A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

57. Karus

Chapter 57

Karus

“I’m not cut out for this,” Philius grumbled.

“You are. You just need more time,” I reminded him once again.

“Time won’t replace what isn’t there to begin with.”

I pursed my lips, a heavy sigh escaping me. It had been two more weeks of this resistance to everything Revich or I tried to teach my brother, and my patience with him was wearing thin.

After Viridis’s return, Revich had found him drunk in his room with one of his last bottles of wine he’d brought in that trunk.

And now, without the drink to nurse his trauma and insecurities, he was irritable, temperamental, and generally a pain to be around.

In fact, I seemed to be the only one who would tolerate his presence longer than ten minutes. Even his old guard found excuse after excuse to leave his side, often headed to the kitchens or to help Pompeii as he returned to his duties.

“You have channeler magic, Philius. Revich can feel it.”

He raised a brow and lowered his head, towering over me. I had always hated that no matter how much I grew, he always grew taller, even after I surpassed the height of most women I knew.

“Alright, listen. If you can do this one thing, I’ll…” I huffed a sigh. “I’ll take you to see the Blight.”

He grinned, turning around to his task again.

He’d been asking to see the Blight in Felgren since the lockdown on the Fortress had been lifted. I understood his curiosity, but kept putting it off, having seen enough for one lifetime.

“But we’re taking the Baron with us.”

He tilted his head back and groaned. “Why? You’re obviously more powerful than he is. I’m sure you can protect me, little sister.”

“I’ve had enough run-ins with the Blight to know not to underestimate it, nor its creator. And that’s another thing,”—I jabbed my finger in his shoulder—“when we go, you are not allowed to speak about anything. The Blightress can hear and see everything the Blight can. We go, we look, we leave. That’s it, big brother .”

He shrugged and nodded.

The Blightress had not called upon me to have our first fireside chat. I hoped it was because she was still suffering from the abomination we’d cleared in Viridis.

“I can’t get them to open,” he complained, gesturing to the gardenia bush he’d attempted to grow in the past week. Five other woody-stemmed bushes grew in a stately row, each one grown by the other channelers and each one in a state of white blooms, their scent heavy in the late-spring air.

Philius’s efforts, so far, had been in vain. His plant was yellowing at the leaves, and the buds were hardly more than the size of a pebble.

“We’re going to try something else, then.” I stepped up beside him as he looked longingly at the success of the others.

“Thank you,” he said, relieved.

“We’re going to try to summon your power straight from Felgren’s soil.” I knelt in my channeler clothing, light green skirts just warm enough for the season.

He gave a frustrated groan. “No, thank you.”

“Get down here!” I yanked on his black-veined hand, and he tumbled to his knees with a glare on his face.

Ignoring it, I continued, “I want you to put one hand on the bud, like this.” I gently lifted my hand to one of them, holding it up by the tips of my fingers. “And put the other in the earth, like this.” I showed him how to stretch his fingers into the soil. I expanding my own until they were flat, my knuckles and conduit ring covered in dirt.

He played along, following my orders.

“ Floreyas ,” I called to the bud. It grew in size before cracking and opening into an abundance of soft, silken white petals with a stark scent that hit my nose.

“Show off,” he mumbled, holding a bud of his own and repeating the magic enhancement.

Surprise crossed his face when the bud grew in size, but filled with disappointment when it stubbornly refused to open, its sepals still tightly wound in a brilliant, waxy green.

“This is pointless.” He lowered his hand from the bud and removed his other from the soil, flicking the dirt from his fingers and pulling off his channeler ring to wipe on his green vest. “I couldn’t grow this flower if I had all the magic of Felgren. I’m not a channeler cut out for this. Something is wrong in the line of magic from Felgren to me.” He replaced his ring on his finger, mumbling, “I should just go home.”

I gaped up at him. He was certainly not the brother I remembered. He’d always had confidence, a laugh that filled the room and a lighthearted way about him that could lighten your own spirits.

Along with that came arrogance, and an assured sense of self of the man he was meant to become. After all the years we’d been apart, I wondered which of us had changed the most.

“Sit. Down .” I yanked on his arm, jostling him back to the earth. “You think your line of channel from Felgren to you is broken?” I used my frustration to shape my words into something he’d actually listen to. “ Bullshit . There’s nothing wrong with your magic. It’s your unwillingness to really try. To really put all of your efforts into these tasks we give you. You’re stuck in the past, Philius, instead of growing in the present.”

“And what? I’m supposed to just wear these channeler clothes, this ridiculous ring, and follow along like nothing happened? Like my sister wasn’t given away by my mother and just left here to fend for herself? Like I didn’t almost die by the Baron who took her? Now that’s bullshit, Karus.”

I scoffed. “Neither of us can change what happened. It happened. It hurt us both. Changed the lives of thousands of people, but here we are—together again in this forest that feeds us magic. We have a purpose here. We can train our magic and do everything we can to stop the Blightress from ever taking anything from us again. But, no. You choose to mope. You choose to whine and complain. Look around, Philius. No one wants to be near you but me, so push your damn hand back into the ground and produce a fucking bloom.”

“I. Can’t. Do. It.”

Without a word I shoved his right hand flat on the earth and gripped his left in mine, placing his blackened fingers over the closed bud.

I filled my lungs quickly, letting my anger expand through me and sent my power to him.

He glared at me as if to say, told you so , before his orange light sparked under the bud and the bloom unfurled in a symphony of white.

He frowned, watching his magic continue to spark above his fingers.

“Keep going. Keep growing it.” I ordered, continuing my flow of power to him.

He dug his hand further into the earth, mesmerized by the dozens of buds that formed, growing larger before bursting into a sea of white, the leaves of the gardenia bush no longer wilted and yellowing. The plant grew, wide and sturdy, overtaking all the others in size and blossoms, and we both stood as it reached our own height.

I let go of his hand, crossing my arms, staring at him with hope that this would help him understand his capabilities.

“You did that,” he stammered, stepping back to look over the now massive shrub.

“No, you did. I used Cosensian Magic to give you some of my power, but it doesn’t work if there’s not a direct line to Felgren through the recipient. You could have done this if you would just practice pulling power from this forest. I’m just showing you that you are not irreparably broken. You are bruised, Philius, and bruises fade.”

He sighed, his brows still furrowed at the gardenia, glorious and pungent in his wake of power. “I’ll try harder,” he stated bluntly, crossing his arms at his chest.

“Good.” I patted his shoulder and turned to leave. “I’ll meet you at the lumen den after lunch. Revich will be free to go with us to the Blight then.”

“You’re still going to take me there?”

“Yes. Maybe seeing what we’re fighting against will heal your bruises faster.”