Between (29 page)

“I’ll help you,” I whisper.

At least, I’ll try. Is Whalen redeemable? It seems impossible, but how can I make that call right now?

Keiran lifts his head from my shoulder and steps back to look at me. The hope in his eyes brings tears to mine. “I know the Fellowship thinks he has to die,” he says quietly. “I just hope I can figure out another way.”

I nod. I don’t want to crush the hope that he holds so tightly, but this is Whalen we’re talking about. I believe in Keiran’s intentions. I believe in his inherent morality. But Whalen? After everything he’s done, I’m not sure there’s a chance for the happy ending Keiran wants. “If there’s a way to save all of them, my family and yours, then I’ll help you do it.”

“Thank you.” He smiles at me, and I smile back.

I take a few steps back and give him some space to collect himself. He looks toward the pond for several minutes, so long that I start to feel like I’m intruding on his grief.

“Okay,” he says. “Where were we?”

“You were saying how fire was dumb and I probably didn’t need to mess with it,” I quip.

Keiran rolls his eyes and puts on his teacher voice. “Like I said, fire’s different because you’re basically calling on the energy that’s already been absorbed by everything around you. Including yourself. So there’s no waiting for it to show up or pour into you. Fire is there, all the time.” He produces a ball of fire in his hands again. “So instead of focusing outward, you bring your attention inside. Give it a try.”

I drop my chin and stare down at my body.

Bring my attention inside.

I lift my hands by my side and wait, focusing.

Focus. Focus. Focus
.

I wiggle my fingers in the air.

Focus. Focus. Focus
.

“Imagine it pulling out of you, coming from within,” he says.

Coming from within.

Focus. Focus. Focus
.

I feel absolutely nothing. I drop my hands. “This is dumb.”

He laughs. “You’re not going to get everything on the first try, Freckles. Let’s try a different angle. With the other elements, you’re basically asking them to do something and they oblige. So let’s try talking to the sun.” He produces yet another fireball and yawns. “Maybe the ‘focusing inward’ is too much for a muralet to handle.”

I fold my arms and tip my head toward the pond. A stream of water spouts up from the middle of it like a fountain, arching through the air and dousing the flames in Keiran’s hand.

I snort-laugh. Powers are so much more fun in the Between!

His face droops, and he wipes his hand on his shirt. “Classy,” he says, and I curtsy. “One more time. Call on the sun.”

I roll my neck around and take a deep breath. I find the sun overhead and move my focus there, calling on the waves of light streaming down through the trees. It takes several minutes, but finally I see the tree’s shadow shift as the rays of light bend toward me. I’m so surprised I lose my focus entirely, and it snaps back into place.

I nearly collapse to the ground, completely fatigued.

“You did it!” Keiran says. “Sort of!”

I hold my hand to my chest and crouch near the ground, using my other hand to balance. “I hardly did a thing, and it took this much out of me?”

“Alexander warned me that fire would be most difficult for you, but you’ll get used to it.” He helps me to my feet and slides his arm under mine. “Let’s head back. You’re not going to be able to do much for a little while anyway.”

Keiran pulls me along, cutting through the trees to a different path from the one we took here. I can’t believe how exhausted I am from barely interacting with the sun. And that’s in the Between. I can’t imagine how much more difficult it’ll be in Ellauria. Maybe I’ll just stick with air, water, and earth.

“Watch your step,” Keiran says, and I lift my foot over a lone, crooked limb lying across the path.

Wait.

He realizes it at the same time I do. Why is there a dead limb in the Between?

“That’s weird,” he says.

I nudge it with my toe, and it rolls a bit, revealing completely blackened bark on the opposite side. I gaze upward to see where the limb came from and notice the upmost branches of tree beside me are mostly bare. I step back, pulling Keiran with me. We move far enough away to get a good view of the tree and see several others in the area with the same problem. Bare branches scattered among those filled with leaves. Dead branches hanging at weird angles, caught by the others as they break away from the tree.

