AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tornado
Sodding fool! As Alem came to her other side, Verve fought down the thrum of panic that beat through her veins, and faced Danya again. “The fellow’s lying. Or deluded. He’s nothing — barely has enough magic to light a match. Don’t—”
“Quiet,” Danya broke in, and deep-seated training made Verve’s jaw snap shut. Usko, radiating confusion and fear, murmured something to Danya, who studied Alem. “So you are the dendric mage?” Danya asked.
“I am.” Fear caught Alem’s spirit like one of Klaret’s snares, but his voice was steady.
Ellory shifted in place, glancing between Verve, Alem, and Danya. Verve’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. If she called him a liar, Danya would finish off Lotis. But if she let him go, he’d be gone.
Either way, she’d failed to protect those she loved — again.
Heat pricked at her eyes, and she could do nothing to stop the swell of bitter grief.
“Verve.”
Danya’s voice snapped her attention back. The priest still eyed Alem with curiosity — and a growing excitement she could not conceal. “Is it true? Or is this another of your pathetic attempts to trick me?”
Alem looked over at her, and within his dark eyes she found a plea, one not spoken aloud with words, but in the shared language of their hearts. She heard his voice in her mind as clearly as if he’d spoken in her ear: Trust me.
And within her own heart, another choice emerged.
“He’s the dendric mage,” Verve heard herself say. The tears that trickled down her nose were real. “He’s the one you want. And he’s right: there is no Damaris.”
“You can’t trust her, serla,” Usko hissed to Danya. “She abandoned us.”
His hurt rippled across the clearing; a stone tossed into a still pond, and the waves struck Verve’s chest as surely as a fist. She swallowed the lump in her throat.
“I know Vervaine better than she knows herself,” Danya sneered to Usko. “And despite that disgusting emotional display she’s putting on, she’s telling the truth. But you—” She slapped Usko’s cheek and he flinched back. “You will keep your silence. You are nothing without me — none of you are. Your lives are worthless beyond what worth I grant you — beyond what the mighty Atal grants you. Is that understood?”
Her voice echoed through the pines and the other Chosen bowed in unison and spoke as one. “Yes, serla.”
“Bitch,” Ellory muttered.
Verve’s fingers tightened over her crossbow. “Agreed.”
But Alem cast her another look, a desperate one, and she gave the slightest nod. He faced Danya again. “I offer myself to you, serla, so you have no need to search the area for me any longer. No other place here is worth your valuable time. Of that, you have my word.”
Verve only listened with part of her mind. Although it was no doubt foolish to let her guard down, even a little bit, she had to try. Using her meridian senses and every ounce of her concentration, she focused on the tight spiral of Danya’s emotions. They swirled within the priest’s heart like a tornado: chaotic, but controlled by the force of her will.
Fear — that wasn’t a surprise. In the time since gaining these new abilities, Verve had sensed fear from most people in some measure, some form. In Danya, fear was silent but powerful, propelling the tornado’s movements without distinguishing itself from the rest of the tumult.
But Danya’s fear didn’t excuse her actions.
Next, Verve found anger. This, too, she had expected. Anger was the dust and debris shaping the howling dark tunnel of wind that laid waste to the landscape of Danya’s spirit. Anger — at mages, at the world that had allowed the magic-users to run amok, at the everyone else who cowered in fear when faced with that wild power.
Anger at… herself? This was odd. Verve spared a second to ensure Alem was still speaking—he was waxing eloquent about his healing abilities—then she delved back into Danya’s heart, searching for the source of the priest’s self-directed rage. Since she wasn’t able to physically touch Danya, the memories she found were at first fuzzy and vague, and she could make no sense of them.
Space-Between-Stars, she called. Can youuntangle this?
A breath passed, then another, and she thought the Fae who shared her soul would not answer. Until they replied, Prepare yourself.
Gradually, as Verve surrendered to the flow of Fae magic, her past connection with Danya allowed her meridian senses to strengthen. Just like before, when Alem had peered into her memories with her, she saw Danya’s memories through Danya’s eyes.
A little boy with Danya’s ears looked up at Verve. “Mama?”
He couldn’t have been older than six summers, but his body was too light, just like Ivet’s had been. Blood trickled down from his nose — which Verve knew looked just like his father’s. Danya’s voice came from Verve’s throat. “Dear heart…”
His voice was faint against the backdrop of roaring flames, of trampling soldiers, of screams. “Mama,” he whispered. “I’m tired.”
