AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s not safe right now for you in the castle,” he said as he continued his tasks. “Whoever killed those men knows about you, knowswhatyou are. We have to figure out who they are before they come out with the information they’ve learned.”
“So you think camping by a lake is magically going to give us the answers we need and let us know who Kole was working for?”
He laughed gently. “No. Peter is going undercover to figure it out. In the meantime, I want you where I know it’s safe. We weren’t seen at the castle yet. The Council believes that we are on a honeymoon. Whoever Kole is working for may think we are dead or still lost in the woods. It gives us an advantage. It gives us time. They won’t do anything with the information until it works in their favor. If they can’t find you, they can’t do anything. That is, if they aren’t already a member of the High Council. And if they are, it is best for us to keep our distance while we are still healing and weak.” He stopped what he was doing with the tent and looked up at me. The sun glinted in his dark eyes, making the inner edges appear lighter. “I also thought it would be a good idea for you toreallytrain. Do you know what your abilities are?”
I shook my head.
“I thought so,” he said. “It’s time you figured it out. Whoever is behind this isn’t going to stop. They could attack you again, and I want you to be as strong as you can be. I want you to be ready so this doesn’t happen again.”
“I don’t even know where to begin,” I admitted.
“I know. That’s why I’m here to help you in whatever way I can. We’ll figure it out together. But you do have abilities, Scotlind. You wouldn’t have survived in the water if you didn’t. And your back is enough proof of that. A true nix wouldn’t have markings.”
“Well, they might not be fighting abilities,” I paused. “I could breathe under the water when I opened my mouth. It felt the same as breathing in the air. What if that’s all I have?”
He gave me a wicked grin. “Don’t you want to find out?”
And I did, I realized. I wanted to know that answer my entire life, and now Sie was giving me the opportunity.
The next two days were torture.It was a whole new level of embarrassment. Sie had me trying every element of Lux to see what abilities Imightpossess. I failed at every single one. The only thing we knew for sure was that I could breathe underwater. Which I hated, absolutely hated doing as Sie made me go into the freezing lake and instructed me to stay under the surface until I couldn’t anymore. His reasoning was to test how long my reserve would last. He explained that every Advenian had an ending point to their abilities, that they could only use their powers for so long before they needed to rest and replenish.
I gave up after two horribly long hours of straight-up shivering underwater. But at least it wasn’t a confined tub. The open lake didn’t feel constricting. As long as I didn’t see the bottom, the memories of that night with Kole didn’t surface. So I swam to the middle of the glistening water and submerged myself.
Once I dried off, Sie made me try to summon water out of thin air. He had me trying to create a force shield around us to see if I was an air user. I tried to shift the wind, grow a flower, move the dirt. Nothing happened. The only thing we knew was that I wasn’t an Alluse user since Sie could use his abilities around me.
The worst exercise was on the first night. He made me stand in front of the empty fire pit forfourhours, trying to get me to summon flames. I didn’t tell him that even if I had fire abilities, I would never use them.
“This is stupid,” I said. “I’ve been staring at these dumb logs for hours, and nothing is happening other than me freezing my butt off. Can’t you just start it?”
“Keep trying,” he smiled.
On the second day, after hours of pointless training that amounted to nothing, we finally sat down by the fire to rest, one that he’d started the old fashioned way. The sky was so clear, there weren’t any clouds above the shield. It made me wonder how Miles and his team were doing with their research. What else was out there? Could we really go back to our home planet one day?
Sie was quietly sitting with his head tilted up. He must have noticed me staring at him because he asked, “What are you thinking about?”
I couldn’t bring myself to ask the question that had been on my mind since we were captured, so instead, I said, “You told me that Peter is undercover trying to figure out who is behind all of this?”
“Yes.”
“How? How is he doing it without putting himself in danger or getting caught?” I asked, feeling guilty that it was the first time I’d thought about my blonde-haired friend. He was putting himself at risk for me, and I was just camping and utterly failing at my abilities.
Sie frowned before saying, “Do you not know of Peter’s abilities?”
I shook my head, again mad at myself for not knowing much about Peter. Peter, who was my friend, probably my only friend at the castle. Peter always tried to distract me from court life, but we rarely talked about him, and we definitely never talked about his abilities. He’d never brought it up, and I never bothered to ask.
Sie continued, “Well, let’s just say Peter’s abilities make it very easy for him to be where he isn’t supposed to be and do what he needs to do.”
I tried to wrap my brain around it to figure out what that meant. The only ability I could think of was using invisibility, but that was a trait only Lux air users had. I frowned, clearly puzzled. “Can’t you just tell me what they are?”
“It’s not my story to tell. You’ll have to ask Peter yourself.”
“And when will that be?” I asked, trying to figure out how long he was planning on keeping me at the lake. I liked it here, especially after what had happened. It was nice to be away from the castle, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were running. I hated it even more, knowing my friend was out there putting himself at risk while I was doing nothing.
“We will be here until Peter figures out who is behind this or until you figure out what your abilities are.”
I frowned. “That could take forever.”
Sie laughed. “From what I’ve seen from you, yes. On your part, it could take forever but don’t underestimate Peter’s abilities.”
