Igniting Spirit (Gathering Water Book 3) (5 page)

“Alexander! What are you doing here?” If either of us were the hugging type, we’d be doing that. Instead we stood stiffly apart from each other in comfortable awkwardness.

“Making sure you are safe,” he said blandly.

“Did Uncle Connor tell my father where I went? Have you heard anything about Cash? Is he okay?” I asked, worried that I had brought more trouble upon my families’ heads.

“Your Uncle has kept your secret. Cash is still the same as before. The girl, Clara, is keeping him anchored for now. I knew you wouldn’t leave Cash in his condition, and that you didn’t search for help among the Elfennol. Your father suspects that you are here as well, though he thinks you were captured. The earthquake in Bermuda made worldwide news and the cause was obvious among our people. Even now your father is planning how to rescue you, and he has summoned the other Council members to Eurybis for help.”

“I left a note! Why didn’t Connor and Ellis tell him that I went voluntarily?” I did not want to be responsible for some misguided rescue attempt which would lead to the deaths of way too many people.

“I doubt Dux Neale would inform any among the Elfennol that you came here willingly. He knows it would mean exile. I am sure he is hoping you will come home before it is too late.”

That sounded like Uncle Connor. My family had always been allied to the Elfennol, but there was little trust between the two peoples. I think the discovery of Derek being my father did more to hurt that relationship, since Connor had seen it as a betrayal to be kept in the dark. Connor would want to talk to me before he talked to the Elfennol. My family put blood before all else, even centuries-old alliances.

Loyalty was a good thing to have.

“Alexander, you have to get my father to stop before it’s too late. You know I came here by choice, and you know the Clades aren’t what the Elfennol believe they are! Besides, all the evil twisted ones left with Kaylus yesterday. They should be the enemies!”

“She is right, Son. Kaylus is Thanatos. Leoht should be warned,” Aahana said, referring to my father by using the name of our house, before taking a seat.

Alexander’s eyes widened a fraction and flickered quickly to Ezra before he regained control. Good ‘ole Alexander was master at control.

“You’re right, I must tell Lord Derek. Della, you do realize that if I tell him everything, we may both be exiled because of it. It is not too late for you to remain Epiklayra. No one among the Elfennol would suspect you came here willingly.”

“If I do that, Alexander, I’d be betraying these people.”

“They are not your people, Della. You are not responsible for them,” he said softly, surprising me because Alexander always acted as if I were responsible for everything.

“They are Ethnos just as the Elfennol are. Betraying them is betraying my people. Plus, I need them to help Cash.” I shrugged a shoulder. To me the point was moot until Cash was well again.

“Besides, she was declared Guardian. Where Della goes, the people here will follow,” Ezra said, then sat in his chair as well, leaving only Alexander and myself standing.

Alexander nodded his head, and I realized I had answered exactly how he wanted me to. He was testing me, because he was a sneaky little sneak-tester.

“I will inform Lord Derek of everything. He is at the base right now and I know he will want to speak with you before he does anything. Either way, we are in the same ship now.” Then Alexander made the same symbol, the “Guardian” one, in between us, then very casually looked around the obsidian room. “I like your new place, Della. The sconces were a nice touch.”

“You can thank Ezra for those. It was his idea to have something of the other elements in here.”

“It was smart, and adds a certain flair that I rather like. But your table could use something, as well.” He placed both hands on the table in front of him, and tuned it up a bit, smoothing the rough edges, adding embellishment to the legs. The really fancy bit was stretched across the entire surface of the table-top — the symbol that had been made in my armlets. It was the equal-armed cross, for my father’s family, with trinity knots that matched my brand new tattoo from my mother’s family making up the four arms, and the entire thing was set in a circle, the symbol for the Ethnos. “You can never have too many reminders,” Alexander said, then took a seat to the left of me.

I was the only one still standing now, and glad of it, because the Clade Elders took that moment to pour into the room.

Journal,

I’ve just had the most insane night, ever. I guess night and morning, since I just watched the sunrise before coming home. My stomach hurts from laughing so hard, and my face from smiling. I really want to crash, but don’t want to forget this feeling. The details can come later, after some sleep and caffeine. But this feeling? Ah. Like flying. I wonder if I’d be smiling so much right now if I could share this with anyone else. It doesn’t matter. I’ll have to keep it locked in my memory forever, because goodness knows there’s no chance it will happen again. Maybe one day, when I’m old and wrinkled, I’ll tell my children this secret of mine. They’ll never believe  me, of course. It’s one thing to ally ourselves with them, but to spend an evening laughing and talking, and walking the beach to watch the sunrise? No, of course they wouldn’t believe me. I hardly believe it happened.

But when I close my eyes, I can still see the light of his aura framed by the orange glow of daybreak. I can still feel his hand in mine, and taste his breath on my lips. Maybe it was only a dream, because reality has never felt this real to me.

If it was, let me sleep forever and dream it again.

*****

“Thank you for coming,” I said formally when the last Elder walked through the door and sat. We had extra spots at the table, and I thought it was interesting no one sat next to Ezra.

