Stone and Crow (Veiled Kingdoms: The Lost Fae Book 1)

by Stella Snow

  After she got the hang of a single punch, he had her punching with her left hand, then twice in a row. Finally, he started making her move while she punched the air. She stepped to the side and stumbled over a root sticking up out of the ground.

  “You have to use your peripheral vision to watch the ground around, stay aware, and don’t stop just because you’ve tripped.”

  “How does anyone ever,” she paused and punched twice, as hard as she could, “get the hang of this? Those MMA people make it look easy.”

  “I don’t know who the MMA people are, but it just takes practice. Now, less whining and more punching,” he said with a wink.

  Her arms felt as heavy as concrete by the time he let her stop punching. She had to shake her hands out after having them clenched in a fist for so long. He only gave her a moment to catch her breath.

  “Now, try to create a faelight,” Gavriel said, interrupting her daydreams about air conditioning. “Don’t think about it too much, just do it.”

  “What if—”

  “Don’t worry about what might happen, just do it,” he repeated firmly.

  She held out her hand and shut her eyes. The magic rushed to her fingertips with a speed she hadn’t expected. She let it go and took an involuntary step backward. Her heart was still beating fast from the exercise, but it was racing now.

  “Again.”

  She pushed back her shoulders and took another breath. This reminded her of Joy with the violin earlier. She was pushing too hard. She had to find just the right amount of pressure.

  She let the magic pour into her hand once again. There was irritation and frustration, but she could feel it lessening as she calmed down. The faelight whipped around her hand, only half-formed.

  Gavriel’s hand closed around her wrist. “Calm down and focus, you’re almost there.”

  She started to pull back, trying to let the magic go.

  “Don’t. You aren’t even close to losing control. Now is the time to push.”

  She looked down at the golden light that was crawling up her arm and whipping around them wildly. It was so bright it hurt to look at. The magic seemed to echo everything she was feeling. It made everything more intense, like she had to feel it all twice.

  “It’s just so much, how can I force all of this into something as small as that floating orb you showed me?”

  “You are pouring out nearly all of your magic right now, and you don’t need all of it. Pull back most of it. The magic will listen to you.”

  She tried to pull the magic back in close, but the effort of it made her feel dizzy. She faltered and the magic rushed out of her with a sound like thunder and a great gust of wind.

  Gavriel caught her just in time to keep her from being thrown to the ground, but the force of it still spun them around. She was left panting and trying to regain feeling in her arm.

  “It will listen to me, huh?” she muttered with her head on his shoulder.

  “It takes time and repetition. I went through the same process once. My life wasn’t under threat at the time, so it was a little easier for me to control my emotions.”

  She stepped away from him reluctantly and tried to shake off the simmering feeling of failure.

  “How old were you when you started to learn how to use magic?” She couldn’t really imagine babies crawling around with faelights circling their heads, but she apparently didn’t know much at all.

  “Ten, which is the normal age,” Gavriel said, walking over to a boulder and sitting down. “Magic is harder for everyone to control from about fifteen until eighteen.”

  She wrapped her hand around her necklace, rubbing the gem between her fingers. “It feels like I don’t really have that kind of time.”

  “I can keep you alive long enough to get to the Sidhe, and then you’ll have all the time you need.”

  “I don’t want to get to the Sidhe and embarrass myself with a complete inability to use magic.” She wiped sweat from her brow with the back of her hand.

  “Everyone would be entertained watching you blow things up,” Gavriel said, his face blank.

  She laughed and rolled her eyes. “Great. More people to stare at me.”

  “You do get a lot of attention here.”

  “You got more with that uniform you wore.”

  “Was it too much?” he asked with a slight smile.

  “No, it showed you weren’t ashamed of who you are. And it looked amazing on you.” She was glad her face was already flushed as a blush heated her cheeks.

  The smile widened into a grin. “Glad you approved.”

  “Do you wear that kind of thing often back in the Sidhe?”

