Page 40 of Waves
“Can I come?” The question came out impulsively, erupting from the magnetic haze of her presence, but I immediately justified the instinct to tag along. If I wanted to reverse this wish, reverse it properly, I needed to get some insight into the magical protections surrounding Avia. I needed to know which wishes would lead to dead ends and where the cracks in her magical armor were. What better way to ask innocent-seeming questions about her magic than by helping?
A dark fluttering feeling flitted through my chest as her soulful amethyst eyes stared up at me. If those were butterflies, they were black creatures—excited only for the chance to execute this plan.
Her hand slid into mine, fingers soft as silk. And those sarding bugs burst into color inside of me.
I nearly bent down and brushed my lips over Avia’s soft cheek. In fact, my lips ached from the restraint of holding them back.
“I’m so happy I ran into you. Your help is exactly what I need,” Avia smiled up at me, her expression as bright and glittering as the summer sun on the sands of Cheryn. Shimmering.
My chest grew tight, and I realized I’d forgotten to breathe.
Shite—
She was already tugging me along, swimming after the undead witch woman who walked along one of the many bridges that crisscrossed around this town. The current blew lightly around us, and I couldn’t remember a time I’d felt so content. When had I derived bliss from simply holding hands?
Avia seemed to feel the same because she leaned her whole body into my arm, her small breasts pressed near my elbow, the white dress she wore cut low in the front and creating a deliberately tempting view. “Of all the competitors, you’re one of the few that wears his heart on his sleeve,” she murmured. “It makes it easy to trust you.”
The floating feeling inside my chest was merely glee that she was so easily fooled. That would make her slip up, divulge more. Except…as we swam up toward a sheltered shelf on an iceberg to practice, it hit me with full force that removing this wish might mean I never got to feel this way again.
This dancing light inside my chest would fade and all that would be left was the lonely darkness I’d inhabited for centuries.
But alone was better.
Alone was certain.
Alone allowed me to become the threat I’d been. To rise up and conquer.
With solitude came power.
Avia gave my hand a squeeze and then released it, her iridescent wings gently brushing against my sleeve as she swam forward to face off against Lizza, the rainbow band in her hair glinting merrily. But as she gained her footing and took up a fighting stance on the ice cliff, she glanced back over at me, as if for reassurance.
And my determination wavered.
Chapter 17
Avia
“Take it off!” Lizza’s gruff command echoed off the icy cliff at my back.
Stavros looked at me curiously but I avoided eye contact, letting my golden locks fall like a curtain between us as I quickly unhooked the elven chain that protected me from magical attacks. I slid it into a small sand dollar pouch on my hip, feeling exposed.
The witch didn’t hesitate. The moment I was vulnerable, she grabbed a potion from inside the cloak she wore and lobbed it at me with an accuracy I didn’t expect. The uncorked bottle leaked wide streaks of black ink as it spiraled toward me and that shadowy magic spread through the water, swirling and twisting, melding and molding, until it solidified into a kraken twice my size. The magical creation had glowing orange eyes, two sharp horns protruding from its head, and an unfriendly looking tooth-lined beak.
Lizza jerked her hands and, like a puppet on strings, the kraken roiled through the sea toward me with tentacles as big as my thighs.
My first instinct was to duck, but Stavros called out behind me, “Strike first!”
“Really? I was planning on running,” I jested as I lifted my hands.
“Not a very good strategy for killing your enemy,” he retorted mildly, though I thought there might be just a hint of flirtation in his tone.
Or perhaps I just hoped so, because I needed him to want to stay. Though I’d grabbed at him impulsively this morning, and perhaps I shouldn’t have because I needed to tame my powers now more than ever, I also had this intuitive feeling when it came to Stavros. Like somehow I needed him. His magic. His leaking emotions. His presence.
“Oh, and you’re an expert assassin?” I teased, tone light even as I inhaled and sought out the faint song of the sea. Notes shimmered in the distance like wind chimes.
“Maybe.”
Yes, that was definitely flirtation in his tone. My eyes cut sideways to him before I lifted my brows. “Well, then, killer. Come help me.”
