Page 92 of A Touch of Stars and Stones
I’m moving across the class to intercept her before Calix or anyone else can stop me.
“Azur?” She tries again, but he doesn’t respond. She steps back, her hands going to her mouth. “We were in a maze. He was leading me, so I followed. Only I couldn’t find him.”
Ravi and Capella are hovering around him now, along with Aurelia.
“When is someone going to stop this?” Ascella shouts. “We shouldn’t have to risk ourselves to train with her.”
“Training is exactly that. Risking yourself,” Rowan counters, still assessing the situation. “Do you not think that Micah risks himself when he takes on Calix in a physical encounter? Do you not think that Capella risks herself going up against you?”
“That’s different.”
“Oh, why?” Rowan answers, and Ascella’s eyes fly wide.
“Because we know what they can do. She can’t control herself. We can all see that.” There’s a fierceness to her voice that tells me and everyone else that she won’t drop this.
“Aten?” Aurelia calls and beckons me over.
As I walk over to them, I track Ever edging closer and closer to the wall of the room and see Micah on an intercept course.
“Aten, I need you to reach Azur. Snap him out of this.”
“How?” I ask. When we’d trained one-on-one before, there was nothing, at least from my side. I could analyse his moves, his fighting and counter, but that’s as far as I’d looked.
“Curse you, Ciros. Feel for his emotion. See if he’s got a shield around his mind. You need to draw him from wherever he’s gone.” I look at her like she’s the one who’s lost her mind. But I don’t show it. I school my features.
No weakness. I’m a Guard now.
I grab Azur’s left wrist and focus, pushing my mind to search for something, a glimmer of familiarity, a feel, maybe. To start, it’s just like it was when I felt for him before this test with Ever. But, as I let my mind go further, I feel something, like an echo or shadow. It’s curious, so I focus all my strength on it and mentally try to pull and grab him as if he’s actually at the end of whatever this strand of thought might be.
My mind protests, but that little shred of recognition has me digging deeper to try and unlock whatever it is. A tangle of thoughts and images starts to close in around me, but I don’t let go of that one thought—that little echo—and just like any fight in my life, I imagine the win.
In a blink, it’s gone, and I mentally stumble, like tripping up, and Azur’s eyes focus again, taking in the room around us and trying to catch up with the changes.
I drop my hold of him and step back, a little disorientated and confused about what that kernel of recognition was.
Azur? I recognised something in him, or was it Ever? She said she’d been trapped.
He looks for Ever, who’s… nowhere in sight.Shit.
“Azur?” Aurelia asks.
“I’m fine.” But I’m not sure if that’s true. “Who got me out?” His voice is scratchy.
“Ten.” Calix stands at my side. “Want to tell us what happened?”
He just looks around the room again before staring first at Ascella and then at me. So far, we’re the only ones who’ve been affected by Ever in a mental capacity. Crimson lost her strength in a fight, Calix gained and lost his strength, and the same with Ravi and Micah.
“I created a maze for her in my mind. And I wanted to see if I could trap her.”
What? Can he do that?
“But it’s like she twisted it to her advantage. Soon, I was the one who was lost in a dark place, filled with memories and traps. And I couldn’t find a way out. It was… terrifying.”
“Shit,” Calix curses.
“I don’t think she knew what she was doing,” I defend. She had been just as scared. But isn’t that the problem? She has the right to be pissed. She’s a weapon nobody knows how to use or control.
“Azur, find Perrin,” Aurelia commands. “Training is finished for today. But each of you must visit with your Order’s Custodian tomorrow. Understand?”