  “I do.” His eyes twinkled with mischief, as if he liked the idea of her seeing him in it again. “Alright, that was enough of a break.”

  She groaned but nodded. They could chat during the day. If she was going to lose even more sleep, it needed to be for training.

  “Keep exactly this far away from me,” Gavriel said as he stepped just outside of the range of her punches. “If I move back, you move forward. If I move forward, you move back. Same with lateral movements, got it?”

  “Yes.”

  She threw two good punches, then he pushed in close and she stumbled backward. He moved back and she had to scramble forward. He didn’t slow down at all though and just kept moving and left it up to her to catch up.

  “Keep punching, you can’t stop that just because you’re trying to walk.”

  This was so much harder than the magic use. The movements felt unnatural and she hadn’t realized how uncoordinated she was.

  It was only five minutes later, but it had felt like an hour, when Gavriel finally paused to let her rest again.

  “Since I can barely use magic, have you decided to just work me to death?” Melodie bent over with her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath.

  Gavriel chuckled. “The plan is actually to exhaust you so that when you try to use magic again, you will be more relaxed.” He motioned for her to stand up straight and try again. “You’re probably annoyed with me enough now for the next part. Aim for my face.”

  “Your face?” she repeated, staring at him like the insane person that he was.

  “You can’t hurt me, I promise,” he said with a smirk.

  She launched forward immediately, but her punch was too slow. He barely moved his head and still avoided it easily. She threw a quicker jab followed by a punch, but he still dodged them easily, dancing around her faster than she could follow.

  With a growl of annoyance, she advanced on him, throwing one punch after another. Each attempt was less effective than the last and she got the impression that he was laughing at her. He was so much better at this distance game than she was. She stopped to catch her breath again.

  “Fine,” he said with a grin. “I’ll hold still this time.”

  He stood up straight with his hands clasped behind his back and his feet planted hips-width apart. She punched, aiming for his face, but sent her hand past it when she realized he really wasn’t going to move at all. His leg hit the back of hers and his hand impacted the top of her chest. All her breath rushed out of her as her back hit the ground. She glared up at him, trying to relearn how to breathe.

  “You can’t do that,” he said looking down at her with complete seriousness. “You have to train with the same determination that you will use in a fight. If you hesitate, you die.”

  He backed away without offering her a hand up. She sat up slowly, rubbing her hand across the back of her head where it had hit the dirt. She pushed up to her feet and realized that shaky feeling wasn’t just exhaustion.

  “Crap,” she said as she fell to her knees again.

  Gavriel turned around, frowning as he looked at her. “I didn’t think you hit the ground that hard––”

  “I didn’t.” She shook her head frantically. The magic snaked down her arms, flowing into the dirt in shuddering waves. “I’m trying—I’m trying to stop.”r />
  “Let it go,” he said, crouching down next to her. “You’re not injured, and no one is going to hurt you. You’re safe.”

  She curled her fingers into the dirt and grit her teeth as the magic pushed and pushed into the ground. The earth shook and rolled beneath her. Vines whipped up around them, twisting together and burrowing in and out of the dirt.

  Taking a deep breath, she focused on Gavriel’s presence. On the memory of the flowers he had created. Magic could be beautiful, and it could be controlled. As she exhaled, the emotional feedback shifted from overwhelming to manageable. The magic flowed back into her and most of the vines retreated into the earth, though a few wouldn’t budge. Letting out a sigh of relief, she plopped back onto her butt and released the last of magic.

  “That was less explosive at least,” she said with a tremulous smile.

  “You did well. It may not feel like it, but you are improving.”

  “Maybe beating me half to death is helping.” She smoothed her hair back where it had fallen out of her bun. Nothing less than a full shower could fix it now, though. She was a sweaty, dirty mess.

  Gavriel’s hands were streaked with dirt as well.

