CHAPTER 14:
"You just want to be released from all that beholds if you find that truth. You didn't have to kill yourself for it, Celestine. Do you have any idea what it did to us?" Elias and myself stood further from the group after four hours of him staring at me even while Credence had continued to keep him at the front of the line, with Creed next to me with that intimidating bloodhound set of eyes on the elemental coward at my other side. The situation couldn't get any more awkward, if it weren't for the anger still emanating from me in waves. They were seated on a rock formation, eating whatever was caught, with Creed's ember eyes watching us like a hawk readying itself.
"I don't quite care what it did to anyone but for me. You did nothing, Elias. Athena saved my life, you are nothing but a coward whom I am trying to find reasons not to kill right now. The only, single, minuscule reason is because you know the location of it." My voice a stark comparison to my abilities. He was still pleasantly surprised by the mere, sheer fact that I could control an element. And not just any, but fire, the kind so highly associated with anger and a potent concoction of rage.
He bites the inside of his mouth, intertwining his fingers before changing course, he reaches for me, I shove his hand off the side of my neck, before a larger, more muscular body steps between us. He pushes Elias a good metre from me, "I gave you clear instructions about how close you get to her, you couldn't even follow those." Creed's darkness paraded, Rakon gave a dragon-ish snigger and I side glance the eyes of the beast.
His are as innocent as a little baby's.
Creed's chest emanated power, "Creed, I need a minute." I tell him.
"To hide more secrets?" He questions, throwing back at me his frustration, spinning to me and making my wonder if he received whiplash from that. His eyes penetrate mine, they aren't cold or warm, just masked like a blank canvas. However, his voice gave him away.
He was sick of what was happening now.
Sick of being in the unknown.
I wanted to tell him to get in line.
Because I have been there, but some stories are left better in the whispers of the wind.
Elias studies us, eyeing the distance Creed sticks too, which is irreversibly close to me, "You didn't even know her real name, boy. You're more unimportant than the human realm." He flicks off the man in front of me, as if he were nothing more than a flimsy, barely qualified mentor. Rakon's deep, guttural growl cracks the ground beneath our boots ever so slightly.
Creed only stares at me, "What is the destination of this journey?" He asks me, straight on.
My eyes skin over the mountain, "Athena, how far are we from the Kingdom of Abernathy?" I call out to her. Thankful for Creed's sudden change.
Elias scoffs, "What is that enriched, dumb season of sun going to do for you, Celestine? We still have a great deal to talk about, especially without this bodyguard of yours. There is still much you need to know." He moves past Creed to me. His description of Creed was off point.
"Athena will pick it from your mind, until then, no one has anything left to say to you." I mutter, wishing I had the villainous streak to end his life, but I had no idea what doing that would do to me.
The unfortunate tied connection that I couldn't see, smell, sense or feel with any of them...but Creed. There was something there, something that didn't just feel like the odd electrical shock, but something more potent and stronger than the rest. I couldn't dwell on it as much as I wanted to sit down and stop. Stop the search.
"I know where it is, Celestine." Elias murmurs behind me.
I didn't care if he knew, he wasn't coming, I already had what I needed and I wasn't going back on my word.
I wasn't him. I wasn't any of them.
Athena folds her arms, studying him, "He's old enough to barricade the thought, the memory. I'm working on trying to unlock it, however due to his true age, he's strong." She informs me that he was strong mentally, only in that regard. Everything else was a weakness I wanted to exploit, to expose him like an ashen corpse in a morgue. Rip him open, make him bleed like I had to.
I purse my lips, "I was a child when you stepped into that school classroom, surrounded by humans and you knew by sheer glimpse alone. Yet, you did nothing." He chose to do nothing, make me fend for myself when I had no one because he was too afraid. Too fucking afraid. I trail my empty eyes to Elias, moving forward. He did nothing after seeing how they manipulated me into making me cuff myself to a bed, scaring me into believing I'll kill the human orphans I was placed with.
