We all turned and found him standing there, staring out at the water beyond us. He eventually brought his gaze back to the four of us sitting there and sighed. He stepped forward and sat on the dock behind us.
“I have a whisper shell…had a whisper shell in a hushwillow box. My mother asked for them for Belshazzar and me. I have no idea what Bel did with his. I had mine until Savion destroyed the city. It was crushed in the temple.”
There was pain in his voice, but he buried it quickly.
“You know what a whisper shell does, Aiko?” I asked quietly.
“No…”
“They hold a prophecy,” Rilen said. “All children were given them for years. They were put in hushwillow boxes… That’s what the Burnt Woods was filled with. And because they were destroyed in a manic act, the wood wouldn’t quiet the whisper shells.”
“It’s part of what drove Niniane mad,” I added. “Savion smashed her hushwillow and made her listen to the whisper shell. It never stops whispering.”
Roran glanced at Dorian. “What was your prophecy? I never even knew you had a whisper shell…”
“A crusty old bastard like me? Getting sentimental about a box his dead mommy gave him? That would have flown like a fishing sinker.” Dorian snorted and looked straight at me. “One of four, four for one, the heart ties magic and blood to the soul of S’Kir. Gather from the corners, scatter to the winds, harness the elements and bind with the whole of the heart and heart of the whole.”
We sat in the silence of the Dawn Sea as it went on about its business. My guess that there was something important about the four of them was right, especially needing all four of them in my life—and in my bed.
“I’m not going to chase you away, Aiko. I realize I can’t, and shouldn’t,” he admitted. “But I can’t simply accept you right away. I am, after all, a crusty old bastard.”
“I swear to you that any affection you show me, or the others, will be our secret,” Aiko answered.
Rilen and Roran chuckled. “Yeah, that’s not going to be hard to do,” Rilen said.
“The lot of you are more trouble than your collective worth,” Dorian said.
A terrifyingclang clang clangrose up from the city behind us, startling us. Aiko was up on his feet in the next second, staring back at the city behind us.
“Fire,” he whispered. “That’s the fire bell.”
He was gone from the pier as fast as he could—top vampire speed. Dorian was after him, at the same speed, while Rilen and Roran stayed back.
“We need to help.” I started to jog back to the beach, hoping they were following me.
An explosion ripped through the buildings near the waterfront, throwing me back into the twins who were also tossed back. We landed in a pile on the dock and scrambled to our feet.
“Water,” Rilen whispered, and I could feel him pull in his magic to coax the Dawn Sea to help him. Roran and I added our power to it. In a moment, the water buckled back and reared into the sky. As Rilen directed the water over the crackling fire, Roran pushed some air through it and it turned into a hard falling rain.
I followed it through the building to see if there were any signs of people trapped, but I came across nothing.
“You two have to go find Aiko and Dorian and help them,” Rilen said. “I can stay here and send the water where you need.”
“How would we let you know?” I asked
Roran smiled and tapped his temple. “The twin thing. He’ll know where I am.”
“Go, go,” Rilen said.
“I know you can’t run at full speed yet, Kimber, but go, and I’ll follow next to you.”
With a nod, I let the vampire power bubble up, and I shot off the deck through the streets of Elkthorne. As we ran toward the bell, a second bell started clanging on the other side of town.
I stopped and looked at Roran. “Two fires?”
A third joined them.
“The city is being attacked,” he whispered.