  “I know this is just training, but you have to understand that the ways you learn to move and react here, are how you will move and react when someone is actually trying to kill you. You can’t hesitate to take the opening if you have it. If any of these mercenaries find you, you can’t just hope to injure them and run. You fight to kill.”

  “I understand. I need to be pushed.” She shrugged, eyes straying to one of the vines she hadn’t been able to retract into the earth. “I need to stay alive, and I want to learn this stuff. Keep pushing me. I’m not afraid of hard work.”

  “If that’s what you want,” Gavriel said, looking at her intently. When he looked at her like this, it felt like it meant something. She never could bring herself to look away first.

  It had been an hour since Gavriel had helped her back through her window. She’d been pacing her room trying to work up the nerve to go search the study since then. It had to be done tonight; she didn’t want to keep the scroll in her room anymore in case someone came looking for it. Esther had been nice, but she might lose it if she found out that Melodie had actually stolen a super valuable historic document.

  She grabbed the page she had from the journal and put it in her back pocket, then checked the time on her phone. It was 2:04 am.

  She crept toward her door, opening it just a crack. All the lights in the house were off and it was dead silent. Her heart raced as she opened her bedroom door just wide enough to step out, then pulled it closed behind her. She barely took a breath as she walked past Joy and Ethan’s rooms.

  The door to the study opened soundlessly and she crept inside, pulling it shut behind her. She turned on the flashlight on her cell phone and carefully scanned the room. The bookshelves were neatly organized, and full of only books.

  She walked over to Esther’s desk and started opening the drawers one by one. Most of the paperwork seemed to be related to the kid’s school records or Esther’s job. There was a trunk behind the desk. She pulled on and twisted the latch, just in case, but of course it was locked.

  A noise startled her. She shut off the light on her phone. The voice got louder and the handle to the study started to turn. Before she could second guess herself, Melodie dove underneath the desk. The door opened less than a second later. She clamped her hand over her mouth and tried not to breathe as she pushed as far back under the desk as she could get.

  “I have given you all the information I have on it,” Esther said with irritation lacing her voice.

  Melodie curled in as tight as she could, begging whoever might be listening for Esther to not come any farther around the desk, or god forbid, try to sit down.

  “Then where is the rest of the journal you mentioned? Read it yourself, it’s incomplete.”

  There was a pause, and her heart was pounding out of her chest. Gavriel had it right now, maybe he would leave it here.

  “The complete text should have been with the records that Ms. Nancy brought over. She is reviewing the catalog to try to figure out if it was misplaced, or if we never actually had it. So much of what the Founders brought over was incomplete. You know this. I’m not hiding things from you. This conversation is getting old, Gavriel.”

  The desk creaked as someone sat on the edge.

  “Considering your strong feelings concerning relics, especially the Stone, you’ll have to forgive me if I’m having a bit of trouble trusting that you are actually doing everything in your power to help me,” Gavriel said.

  Melodie could hear the sneer in his voice. She froze. He wasn’t just researching relics; he was looking for the Stone. She took a shaky breath in through her nose and hoped they weren’t going to be able to hear.

  “When will Ms. Nancy be done looking over the catalog?” Gavriel asked.

  “Soon, before we attempt to open the gate, for sure,” Esther said. Without warning she walked around to the back of the desk. Melodie could see her pajama-clad legs just in front of her. Don’t sit down, don’t sit down, don’t sit down.

  Esther dug around in a drawer for a moment and pulled something heavy and crinkly out. Melodie stifled a sigh of relief when she walked back to the side of the desk.

  “Here is a copy of the catalog if you care to go over it yourself?” Esther’s voice was tight with irritation.

  “I would.”

  “Great, now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go get about four hours of sleep. Again.”

  Gavriel didn’t respond, but she heard his slightly heavier footsteps head toward the door and out of the study.

  “Just a reminder, Gavriel. I’ve given you everything you have asked for, including the girl.”

