Faye and the Heart of Fire Read online

  I bobbed my head. I wished to spend more time talking with her but she was right. Swimming was one of the few things that helped burn the excess of the magic off. It was like handing a candy to a cranky child, though, it offered momentary peace only. “I’ll see you later, Ete.”

  Her features gentled and then she turned and headed back towards the compound. I ambled down the path and through the black sands of the beach until my feet met the sea, a wave sweeping up over my moccasins. For a long moment I paused, making sure the area stretched as empty as it seemed before drawing my selkie cloak and jumping into the next wave that clattered against the shore.

  I sailed through the water and my body unwound, all the muscles loosening.

  Minutes passed faster than the bubbles trailing me.

  And for one piercing moment happiness swept through me.

  But I didn’t have time to meander. I needed to turn back so I didn’t miss a meeting.

  I kicked my way up to the surface and changed into my human form. I lifted my hands. The shimmer of electric magic didn’t trail along my fingers anymore. My shoulders dropped, and I flicked my arm out, willing my water magic forth.

  Nothing happened.

  I growled and snapped my wrist out.

  Nothing again.

  I cursed under my breath.

  Well, there was my experience with magic ever since I’d received the dragon powers. Either leaking or bursting forth in moments of intense emotions or not accessible at all.

  I missed the ease I used to have over controlling my own powers even when Arim and Mira’s magic was unmanageable. I didn’t appreciate it at the time how water would just come forth when I beckoned it. Back when my everyday life involved ambling down beaches with Telanes, roaming to the selkie village as I pleased, spending evenings chatting with Daron while Alec played music.

  The shimmering expanse of the sea swept out ahead of me. If I kept swimming long enough I’d reach those beaches. I could take a sun chariot into the City of Moonrise.

  What were Daron and Alec doing at that moment? The sun wavered; it had sunk closer to the horizon than I’d realized. Well, one thing Daron and Alec were not was late for a meeting. Shoot. I turned back towards the beach and raced the waves back to the compound.

  5

  Alec

  The hallway in the music school had thick golden carpets and ended in floor-to-ceiling windows that let the morning light stream in, casting dust motes into a ballet.

  “You have Trenon today?” Addler accepted my handshake and used it to pull me in for a hug, patting my shoulder.

  “I do. He’s my first appointment.”

  Addler had the same tan skin and brown eyes as me and the same curly mocha hair, though he kept his trimmed and slicked back in a short style. His appearance matched his role as one of the directors of the Twelfth Order School of Music. “He’s having a hard time.”

  I shrugged. “Honestly, he’s my favorite student.” I tilted my head to the side. “Maybe it’s because I can empathize with him.”

  Addler shifted his weight, his feet pressing against the patterned carpet. “With struggling with the guitar?”

  I laughed. “With struggling with most music. The guitar and fiddle, if you remember, were my only talents.”

  “And quite a talent you possess, Alec. That’s actually what I wanted to talk with you about.”

  “How extremely talented I am?” I flashed a grin.

  He rolled his eyes. “Oh, yes, that’s it.” He laughed, dimples shadowing his cheeks. “No, I’ve had more requests for classes with you. I wondered if you would be interested in taking on more students.”

  My muscles froze. I pasted a smile on my face. “I’ll think about it.”

  He crossed his arms. “So you’re still not enjoying teaching?”

  “Addler, I’m grateful for this role. I don’t mean to be dismissive.”

  “You’re not. And I’m pleased with the work you’re doing. Parents are happy, students are happy. You’re an apt teacher. But you’ve hated this position since you’ve taken it.”

  I shrugged. “I wouldn’t say hate.”

  “Strongly disliked then.” He fixed me with a look. “If you were to make a career change, I want you to know I would understand. It wouldn’t be personal.”

  “I appreciate that. But, what else would I do, anyway?”

  “I can’t say, but you have many talents. There’s bound to be some career you’d be good at and actually enjoy.”

  “Maybe.”

