From Spirit and Binding

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  “He is,” Rosamond said, and we all looked at her.

  She held up her hands. “That’s not a vision. It’s just our uncle. His brother is dead, and his niece and nephew are missing. Even though he should know exactly where we are. He’ll search for us. That’s the way of things. We’ll make sure he knows that we weren’t taken against our will.” She rolled her eyes, looking as if we weren’t talking about war and kidnapping. I knew she was as stressed as the rest of us. She had dark circles under her eyes, something I hadn’t ever seen on her before. She was usually effervescent and a shining example of beauty and grace. I knew the visions were taking their toll.

  Out of all people, it was Emory who moved forward and brought Rosamond a glass of water.

  The action made me freeze, stunned me to my core.

  Emory just met my gaze, shrugged, and then walked back to her chair next to where the pitchers of water and food were set up.

  None of us had really touched them yet. Rosamond looked over at Emory, a small smile on her face before she shook her head and drank deeply from her glass.

  “So, we’ll send someone to see what he needs?” I asked, pushing through the tension in the room. We had more important things to worry about than personal feelings, even if we all buried them far too often. “I’m not really sure how that works.”

  “We can send an emissary,” Easton said. “First, we need to make sure we know exactly what we’re going to tell him.”

  “How about we start with the fact that I’m the Spirit Priestess, and we don’t want to get everyone killed, and we really want to end this war? How about we tell him that if we don’t, our world will literally crumble?”

  It wasn’t lost on me that I had said, “our.” I had long since gotten past thinking I was part of the human realm. Maybe I’d never truly been.

  “That’s always a good place to start, pet,” Easton said, and I resisted the urge to shove him.

  “Let’s make a plan,” he added, and then everyone was talking again. My head throbbed, and the discomfort must have shown on my face, because Ridley gave me a curious look. I shook my head. Even though I had thought about a tonic, I didn’t want to take anything that could mess up my Wielding. Not that I thought it could. It was more that I was still trying to deal with everything writhing inside me. It had been hard enough with only Air. Now, with the addition of Earth, Water, Fire, and Spirit, it was almost too much. However, I knew I could do this. Because there wasn’t another option. I had to succeed. So, maybe if I believed in myself as much as possible, it would be enough.

  The others continued to argue amongst themselves. I knew that they were trying to come up with a plan. I let them. I didn’t know the history as well as they did. I didn’t know all of the intricacies. So, I was no help here. I would be eventually, only not right then.

  I walked past them towards the crystal. We had been meeting in the throne room and the crystal room. That way, we could see exactly what we were fighting for. Plus, theoretically, those areas had the best security. Sure, I might have died there once, but that hadn’t been because of the guards and those in the room. That monster was gone. Long gone.

  As I walked towards the crystal, it glowed, light emanating from each facet, and I froze.

  Everyone stopped talking, all of them turned towards me.

  “Easton?” I asked, my voice a whisper. He was at my side in an instant, and I was grateful. We had come to terms with each other the night before, in a desperate yet unsure truth of who we were to one another. He would be by my side, and I would be by his. Even if it didn’t mean what it should.

  “What’s happening?” I asked, my voice breathy.

  “Maybe the crystal’s reacting to you? What does it feel like inside?”

  It wasn’t Easton that answered. It was Rhodes, and he came to my other side.

  Easton stiffened. Rhodes ignored it, and I did my best to do so, as well.

  “It’s warm, like something’s pulling at me, near my heart, reaching out. I don’t really get that.”

  “I tend to have the opposite reaction. I don’t think it’s the crystal.” I knew Easton was talking about The Gray. I couldn’t say anything to that. There really wasn’t anything to say.

  I sucked in a breath as the crystal lit up again, the dark black and purple and gray tones of it shining brightly as if it were healthy and whole.

  I knew that wasn’t the case. I knew it was dying.

  “Maybe if you touched it?” Easton asked. I looked over at him, and he shrugged.

  “This is new territory for all of us,” he continued. “Who knows. Maybe you can breathe life into it or something. After all, you do have Spirit Wielding now. And that’s part of life and death and souls. Just like the crystal.”

  Seven had told me that I could hold a soul in my hands. Not take it. Not bring life from death. They had actually said I couldn’t touch death. The crystal wasn’t dead yet. Maybe this could work.

  I took a few steps forward with everyone watching me and placed my palm right on the crystal. It warmed under my touch, searing my skin before it brightened, turned so bright, I almost closed my eyes.

  Nothing. I could feel nothing within it, no magic or Wielding or power reaching out to me. It dimmed back to its cracked facade, and my shoulders slumped.

  Easton’s hand was on my lower back in the next moment. “It’s okay. It was a stupid idea, anyway.”

  “No, it was a good idea. It’ll never be that easy, though. Maybe I need to cut my hand and put blood on it or something.”

  “Let’s not shed your blood so quickly,” Ridley said from behind us, and I turned, putting my back to the crystal.

  “I wasn’t actually going to do it right now.” I smiled as I said it, though I knew it didn’t reach my eyes.

  “You know, blood could work,” Wyn said, tapping her chin. “Not that I want to bleed you dry or anything.”

