Page 12 of Within the Flames
"I think that's a lie."
She stepped forward so there was barely space between them. She could feel Luc's breath on her cheek and the warmth radiating from his body. Rather than being repulsed, she found herself reassured by his promise, but didn't admit as much. She didn't want him to know how much of an effect he was having on her.
"You're very astute. It is a lie, but I'm your guide here, I'm not about to tell you how my magic works. That's not the kind of thing that's approved by my people."
Macey scowled. She didn't like secret keeping, even if her gut was telling her she could trust this man and he wouldn't do anything to harm her or her men.
"Tell me what's going on here."
"I'm not sure, the lampads magic is strong, but this much? I think it must be a combination of what they can do, and your own powers as a Warden. But then, you're not just any Warden, are you?"
Macey didn't answer. Air had warned her not to reveal her presence to anyone who didn't need to know about it and had hinted that the consequences of doing so would be dire. She didn't want to risk those things coming to pass. After all the work they'd done, she didn't want it destroyed by a moment of weakness.
Turning away, she strode back up the balustrade and looked down on the writhing mass below.
"Make them stop," she commanded.
"I can't, only you can," Luc answered.
Macey looked back over her shoulder and at Jared. "Make them stop?"
He held up his cuffed hands, a blank look on his face. "It's not me making it happen, little kelpie. My powers are as bound as yours were."
Macey's face fell. How was she supposed to stop all this if she had no idea what to do.
Closing her eyes, she willed the people below to stop what they were doing and disappear. Tingles flooded her body and flowed away from her. Slowly, she opened her eyes again.
She gasped. "But..."
"I told you," Luc said. "You are the only one who can control things here. These are your tests after all."
"Then you can't be here. None of you." Panic coloured her tone as she remembered what everyone had told her about not accepting any help in the lampads tests.
Luc laughed again. That was becoming infuriating. He needed to stop with the inappropriate laughter. "No one said this was the test they'll ask of you. It's just their magic."
"You don't know that for sure," she snapped.
"No, he doesn't," Cam responded. "Daimon's only ever have one charge. He'll have been waiting for you to turn up for years."
"You know too much," Luc muttered.
"In this case, from a daimon I used to know. She..."
"She?" Macey demanded, quiet rage beginning to fill her again.
Cam's face reddened.
"It meant nothing. It was three hundred years ago..."
"I don't care if it was a millennia ago."
"Macey, please, can we do this later?" Cam asked.
"That depends, am I suddenly going to come acrossherwhen I'm least expecting it?" she snapped.
"Unlikely. She'll have died with her charge."
Macey crossed her arms, looking out on the empty space rather than back at him. She hated the images that had flooded her mind and taken over her conscious. She knew her men had lives before her, she'd faced that with Rónàn. But it didn't make the idea of it any easier.
