“You came for me.” Violet’s voice was weak, and I could sense she was completely drained of power. Whatever they had done to her was beyond physical torture; they had also drained her of magic and essence. Those bastards.
“Always,” I told her, hugging her so tightly I was sure I would break her. Kade spun back then and scooped Violet into his arms, throwing her gently over his left shoulder, which allowed him to keep his right hand free to fight with his sword.
“Guards are moving, we need to go,” he said. Violet squirmed on Kade’s shoulder, protesting.
“No, Ari. The glass … you have to touch it. You have to take your essence back or they will do bad things with it.” Her tone was as forced as she could manage in her weakened state, but I knew it was important to her. This was the glass she’d spoken about in the dream, that she said contained my energy…
I walked toward it hesitantly, examining it more closely. I hadn’t paid attention before, but as I stood before it, the true beauty within astonished me. The glass itself was probably only ten inches tall and half that size wide. It had a detailed silver base that wrapped up around the bottom of the domed glass. From a distance, when I’d first glanced at it, I thought it was empty. But it wasn’t.
A turquoise mist was swirling in slow arcs around the center of the glass, tinged through with a silver and gold that reminded me of the color of my eyes. As I stepped even closer, no more than an inch from the glass, my hand began to shake, the hairs on my arms stood up, and I felt this aching in my heart. It was not an ache I had ever felt before. It was almost like a huge cavern existed inside of me, and somehow I had never noticed it.
I was not whole.
I needed to be whole.
Until this very moment I had not known I was half-empty, but there was no way to shut that ache down. I inhaled deeply, and was shocked to find that it smelled of me, felt like me. The silver mists shifted, and I blinked a few times as I wondered if what I was seeing was real. There was an image, familiar to me, the day Finn had arrived in my life when I was five. The massive familiar bonded to a tiny, white-haired wolf-shifter. Another swirl and a new image appeared: my first time on the Island with Blaine and Violet. The next was the day my sister was born and my mother was no longer with me. Over and over, images of my life flashed in the dome, and there was no doubt this energy was tied to me. To my life.
Violet was right. Whatever this glowing turquoise energy was … it was mine.
Unable to stop myself, and knowing time was running out, I wrapped both hands around the glass, intending to pull it up and release the contents. However, the moment I touched it, a shockwave ripped through me and the glass began vibrating in my hands. I couldn’t let it go now even if I wanted to. My body was shaking as hard as the glass.
A cracking sound filled the cell and the turquoise energy pulsed out, growing larger as the glass shattered. With force strong enough to shoot me backwards across the room, the dome exploded, glass spraying everywhere. The turquoise energy slammed into my body, filling up all the parts of me that were empty.
The breath knocked out of me, I struggled to sit up. I expected to be cut to shreds, but there wasn’t one mark on me from the explosion of glass.
I sat there getting my bearings for a moment. My breath was back now, but my insides were swirling strangely. The vibration had not stopped, it had only moved internally. A burst of heat and life shot through my center, through the part of me that had been aching and empty only moments before. I cried out as my head dropped back against the wall, my hands scraping over the dirty stone floor.
“Ari? Talk to me!” Kade rumbled.
The urgency in his voice snapped me out of whatever weirdness was holding me in its grasp. I was able to focus again – well, sort of. I felt like myself, but also … different. I felt alive.
Adrenaline coursing through me, I jumped to my feet. Shifter energy, mecca, and something else mingled within my center. Some new great power was coursing through my body. I hurried across to Kade. He was staring out into the hall, preparing for an impending attack. Dropping my hand onto his biceps, I said, “I’m okay. Let’s get out of here.”
He swung his head around to see me, and even though he tried to hide it, his eyes widened and his jaw went a little slack. Shock. Not something he normally displayed.
I looked behind me, wondering what he was seeing.
“Ari … your ears,” he finally said. His tone was one part shock and two parts awe.
I inhaled quickly as my fingers came up to feel my ears. Oh … my … the tips were pointed like a full highborn fae.
“I’m a fae,” I said to the room, needing to say it out loud so I could try and wrap my head around it.
A clanking of metal had us all focusing; Kade was again in warrior mode. “Stay close behind me, Ari. We need to move fast.”
I swallowed hard, trying my best to ignore that I now had pointy ears, and some new fae magic was swirling inside me, its heat filling me with a life and vibrancy I had never felt before.
Holy crap … I was fae.
Chapter Seven
The wheels of time are often jagged.
Kade was already moving and I stayed right on his heels. Violet must have passed out, because she was limp over his shoulder, but her breathing sounded calm and rhythmic, which was a small relief. The path through the cells was clear, but that part was always going to be easy. It was the part where we had to get past the guards, through the castle, out of royal territory, and then out of the Winter Court, which was going to be a problem.
A problem which was starting in three … two … one. Showtime.
Two guards popped into view, one on either side of the stone entranceway. They held huge swords, but with the narrow confines of the corridor, it was going to be hard for them to use that style of weapon effectively. Without missing a beat, Kade slid Violet to me. I took her weight with ease, and then he attacked, rushing straight in, his own sword out in front.
Now, I had seen Kade fight a few times, and most of those times had been against fae, but I had never seen him fight this close up. Usually I was fighting as well, so my attention was divided. Not now though. Now I got to watch it without distraction.