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And that despite her strength, there was a decent chance it would break her.
Sevva set Granite down next to Odin. My mate finished sealing the crack in the wall, then lightly pulled my hands from his waist and kneeled down next to the kid.
I felt Odin’s mind sort of shift as he slowly took hold of the city Granite had been anchoring. While Odin held it, he slowly began to seal the cracks.
“I’ve got it,” the ex-king said to the kid in a gentle voice. “You can let go.”
“I can’t,” Granite nearly sobbed, his voice scratchy.
Odin took one of his hands, and the kid grabbed it in both of his, holding on fiercely tight.
“Can you feel my power lacing through the stone? Find it, and focus on it.” My mate’s words were quiet, but firm. “Find it, and focus on it,” he repeated, when he felt Granite’s magic begin moving haphazardly. “Slowly, and carefully. The earth doesn’t respond well to panic or fear. Only calm insistence.”
Granite tried to breathe in and out slowly, but his voice shook. His whole body shook.
“Where are his parents?” I asked Sevva, my voice quiet.
“Gone. They left him after he gained his magic.” Her lips pressed together tightly. “Oli and I tried to take him in, but after two years, all of us admitted that it wasn’t working. He never liked us, or respected us. He’s been living on his own in the kings’ chambers since then.”
The tight grip he had on Odin’s hands told me that maybe the kiddidrespect my mate.
“You didn’t know how to teach him?”
“No. I think the only person who can do that is my brother.” She watched the two of them interact, and my gaze returned to them too.
“Good,” Odin was saying. “That’s perfect. When you guide it, rather than commanding it, the earth will follow. You’re not its owner; you’re just a friend.”
Granite jerked his head in a nod.
“Eyes closed please, Velvet,” Odin called to me.
I shut them dutifully, but didn’t miss the confusion in Sevva’s gaze before I did.
A group of people bustled into the room before she could ask me about it; I felt their intrusion through my mate’s magic, and his irritation. They must’ve been the people’s representatives, to earn that kind of dislike from my upbeat king.
Anyway, he was still tapping into my magic just a little, and I could feel my fire helping him.
“Stop there,” Odin commanded calmly. He didn’t get up; just held his hand out. A simple wall of stone emerged from the ground, only tall enough to bump the fae’s shins, but large enough to tell them where to stay.
“I’ll deal with them,” Sevva said, and I felt her step away from me. Arguing echoed behind me, but I knew Odin needed my mind to stay quiet, so I stepped closer to him and didn’t let myself listen to the conversation.
Both kings were working on the land together—sealing the cracks and healing the space. I knew from what Odin had said that healing wasn’t a one-and-done thing. It was something that would need to happen constantly, if it was to remain in its current form.
But it could stay stable if the fae were careful with it, the way Odin had told them to be.
Time passed.
The arguments calmed behind us, until everyone was quiet.
I could feel the ground beneath us relaxing as Odin and Granite worked on it. The sensation was a strange one, but through the bond that connected us, I could tell that it was exactly what Odin expected would happen.
“We’re not going to connect the separated parts of the cliffs,” Odin said calmly to the people’s representatives, without lifting his head or pausing his magic. “We’ve opened a path from the surface, and the fae there are already making their way out. To stabilize the land, we have to seal many of the buildings you’ve formed near the bottom of the cliffs. That is not up for debate.”
There was a beat of silence.
“Thank you,” Sevva said, quickly.
More murmurs of gratitude followed hers. I still didn’t open my eyes to see who was there or what they were doing, but through my mate’s magic, I felt some of the fae hurry off.
