Page 120 of Tides of Shadows

My whole body began to shake. Not from cold, but from something deeper. I felt the vibrations in my hands, like an echo of the great element that roared before me. My power, the power over water that I held in check, strained against its chains, reaching toward this wonder of the world.

Aidenar came up behind me, wrapped his arms around my waist, and placed a kiss upon my cheek. His lips brushed my temple, then my ear. He began to murmur, and even over the roar of the waterfall I heard every word.

“That is how I see you,” he said, his voice low and steady. “When we were in White City, I knew I would bring you here one day. This is you. Unleashed power and beauty. Nothing less.”

Tears stung my eyes. Before him I didn’t have to hide. I didn’t have to be careful, restrained, or harmless. He didn’t fear my power. More than that, it delighted him.

I stretched my hands toward the waterfall and let my power flow free.

At once I felt the bond. I felt every droplet, the full weight of the waters casting themselves from the cliff, shattering at the bottom with the force of an avalanche. I felt the stone tremble beneath the onslaught, the depth of the lake, every current and hidden whirl.

I stopped it all.

I held the whole mass of water in place as it fell from the height.

The silence that followed was unnatural, terrible, as if the world itself had forgotten to breathe. The waterfall hung in the air like a pale curtain, frozen mid-fall, defying nature, defying gravity, defying sense.

Then, with my next breath, I released it.

The water crashed down with doubled force. The wave struck the surface and rose in a towering wall that surged toward us.

With one lazy gesture, Aidenar brushed aside the wave without even blinking. His power over air stopped the water a few meters in front of us, dispersing it into a mist that fell on us in a gentle rain. I felt as if his control over the element had grown even stronger. Previously, such a use of power would have required a lot of effort, but now he did it without a second thought. As if he trained every day, every night. I turned to him, drenched in mist, and wrapped my arms around his neck. He looked at me with those silver eyes, intense, full of tenderness. Was I really allowed to feel something again? Could I open my heart once more? I wasn’t afraid of hurting him. And he wasn’t afraid of me.

He kissed me deeply, and our powers twined together in a single knot, water and air, a dance of elements.

I didn’t know whether it was the nearness of the waterfall, or the fact that I had called upon my power after so long, but a wave of energy swept through us both. Almost like ecstasy. I felt his element all around us, an unseen wind curling close, and he must have felt mine, the living current of water thrumming between us.

When I drew back, his eyes were burning silver, the same fierce light I had seen when he lost control.

Were we still human? Or something more?

We were about to turn back when I felt it. A pull. A thread that tugged at me. I couldn’t name it.

I caught Aidenar by the arm and began to walk toward the cliffs beside the falls.

“Nerissa,” he called, “what is it?” He followed at once, but I could not bring myself to stop.

We pushed through dense bushes and clambered over slick stones. Aidenar helped me climb when the rock grew treacherous.

The path was steep and wet beneath our boots, yet we went on. The pull only grew stronger, like a distant voice calling my name.

Behind a thick screen of shrubs, an opening in the rock appeared. Hidden and half overgrown, yet unmistakable once one knew it was there. Aidenar and I exchanged a glance. We had come this far, and there was no point in returning for the guards. They would have been of no help in such a place anyway.

We stepped inside the hidden cave, it was dark and damp. The air smelled of old stone and something faintly metallic. A single beam of sunlight slipped through some unseen crack in the ceiling and lit a small patch of ground. We had brought no torch, no lamp.

I remembered an old trick I had used. I summoned water from the waterfall. It slid obediently into the cave in a narrow stream and rose into the air. I shaped it into a clear sphere and held it beneath the shaft of light. The water caught the sun and cast it around the chamber, breaking it into a thousand shimmering colors.

Aidenar looked at me with admiration. I shrugged my shoulders like it wasn’t anything special.

We searched the place. This cave must have been an ancient temple of the elements. On the walls were the same paintings we knew.

But this time, something more. Four figures, probably elemental gods, were sinking a sword into the god of darkness. He was kneeling on the ground. The sword in the drawing still held traces of white paint that had begun to flake away.

So, he could be killed. A white blade? Palladium? Then Aidenar touched my arm and pointed to the shadows against the wall.

Vases. Five bowls.

My heart stopped.