Reflection Pond (10 page)

She’d tried hoping and praying and willing herself home.

No such luck. They were half-hearted attempts, anyway. Now that she had Sapphire, she wasn’t sure she wanted to give her up. At least she hadn’t run into Elm again.

Ash made a rude noise.
“With your
mind.”

Standing, Callie stared at him until she felt her face fall into a frown.
“My mind?” She hadn’t known what to expect when Ash had given her the choice between school and training, and now that it was happening, she
still
wasn’t sure.

Everything around her seemed routine. The sun rose in the morning. The fae had chores and work. They hardly glanced in Callie’s direction, but she couldn’t help feeling out of place.

“You know, telekinesis? With your mind.”

“You’re joking.” She searched Ash’s face, waiting for the punch line.

“Not joking.” Ash picked up the rock, held it in his flattened palm. “Our powers vary. Some can move objects, control minds, heal, others can influence the elements, water, fire, and so on. Just like the different powers, the strength varies, as well.” He lifted the stone to eye level. “So we test until we figure out what you can do.”

Callie felt ridiculous. “I can’t move the rock.” She’d played sleepover games just like most teenagers, light as feather, stiff as a board, trying to lift a person with just her fingertips. It’d never worked.

“You can’t if you don’t try,” he said, but he returned to the cabinet and put the rock inside. He took a small ball of paper from his pocket and dropped it where the rock had sat. “Light this on fire.”

Callie threw up her arms. “This is stupid. I don’t have magical powers. I know you people think that I belong here or whatever, but I’m not a faerie.”

Ash smiled, his eyes going to the paper. A few seconds passed and the little ball burst into green flames. Callie made a sound between a squeal and a gag and covered her mouth.

“How?” she said between her fingers as the ball disintegrated black ash.

“I control fire.” He found another little piece of paper in his pocket. “Your turn.” When Callie didn’t move, Ash put his hands on her arms; the energy tingled into her shoulders. “What are you so afraid of? That it won’t work…or that it
will?”

Callie stepped away from Ash, staring hard at the paper.
Could she?
Controlling fire seemed a lot better than whatever brain-exploding thing had happened to Elm. “What do I do?”

“Clear your mind,” Ash said. “Focus on nothing but the paper. Visualize it catching fire.”

She took a breath, crouching. She memorized the crumpled paper, how one side was bigger than the other, where the edges curled back. She brought up a passable vision of the paper burning in her mind, but nothing happened. Callie tried and tried, circling the paper as though another angle might work. She focused so hard that her eyes went cross and a headache formed at the bridge of her nose, but the paper did not light.

***

Rowan slid silently into Callie’s training session. With both of their backs to him, neither Ash nor Callie heard him approach. He’d just had a meeting with Hazel about the prophetess’s murder. He’d been nearly sick with the thought of being caught in a lie, but Hazel had already pinned the prophetess’s murder on someone else. She hardly seemed to care if Callie had been there at all. She’d dismissed him after asking only a few questions.

He couldn’t believe his luck.

Callie sat back on her heels, frustration evident in the tightness of her shoulders. “I can’t,” she said. She pushed to her feet, lifted a foot and crushed the paper.

“Ah, the old fire trick,”
Rowan said. “Maybe I can help.”

They whirled.

“There’s nothing to help,” Callie muttered.

“You’re just giving up too easily,” he said.

It’d started raining and Rowan’s tunic hadn’t done much to stave off the chill. When he reached for Callie’s hand, their energy collided like molten lava, leaving him breathless. He tried not to show it.

Ash leaned against the wall, watching them with crossed arms. Usually, Rowan read Ash’s face easily, but his friend’s expression was impassive. Rowan could guess how the other boy felt, though, probably the same way Rowan felt whenever he saw Callie with Ash. He tried to convince himself he didn’t care if Callie was interested in Ash, but he couldn’t lie, not even to himself.