  He patted my shoulder. “Take some time to think about it.”

  “Quitting or taking on more classes?” I smirked.

  His eyes sparkled. “Both. And you will have the chance on your trip next week. Explain to me again why Poppy is invited to spend the spring equinox with you, but your favorite brother isn’t?”

  “I wouldn’t let our other brother hear you saying that.” We both chuckled. “The trip is more of a reunion for Daron’s siblings,” I tilted my head, “of sorts.”

  “Ah, Faye and Mikon you mean.”

  “Right.”

  “Well, don’t let me keep you.” Addler nodded towards the door to the music classroom and patted my shoulder again before striding down the hallway.

  I stepped into the room. Wood floors gleamed in the morning sunshine that lit up the walls in a buttery yellow. Trenon sat hunched into a wooden chair. His gaze snapped to the window, his warm brown skin taking on a golden sheen in the sunshine. He shifted, his indigo jacket crinkling with the motion.

  “Hello, Trenon,” I said. My necktie strangled me. I longed to drag a finger under it. I tucked my hands into my pockets.

  “Hello, Master Alec.”

  I sat in the chair across from him, pulling my guitar out of the Ether. “You don’t have to call me Master, remember.”

  “My mother insists.” He tugged at the loopy tie around his neck.

  I smiled. “Well, we’d best not upset your mother then. How did practice go this week?”

  He sighed and turned his gaze back to the window. The city teemed just outside. Ivy grew along the panes and a wind fluttered through the pastel flags hung in honor of spring solstice. “I didn’t really practice much.”

  I tapped my thumb against the body of my guitar. “When I was your age, I felt the same about piano.”

  His jade eyes snapped back up. “Did you?”

  “I did. And I often walked into class having not practiced and dreading it.”

  One side of his mouth tugged up. “I guess you made it through.”

  I leaned in, whispering. “Not without a few scars, I assure you.”

  He laughed and pulled his guitar out of the Ether. “I’m just so finger-tied with the guitar. I mean to do one thing and my hands do another. And my sister is brilliant with it.”

  “I have a sister like that.” My eyebrows jumped up. “Actually, I have several sisters like that. It’s the worst.”

  A genuine smile spread across his face, his features crinkling. “That’s true.” He pressed his fingers against the strings. “Okay, I’m ready.”

  “Very good,” I said. And we dove into the lesson.

  6

  Faye

  Blood filled my mouth. I choked on it. I couldn’t breathe. Hekista’s cruel laugh echoed in the field. I gasped awake. My body trembled.

  “Shh, Faye, I’m right here. You’re safe.” Telanes’ voice hummed thick with sleep. He tightened his arm around me and pulled me against him.

  I sucked in another breath and crumpled into myself.

  Telanes shifted closer to me. “Look, do you see the palm trees out of the window?” His words held the soothing tenor of a lullaby. I nodded even as I gasped for air. “You’re home with me. You’re safe.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry, love.” He kissed the top of my head.

  “It’s been a while,” I whispered. The shadowed outline of ferns trembled in a breeze.

  “It’s normal to have nightmares sometimes.” He smoothed his hand over my hair.

  “Will they ever stop?” My voice broke on the words.

  Telanes drew in a breath and eased his legs under mine. “I don’t know. Maybe they will with time. Either way, I’m right here. We’ll face it together.” I tucked my chin against his arm. “Sleep, Faye. You’re safe.”

  Once we rose for the day and I found my way to the dressing room, I sat, trying not to muse on the dream as Zemin finished her ministrations to my hair. I reached for the perfume bottle on my vanity and my hand popped with electricity. My fingers snapped open, and the glass fell, hitting the wood floor, shattering, and breaking into shards.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  Zemin brushed her hand over my arm. “Don’t worry about it, my lady. I can clean it up.”

  A knock sounded. I reached into the Ether for Telanes’ signature. It lay just outside the door. “Come in.”

