I paused. Excited at getting my hands on a miniature tree, I’d forgotten all about her. She’d been gone for a while. “Maybe she remembered she had something to do?” I ventured, setting the shears down.
Selena pushed to her feet. “It’s almost mid-day. I have my own things I need to accomplish. And I’m sure you do as well. I’ll see you tonight.”
She kissed my cheek, and I walked her to my front door, which I opened for her—and almost yelped in surprise.
Diara stood on the other side, a bottle of sparklingvolarein one hand, three glass stems clutched in the other. Her bodywas still as a statue, her pupils dilated wide and unseeing, the chemical smell of something toxic and burnt like a thick fog in the hall.
“Your humming,” Selena gazed at Diara with interest.
“I’m sorry, Diara,” I said, though she wouldn’t know I apologized. She wouldn’t even know she was avacous. “I release—”
“Wait.” Selena brushed cool fingertips over my arm. She glanced behind us, into my empty sitting room. “Bring her in.”
I’d rather not. I didn’t care forvacouses. Something about their ghost-like eyes, how they seemed to track movement without focusing, made my stomach squirm.
“You won’t hurt her, will you?”
Selena scoffed. “No, Maren. Come on.”
We led Diara in and closed the door. I crossed my arms. “What?”
“There’s something I’ve wanted you to see, but haven’t been able to figure out how to show you. All we’ve ever practiced with is Pike, but you don’t know him very well. Do you think you’re familiar enough with Diara’s personality to recognize it?”
Damn me to the moon and back. She had my idiotic interest. “Maybe.”
Selena’s eyes slid back to Diara. “Naiads skilled inincantationcan make theirvacousesact the way they normally would were they notincanted. Give them some level of flexibility, even while under a Naiad’s control. Try easing up on your hold a bit.”
I stared at Diara. “How do I do that?”
“Just—pull back a little.”
Laughing without humor, I shot Selena a sideways glance lacking in confidence.
She smiled back at me. “Just try. Right now, her system is flooded with oxytocin. Lessen the flood and bring her back, but not all the way.”
I’m not sure why I shook my arms out, as though needing to release the tension in my own body. Diara watched me unblinkingly. I sensed for something to pull back. A scent, a sound, a feeling of touch. “This is stupid—" I said, just as I felt it. Like a thin wisp of a cord, connecting her to me. I wrapped my mental hands around it, slowly loosening the bond between us, and watched the pale green in her eyes begin to return.
My mouth parted, and I glanced at Selena. Her eyes remained on Diara, though encouragement hinted behind them. “More.”
I slacked the hold. Diara’s shoulders sank into her easy posture, her hip cocked gently to the side. The chemical scent thinned, less sharp and potent, barely discernible as her head tilted at a curious angle, like she was merely studying us.
“Not too much,” Selena warned.
“What happens if I pull back too much?” I asked, focusing hard on the invisible string.
Selena shook her head. “Nothing bad. You’ll release her, and she’ll lose consciousness for a few minutes. She’d wake up fine. But you can’t release avacouswithout them recovering from the oxytocin. It’s like a drug, remember? Ask her a question.”
My mind suddenly went bare. What do you ask avacous?
“Are—are you in there, Diara?”
The young woman scoffed at me. “Of course, I am.”
“You are?” I looked at Selena, who raised her brows back at me. “Do you understand what’s happening right now?”
“I know you’re controlling me, and I don’t like it,” she snapped back.
Selena pursed her elegant mouth with amusement. “She won’t remember any of this.”
