Thirty-Nine

Vali

“Chosen, are you alright?” Marek asked as he saw me storm into the manor back in Slovakia.

“No.” I answered simply, pushing past him and locking eyes with Lulia. “We need to move, now.” Maybe it was the urgency in my tone, or the fact that my eyes were flashing dangerously gold, that made everyone on edge.

“V, what’s going on?” Dallas asked after Lulia looked over to him for help, for guidance on how to respond to me.

“They are fucking…” I had to stop myself as my eyes stung. As the breath left my body and all forms of cohesive thought left my mind. “They’re torturing him, they’re trying to break the Bond. I can’t leave him there any longer.”

“Do you have the telekinesis sorted yet?” Dallas asked, and my body entirely froze up as his hand touched my shoulder.

“She does not. She needs more time, to focus her energy on it, but she’s-” Antanasia cut in for me, still extremely unhappy with my decision to leave home and come here.

“Mir doesn’t have time for me to spend hours by myself in a forest trying to work out how to use this fucking power. He needs us to go in there and get him out so they can’t…” I took a step away from Dallas, even the thought of someone else touching me right now made me want to vomit. The Bond was hanging on by a such a thinly stretched thread that I didn’t want to risk my hold on it.

“They can’t what?” Lulia asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

“They’ve got an imperium ring on him.” Anne said, and I flinched at the words.

“A what?” Dallas asked, and I backed myself against the wall. It was only with the solid thing I could touch without being absolutely terrified that the Bond could snap in two.

“A control ring,” I answered, my eyes reaching Dallas. “They’re controlling his body, forcing him to…”

“That’s why you don’t want me touching you,” Dallas said and I nodded slowly.

“They’re forcing him to sleep with Nari, they want to break the Bond and make an heir so they can kill him.” The tears fell down my cheeks as I spoke, and I tried to hold myself together. “I can’t leave him there.”

“I understand that this is less than ideal, but-”

“Less than ideal? That’s how you’re describing this?” I cut Dallas off, crossing my arms over my chest.

“V, you need to figure out this power before we go in for him. If you don’t, Traian will simply turn us to ash.” He told me like I didn’t already know. Like it wasn’t something I had already weighed up and thought about. Like it wasn’t something I was more than happy to risk as long as it meant we got Mir out of that fucking place.

“I’m fucking aware, but I can’t-”

“It would be suicide.” He cut me off, and I pushed off the wall and wiped away my tears so I could stalk towards him.

“Are you telling me what to do? Are you telling your Chosen what to do?” I asked, he raised an eyebrow at me.

“Vali, I’m not-”

“You aren’t my second anymore.” I snapped and I felt the room go cold.

“Vali, that’s enough.” Antanasia said as I backed away from Dallas, as I saw the look of fucking pity on his face. Not anger or shock or hatred, but pity. “There’s less than a week until the Blue Moon, and the vampires have been capturing wolves again along with anyone else they can get their hands on. We can start moving, but we can’t attack until you have this power ready.”

“And how do you propose I figure out the family secret that died with Nicolae?” I asked, turning my rage to her. I had to turn it to someone, because otherwise I would only be feeling anger at myself for not having this figured out yet.

“Go for a walk, by yourself and connect yourself to the world around you. Take some time, you haven’t rested since yesterday when…” when I collapsed in a heap from the pain of the mark burning me.

“Fine,” I whispered before I stormed back out of the entrance hall. My feet carried me into the forest and I immediately took my shoes off to feel the dirt between my toes. Once I was far enough from the manor I turned my head towards the blue sky, towards the tops of the trees and released the pain in my chest through a guttural scream that tore at my throat.

I heard the echo of animals running away from the sound, of birds rustling through the leaves above me to get away as I screamed until I couldn’t anymore. Until I fell on my knees and the ground shook beneath me, until the trees fell to the ground in a circle away from me. Until there was no air left in my lungs to continue.

Instead I sobbed in the small crater I had made for myself from expelling Mircea’s power. Another waste of it. Another disappointment on my part to figure out how to control it. Another failure. All I was doing was failing, and I didn’t know how to fucking fix it anymore.

I didn’t know if I could.

I cried until there were no tears left. I cried until the blue sky above me turned black and the moon illuminated the remnants of the forest around me. I tilted my head to the sky once more, towards the moon that ruled over me.

“How am I meant to control this?” I whispered to my Goddess, to Selene. She chose me for this exact purpose, but why? And how was I meant to fulfill her wishes when I kept failing?

My fingers burrowed into the soft soil around me, and I closed my eyes to feel each individual grain of dirt against my skin. Wait…

My eyes opened again as I focused myself, as I thought about each individual grain of dirt and picked up a handful. Slowly I let out a breath and pulled on Mircea’s power, lifting the ball of soil from my hand to float in front of me. I stayed focused as I took each individual grain away from that ball, until there was a single layer of granules in front of me, a perfectly flat layer.

Atoms worked the same as that ball of dirt, a bunch of smaller particles that made a bigger something. My parents were right, all I had to do was choke the fire through removing what it needed to breathe or simply combine the particles that had to be combined to make water.

The layer of dirt fell to meet the ground as I changed my attention to the air in front of me. If I could make one drop of water right now, then I could do what was needed to kill a fire. Another slow breath left my lips as I lifted my hands towards the air in front of me. I imagined the atoms separating, the particles organising themselves in front of me like I had done with the dirt. And then I pictured the oxygen and hydrogen fusing together as I felt the air around my hands turn cold. I pictured a perfect droplet of water in my hands as dew gathered on my skin, and I watched as one droplet formed in front of me.

A smile reached my lips as that drop of water floated in the air, and I let my hands fall as I stared at it.

Mir, if you’re listening… I did it.

Unfortunately I knew he likely still wasn’t strong enough to communicate back. But that was okay. I could feel the Bond hum with his excitement, weak but there.

I’m listening.