Rowan released Callie and picked up the paper, holding it in his flattened palm. “Look at me,” he said, focusing on her eyes. They were blue, bright and honest, with a dark rim of green in the center. His throat tightened. “Don’t blink.” He couldn’t help his smile as her eyes widened. “Follow my breathing.”

From the edge of his vision, he saw Callie swallow. Her breathing slowed, eventually matching his. The cave around them disappeared. Rowan saw nothing but Callie, her eyes, her cheekbones, the way her hair fluttered with his breaths. She smelled of chamomile and lilacs, the scent mixed with the rain that clung to him, and he decided he liked the combination very much.

“Clear every thought except for the paper.”

Callie’s eyes flickered downward.

“Look at me,” he whispered. Rowan waited until he felt their connection again. Even though they weren’t touching, he could taste Callie’s energy, feel it thrum in the air around him. She was powerful, he knew, but he suspected much
more
powerful than anyone realized. “See the fire,” he continued, voice hardly a whisper, “feel it on your face. Taste the smoke.”

Heat consumed him, smoky, heavy with energy. The scent of it burned the back of his tongue.

“Rowan,” Ash yelped. “You’re on fire!”

Rowan looked down. The paper had long since burned to fragile ash. The flames, hungry for fodder hand traveled up his arm, consuming the sleeve of his tunic. Callie launched herself at him, slapping at the flames and taking both of them to the floor. She continued to batter him until the flames died.

Then, as though for comic relief, a cool splash of water doused them.

“What was that?” Callie said with a shaky breath. She held up her palms, red and raw, and stared at them in wonder.

Rowan felt everything around him go still as the scent of Callie’s blood and scorched flesh filled his nose. “Let me see.”

“Your arm,” Callie said with a squeak instead. Her hands were on him, gently peeling away the singed remains of his tunic.

“I’m fine.” Rowan’s heart pounded hard in his temples.

Ash knelt next to them, watching with a mix of horror and amazement, his knees dark with water and mud. “It’s bad.”

Rowan tugged his hand from Callie’s grasp. “Let me see your hands.”

She frowned, but obeyed, holding out her hands for his inspection.

“Do you know what you just did?” Ash asked, excited.

“I burned Rowan.” She flinched at her admission.

“Forget it. I’m fine,” Rowan said.

“You summoned fire,” Ash said.

She finally looked at Ash, her mouth rounded with surprise. “I did?”

“And you summoned water to put it out.”

Rowan used her moment of distraction to start healing her wounds.

“But your arm,” she murmured.

“Shh,” Rowan said, not breaking concentration. He saw the fire—how it burned her hands, and then he watched Hazel slice Callie’s palm open and complete a binding spell. The knowledge surprised him so much that he almost dropped her hands. What did Hazel want from Callie? It wasn’t typical for the fae to put restrictions on the members of the city. He knew she was a risk because of her age, but that didn’t mean she deserved to be stuck, either. Then he went higher, easing the pain in her throat from Elm’s hands.

Rowan had to swallow down rage. He wa
nted to kill Elm after witnessing the entire scene in his mind.

“Thanks,” Callie said, standing. Her hands trembled. She reached for Rowan but he pulled away. “Can’t you heal yourself?”

“Not exactly, but I’ll find someone who can. You should keep practicing.” He backed out of the training room before Callie could protest further. His hand felt as if he’d held it in a bucket of acid, but he’d had worse. He’d lain under a blanket of blood and watched his life flicker. In a moment of weakness, he’d allowed himself to take energy.

Rowan gritted his teeth against the pain.
This
he could handle.

He found Cypress at Sapphire’s cabin and waited patiently while she healed his hand.

“Callie did this?” Cypress asked. Sapphire stood over them, watching Rowan’s flesh turn from mottled red to pink.

Rowan nodded. “Then she summoned water. Do you know how strong she is? Having two powers is rare.” He played dumb, wanting to see how much Sapphire would tell him.

Sapphire frowned and poked at Rowan’s healed skin. “She has three. Hazel said Callie gave Elm a brain hemorrhage. He had to be healed or he would’ve died.”