“Of course, Della. May we call you Della?” Elder Peyton asked. He sat directly opposite me.

“Please.” Hello, manners.

“We want to thank you for what you did yesterday when you had little reason to save us.” He had that same look on his face as he had earlier when he’d made the symbol for “Guardian.”

“Let’s just agree that we got off on the wrong foot and put it behind us. I think we have more pressing matters than saying ‘I’m sorry’ over and over. I’m sure you already know Ezra and Aahana. This is Alexander to my left.”

The woman sitting on Peyton’s right stood up suddenly. “He is an Elfennol, trusted servant of Derek Leoht!”

“That’s right, he is a trusted friend of my father’s.”

“How can you let him sit here? It is an insult —”

Peyton cut her off for me. “Be quiet, Lena. It will be much easier if the Elfennol know what has happened. Kaylus is a threat to them, as well.”

Lena said something under her breath that sounded an awful lot like “they can have each other,” but I chose to ignore it since she also took her seat.

“Della, forgive our rudeness. This is Lena. To her right is Bach, and then Galen. To my left is Susan, and this is Ian. We are all that is left of the Elders now.” Peyton offered introductions, and then seconds ticked by in awkward silence.

“I need your help,” I said it fast, like ripping off a Band-Aid.

“We will gladly help you with anything you need. We serve you now.” Peyton bowed his head slightly.

“Uh, right.” I wasn’t exactly comfortable with being “served,” but I’d take advantage of it. “I need your help to save my cousin. Cash was injured in our fight the other day. His Spirit was Gathered and he isn’t healing. He’s being anchored by a friend, but she can only do that for so long.” I had no idea what Clara was doing to anchor him. I hadn’t stuck around long enough to find out, too intent on fixing him.

“If he had more than half of his Spirit Gathered, he won’t have enough to rebuild on his own. You said that he is being anchored? Someone is preventing the rest of his Spirit from crumbling away?” the man on Peyton’s left asked, but I’d already forgotten his name.

“I’m not exactly sure what she’s doing, but she said it would keep him from… would keep him from dying.” It was really hard to choke those words out.

“We aren’t actually going to help her! Her cousin is the future Dux! He is allied with the Elfennol. We shouldn’t be trying to save him!” Lena again had a complaint.

This chick was seriously starting to piss me off.

I looked at her. “Why are you here? You know who I am. You know who my family is. That doesn’t change because we shared a near-death experience. If I changed every time I almost died, I’d be a ninja-turtle or something by now.”

“I’m here because you saved us. I’m here because you are powerful. I’m here because you are the only one strong enough to protect us from Kaylus. But mostly, I am here to see if you pose an even bigger threat to us than he does,” Lena answered. At least she was honest.

“And if I do?” I asked.

“Then I will take as many people who will follow and go far away in the hopes that you will never find us.” Her chin was jutting out, and I knew she meant her words.

At least she didn’t threaten to kill me. I counted that as a win.

“I promise you, I will do everything in my power to end Kaylus.” It was damn near a vendetta at this point. First, he had tried to kill me a couple times. Then, he’d sent people to kill me and my cousin. And, of course, there was the vision of him killing Ezra that I needed to prevent from happening. Kaylus needed to die.

Shame quickly washed over me. I wanted to kill someone, was determined to end a life. It wasn’t that long ago that the very thought made me sick; I’d promised to never do it again. I’d killed before, the first time by accident, and it affected me the way that accidentally killing someone should affect you. I was filled with guilt and sincerely determined to become strong enough to protect everyone I cared about without resorting to ending a life. I’d killed at least three people during my fight with Cash, and I hadn’t given it a second thought until now. Part of me thought that made me a monster.

The other part didn’t care if I was a monster, as long as I was a monster capable of keeping my family safe. My family had somehow grown to include all the Ethnos that needed protecting.

I looked at Alexander sitting on my left. He had told me before that killing was necessary during war, that a leader had to make that type of sacrifice to save their people. I refused to believe him at the time, but now I knew he was right.

Sometimes you had to do more than restrain your enemy.

“I believe you will do just that. What happens afterwards? Will you go back to being our enemy? Will you destroy us as Kaylus intends to, under the guise of loyalty to your family?” Lena asked.

“Honestly? I don’t know what happens next. I don’t really care, and won’t care until I’ve gotten what I came here for. All I do know is that the only people I’ve ever fought, the only people I ever intend to fight, are people who hurt me or the people I care about. Don’t do that, and I won’t have any reason to stand against you.” I crossed my arms.

“I will keep that in mind,” Lena said. I could tell she didn’t like me. That was fine, because I didn’t like her either. But maybe now she’d shut her trap long enough for us to finish our conversation so I could get back to Cash.

“How do I save him? Can you teach me how to heal his energy?” I asked the Elders in front of me.

“I am not sure. I have only ever done it with another of our people. Humans are different. I would like to see him in person before I try to come up with a healing plan,” the same Elder who had spoken before said. Maybe I could get everyone name tags.

