Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter Sixty-ThreeEvaline

Chapter Sixty-Three

Evaline

T he day had hardly begun and my heart was already beating through my chest. I’d been uneasy since we spoke to everyone yesterday, and it was only heightened today.

Maddox and I were clambering down the hill that the manor rested upon to go pick up Dean and Sage at the loft.

You okay? I heard Maddox’s voice fill my mind, and reveled in the sound of it there again, but realized that he could tell something was bothering me.

I only nodded. His hand squeezed mine and I knew he understood what was wrong.

That we were going to see Sage. That I was going to have to help her take down the ward.

I can try to go find those Sorcerers who told Wyott they wanted to help. They might be able to suspend her in the air long enough to take down the ward.

I shook my head. I have to get past it sometime. Besides, my Air is stronger than theirs anyway. I don’t want to inconvenience several of them just to avoid an awkward encounter.

And I didn’t mean the encounter with the Vasi, but with Sage.

The status of our—well I’m not even sure what to call it.

First, it was friendship. I saw her pain, and I stood up for her. I cared for her like I would any friend, and thought she felt the same even if she only showed it in her own, somewhat cold, way.

Then, it was hatred. She betrayed me, in the worst way possible. I hated her guts for it but quickly saw just how much pain she harbored. How many years of ache and solitude that she lived through in that castle. Just how much manipulation, and come to find out, compulsion she’d endured.

Then, it was acceptance, but at a distance. I forgave her but assured her that I’d never trust her again.

But then, she saved me. Without her portals, and fighting off the effect of Vasier’s compulsion, I’d still be in Mortithev right now.

And so I was here, in this odd limbo. Hesitant to trust her after her betrayal, guilt-ridden that I still questioned her after what she was willing to sacrifice. What she did sacrifice.

I’m just torn, I told Maddox down the bond as we approached the loft. I don’t know what to feel, or how to feel. She betrayed me, but then she saved me.

Maddox looked down at me and raised our joined hands up to kiss the back of mine.

She’s here, and she helped. I think all we can do now is trust her, let her show us that we can, and take it one day at a time.

I nodded but didn’t respond as we knocked on the loft door. I stood behind Maddox as we waited for it to open, and looked out over the beach, at all the Vasi standing there, dotting the water around us. It was the first time I’d been outside since we landed, and back then I hadn’t let myself look. But now, I did.

I’d heard the sounds of the mortal’s screams as they were killed the two nights I’d been back here, and I couldn’t take it. Couldn’t listen and know that they were out there, alone, dying in a place they didn’t understand, by beings they didn’t know existed.

The door opened then, and I was thankful for Dean’s voice welcoming us in, pulling me away from the memories of those screams.

My skin crawled as we walked in, and I knew it was because of Lauden. Because I associated this place with him, more than I had Sage. Because this was his office, and he trained me here.

I tried to shove it away and looked to where Sage bent behind the desk in the corner of the office. She was rummaging through the desk’s drawers, and pulled out a small book.

“Here it is,” she breathed when she found it, holding it up for all of us to see. It was small, no taller than the length of the palm of her hand. “Good morning,” she said to Maddox and me, as she walked to the worktable and stuffed the book into a satchel.

“What is it?” Maddox asked, and I was thankful he spoke so I didn’t have to.

Sage slung the bag over her shoulder.

“One of Ankin’s journals. He had several here, he was brilliant.”

Maddox nodded, but I saw the way his shoulders tensed, saw the look he shared with Dean.

I never knew Ankin, and Sage only had for a bit before Lauden killed him. But the Kova here had considered Ankin a friend, and I knew Sage mentioning him, knowing that she was complicit in his murder, was another blow.

I squeezed Maddox’s hand as Sage quieted and we all left the loft. We couldn’t speak outside with the Vasi so close, and I didn’t throw a shield around us because I wanted to give Maddox a moment to recover from another reminder of the murder of his friend before she continued talking about Ankin.

We aimed for Mt. Rominia, and when we got to the base, far enough for Vasi not to hear us, Maddox spoke as we started to hike.

“How was the rest of the day, yesterday? Any hints of any compulsions?” he asked looking to her, then to Dean.

