“To which questions?” Lars reasoned.
“That’s the trouble. There are too many.” She reached up and rubbed her temples. “There’s so much white noise in here.”
My eyes widened at that and I headed over to her, just as I’d seen Linford do to her grandmother. The second I approached, she sighed with relief and fell into me.
Lars, spying the gesture, murmured, “There is much power in here. It calls to the strongest of our lines.”
“Did you feel this at your homestead?” I questioned softly.
Riel shook her head. “No.” The bleakness to that one word hit me hard.
Gabriella whispered, “The homestead dies without its family. Just as the family dies without its homestead.”
I tensed, waiting on Riel’s explosion, but she didn’t say anything, just grabbed my hand and held on as Daniel and Matthew moved toward the kitchen with Lars. When Gabriella and Linford did too, she turned around and stared at the old woman.
Unable to stop myself, I, too, studied her. She was heavily lined, her body frail and infirm with her stooped shoulders and crumpled form. But what made me uneasy was the way her eyes were alive with awareness. Her body had failed her, but her mind certainly hadn’t.
“I can’t leave her like this,” Riel rasped, her voice low.
“Then don’t,” I encouraged softly, understanding her reasoning.
“I’m not sure if I’m supposed to,” she whispered back. “I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
“Following the vision. It led you here—”
“It led us here. This is about all of us. Grandmother knows more than she’s saying. She wanted you to touch Lars’ magic first. What stopped you?” she probed, tipping her head up to look me in the eye.
As always, the connection flooded me with sensation, and there was no greater feeling than seeing her being staggered by the link too. Sol, she was so ‘staggered’ that her knees buckled. I grabbed her, quickly hauled her into my body, and wrapped my arms around her.
“You’re unwell?”
She released a shaky breath. “Remind me not to have eye contact with any of you.”
My mouth twitched. “I wondered why you hadn’t been looking fully at us. Not really. Only little glances here and there.”
Pushing her forehead into my chest, she whispered, “It’s there.”
“What is?” I asked with a frown.
“The Rut.” A shudder washed through her. “I can feel it. It’s growing in power, but if I don’t look at you, it’s better.”
Wondering why that was, and realizing I needed to steer things away from this topic because I had a hard-on and that was always going to be awkward in a stranger’s house, and in front of his infirm great aunt, I whispered, “Lars looked as though he was preparing to die. That’s why I couldn’t touch him.”
She didn’t reply, just seemed to absorb the words.
“Then I heard the baby, and I couldn’t hurt him. Not when we don’t know exactly what’s going on. What if I did something wrong, or…?”
That had her tensing. “Exactly. We don’t know what’s going on, and I’m sick of it. Acting on instinct only gets us so far. How do we move forward without anything to guide us?”
“Instinct and kismet go hand in hand,” Gabriella murmured, breaking into our conversation. “You’d be surprised what you open yourself up to if you just channel what the Goddess desires.”
Riel tensed in my arms and, unfortunately for me because I was using her to shield my erection from the room, pulled away. “The Goddess can desire it all she wants, but I need answers.”
Gabriella’s lips twitched. “You want to cure her, don’t you? Take away her suffering?”
Riel winced. “Of course, I do. I’m not a monster. Of course, I want to help. If I can.”
“Oh, you can,” Gabriella assured her, but there was a slyness to her tone that put me on edge. “But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
Riel’s brow puckered. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. It means nothing. But it could mean everything. What does your instinct say?”
“To heal her.”
“And yet, logic says what? That you don’t know how infinite your powers are?”
Riel’s mouth worked. “The Fae say that a witch’s magic can be drained. That’s how they mine it, after all.”
I frowned at that, because she’d seemed so certain before that her power wouldn’t falter. Was this just insecurity and nerves talking? Or had she kept something back from us? Something from her vision?
“Yes, but you’re not a regular witch, are you? You never were.” Gabriella eyed the old lady. “You can help her. And even if it did drain you, which I highly doubt, maybe that was the exact amount of magic you weren’t supposed to have.”
Riel’s hand gripped mine. “Tatarabuela said that when you work on instinct, you—”
“It’s far more complicated. Naturally, child, everything happens for a reason, and coincidence is something the humans crafted to make themselves feel better about the poor decisions they make every day of their lives—”
“Gabriella, leave the girl. Let her think,” Linford called out, but there was a warning in his voice, and that was the first time I’d ever heard that.
Stiffening, I watched as she obeyed—that was another clue that something weird was going on here. Both grandmother and granddaughter weren’t exactly known for their obedience, after all.
“Is this a test?” she rasped when her grandmother had returned to the station where Matt and Dan were sitting. I glanced at them and saw they were watching us, watching even as they maintained conversation with Lars and Linford.
It felt good that they had our backs, good because… Sol, I didn’t have a clue what was happening here. I didn’t feel like I was in danger, didn’t think Riel was either, and yet there was an undertone to the entire situation. A feeling that set me on edge more than if Lars was holding a sword to my back.
And that?
Said everything.
