Page 42 of A Touch of Stars and Stones (Kirrian #1)

Maybe there’s no energy between them. Maybe he has shields—it’s something Guards can do, and I need to get a fuck-load better at. Or maybe their power doesn’t mix, but I know it can’t be that. Everyone’s power reacts to another’s in some way. It’s one of the principles we’re taught and rely on.

And then I take another look at Azur.

His eyes have gone vacant, like he’s staring off into another world. And Ever’s brow now has slight frown marks marring it.

A chill runs over me. Is this how Ravi felt when he saw us, and why he stepped in? Because everything in me, every fibre of me, is screaming to pull Ever out of whatever is going on between them. A silent battle we can’t see or witness.

I step forward, unable to stop the pull I feel towards them. Towards Ever.

“Wait, Ten,” Calix states. He’s moved, now standing right next to me, and I haven’t even realised, my focus solely on Ever and Azur.

“Easy to say.”

“What happened with you two?” he asks.

The images, the pain, all scream back inside my head. I’d never usually hesitate to share with Calix. He’s been my best friend since we were kids. But I shake my head. “It’s hard to explain.”

Azur doesn’t shift, nor does Ever.

“Aurelia? Rowan?” I snarl a warning to them both, unable to stand and watch.

They can intervene without risk, or at least with less risk than the rest of us.

It’s Aurelia that moves, pulling at Azur’s hand, but he just remains standing, motionless, like he’s been turned into a statue. Ever steps back, blinking. And she watches Azur, waiting, and the worry on her face deepens.

“Azur?” she asks through deep, panting breaths.

I’m moving across the class to intercept her before Calix or anyone else can stop me.

“Azur?” She tries again, but he doesn’t respond. She steps back, her hands going to her mouth. “We were in a maze. He was leading me, so I followed. Only I couldn’t find him.”

Ravi and Capella are hovering around him now, along with Aurelia.

“When is someone going to stop this?” Ascella shouts. “We shouldn’t have to risk ourselves to train with her.”

“Training is exactly that. Risking yourself,” Rowan counters, still assessing the situation. “Do you not think that Micah risks himself when he takes on Calix in a physical encounter? Do you not think that Capella risks herself going up against you?”

“That’s different.”

“Oh, why?” Rowan answers, and Ascella’s eyes fly wide.

“Because we know what they can do. She can’t control herself. We can all see that.” There’s a fierceness to her voice that tells me and everyone else that she won’t drop this.

“Aten?” Aurelia calls and beckons me over.

As I walk over to them, I track Ever edging closer and closer to the wall of the room and see Micah on an intercept course.

“Aten, I need you to reach Azur. Snap him out of this.”

“How?” I ask. When we’d trained one-on-one before, there was nothing, at least from my side. I could analyse his moves, his fighting and counter, but that’s as far as I’d looked.

“Curse you, Ciros. Feel for his emotion. See if he’s got a shield around his mind. You need to draw him from wherever he’s gone.” I look at her like she’s the one who’s lost her mind. But I don’t show it. I school my features.

No weakness. I’m a Guard now.

I grab Azur’s left wrist and focus, pushing my mind to search for something, a glimmer of familiarity, a feel, maybe.

To start, it’s just like it was when I felt for him before this test with Ever.

But, as I let my mind go further, I feel something, like an echo or shadow.

It’s curious, so I focus all my strength on it and mentally try to pull and grab him as if he’s actually at the end of whatever this strand of thought might be.

My mind protests, but that little shred of recognition has me digging deeper to try and unlock whatever it is. A tangle of thoughts and images starts to close in around me, but I don’t let go of that one thought—that little echo—and just like any fight in my life, I imagine the win.

In a blink, it’s gone, and I mentally stumble, like tripping up, and Azur’s eyes focus again, taking in the room around us and trying to catch up with the changes.

I drop my hold of him and step back, a little disorientated and confused about what that kernel of recognition was.

Azur? I recognised something in him, or was it Ever? She said she’d been trapped.

He looks for Ever, who’s… nowhere in sight. Shit.

“Azur?” Aurelia asks.

“I’m fine.” But I’m not sure if that’s true. “Who got me out?” His voice is scratchy.

“Ten.” Calix stands at my side. “Want to tell us what happened?”

He just looks around the room again before staring first at Ascella and then at me. So far, we’re the only ones who’ve been affected by Ever in a mental capacity. Crimson lost her strength in a fight, Calix gained and lost his strength, and the same with Ravi and Micah.

“I created a maze for her in my mind. And I wanted to see if I could trap her.”

What? Can he do that?

“But it’s like she twisted it to her advantage. Soon, I was the one who was lost in a dark place, filled with memories and traps. And I couldn’t find a way out. It was… terrifying.”

“Shit,” Calix curses.

“I don’t think she knew what she was doing,” I defend. She had been just as scared. But isn’t that the problem? She has the right to be pissed. She’s a weapon nobody knows how to use or control.

“Azur, find Perrin,” Aurelia commands. “Training is finished for today. But each of you must visit with your Order’s Custodian tomorrow. Understand?”

We all nod our agreement and file out of the room.

“What happened with you?” Ascella rounds on me before we make it outside.

“Doesn’t matter,” I grit out.

“Like zuns it does. She’s dangerous.”

“We’re all dangerous,” Calix adds as he stands by my side.

“Not like her.” Ascella’s voice fades.

“And what are you going to do? Leave? Is it worth it?” Calix questions. “Everyone completes the trials, or at least the first one.”

“She needs to leave. Everything was fine until she showed up.” But as she voices her wish, Raiden approaches and steers her away from us.

“This is going to get messy,” Calix says.

“I know.” I turn to Calix.

“She might be dangerous, but she’s also in danger.”

My mind snaps at the word, remembering something my father said—that she’s a danger. He was cryptic and paranoid about her, casting his concern on the worry of outsiders, or at least that’s how I interpreted what he said.

But she also had him on his knees the first time I met her, in the hall.

Kamari asked something, and the Maker confirmed.

They knew.

Realisation flashes. They knew she was a Fifth, even then. My father knew, which is why he was concerned. And he’s limited her training because of that.

How? How, after so little time with her, to see her, did they know?

There are too many questions that don’t add up.

“I have to go.” I stride off towards The Court, but I know Calix is on my heels.

“Where are you going?”

“To see my father.”

“Oh, fuck.”