Breaker (Ondine Quartet Book 4) (60 page)

Valeil dipped his head, the gesture vulnerable.

Mortal.

“Must it be?

A terrible loneliness imbued his question. We were both the first and the last, born to a path laid out far before we were even born.

My mind touched the thread stretching from the brand on my chest and binding us together.
 

Yes
.

The word vibrated along the thread, an answer and a promise.

With a small exhale that was neither human nor animal, Valeil launched into the air, his powerful wings spreading like the sails of an enormous ship, and soared into the depths of the sky.

***

The circular stone room closed in, the wall tightening like a cool band around my blazing self.

Magic pulsed and massive waves of heat rolled around me.
 

Power built, contained within the narrow space, threatening to combust.

Time had brought me to another moment.

My body shook. I pried open the book.

The smooth blank page seized me, its greedy hunger for ink raking against my skin.

My body was no longer my own.

What drove me now was a force beyond elementals, beyond time.

It was the force of a thousand years of history, the collected voices of generations of ondines, the desires of those who’d lived and died.
 

It was the dreams of my mother, the regrets of my grandmother, the forgotten promise of every Irisavie back to the first.
 

I picked up the pen. The tip touched the empty page.

A deluge of magic ripped through.

Skin and bones incinerated to ashes; mind and emotion became nothing more than melted remains.

I disappeared.

There was only the deafening roar of inevitability and inheritance.
 

Torrents of power raged around me, marking me with the final choice I wrote on the page.
 

THIRTY-FIVE

Vibrato shifted the air, the rise and fall of Bach’s cadences weaving through the morning like colored threads.

I pulled the robe tighter around my body and padded to the french doors leading to the balcony.

Behind me, the faint rap of water echoed from Tristan’s shower.
 

I stepped out on to the balcony and shut the doors. From this position, I had a clear view across the Royal Gardens all the way down to the beach where Marcella had returned to the ocean.

The water was an azure glass topped with white skiffs, and the sun peeked over the horizon, its pale hues a hint of the day to come.

Last night, the Armicant’s old magic had burned away, leaving nothing more than a faint imprint in my soul.

Silence still bound me, but the overflow had dissipated now that I’d recorded my choice.

I closed my eyes and listened.

The faint strains of Bach drifted through the doors, the rhythm matching the hum of the air. The garden murmured and ocean sang, a melody thrumming in my blood.

Darkness smudged the edge of my senses, but I put it aside for now.

Instead, I focused on the sunrise, the way warmth cradled and caressed the air as it began its daily journey.

Rhian had lived a full life, one of extraordinary achievement. But I could still hear the echo of her voice from that final night.

Things I want to say.

It’d echoed with the same frustration I’d felt.
 

The doors opened. “Kendra.”

I turned to face him.

“I love you.”
 

The words hung fragile and suspended in the morning air.

I thought of my mother’s severe face, her ghostly visage in that abandoned hotel urging me to get up. To run. To live.
 

The sunset glowing around Chloe as she remembered her parents, the moonlight illuminating Patrice’s regret, Ancelin’s mask of stubborn pride, and Brigette’s serene certainty.

Love was as flawed and terrible and beautiful as we were.
 

To be alive meant looking for it in ourselves and in others, an imperfection searching for an impossible perfection.

Because in that journey was where truth resided.

Love wasn’t about being held. It was about being freed.

Tristan came up beside me and placed both hands on my shoulder.
 

“I —“ I forced myself to hold his gaze. “I love you. When I was in that dark hole in GrandView, all I could think about was you. Coming back to you, finding you.” I reached out and placed my palm directly above his heart. “Feeling you.”

The size and power of what I felt for him was overwhelming. Frightening.

“This is me,” I said. “I’m terrible at this, at any kind of relationship. My first instinct is to manipulate a situation instead of speaking honestly. I’m the scary ondine children run from. I’d rather punch through something than sit behind a desk and reason. I’m impatient and dislike authority. I suck at communication.”

It was the silence before a first breath, the stillness before dawn.

For the first time, I stood completely naked before him.
 

He saw everything, all the way deep down into the hidden crevices I never shared with anyone.
 

“That’s the you I’ve always wanted,” he said.

Something inside cracked.
 

“I love you,” Tristan said quietly. “I admire you. You are deep in my bones and soul like the magic that makes me who I am.” He stepped closer. “I have never wanted you to be anyone or anything other than you.”

I dipped my head, rested against his solid chest. His chin brushed the top of my head.

“They’re coming,” I murmured.

Hundreds of Aquidae. The dark power swirled and shifted, closing around us like a noose.
 

All headed straight to Haverleau.

“We’ll stop them.” His arms tightened slightly, voice laced with a cold steel that made me shiver. “Together.”

For the first time I understood why Tristan listened to Bach every night. What Julian sought in poetry and art.

I understood why Cam reached for Chloe and what Aubrey found in books and untangling flying code across a screen.

It was the same reason I looked up at the sky, searching for that elusive spot between the clouds and sea.

Losing beauty was easy.

Overlooking it, forgetting it, hardening yourself so much you could no longer be surprised or overwhelmed by it.

I pulled back, taking in the strong line of his jaw, the sharp edge of cheekbone and the skin now warm from the rising sun.
 

The trick was in holding on to it. Protecting it.

“You need to go,” I blurted out.

“What?”

“You need to leave Haverleau, Tristan.” Desperation seized me, panic flooding my veins. “Please. I want to tell you. I need to tell you that I’m —“

Pain shattered my bones, cutting off my words. I bent over and gasped as flames scorched my insides.

His hold tightened. “What are you doing? You don’t need to —“

“No.” The ache slowly subsided. I clutched his arm, willing him to understand. “You have to go. Listen to me. Elementals need you. You’re the one that needs to stay. You need to —“

“Kendra.”