Eleven
Riel
The noise was intense. Ever since I’d made it onto the homestead, I’d heard it, but once I’d wandered inside? The noise had grown louder. It was at war with the turbulent emotions that were running around my body thanks to the Rut, and the dueling powers, one physical and one magical, made me feel like my knees were about to give out.
Seph’s presence at my back helped me. It soothed the Rut’s power over me, but the white noise was intense. It talked at me in a language I didn’t understand, and the worst thing was, I felt like I should know it. Like I should be as fluent in this language as I was English and Spanish.
But this tongue was like no other, and it felt old. So old. Beyond ancient. Maybe even timeless.
I gulped at the thought and stopped looking at the old woman who, the sight of, hurt my heart.
There were consequences to my actions, regardless of whatever my grandmother said. I’d told her I was concerned about draining my magic, but I wasn’t. My magic burned hotly inside me like I had a ball of power as large as the sun in my core. The magic wasn’t what concerned me, it was the power that did.
The Earth existed on a tenuous balance. Already, we were overpopulated. Already, we were straining at the seams with our numbers. Gaia’s natural resources were stretched thin, billions around the world were food poor, and with the planet beginning to fight back against our numbers, I had to be cautious.
Didn’t I?
I’d already done something to my grandparents that would see them live longer lives. Longer lives in which they would further strain the cycle of life because they were anomalies. They should die when their time was right, leaving room for another child, a younger one.
That was the cycle, wasn’t it?
Death and rebirth?
I’d dragged two people away from that cycle, and now I was contemplating a third. But when would it stop? I could recruit an army of
people who’d fight in my name, for my honor, but what kind of damage would that reap upon Gaia’s true gift to us?
Not our magic.
Our home.
But this woman… she called to me. Just as noisily as her house did.
The old woman’s eyes darted to mine, like she knew I was thinking of her, and there was such knowledge within them that I felt sure, if I did nothing, that knowledge would be lost. Forever. She couldn’t write them down, evidently couldn’t speak thanks to the way her mouth was slack and free from any muscle tone… how else could she impart her knowledge if I didn’t liberate her from the prison her body had become?
“Can you heal her?”
I jerked in surprise, not having realized Lars was standing so close to me. He held out two coffee mugs and Seph reached for his, and slowly, I grabbed mine.
The move was instinctive, and I had no idea where the instinct came from considering I’d never been poisoned in my life, but I raised the cup to my nose and scented it. There were strains in that scent that didn’t belong to coffee, and I frowned at him.
“Why have you dosed it with chamomile?”
Lars’ lips curved. “You scent it?”
“I do,” I said coldly.
“Chamomile can calm you down, even as the coffee riles you up.” He shrugged. “It’s my wife’s concoction. Sip it. There’s no taste of the flower.”
Seph frowned. “Why would you mix herbal tea with coffee?”
“My wife’s ways are unusual, but trust me, it tastes good. I just thought this situation is evidently very stressful for you, so it would be beneficial.” He shrugged. “No harm, no foul.”
Seph’s hand tightened around mine. “I’ll try it, Riel.”
Lars shrugged. “As you will.”
He wandered away, not waiting for his earlier question to be answered, and I eyed him, then my family. I saw that Daniel and Matthew had glasses of water in front of them, and something inside me eased before I said, “Don’t drink it, Seph.”
“Why not?”
I shot him a look. “I don’t trust it.”
He raised the brew to his nostrils. “I can only scent chamomile.”
“Me too,” I whispered, unease filling me.
Was this all a lie?
Why had my grandmother brought me here?
I was trusting her with me, with my mates, and yet… was I churlish to trust in her? To have faith that she could help? It was strange to doubt everything at this exact moment, but there was so much at risk. My tatarabuela had told me to trust in my abuela, but that was just it.
I didn’t trust her.
Not her intentions, not her word. I didn’t know her anymore. Didn’t know Lars. Didn’t know what I was doing save for following a vision an ancestor had thought important enough to bestow upon me. But something wasn’t right here. I couldn’t put my finger on it, couldn’t sense it because my senses were reeling. Not just from the Rut but from that interminable noise.
Sol, how my brain buzzed with it.
Warily, Seph grabbed my coffee cup and placed it on the small table beside the woman’s wheelchair. She watched him move, her eyes never leaving him as he pressed the mug to the table’s surface, and each second he was away, my heart pounded in my chest and the white noise in my head trumpeted fiercely.
He was out of reach for a handful of seconds, and I felt each and every one of those seconds in my head. My heart slowed, my lungs seemed to freeze, and just as he began to move, I saw it.
The magic.
It surged out of her, as powerful as she was powerless. The bright turquoise gusted around Seph, netting him in her magic. Capturing him.
“Get back!” Matthew roared, the stool he was sitting on toppling over as he leaped to his feet.
But it was too late.
Mine.
Inside, I screamed. The part of me that was theirs roared out in fury and my own magic snapped out of me without conscious thought. The pink, so bright, wasn’t gossamer-like as it usually was. It was viscous. Thick and soupy almost. Those silvery metal flakes swimming around in the quagmire as it shrouded the other woman’s magic and quenched it before she could do anything to my mate.
