"I saw you with him, dressed so extravagantly, that night he brought you to whatever is in that room," he sneered, his lip curling.
It hit me then, Aldrin hadn't known what was behind that door,whowas behind it. He was merely a recruit in training, of course he wouldn't have been the one permitted to go check on the Healer.
My laugh was cruel, eyes lifting to the sky as I let out a breath. "Think whatever you wish, Aldrin, you have no right to be jealous over what I do. I'm not going to stand around and be insulted by someone who's opinion I couldn't care less about." Turning, I took a singular step back towards Roan when a harsh grip encased my wrist, tugging me back.
My head snapped, taking in the fury that burned in those blue eyes, but before I could say even a word, the icy chill of water was snaking over my arm. It was nearly a loving caress over my skin before it wrapped around Aldrin's wrist with such force that I could hear the bones grinding beneath its pressure, a pained cry falling from his lips as he released his hold on me.
"Careful, McCay, I believe the lady said she was done speaking." My head whipped towards Roan as he spoke, his voice dark with warning, his eyes never straying from the sword he was sharpening. "I've seen how you fair on the training field, and I don't think you would do well against that dagger strapped to her thigh."
My lips parted, heart skipping as his words soothed the stinging ache that had been building in my chest from the conversation.
"Was I wrong?" Aldrin's voice was sharp, like talons scraping down my back, low enough that I was sure Roan couldn't hear his words. “Not the Prince’s whore then, but theKinslayer’s?"
It happened in a moment.
A stilling of the air, the temperature dropping as the dew that clung to my skin rose, a precarious thread pulled taught with tension as it hovered.
And when it snapped,goddess.It felt as if the hells themselves came for vengeance.
The moisture of air and earth converged into a blast so powerful that it knocked Aldrin from his feet. The water coalesced as it rushed over his body, travelling to his mouth and down his throat. Not stopping for even a moment as it drowned him on land, filling his airway and lungs. His eyes bulged, his hands clawing at his mouth, the skin of his throat, as he fought for a breath to no avail.
I was frozen, my feet unmoving, my lungs empty and eyes wide as I watched his writhing form on the ground at my feet, his back arching as his hands gripped at the grass beneath him. It was an extraordinary display of powerful magic.Luanthianmagic.
"Roan—”
The man stalked past me, a predator in every sense of the word, and Aldrin McCay was clearly his intended prey.
The water receded, the blond man on the ground retching up the drops that remained, his body shaking as Roan reached in one fluid movement to grasp him by the collar and haul him to his feet. He leaned in then, stooping to snarl something I could not hear into Aldrin's ear, that white knuckled grip still clutching his shirt.
And then it was over.
Roan shoved him back as he released Aldrin, and without so much as a glance in my direction, he was stumbling back the way he had come. Roan watched with a casual indifference, but I knew. Knew from the way his shoulders tensed and the clench of his jaw that he was waiting for that prick to look back, to say something again. When he turned to me, his gaze softened, his muscles relaxing and without a word he moved back to his spot on the grass, reaching for his sword and whetstone.
I didn't reach for my dagger as I watched him work, my mind trying to sort out exactly what just took place.
“So that was interesting.” I watched as his practiced hands slipped when I spoke, his throat bobbing. With a sigh I reached for my own blade. “You didn’t have to—”
"Don't." The word was a command, or perhaps a plea. His voice was soft, yet hard, all at once. Gentle yet unyielding. "I know you are capable—more than capable—but he is under my command, Syra. He knows what is acceptable and what is not," his teeth ground, his blade sliding a bit rougher than necessary against the stone. "To speak to a woman in such a manner is not something I tolerate."
Of course, he was a Captain doling out punishment to an insubordinate recruit. That was all it was.
So why did it feel like it was more than that?
My head tilted. “Howdid you even hear what he said?"
His posture relaxed as he gestured to the air around us. “There is water all around, the smallest movement, the tiniest sound causes a ripple and sings to me."
"You magic sings to you?" Instantly my thoughts went to the shadows that ran through my veins, that nestled into my soul. Was his magic as sentient as mine? Was all Luanthian magic like this?
I had always begged Merle to tell me what her magic felt like, if it spoke to her, but Merle had only ever said that her fire was like a heat within her. Never something that called out to her, but just a constant burning thing deep within the core of her that she could pull on at any moment.
"It makes the most beautiful sounds," he said, a soft smile gracing his face, his eyes going distant as if listening. “There is no voice, no words, but it's like the hum of a siren. A constant thing that soothes and caresses everything within me and I justknow, I can feel whatever it wishes for me to understand."
"That's incredible," I breathed. His eyes met mine, something swirling within them that I couldn't quite decipher before he glanced back down, his throat clearing as he continued to work.
"That's usually not the response I get when people witness my blessed magic." There was a tension in the laugh he forced out that had my smile falling, my lips instead pulling down.
Shifting, I rested my hand atop the one that held his blade so he would meet my stare once more. "To have a magic that sings to you, that soothes you, is truly amazing. Whether it be from the Sun Goddess or not, you have a beautiful gift."