This is wrong.

The Between is about life. Death and desolation of any kind don’t belong here.

Suddenly the stillness of the Between seems more ominous than comforting, and I find myself waiting for something to jump out at me.

“What does it mean?” I ask.

Keiran’s eyes wander over the trees from top to bottom. “I’m not sure,” he says, “but I don’t like it.”

He pulls me back in the direction we’d come from. I can’t stop turning my head, glancing over my shoulder every few steps. Beside me, Keiran does the same. When we reach the gate, he says, “We can’t tell anyone.”

I press my lips together. “But—”

“If we tell, they’ll know we were out here. PC takes its rules very seriously. Apprentices aren’t supposed to leave Ellauria without an Aegis.” He shakes his head the whole time he talks, trying to convince me. “They’ll start keeping tabs on us, Charlie. We won’t have the freedom and privacy we need to work on your powers.”

He’s right. We can’t afford that kind of attention. Perfecting my powers is my only hope to save my family. Besides, Seth will kill me if he finds out I went to the Between, right after he destroys Keiran for taking me.

A twinge of guilt curls in my stomach. This feels so wrong. Am I letting down the Between?

“Aegises and other creatures pass through here every day,” Keiran tells me. “Someone will notice. Someone will tell. It just can’t be us.”

Someone will notice.

I feel sick.

“Come on, Charlie,” Keiran says.

I take one more sweeping glance at the Between before I follow him through the gate.

S
IXTEEN

I
rest my elbows alongside Seth’s on Mesmer’s railing as I stand beside him, watching Ellauria come to life. A whisper of fog creeps under my feet, settling somewhere between Mesmer and the ground, silhouetting the activities of the creatures below as they start their days. In a few minutes, Mesmer’s tables will be filled with Ellaurians eating everything from waffles to flowers to rocks (trolls have the strangest diets).

Seth had asked me and Keiran to meet him for breakfast this morning, and I’ve been a wreck inside ever since. He wants to discuss our training.

It’s been a week since Keiran and I slipped into the Between. I don’t think Seth knows. How could he? Besides, he’s not the type to wait it out. He’d have jumped all over me as soon as he found out.

Still, my stomach flips over and over while I wait.

I cup my hands around my warm mug—breakfast tea was a strange surprise this morning, but as usual, the mug knew what I needed before I did.

Seth takes a sip of his water. “You seem to be getting more and more stressed out every day.”

I knew this was coming. Of course Seth noticed. I lower my mug and stare at my reflection in the clear amber liquid.

“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable talking to me,” he says. “About anything.”

I grip my mug tighter. Does he already know? Maybe he just wants to hear it from me? How much does he know?

“Seth, I—”

“I just miss you,” he says. “I miss us. I don’t like that you’re always on edge around me because of PC’s rule about us.”

Right. The romance thing. I blow out a breath, long and slow. All of my unease can easily be chalked up to that. I drum my fingers against the mug. That was close.

“Mornin’,” Lulu sings, fluttering up from the ground. “You still planning on using the Hollow today?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Seth replies, as Lulu drops over the edge of the railing and heads for the counter.

“The Hollow?” I ask.

“Yeah.” Seth stands up and turns, leaning his back against the rail. “That’s why I asked you guys to meet me this morning. Keiran says you’ve got a pretty good handle on the elements. I’d like to see how you work under pressure. I’m going to run the two of you through some mock battles. Pixies are the only ones who can let us in and out of the Hollow. Lulu thinks I’m giving you a tour.”

“Sounds good.” I finish my tea. This should be fun. I’m growing more comfortable with my powers every day, but it’s still hard to imagine how they’ll be all that useful if I’m in trouble.

“So, you and I are okay?” Seth asks. His eyes have lost all of their certainty.

I smile at him. We’re as good as we’re ever going to be. “Yes. We are.”

