Page 172 of Hidden Kingdoms

Shrugging at her, I replied, “It is what it is.”

“In regard to the pain, I cannot say for sure. Just as I cannot say how effective this will be. I doubt having your mind broken into will be a comfortable experience,” Arden interrupted. His reluctance lacing every word as he eyed us with a level of interest that had me turning away, unwilling to be under his scrutiny before his footsteps sounded on the steps.

61

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

BASTIAN

The absence of another person was an uncomfortable pressure that had me rolling my shoulders to relieve that tension. Arden hadn’t offered me a seat, and I didn’t take one. Didn’t make myself comfortable as I waited. Instead, I stood, looming over the girl who sat awaiting her fate.

Had she seen this coming? She claimed she was a Seer after all; is that why she agreed so easily?

Elodie’s hand rose to her chest in a way I remembered seeing before, brushing against the fabric before dropping back into her lap, twisting at the bangles around her wrist instead in practised movements. She wasn’t looking my way, her focus on the flames behind me, a vacant look smoothing her features.

Snapping my fingers to pull her from wherever her mind had taken her, the thud of a door marked Arden’s return. I caught the look of annoyance she directed my way before she turned to Arden, a bundle of items held in his arms as he made his way to us.

He paused by the fire, throwing in a handful of something that had the flames spitting and hissing as they consumed whatever it was. A sharp scent filled the room as they did so.

Arden began placing an assortment of crystals in an intricate pattern on the low table before us. Large chunks of clear quartz were positioned beside carved amethysts and lapis lazuli. All crystals, I realised from my years of learning under his tutelage, to help relax and open the mind.

From the sheer number he had heaped on the table, I knew he wasn’t expecting this to be easy. And from every encounter I’d ever had with Elodie, I doubted it would be.

“Drink this,” Arden said, offering her a small vial filled with a dark green liquid before sitting back in his chair. “It will help your mind open to me. Considering your level of power, it won’t be long before your magik burns through the potion and tries to kick me out. When that happens, Elodie, you’ll need to fight it. You can’t kick me out until I’ve finished.”

Elodie nodded as she studied the vial, and he placed a large candle at each point in the pattern he had made, two dark purple and the other two yellow in colour. With a stick of white chalk, he marked the table with lines and runes that were too complicated for me to follow.

Arden’s hand flicked, and the lights in the tower dimmed to barely a glimmer, the candles igniting at the same time, providing the only way, aside from the fire, to see by.

“Drink,” he instructed, and she pulled off the stopper, swallowing the liquid in one gulp, grimacing as she did.

Arden held out his hand and slowly she placed her into it. I hadn’t seen the small knife until he pressed it into the pad of her thumb, the sharp blade slicing through her skin as drops of blood dripped over the markings on the table.

“Are you ready, my dear?”

“I haven’t exactly got much choice in the matter,” Elodie replied, pulling her hand back, her focus on Arden but those words meant for me. Bloodied thumb beading a single crimson drop she pulled in a steadying breath.

“Then we will begin.” Arden’s eyes narrowed as he flicked them to me for a moment before he, too, settled back, and I stayed standing beside them. Watching. Anticipation pulsed through my body as I waited for them to begin, their annoyance towards me easy to ignore when we were so fucking close.

Whispered words fell from Arden’s mouth, so quiet and fast, I had no chance to catch them, but I could feel the spell he was weaving through the room. The brushes of magik that were building a connection between the two of them. It stroked across my cheek, leaving a blazing trail in its wake.

I felt the energy flowing between them heighten, a physical entity in the air around us. A harsh breath left Elodie, her lips parting slightly as she sat so small in that chair. Magik stirred within me, willing my attention to focus solely on her as it tried to reach for her, seconds away from brushing across her cheek before I reigned it in.

Elodie’s eyes were darting backwards and forwards under their lids, fingernails now digging deep crescents into the velvet arms of the chair. The overwhelming urge to cover her hand in mine, offer her comfort, buzzed through my body. The need so unfamiliar, I stood frozen, towering over her, watching as her body tensed under the intrusion to her mind.

A short, sharp inhale of pain fell from her lips as her back arched into the armchair, mind still held in the grip of the magik Arden was using as her own poured from her in retaliation. Slicing whips of energy were cracking through the room. As one bit down on my shoulder, I clenched my teeth against the hiss of pain it brought.

Before I knew I was moving, I had crossed the distance between us. Dropping to the floor in front of her and ignoring the searing touch of that magik that still lashed against me. Our faces were level, the light from the fire casting the shadows of her eyelashes to stream down her cheeks like trails of dark tears.

“Stop fighting, Elodie,” Arden pushed out through gritted teeth.

I glanced back at him, his face creased in pain as he doubled down his efforts, a red welt blooming across his cheek.

Elodie cried out, chest heaving with punishing breaths, hands leaving the arms of the chair to claw at her hair, her head. Like she could break through and release the agony that was very obviously coursing through her.

I reached for her hands, gently extracting them from the tangles and clasped them in mine. The soft touch of her skin under my own calloused ones had fire burning in my veins. Magik trickled through me in a heady, intoxicating wave at this tiny point of contact that had me wondering how it would feel to touch more of her. There was a rush of pain there, too, and I winced as the sharp points of it dug into me, but I didn’t let go.

Crouched before her, I ignored the way energy was singing under my skin. Elodie’s breath began to even out, the power in the room calming with each inhale she took until it was no longer a suffocating force smothering us.

---