Chapter 12
In the days that followed Jai's appearance, Lyv didn't eat, barely slept, and didn't even move from her seated position on a pillow on the stone floor of her cell. Legs crossed, to anyone who passed by she would have looked like she was in a deep meditative state. She was, actually, but she wasn't going to admit it to whomever came to her cell door except for one person. Mik hardly came to her, though, which meant she couldn't practice with him.
So, she did it herself.
Lyv had embraced the quiet to fall into herself, completely disregarding the circumstances she was in. She was trying to remember how she had gained control over her raging magic months before after Mik's attack on the beach in Ayveri and she lost it. Jai had been there to help guide her, be the support she needed. He wasn't now, though. Physically, that is.
But he'd been there. He'd found her, told her he, Gideon, Thia, and Allel were on their way to find her, to fight for her, to get her back.
And there was no way in hell she was going to let them do all the work. She had to do her own part...and that included trying to get her own magic back and get the golden cuff controlling her off her wrist.
What stopped her from getting her magic was the fact that it was in tatters and in chains inside her. Even though she could feel it, she couldn't find just where that darkness was hiding it.
So, she followed it whenever she knew the darkness was going to check on it and make sure it was still the dominate magic in her.
Mik had warned her not to get close to the dark magic that was calling her body home, of course, but she couldn't exactly ignore it either.
She was going to learn it.
It started with the shadows that curled around her fingers when Guinevere had come to see her, trying to find out who she was talking to. It took no time at all to call them forth. The feeling of power that coursed through her as she watched them curl around her forearm and then weave in and out of her fingers was...different. Different from her own light magic, no matter how powerful she was with it either.
The first night, Lyv stayed locked within those shadows, memorizing how they moved and breathed, how the darkness used her...and how she could start using it, too.
She wanted to laugh when she finally got it to submit to her will, even though it didn't realize she wasn't doing it for its own gain. Instead, she allowed it to guide her, to show her everything she would be able to do in bits and pieces...until it unknowingly revealed where her own magic was hidden.
Lyv cursed herself for not realizing she should have looked where she was then – following her and Jai's mating bond, still there and slowly breaking free from the dark magic that smothered it. Her own magic, so much like Jai's and yet completely different, was there. Just a kernel of light with the rest in tatters around it.
But it recognized her, pulsed once brightly before being covered in darkness once more. The golden cuff around her wrist didn't help the matter either.
When she found it, though...she had already learned that darkness enough for her to will it to let her through. Somehow, she was able to convince it that she was the one being controlled and she wasn't using it to snap one of the chains on her light magic.
That was when Mik finally came back to her.
As soon as she opened her eyes, meeting his pitch-black ones through the shadows that swirled happily around her, a small burst of light magic was able to weave its way through.
And push back his own darkness inside him.
He blinked once...and Lyv's emerald eyes were met with hazel.
"What...how?" he breathed, stepping forward to grasp onto the bars of her cell. "Lyv?"
"It's still me. Promise," she told him without moving. "I've just...figured out how to control the shadows."
"But I told you..."
"And I told you," she snapped, narrowing her eyes at him then. "I am stronger than Corliss ever was. I am the daughter of two of the most powerful beings in all the lands. I know my limits, Mik, and when to push them."
Mik, hearing the steeliness in her voice, swallowed hard and nodded once. He wasn't going to question her anymore. It wasn't just the voice of the heir of Asturia or Princess of Escarral...but one Jai had used whenever he took command of a room.
Hers was the voice of the Crown Princess of Dalcaine. A future queen.
Lyv sighed, closing her fingers into fists on her knees. "I may know my limits, but I still want you to have my back."
"You know I will," he nodded fiercely. "But...can you explain how you're able to push away the darkness from me without physical contact anymore? I never got to ask when Guinevere was down here talking to you."
A smile curled up the corner of her mouth. "I told you. I'm stronger than Corliss."
"You're getting cocky, you know."
"Then you don't know me as well as you think you do after these months. I've always been cocky."
"It's no wonder Jai and Gideon vowed to be by your side for the rest of their lives. You need someone to be there so you don't get yourself into trouble."
"Yet I still do...with Gideon getting in trouble with me and Jai rolling his eyes and shaking his head behind us."