  “Thanks for that,” I said dryly. “Perhaps. Or maybe I need to figure out exactly what type of chant will work. Or maybe I can even speak the prophecy around the crystal. The problem is, there’s not only one crystal.”

  The others looked at me, and I rolled my shoulders back. “None of us are from the same territory or kingdom. I’m not even technically from this realm.”

  “Neither am I. Or Braelynn,” Emory added on, and I nodded at her.

  “True. We’re all from different places. That means I know that, no matter what happens, it’s not just this crystal. It lit up for me just now, why? We have to figure that out. But it’s not just that crystal.”

  “It’s the Lumière’s, as well,” Rhodes said, his voice soft.

  “Exactly. I think that, no matter what, we’re going to have to bring the two crystals together. Because that’s the whole point of this, isn’t it? The Fall broke the realm in two, split the kingdoms. Now, there are two, and maybe you weren’t fighting as much as you used to because you’re too busy trying to hold together the stones of your foundations. Something is wrong. We all know that. The number of Danes is increasing day by day, and people have begun in-fighting because they’re scared. Others want power they have no right to. No right to take, I should say.”

  “And putting the two crystals together may be the only way. After all, we never had two before—at least before our time,” Easton said, looking at Rhodes.

  “You’re right. There was only one before the Fall. The one that served as the crystal for the Maisons. For all of our people. For the Wielders.”

  “So, we need to make that happen again. Bring them together. Though I have no idea how to put two magical geological crystals together without maybe that blood sacrifice I mentioned.”

  “We’re not bleeding you,” Easton growled, and I just shook my head.

  “We might have to. But first, we need to figure out exactly how to get the two crystals in the same room when they reside in two separate courts that hate each other.”

  And as if the heavens had heard me, hell opened up
and seized us all.

  People screamed outside the castle, and the earth rocked beneath my feet.

  I staggered to the side as Easton gripped my elbow before letting me go to run out onto the balcony that overlooked his court.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “It’s part of the new Fall, but I’ve never seen it like this.”

  “What does that mean?” Emory asked, coming up to my side.

  “I don’t know,” I whispered.

  “It means that every time the crystal flares, it’s not only Wielding that’s stripped. The monsters that used to hide and were pushed back by magic are coming out. We saw that in the Spirit territories as well as in the Lumière Kingdom. Those monsters from the past and myths are coming out of hiding and their sleep. There are natural disasters that are rocked forth because of the crystal’s magic.”

  “And that’s what’s happening now?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  I looked at Wyn and then closed my eyes as the brightness of the crystal got so intense that my corneas felt as if they were burning.

  “What is that?” Emory screamed, and then Easton was at my side, shielding me from the blast.

  All around us, people were shouting, and I knew that there were even more wails down below.

  “We need to help the others!” I called out, and Easton nodded.

  “Come with me. Justise, protect the crystal,” Easton called out to his uncle.

  “If we even have a crystal left after this,” Justise growled. I looked over at it, finally able to see. It was no longer blindingly bright. Instead, it was a dull gray, so much of its color gone.

  “Dear God.”

  Easton cursed under his breath. “If we don’t hurry, we’re going to be too late, and there won’t be a crystal left to save.”

  I nodded and ran by his side as we stormed down the stairs with the others and headed out into the courtyard. People were on the ground, shaking from where they had fallen during the earthquake. Rain slammed into us, the drops large. Instinctively, I threw up a hand, using my Air and Water Wielding to keep it off of myself, even just a little bit so I could see. I didn’t care about getting wet, it was more so it didn’t affect my vision.

  Rhodes did the same on my other side, and Easton slicked his hair back from his eyes, then gave me a nod of approval before going off to help the others. Lightning pierced the sky, one bolt after another—boom, boom, boom.

  I pulled Emory out of the way, wondering why she was even here. But since she was, maybe she wanted to help. I didn’t know. She couldn’t siphon anyone, not with the cuffs she wore. But she was with us. Rosamond went to Emory’s side and pulled her away, then the two of them went off into the distance, presumably to help. I followed Easton, knowing he would know what to do. Wyn and Teagan went one way, Rhodes and Luken the other. I could only hope we would be enough.

  Hail struck us, icy pellets one after another slicing into skin.

  I used my Water Wielding to push them out of the way, and then used Air to bracket and buffer as much as I could. I threw myself over a young child who had tripped in the rain and used my Wielding to protect him. Others used their Earth Wielding to bring up shields, some using Fire to burn off the hail before it hit them.

  All I knew was that I needed to help others. I stood up and picked up the small child I had been protecting before putting him into his mother’s arms. I did my best to make sure everyone was out of danger. The earth rumbled beneath us, and I instinctively knew that wasn’t Wielding.

  That was the crystal. We were in the middle of another Fall, just a small one. Regardless, it would be bad. There was more screaming, and I turned around as Wielders went to their knees, one after another, clutching at their hair and skin, trying to hold on to whatever power they had. I could see their Wielding being stripped from them in an instant—Fire, Earth, sometimes both, pulled from their bodies as if they were being suctioned off into the essence of nothingness.

