Promise of Dusk (Endings #1)

Chapter 22

“Remember your rage, Alyx,” Fionn whispers encouragingly as he stands beside Elva, watching me practice.

He’s casually wielding, flames dancing at his fingertips, weaving them between his fingers as if it’s a thoughtless dance.

Show-off.

Remember your rage. As if I could ever forget it.

The water in the pot dances and bubbles, like it wants to play with me, but I just can’t quite get it.

Water is heavy. It feels like one massive body of energy, and moving it is like moving a mountain. So it dances like it wants to boil, when I’m trying to move it in one long limb.

Elva did it so easily, moving a long rope of water through the air like a dancing ribbon, flowing with her movements. So did Konan, Deri, and Dealla. They all have some aptitude for water. Fionn, as it goes, does not. Finally, something he can’t do better than me.

It’s been a few weeks since we became “ us.” Since we returned from the woods, hand in hand. Since we began sleeping beside one another. Since my silence was exchanged for kisses in the shadows and affectionate touches.

Elva and the girls seemed wary of the change at first. Unconvinced that Fionn deserves forgiveness, deserves to be holding my hand; or perhaps they’re unconvinced that I deserve to be holding his .

Dealla still shoots us wary glances occasionally, from her place under the weight of her mate’s arm. Then she smiles at me, as if trying to be happy for us. It’s easy to judge another when your relationship is as unwavering as stone.

I finally get a fine rope of water to pull apart from the rest of the pot. It wobbles as I pull up with my hand, as if strained. Keeping my concentration, I hold it in place, a fine bead of sweat on my forehead, then clench my hand into a fist, freezing it with a series of pops and cracks.

I look at the little stick of ice protruding from the pool of water in the pot and smile, satisfied.

“Good. Very good Alyxara,” Elva states. Armund nods beside her.

I smile timidly at her praise, casting Armund a small smile.

I’m trying to be better. Wield, smile, mind-reach, all in the name of becoming an actual asset. In the name of moving forward, because I’m pounding it in my head that Fionn is right, the people of Comraich are, in all likelihood, dead. Pounding into my head that the best course of action now is to get on the first ship away from Suri before the Crows find and kill all of us. We manage to dodge them, staying away from towns and cities, weather allowing. And when we cannot, we keep to crowded spaces, out of their faces.

“It seems as though I have another water wielder here. Armund, she’ll have you beat by the time we leave Suri.” Fionn smacks Armund’s arm. His joke is in poor taste. It’s not hard to be better than Armund at wielding.

“Maybe, but she’ll never be able to tell you more about rocks than Armund.” Konan smacks Armund’s other arm.

I walk up to Armund and place my hand on his shoulder, shooting Fionn an exasperated look. “Don’t listen to them, Armund. I like how brilliant you are. Fionn and Konan are just jealous because they have to share two halves of one brain.”

Armund chuckles and pulls me into him, slinging an arm over my shoulder, tucking me into his side. “That’s why I let them have their fun. Don’t pity me, pity the stupid.” He leans down to whisper in my ear, “You really are doing amazing, Alyx.”

“Thank you,” I say, grateful.

“Alright, get your scent off my female.” Fionn shoves Armund’s arm off my shoulder and pulls me to him. He’s grinning lightheartedly, but there’s a slight warning in it. Armund just rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

I’ve learned recently that the Fae males are protective and possessive by nature.

Fionn explained it to me the other night when we laid down together, my head resting on his chest. I kept prying more and more about the mate bond, trying not to look too much like I’m collecting a list of symptoms to look out for.

“ Dealla and Deri, they have been together since before we arrived. They trained together, they used to be insufferable.” He chuckled. “I could barely stand to be near them at first, right after everything… happened. Traveling with them, seeing them have someone. They never had to feel alone. Not like the rest of us. And then came Aine, the truest blessing, but at the most terrifying time. And Deri, you think he ’s protective now, but he’s so much better. At first, he wouldn’t even let anyone near Aine, much less hold her. Wouldn’t let anyone near Dealla as her power recovered after birth. It was… a trying time for all of us, to say the least. There was nothing I could do. Mates are the bane of every leader’s existence. There is no challenging them. There is nothing I could do to force them against their instincts; you saw at the bog when I tried to get Aine to stay with Armund.” He shook his head. “But that is the way of our people. There are fierce feelings when it comes to mates and offspring, more so for the males. It’s one of the main reasons we have females vastly outnumber males in leadership positions; they at least, can keep a level head.”

Remembering him say that still makes me shake my head in bewilderment. Kings rule here. Women try to keep a low profile, hope for a husband that doesn’t beat them, and try to find scraps of happiness in the midst of a power struggle between men that never ends. How did we get here, yet the Fae went to entirely different rationale?

Coming back to the present moment, I shoot Fionn an exasperated look.

Fionn just cocks an eyebrow, but his gaze quickly narrows, and he grabs my face. I push him away, not in the mood for his sweet kisses.

“Stop,” he says firmly, giving me pause. He looks more closely, pulling my right eyelid up a tiny bit.

I pull my face away, uncomfortable with his inspection. “What?”

He doesn’t grab for me again, only looks on, concerned. “Your eye. Does it hurt at all. Are you seeing alright?”

I scoff. “It’s fine. Nothing feels wrong with it. Why? Is it red?”

Could I have got some dirt in it? Infection can happen easily. I’ve seen people lose an eye because of it. I try to find anything reflective, a pond, a puddle, but Fionn grabs me and takes another look.

“No, it doesn’t look hurt, it’s just… you have purple in it. In your iris. A slice of violet where there used to be gray. But it doesn’t extend past the iris.” His concern furrows his brow and makes his jaw feather.

My face scrunches up, mind running through various ailments and cases I’ve seen. None concerning violet irises come to mind.

The others in the Fianna approach and assess me. I sink a little further into Fionn’s grip.

Aine comes and grips my hand and smiles at me like nothing is wrong.

Dealla looks at me with motherly concern. “Do you think it could be related to your hair?”

“It has always turned blonde in the summers. Whenever I spend time under the sun. I’ve never seen my eyes change with it.”

Dealla nods, unconvinced.

Konan breaks in next. I once thought his eyes black, but in the sunshine I see a gleam of rich dark brown. “I’ve seen eyes like that before.”

The statement makes everyone shift in discomfort. Except Deri the unshakable, who says, “In the Scar?”

Konan nods, looking nonchalant. “Yes. Some babes would come out with violet eyes, but only ever if their mothers were pregnant while they worked in the stone. Not common, but it happens.”

“It’s nothing. I’m obviously not from ‘the Scar’ or whatever you call it.” I wave the notion away. “I don’t know… why I’m like this. Why I can do these… things. And it doesn’t matter. I’m not hurt, I won’t hurt anyone else. So can we just forget this?” I gesture to my eye, staring at the ground. The implications are that my parents, so normal in every way, had led some secret life. That perhaps they were from some far away realm and never bothered to tell me. That my father may have had power and yet he let us starve and wilt with every passing year. That could not be it.

They all look wary. Elva looks like she is desperately biting something back.

“Fine,” Fionn says, grinding his jaw. “But you’re starting to look… a bit too distinctive for my comfort, Alyx. We reach Raith in a handful of days. And we are looking to be as inconspicuous as possible. You’ll need to… keep your hood up, at the very least. Try not to speak to people. Maybe it’s best you stick to our rooms.”

The thought of sitting alone in my room for several days sounds miserable. I’ve never been to Raith, but I’ve always been curious about it. It might as well have been a foreign nation. But I can understand his reasoning. The last thing we need is people asking questions about the strange-haired, purple-eyed girl, so I grit my teeth and nod.