I’m not familiar with this uncertain side of him, but I think I could get used to it. As much as I’ve grown to appreciate his self-assurance here, it’s nice to see him a little more vulnerable.

I want to touch him, but I know I can’t.

One side of his mouth lifts and he nods toward Mesmer’s stairs. Keiran’s there, his hair crazier than normal and his eyes only half-open. “Good morning, sunshine!” Seth calls.

Keiran snarls in response. He picks up a bag from the counter and meets Seth and me by the railing. The bag crinkles as he unrolls it and holds the open end near my nose. It smells like powdered sugar and calories.

“Donuts,” Keiran says with a grin, and I giggle.

“Everybody ready?” Lulu asks.

Keiran, Seth, and I follow her down the stairs and through the Clearing, past the dark forest, and around the lake, still shielded by the cover the fairies put in place after the attack.

We take an empty path lined with flowering dogwood trees, their blooms dipped in the palest pink. The air turns cooler, and a rectangular body of water stretches across the ground ahead. Everything around the water is flat, but there’s a reflection of a large rock shimmering in the tiny ripples of the surface. I stare from the water to the place where the rock should be, but there’s nothing.

I study the rock in the reflection. It has four arched openings, each with a tree etched above it. On the far left, the tree is bare. The next is covered in bright green leaves, then dark green leaves, and finally, orange leaves.

“Welcome to the Hollow,” Lulu says. She flutters above the water, trailing her toe and sending wrinkles across the reflection. She dips her foot even deeper, then kicks the water forward. The droplets shoot into the air and take shape, draping over an invisible frame, creating the image from the water right before our eyes. In seconds, the reflection comes to life.

“Each opening represents a season. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall,” she explains, drifting across the openings. She rests her toes upon the ground. “Which one do you want to go to today?”

Seth looks to me, and I eye the trees over the openings, settling on the one with leaves of burnt orange. “Fall.”

It’s always been my favorite time of year. The colors, the clothes, and Mom’s warm apple cider. I can practically smell the strong mix of apple, cinnamon, and cloves.

We move toward the rounded opening to Fall. The entire cave is in constant motion, shifting and swelling as waves of water rush over it. It’s a strange mixture of magic and mirage. Keiran stretches his fingers into it, and graduating circles of ripples dance across the silvery surface.

“You’ve never been to the Hollow?” Lulu asks, and Keiran shakes his head. Her eyes sparkle. “You’re going to love it. I wish I could be there to watch.”

Keiran winks at her. “I wish you could too.”

Seth rolls his eyes, and I pinch him.

He chuckles, and my eyes flicker to his lips. His full, soft lips. I press my own together, imagining how soft his lips would feel against mine, and my heart jumps a bit.

He turns his head to look directly at me, eyes wide, barely hiding a smile.

Glammit. He picked up on that. I immediately turn my eyes back to the Hollow. “You’re not supposed to be tuning in,” I remind him.

“I didn’t mean to.” He sounds sorry, but the smile is still playing around his mouth.

Emotions are the worst.

Seth laughs silently before turning his eyes forward again. “Thanks for letting us in, Lulu.”

“Anytime, darlin’! Lock up when you’re done!” She blows us each a kiss, and she’s off.

Fall is a mixture of warm brown, burnt amber, and golden yellow. The ground crunches beneath my feet, and the smell of crackling leaves hangs in the crisp air. Crimson and plum chrysanthemums grow in random bursts of color scattered beneath the widespread trees. I step over a narrow stream of water flowing across the ground. The sun sinks lower and lower as we move further from the water portal until it paints a brilliant splash of red-orange through the sky, setting the horizon on fire.

It’s beautiful. I stop and stare long enough to note the shape of the clouds and the curve of the horizon. I’ll draw it from memory when I’m back in my room tonight.

There’s not a lot of wide-open space here, but we find a spot big enough for the three of us to spread out. The ground is carpeted in crunchy orange and red leaves, and I nudge them with my feet.