Haven (War of the Princes) (32 page)

           
“That might be true, but you still saved my life.”

           
“No, I didn’t. I see that now. The only way to save you was to bring you home. It’s safe there. Nothing like this. No Commanders or fighting. There’s peace,” I said, overwhelmed with homesickness. I missed the way the pine trees looked against the white-capped mountains and the crystal blue sky. I missed the silky tall green grasses and the sound the cardinal birds made when they sang. I missed taking the steam train to
Pinebrook
with Ruby and making bonfires on Dragonfly Lakeside with Kyle. I took in a shaky breath.

           
“So you do have regrets,” he said solemnly.

           
“Nothing compared to how I’ll feel if you get killed for talking to me,” I told him earnestly.

           
“Worth the risk,” he smiled slightly.

           
“You’re an idiot,” I said, blinking. He was insane. He had to be. “It’s my turn to ask you to leave. For your sake… or at least for my sanity.”

           
“Fair enough,” he said. “It’s about time I’d left anyway. Keep practicing with the Shadow Chasers. When I return, it will be with a plan of escape, so sit tight.”

           
“You could just leave that door unlocked,” I suggested slyly.

           
“And how far do you think you’d get in this hornet’s nest?” he inquired, shaking his head sharply.

           
I sighed. “Point.”

           
Rune stepped forward, walking toward the door, which also led him directly to me. He didn’t move around me, he just stopped and watched my face. He was so close I could feel the warmth radiating from him. The small space between us was magnified by the intensity of the undeniable spark we felt for each other. How funny: the spark.

           
“Thank you,” he said placing his hands on my shoulders and turning me slowly out of his path. The simple contact wiped my mind clean and I found nothing to say to him.

           
He leaned toward me, his intent readable: he wanted to kiss me again. “May I?” he asked one last time, so quietly that I almost couldn’t hear him.

           
I wanted him to. I didn’t want him to. I was afraid of hurting him. I was afraid of being hurt. Things were too complicated. Things were so simple. Dylan. The storm of contradictions was overwhelming. I was frozen.

           
He bowed his head and looked like he understood, even if I didn’t. When I realized he was pulling away, that he was turning to walk out the door, all the parts of me that didn’t want him to kiss me were drown away by the ones that did.

           
“Goodbye Katelyn,” he said.

           
It was too late.

           
He was gone from the room and my world felt starkly vacant without him.

Chapter 28: Hornets

           
A pair of perfectly round white eyes stared up at me expectantly. It was kind of unnerving. They were set far apart on a wide black face and regarded me, unblinking. The plump little Shadow Chaser sat upright, with its tiny hands splayed on the table. If the rapidity of its swishing tail were any indication, I’d have guessed that it was getting impatient with me. I was impressed that it had taken
this
long.

           
I sat cross-legged on the floor, my back to the bright beam of sunlight pouring its warmth through the window. I had been hunched over my own shadow for the better part of the day and my concentration was getting worse. I was able to ignite two Shadow Chasers with my Spark Ability, but that had been hours ago. When my hovering hand yielded no results, the others had slunk away, one by one, back into my shadow. Of the six Shadow Chasers summoned, only this one remained.

           
Its tail flicked.

           
“I’m
sorry
,” I sighed. “I just… I can’t do it.”

           
My focus was waning worse than ever. So much for practice.

           
“I can’t even think clearly! Rune and Dylan and even
Lina
are out there somewhere and I don’t know what’s happening. Rune isn’t taking Stakes seriously and maybe I’m wrong about what he’s capable of, but I felt such a sense of… of
violence
from him. I just can’t lose that feeling. I was so scared. If I’m wrong, I’m just being paranoid, but if I’m right about him, we’re all in serious trouble. I hate,
hate
waiting. And now I’m sitting here, talking to a fat little salamander thing that crawled out of my shadow,” I said, sighing again more heavily.

           
The Shadow Chaser burped at me.

           
“Can you even understand me?” I asked it.

           
It sat without any change in expression or posture.

           
“You should probably leave too. With my luck, you’ll get into trouble by being anywhere near me just like everyone else,” I told it gloomily. Apparently, it didn’t agree.

           
Dark images clouded my thoughts. I saw Stakes standing over me like a nightmare, my friends all lying broken behind him, and it was all because of me. If I hadn’t come here none of this would have happened. They wouldn’t be in danger.

           
That wasn’t entirely true. A life of cold isolation and war was the only one Rune would have ever known and
Lina
might be made a Dragoon when she became old enough. Even without the danger of my outlawed friendship, Dragoons faced mortal threat on a near daily basis. Still, it wasn’t enough for me. I wouldn’t feel at ease until all of this was behind me.

           
The idea that I might be too optimistic crossed my mind. No one from Haven Valley had come looking for me. The secret way to the outside world remained unexplored to all but me. I was trapped in a world at war. There was a madman with a supernatural Ability to bend steel with his mind who wanted to see me dead, and that wasn’t even the worst of it. Senior Commander
Fallux
, the most powerful person in Breakwater, from what I could tell, had a plan for me that involved finding Haven. Beyond even that, the last person with The Pull had killed himself before their Prince could put him to use. That must be some indication as to what I had to look forward to if I were delivered to the monarch.

           
My stomach burned with anxiety.