Gentle hands pulled me up. He cupped my face and tilted my chin up.
 

My gaze met his and what I saw in them was worse than the pain magic had inflicted on me.

Because I saw love.

It was huge and all-encompassing, deeper than the depths of the ocean and farther than the farthest horizon.

No matter what I did or did not say, he would never leave me.

“I’ve spent a lifetime wondering, doubting, whether I could ever find my place within an inherited future. There is only one thing I have ever known with such complete, absolute certainty,” he said. “And that’s you. I love you. I trust you. I believe in you.”

“Tristan —“

He pulled me to him and I heard the strong, even beat of his heart.

He didn’t understand. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing I could say something, do something.

I can’t give you up.

“I don’t know this magic that binds you,” I heard the frustration, the fear beneath his words. “I don’t know what you know about the end. What I do know is you’ll always do what’s right.”

“I’d tell you.” Agony twisted the words. “I’d tell you but I can’t. I honestly can’t. I’m not trying to hide or keep something from you, I just —“

“It doesn’t matter.” He pulled back. “I know you’ll always do what’s right. Whatever you need to do to end this, I know you can do it.”

Fierce determination carved sharp lines into his face.

“Promise me, Kendra. You’ll do whatever it takes to survive. To win.” His voice grew rough. “Promise me you’ll live.”

The words clawed my insides, the need to tell him scraping my throat.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. We were supposed to fight together.
 

How could I do this? How could I lose him just when I’d found him?

The same hard voice that rescued me from the hellhole in the mountains provided the answer.

Because this is what you’ve trained for. You will do this. Just like you did with Ian.
 

A lifetime of conditioning kicked in.
 

I swallowed the pain, bit back every yearning, tucked away the screams of my heart, hardened the cracks that had spread through my soul.
 

And when I replied, my voice sliced the air like the sharp edge of a blade.

“I promise.”

THIRTY-SIX

Aubrey crouched over the wire, carefully concealing it with the last patch of dirt. Very carefully since one wrong move could blow all of us to pieces.

“Will this work?” I asked.

Holden wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead. “Pressure will activate the trigger mechanism, setting off a series of explosions down the line. As long as they come through here, it should work.”

I scanned the perimeter. We stood just within the tree line along the northwest boundary of Haverleau. The beach where Academy students often held bonfire parties stretched before us.

I closed my eyes, extending my Virtue far outward.
 

They came from every direction, except the ocean.

But that was a limitation of my Virtue, not the truth. My magic couldn’t reach beneath the surface to sense what was underwater. After the attack in the Selkie Kingdom, I knew better than to dismiss it.

I opened my eyes. “They’re tightening around Haverleau like a noose. They’ll come in from the water.”

“Then this will greet them.” Aub stood and gave a firm nod. “We’ve buried these chain mines around Haverleau’s entire perimeter. Once the Aquidae’s initial attack breaches it, the explosions should provide enough damaging diversion to help the first line of defense.”

“All right.” I turned and began heading back to the Academy. “We’ll do a final comm check before sundown.”

Prior to Haverleau’s evacuation, the Council had passed a final resolution approving the installation of security cameras throughout the community. Aubrey, Holden, and the other nixes would be able to safely observe everything on monitors in the Technology Department. They’d be my eyes and ears, maintaining contact with me via earpiece.

The Governing Complex was the center of Haverleau, the stronghold we had to protect. Chevaliers, gardinels, and ondines would fight to maintain a safe perimeter around that zone.

My sole job was to track down the Shadow and end it.

“Kendra.”

Aubrey jogged and caught up. Over the past few weeks, her tall, willowy form had hardened, the taut lines reflecting an experience and strength mirrored in her prosthetic.

“I…” She hesitated, then the words tumbled out in a rush. “I just keep thinking you’re going to do something stupid and I’m going to be left here, without you, without Ian, without my sister…”

She abruptly stopped.

The astonishing speed with which Aub’s mind worked meant she was always ahead of everyone.
 

She figured out ondine weapons design, learned the selkie language, graduated first in her class, and understood better than anyone the possible consequences of this final stand.

There were other firsts, too. She, along with Ryder and Chloe, had been the first to approach me at Lumiere. She’d taken the first initiative, looking up info on me and my training in the human world, demonstrating an interest that made me feel less alone.

She’d tutored me, provided my first introduction into a world I both did and didn’t belong to.

The first to offer her friendship, and later her love, to a nix.

It was my turn to act first.

I hugged her. “You’re my family, Aub. We’ll get through this together.”

Her arms briefly tightened, one real, one steel.
 

We pulled apart and I crossed the Academy’s quad to the Training Center. The stillness of the campus felt unnatural, the silence ominous. Without the buzz of students, Lumiere seemed abandoned, a concrete playground echoing with the ghostly laughter and dreams of students long past.

The Training Center, however, was an entirely different matter. It exploded with activity. Chevaliers and gardinels hurried in and out, some carrying weapons, others rapidly issuing orders.

I hurried toward the mat room on the first floor and paused in the open doorway.

Michael paced in front of the group.

“All snipers and archers positioned in high locations throughout Haverleau, including the tops of Academy dorms, will report to me. Those with Virtues will report to Garreth. He’ll team you up with groups of gardinels and chevaliers so you can use your magic to help their defense.”
 

Compared to the buzz of activity in the hallway just outside the door, the mood in this room was somber, tinged with gravity.

Michael paused. “
Sondaleur
. We weren’t expecting you.”

Everyone’s attention whipped toward me.

On the first row of bleachers, Lucas sat with Oriel and Tara. Behind them, Ray stretched out his long legs, his face clean-shaven for the first time. Academy gardinels stood in a line at the front of the group.