That statement made both of them laugh as Lyv pushed herself up from her seat and strode over to him. Grasping his hand with hers, she leaned her forehead against the bars, staring at the golden cuffs wrapped around both of their wrists. His still had the tiniest of cracks in it from when she was able to break him free of the conduit magic inside him months ago. It seemed like a lifetime, though.
"We have to try harder to get out of here," Lyv whispered to him then. Her eyes lifted to meet his. "We've got people who love us to get back to."
"Agreed with the getting out of here part, but I don't really have many others who want me back other than one. You've got all of Dalcaine and Escarral..."
"Hey, you've got two with Kalla added in. You've got to give yourself more credit than that."
Mik laughed slightly once more. "Allel and Kalla...that's it."
"You know they both can't wait to have you back, right?"
"You sure?"
"Well, when she and Jai have actually teamed up to find us? Yes, I would say so."
He looked at her with a confused expression before realization flashed across it. "Allel's still with Jai?"
"She is," Lyv nodded. "Jai told me. I told him...I told him to tell her I had you with me, that you were still here. And even with the short amount of time I got to spend with her before...well, all of this...she was still beating herself up for what happened to you."
"She doesn't need to. Corliss was going after her. I knew what would happen as soon as the stone was placed inside her. She would have burned up just as Meron did, especially since she had no magic previously. That sudden rush of darkness...it would have eaten her alive."
"And Guinevere...what makes her different? She's a human and they're still going to turn her into one. Or try to."
"They will only because they have something they didn't have the first time."
It didn't take her a second to realize. "My magic."
Mik gave a curt nod. "Exactly."
Lyv tightened her hand around his, letting her light magic sneak past the shadows inside her. She masked it as much as she could...and it worked. And while it did, she pulled more of the chains away from it, allowing it to just breathe.
Mik felt the next bright pulse of light magic that emitted from her then, hovering like an aura around them. Not only could Lyv barely feel the darkness inside her, but she was sure he could, too. But whenever she felt around for his magic...she couldn't sense it.
"I don't have it anymore. My magic," he told her quietly. "I don't think I've ever told you about that. I didn't tell anyone, actually. Not even Allel, just in case Corliss got to her."
Lyv waited quietly before he met her eyes once more.
"The stone Allel had with her on Blackloch...the one I had given to her just before I put that dagger in her stomach..." He swallowed hard, shaking his head. "The obsidian stone I gave to her was one only I knew about. Me, Mik. Corliss didn't know I had it. The conduit didn't know about it or else it would have been destroyed. But now you will know, especially since I'm trusting you to get help me in getting out of here, no matter how long it takes.
"The stone Allel had with her is the stone that holds all of my magic. I know you had to have been curious about it, so you had to have felt the magic inside it. It's mine. The transfer...I did it right before Corliss made me the conduit. I knew it was coming, knew I needed to sacrifice myself to save Allel from a fate that would have ended up killing her.
"So, in other words, right at this moment Jai has two of the most important things to me in all the lands – Allel and my magic. I'm trusting he's taking care of them both, no matter what's happened in the past. I'm hoping he and Allel have somehow pushed past everything and created some sort of friendship, especially since they both know what the other is going through right now in regards to me and you."
Lyv nodded, smiling slightly. "I'm sure he is. And if not, I'll throttle him whenever I see him again."
"I'll hold you to that, especially when you're the only one who can without having to worry about him fighting back."
She squeezed his hand once more as the silence stretched out around them. And while Lyv was still stripping away the chains from her magic while also keeping it concealed, she knew she to take it one step further.
"You said you trusted me, right?" she whispered to Mik then. "Not just with making sure both Allel and the stone are safe?"
He didn't answer, but rather asked, "What are you thinking?"
Making sure her own magic was secured and well-hidden, Lyv took a step back from the cell door, letting go of Mik's hand in the next moment. "I need you to trust me with what I'm about to do. Trust that I can pull myself out of it when I need to," she told him. The dark magic inside her rejoiced when she called for it, ready and waiting for her to fall into it completely. Shadows curled around her fingers, snuffing out any light that made its way into her cell. "But for now...well, I need to make friends with the darkness."
***Have I mentioned how much I'm LOVING the Lyv and Mik friendship that's come from this situation they're in? 'Cause I am! Are you guys feeling the same?
Comment and vote!
Happy reading!
- Ansley***