Dean shook his head and Sage spoke.

“Nothing. Wyott came to see me, to talk about his father, and he mentioned that compulsions are very literal, that hopefully we won’t run into any issues because Vasier isn’t actually here to compel me anymore.”

Maddox nodded. “That crossed my mind, too. My father might just be paranoid after being played by Lauden.”

Sage’s shoulders tensed and there was a beat of silence as we all recognized that Maddox had left out her part in the deception.

She went on to tell us that the Kova who’d been abducted before Maddox changed weren’t compelled by Vasier, and I felt the rush of fear down the bond from Maddox as both of us realized that the thought hadn’t even crossed our minds.

How many Kova had Vasier compelled over the years?

Sage shifted her path so she wound up beside me, with both Kova on either side of us.

“Dean’s going to train me so I can get back to it. Cora’s busy at the marina, so I don’t want to bother her. And Dean offered,” she tilted her head toward me. “When do you want to meet with the Sorcerers to train?”

“We’ll just have to figure out when they’re all available,” I nodded, stepping over a knotted root that crested from the dirt at my feet.

I could almost feel Sage searching for a topic, trying to navigate this encounter to talk about anything that would ease some of the tension I could feel winding between the two of us.

She cast glances at me from her peripheral as we walked, but didn’t pry, and I knew she could feel it too.

After a few minutes of torturous silence, I turned to Maddox.

“Could you and Dean run us up the rest of the mountain? We need to save our energy for our magic, anyway.”

I looked to Dean, and he nodded, but I saw Sage’s shoulders sag.

I knew she wanted us to be friends, and knew she probably saw this excursion as an opportunity to rekindle that friendship. But I didn’t have it in me yet, not completely. And dragging out this hike only made those mixed feelings war inside of me.

We reached the crest of the mountain in only a minute. We didn’t go all the way to the top, I didn’t want to risk getting too close to the opening of the volcano and accidentally dropping Sage into it.

We stopped almost exactly where we’d been the night of the Ball all those months ago. When the volcano was erupting, and Sage and I had to work together to stop it.

I thought of the waver in her voice when Lauden had yelled at her that night, the look on her face when she believed it impossible to stop, and then the look when we did. When her face twisted into a look of hatred before she’d let it fall away.

I’d thought it was just her personality, that she was just cold and was angry that I intervened. But now, I saw that night for what it truly was.

Hatred.

She had hated me, she’d confessed it herself. She’d hated my mother for years, every time her father tried to get her to wield power she couldn’t. She’d hated me because he wanted my magic. And then she met me, and I had all four elements, and she hated me for that, too. Because her father thought she wasn’t strong enough—good enough—but that I was. And that night, when the both of us helped to stop the eruption even though she’d tried on her own for hours to no avail, it was only another reminder, another reinforcement of what her father already believed. What he made her believe.

Sage pulled her satchel off and started to dig through it.

“What do you need me to do?” I asked, turning to face her.

“First I’ll rework the ward closest to us, the one locking the Vasi out.” She shrugged. “I’m basically stripping the ward of the spell Lauden placed onto it, and putting in my own. It’s the same way he did it when he replaced the ward Ankin put up. Then I’ll do the Kova’s ward, and we should be all set.”

“How long will you need to be up there?” I asked. My magic was strong, but I didn’t know how far she’d need to go, or how long I’d have to maintain her height.

Sage kneeled down and pulled out a knife, the booklet she’d found before we left, and a vial of what looked like water and set them all on the ground.

“I’ll need to go up twice because I’ll need to come back down to get the next round of blood,” she said as she pulled the booklet into her hand and flipped the pages until she found one smeared in dried blood. I furrowed my brows as I leaned closer to her to look at it.

The paper was thinner than normal, nearly transparent.

“What is that?” I asked.

She looked up at me as she tore the paper out and set it in the palm of her left hand, directly over the long white scar that sat atop it.

“It’s blood,” she said, and reached for the vial.

Dean straightened and Maddox shifted his weight as they saw the same scar as I.

What is it? He asked me down the bond, then I felt his guilt for asking about something that was clearly personal.

