Erik’s hands flew to his throat moments before the Lysian King dropped to his knees before me. The flames keeping me cornered dissipated.
I withdrew my power, allowing him to catch his breath as he coughed while still kneeling in the dirt.
Slow clapping pulled my attention to the side, where Iver came into view. “My, my, that was certainly fun to watch.” He casually approached, eyes dancing with mischief before landing on me and hardening. “But incredibly foolish of you.”
I couldn’t hide my surprise at seeing him. How was it he arrived so quickly? He would have only recently gotten the request to come to the Bavadrin lands, and the trip would have taken days.
“It’s fine,” Erik rose to his feet, face red, expression completely unreadable.
Iver tisked softly before turning to me. “When attacked, is it not the instinct to fight back? When one cannot draw a breath, does the body not respond of its own accord in an effort to overcome the threat? You are lucky he didn’t burn you out of existence. Lucky that he has that amount of control over himself.”
“I said it’s fine,” Erik snapped at his brother.
“What the hell is going on?” Kiora’s voice shook the forest.
“We are done for the day!” I yelled back. There were still a few hours till sunset, but with the way tensions were running, it was not going to end well if we continued. And I had a new distraction. There was a conversation I needed to have with Iver.
The Sparrows came out of their hiding and the forest was briefly alive with hungry archers making their way back to the city.
Iver turned to his brother. “You mind if I have a private chat with our Bavadrin Leader Superior?”
Erik’s gaze leveled at me. “Fine by me,” he said to Iver without breaking eye contact. A ripple of tension moved between us, thick and strangely uncomfortable. A pang of guilt rushed through my stomach for the way I had just acted towards him. “I’ll see you later,” he said before leaving us.
I watched him as he strode away, not once looking back before disappearing into the forest.
Iver and I walked to the edge where forest met with grassland and sat underneath a tree.
“You impress me,” Iver stated simply.
“For some reason, I do not think you often give such high compliments.” I viewed him, wondering what specifically he might have found impressive.
He smiled. “I do not.”
“Is it because I took back my freedom from the Lysians?”
Leaning against the tree, he angled his face towards me. “It’s that you managed to take it back with zero bloodshed. And then still offered us a hand in standing against the Sidhe.”
I shrugged, watching the breeze push the blades of drygrass like living art. “I had little choice, for I do not plan to live out my life under the command of another.”
“You did have a choice. You did not have to tell us that Clause reached out to you. You owed us nothing. Yet you shared the information because you wished to help us even after we took you from your home and threatened your people. You also helped before you even took your freedom back.”
I turned to find him already looking at me, his gray eyes glimmering. “Helped how?”
“Kole and Eislyn. Whatever you said to him has changed his life.” Whatever expression he saw on my face caused him to chuckle. “Kole didn’t tell you, did he?”
“What happened?” A nervous tendril wrapped around me. That night, after talking to Kole, when he destroyed the sitting room, my heart ached for him. I was afraid to have done more damage than good.
“He apologized to her. She apparently briefly fell apart in Erik’s arms. Which is significant, for she never lets others see her cry or exhibit anything that may be portrayed as a weakness. And now the two of them can exist in the same room without hostility.” His gaze remained entirely focused on me, and there was a weight to it. Something about Iver’s presence was heavier than normal. Troubled. Though not about what we were currently discussing.
“I didn’t do anything, only talked to him a little.”
He tilted his head. “You used your Bavadrin mind magic for good. And for that, I thank you.”
I nearly laughed. “There is no magic there. Only a friend.”
He squinted at me. “It was magic.”
I shook my head, accepting the fact that it was an argument I didn’t even want to try and have with him. “Well, perhaps you can repay me then.”