           
The only way to protect my friends from this horrible mess was by finding a way to escape on my own. What was the likelihood of that? I was in the tower of a fortress full of Dragoons.

           
The light around my shadow had dimmed to a soft orange. The sun was setting, just beyond the reach of an approaching storm. The Shadow Chaser sat with me despite the time I wasted ruminating on my worries.

           
I felt sorry for the little thing. He just wouldn’t give up on me. Maybe it was a sign that I shouldn’t either.

           
“Okay,” I said, shifting my numb legs beneath me. “Let’s try this again. For you and for my friends.”

           
I held out my hand, closed my eyes, inhaled deeply, and tried to clear my mind of distracting thoughts. My focus settled on the chill of the air, the lingering touch of the sunlight on my shoulders, the dusty floor beneath me. I wiggled my fingertips, reminding myself that this Ability, The Spark, was as much a part of me as my body. I could feel the encouraging tug from the Shadow Chaser.

           
There came a distant rumble: thunder.

           
I smiled. Storms made me feel right. Like the night I sat in the Clockwork Wheel with Ruby, Kyle and Sterling. We’d leapt into the water, afraid that lightning would strike us. Now I realized I never had anything to fear from it. It was a part of me.

           
A charge buzzed from my shoulder, down through my arm and out of my palm. I opened my eyes to see the Shadow Chaser ignited with electricity. Elemental spines crested from its back and elbows, connecting over its body with moving stripes. Lines accented its white eyes and a pair of fin-like ears decorated its head.

           
He marched around beneath me, proud as if he was a hundred feet tall. The ornament of my Spark made him look so incredible, I’d have almost believed he was larger than life.

           
Looking at my hand I saw little webs of electricity sneaking around my fingers.

           
I didn’t notice the grin on my face or the fact that I was actually laughing.

           
I could use The Spark.

*
         
*
         
*

           
The elation I felt over my small victory with my second Ability withered like the destitute plants in the tower garden. My Shadow Chaser friend was gone, crept back into the shade after receiving its prize, and I was alone again. The sun fled the dark and the moon swooped overhead, peeking out through the storm clouds before it too ducked beneath the horizon.

           
A Dragoon that I’d never seen before delivered me my bowl of bland gruel. He didn’t pause for a moment of conversation and left without looking back.

           
Rune didn’t return.

           
The dawn of the following day was preceded by cruel weather. Wind belted past the fortress in a howling fury. In my few moments of scattered sleep, I dreamed of being in Breakwater Keep wearing the fine dresses and jewelry Dylan had given me. When I awoke, I told myself I’d never take for granted that any situation could go from bad to worse.

           
The same speechless Dragoon brought me another meal. I tried to practice summoning my Spark without the Shadow Chasers, with only mild success. I managed, once, to entice a sparkle of electricity to circle my fingertip. I had the feeling I was close to figuring it all out. It would just take a little practice, and luckily for me, I had plenty of time.

           
Food was delivered again in silence. I ate it grudgingly, trying to imagine it was steamy chicken corn chowder. Eventually I decided it looked like horse snot and lost my appetite.

           
Midday came and went, and I did everything in my power to keep my mind from Rune and Dylan. By this point, I could lace my hand with tiny strings of lightning. I watched with fascination as they skittered just over my skin. How could I have never known about this? It was such a part of me. Despite my circumstances, a little rush of excitement bubbled up within me. It was one thing to blindly and instinctively follow The Pull, but another thing entirely to see something as wild and natural as lightning literally spring from my fingertips.

           
 
I must have dozed off practicing because I awakened to being gently shaken by the shoulder.

           
“Katelyn,” someone said.

           
I was slumped against a potted counter and my neck ached from falling asleep in such an abnormal position. I groaned. My sleep was dreamless and deep, something I hadn’t experienced in several days. I didn’t really want to wake up.

           
“Katelyn,” the voice persisted. “Wake up. We have to go, now!”

           
“What?” I asked, blearily, rubbing my eyes to clear them. With the speaker’s help, I shambled to my feet. My mind was swampy at best, far too tired to register what was going on.

           
I grabbed the speaker’s forearm to steady myself and blinked up at him. I saw blue eyes set against warm brown skin. It was Rune.

           
His severe expression was sobering. I couldn’t have been more sharply awake if ice water had been splashed in my face.
 

           
“What’s wrong?” I asked, my intuition alerting me at once that we were in danger.

           
“We have to go,” he repeated pulling me toward the door.

           
“Where?” I asked dumbly, stumbling along. I’d wished I could get home so badly for so long, I could hardly believe it might actually be happening.

           
“Out. Away from the fortress. As far away as we can get,” he said.

           
“We?” I asked, feeling my heart thump erratically in my chest. I was suddenly very aware of his strong but gentle grip on my arm and his touch on my lower back as he tried to usher me out of the tower.

           
How could I not take in the implications? Rune wanted to get away with me, and really, it was what we should have done in the first place. I should have taken him to
Rivermarch
with me when I first met him in the cave. None of this would have happened. I wondered excitedly what he would think of my hometown and whether he would get along with Ruby and Kyle. Even thinking about them all together seemed, unnatural. Rune didn’t fit in the lighthearted pastoral picture. That didn’t stop me from imagining it though.