Page 72 of A Fractured Song

Never dropping his eyes from hers, Zev lifted his other hand to mirror the first, so that he held her face in his palms.

“Part of me wants to ask you to just let it go and stay here with me.” He gave a wry smile. “But I know you’d never do it.”

“Not while Oleand is falling apart,” she said, trying not to show how much his touch affected her. “Not to mention the small issue of your family not wanting me here.”

Zev made a noise in his throat that might have been protest or acknowledgment, it was hard to tell.

“What about the other part of you?” Marieke pressed.

Zev let out a small sigh. “That part wants to solve the mystery and make things right as much as you do,” he admitted.

Marieke beamed at him, her heart swelling. “I’m glad,” she whispered. “Having your support means more than you know.”

“You’ll have more than my support,” Zev said. “I’m coming with you, of course.”

Marieke bit her lip, pleased but uncertain. “Will your family let—”

“It’s not up to my family,” Zev cut her off. “We’re stronger together, Marieke. I’m not letting you go without me.”

Marieke latched on to his words, leaning toward him and pressing her hand more firmly against his chest. “We are stronger together, aren’t we?” she agreed, trying not to sound too eager. “I don’t know how to explain it, Zev, but something magical happens when we’re together.”

“I agree.” His voice was gruff, and pleased as Marieke was by the admission, she shook her head.

“I’m talking about something practical and specific. You know that I can sense the magic in the ground, right?”

Zev nodded.

“Well, usually, when I’m preparing to sing, the magic pools to me. I can feel it gathering. But in the canyon, try as I might, I couldn’t get the magic to behave in the normal way. It was like it was pooling to you, not to me.”

“To me?” Zev sounded startled.

“Yes. It’s hard to describe, but it was responding to my prompting, yet gathering to you. And once I figured that out—especially once you encouraged me that I could do it—I was somehow able to access it through you.”

“The magic came through my body?” Zev asked.

Marieke shook her head. “It’s more like it was drawn to you, then obeyed my song without coming into either of our bodies. I mean, some of it came up into me, but some of it just shot straight through the ground to do what I’d asked it.”

“That sounds…strange.” Zev spoke cautiously, and Marieke didn’t blame him. It was all very baffling and unnerving.

“It was,” she agreed. “And it’s definitely not something I could make happen by myself. I really can’t explain it, but it felt like it was something we did together.”

Zev was silent for a moment as he thought this over. His hands still cupped her face, one thumb moving absently in a rhythmic circle over her skin. “And this was when we’d run into that cave?” he asked. “When we left the middle of the gorge and went fully under the Aeltan side of the canyon?”

“Yes,” said Marieke slowly. “Yes, that’s right. I hadn’t thought about the fact that it was Aeltan land, but I suppose that’s true.”

Zev’s eyes were glazed over, and he stayed silent for longer this time. Marieke didn’t ask him what he was thinking. She was certain he wouldn’t tell her, and in any event, she wasconsumed by her own thoughts. Some idea danced at the edge of her awareness, a suspicion that got its life from the strange secrecy that sometimes surrounded Zev. What was the significance of this new information? How did it all fit together?

“Well,” Zev said at last, something in his voice that Marieke couldn’t read. “I suppose if we’re going all the way to the southern jungle, we’ll have time to explore it all more as we go.”

“You really want to come with me?” Marieke asked uncertainly. “Your family surely won’t approve.”

Zev gave a rueful smile. “They won’t. They very much want to stay out of it, and in their minds, that includes me.”

“Yes.” Marieke considered him. “You’re not quite a normal family, are you?” Again that suspicion stirred within her, an idea she couldn’t quite place.

She expected the familiar guarded look to spring into Zev’s eyes, but it didn’t. He held her gaze, revealing nothing, but not retreating either.

“But my mind is made up, Mari,” he said as the silence stretched out. “We’re in this together, you and I. I’ll see it through with you.”

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