BARGAINS AND BETRAYALS
Amira
We had been walking through the forest for the better part of an hour. And I was growing more and more nervous every time Ornella demanded to know how much farther. Trying to explain that we did not think the portal was a stationary thing only made her bare her sharp teeth at me. And it was unnerving to realize that I did not trust her not to harm me as she grew more impatient.
And then, just before I thought she might lash out at me in absolute fury, the portal finally appeared.
Ornella sucked in a breath behind me when two pillars with immense double doors materialized right in front of us from thin air. The gleaming white stone shimmered and seemed to cast rainbows in the dimness of the forest. Just as before, it was so bright that I had to shield my eyes for a moment until they had adjusted.
“Well?” Ornella prompted.
I stepped forward the way Riordan had to lightly press one hand against the seam between the doors. I meant for them to open, of course, but I was still shocked the gate responded to me with that low frequency ring. Once the doors were fully open and exposing the pearlescent portal rippling serenely within, I turned to the stunned Nell.
I tentatively extended a hand to her, which snapped her out of her awe, and she looked down at it with a frown. After a brief deliberation, she finally snatched the offered handhold and stepped up beside me.
“Keep your eyes closed for a moment. It is bright on the other side,” I warned Ornella, but she did not respond. She merely tugged me with her straight into the portal.
It seemed even colder than I remembered as the silken water enveloped us without dampening our hair or skin. And just like before, my eyelids seemed to glow for a moment before they turned a greyish red.
I blinked my eyes open, squinting until I had adjusted to the brightness, and I recognized the same empty space where we had been brought before. There were no walls, only a white flagstone floor that was covered in a thin layer of stardust. The spaces above us and at the edges of the visible floor seemed to simply fade away into a softer, wavering grey light.
I had been told what to expect before we came the last time and was still unprepared for this place. Ornella was given no warning, since she was determined not to speak to me more than absolutely necessary, so she was frozen. She was so overwhelmed that she had forgotten her hand was still clenching mine, but I did not draw her attention to that fact. I would hold on as long as she let me.
“Stardust,” she murmured and swiped her other hand through the shimmering particles floating in the air.
“The essence of Light is in all that is,” said a familiar voice that was somehow too soft to be male and too deep to be female. It was too unfeeling to be mistaken for the voice of a mortal but also seemed to burst with life.
I turned knowingly toward two featureless figures that had appeared in the room with us. Their gleaming cream veils showed only the vague outline of humanoid faces. And as before, every inch of them was covered by robes that pooled around their feet.
Ornella dropped my hand and stepped forward quickly to face off with them as if they could not blast her into oblivion with a thought. Although, I had to admit that it had not been her who was sent rushing for escape portals the last time she and Rian faced these creatures.
“Where is my mate?” she snarled, and I resisted the urge to sigh at her churlish demand. So much for having a way with words like she had promised Rian.
“The Light Wraith is no longer your concern—”
“Where. Is. He?” she cut in, hissing through her teeth with such a vitriolic wrath that I almost took a step back.
The Sylvan both seemed to pause as if they were also taking note of her volatility. But I was not sure if it was because they were fearful of her or if such emotionless creatures were merely unaccustomed to such passion.
“You were given passage here because, like the male, you contain a power that you should not be able to use. And we intend to strip it out of you as well.”
I almost reached for Ornella, but she made a growl that had the hairs on the back of my neck rising.
“Did you hurt him?” she asked, her voice deadly low with an unspoken threat.
“The pain was inconsequential when the fate of—”
“Did youhurthim?” she repeated herself more loudly. And this time, the light seemed to waver around us, which made the room appear to vibrate. The stardust on the floor began to shift away from Ornella like sand dunes.
“You are an abomination!” accused one elf in disgust at her demonstration.
“I don’t give afuckwhat you think of Sage’s power. He was born with it, it belongs to him, and if you have hurt him for it, I willfractureyou. You think the Mavaari are the worst of your worries?” she verified, making the elves both flinch at the mere mention of their darker kin. “Well they aren’t here. I am the one you need to fear.”
The elves seemed to vibrate in rage, the light wavering around them this time.
“Insolent fool! You might be powerful for a mortal, but youarestill a mortal, and with the Scrios vanquished, you have no foundation for such vile claims!”
So they thought Rian was dead. Or did they just mean that his power was different somehow after what they did to him? And clearly they did not know about Nuala.
