Blaize and the Maven: The Energetics Book 1 (12 page)

Brow creased, he went down to the kitchen. Time to address the next problem.

“I’m going to apologise to her,” he said, as he came through the door.

Tierra looked up from the sleek silver laptop she was using. “Good. I'm just working on a column about spring plantings for next week's newspaper, but I'll be done in about twenty minutes. Ask her to breakfast, but don’t push it. She might want some time alone.”

She cocked her head as she examined him, then jumped up and went over to where more muffins were cooling on the side. “Take her a muffin. A peace offering. Oh, and Cuinn?”

He nodded, waiting.

"Smile."

He rolled his eyes and went out the back door, walking over to Blaize’s cottage. He would wait to tell her about the getting-to-know-you week when Tierra was there to chaperone them. He and Blaize seemed to get on a lot better when Tierra was there.

He knocked on the door of the cottage. No answer. He stepped back and looked through the downstairs windows. No one.

He tried the door, but it was locked. He went round the back. That door was also locked, and pressing his face to the glass of the back window didn’t show him any signs of life there either. The cottage was dark and empty.

He pushed a hand through his hair. Surely she couldn’t have gone home already? Left under her own steam?

Or was the head injury worse than it seemed—was she wandering outside, hurt or in pain? The memory of his dreamwalk, still fresh in his mind, came back to him, and he ran back to the house.
 

“She’s gone,” he panted.

“What do you mean?” Tierra raised an eyebrow as she looked at him.

“She’s not in her cottage. I’m worried. Can you track her?”

Tierra nodded, and closed her eyes. He felt the ripple of her earth energy as she connected to the grounds.

After what seemed like forever, Tierra spoke. “She’s in the woods. She’s using Manipura energy.”

“What? Why’s she doing that?” He didn’t wait for an answer, but pelted out of the door into the forest. His heart beat erratically, and his stomach churned. What if she was in trouble? What if the woman in the dreamwalk had been Blaize, now?

The run to the woods took forever, and images played out in his mind as he pounded through the trees. He saw Blaize as she’d looked yesterday, pale-faced and crumpled at the bottom of the stairs. He imagined her now, lying on the floor of the woods, injured and signalling to them with her Manipura energy, trying to get their attention.

How long has she been out here?

***

Blaize missed using her fire energy. She'd woken very early, her body still not adjusted to the new time zone. She had first used the opportunity to place a video call to Nixie in Thailand, for whom it was late in the day. They caught up about Fai and Marius, and then Nixie asked about Cuinn.

"What's he like?"
 

"He pushed me down the stairs." At Nixie's horrified look, Blaize relented and told her the whole story.

"Hmm. Doesn't sound very promising." Nixie frowned. "What do you think of him?"

Blaize shrugged. "He's annoying."

"Does he have any redeeming features?"

Blaize thought for a moment. "He has a nice enough voice."

"And?" Nixie pressed.

"And he does seem to be dealing with a lot.” Blaize hesitated. She wasn’t sure if the prophecies were common knowledge. She guessed not. “He’s working on a project for the Ajna Guild, which seems important.”

“What kind of person is he?” Nixie was more interested in the person than the project.

“Arrogant. Proud. Works hard.”

Nixie smiled and raised her eyebrows. “Huh. Do we know anyone else like that?”

Blaize scowled. “He’s also conflicted. One minute he doesn’t want me to work with him, the next minute he does.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to help. And I want to learn about Ajna from an expert, which he does seem to be. But I hate the idea that I’m not wanted.” She looked away from Nixie’s picture as she said this last. It burned to admit it.
 

“He’ll soon see you for who you are,” Nixie said firmly.

“Who’s that then?” said Blaize, amused.

“A confident, competent energetic who’s going to learn fast and be of help in no time.”

Blaize shook her head and laughed, and turned the talk to other things.

The conversation lasted another thirty minutes, and refreshed, Blaize went outside in the cool Canadian morning. She walked into the dense and damp woods, and played with a fire droplet, scattering it into many tiny drops that looked like a burst of fireflies around her head.

She started working—or playing—in earnest.
 

Strings of light dipped and twisted like thread, creating a fabulous pattern, the lightest and most delicate of lacework in fire in the sky. She played like this for another hour or two, and the day gradually got brighter and her creations more complex. She experimented both with power and delicacy. She revelled in playing with the energy in a way she hadn’t done for years. For the last few years, it had been all about work, work, work as she practised for the Manipura trial.
 

She tried to hold a creation that involved several different aspects, a tableau of her Aunt, Uncle, and Nixie.

“What are you doing?” a male voice asked from behind her.

The voice startled her, and her creations wavered and disappeared as she turned in his direction. She groaned. It was Cuinn.

“I wanted to connect with fire again after my accident yesterday.” She kept her tone level.

Something flashed across Cuinn’s face and he scowled. “Anyone could have seen you.”

“Anyone who, exactly? You live in the middle of nowhere. There’s no one for miles.” Blaize put her hands on her hips.

“You should have left a note to tell us you’d be outside.”

“Why? Are you my keeper? I thought I’d be back before you were up.” She flicked a glance at her watch and looked away from his glare. It was much later than she’d meant to be out. But she wasn’t going to apologise to this idiot.

She passed by Cuinn as she walked towards the house. He caught her arm and turned her none too gently to face him.

I don’t think so.

She travelled with the movement, deftly ducking under his arm and breaking his hold. She grabbed his arm and put it in a lock, forcing him to his knees.

“Don’t touch me like that again.” She looked at him flatly.

He stared up at her, eyes wide, but said nothing.

She released the lock on his arm with a little push and stalked back to her cottage.

