Page 71 of Wind and Water
Ciaran kneels over her. He presses his hands to her abdomen. “Venora. Awake. My queen, you must awake.”
The faintest hope that the witch queen is dead and this entire nightmare is over is thwarted by a low feminine moan and movement in her hands and legs. She pushes her lover’s hands away. “I need the source’s deepening magic.”
“You will have it, my queen.” Ciaran lifts her in his arms and carries her to the pool. At the edge, he lays her on the stone and removes her robe before lifting her again and walking into the thick sludge as if there are stairs within.
When his head disappears, I cup Liam's cheek. “I’ve never been as terrified in my life. I thought I’d lost you.”
He places his hand over mine, but his smile is weak. “You nearly did. I was in shadow, and she had more than my soul. For the briefest of moments, she had my allegiance.” As if rejecting the idea, his entire body shivers, and he clutches me.
“I couldn’t let her take you. How did you come back?” Tears of fear, relief, and joy stream down my cheeks.
He looks almost as spent as Venora as he struggles to sit, and he wraps me in his arms. “I saw you hovering over my body. I heard your prayers to bring me back. I chose my love for you over the biting draw of her magic. I won't lie, though; it would have been easy to be lured in by her. It was as if my entire life had been stripped away, and all that was left was a desire to serve the witch queen. If not for our bond, I wouldn’t have been able to come back, Wren. You saved me.”
We hold each other while I weep into his chest.
Breaking the hug, he grips my face with both hands. Intensity flashes in his eyes. “Promise me you’ll never leave me like that. Send light through the shadow and destroy the demon. Don’t let her have my soul, love. My family couldn’t bear that.”
“No one is taking your soul, Liam. I’ll never abandon you.”
Ciaran and Venora never emerged from the pool.
After what feels like hours, the strange little demons come and force us back to our cell. Without the air bubble, my body retches, and Liam practically has to carry me through hell.
Certain I’ll never make it; I press my nose to Liam’s chest and breathe in his scent. It’s faint under the oppressive, festering odor of hell, but I find it. I open my mind to his and listen to thesong of his soul. My heart breaks at the knowledge that I nearly lost something so perfect and beautiful.
The distraction is enough to get me to the cell where the air is breathable for humans. “Why can you survive out there?” I ask him once the demons have left and sealed the door behind them.
“It’s uncomfortable. I wouldn’t survive long.” He holds his chest and takes deep breaths.
I sit and watch him, remembering the terror of nearly losing him. “How are we ever going to get out of here?” I hate the despair flavoring my voice, but I can’t help it. This is anyone’s worst nightmare: a toxic environment, demons, hell, and under the thumb of a vicious enemy. I’m never going to see my mother again, and I don’t know how my magic works or even how I managed to save Liam. Worse, I don’t know if I can do it again if I need to.
He sits beside me, slipping his arm around my shoulder. “I’ve had a thought about that.”
Leaning into his side, I feel his strength and relax by degrees. “What thought?”
He’s pale, and without sunshine, his magic won’t rejuvenate. He whispers, “I think you could make a portal, Wren.”
“How in the name of Pete would I do that?” The idea of it adds to my helplessness. “Did you lose your senses when she almost took your soul? I have no control over my magic beyond lifting a pebble, Liam. It just comes whenever it wants to.”
“That’s not true,” he says, with love in every word. “It comes when you need it most. It comes when you pray for what you want or need most. I know you can do it.”
Not believing Wren Martin of Texas can create one of the holes in the world that nearly ripped me to pieces, I shrug. “Tell me how and I’ll try.”
For a long time, he says nothing, and I begin to wonder if he’s changed his mind about the feasibility of his mad plan. “Don’t scoff. You have to pray for it.”
I scoff. “Sorry. But you must know how insane that sounds.”
“Try, Wren.”
I love him, so I hold in my second scoff. “Alright, but let’s say I could do this thing, where would my portal lead?”
With a sigh, he nods. “That’s a good question.”
“Can you make a portal? I mean, I saw you open a portal, but that’s not the same as what we’re talking about, is it?” I cross my legs and face him.
“No. I don’t have the skill or knowledge of portal magic. The portal in Scotland that I opened already existed. I used a specific spell to open it.”
“Can other elves create portals out of thin air?”
