Edge of Pathos (The Conjurors Series Book 4) (29 page)

“If he does, he’s
going to have a bigger fight on his hands than he thought he would,” Thai said.

A little of Henry
and Thai’s hope rubbed off on Valerie. “And we’re only getting started.”

Skye had moved the
soldiers of the Fist who remained on the Globe to the foothills of Dunsinane.
It was strange to visit the barren purple mountains that she associated with
Reaper and find her own people.

The camp was unlike
any that Valerie had seen on Earth. There were houseplants that grew into
luxurious beds, and the aromas of food cooking smelled like what you’d find in
a fancy restaurant instead of the stew you might expect when roughing it
outside.

There were even some
solid buildings that had popped up, courtesy of the Architecture Guild. They
were simple, but elegant, with lots of light.

The organized bustle
of the camp slowed when she approached. Soldiers paused to shake her hand or
stare at her. It didn’t make her uncomfortable anymore. These people were her
extended family, and they’d all die for each other.

Skye trotted out of
one of the buildings, and under his stern glare, Conjurors returned to their
activities.

“We weren’t
expecting you today.”

“I’m here to talk to
Juniper, but you should listen, too,” Valerie said.

Skye nodded in the
direction of a group of soldiers practicing blocks with their weapons. Juniper
was among them, correcting stances and giving instructions. He didn’t hide the
stump where his hand had been, or wear any kind of prosthesis. Valerie couldn’t
help staring at the physical reminder of the toll this war was taking on them
all.

But Juniper was
entirely at ease with himself and his role. “Remember that the light in your
weapon is the only thing that keeps the Fractus’s black weapons from absorbing
your magic. Keep your weapon in front of you, blazing, at all times.”

“What if those black-eyed
Fractus are around? Our weapons are useless then,” said a woman who was no
taller than Valerie’s waist and had a pair of wings sprouting from her back.

“Wyld is right,”
Juniper said to the group. “Not all of the Fist’s weapons are imbued with the
new magic that protects you from the darkness. But more of these weapons arrive
every day, so call out the code word, and someone will come to help you. We
don’t send any team into battle without at least a few of the new light
weapons.”

Juniper saw Valerie and
gave her a nod.

“Continue sparring
with each other until the lunch bell,” he said before walking over to join her.

“Let’s talk inside,”
Skye said, and the three went into one of the buildings.

Inside, it was a
workshop of some kind, and it was empty.

Skye noticed Valerie
scanning the room. “The lightweavers from the People of the Woods work here,
creating more powerful weapons. Cyrus himself visits regularly to oversee their
progress. But it will be months before we have all the weapons we need.”

“We won’t have that
long before our next key battle,” Valerie said.

She explained what
she’d learned about binding magic on Earth, and how Reaper would try to use the
magic from the flame for his own ends.

“Before that
happens, we need to attack, on Earth and the Globe. I’m hoping that by
challenging Reaper here, it will divert some of the Fractus from Earth and
minimize human casualties.”

“We’ll have our
soldiers as ready as they can be when it’s time to fight Reaper,” Skye said.
“We all yearn to take back Arden. Living in our enemy’s abandoned home is a
blasphemy.”

Valerie turned to
Juniper. “That’s not the only reason I’m here.”

Her friend cocked
his head. “What? You’re looking at me like you’re about to throw me into a
volcano, and you feel really bad about it.”

He’d been joking,
but he wasn’t far from the truth.

“Putting the rules
limiting magic on Earth back in place requires a Conjuror with the ability to
bind magic,” Valerie said.

Juniper was shaking
his head, and he took a step backward. “You can’t mean me.”

“You’re the only
Conjuror I know with that power. Is there anyone else?”

“My brothers…but
they’re all younger than me. We inherited our power from my mom, but her powers
were much weaker.”

Skye pawed at the
ground. “It is an unusual power. And, like your mother, most with binding magic
have only a weak manifestation of it.”

