“I’ll stay on one condition,” Kira said, trying to get her way without letting Octavion know she’d let him into her heart. “You have to teach me to fight.”
Octavion grimaced. “You will not give up, will you?”
Kira stepped back and folded her arms. “If you really want me to stay, you’ll teach me.”
He threw his hands up in the air and let a low rumbling growl escape from his chest.
Kira didn’t say anything, but shifted her weight to one foot and stood her ground.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Lydia cut in. “Will you two knock it off. I’ll teach her how to fight.”
Octavion glared at Lydia.
Kira smiled, thinking her way to get to Octavion was through his sister. Maybe she’d found his soft spot. “Good, then I’ll stay.”
Lydia still held her bleeding wrist where a two-inch cut mimicked where the Crystor had pulled against Kira’s skin. “Would it be too much trouble to have you heal this now? I could bleed to death waiting for you two to stop bickering.”
Kira wrapped her hand around Lydia’s wound and visualized the skin fusing together. The wound healed quickly, but instead of the usual burning sensation, it shocked her. “Ouch.” She quickly rubbed the sting away. “Why did it do that?”
“Here, let me see it.” Octavion offered Kira his hand and pulled her from the dirt floor. He ran a finger along the Crystor, causing a warm sensation to run up Kira’s arm, and the tiny strand of silver to burn cold.
“What did you do?” Kira asked.
He glanced at his sister with a questioning expression.
“Tell her,” Lydia said. “You agreed to include her in everything.”
Octavion sighed. “It had a kink in it and I merely mended it. I created the charm that binds you to Lydia. The gift I possess was almost lost when we came here, but there was enough left to do this one thing.” He lowered her hand and found Kira’s eyes again. “Being its keeper is not to be taken lightly, Kira. I should have told you that. It is far more powerful than I imagined or hoped. You must treat it with respect.”
“I don’t understand. What gift? And why was it almost lost?”
“Remember I told you I am a hybrid?” Octavion asked.
Kira nodded.
“Most Royals only possess one or two gifts. I am much stronger as I have inherited gifts from both my parents. From my mother I inherited vision and the ability to know how to combine herbs and metals for healing. But because my father’s blood was pure, it held a portion of the magic passed down from the king of Panthera. All four of his daughters were filled with enchantment and were very powerful Jaydes. It is through that lineage I possess the ability to cast charms on objects.”
Kira swallowed hard as she looked down at the Crystor. Magic. “You mean like . . . a witch or wizard?”
Octavion smiled. “I suppose in your world I would be considered a wizard, yes. But I have read some of your fairy tales, and know many of your superstitions. This is nothing like that. I haven’t the power to manipulate a person’s mind and I cannot change people into creatures or produce something from nothing. The gift of a Jayde comes from the heart and cannot be used on anything living. At least the powers I possess. It is simple and pure. Even my gift as an alchemist is limited to dried plants and herbs. If I snatched a butterfly from the meadow, I would have no power over it.”
Kira brought her hand up and touched the Crystor, warming it. “But you said it was almost lost. So you don’t have it anymore?”
This time, Lydia spoke. “Your world has put limitations on our gifts. Some are weaker, but others . . . are gone.”
Kira didn’t know what to say. Each piece of information they revealed about their way of life, made her feel more and more inadequate. If it weren’t for the Crystor, she’d have nothing to offer—not one thing was special about her—unless she counted her overactive imagination. “Thank you for telling me. I will be more careful.”
Octavion brushed his fingers through his hair and stepped away from the girls. “I will leave you to talk. There’s the matter of a little story that still needs to be told.”
“Um . . . about that.” Lydia blurted. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”
“I thought we talked about this,” Octavion said.
Lydia stood and fiddled with some of the bottles on the shelf, clearly trying to avoid making eye contact with her brother. “No. You talked about it, I listened and didn’t agree.”
“Lydia?” Octavion scolded.
“What story?” Kira asked. “You mean about Serena? If she doesn’t want to talk about it . . .”
“There is more to it than that.” Octavion cut her off. “She has refused to speak of that night, even with me. She has nightmares and . . .”
“Stop it!” Lydia spun around and dropped the bottle she’d been holding. It bounced on the hard packed dirt and rolled under the table. “You didn’t have to watch your mother bleed to death or have your best friend die just to save your life. You also didn’t have to watch the person you love hold a knife to your throat and try to kill you.”
“You are wrong,” Octavion said. “Esteria was the only mother I knew and it was my best friend that betrayed me, not just the man you had a childish crush on. Must I remind you what else I lost in all this?”
The color faded from Lydia’s face as she leaned back against the table, grasping it for support. “It wasn’t a childish crush,” she whispered, her bottom lip quivering as moisture returned to her eyes.
“Leave her alone.” Kira brushed Octavion aside and went to Lydia. “You don’t have to tell me anything, okay?” Kira glared at Octavion for being so heartless.
A tiny tear streaked down Lydia’s cheek. “I want to, it’s just . . . I can’t.”
Kira took both of Lydia’s hands to comfort her, but when she gave them a squeeze her fingers began to tingle and it felt as though their hands had been fused together. Images played in Kira’s mind, bits and pieces—not quite enough to really tell what was happening, but scattered chaotic flashes of people Kira didn’t recognize. The images kept coming, one after another until the feelings that accompanied them filled her heart with so much grief and sorrow she began to tremble.
Kira yanked her hands away and stumbled back. She felt the blood rushing through her veins as the walls of the cave began to move in waves. She blinked her eyes in a frail attempt to clear her vision and frantically shook her hands to get her fingers to come back to life.
“Kira, what’s wrong?” Octavion asked, turning an accusing eye to Lydia. “What did you do to her?”
“She didn’t do anything.” Kira wasn’t sure exactly what had happened. She felt as if it were her mother and friend who died. Kira even felt for a brief moment, the betrayal of someone she loved. She’d seen Lydia’s worst nightmare, the images permanently etched in Kira’s mind and all the emotions that came with them. The grief weighed heavy on her heart.
“Didn’t you feel it?” she asked Lydia.
Lydia shook her head, before looking down at her hands. “My fingers felt numb, but I think that’s because you were squeezing them so tight. What happened? Did it shock you again?”
“No.”
Octavion reached for Kira’s hands. “You are trembling.”
Kira pulled them away. Was she reacting to those feelings of betrayal? She wasn’t sure. “I don’t know what happened,” she finally said. “When I took Lydia’s hands I . . .”
The curious look on Octavion’s face made her reconsider her words. If she’d seen Lydia’s memories and felt her emotions, Kira didn’t want him to know. He’d pressure his sister even more to talk about it.
“I . . . I’m not sure. My fingers tingled and I heard her thoughts. It just felt weird. Maybe I’m hungry or it’s left over from the leap. I’m not used to that yet.” They all seemed like perfectly logical explanations to her. “I’m fine now.”
“Why do I get the feelin
g you are hiding something from me?” Octavion asked.
“Leave her alone.” Lydia stepped between them, taking a protective stance. “Why don’t you go do . . . whatever it was you were going to do?” She waved her hand toward the cave opening.
His eyes narrowed as he looked them both up and down with suspicion. “Very well, then.” He turned and took a few steps, mumbling something Kira couldn’t understand.