Page 36 of The Illuminated
His final words were enough to snap me out of the spell and regain control, and I felt the space in my chest shut off like a faucet. When I opened my eyes, the special five minutes had passed, and the tower glowed a solid golden light once more. The orbs had vanished, leaving behind a bewildered mass of people who were all suddenly looking at Daelon and me.
“Why are they staring at us?” I asked as he pulled me off in the direction from which we came. We walked quickly, and Daelon glanced back every once in a while to make sure we weren’t being followed.
“You pulled all the light back into you,” he murmured.
“I’m sorry,” I said, his grip on my arm loosening as we moved further away and back into the heart of the city. “Why did I do that? I didn’t even notice it was happening.”
“I think because you’ve never had to learn to control your power in this realm, since your mothers’ bracelet suppressed your magick before it could reach its full strength. Magick here isn’t quite the same, just as our senses don’t feel quite right. It’s unnatural for us to be here. Usually it’s more difficult for witches to draw power here, hence why it was the perfect place for your mothers to escape and hide you. It’s especially true in big cities, which are so cut off from all things natural.”
“Right,” I said. I drew my brows together. “That’s why they sent me to New York City. But it doesn’t feel that way. I don’t feel dampened at all. You helped me so much to disconnect my emotions from my power, but back there… it felt out of control again. Like my magick had a mind of its own.”
We stopped walking so that we could catch our breaths on a side road that housed residential buildings.
Daelon’s eyes darted around, and he shook his head. “You said youwanted them to see it. To make them feel whole.What did you mean by that?”
I hesitated. Those words felt so raw, so essential to who I was. “I was just thinking about the last time I was here, and how incomplete I felt without my magick and without people who understood who I was. And I was so thankful tonight that I finally felt whole again. Then when I saw all the light, I think a part of me thought… I don’t know. It sounds stupid now that I’m saying it out loud.”
“Nothing you say could ever sound stupid, Áine,” Daelon admonished, brushing a strand of copper behind my ear. “Tell me.”
I shrugged. “I thought it might help them. To know that they aren’t alone, like I felt for so long. To show them the beauty of their world. And something else that I can’t quite put into words.” I searched my mind, but I kept coming up blank. Whatever my power wanted, it was buried from my perception now. “I’m sorry,” I repeated.
I had no idea the consequences of showing a bunch of humans magick, but I imagined whatever or whoever was in charge of the balance of the universe wouldn’t be too pleased. More immediately, I knew I could’ve blown Daelon’s mission. Or even put us in danger with the energy vampires and wayward witches of this realm.
“It’s okay. We’re okay. I can’t detect anything witch around us, and we weren’t followed.”
A drunk pair of Englishmen wobbled past us, singing drinking songs out of tune and shouting loud enough to earn yells from the French tenants above. One of them paused to vomit violently into a gutter. The other slapped his back and laughed.
“And the fact that I exposed a bunch of humans to magick?”
Daelon sighed. He ran a hand through his waves of dark hair. “I don’t know. Being sent here is almost always a punishment, not a choice. And it takes an extreme amount of power to even make the jump, requiring the energy of entire covens save someone like you or Lucius. There are myths warning against exposing our nature to humans, that’s for sure, but I’ve never heard of a witch who’s ever influenced this realm in any meaningful way.”
“Until now,” I said with a grimace. The spectacle was probably being viewed by thousands on every social media platform as we spoke.
“There’s nothing we can do about it now. It was dark, and we were standing pretty far away from everyone else. I doubt anyone captured our faces.”
“What about the mission? The man we’re looking for is a witch, right? What if he catches wind of this and runs?”
“He won’t.” Daelon turned from me. “Let’s go back to the apartment.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Amos saw a vision of us with him,” he said, and the tenor of his voice made me want to stop asking questions.
I hated thinking about Amos helping Lucius. He was the one who found me here on Earth. It felt perverse for someone who was profoundly mystical and in tune with the vast ocean of magick and wisdom to help the very witch who wanted to burn it all to the ground.
After a good twenty minutes of walking, Daelon turned a key in a grand, heavy black door that led inside a tall white building on a quiet street. We moved past a wall of mailboxes before reaching another door locked by a keypad. Daelon typed in the code and pushed the door open. We ascended the winding staircase in silence, finally making it to the apartment on the fifth, and top, floor.
The bags we’d dropped off before dinner lay idly to the side. The apartment was sprawling and modern, unlike any of the quaint living spaces I was accustomed to in Paris. Money was clearly not an issue for witches. The Eiffel Tower was even visible from the glass doors and terrace beyond them, which would’ve been a lot more exciting if I hadn’t just imposed my power-drunk impulses on a bunch of Parisians and tourists.
A glassed-in fireplace to our right stood before a low, black leather couch and matching chairs, with a sleek black coffee table in between. An elegant, white kitchen opened up on the other side of the fire, and the bedroom veered off to the left. The space looked far more American than French, designed maybe for a transnational businessman and his high-end escorts. It definitely had Lucius’s nasty vibes all over it.
“Sit. Let me make you some tea,” Daelon murmured, kissing the side of my head.
We snuggled into the leather couch, and I sipped a soothing chamomile tea. It reminded me of my mothers and all their herbal remedies, and soon I was wrapped in a familiar quilt of warmth and care.
“Why doesn’t this feel as good as I thought it would? To finally be alone with you, free from those suffocating castle walls?” I asked, finally breaking the stifling silence.
“Because we aren’t really free,” Daelon said, his voice painfully distant. “We’re still playing his game. He’s tainting everything. His reach feels inescapable.” He nearly spat the last words out, and he moved my legs off his lap to stand. “I need a minute,” he muttered before stalking off.
