Page 49 of Sustaining
“I didn’t instruct him to hurt you, Arlow. I instructed him to strengthen that quiet magic inside yourself.” Before I can spew the anger ripping up my throat, she continues on. “A single man destroyed our people. He took our lives away, not Kreedence, not me, but him!” Her gaze has so much depth and passion right now, but it’s carefully composed. She’s in control of everything in her life and she knows it. She knows who she is and she knows where she’s going.
She’s everything I’ve always wanted to be.
But I know a liar when I see one.
“We are owed so much. I’m going to ask you this one time, Arlow. Come with me to Attika. Help me, help us. If you help me, you and I will never have to hide, I promise. Together, the two Kingdoms could be ours.”
There’s a small rebellious part of me deep in the back of my mind that’s rising to say she’s right. My life, Aggie’s life, my mother’s life, it was all taken from us all because the King of Minden was a scared little man.
People fear the things that are different. Fear can be a dangerous, deadly thing.
But so can vengeance.
Ellise isn’t here to right a wrong or to save the last remaining mages of this world.
She’s here for power that isn’t hers. Just as she was all those years ago when she herself started all of this.
“No.” My jaw locks tight after I’ve said the single statement.
“No?” Her pale-blonde brow arches. “You’re turning your back on your people?”
The fury she evokes inside me is proof that the similarities between she and I aren’t enough to make us true allies.
“No. You don’t want to liberate us. You want to rule us. You want exactly what you wanted all those years ago. And you and everyone you gather will die in the name of a crown that isn’t yours.” My voice trembles with all the effort it’s taking to control my tone in front of her.
Her hand snatches out for me, and I can faintly see her fading right before my very eyes. She’s delivered what the summoner needed. And now the power of this magic is ripping her right back to whatever hiding hole she came from.
Rime’s fist clutches over her wrist before she ever touches me, and her image flickers out of focus, but he holds her in place away from me. His icy gaze is an eerie emptiness, and I know he’s not afraid of the most powerful mage in all the land.
The way her face slowly turns to him reveals a similar look of quieted rage. That single, familiar look twists my stomach, but I’m not sure why. The two stare at each other. Smooth, pale features appraise one another. Blonde hair as white as snow lifts in the breeze, and it clicks in my mind just before she speaks.
“I had a son who was hidden away from the world. I had a son who would have ruined my chances at a royal wedding. I had a son I abandoned in the coldest part of the Attikan Kingdom.” Her features flicker out once more, but it’s as if she’s holding herself here with us with the force of unseen magic. “He wasn’t like Linden. He was strong, and I knew that strength would help him survive.”
Rime’s knuckles tighten so hard his fist shakes as he grips her slender wrist. Frost wafts from his lips with every heavy breath he releases, but he never once replies to her confession.
Her other hand wraps around his, and then she’s staring at me. This time when she flickers, shuddering out of focus like she might disappear entirely, so does Rime.
My breath catches, and I’m suddenly reminded of those ominous words Aggie said to the ice dragon all that time ago:You will be the hardest to break but the easiest to love. The worst to lose.
“No,” I say through gritted teeth.
Another bout of transparency flickers over them, and my hands lift to think of some sort of magic to protect him.
The hard-headed shifter never even let me tell him I loved him. I can’t lose him. I won’t. Agatha might be a Sight Seer, but she can’t always be right. She just can’t.
“If I stole something you loved, would you follow me then, Arlow? Is that what it takes?”
“No.” The word shakes from me, grinding out as the magic in me builds to an unsustainable high.
A sweet smile curves her lips. It all happens so fast. The shuddering translucency quickens, and I just know what she’s going to do to me.
She’s going to rip away a part of me that I can’t live without.
And I won’t let that happen.
They fade. So, so quickly they fade out of existence right before my very eyes. I slide my hand into his, our eyes meeting with a passing look of surprise and fear.
I think somewhere in the darkness, somewhere in the whipping pull of time and space, I say it, but it’s lost in the void.
