw you.”
“What is happening to the land back home?” Cassius asked. “The land here, although very extreme, seems fine. There doesn’t seem to be anything breaking here.”
Bree described to us about how the human village had been flooded and destroyed, how the vampire caverns were collapsing, and how the fae were huddled inside of a dying forest as they watched their home wither around them. I looked at her with shock on my face as I thought about what would make this all happened and what, if anything, we could do about it.
“I think it has to do with the three of you,” Bree said.
I shot a look at Cassius that was the equivalent of “See, I told you so.”
He didn’t appear to catch it, though, because he was too busy watching the young fae and vamp couple standing behind Bree.
“Why are they here?” he asked.
I didn’t want him to interrupt her right now. I wanted to hear what she thought was going on with Mystreuce.
“They wanted to come,” she answered simply.
Sylva and Norr looked timidly at Cassius as if they were afraid that he would yell at them.
“We wanted to come to help,” Norr said as they stared back hesitantly at Cassius. “And we also needed to get away from our families so we could be together.”
Cassius didn’t say anything for a minute while he looked at them. “Good,” he finally said. “It’s always best to follow your heart.”
They were both relieved and pleased when it looked like Cassius was welcoming them to join us instead of making them walk all the way back home on their own.
“But didn’t you say not to fall in love?” Norr asked.
Sylva shot him a look, which definitely was a warning for him to shut up and not cause Cassius to change his mind about letting them stay.
“Yes,” Cassius smiled. “I did. But I was just mad and in one of my rage-filled temper tantrums, as has so clearly been brought to my attention and pointed out.” Cassius glanced over at me and smirked.
Norr just stood there, looking confused. No matter what, it seemed that we were all on the rest of this journey together.
“Now, if we could just find some water,” I said as I grew more parched by the minute. There was no way we could go several more days without something to drink. I wondered how they made it this far without getting dehydrated. There must have been a source or two along the way.
Bree pulled a flask from her small satchel and held it up to the sky. I watched her as she waited for something to happen.
“I don’t think there’s any chance that it’s going to rain here,” Cassius said. He looked at her as if she were nuts.
But then, tiny water droplets seemed to form right in the air in front of her face and drop themselves into the flask. They started slowly but then became a steady flow until the flask was full. As soon as she closed the cap, the remaining droplets fell down the ground and ceased forming.
“What kind of magic was that?” Cassius asked. “I’ve never seen a fae able to pull water out of the air before.”
“That’s because she’s not a fae,” Quinn said.
“You’re not?” I asked, not meaning to sound rude. “What are you?”
“A lesser deity,” Bree said as if it was no big deal. “But let’s talk about that later. We should get going because it’s a long walk back.”
I happily drank some of the water and then handed it to Cassius. It occurred to me that I hadn’t seen him drink blood, and I had been planning to ask him how long a dhampir could go without it but had gotten sidetracked.
“We’ll walk as far as we can today,” Bree said. “And then shelter for the night to rest for a bit before restarting the rest of the journey.
Cassius and I walked next to Bree and Quinn while Sylva and Norr talked quietly behind us as we went. We talked about the prophecy, and although all four of us had a few random theories and tidbits of information, none of us could really figure out what we were supposed to do about it.
When it got dark, we kept walking. M
ystreuce had several moons, and all of them seemed to look as if they were self-illuminated. There was plenty of light for us to see where we were going. But Sylva and Norr had become nearly silent, and I could tell that they were getting tired by the way she kept leaning her head on his shoulder as they walked and the long yawns he would let out every once in a while. The landscape began to slowly change as we pushed on until it seemed like we were out of the volcanic area and into a more overgrown wilderness. It wasn’t lush like the forest by any means, and I didn’t see any natural water sources around. But it did have some trees, and I could hear the sound of some sort of animal skittering around. It was kind of like a desert, I guess, but a little bit less barren.
“We can stay here for the night if it suits you?” she said to Cassius.
He nodded. I think he realized that everyone was tired, too.
We all spent a quiet night of reprieve in the wilderness together. Everyone kind of sectioned off a bit, and Sylva and Norr were the first to fall asleep. There were sweet together; all curled up with Norr’s arms around Sylva while she slept. It was disheartening to think that their people gave them grief about being together. That same sort of thing happened back on Earth all the time, and I never understood it there, either. Why did people have to cause other people misery and hardship? Why couldn’t they just leave each other alone to be free to find happiness? If there was one thing that I knew from my past experiences on Earth, it was always the people that had been the most damaged and the most broken by others who seemed to be the most compassionate. I guessed that it was because they knew how awful it felt to be persecuted. It was just such a shame that they had to go through hell to begin with. I hoped that Sylva and Norr would have a better life ahead together; they seemed like they really loved each other.
Quinn sat with Bree, and the two of them stayed up talking for a while. I couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but I could tell that they were getting along. She appeared to really care about him, and I was glad. Maybe he would find happiness with Bree, and then he and Cassius wouldn’t continue to have such an awkward rift between them. It still felt strange to think of Quinn with someone, though, and I wasn’t sure why.