A scar from all the times Vasier forced her to try blood magic. I responded, and there was a pang of pity from him.

“And this is a solution that Ankin created,” Sage said, popping the cork on the vial with her thumb and dumping it out onto the paper, on top of her palm. “He has several different books of research that are all his own, not just information he’s found from other Sorcerers in the past. I found this and the book where he discusses how he made it when Evaline and I were searching for a way to free you when you’d turned,” she said, looking up at Maddox.

The solution sank into the tissue paper and it soaked the liquid up. Immediately, the paper dissolved away, and only a handful of blood remained on her hand.

She stood up with a bright smile as she held it out for us to see.

“See? It reconstitutes the blood. He has dried Vasi blood saved in many pages of that little book, so he could take it around with him to all the different wards around Brassillion and upkeep them.”

“Are you ready?” I asked, interjecting before she could continue talking about Ankin, trying to avoid any more hurt for Maddox.

She nodded and stood, cupping her hand so the blood wouldn’t spill.

Sage took a deep breath, cast sad eyes toward Dean, and nodded.

She braced herself, but still let out a small yelp when her feet lifted from the ground as I manipulated the air underneath her body, to lift her into the sky.

“How far?” I called up to her.

Sage reached her hand straight up since the blood hitting the ward would tell her where it was.

“Higher,” Sage called down, and I sent more air beneath her.

A few moments passed as Sage rose higher into the sky, and Maddox held his hand over my eyes to shade them as I was forced to look up toward the sun. I didn’t want to accidentally bash Sage face first into the ward.

“Thank you,” I whispered to him before I called out for Sage again. “Higher?”

But there was no response.

I felt the panic start to rise, worried something had happened to her. Of course my magic carried her, so I could feel that she was still there. But what if being this high made it hard to breathe?

I saw Maddox turn toward Dean out of the corner of my eye.

“She said to keep going,” Dean said.

My brows furrowed. “I can’t hear her anymore, she’s okay?”

“Neither can Maddox,” Dean said. “I’m using the bond.”

I jerked my head to Dean, and Maddox had to move his hand away before I slammed my head against it.

“What?” I gasped, but then cursed as I lost concentration on Sage, and turned back to push her higher. “You’re mates?”

You didn’t tell me? I asked down the bond. Clearly he knew, he’d just turned to Dean before Dean revealed he could hear Sage through their bond.

It wasn’t my secret to tell, Eva.

“Stop,” Dean said, and I let go of a breath. “She’s there, she’s working on the spell.”

We all looked up, but couldn’t see her anymore. She’d disappeared into the clouds.

I don’t understand. I said down the bond. I thought Kova didn’t mate with non-Kova.

He furrowed his brows. We thought so, too.

I swallowed and gave a slight shake of my head. If I’m the only other non-Kova to mate with one, and I have my gifts from the Gods, what does that mean for Sage?

I don’t know, sweetheart.

My hands shook as I held them up, and I knew it wasn’t from exertion.

I didn’t know whether it was charming, or alarming that they were mates. I felt so stupid, now. It had been so clear, looking back. Dean had been enamored by Sage, and I thought it was a crush.

I felt a surge of guilt, though, as I thought about what he must’ve felt when we all discovered her betrayal.

But I couldn’t help the concern that the information roused. What if Sage had a curse of her own? What if we were reflections of each other? I had my many elements, and my curse to end Vasier. She had her portals, what if she had a destiny of her own?

I didn’t fear it was to hurt us or Kovarrin, not a direct comparison to my curse. The Gods wanted me to stop Vasier to put an end to the hurt my mother’s mistake caused, but the Gods understood that the Kova kept their balance, that they didn’t kill humans to feed.

My thoughts were pulled as Dean gave me the order to start her descent.

It took a long time, and when she was back on the ground, Sage’s cheeks were flushed.

“That is unpleasant at best,” she said, laughing as she landed.

My eyes were wide as I looked at her, and her smile faltered. She looked to Dean, who must’ve told her the revelation down the bond because she turned back with a blush.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she whispered to me. “I didn’t know if Dean would want anyone to know,” she shook her head. “I mean, I was the traitor at the time.”

