Page 36 of A Touch of Stars and Stones (Kirrian #1)

twenty

. . .

Ever

M y hand clings to Ten’s as if my life depends on it.

I can barely focus on where we’re going.

My mind is still stuck on that battlefield, the look of utter terror on Ascella’s face, the sickening shriek as the blade in my hand sank through her chest, and the way I gripped the hilt harder as I forced it past her ribs.

No.

That did not just happen. It wasn’t a vision of the future. I can’t be. I’d never be able to do that.

It was so much worse than any of the other visions or images because this didn’t just show me. I could feel it. I could taste the tang of copper in the air. It felt real. Even my palm hurt where the metal’s pattern pressed into my skin.

My hand flexes in Ten’s, but he keeps his grip tight, a slight grunt slipping past his lips.

I blink back the sting of tears, turn my gaze to where we are, and my eyes travel over towards the formidable tower that rises from the centre of The Court. That foreign building, which offered nothing but questions when I first arrived.

And more questions are all I’ve been dealt since.

With another squeeze of my hand, Ten tugs me in the direction he’s leading, my feet all but stumbling along in the dust.

A doorway, a hallway, a bend, a door.

But we’re not in my room as I step inside and look up.

It’s similar. But there’s a purple throw on the bed. The huge bed that, while it is probably the same size as mine, looks much bigger in this room. In Ten’s room.

“Sit,” he orders, leading me to a soft chair in the corner of the room, next to the wardrobe and desk. He finally lets my hand go, balling his fist after releasing and heading off across the room.

He returns and kneels in front of me with a cup of water that I gladly take and drink deeply from. It quenches my thirst and rinses the horrid tang of copper from my mouth. It also gives me something to distract from the presence of Ten so close.

There’s no mistaking the concern in his eyes as he looks at me, still the warm chestnut-rich colour that I’ve come to be too familiar with, but this close, I can study the subtle colour variations as the light catches, greens glinting, like the hills we trekked over to come here.

“What are you looking at?” I ask.

“I’m checking on your injuries.” As his eyes trace over my face and down my neck and chest, it’s like he’s running the tip of his finger across my skin, and it leaves me with a trace of goosebumps in the wake of his attention.

“Perrin fixed me.” It was an odd sensation, like a gentle tugging under my skin. Not unpleasant, and it alleviated the sting of the pain inflicted.

Ten keeps moving his eyes over me.

“But I still ache. Everywhere,” I add, needing to fill the silence and buffer his scrutiny.

“Calix will do that to you. I’ve been fighting with him since we were kids, but he’s now the strongest of us all. Physically.”

“I couldn’t stop it or him. I could feel every hit when he connected with me, but it was like an explosion in my body. I didn’t think it would be like that,” I say, my voice soft and tired.

“Perrin’s good, but he can’t erase all the damage. Your bruises will still hurt, and you’re going to be sore for days.”

“How? I mean, how can he heal?” Reading about healers was one thing, but feeling it felt alien.

“He’s a Natural. He can manipulate your skin to knit back together so you won’t bleed out. Very useful if you’ve been stabbed or have other cuts or wounds. But he can’t take all the damage away. He’ll likely bring you something for the pain later.”

It wasn’t just the physical pain I was worried about. “Will she forgive me?”

Ten brings his eyes back to mine, and I know he’s not sure what to say, the little tick of his eyebrow giving him away.

“That’s not for me to say.” He stands. “But there’s no reason why she shouldn’t.

I’m guessing you didn’t have any more control over what you showed her than you did those visions with us?

Or the ones you had before you even came?

” His words are gentle, but they make me feel small, reminding me I’m not in control, and I hate it.

I nod.

“If I’m right, then we need to practice until you know what you can do, and what every person and combination you connect with can do for you, to you, and how you can work together.”

“That easy, huh?” I joke. It sounds impossible.

“Not easy. That’s why we all live in the residence. Training isn’t just about throwing daggers or defending yourself. It’s more about our magic and the potential it brings for us and others. But with you, we’re all in the dark.”

We wait until I’ve got my trembling hands under control and go down to the food hall.

There’s an instant hush as we walk in, and I feel the rush of blood to my cheeks.

Great.

“Come on.” Ten leads me to the bench with my ‘friends’, but the silence remains as we sit. I grab a plate and busy myself with food. If I can keep anything down, that is.

