Silver Dew (21 page)

“We’ve been following you since you fled from us in Victoria. Testing you, testing her, testing the strength of your bond and the limits of her control,” Charlie added. I flinched as his icy gaze met mine. Sebastian moved another inch in front of me.

“Her power is obviously great.” David spoke in a low, regretful voice from the center of the group. I had a definite sense that he was their leader. I squeezed my amber pendent even tighter as Sebastian’s whole body tensed.

“She is no threat to you.”

“That is for us to decide,” David replied, his handsome face blank, his dark eyes deadly. He gave a small nod with his head to Walter.

Walter stepped forward, stopping right before Sebastian. He looked him straight in the eye, the hatred clear in his face.

“I want you to move,” he instructed, carefully pronouncing each and every word. Sebastian paled and trembled all over but determinedly stood his ground.

“No,” he gasped through his clenched teeth. Walter’s eyes widened with disbelief and for a split second I thought he might strike Sebastian. Anger silently and briefly flared in my gut.

“He draws strength from her through the Bond,” Darius commented, speaking for the first time in his low and deep voice. He was the burliest of the five with wide shoulders and a strong jaw.

“Move, Seamus!” David snapped tiredly. His voice cracked like a whip through the air, silencing the ocean and the wind for a split second. I felt Sebastian’s knees buckle at the sound and before I could react he was already stepping away from me.

“Please, don’t do this,” he begged as he moved. Tears were filling his eyes. “Please.”

“Be silent,” David instructed and Sebastian abruptly pressed his lips together and didn’t make another sound. Pain, anguish and fear were silently screaming from every inch of him though making me feel even more afraid but not as terrified as perhaps I should have been.

Walter reached for me then and grabbed my shirt sleeve, tearing the fabric in one rough movement and leaving the length of my arm exposed.

“Proof of her ability,” Walter declared to the Others victoriously. The black marks left behind from the Binding spell twisted and spiraled up my arm and around my shoulder. Some of the Others looked surprised and uneasy as the black design was revealed. David studied me calmly, his handsome face expressionless still.

“Yes, but we have no clue as to her intent. We have encountered the reincarnate soul of Caoilinn before and she has never once proven to be a threat, avoiding Seamus with ease in exactly the way we have wanted. One would almost think that she didn’t want her magic to be reawakened, that she didn’t want to be found by her long-lost love,” David added cruelly, watching Sebastian’s reaction as he spoke.

The shock was clear on Sebastian’s face, the denials hanging wordlessly upon his lips. He silently shook his head, a cold fury burning in his eyes.

“You should be happy, Seamus,” Charlie commented with a twisted smile. “By keeping you apart for so many years, we also spared her life. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to be so this time.”

Sebastian stiffened, glaring at Charlie in a way that did make me afraid, afraid of what he might try to do. I was suddenly glad that the Others were preventing Sebastian’s wants from being immediately fulfilled, sensing the dark violence and hatred that was clearly tainting his current wants.

“Caoilinn,” David began, his hard, black eyes focusing on mine. I swallowed hard, squeezing my necklace even more tightly in my palm to try to stop my hands from shaking.

“My name is Grace.”

David fixed me with a glare that made my knees tremble. He stared right through me, his eyes burning down to my very soul.

“Caoilinn, I need you to answer a few questions for me. I want you to answer truthfully.”

“Don’t hurt Sebastian, please,” I begged, interrupting him once more. I could see I was trying his patience but I didn’t care. All that mattered to me was that Sebastian was safe.

“I want you to answer truthfully,” he repeated, ignoring my pleas. The intensity of his eyes and voice increased. Sweat beaded upon my brow. “Can you control your magic?”

“No,” I answered immediately and automatically, the response springing to my lips before my mind could even process what had been asked of me.

“Are you capable of learning to control your magic?” Nathaniel jumped in, with his surprisingly soft voice.

“No,” I repeated, speaking automatically and without thought again.

“Will you master your powers in this life?” Darius demanded.