“That would’ve been a great loss,” Rowan said with a snort, pulling at the singed sleeve of his tunic. It ended just below his elbow in shredded ruin.

Elm reminded Rowan of his foster father. Too angry, too power hungry. They’d never gotten along.

Sapphire moved to the kitchen and dropped into a wooden chair at the table. “I just can’t figure it out. There are all these flashes, but it’s
like I’m seeing them through pond water. Everything is dark and muted, and when I see people, I’m not sure who they are.” She buried her face in her hands. “It’s so frustrating.”

Rowan and Cypress followed Sapphire into the kitchen. Cypress sat while Rowan leaned against the table. “Did she tell you about the binding spell?” he asked. Sapphire looked up sharply. “I healed her after she tried to burn my hand off. Hazel bound her to the city.”

Sapphire rubbed the space between her eyes, grimacing. “I’m expected to serve Hazel as prophetess when I don’t even
trust
her.”

Cypress covered Sapphire’s hand. “This has been a long time coming.”

Rowan scanned the two women. Blond hair, endless blue eyes, they both looked like Callie. “Is someone going to tell me what’s going on?”

“Before Callie came home, I had this vision. Initially I dismissed it because it was so impossible, but now that she’s here—I can’t ignore it. How familiar are you with
Fraeburdh?”
Sapphire asked.

“It’s the City of W
ar. Led by King Arol.”

“And do you know what Arol’s power is?”

“It’s not in the books—”

“Arol’s abilities are unique in that he technically has none of his own, but he can absorb the power of anyone he touches. It’s a close quarter kind of thing, which is why he surrounds himself with trained warriors and doesn’t venture outside on his own city. He waits for the fae to come to him.” Sapphire bit her lip and looked up at Rowan. “I saw Callie with him.”

“And with her growing power, she’d be an asset to Arol,” Cypress said.

“So that’s why Hazel bound Callie to the city?
To prevent
Fraeburdh
from getting her?” Rowan asked, trying to put all the pieces together.

Sapphire shook her head and leaned back in her chair. She looked tired. “No. I think Hazel wants to use Callie for herself, as a weapon. Hazel’s been lying in wait for the day she had someone
strong enough to take on Arol. It’s a double-edged sword. We have to keep Callie from Arol, and the best place to do that is here, where he can’t break through the wards. But how do we keep Hazel from using Callie? As prophetess, I’ll have some pull, but Hazel will control me completely.”

“We should tell her,” Rowan suggested. If someone wanted to use him as a weapon, he’d sure like someone to let him in on the secret.

“And scare her away? Callie already doesn’t trust us, and who can blame her? She woke up next to a dead woman she doesn’t remember meeting,” Sapphire said. “And that’s the other thing. The prophetess’s murder was a warning. She told me of the prophecy long ago. Her death will precede the fall of
Eirensae
and coincide with the return of the one who can save it.”

Rowan went cold all over. “Callie,” Rowan said, feeling his throat close around her name.

“Callie,” Sapphire agreed.

CHAPTER FIVE

Callie lay awake, listening to the quiet sounds of Sapphire sleeping in the next bed and the incessant rain pounding against the roof. She’d started to figure things out, not that the knowledge made her feel any saner.

Sapphire saw the future. Sometimes just flashes, other times, she had long, detailed visions that she used to guide her decisions. Ash controlled fire. He could make anything burn, no matter what it was. Rowan was a healer, as was Cypress, a woman who reminded Callie a lot of Sapphire. Willow, Ash’s sister,
was gifted with art. She could create music, paintings, words. If it was creative, she could do it. Hazel had the ability to cloud and influence minds to her will.

There were other powers, too.
Controlling the weather, the ability to read minds. So far, Callie had three powers. Fire, water, and the thing she’d done to Elm. Ash told her not to worry about it, but she couldn’t stop looking at her hands as if they belonged to somebody else. He said her powers would continue to grow now that she was in
Eirensae.
He’d sounded so excited about it. Callie was less so.