Still she lay, unmoving, and calm. Thankfully, we’d had no more injuries in the past few hours since arriving at Rioseco. I still couldn’t believe we had arrived safely, my heart whole and unscathed. Magic like that had never been accomplished before, and to do so twice in such a short time… I had not expected to survive it. I did not look at this accomplishment as one to boast of. If anything, it only increased my ability to protect her.
Cleaned, cut, and shaven, I walked out of the bathroom of my large suite at Rioseco into the bedroom, the sight of Joclyn’s sleeping body welcoming me. She lay still underneath the heavy white covers; the bright white looking out of place against the ancient stone walls. Generally, I preferred white. I preferred the serenity, the hope, and the reminder that you could always start again that it offered me. So many of my rooms were decorated with it, but here, in the ruins of the first Abbey I ever lived in, I could not cover the brick I had laid with my own hands with such a trivial thing as paint. These walls reminded me of starting over in their own way, and that was enough for me.
Joclyn’s clean hair fanned behind her like a dark stain of spilled ink against the white. My magic flared inside of her, moving to reach every corner of her body in an instant, the once powerful barrier now nowhere to be found.
Thankfully, her body was whole, but the absence of the barrier still worried me. It had been strong enough to keep me out of her when she was first trapped in the T?uha, only to fade the longer she stayed inside of it. Now, it had simply disappeared. I knew the absence meant something, but what it was I couldn’t place.
My father had found a way to work beyond my realm of thinking, his mind working faster than mine for once. Any other time I would be glad for the challenge. But somehow, the brutal torture of a girl I loved, happening right in front of me, changed that. I didn’t like to lose, and Edmund had upped the stakes in this game.
I lay down next to her, letting my magic flow into her mind as I joined myself to her, hopeful that this time I might find something. I knew the hope was slim, but I couldn’t stop it from coming unbidden to my mind.
I let my mind seep into hers; the desperation, at once again finding nothing, gripping me to my very core. Her mind had still not returned; a path to retrieve it had not been found. I could still find no trace of where she could have disappeared to.
I had entered her soul, moved into her mind, reversed her magical line, healed her body, held her heart, and now the barrier had gone. The last thing I knew her to control.
She was a shell.
I had run out of ideas.
With all my training, all my power, this problem had stumped me.
We had one thing left, one thing we could try. Being at Rioseco had given us access to the mugs that could hold the Black Water, just as Thom had reminded us in the cave. As Joclyn’s only food source, the Black Water might possibly be the key to awakening her.
I held her to me, my mind still wandering inside of hers, my song filling her mind, my words lingering as they echoed through her soul and vibrated through the tender muscles of her heart. I left them there, within her, before withdrawing from within only to hold her to me, her body pressing up against me.
“Jos, my love,” I whispered to her, knowing it was no use. This was not like when I had been knocked unconscious by my overuse of magic. Her voice had called to me then, but I doubted mine could call to her now. There was nothing there to hear, not that I could find. But, I still couldn’t stop the hope.
“Whatever happens, please know that I will always hold you in my heart. I now know I was not the one to save you, as much as my heart longs to be. But I will protect you, until the one who can awaken you returns.”
I leaned forward and kissed her cheek, the warmth of her skin shooting sweetly through me in an electrical current that caught my veins on fire. Before I could let my heart linger on my words, a soft knock filled the room, echoing off the stone walls.
Not a moment passed before Dramin walked in. As much as I hated the ritual bows and formal speeches, there were times when I missed the formalities my position usually accounted me, this was one of them. I had to remind myself that those luxuries were gone forever, as were my people. My father had massacred the ones I had been chosen to lead. I was all alone now, the last of the Sk?íteks, save my sister. Even at that, we were only half-breeds of the once powerful race.
Dramin smiled as I stood to face him, a mug of Black Water balanced in his hands. I couldn’t ignore the banging in my chest at the possibilities feeding her might give us.
The water had awakened her true ability not too long ago; perhaps it was the key we needed to wake her up now.
“You ready for this?” Dramin asked, his dark green eyes looking at me over the mug.