“No.”

They didn’t look satisfied; they all glared at me suspiciously and warily still. Walter was visibly fuming, his face full of contempt. Only David appeared calm and collected. “I don’t want to master my powers,” I added honestly, wanting to convince them of the truth and wanting so badly for there to be even the smallest chance that they would let Sebastian and myself go.

“She lies!” Walter hissed. David dismissed his comment with a slight wave of his hand.

“She can only speak the truth as we want her to. Do not question our abilities, young one,” David cautioned. He didn’t even glance Walter’s way as he spoke, but Walter still visibly paled, even beneath the sun’s unrelenting heat. David turned to face Sebastian. “As long as she is not a threat, she will remain unharmed. But I cannot promise the same for you, old friend. We have a score to settle.”

Sebastian visibly relaxed upon hearing David’s words, despite the threat of the latter pronouncement.

Darius flexed his muscles threateningly, his expression hard and cold as he stared Sebastian down.

“For the crimes you have committed against The Order, you will be punished. We cannot permit for you to live any longer, especially now that you have been doubly-bound to Caoilinn and her magic has reawakened,” Darius slowly pronounced. Somehow the sound of my gasp carried clearly and unnaturally through the air, each and every set of eyes turning to meet mine.

“No,” I whispered, panic flooding through my body as I realized I could no longer move.

“I’m sorry, Gracelynn.” Sebastian’s eyes filled with tears as he spoke. He looked away from me to stare down David, his gray eyes burning with fire. “If any harm ever comes to her, I swear I will find out. I will hunt each of you down and rip apart your souls. I swear it,” he repeated, his voice soft yet terrifying.

David nodded amicably, looking almost amused at Sebastian’s harsh, half-whispered pronouncement but the others were all visibly unsettled, shifting uneasily as the wind howled around us.

“No,” I repeated, my voice a little stronger this time. Once again, the sound of my words somehow cut through the wind and rose above the crash of the waves against the ancient basalt stones. Nathaniel eyed me uncertainly, his gaze flickering back and forth between Sebastian and I.

“Release her now,” Sebastian calmly requested, his voice tight and strained. “She doesn’t need to see this.” He didn’t even bother to look my way. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I was furious and terrified and sick to my stomach. The wind howled even louder, its intensity seeming to grow with the power of my emotions.

“No, she stays.” Walter placed a cold, bony hand on my shoulder, his touch increasing the rigidity of my frozen muscles to the point of near pain.

“She will not be harmed but she must witness what is about to happen to you,” Charlie announced with a sickening smile.

“No,” Sebastian gasped, the fear returning to his eyes in a sudden flash.

“Her soul needs a reminder of why it is in both your best interests to remain apart, in this and every life to come,” David explained patiently. I wanted to scream and cry out loud, to beg for their mercy, to offer myself in place of Sebastian but I suddenly found myself unable to speak. My vocal chords were frozen in place, bound as tightly as the rest of my muscles. My soul screamed in outrage and fury, rising with the powerful, howling wind. “Let’s get this over with. Step forward, Seamus,” David commanded in a soft and almost seductive voice. Sebastian’s face was taut and white as he complied, his movements jerky as he obviously strained to break free from the Others’ control.

Walter’s hand tightened on my shoulder, his fingers digging into my flesh and bones in a way that should have buckled my knees in pain – if I could have moved. As it was I couldn’t even cry out.

I stood there, completely frozen and helpless as I watched Sebastian step forward, his back to me the whole while. We never even had the chance to say goodbye. I should have felt more afraid, I should have felt more heartbroken but as it was, all I could feel was a steadily rising, murderous rage that burned throughout every cell of my body. I began to tremble from the force of it, despite my inability to move. I was angry at Sebastian for giving himself up so easily once he thought that I was safe. I was furious at the Others for not only separating Sebastian and I now but for admittedly keeping us apart for hundreds upon hundreds of years. I was enraged that any of them might hurt him and disgusted that they were forcing me to stand by helplessly, to watch. And I was livid with myself, for not being strong enough or brave enough to take control of my magic and to live up to my destiny.