  “Is everything all right?” He walked in, swiping his gaze over me and then to Zemin, who had bowed down, picking up the glass.

  My hands trembled, and I curled them into fists. “I dropped my perfume bottle.”

  His shoulders loosened, and his eyes twinkled. “Well, it will smell like you in here for a long while. I believe this may become my favorite room in the compound.”

  I huffed a laugh and turned to Zemin. “Would you let Marrim know I need to cancel our meeting this afternoon?”

  Zemin bowed and exited. I dropped my elbows onto my vanity and ran my hands through my hair.

  “Your magic is leaking again?” Telanes said. I nodded.

  He ducked down beside me and reached his hand out. “No Tel, don’t touch me.” I sighed. “I don’t want to risk hurting you.”

  Wrinkles m
arred his forehead like waves. “You’re going to go see Joab?”

  “Yeah, for all the good it does.”

  “It always seems to help some. Do you want me to come with you?”

  “No.” I met his gaze. “Should both of us have to suffer?”

  “Time with you is never suffering.” I reached out towards him, but then stopped and balled my hands into my lap. “I’ll see you at dinner?” he said.

  “Yeah.”

  I eased up off the bench and ambled out into the hallway, following the maze of the dragon’s compound until I arrived at Joab’s door. I knocked. “Come in,” he said. I stepped inside. The room sat in a corner of the building, windows wrapping around two walls, all open and letting in the salt and breeze of the sea.

  Joab had eyes the color of forest moss—so unusual among the dragons, which swam with blues and browns. He kept his chestnut hair unbound and loose around his shoulders. He grinned. “I thought I may see you soon.”

  I sighed. “Hello.”

  He gestured to a cushion on the floor and I folded down onto it, crossing my legs. He lowered himself to a mat across from me. “Is your magic proving to be unwieldy?”

  “Yes.” I groaned. “I’m terrible at managing it. I don’t know how I will ever figure it out.”

  “Your father had similar struggles.”

  “Did he?”

  “Oh, yes. You are the conduit for the magic of tens of thousands of beings. It’s not a simple task. You maintain more magic than any other individual in the Ether does, aside from Arim and Mira, perhaps. And dragon’s magic is strong, to begin with. Dragons not only grapple with natural elements but they can also shield, and some can read others’ emotions and thoughts. I’ve even heard rumors that Zeus could manipulate the memories of others. I believe much of the knowledge of his powers and how to wield them was lost upon his death because he, himself, did not wish others to know what all he could manage.

  “He erased the memories of those who knew about his powers?”

  Joab shrugged. “Possibly.”

  “I wish I could retrieve those so I could figure it all out.” I ran my fingers over the grainy wood of the floor. “I was hoping you could help me today to try to channel out as much magic as possible before I leave for the human world.”

  “Try finding a place of ease. Remember, it’s easiest to wield magic from that space.”

  I closed my eyes and sighed.

  My body buzzed and prickled and stung with the magic.

  Managing Arim and Mira’s magic had been easier.

  And that was painfully difficult.

  I clenched my jaw.

  “Try to relax,” Joab said. “Draw a deep breath and release it. Take your mind to the ocean. That has proven to be your best focal point.”

  I blew out a breath.

  I would try.

  “When did you get into gardening?” I said as mom and I strolled down the long aisles of the outdoor shopping area in the lawn store. She brushed a section of her caramel curls behind her ears. Someone thunked a plastic bag of mulch onto the checkout counter and the scanner beeped, flashing a garish color of red as the cashier scanned it. Music jangled in the background, a car drove by blaring a different song with a deep bass that vibrated through the air, a smoky cloud of exhaust swelling in the sky. Where the Ether sparkled and sang with crisp details, the human world buzzed with a haze of dull colors and loud noises. Every time I visited, it left me feeling like Alice falling down the rabbit’s hole, but in reverse. Wonderland felt right. And the human world, strange.