Juniper sat down on
a stool, his gaze faraway. “I don’t know if this is terrifying or amazing.”

Valerie watched him
closely. “Maybe it’s both.”

“When I became a Knight,
I wanted to be a hero. But even then, I never dreamed I’d be doing something
this big. I’m not even sure I know how.”

“I’m hoping the
People of the Woods can help you. They’re creating the object that will contain
the spell when it’s time,” Valerie said.

Skye flicked his
tail. “I do not doubt that Juniper can do this. But is it the best solution? An
object that binds magic on Earth has failed us once. What if Reaper destroys it
again?”

“It’s the only idea
we have for now, but I share your worry. I want more for Earth and the Globe
than for things to go back to the way they were,” Valerie said.

Skye nodded. “We all
do.”

“For now, I’m glad
we have you, Juniper. Are you up for saving the universe?”

Juniper
grinned, which was her goal, but he was tapping the fingers of his good hand
against the table with nervous energy. “I’m in.”

Valerie was walking
through the cities in the trees when she was hit by a wave of joy from Henry.
She had a brief flash of Kanti’s shining face before Henry leaned in and started
kissing her like the sun would stop shining if he didn’t.

“Oh, ew. Please
block me, Henry,” she said. “Not that I’m not happy for you and all.”

There was another
flash of Henry’s happiness, and an echo of his laughter, before he shut her out
of his mind and she didn’t have to listen to any more wandering thoughts about
how good Kanti’s dress looked on her.

Despite not wanting
a front-row seat to their reunion, a pang of deep joy filled her at the thought
that Henry and Kanti had finally made up. It was sweet to revel in an emotion
other than pain or grief or guilt, and it also made her think of Thai.

Was she really
pushing him away because her mind was fraying, or did she think she didn’t
deserve the bliss that would come from being with him? She didn’t know, but she
decided to be selfish for once, and give into the urge that lived inside of her
at all times.

That was when she
started running, and she knew that the magic that had been all but stripped
from her was returning. She didn’t stop until she made it home and found Thai
in the garden with Emin, carefully planting seeds in the soft dirt.

“Cara is going to
show me her power today,” Emin said to Thai. “Do you think she’ll let me borrow
it?”

Thai laughed. “If
she can, buddy, I’m sure she will.”

Emin turned and gave
Valerie a hug before going back inside. Thai turned to her, and his eyes were
expectant.

“I’ve been waiting
for you to come home,” he said, and she couldn’t help sensing that his words
held two meanings.

“I’m sorry. I’m
sorry I gave up, sorry I didn’t help you through your grief like you helped me,
sorry—”

Thai interrupted her
by pulling her into his arms.

“Me, too.”

“For what?”

“For forgetting that
you’re more than a hero, you’re a person. One I love,” he whispered into her
hair.

“I’m going to face
Reaper again and again until I defeat him or he kills me. Even if I survive, I
think I won’t be in charge of my mind for long. But right now, I want to
pretend none of those problems exist.”

“Okay.
Then there’s somewhere I want to take you.”

Valerie’s first
official date with Thai was different from any other first date in the
universe. He went to his room and pulled out a stone.

“Since travel
between the worlds has been possible, I’ve taken walks in places on Earth I never
thought I’d see, places that are remote or beautiful or famous. And every
single time, all I could think about was how much I wished you were with me.”

Valerie’s heart
thumped as he moved closer to her, standing so her head was level with his
heart.

“But there was one
spot I swore you had to see. Neither of us is allowed to die before going there
together. Let me take you now.”

Valerie nodded,
wordless, and Thai gripped her hand and held it to his heart. The world melted
around them, morphing into the ruins of a once-great castle. Grass had grown in
between the stones. Valerie’s gaze swept past the ruins. They were on a cliff,
and there was a dramatic view of a raging blue-green ocean.

