“We felt it even up here,” I admitted, tracing the patterns of the quilt on their bed with my finger. “There was a shift of some sort in the balance of things. Like a quick change in pressure before it became easier to breathe again.”
Torin nodded slightly, his fingers never pausing, just as his gaze never left his wife’s sleeping form.
I’d be jealous of the utter devotion reflected in his eyes if I didn’t have my own quad. Just the thought of Lex, Ilyas, and Folami chased away a soul-deep chill I hadn’t realized was there before. The same love that the four of us shared was just as potent between Torin and Ellowyn.
“The magic it . . . it sucked mein,” he whispered, eyes darting to mine for a moment as his fingers shook on Ellowyn’s skin.
He swallowed loudly, closing his eyes as his hand stilled and leaned back against the headboard.
“No, that wasn’t right. There was a . . . hand that reached out. Then a body followed. But not a corporeal form. More like the echo of a spirit, if that makes sense.”
It didn’t, but I nodded anyway, despite the fact his eyes were still closed. It felt like he didn’t need my affirmation anyway, perhaps just an ear to hear his nearly unbelievable story.
“I recognized her. Well, nother,but her people. Or who she probably was to someone I knew once.” His voice was far away as he searched for a moment in time. Hishands began to move as he told his story, reaching out as if to grab the memory of his body and pull it into the vortex of magic that existed only in his mind. “She emerged from the magic and begged me to come with her. I relented, allowed her to pull me in—I thought for sure I was going to die. That Ellowyn’s magic would consume me completely. But . . . it didn’t. As long as I held tight to the spirit, my body was unscathed.
“We drifted for a while through the storm of magic, so dense and volatile in parts that I couldn’t see anything except for the strands of ashes and embers around me. The smell was completely overwhelming, like the magic was all that was and all that ever would be.” He shuddered, the motion causing Ellowyn to snort and stir. Torin stilled, eyes flicking open to rest on Ellowyn once more as he waited for her to settle completely.
“There was nothing left in the Valley, Peytor,” Torin said, finally making eye contact with me. I gasped slightly at the haunted yet awed gleam in his eyes. “She is more powerful than I could ever imagine. It was like she was rewriting the very fabric of reality in that specific spot.”
“So how’d you find her?” I asked, enraptured by his tale.
“The spirit led me to her. Told me it was as promised. The magic had eaten away at Ellowyn’s clothes and was starting to consume her from—from the inside out,” he whispered, pain lancing across his face. He shuddered again. “It was something I never wish to see again. I was able to make a sort of block, I guess? I’m not even really sure how it worked or what it was, but my magic just poured from me into her. The vortex halted before the storm retreated enough for me to release my hold on the ghost and pick Ellowyn up. Then we rode back here as fast as my horse and magic would allow,” Torin finished with a shrug.
“What happened to the spirit?”
“I’m not really sure, she just kind of?—”
“She’s gone. They’re all resting once more,” Ellowyn’s groggy voice thick with sleep interrupted Torin’s statement, causing both of us to jump.
“How do you know that, sweetheart?” Torin asked, attention firmly back on the woman in his arms as he gently pushed her messy blonde hair off her sweaty forehead.
Ellowyn stretched languidly with an indulgent groan before she settled once more.
Her steel-blue eyes blinked lazily open, some flutters longer than others, until she was awake and aware, shrewd gaze softening when she saw me. I smiled and pat her leg underneath the quilt.
“Hello, sis.”
“Hello, Peytor,” she said softly. “I missed you.”
I returned her grin, squeezing her leg slightly in acknowledgement.
“How do you know about the ghosts?” Torin asked lightly, brow furrowed in thought.
“They were part of the Valley, tied to it and its boundary. Solace forced them from the ether, I think, when she and Kaos returned as a way to ‘protect’ her ancestral place. I guess she didn’t expect that they’d return a bit angry about everything,” Ellowyn said with a wry laugh. “They were returned with Creation Magic, and only the power of the Destruction God or Goddess could return them. So that’s what I did.”
She shrugged, like banishing spirits to eternal rest was an everyday occurrence.
A laugh of disbelief choked its way out of my mouth, and Ellowyn shot me a wink at the sound before turning over to press a quick kiss to Torin’s mouth.
“Thank you for saving me,” she muttered.
I turned away, moving from the bed to give them privacy as their kiss deepened and turned more heated.
A loud banging on the door had me jumping, nearly falling over in surprise. Torin’s masculine groan was long and painful, though Ellowyn’s accompanying laugh nearly drowned it completely.
“I’ll get it,” I called as the banging continued. Heart racing from the scare, I gripped the handle and pulled the heavy oak door open, the hinges creaking slightly with the motion.
I barely had time to register the identities of the man and woman standing in the hallway before the woman rushed past. The man closed his eyes and shook his head even as a small smile graced his normally stoic face.
