More Than Imagined

Chapter 16

"Well, usually you don't, because if a fight breaks out, Mares are too merciless to leave any survivors."

An unsettling silence fell over them for a moment. But Rhoawyn piped up when she glimpses a girl on the tablet in Eli's hands.

"Did this belong to members of your old squad?"

Eli inhaled a trembling breath, Adam's Apple bobbing as he swallowed it. "Well, one member. My old captain."

He slid his fingers over the screen of the tablet with a gentleness that sent Rhoawyn's heart into an uneasy rhythm. He pressed a button, and the screen loaded a picture of a face. Her chest tightened at the sight.

Eli lightly tapped the pads of his fingers against the top corner of the screen, and the page opened to a flood of scattered blue light that reassembled into the holographic face of a girl not much older than Rhoawyn.

Her hair was cut short, complementing the angles of her face; a white bang draped across her right eye as if she were trying to hide it. Just above her lip, in the delicate dip of her cupid's bow, was her gravemark-a single slash that tapered into small flecks.

She's beautiful, Rhoawyn thought, and from the longing look in Eli's eyes, she knew this person was more than just his former captain.

"I've seen prettier." The words blurted from Rhoawyn's lips before her palm had the chance to stop them. Rhoawyn gaped. Why did I say that?

Eli raised an eyebrow at the unexpected admission, but it slowly relaxed with the rest of his features into something softer. Knowing.

"I'm sure you have, but her beauty was more so in the way she fought than the way she looked."

Rhoawyn stiffened—face warming with the deep blush of embarrassment. I should apologize, right? I mean, she's dead, and it's rude to say that about a dead person, right?

"So anyway, what did she manifest?" Rhoawyn asked in an effort to change the topic.

"She could actually create a skin-slicing whip with her saliva."

Rhoawyn didn't miss the fond glimmer in his eye as he thought back.

"That's...pretty gross?" She tittered, trying to mask the unsettling irritation rising in her chest. When she saw Eli smirk at her sudden lack of filter, she wondered if he was some sort of masochist.

"Yeah, it was an interesting manifestation. It used to embarrass her a lot, and every time we'd kis-" he changes course, "well, every time she needed to use it, she would think it grossed people out."

"You kissed?" Rhoawyn interrogated, her face the picture of horror as her mind conjured up a heap of unwanted images of the two together. But Eli was grinning at her nonsense, the way she's used to. The way she liked, and she almost didn't regret her word vomiting.

"Course we did little squirrel, it's what people do when they're in relationships. I thought this was common knowledge."

"Oh, I-sorry I shouldn't be prying. I don't know why I'm prying," Rhoawyn brought both of her palms up to her face, trying to shield herself from further embarrassment, but strong hands guided them away.

"Stop hiding, you can't learn if you can't see," he chuckled, breath ghosting across the bridge of her nose as he lifted her eyes to meet his with a gentle hand on her chin.

"I'm not hiding, you just caught me off guard."

"Not hiding? Just like you weren't insulting Cienna out of jealousy, huh?"

"I just couldn't believe anyone would even want to be in a relationship with someone as weird as you," Rhoawyn snarked, averting her eyes from the intensity of his gaze.

"I bet tons of girls would love to date me. There's one, in particular, I'm sure is dying to."

Rhoawyn yanked his hand away from her chin—that stupid smile still plastered on his face like he's won some game. He pulled the tablet from under his arm and straightening back up.

"She's lost her mind, whoever she is."

"Maybe so, I recently found out I had that effect on her."

"Whatever, just show me what it is you wanted me to see."

"Alright, alright. I only brought you here for a little encouragement. Cienna had a bit of trouble manifesting at first too."

Rhoawyn fixed her eyes on the hologram floating expressionless in front of them. "I guess she did have a bit of an unconventional manifestation..."

"And it took her a while to be able to manifest it correctly," Eli recalled. "She practiced day and night before she could form it into that deadly whip. When she finally manifested it, she told me what helped her hold it together. If I could just..."

He skimmed his finger down the edge of the tablet and stopped on a particular icon. He pressed it and a long list of phrases appears. His finger landed on one in particular.

"Here." He pointed out.

"It's not enough to want power for yourself, sometimes you have to want to use it to protect someone else." Rhoawyn read aloud, brows furrowing. "Did she say this every time she manifested or something?"

Eli snorted. "No, it's not some catchphrase. It's a concept. She said that thinking of manifestation as a gift that protects those she cares about allowed her to be able to control her power. To hone it. At her core, she was a protector, and when she recognized that she realized her power."

"But I don't think the protector role suits me."

"Neither do I. But I'm showing you this so you can think about what role does suit you. What really drives you."

"Of course, it's my dad." She said matter-of-factly.

"But beyond him. There has to be something else at your core. Where your power really comes from. Just like Cienna, when you figure it out, I'm sure you'll be a force to be reckoned with."

Rhoawyn turned her eyes toward her feet, kicking one against the metal floor, "You seem to have really looked up to her."

"That obvious, huh?" She could hear the smile in his voice when he spoke, but as she caught his gaze again, she saw it didn't reach his eyes.

Rhoawyn brought her thumb and pointer finger right in front of his face, sizing them together until they were almost touching, "Just this much."

She smiled as the tension faded from his shoulders, wanting him to always be relaxed like this.

"Well, I grew to respect her a lot. Got drawn in by her power and the way she wielded it to protect us, to protect me. And that line between admiration and love started to blur." Eli smiled, "I was just happy I was able to experience it. Experience her."

"She sounds like she was a great person and an even better leader," Rhoawyn said, upset with herself for being so unreasonable earlier.

Eli heaved out a sigh, "She was." But his grin came out to play. "She's the only reason I'm able to be your brave, beastly, and beautiful captain today."

Rhoawyn rolled her eyes. "I don't know where we'd be without you." She said, pushing Eli playfully. "This was helpful though."

Rhoawyn turned to Cienna's hologram, "I guess I owe you some thanks, Cienna, for being a good leader to this guy, and finding your inner strength. I'll try my best to do the same."

"And sorry for all the rude things I said I don't know what came over me," she mumbles, embarrassed.

"No special thanks for me?" Eli pouted.

"Thanks for showing me this," Rhoawyn said, voice getting lower with every word. "It was personal, and you didn't have to show me something so close to your heart just to help me. You don't know how much I appreciate it."

"Whatever keeps Mares from wiping the floor with you, little squirrel," Eli smirked, ruffling the curled of Rhoawyn's hair into disarray.