Elias stares at me, "I could not love a child."
He didn't have to bloody love me. He just had to protect me. I could have lived happier and better without the strapping supernaturalism my fake caretaker enforced because I was a beast she thought would turn rabid.
"This isn't about love, it's about protection. You've failed to do so over many years of knowing me, why should I not ask Creed to make your death painful, dismissing any bond you believe we share?" I question, watching Creed study Elias, like searching for every blood vein to expose, to pressurise, to clot. He's known war and bloodshed, perhaps in case far more severe than my own.
Elias closes his eyes, letting a falsified tear slip down his cheek, his face scrunches, "And I will regret it for the rest of my life." He trembles past his lips. Ridiculous.
"Who else knows, Elias?" Athena asks him. Eyes that read him like an open book, making me secretly wish I had her power.
Only for a second.
"Who else knows what?" Rowan smooths out. Of course, the old vamp needed to know everything or he'd huff and he'd puff and run a bloodshed bath if he fails to get what his void of a heart desires. I still don't know what Athena saw in him. Sure, he was good looking.
For his age.
"That I'm alive, do keep up." I retort to Rowan.
Elias shakes his head, "No one, I swear. Alastair sent me to scout possible recruiters, he wishes to begin training the fiercest of winter. All soldiers under him agreed the moment he returned home after your death." He drizzles out, stepping towards him, I made a decision.
"You'll keep your mouth shut, I'll have an ally get the truth out of you." I point out, before grabbing his arm and teleporting us both into a known destination that I had in mind.
Headmaster Halt sat up at her desk.
I drop Elias, "You've read about him, and you know Athena's side of the story."
"Say no more, he'll be punished, and I'll make him tell me whatever he knows." She tells me, bowing her head in promise. I thank her, "Before you go, I have a few weapons stored." She tells me, I study the exact weapons she spoke of, before she hands me a deep blue fur cloak, as dark as midnight. I pull it on, thanking her against as I grab the bag.
"I will return for news here." I murmur, about to leave when she grabs my hand.
"I wish you well." She tells me. I nod to her, before I'm gone, landing in the exact same place. Athena was seated close to Rowan, each of them waiting. Creed was pacing up a storm, but instantly turns when he sees me.
I drop the bag down, "Supplies." I mutter.
Creed's presence tightens around me, "You were gone for an hour." He states.
I raise an eyebrow at him, "And I've known you for less than two months." I remind him.
"Time is subjective." He tells me, leaning down, he slides out a dagger with a hilt curved in the detailed shape of a red and black dragon. Pulling the hood from over my head, I kneeled down in the grass while Serenity instantly reached for the food inside the bag.
Serenity moans, "So much better." She breathes out, ever-so-thankful.
I look to Athena, she's leaning surprisingly cooped up in Rowan's embrace. I glance at Creed in question, he smiles as he sits facing me, grabbing the soup between us, "Heat it." He murmurs.
"Will you explain why she's all of a sudden smitten? Why they both are smitten?" I whisper, looking weirded out by it.
"That's what fucking does to people." Credence smirks, dropping in behind me.
I grasp the wooden concoction of soup in Creed's fingers, trailing mine away, except he covers mine with his own. I look up to him, his ember eyes penetrating mine, "You'll burn." I warn.
"I won't." He muses. I study his very eye colour, the creaks of lava in strange angles around the pupil. I move my eyes back down to the task at hand, warming the element, not wanting it to explode in either one of our faces, when I felt him all of a sudden. Shrieking and ripping my fingers back, I still when his are alit with something else and before I knew it, we weren't surrounded by anyone. We were alone.
"What is this?" I breathe out.
"Ever heard of the Tale of Mirrors? The ability to use real world elements, a reflection of them with no danger lurking near. Like being in the middle of realms. You can see their reflection on the other side." He explains to me, lowering the bowl and pointing to the water beneath us that showed the others chuckling at where we once were, like they knew what he'd done. Only Elrond, Taylor, Serenity and Genevieve were freaked out by what just happened.