  His footsteps paused, then he continued on. Esther followed after him with a sigh, shutting the door behind her.

  Chapter 19

  Melodie was staring at the ceiling when her alarm went off. She smacked her hand down on top of it, smudging her finger around until the alarm finally shut off. Esther’s words were ringing in her ears, even hours later.

  She sat up and rubbed her hands up and down over her face briskly to shake off the melancholy that was threatening to overwhelm her, then threw the covers back and slid out of bed. She pulled on some clothes and twisted her hair up into a bun. It was at least an hour before even Ethan would be up.

  Melodie needed the time to herself since apparently no one could be trusted, and wanted to get out of the house to practice. She’d spent so much time waiting on Salathia or Gavriel to help her. It was time to see what she could do on her own. Besides, it had been six days since they arrived, with one day left before the first attempt to open the gate. She was running out of time.

  She crept through the quiet house and held her breath as she opened and closed the back door, willing it not to creak. The latch slid back into place silently and she let out a sigh of relief.

  The grass was still dewy and cool against her bare feet as she trotted over to the garden and slipped inside, closing the door behind her. The hush of the garden covered her as soon as the door was shut. She took a moment to lean back against it and just breathe.

  The twisting paths of the garden were starting to feel familiar. She followed one of the mossy pathways to the area she practiced with Salathia. Tentative sprouts of grass were already growing up in the midst of the scarred earth she had left. She walked to the center of it and dug her toes into the dirt.

  "Alright, focus and purpose," she murmured to herself.

  Her magic leaped to her fingertips, already shimmering into faelight. The light brightened as it wobbled and wiggled around her hand. It wasn't as bright as it should be, and it wasn't even close to a sphere. She flexed her fingers, trying to drag the magic into the center of her hand.

  “Why can’t you just cooperate?” She poked at it with her left hand. It was cold to the touch and tried to shiver a
way from her finger. The magic melted away and she shook out her hand.

  She tried again, this time pouring a little more oomph into the magic. She pictured the bow drawing back across the strings of her violin with the perfect steady pressure, and the clear note it would create. Slowly, but surely, the magic settled across her skin, pooling in the pit of her stomach comfortably.

  Relaxing her shoulders, she focused on the dirt under her feet, letting it ground her. The breeze carried the scent of flowers and tickled her neck with a piece of hair that had fallen out of her bun. She thought back to the moment in the forest when she had moved her magic intentionally for the first time. Like Gavriel had said, it was simply a matter of flexing that mental muscle that controlled her magic. Taking one last breath, she looked down.

  “Oh my god,” she whispered as she pulled her hand in closer to her face. The light was round. She wasn’t sure what to do now since she hadn’t expected to be successful.

  “It’s perfect.”

  She jumped and whipped around, dropping the faelight. It zoomed up and started spinning around her head.

  “You scared me half to death.” She pressed her hand to her chest. Her heart racing as much from being startled as it was for seeing him for the first time since last night. She was worried he’d be able to see right through her.

  Gavriel walked over to her soundlessly and scooped the faelight up with his hand. It went with him, sending a weird thrill down her spine as he touched it.

  “I knew you would figure it out soon,” he said as he took another step closer to her. “You’ve been making amazingly fast progress.”

  Melodie forced a smile onto her face. She was excited, but all of Salathia’s warnings about the Sidhe were stealing her sense of accomplishment, especially after last night. If Salathia was right about Gavriel, then she couldn't discount anything her guardian had said about the Sidhe.

  “How did you know I’d be out here?”

  “I keep an eye on you,” he said with a wink.

  She rolled her eyes at his evasive answer, then, before she could second guess herself, snuffed the faelight out and held up her hand to create it again. Her stomach churned with nerves while Gavriel watched her, so she stared at her hand and tried to ignore him completely. The magic came to her so much more easily this time and the light pooled in her hand, swirling into a perfect, bright sphere. She sent it flying to Gavriel, around his head, then back to her own hand.