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Chapter

Sixty-One

Liv

“ S o Erebrekt …” Maev walked next to me, twirling her braid around her finger, trying to act normal. It was the tremor in her voice that gave her away. “When did you become a Guardian?”

I peeked over at Brekt, who was on my other side, to watch him as he spoke to an Aethar. His mouth pulled into a tight line as we left the busy area, heading toward the outskirts of the city. Well-maintained wood-planked homes were spaced out with yards full of flowers and large trees.

“I was always a Guardian,” he replied, focusing on the road, constantly checking who was around us.

“Even when you were a child?” Maev asked him. Her face turned red, and she straightened, twirling her hair faster.

“There was no other choice. I was brought up in a Guardian camp.”

“And did you want to become a Guard?”

I didn’t want to laugh at how hard Maev tried to kill the silence with her awkward questions.

“No,” Brekt replied, and I elbowed him when he didn’t continue. “I knew I would become a Guard. There was no one better.”

“If you weren’t raised at the camp, what would you have done?”

“I would have lived alone somewhere where it was quiet.”

I snorted.

Maev asked no more questions after that, and I was thankful. A half hour later when we left the city behind, she pointed to a rocky cliffside, saying that we arrived at Cal’s place.

“Where is it?” I asked, not seeing a house.

“Underground.”

Brekt stopped me. “This is not wise. I don’t wish you to be led underground to meet someone you don’t know.”

Maev huffed but said nothing as she continued to the wall of rock.

“I trust Maev with my life. I’ve travelled with her for months, and she’s become one of my closest friends, which means this Cal will be my friend as well. So please, don’t make them uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable?”

I rolled my eyes. “Clearly, you don’t know how grumpy you are.”

Brekt blinked, and I stuck out my tongue, enjoying how it threw him off to see me so animated. We followed Maev, and as we approached the cliff, a grey door was revealed, built into the rocks.

Maev knocked several times, then sighed when there was no answer. “He’s going to be pissed when I go down with strangers uninvited. Follow me.”

I stepped behind Maev, climbing down a dimly lit stone stairwell. She was quiet as she walked us into a dark dungeon of a home. I jerked back when a door at the bottom of the stairs flew open, revealing a tall, strange man pointing a weapon at us.

Brekt wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me away as Maev shouted. “It’s me!” She raised her hands in the air.

“Maev?”

It was difficult to see what the man looked like in such little lighting, but I could tell he was tall with wild hair. I pushed Brekt’s arm off me.

“I don’t enjoy this, Liv.” He said in a low voice behind me. “Escape will be difficult.”

I shushed him with a finger to my lips, and he grabbed that finger, pulling it away from my face, glowering at me.

“What are you doing with a weapon, Cal?” Maev stepped down toward the door.

“I heard several pairs of footsteps. No one ever visits me. At least no one other than you. So I grabbed this tube. It has a bunch of scrolls in it.”

“A tube?” Brekt muttered.

I turned to whisper, “Cal is not a threat.”

“Obviously not.” I could see the tension in Brekt’s shoulders recede.

Cal opened the door farther, and we followed him inside.

We collected in a confined room lit by magic-powered torches. They gave off a warm, golden glow, hanging low from the ceiling, making the space cozy.

I played with the fabric of my skirts to ward off my building nerves. I didn’t like meeting new people any more than Brekt did. Brekt noticed my worrying, and I shoved my hands behind my back before he said anything.

Cal sat back against the edge of a desk in the centre of the space, staring nervously at me.

Brekt was against the wall close to the door. He’d put his hood in place, hiding his tattoos.

“Cal, this is my friend Olivia.” Maev waved a hand toward me.

Cal forced a smile. “Hi?—”

“She’s the Ikhor,” she finished.

“Cursed Night!” He tore away from the desk, stumbling backwards.

I jumped, knocking my head against a shelf. Suddenly, years of fear and distrust roared through my head.

Eyes down. Don’t react. Blend in.

“Whoa.” His hands went up. He moved around the desk to put it between us. “Don’t hurt me.”

What?

Right. I was the Ikhor. I was not the one in danger. I was the danger.

“I’m not going to hurt you. You just surprised me.” I didn’t move from the wall. “I thought Rydavians weren’t scared of the Ikhor.”

Cal had a fair complexion with green undertones to his skin.

Dark hair was tousled around his face in waves that, despite being messy, looked good on him.

He was tall, thin-waisted and broad-shouldered, but he bore no muscle.

He wasn’t a fighter. A nervous smile crinkled the corners of his deep green eyes, and two sharp teeth hung from the top row.