"You're telling me your abilities range greater than being a dragon rider?" I thought it would be good to ask now.
He sits on his hind legs in front of me, "We can hear them, however they cannot hear us."
"You couldn't have given a girl a warning?" I fold my arms and cross my legs down in front of him, studying him.
He leans forward, "You've been hurt by so many men, that trusting me is near impossible, hmm?" He murmurs, reaching forward, showing me a clear example because it's always that stilling notion before his fingers graze my skin.
I pull away, "You brought me here for a reason." I try to direct away the conversation.
"You're searching for the rune pool." He knew, his gaze wasn't scrutinising or even judgemental, just furrow-eyes that lean in closer. I still when I look behind him, a cloud or mist, but not of nothing. Of memories.
"What are you?" My fear well-hidden but there, threatening to reach the surface like the sound of crashing seas above a silent, eerie depth of water. Deep enough to fit a hundred submarines. Or well—the kraken.
"You do not need to fear me. I'm showing you my memories, opening my that safe place your parents tell you to lock up something in your head. If you ever get to meet your parents. Something tells me you haven't. Plus, I wanted a private conversation with you." He stares deep into my eyes.
I search his, "You haven't told me what you are. I thought you were a dragon rider." My voice heightened by a barrier of trust that was now strengthening.
"Elves can be more. Elemental. Rider. Believer. Fighter. Lover." He adds the last part whilst looking over my body with a change of tone and sight, those eyes brighten at the mere word. His eyes touched what he physically wouldn't, not yet at least.
"Elf?" I freeze. What exactly did that mean? This realm was throwing me off my game completely. Twisting me sideways, shoving me off cliffs, fighting my mentality, however this was far better than what I had tasted before. What still writhed under my skin—not just my wolf.
"You didn't sense it?" He murmurs, frowning.
I blink at him, "Uh, no!" I point out, sitting up, I look back at the sight of a boy with ember eyes getting handed a sword, no older than four, along with many others. The shape of a guard, his father, and mother, standing above him.
"I was young, barely remember them now." He explains to me, fingers grasp mine, neither hot nor cold, medium temperature, "Elves contain numerous abilities, much like hybrids, however we do not call it that, to us, being an elf, a dragon rider and what we call the reflective touch is what I know. I just wanted to show you. We can return if you're still uncomfortable." He offers.
I shake my head, "No," Stopping him, "This is strangely peaceful." I whisper, the place was enfolded and encased in darkness, despite the light of the floor—or the water showing us the realm we were once in.
"Also safe." He adds, smiling softly at me, "I'm the son of two guards, not as what is written to scare our enemies during the trials, or to whatever throne there is. There is no vitality or importance in my bloodline." He studies me.
I run my eyes over him, "It is not what your parents were or your bloodline which makes you important." I whisper.
"It is, in many cases. Including yours. I feel a power in you that goes beyond anything else I've ever seen, Celestine." The way he says my name in such a manner, "And that doesn't mean I plan to use it, just help you in whatever you need." He gestures to me, sounding sincere, genuine.
I narrow my eyes cautiously, "Why would you show me something that appears very close and personal to you?"
"Not everyone has ulterior motives. However I will wait as long as you need." I bows his head to me, resting a knee up, arm bent over it, watching me as I traipse my eyes to the watered surface dancing over the other realm, the one we were in just minutes ago.
"Can you teach me more about my abilities? The fire, that is." I murmur, looking back over to him.
"Not combat?" He wonders, tilting his head, fascinated.
I step back towards him and kneel down, "I faked my death to run, only learning weeks prior that I had elemental abilities. I've been fighting since I was a child. My fists are tired, I want to use my fire instead. Can you teach me or not?" I made it so very crystal clear.