I saw Dean tense at that, noticed the way they looked to each other, and must’ve talked through their bond.

I shook my head. “It’s fine. That secret was the least of our problems.”

She pursed her lips and nodded. Then knelt back down to clean off her hand with a rag in her bag, and grabbed a knife.

She stood and handed it to Dean. “I need some Kova blood for the Kova ward.”

He nodded and pressed the tip into his palm, then swept it over hers.

Sage smiled up at him. “Thank you.”

He nodded. “Can you breathe up there? The air has to be thin.”

She wagged her head. “It’s not easy, but I managed.” She turned to me. “I’d guess the Kova ward is only a few feet past the Vasi ward.”

“Okay,” I responded, then held out my hands to launch Sage up again.

When Sage returned, she smiled at Dean and Maddox.

“All the Kova should be free to leave, now.”

Maddox let out a relieved breath. “Good. Thank you, Sage.” Then he turned to me. “Thank you, sweetheart. Cora will be so happy. And I’ll tell my father it’s done.”

Dean knelt to help Sage clean up her mess and as Sage stood to wipe his blood from her hand, she turned to me.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile.

“Of course, anything to help Rominia.”

She winced at that, and I hadn’t meant it as a jab, but at this rate, everything must’ve felt underhanded to her because everything we were currently going through was a direct result of her betrayal.

We started our walk down the mountain again, and it was quiet. But when we finally neared the strip of shops, Sage turned to me.

“I know you have a lot to teach me about actually fighting with my magic, but I can teach you a lot, too. If you want to come by, I can teach you how to make wards and how to break them. And there’s all the research Ankin has that I haven’t even finished going through.”

The mention of wards sent grief spearing through my gut over Maeve. I’d tried to push it away the entire walk up the mountain, on the way to dismantle the ward around the kingdom. But Sage’s offer, to teach me how to dismantle them myself, reminded me of Maeve and the promise I made to her, the promise I broke.

I tried to shove away the thoughts of what Vasier might be doing to her.

We stopped as we hit the edge of the street, Maddox had already told us he wanted to take me into town.

I turned to Sage and gave her a polite smile.

“I know you mean well,” I started, but her face already fell. “I know you’re trying, and I am thankful to you for saving me,” I said softly. “But I just need time, Sage. It’s a lot, everything that happened. I forgive you, and you’ve started to show that I can trust you, but actually getting to the point where I do trust you,” I shook my head. “It’s just going to take some time.”

By the end she was nodding quickly, more out of a need to fidget—I think—than to actually convey an understanding.

“That makes sense,” she whispered, but I saw the way her chin quivered.

The guilt ripped through me and I reached a hand for her arm.

“We will get there, Sage. Just one day at a time.”

She took a deep breath and I saw that mask slide on her face and saw the forced smile she displayed. “I know,” she nodded. “Let me know if there is anything I can do to help, in the meantime.”

And that offer, it struck an idea. Maeve hadn’t been my only friend that Vasier had threatened. In his note, the one on Saxon’s ship when it crashed into Rominia, Vasier levied a threat for Aurora and Jacqueline.

They were in Neomaeros, they were supposed to be safe. But as Bassel and Gabriehl had so clearly portrayed, a Vasi didn’t need to enter a kingdom to get what they wanted. Men were plenty willing to do that for them, and if they weren’t willing to do it for gold, they could just be compelled.

I straightened. “Actually, would you be willing to portal to Neomaeros, so I could bring my friends here?”

I explained the threat and she nodded.

“Of course, I can do that.” Her voice was light, but I could see in her eyes that it hurt. That me asking her to save my friends, when I had just told her I couldn’t be hers right now, hurt.

And I cursed myself again. Because I truly didn’t mean to keep hurting her, but I also couldn’t help where I was in my recovery from her betrayal, yet.

Above this tension between the two of us, above my own issue with the betrayal, I needed to ensure Aurora and Jacqueline were safe. I could protect them, even if I couldn’t protect Maeve.

We made a plan to go get them the next day, and after Dean and Sage said their goodbyes, they walked in the direction of the loft.