When he moved his head, he revealed three slashes along his neck.

Gills. Sea-leg.

“Maev, you are sure we are all friends here?” He snatched a pair of large, round glasses from the desk and backed up again, hitting an over-packed shelf behind him.

“I wouldn’t bring anyone I didn’t trust.”

“And the other guy?” Cal asked nervously.

Maev avoided looking Brekt’s way when she answered. “He’s—ugh—Livy’s Guard. Bodyguard.”

Maev shrugged at me.

Good enough.

“If you say I will be okay underground, with the most erratic and powerful magic aside from the gods … no, you must not be of sound mind.” He fixed his glasses on his nose, and his attention focused on me. “Are you?”

“Am I what?” Puffs of steam billowed before my face as the room grew colder.

Brekt tensed by the door, the tendons in his neck stretched tight, holding the Aspis in.

I shut my emotions down, worried I would cause the transformation.

“Are you of sound mind?” Cal didn’t move from where he hugged the wall.

I looked around the room. There were books, dark shelves crammed with more books, rolled-up papers, maps on the walls and images with pins and strings tied from one pin to the next. To my right, there was a desk, a chair, a tall worktable, and a bed.

No weapons.

“You’re a scholar?” This was the man Ollo thought was weird.

“Yup.”

“Friend?”

“One-word sentences—got it. Yes. Me. Friend.” He patted his chest with both hands.

“Are you making fun of me?” I asked.

His back straightened. “Gods. No. Just trying to figure out how you speak to an all-powerful being.”

He wore a plain white long-sleeved top. His tan-coloured pants were loose, belted around the waist. He wouldn’t have survived well back home. He seemed sweet, if not a little rude, and he acted nothing like Ollo, which explained why Ollo thought Cal was weird.

“One way might be not mocking them when they are confused,” I added.

Cal eyed the closed door on his left, blocked by Brekt. Was he thinking of escape? Not that I blamed him since I was thinking the same.

He was Maev’s friend, I reminded myself. She trusted him. “I am not going to hurt you. Just so you know.”

“If anyone in this city—no, in this world—knows more of the legends and the gods than I do, I would like to meet them. Meaning, I know what you are capable of.”

I blew out a long breath. “I bet you I know more.” Crystals had eased the strain of magic, so my skin wasn’t faded, and my body didn’t hurt. When my hair fell before my face, it was silvery, not white. “I am certainly capable of setting all of your books on fire.”

“And me.”

“And you.” I nodded, suppressing a smile.

There was something about Cal that put me at ease. Perhaps it was his nervous behaviour, but I think it was that he spoke freely with me, with little hesitation.

“I am well aware you can use all the elements to end me. So what can I do to make that not happen?”

His nostrils flared as I moved away from the wall, so I stopped, not going any closer.

A laugh escaped me. The fear of strangers, of what people saw in me, wasn’t as strong as it once was.

And for once, it was someone else backing against a wall, not me.

“I am not going to do anything to you. Maev said you were her friend. So I am your friend.”

“Yeah?” He scratched his head, making more of a mess of his dark waves.

“Yeah.”

“Well, don’t crisp me if I don’t warm up to you immediately. I’m not typically a people person.” He made a face of disgust, as if the idea of people bothered him.

Cal’s back hunched slightly as he returned to his desk and his open book. He pushed his glasses back and read. Only he wasn’t reading. His eyes were darting to me every time I moved.

“What is this place?” I wandered the small room.

Maev approached his desk, picking up a book to read, but she watched me too, her face lit with humour. She was laughing at me.

“My home.” He glanced away. “My office.”

“Underground?”

“I like being away from the sun. Sea-leg. Prefer the dark.”

I stopped in front of a bookshelf and turned back to face him. “Is that the case for all Sea-legs? My friend is one, but I always saw him outside.” I couldn’t tell what Brekt made of the comment.

“Most prefer to be underwater. I spend about half my time on land. I have another spot I live the rest of the time.”

“I suppose books don’t do well underwater.”

Cal cracked a smile at my comment. “You would be correct.”

“And my friend was not a full-blooded Sea-leg. A weak line, I remember someone saying.”

Brekt’s expression dulled. Was he bored? And here I thought he enjoyed not having to be the one to talk.

I snooped through Cal’s shelves. He had a massive collection of strange items and papers. There were gadgets made of ancient ore and some made of different metals like Maev’s device.

“Cal,” Maev said. “I’ve brought Livy here to talk about the legends of the gods. She wants to find them. When we were in Veydes, she spoke with Ouras?—”

“Directly?” Cal asked, sitting straighter.