I could feel the fire burning in my eyes as I glared at Sebastian’s back, willing with all my might for him to stop, for him to turn and break free, to run. All the heat and noise and sensations of the world began to slip away from me as my eyes focused and unfocused on the design of the large tattoo on his back. The lines appeared to almost shift and shimmer before me in the heat, a new pattern emerging from the detailed design of which I had never before been aware. The wind howled in my ears and a soft, sweet voice from thousands of years in the past whispered into my ear, “
Trust and feel the pattern
.”

The answer was on the tip of my tongue, the power within me flaring into a wild and swirling rage, my necklace burning red hot into the flesh and bones of my hand.

Sebastian suddenly dropped to his knees before the Others, his back arched as he howled in excruciating pain. Walter laughed softly in my ear, obviously thoroughly enjoying not only Sebastian’s pain but also my own. Scarlet blood began to trickle from Sebastian’s nose and ears as he thrashed against the ground. His eyes briefly met mine, his expression wild with pain while his screams carried on and on. His tormented cry abruptly cut off as blood poured from his mouth. I feared he had bitten off his own tongue as he flipped onto his back and stared straight up into the blinding sun.

The world became red hot again, the terrifying anger burning brightly throughout my body and soul at the sight of Sebastian’s ruby-red blood. My eyes fell upon the tattoo on Sebastian’s chest, the intricate Celtic knot that lay over his heart. The design shifted and shimmered as I now knew it would and a new pattern emerged and unraveled before me. I knew exactly what to do.

“You should stop now,” I warned. My voice was unrecognizable even to me. The deadly calm with which I spoke was both terrifying and commanding. My voice sliced through the air as it never had before, my soft words booming against the jagged cliffs and crashing into the tumultuous waves.

Darius and Walter laughed together cruelly. Charlie and David completely ignored me, only Nathaniel looked concerned.

“She shouldn’t be able to–” he began, but he was too late. My lips moved without me ever moving them, my voice spoke without me uttering a sound.

“Five of you may be powerful enough to stop me – but four aren’t,” I announced in that chilling, deathly voice. I spun around faster than I had ever moved before, than I had ever thought possible. I released all of my fury, all of my power and simultaneously gave up and obtained all of my control as I grabbed Walter by the throat. The fire within me burned hot enough that I wondered how I wasn’t consumed by its power myself. I wasn’t afraid anymore though and so I took control. I embraced the powerful anger and darkness within me and directed it into the carefully formed lines of the pattern I had just seen. I did it easily and automatically, as if I had a thousand times before. Walter’s expression was unexpected, almost comical in its disbelief. The shocked and puzzled expression was only briefly present in his eyes before they glazed over and he crumpled to the ground at my feet. The world was abruptly silent and still.

Chapter Nine – Ghost from the Past

I stared down at Walter’s motionless body feeling oddly detached and numb. The world around me was silent still, the wind banished, the waves paused, the silence not one of peace but one of emptiness alike what was inside of me now.

The Others were all frozen, unable to move any part of their bodies except their eyes, just like I had been moments ago. I ignored them all as I glided over to Sebastian’s side, kneeling down on top of the hard, rocky columns beside him. I felt like I was moving in a trance as I checked his pulse and listened carefully to his shallow breathing. I even tipped open his jaw, checking his tongue and feeling vaguely relieved to find it was only badly bitten but already rapidly healing. I ripped my remaining shirt sleeve free and dipped it in a salty pool of water on top of one of the columns nearby. He opened his eyes as I began carefully wiping the sticky blood from his face and neck.

“Gracelynn?” His voice was faint and hoarse. He looked up at me in confusion, rapidly trying to take in the scene around us as I helped him to sit up. His eyes focused on Walter’s motionless body. “What have you done?” he whispered. I could tell he was shocked and concerned. I hadn’t expected him to be watching me so warily, as if I were a danger to even him.