  “Damn it!” Easton called out, going to the people on their knees. “Can you hold on? Can you fight?” he asked, keeping his people close. I went with him, trying to help. There was no use. We were watching Danes being made right in front of our eyes and the helplessness swelling within me was almost overwhelming. Their Wielding, part of their identity, was being stripped from them…and it seemed hopeless.

  And then someone screamed from behind us, and I turned, knowing that voice. Wyn looked at us, her eyes wide, her hair flowing all around her as the earth rumbled. And then she paled.

  “No!” I screamed and got to my feet. Easton was right beside me. There was nothing we could do. Teagan was there then, holding Wyn as her powers were stripped, as she became a Dane.

  She had lost her Earth Wielding, lost part of her soul, what made Wyn…Wyn.

  “Wyn!” Easton called out. We didn’t move forward. I think we were unable. Others still fell all around us, and we couldn’t help them.

  Wyn just looked at us, her body shaking as she held on to Teagan before pushing away.

  “Help the others. I’ll be okay.” There was so much in her voice, and yet nothing. I didn’t think anything would be all right ever again.

  I followed Easton towards other groups of people and used my Wielding to lift a fallen tree, my back straining as I pushed all of my Air and Earth Wielding into it, knowing that I needed to try and protect some of the homes and what was left of the court.

  People were still shouting, calling for loved ones, crying.

  And it hurt. It hurt so much.

  As we went from person to person, trying to make sense of what we saw and what was left, what had happened, I knew we could make no sense from this.

  So many people had lost their powers, some had lost their lives. And all from a crystal shining brightly and then fading.

  Because of what had been done to the crystals in the past, we were now afraid there would be no future.

  My body ached, my hands were smeared in blood, and there was no more rain to wash it away.

  Instead, I stood by Easton as the wind blew through our hair, and the scent of burned oak and twisted metal filled my nose.

  “What else can be done? I asked, coughing.

  “I don’t know. And that scares me most of all.”

  Before I could say anything else, before I could even think of what to say, Easton stiffened, and I followed his gaze, freezing.

  A man stood on the other side of where we were, his bright blue and silver leathers feeling like an albatross in the darkness.

  He was not of the Obscurité Kingdom, that much was clear. How had he made it through the wards?

  Maybe there were no wards left.

  “It’s an emissary from the Lumière. They’re allowed to come in as long as they don’t have any weapons, and so long as it’s not a Wielder. That’s how he got through the wards.”

  I looked over at Easton, wondering if he had read my mind.

  “My men will deal with him. It seems the King of Lumière wants to speak.”

  Easton walked off, going to help someone, and I followed. Because there were more people to help, others who needed us.

  It seemed that, no matter what, we wouldn’t have time to rest. The time for decision making was long since past. Now, we had to make those choices and carry out the actions.

  Everyone had already lost so much. But I was afraid that it was only the beginning. We would lose more. Somehow, I just knew we would.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Lyric

  * * *

  “The king wants to meet with us,” I said into the void, and everyone stood around the weakening crystal.

  Well, not everyone. Wyn was back in her room, sleeping after Ridley had given her a tonic. Her whole body had shaken. She hadn’t made a sound other than those first few cries she had let loose on the battlefield.

  No, it hadn’t been a battlefield. It was a courtyard. Where people had been walking and talking. Where children were pl
aying. They’d been trying to find life in the darkness. They’d been attempting to move on and make do with what happiness they could find. And yet war had come for them nonetheless.

  “We need to go soon,” Easton said, grumbling to himself more than any of us. I only half-listened as the rest of them kept talking. I was thinking about everything that we had lost in such a short period of time.

  It killed me that I was afraid there wouldn’t be anything we could do for those we left behind. Wyn couldn’t go. I didn’t know when she would even be able to get out of bed. I had a feeling the warrior would find a way. She would fight with a sword, do something. It wasn’t going to be the same, though. And I had to do everything in my power to make sure that we figured out exactly what we needed to do to bring Wyn’s power back. To bring the Wielding back to so many.

  “We can go to him today,” Rosamond said, frowning. “Well, not all of us. We have a Spirit Wielder with us. That means, we can use the crystal to get us through the wards and to the other court.”

  I looked at Rosamond, frowning. The Lumière Court was the only major area I had never been to, and even as goosebumps dotted my skin, I knew I needed to go. There was only one thing troubling me. “A Spirit Wielder can use the crystal?” I asked.

  She rubbed her temples, and once again, Emory was there with a glass of water. Maybe she was paying her penance? I didn’t know. Emory didn’t say anything, she just helped with the water. Considering that Rosamond trusted her and didn’t See anyone poisoning her or anything like that, I counted that as a good thing. Maybe.

  “They can. I don’t know why.”

  “So, you Saw it?” Easton asked, emphasizing the word saw.

  “Yes, a vision. They’re coming in spurts now as if they’re supposed to make sense. But, they don’t. Of course, they never really have. I’ve been doing this for over four hundred years and, sometimes, I feel like I’m just starting out.”

  “Well, that gives the rest of us something to strive for then,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. There was nothing light about it.