Page 24 of Vathia
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
AEMON AND JESPER HAVE TAKEN the female and her friends to the training field and, unbeknownst to them, I’ve been watching from the wall. They would see me if any of them bothered to look up, but they haven’t. They’ve set everyone in pairs and seem to be working on the stances and forms they’ve learned at Phixmery, while Aemon reprimands Jesper for lazy techniques. It’s intriguing to watch and not technically wrong. They’re both strong warriors, but Jesper lacks discipline.
Despite everything happening below, my gaze is locked on Ravina.
She’s Maeven, but she’s not. Just like I’m Killian, but not the quiet bookworm that used to hide away with her in her family’s library. Neither of us are the same.
My hand itches to touch my back—the mark that ties us together. But what if we’ve changed too much to be what we once were for each other? Maybe I’m a coward for actively avoiding her since we’ve arrived. I’ve destroyed more practice dummies than I care to admit trying to work through everything. This realm is unfair. If I were one of the characters in the books we used to read, I’d realize that the main character is usually put through a trial to build the story. But for me? It’s only destroyed every fiber of who I once was, and I don’t know how to come back from that. How to be a good mate to her.
But maybe I can help with her training, since these buffoons don’t seem to know what they’re doing. They’re trying to train her like she’s a male instead of a female who has her own strengths and advantages.
I climb down from the wall and head over to where Ravina is lying in the sand for the millionth time this afternoon. “I’ll be taking over,” I grunt. “Get up,” I tell her and my skin prickles at the thought of having her touch me. Maybe this wasa bad idea, but it’s her. She was always my safe space, although that was before everything else happened to me.
Ravina—as she prefers to go by—clambers to her feet, glancing at Jesper.
He holds up his hands and smirks. “Hey, don’t look at me. The big guy says he’s taking over and I’m not going to fight him on that. I’ll be over here for when you need to be patched up. Don’t worry, I’ll kiss every scrape and bruise for you,” he teases, making her skin flush red. “And Kill, you better not hurt her,” he tells me, his voice low and full of venom.
A low growl leaves my throat. “I’m not going to hurt her.”
Her soft voice floats over to me. “I know you won’t Kill, I trust you.”
“You shouldn’t,” I reply. “Get into stance. You’re smaller than the rest of us. Fates, most of the fae. Use it. Stop trying to go for the big dramatic attacks. Use everything you have in your arsenal,” I tell her. There’s no rules in battle. You do what you need to do to survive. Which is something that isn’t taught at Phixmery. The others have gotten too comfortable with their fighting standards, and that needs to change.
She charges at me and I place my hand on her head, and my skin crawls with awareness, but not for the reason I thought it would. My voice comes out deeper than before. “You’re not listening. Everything. In. Your. Arsenal.”
She steps back, thinking it over for a moment, and then I see it in her eyes the moment she’s realized. They’ve only been working on hand-to-hand, which she has down. But if she wants to come out victorious, she needs to use her magick, too. Everything she has access to is a weapon she can use against anyone who wishes to harm her.
My method is to evade her attacks, knowing that my strengths lie in close combat. Once she’s able to land a hit on me, then she can go against Jesper again. Hopefully by that time,Talyn will have kept his word and arrived here. The sour feeling in my gut still hasn’t gone away since leaving Tal, and it’s making me itch with annoyance. We’re better when we stick together. Maybe I should see if some of Aemon’s spies can find out any information; maybe that would ease my thoughts. Although, he still hasn’t heard from the first team he dispatched, which is not helping the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Ravina summons a ball of fire to her hand and grins, reminding me of when she was Maeven and we would play fight. Although now there’s a darkness in her gaze instead of the light I used to take comfort in.
Maybe this is why things went the way they did for me—so I could be the one to fight off every nasty thing that comes for her in this war. After all, I was born to be her protector.
AEMON'S GOING TO be sending someone to see if they can find anything on Talyn’s whereabouts, but so far no luck on that front, which only makes me worry more. There haven’t even been rumours circulating about his whereabouts, which makes me want to break my promise to him and go searching. So, for now, I’ll preoccupy myself with training. Aemon’s also going to be bringing in one of his trusted spies to help train Ravina and her friends in the art of combat magick. It’s obvious that the cadets only know the basics, although the twins—Amos and Adair—seem to be a bit more advanced. I assume the twins are the reason my Little Warrior feels so comfortable with her elemental magic. Elemi’s are a force to be reckoned with, especially if they have the ability to control more than one element. Talyn was an overbearing asshole at first when hismagick came in. Anytime he could manipulate any four of the elements he would. It wasn’t nearly as bad as Jesper though, being able to create illusions, especially as a prankster. A small grin traces my lips as I remember her sad attempt to get into my mind and try to manipulate it. After growing up around Jesper, we made sure our shields were damn near impenetrable. Her attempt was… cute. But not good enough. She should be able to surpass all of us in our magick, and she’s a long way from doing so. We only have our fathers to blame for what was done to her.
The sun is long gone and I find myself wandering the castle aimlessly until I enter into a room and freeze. I haven’t entered any library since Ravina and I were younger. Panic begins to cloud my vision until I hear her.
“Kill, what are you doing here? Is everything okay?”
My breath begins to steady and my eyes find her with unnerving accuracy. “Can’t sleep,” I grumble, and without realizing it, I’m stepping towards her table. “What are you reading?”
She shows me the cover and I realize she’s studying battle books, like the ones my father made me read. “I’m trying to catch up to all of you. I haven’t been able to sleep well, since my memories came back,” she whispers. “It’s like I’m grieving a life I could have had with all of you. I remember our hideaways in my parents’ library.” She smiles up at me and my heart does this weird thing in my chest. I can’t look away from her.
“I remember. You liked to read fairytales about your princes.”
She laughs and I find myself pulling out a chair and sitting across from her. The chair creaks under my weight and all I can do is hope that it holds.
It’s quiet for a moment before she glances at me with questioning eyes. “You and Aemon have been hiding from me.”
I trace her features with my eyes, the pouty, full lips, her high cheekbones and soft cheeks, her reddish brown tresses that look like they’ve been run through with fingers more times than I can count. She’s breathtaking, and I find myself swallowing thickly. “It’s been hard for me. I can’t speak for Aemon, but I thought you were dead this whole time. We searched for you when we were old enough, thinking that maybe your parents got you out since only your fathers’ bones were found. We were sure your mother was scorched into dust considering the amount of proof that shadow flames were involved. But we found nothing of you… We hoped...” I swallow roughly, my throat thick with the amount of speaking I’m doing. For some reason, it’s easy to talk to her, even though my voice is beginning to get hoarse from the talking. The others and I ran into the burning castle once we realized what was happening. Our fathers were livid. I thought it was concern for our wellbeing. But I know better now.
The mark along my back tingles and I watch as Ravina rubs the side of her rib cage.
“She got me out with her handmaiden before they breached the castle. It was the Lords who caused everything all those years ago, wasn’t it?” she asks softly, her sapphire eyes gleaming with wetness that she blinks away.
A soft grunt rumbles in my throat as I nod. “We didn’t know,” I tell her, needing her to know. Even if we did, we were only fledglings. We were powerless against our fathers’ plans. It’s what lit the kindling of rage that boils just under the surface into the inferno it is today.
“Why haven’t they moved into the castle then? Taken over?”