But it wasn’t the
beauty of the site that struck her most. It was the hum of ancient power that
was threaded through the land, through the stones of the ruined castle, and
even poured from the stormy sea. Breathing it in was intoxicating. Her own
magic surged in response.

The wind whipped
Valerie’s hair out of its braid as she tilted her head back to breathe in the
power of the place. “It’s out of a fairy tale.”

Thai’s face was
alight with mischief. “You’re right. It’s Tintagel Castle, where King Arthur
was rumored to have been born.”

The legend of King
Arthur was one that Valerie had held close to her heart since she was a child,
and ever since she’d discovered that her mother had left her a copy of the
story, it had become even more tightly knit in her heart. Only Thai would think
of bringing her here, and she let the magic and meaning of the place settle
into her bones.

Valerie sucked in a
breath, and the hum of power from the land around them synchronized with the
hum of her own magic. She turned to look at Thai, half-drunk with the
sensation, and he put his hand behind her neck and pulled her to him. Then his
lips were on her neck, her cheeks, her eyelids, and finally her mouth.

He kissed her with
all of the pent up passion of two and a half years apart. Every nerve ending in
her body responded. Thai pressed her back against a tree, and she raked her
fingers through his hair like she’d been aching to.

For once, her
conscience was mute. Just this once, she’d let herself be with Thai. She’d face
all the reasons why she couldn’t be with him tomorrow. She wanted every part of
them to be intertwined, and his magic responded to her wish, leaping to flow
into her, amplifying her own until she was almost dizzy. Or maybe it was his
kisses that were doing that.

When Thai pulled
back, his eyes were dark and shining and beautiful. “When you kiss me like
that, I swear I see a world remade.”

“When
you kiss me, I can almost see it myself.”

Valerie woke the
next morning, her body humming with something other than magic. Something
better, she decided. She had never been more awake, more ready for what was
coming.

She had to do
something with the energy that was bursting from her, so she tied her shoes and
quietly slipped out the window, so that Mr. and Mrs. Burns wouldn’t catch her
coming from Thai’s room.

Then she ran,
letting her magic power her legs. Trees sped by in a raucous gold blur. She had
reached the Lake of Knowledge when Henry invited her into his mind.

She tucked herself
into a nook of one of the trees nearby and concentrated on her brother. He was
on a training field in Elsinore with Kanti, who gripped his hand in hers.

Henry’s mind skipped
between excitement and terror as a Conjuror approached him. She was tall and
thin, and her body was tense, wary.

The woman’s eyes
flicked to Kanti. “You said he would help me find my magic, but I’ve heard that
sometimes his gifts end up being more trouble than they’re worth.”

“You can trust
Henry, Gertrude,” Kanti said.

Henry took a breath.
“I know you mean people like Blake, who I gave the power of invisibility.”

Gertrude nodded. “He
was invisible, but breakable. Even now that he has expunged that power from his
system, his bones creak in wet weather.”

“Reaper made me give
specific powers to his soldiers, forcing them all into the same molds. When it
ran contrary to the natural direction of that person’s magic, the power
weakened, or became fractured. I won’t force your magic to do anything it
doesn’t want to.”

The lines in
Gertrude’s forehead eased at Henry’s words. “I weary of being at the heel of
those whose magic is more evolved. I want to protect myself and my family.”

“And your country,”
Kanti added.

Gertrude raised an
eyebrow. “If I must. It is not a cheap price to pay, risking my life, but I
will do it for the chance that my spark of magic will become a flame.”

Henry placed his
hands on Gertrude’s shoulders. He bent forward, touching his forehead to hers.
It was an intimate stance, but Henry’s discomfort quickly dissolved as he
reached for his power.

Until now, Valerie had
never thought much about her brother’s power to gift others with magic. It was
a part of his mind that was always cordoned off, untouchable. When Henry opened
the door that unleashed his power, it was as unstoppable as when her vivicus
power raged through her, but somehow more delicate.