Page 39 of Power of Five
24
Leralynn
The meeting leaves me cold. Colder than Shade’s stern side left me. Freezing.
In one swift moment I almost lost the quint, and despite knowing that moment was coming, it nearly shredded me apart. For every fiber in me that’s grateful for the temporary reprieve, there is another cringing from the dark cloud of what’s to come.
A bath. I want a bath and then I want Autumn.
“Leralynn.” Klarissa’s melodic voice catches me halfway down the corridor.
I turn toward the sound of my name, but somehow find Coal already there, pushing me behind him.
Klarissa opens her hands to show Coal her empty palms, then looks past the warrior to lock gazes with me. “Might we speak for a moment, Leralynn?” Klarissa asks, her voice silky with reason. “I promise to ask nothing of you, only to offer you information and answer any questions you might wish to ask. As one of the council elders, it is my duty to ensure your wellbeing.”
I dissect Klarissa’s words, looking for a trap. “How do I know you won’t drag me into the Gloom?” I ask.
I expect the female to laugh at me, but Klarissa nods respectfully. “That is an excellent concern. I’m pleased that the basics have been explained to you. I do believe you would feel safer if Coal answered your query on my behalf. Coal?”
Coal crosses his arms, his eyes hard on Klarissa as he answers me. “She can’t pull you into the Gloom because the palace is warded.”
“Thank you, Coal,” Klarissa says, as if praising a pupil. “Does that make you feel better, Leralynn?”
No. But I can’t explain why either. Raising my chin, I step toward Klarissa, my shoes leaving indents on the soft rug. If she has information to offer, I’ll listen. I can make up my own mind after that. Behind me, Coal growls softly but moves to the end of the hall, respecting my choice. “I’m listening,” I say, my clipped tone adding a silentfor now,which Klarissa ignores.
“I understand the past few days have been quite eventful for you,” the elder says smoothly. She runs her fingers over the priceless fresco on the wall, as if studying the hounds painted there. “I’d say I know how you feel, but that would be a lie. To be frank, I’ve no notion of how quint magic affects a mortal. Though I understand that the differences are profound.”
I keep my voice even. “Why do you say that?”
She shrugs one bare shoulder. “Because the quint went all the way to you. You did not go to them.” She taps the wall, her nail drumming a rhythmicclick click clickagainst the plaster. “When the magic calls an immortal into a quint, the pull is too strong to be denied. Some die on their way. Coal clawed his way from Mors. But you... you didn’t so much as leave your stable, did you?”
No. I didn’t. I want to mull over what that means, but this isn’t the time for it. I feel Klarissa watching, checking whether Coal’s background shocks me, whether her insight into my own movements unsettles me at all. I offer her a simpering smile. “Ah. I see.”
She smiles back, showing me her canines. “Did the males share with you how Kai died?”
No, again. I slip my hands into the pockets of my billowy silk pants, giving my hands something to do.
Klarissa steps away from the fresco and looks out the window, as if she can see beyond the manicured gardens of the Slait palace. She starts the story without waiting for my permission, and I’m helpless to stop her. “The quint had just dispatched a school of piranhas—small-minded worm-shaped creatures with five-foot-long bodies and a voracious appetite. The creatures usually stay deep in the Gloom but have been surfacing to feed more and more often the past hundred years. The fight was over, the quint victorious and resting. Shade, however, thought they might have missed something. Not wanting to disturb the others on a hunch, he stepped into the Gloom alone.”
“You mean Kai,” I correct.
“No. Shade.” She frowns, her gaze still on the distant land. “Turned out that Shade was right. The quinthadmissed something—a gateway through which the slimy bastards had gotten into the Gloom shallows to begin with. While the quint was resting in the Light above, the piranhas were refilling the Gloom. And when Shade stepped back in, the whole school of them were on him in an instant. Sinking their needle-sharp teeth into Shade’s flesh. Chomping off pieces.”
Bile rises up my throat and I try to swallow without drawing attention.
“They’d gotten a jump on Shade, you see, and he couldn’t return. But Kai was Shade’s twin, and he felt his brother’s life fading. So Kai rushed in after Shade and pulled him out. But... there wasn’t enough of Kai left to save after that.”
Blood drains from my head, making me dizzy. The images from Klarissa’s story swarm in my mind. Stars.
“Shade couldn’t defend himself,” Klarissa continues, “and it took Kai’s life to save him. That often happens in quints: It isn’t the one in peril who dies, but the ones who go to his—or her—rescue.” Klarissa’s dark eyes swing to me, giving me time to absorb her words, to imagine who in the quint now could likely be in peril and who would be going to her rescue. Klarissa’s voice drops so low, I can barely make out the words. “Listen to me, girl. The magic in those males’ veins makes it physically difficult for them to separate from you, no matter how badly they wish to. It is easier on your end. If you’ve come to care for any of them, protect their lives by returning home.”
My chest tightens and I nod, not trusting my voice.
“One other thing,” Klarissa says, slipping a small red jewel into my palm. “If you need me, smear a drop of blood onto the jewel and I’ll come to help.”