***

Cuinn stayed on his knees in shock while moisture seeped into his pants.

When he’d come close enough to Blaize to see her playing games, he'd lost it. He’d been worried she had been using her energy to call for help, and instead, she’d been messing about like a child.

He hadn’t meant to reach for her like that, but he’d just wanted her to stay in one place so he could tell her off. The feeling of relief he’d felt on seeing her had made him want to touch her, a feeling he'd shaken off even as he had made contact.

And then suddenly, he had been on his knees, and all the light and laughter had left her face, revealing the fire Warrior she was. He’d forgotten the physical training that went into Manipura, the many hours of martial arts practice. He’d forgotten that Manipura energetics were often—to the extent any were ever needed—the ‘soldiers’ of their race, the enforcers, those who captured Rogues and returned them to the Healers for rehabilitation.

And on his knees, he had looked up and into her cold eyes, eyes that so far he’d only seen run hot. This blank face, empty of emotion but with a terrible strength behind it, had been disturbing in the extreme.
 

He wanted to run after her and apologise, and felt confused about the emotions she’d stirred in him. The muffin he’d brought as a peace offering lay in the dirt next to him.
 

It had been many years since he’d encountered physical violence. As a dominant Ajna, he solved his problems with words, with logic, with argument.

Not violence. Never violence.

His mother had been far too close to the fighting in World War II because of her healing gifts. She’d been working with her sister, Adam and Tierra’s mother, also a strong Anahata, in a Polish hospital when she’d been killed. Her death—and the violence of it—had driven him and his father apart. Despite the fact he and his father shared Ajna energies, his father had refused to talk to him about it and had blamed Cuinn for supporting his mother’s decision to help in the war. Of course, when Cuinn had supported her, he hadn’t really understood what it might mean.
 

He blamed himself too.
 

He walked to the house and into the kitchen to see Tierra. She sat at the table drinking a cup of tea. When she saw him, she raised an eyebrow. “What happened? And where’s Blaize?”

He looked down at himself, mud and grass stains on the knees of his stone-coloured pants. “She’s gone back to her cottage.”

“Why? I thought you were going to ask her to breakfast.”

“I didn’t get around to it. I was too busy getting up from the ground where she tossed me.”

“What are you talking about?”

He reluctantly explained.
 

She sighed. “Cuinn, you need to get a grip on yourself.”

“Me? I’m the one she pushed over.” But he avoided her eyes as he said it.

“You grabbed her. That’s both inappropriate and out of character. What’s going on with you? I thought you’d feel a bit more stable after a good night’s sleep, but you still seem all over the place. What happened to the new plan of getting to know her?”

“I’d say I got to know a different side of her, that’s for sure.” He shrugged.

“Of course she’d react like that. She’s a Manipura energetic. And remember what happened to her parents.”

Cuinn’s body felt heavy, and he sat down at the table with a thud. Tierra shook her head and poured him a cup of tea.
 

“Do you think that me grabbing her reminded her of her parents?” he asked, the weariness seeping deep into his bones.

“There’s a chance. Plus, she only came out of her training a month ago. There’s a lot of fire there. And you say she was playing with her element when you went out? If she was deep in fire, then it’s no wonder it turned to anger when you touched her—you were lucky she had such strong self-control.”

When any energetic used their element, the qualities of that energy were likely to be more potent within them. Manipura was dominant, proud, and controlling. There was a reason why Manipura was the energy of the Warriors of the energetics race. He rubbed the heel of his hand on the table, using the smooth wood to ground himself. He was reasonably sure he could have controlled her if she’d attacked him. Assuming he’d been conscious. Mentally, she was no match for him. Physically, he was no match for her.

“I have to apologise again, don’t I?” Cuinn kept his gaze on the table, misery in his voice.

“Yes. But this time I’ll facilitate it. She’ll never trust you if you behave like this. Cuinn, words are your gift. I’m not sure why this situation is making you lose your balance like this, but you’ve got to focus. Maybe you should go up to your room and meditate for a while? Find your centre? I’ll talk to Blaize. Come back down for lunch and be prepared to grovel.”
 

He grimaced. “I told you all I couldn’t be a Maven again. Looks as if I was right.”

“Don’t be silly.” Tierra’s voice was brisk. “You just need to get over these initial … bumps in the road, and you’ll be fine.”

“Bumps? They feel like mountains to me.”

When Cuinn came back down to the kitchen a few hours later, he felt refreshed and considerably calmer.

Tierra and Blaize sat at the table, Blaize leaning her head in her hands and Tierra with a hand placed comfortingly on the other woman’s shoulder.
 

Cuinn winced.
 

The two women looked up at him as he stood in the doorframe. There was a moment of silence and then Tierra twitched an encouraging eyebrow.
 

“Hi.” Cuinn, for all his power with language, was feeling a bit lost. This was a different type of woman than he’d been used to—more volatile than the steady and peaceable Tierra. There had been no fire in either his own parents or Adam and Tierra’s parents, so it was an element he wasn’t used to. Perhaps he could appeal to her underdeveloped Ajna instead.

“Blaize, I apologise for my behaviour.” His tone was formal, clipped.

Her eyes were a bright, hard jade and he had to steel himself not to flinch under their stare. He had no desire to end up on the floor again. But, he reminded himself, she was both fire and mind. He needed to engage with the latter.

"Let me give you some background." He talked her through his most recent prophecy image, and why he’d reacted as he had. With Tierra's encouragement, he managed a reasonably eloquent apology. The fire in Blaize's eyes dimmed.

He offered her the opportunity to get to know him outside the Maven-Adherent relationship, and showed her the itinerary he’d put together. A very logical itinerary.