Page 66 of The Discovered
“It’s not a warm beach, right?” I asked as I emerged from the bathroom. I realized I’d never really paid attention to its temperature in the astrals. It was always just sort of pleasant.
“No. It’s northern, so it’s mild all year long,” he said. “You’re dressed fine. You can take your jacket off once we make the jump.”
I frowned at his demeanor, which had shifted decisively in the last few minutes to the more moody, guarded, and stressed Daelon I knew all too well.
“What’s wrong?”
He hesitated. “It’s just a… complicated place. In terms of its history,” he said. “And while we should be in the clear, it makes me nervous to leave here. We will be a lot more vulnerable. I think it’s important for you to see the place that has called to you so strongly, but at the first hint of foreign energy we’re out of there, okay?”
I nodded. “What happened there?”
He shook his head, giving me the familiar look that meant a topic was off-limits. I knew in my gut that it was something I needed to find out. There had to be a reason I was so drawn to this place—why my mothers spoke of it so often, why I used it as my metaphor, why I kept ending up there in the astrals—and most importantly, why Daelon couldn’t talk about it.
“Fine,” I muttered indignantly. “Let’s go. Stop worrying. You have an ultrapowerful witch on your side, after all.”
Daelon laughed dryly, leading me to the door built into the glass paneling. “Youare exactly what worries me.”
As we walked to the clearing, I watched Daelon’s tension build. He didn’t seem as sure of himself as usual, nor as present with me as he had been this morning. He was distracted, and as I cast glances in his direction, he often looked strained—like he was fighting a battle I couldn’t see.
“Daelon,” I said, grabbing his arm just as we reached the circle of trees.
“What?” he snapped, his jaw tight and forehead creased.
I flinched, dropping my arm back to my side.
Like he was pulled from a daze, his features softened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to talk to you like that.”
“I would hope not,” I muttered, frowning as he reached for my hand, intertwining is fingers through mine.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I was… lost in thought.”
“I just want to make you feel better and I don’t know how,” I said.Because you won’t tell me anything.
He forced a smile, snaking his arm around my waist. He kissed my forehead, visibly releasing some of the tension he carried in his facial muscles.
“You make me feel better about everything all the time,” he said softly.
I smiled, feeling self-conscious under the weight of his words. “And you me.”
A sadness passed through his eyes, almost undetectable.
“You still don’t feel like you deserve me,” I said. I was getting better at reading Daelon without my gift.
“I’m not sure anyone could deserve you,” he said, deflecting my call for vulnerability.
I opened my mouth to try again, but he released my waist and started toward the center of the clearing. I decided to drop it.
“What’s this place called again?” I asked, struggling to remember what my mothers had told me.
“It used to be called something that loosely translates to the Beach of the Nameless and Formless. It’s not really called anything now,” he said, his shoulders slumping as if burdened by some mournful truth.
The name stirred something within me. Nameless and formless was precisely how it felt, even in my astral travels—like a current of something transcendent ran through its waters and blew over its sand. It complimented my own power seamlessly. But why wasn’t it called anything anymore? The thought of no one knowing this place triggered a pang in my heart.
“Because something bad happened there,” I guessed. Somethingcruelperhaps? Something that had to do with my mothers’ coven and Lucius’s unnatural reign.
“A lot of good happened there, too,” Daelon said, quieter now. His eyes darted around the clearing. “Are you ready?”
I nodded, offering my hands. Daelon took them in his, his touch delicate as he closed his eyes in concentration.