“Deal. When can we leave?” This was more painless than I anticipated.

“I can leave immediately,” he said.

I stood up, but before I fully left the table Ezra gently placed a hand on mine. “Please, Della. I will leave right now with you, if you wish. But give us an hour. We need to figure out what my father is doing. An hour won’t make much difference.”

I hated him for asking me to stay longer. But he was right. I had to trust Clara could keep doing whatever she was doing until I got back. It would be pointless to save Cash just to be bombarded with whatever Kaylus had cooked up.

“An hour,” I said, while reluctantly taking my seat.

“We thank you.” Peyton bowed his head, briefly. “Ezra, how long have you suspected your father was a traitor?” Peyton asked. It seemed the other Elders were content with him asking the questions.

“I believe he considers the rest of the Clades as traitors. But I’ve known that his agenda wasn’t in the best interest of our people for quite some time,” Ezra answered, hand still on mine.

“Why did you say nothing?” Peyton asked, though it wasn’t accusatory.

“He is my father, and an Elder himself. As far as I knew, the rest of you were just like him. I also knew exactly what he was capable of doing to people who went against him. I had very good reason to not go against him.”

I thought of the scars that riddled Ezra’s back. They varied in size, shape, and age — proof of lifelong torture, rather than regular beatings. Ezra once told me that his father would prevent him from healing until the scars were formed in order to hammer in the lesson he was trying to teach his son. I never wondered why he put up with it or why he didn’t seek help. The scars from my abusive foster days weren’t visible, but they ran just as deep. I didn’t need to ask him why, because I already knew what it was like to live in fear, believing you somehow deserved what you were getting, trusting that nothing would change, knowing that nothing
could
change. During my brief time with Dove, I felt the need to explain myself. Explain why I acted the way I acted. Explain why I flinched when he touched me.

Ezra needed no explanations and neither did I. Of course, even my bruised psyche trusted Ezra, since I never flinched with him.

“Do you know what your father is planning?” Peyton leaned forward ever so slightly.

“I think so. I think he plans to open the portal to the OtherRealm. I don’t know how, but he talked about ‘going home’ often, angry that it no longer seemed a priority,” Ezra answered.

“He’s mad! That world is worse than dead. We thought, for a while, that it would be possible to return; possible to heal that which we destroyed. When we found out otherwise, we made it a priority to make this world our home. But that too, has proven impossible. Because of the Elfennol, we have to always remain hidden.”

“Wait, how did you make that discovery? That the world is hopeless?” The Elfennol were well aware of the fact, but they were still under the impression that the Clades were determined to return to their original home, even if it meant killing their new one in the process.

“You don’t already know? An ancestress of yours, actually. Delilah Deare. We reached out, in secret, to the human Dunamis who might be able to help us return home. She was able to look into the OtherRealm with her elements, and told us what she saw. She bewitched our most knowledgeable rune-maker and he left our ranks to be with her. The next thing we heard, he had died and she had formed an alliance with the Elfennol. We were forced further underground once the humans joined the fight against us. There has been no love lost between us and your family.”

“Until now.” Ezra reminded him.

Peyton nodded his head in agreement. “Until now.”

Alexander chose that moment to speak up. “We heard a different story when we approached Delilah. She claimed that the Clades had killed her lover. She was there, saw the person who was responsible, and recognized him as one of the Clades she had previously met. It was her determination to get revenge that swayed the Council to ally with the humans. The power she held to Read the elements did not hurt, and it was becoming clear that the Dunamis had become powerful enough to sway the fight in our favor. She left out that her lover had been Clade, himself.”

Peyton looked shocked. “Why did she not seek our help? Ethan was a good friend, and his loss was mourned by many. If she had told us, we could have discovered the culprit and —”

“As interesting as this is, and it really is fascinating, we have more important things to deal with right now than who killed a friend of yours several hundred years ago.” I was really tempted to just sit back and listen to a history lesson that involved my family, but we had to get a game-plan and go save Cash before he became part of my family history, too.

Peyton’s head bowed again. “Yes, you are right. It just came as a shock to hear — Well, we at least know some of what would be required to open the portal. Unfortunately, only two people heard all of her visions about the subject. One was Ethan, the other —”

“Let me guess, my father was the other?” Ezra asked.

“Yes, I’m afraid he was.”

“Well, I think that answers the question of who killed Ethan.” It was pretty obvious, actually. “So, what do you know on the subject? How can we stop him?” I asked Peyton.

“We know the rough location of the portal, and that the key to open the gate can only be used at sunset or sunrise — it is a time ‘in between’ and the only time to travel between worlds. We also know that he requires power over the energy of life
and
death in order to succeed.”

“Which he possesses,” one of the other Elders stated.

“A fact he has hidden well these centuries.” Peyton sounded less than thrilled.

“Anything else helpful?” The location was good. If we could get the Elfennol to help, we could surround the area and prevent him from ever reaching it.

“One more thing we know for sure. Something must be devoid of life for him to use his ability over death. He will need a sacrifice.”