“Eat. You need your strength.” Ten nods at the food on my plate that’s yet to make it to my mouth.

I tear at the bread roll.

“Classroom. Fifteen minutes,” Rowan yells into the hall, and I sigh, feeling exhausted and shaken.

“It can’t be worse than what you’ve already been through,” Micah offers.

“I’m blaming you if it is.” My jovial attempt is pathetic.

The small roll and accompanying soup are all I manage before we all make our way into the classroom in the training centre. My limbs tremble, but I disguise it, shaking it off as though it’s just another lesson.

I can do this.

“Okay. New tactic for training. No combat. But we all need to work out what Ever’s gifts are.

” There are a few murmurs around, but I stay silent.

“None of you has had the experience of working with a Fifth. So, we all need to know how they can help us, be an advantage in a battle, or, potentially, be used in a Triune.” Rowan looks around the class at us.

“We’ve been focusing on one-on-one. You should know how you can use each other’s power to your own advantage, working together.

Three will shape and change your powers again.

That’s the goal. But the other factor in this is Ever.

” He looks at me now, and I don’t know if there’s an element of pride shining in his eyes.

A hum works up my spine as the rest of the class also looks at me—I can feel the combined pressure.

All of it on me. “So, stand up. Push the tables back. It’s time to find out. Touch only, let’s start slowly.”

Everyone starts moving, the scrape of wood against the stone floor jarring me, and I, too, stand, but hug the back wall.

My gaze looks to Ascella, but her blue eyes narrow, and she whips herself away from me, standing on the opposite side of the room.

“She’ll come around.” Micah nods in her direction, where she’s taken position next to Raiden, their closeness obvious amongst the others.

The rest of the trainees gravitate to the edge of the room, Calix sitting on the table he just moved, swinging his legs.

When I look at him, he’s not scowling at me or shooting metaphorical daggers at my head.

His eyes are kind, maybe. He crunches into a gleaming red apple and winks at me, like he didn’t just beat me to a pulp an hour ago.

“Now, Ever,” Rowan shouts, clapping his hands together to make his point.

“If you can come to the middle. Aurelia has some guidance for you all.” Every instinct I have tells me not to, but if I want to master control, I don’t have a choice.

My feet take a step, edging into the centre, and I look for the eldest of our custodians.

“This will be a mental test as much as a physical.” She appears as if summoned from the shadows of the room.

“Remember that. And remember what you’ve learned about your power so far.

How you can push it out, control it. How it wraps around the power you connect with and how it can consume you if you don’t learn to master it.

” It’s the most she’s ever said to me, and sort of makes sense.

I want to listen to nothing but more of her words, encouraged that I might glean the very knowledge I’ve been looking for, right from her lips.

“Don’t let it consume you. Fight back, wield it, master it.

Not with your physical strength, but the mental strength you hold.

” Nodding, I remember how I pushed my thoughts to Lyle.

Willed it. Maybe, subconsciously, with Ten.

I nod to her as if she’s only talking to me, take two calming breaths, and, closing my eyes, I try to feel my power like Aurelia described.

The noise of the room falls away as I search for… something.

Not surprisingly, Micah stands in the middle with me when I open my eyes again, and I grin at him. “Worried?” I ask hesitantly. Although when we fought, it was nothing like the experience with Ascella.

“Nah. I trust you.” He grins back.

“Make a single connection and concentrate on that,” Aurelia instructs.

I raise my hand as if in an open-palmed salute, and Micah moves his in symmetry.

I concentrate on the gap between our hands, feeling for any spark of energy or power and take another breath.

Controlling, even identifying the right part of me, is hard when you don’t know what it is you’re looking for.

But after a few seconds, there’s a faint buzzing, a vibration.

And I push our palms together, locking all my thoughts onto that sensation.

As soon as they connect, it intensifies, and I can feel a surge as the vibration grows.

It thrums through me, down into my booted feet and into the floor, where the tremors start.

I open my mind a little more, focusing, concentrating, to see if I can pull more of that power, and it starts to flow, and the ground shakes. My eyes flash to Micah’s, who looks a little confused, and I tilt my head.

But he pulls the connection, taking his hand back, and everything stops.

“Okay?” I check.

“Sure.” He steps back.