Page 143 of Fate and Flame
Aibell stepped forward as Gaea moved toward me.
“I know I haven’t shown it lately, but I can still kick your ass, G. I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
Her smile was fake but still appreciated. I grabbed the end of Aibell’s staff, and we were gone. We landed in her old cottage though, not on Nealla’s island. It was exactly as I remembered it. Not a speck of dust out of place.
“Why are we here?”
“To sort the things that need sorting.”
“Oh, fucking fantastic. The riddles have returned.”
She whacked me in the head with her staff.“This is not a game, child. This will come at a cost. If Nealla agrees to help, she will want assurance it’s for a purpose.”
“What cost?”
“That is for her to say,” she said.
She brought her pole forward again, but I blocked it. Her magic froze me in place, and she repeated, whacking me. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t fight back. The cottage I’d once known faded away around us, and the training arena I had built with my father appeared.
“Fight it,” she commanded. “You have magic, use it.”
“You don’t want me to do that,” I gritted out, suppressing the growing anger.
“I do.” She spun in a circle and slammed the edge of her staff into my stomach. “Fight back.”
The magic began to grow. To crest that wall once again.
“No, Aibell. Don’t make me do this.”
“Control it,” she snapped.
The shadows I had once fought in this barn walked toward me. As one, they pulled the arrows from their backs and nocked them. Inches from my face, they threatened me.
“I’ll take this place to the ground.”Like a storm brewing, the magic pressed on. Until I couldn’t hold it back, until I knew I’d be taken with it. The emotions, the despair, the anger, the fear all pushed forward.
“Control it,” she said again. “You are not weak. You are strong. You are in control. Siphon it. Aim it. Shield your mind from your own magic and release it,” she screamed so that I could hear her over the wailing in my head.
Having no choice, I squeezed my eyes shut, and she smacked me with her staff again.
“You cannot aim with your eyes closed, foolish girl.”
And that was it. I managed a small partition in my mind from my own magic as it exploded out of me. The familiar smothering feeling creeped over me as a small piece of my soul ripped away.
“Again,” Aibell called, her voice echoing from a distance. “Open your eyes, you coward.”
My eyelids weighed a thousand pounds. Still, I did as she ordered, difficult as it was. I needed help. Desperately. And if this was the key, if she could help me, I’d do anything. Fight any battle.
“Good. There’s that fire.”
The building was completely gone, of course.
“The only thing threatening to drown you is your own fear of your magic. Do not fear your power, command it. Fenlas is your Guardian, but you cannot expect him to protect you from your own mind. He will need to help you with the aftermath. It is the price you pay, child. But do not let it destroy you. You do not succumb to it. You do not forget who raised you. You do not back down. Control it.”
She released her hold over my body, and I stood. Wobbly, but I stood.
“Nealla will need you to control that magic if you expect to destroy the Wild Hunt. It will take the power of all three of us. If one fails,” she said, stepping closer, her eyes pinning me, “there will be a steep price. This time, aim.”
Again, the shadows pressed in on me as the building reappeared. My magic didn’t build, though. The pressure wasn’t there. Until Aibell grabbed my mind and forced me to watch as Autus lit a pile of lesser fae bodies on fire. As he threw a living, screaming fae on top of that fire. As their wails for help fell on deaf ears through a cruel world. I saw the laughter in his eyes, I saw the glee. What a sick motherfucker he was.