  “I wouldn’t say I’m into gardening.” Mom kneeled by a pallet covered with plants and lifted one, twisting it around. “It’s something I’m trying.” She hefted a leafy bush into our buggy. “Now that I’m an empty-nester I’ve decided I need to find some new activities to keep me busy.”

  I shrugged. “I just don’t remember us managing to keep any plants alive… ever.”

  She lifted another shrub and eased it into the cart next to the first one. “That’s because we didn’t. Do you remember the time we tried to grow tomatoes?”

  “You mean when those caterpillars ate them all in one night like some sort of plague?”

  She laughed. “That’s the ones.” Birds perched in the rafters stretched out their wings and soared further into the center. Birds that were just birds and nothing else. Weird. “So,” Mom grabbed a tub of fertilizer and flipped it over so that the text on the back showed, “how is Telanes?”

  “He’s doing well,” I said, grateful for the hundredth time that Daron’s magic still worked on her and she believed whatever I told her even after our worlds had disconnected.

  “I’d love to meet him if he wanted to join you sometime.” She frowned at the container and set it back on the shelf. “It must be hard on him, living so far from family.”

  Oh, the irony. I held back a sigh. One of the wheels on the buggy squeaked as I pushed it forward to amble alongside mom. “I actually just told him he should come visit with me. He’d like that.”

  “And how are your studies coming along?”

  I curled my fingers around the cart’s handle. “Well, it’s all a bit overwhelming. So many new things to learn, really.”

  Such an understatement.

  Mom’s gaze remained on the shelf. “That’s all of life. But I bet you don’t get to learn the fascinating joys of gardening at school.”

  “Definitely not.” After all, I had staff to handle that. Another swelling feeling of not belonging washed through me.

  Mom reached over and squeezed my hand. “I’m glad you could visit for a few days.”

  “And I’m glad to be here.” Finally, a simple truth I could tell her.

  She lifted another container, skimming over it for a moment before dropping it beside the plants. “Do you think you’ll come home for the summer?”

  I leaned on the cart, letting my hair drift between us. “My job on campus is actually going to extend through summer. But hopefully, I can visit soon.”

  Mom hugged her arms around my shoulders and her butterscotch smell curled into the air. “I understand. So busy and grown-up. Time flies. Well, perhaps you, and Telanes, if he wanted, could stay for a week over your vacation.”

  “Maybe.” I fought the urge to bite my lip. “I’ll talk with him about it.”

  “Great.”

  She trailed off into another aisle and my shoulders dropped. Why couldn’t there be anything in life that was just easy?

  Prometheus’ estate sat tucked against oak trees, the tawny stone of it blending with the beach that lay behind it. The waves roared, calling for me. And I would need to swim soon. The time in the human world had let my magic bubble up, my body jittering with all the electrical crackling energy of it. But there was someone I had to see first. I called for him in the Ether.

  A few moments later, Telanes met me down the sandy path I walked on. “Faye.”

  I wrapped my arms around him. “I missed you.”

  His eyes deepened colors to cobalt and then indigo. He slipped a hand up along my jaw and kissed me like we stood alone in the world, my lips aching from it. He pulled back and rained kisses down my neck, our bodies pressed together like an unhinged shell trying to reunite.

  “I missed you too,” he said. “Why didn’t you come straight to the house?”

  I laughed. “Because you wouldn’t have kissed me like that at the house.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “After nearly a week apart, I might argue that point.”

  “Did you miss me terribly?”

  “I did.” His sandy hair rippled in the ocean breeze that fluttered my selkie cloak. “Did you have a good trip?”

  “Yes. My mom says hello.”

  He grinned and pressed another kiss against my temple. “Come on, everyone has been waiting for you.”

  We ambled together into the formal dining room in Prometheus’ house. A garnet rug stretched across the space, gold curtains hung along the walls. Evening settled and the warm light of the chandelier reflected in the wooden table. We joined Daron, Alec, Poppy, and Mikon, who were already seated and they jumped up, greeting me with hugs.