"You see this—it's like an entirely new universe. Like fire you create, have you ever just stared at the sparks that flick off the tips of every flame. Athena taught you quick, taught you strong, but she didn't let you appreciate the flame." He murmurs, explaining and I hang onto his every word, like it's luring me in, however it did make me pause as I look at him.
"You've taught elemental magic before?"
"I didn't say that." He smiles at me, a genuine, real smile.
"What else?" I whisper.
"Fire has its own gravity, like the stars, like suns. If you lose focus, it combusts, but if you're powerful enough to maintain it, you could build your own sun, your own light, much like the ancestors of the fire regions. History wrote stories of the kingdoms of fire, worlds made of lava, magma. Worlds that attract you to them, but would only lure me in to kill. I don't have the ability to wield fire, you do." He brushes a strand of hair from my face before I still when we materialise on the surface of the neon grass. He's close enough to share the air we breathe.
"What just happened?" Elrond questions with the lot of them just metres ahead of us.
"Did you believe Creed's only power was his dragon?" Credence puts the thought into their minds, just as the elf—the dragon-riding, arrow-shooting elf—turns to the others, stepping forward and sitting down. He formulates a plane of the journey using the only physical map on hand. I study Athena, the way she leans back into Rowan so hypnotically was a stark contrast to the fights they were having before, I couldn't make sense of it...yet.
I focus back on Creed, on his words more so than him. That fire had its own gravity, its own world and it was just waiting for me to tap into it, "We should get back on the move soon." Creed's voice sends tendrils of something down my spine. He could move through new dimensions, making it seem like he could walk through the 'in-between'.
Life and death. The bare middle of it.
He also considered himself an Elf.
The bow—sure, but a tad bit on the cliche end there.
Dimension jumping—scarily similar to a Godly power.
Dragon Rider—a godly creature with wings and fire. Handy in battles.
But I didn't know the set lines of his past. I only know what he's shown me, and what it's like to step outside of my own mind and learn every 'tic—tac—toe' of his body and the sculpted muscles it comes with. I eye the elf in front of me, making Genevieve snigger, so I nudge her arm, she wiggles her eyebrows at me while Elrond side-glances her every few minutes. Like this voyage might be the start of something for them, or—it could push her away more.
"I've never seen you so distracted." Genevieve murmurs down to me.
"Distracted?" I raise an eyebrow.
"You do realise you've been staring at him as he walks. It's a girl's kryptonite. The way her man moves, the back muscles first and foremost, oh—and the fact he rides a dragon must turn you on." She smirks as she whispers, but I knew that the silence of the group fairly close together around us said they were listening.
"I thought dragon riders weren't meant to have multiple powers. We don't have any where I'm from." I let that loose and she shrugs.
"It's not common, but when it is, there's definitely something special there."
"Are you trying to convince her or praise him?" Taylor interrupts.
"I'm going to go with both." Genevieve giggles.
"I didn't realise she needed convincing." Credence muses, glancing at his leader who just so happened to be looking at me.
Athena side glances me, she knew I needed more convincing because while I found him irrevocably attractive, I also found I knew I sucked at determining which kind of man is the one who be truthful, loyal, non-abusive and you know...
Just a decent fucking being.
Creed studies me, "Neither did I." He murmurs.
I give him a tilt of the head, "I don't. I just need time, and the ability to analyse you without you noticing." I tell him, he tilts his own head at me, before tapping my nose. He clearly found that cute.
"Analyse then, however, to do that, you need to be glued to my side." He curls an arm around my waist and pulls me against him. Rakon releases an amused murmur under his breath, watching from the skies, yet I heard him while Creed runs his eyes over mine, those eyes trail down my nose, then my lips. Back again in some sort of loop. The look was anything but innocent, making my stomach clench and my mind fuzzy.
"Can you handle that?" He wonders. Could I handle anything at this stage?
Is it hot in here or just me?