“Brother?” Sidrick asked.
“Her power just drained away. She went from almost needing to dispel to being nearly tapped.”
He was right—I could feel it more acutely now that he’d freed whatever was holding the spark at bay.
“She’s afraid.” Artton’s simple words echoed with the truth he’d thrown at me atop the cliff. One I didn’t want to hear then, and one I wouldn’t be lectured on now.
“No shit,” I spat, not apologizing for my fear. I stood, needing to counteract how small I felt. “I’m uninterested in reliving that memory. And I sure as hell am not going to give anyone else a manual on how to steal my powers.”
“Nyleeria,” the soft plea in the High Lord’s voice did nothing to comfort me.
“No, Caius,” I said, putting my hand up. “My answer is no.”
Without another word, I turned my back on them and walked away.
Chapter 26
A Piece of Home
“Lady Nyleeria,” my shadow called from behind me. “Wait up.”
I kept pace, a mixture of fear and anger nipping at my ankles as I made my way back to the residence wing, forcing Kaelun to jog in order to catch up.
“Drop thelady, okay?” I said with more bite than intended.
His head shook in my periphery. “Sorry, no can do.”
“Seriously, Kaelun, it’s just Nyleeria.”
“Yeah, so the thing is”—he palmed the back of his neck and pulled in, a tick I was starting to recognize as nerves—"my folks would have my hide if they ever found out I didn’t call you Lady Nyleeria. I know you’re the spark and all, but trust me when I say you don’t wanna be on Ma’s bad side."
I shook my head, not knowing if that truth endeared him to me or made me want to throttle him. “How old are you anyway?”
“I’m ninety-nine,” he said with pride.
“That’s what Fiora meant when she asked about yourCentennial?”
“Yup. I read that humans deem twenty-one as the year you come of age. Is that true?”
“Yes. Is that what a Centennial is for you?”
“It is.”
“So, if I was still twenty-one when you turned a hundred, would we be considered the same age in a way?” As the question left my tongue, I had to admit that chatting with him about something utterly mundane snuffed my mounting anger with curiosity.
“You know, I asked myself the same thing. It’s nearly impossible to compare how our species mature differently. But yeah, I think it’s as close to a parallel as we’ll get.”
“Hum,” I mused. “Then by that definition I’m technically older than you?”
He shrugged. “I guess so. But that doesn’t mean you can keep calling me a fetus.”
I chuckled. “Artton called me it the other day, which is why I said it.”
“Uncle Artton did?” he said with disbelief.
“Uncle Artton,” I mocked, “has said a lot to me since I’ve been back. It’s been a real treat getting reacquainted.”
“Really? That’s not like him. I mean, yeah, he’s a little uptight sometimes, but never mean.”