My heart started again when she sagged in her chair, but I shrieked, “Seph!” as he staggered to his knees and fell back against the floor at her feet.
My wrath surged out, unbidden, and the old woman’s chair rolled back, slamming hard into the wall behind her. Plaster burst free around her, showering her in dust, but I didn’t care about that, didn’t care if she was hurt. My magic stayed swirling around her, and I knew I could trust it to keep her contained.
I dropped to my knees, moving until I was straddling my Virgo. He was unconscious, his mouth slack, his…
A scream escaped me as I turned to look at the woman. She was young. Young when I hadn’t touched her. Her face was immobile thanks to the surge of power I’d given her, and she would be unconscious for a long time if I had my way, but where she was suddenly in the prime of life, Seph was…
“Sweet Sol,” I moaned, seeing her infliction imposed on his body. Around me, Matt and Dan skidded into place, surrounding him with our protection.
Knowing they were there filled me with the warmth that had been drained from me when I’d seen the other woman’s magic flood from her, as strong as she was frail.
“You never could do things the easy way, Riel,” my grandmother snapped. She’d moved too, coming to a stop at my side, but at her words, I not only sensed my mates’ tensing, their tempers surging, I felt my own rise in me in a way that not even the Norwegian witch had just experienced.
“You think you can harm my mate?” I ground out, each word throbbing with my ire.
“You had to awaken her. She is the oldest of us all. Her knowledge would—”
“Riel, no!” Linford screamed, as I blasted my grandmother with my magic. Only when she crumpled to the ground, hazed in pink as my power swirled around her, keeping her contained, did I swerve around to face the other half of my treacherous family.
In my hands, I wielded my powers as though they were missiles, and my fingers twitched with the need to punish someone, anyone, who thought they could harm me or my men.
“You can cure him, dammit,” Linford bit off, face strained as he stared at his mate. “Just make him better.”
“Making anyone better is my choice, Linford,” I spat, my face snarling and hitching with the true force of my wrath.
I’d never felt anything like this before.
Nothing could compare with the sheer torrent of black energy that was fueling me.
A burst of Norwegian sounded from behind me, but I ignored the intrusion, heard the squall of a baby, and instead, sent magic to encompass the strangers. There was no way I was going to take my eyes off Linford. I knew he wouldn’t transport himself out of here, not without my grandmother who was still trapped by me.
“Don’t hurt them!” Lars cried out.
“I don’t hurt the innocent,” I shrieked at him. “Only you do that.” My mouth tightened. “You will tell me exactly what is happening here. You will tell me or I will hurt your family because they’re not innocent if they’re a party to this travesty.”
“She’s the oldest,” he spat out, shooting a glance at the woman in the wheelchair. “The oldest of our kind. Not just of the first families, but of all witchkind.” His mouth trembled as he cast a look at his family behind me. I could only assume it was his wife and his baby from the terror that was written all over his face, a terror that I could use to my gain.
“So? What does that matter?”
“It was foretold that an angel would bring her back to us. She was trapped in her body. Trapped with only her mind as young as you. She’s been like this for decades. I’ve never even seen her move.”
My eyes widened. “What are you talking about?”
He shrugged. “Trude uses magic for everything. She’s either beside the fire, waiting for you, or she’s in her
bedroom, resting. Her magic tends to her.” Lars licked his lips. “She’s like a piece of furniture to me now. She’s there, but she might as well not be.” He whispered, “She’s important, Riel.”
“Why? Why is she?”
“Because she has the answers you’re waiting for,” Linford ground out, his gaze on my grandmother. “She’s the greatest Seer…”
My mouth worked as something occurred to me, something my grandmother had said. “No. No, that can’t be.”
Lars frowned. “What? I don’t understand.”
“The witch. The one who predicted the meteorites…” I shook my head, the wild action making me feel like I was going insane. “That was, you said that was hundreds of years ago.”
“And so it was. She predicted them all, Riel. All of them. But she has more to share. More to give.” Linford’s mouth trembled. “You had to free her.”
“It was my choice,” I snarled at him. “My choice to help her. My choice!” Around me, the earth began to quake. Behind me, the baby began to squeal, but I ignored it all, ignored them all as my terror and my temper entwined, morphing into a single unit until I didn’t know where one ended and one began.
“Love.”
I tensed as Daniel’s arms swept around my waist.
“Calm down, Riel.”
Matthew approached from the front, sandwiching me between them, surrounding me with them. My tension eased somewhat, but it was only then when I realized I was sobbing, sobbing like my heart was breaking. And maybe it was.
“Heal him,” Daniel crooned into my ear.
“You can do what you did for your grandparents.”
“How c-can I-I?” I shrieked, the words garbled. “I wasn’t going to heal her because there’s a natural order to things. If I keep on ignoring that then I’ll only cause more harm than good!”
“You can’t live without him, Riel,” Linford called out, just loud enough for me to hear over my sobs. “You need him. Just as much as you need Trude.”
I pushed my face into Matthew’s chest, rocking my forehead back and forth against his shirt.
It was so simple.
Finally Faeling: An Eight Wings Academy Novel: Book Three Page 17
