Reflection Pond (29 page)

***

“Shouldn’t you be with Callie?” Rowan barked when Callie slipped into the library a short while later. He glanced up from the leather bound book in his lap. “Oh. It’s you.”

Callie stood frozen in the doorway, suddenly feeling like an intruder. From this angle, she couldn’t see the title of his book, but judging by the sketches of swords, it had to do with weaponry. Rowan watched her carefully, as though he expected her to make a sudden move.

“Thank you for training everyone today.” The words gusted from her mouth and she used them to propel herself into the cool green of the library. The midafternoon sun sent rainbow prisms of lights onto the books and floor. One of them glinted off Rowan’s hair, turning it oily as a raven’s wing.

She needed to tell him her plan. That she wanted to go with him when he left the city. She needed his help to figure out how to remove the binding spell.

He grunted and slammed the book shut. The title was in Gaelic, but she recognized one of the words:
Fraeburdh.
Rowan tossed it onto the broad surface of the tree stump table. “What do you want?”

Callie stilled again, a deer caught in the twin beams of headlights. Last night, Rowan’s arms had been around her, the length of their bodies fused like moss draping a branch. Just this afternoon his hands had
encircled her throat as they demonstrated how to escape a chokehold and she’d felt strong and safe.

Now, however, she needed twenty hands just keep hold of all the strings. Rowan waited for her to answer, mouth pressed tight, one eyebrow lifted. “Well?” he prompted. What had caused the sudden change?

“I broke up with Ash,” Callie said, forcing her legs to take her between the stacks. She
had
to tell him. Even if he scoffed her, even if he made her feel stupid. “I mean…we weren’t together. But…I just—”

“Last night was a mistake,” Rowan said, standing. He returned his book, nestling it between two leather hardbacks on the living shelves. “I shouldn’t have told you those things—
we
shouldn’t have…” he trailed off. “I’m not trying to persuade you to leave with me. I know that’s what it looks like, but it’s your decision, Callie. I never—”

Callie moved out of Rowan’s view. She heard him return to the table and sit again. She slid a book from the shelf. Inside, her amulet nestled against the pages, brilliant blue against pale cream. She picked up the leather cord carefully and returned the tome to its place.

With the amulet swinging in front of her like a talisman, she carried it back to Rowan and dropped it on the table in front of him.

Rowan mouth opened then closed again. “Is that?” he whispered.

Callie pressed both palms to the smooth, worn table and leaned close to Rowan’s face, emboldened by finally making her choice. “I’m going with you.” She held up a hand before he could speak. “You didn’t coerce me. Last night was…special and I’m glad you trusted me with your past.” Callie shook her head, trying to dislodge the emotion in her throat. “For my entire life, I’ve been told what to do and where to go. I’ve been part of a flawed system that hurt me more than helped me. But I’m not helpless anymore. I’m strong, and last night you helped me realize that I don’t just have to accept what everyone has told me. I can make my own way, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Callie—” Rowan started.

“No,” she interrupted. “I’m not done. I don’t know what we’ll find out there, but you’ve promised to protect me and I believe you. But I need another promise from you, as well. I need to know that we will try to find a way to get Sapphire out of this. I can’t leave her behind without it.”

Rowan touched the edge of the blue stone, thoughtful. Finally, he nodded. “I can promise you that.”

“Good,” Callie said. “Now I need to go work off some anxiety. You up for more training?”

***

Rowan slammed the quarterstaff into the soft ground next to Callie’s face. “Dead,” he muttered, rising from a crouch. Callie groaned and rolled to her feet, slow to stand. Rowan attacked before she could get her balance. The clack of the quarterstaffs resounded across the city.

Every movement radiated his mood. Rowan was pissed, though he wasn’t sure if he was angrier with himself or with Callie for breaking up with Ash. What had she expected? He’d known this would happen the second he opened up to her. Love was a two-way street, after all, and still, he hadn’t stopped himself.

She’d given up her amulet for him, her life inside of
Eirensae.
And even though it was what he wanted, it didn’t sit right.

Rowan wiped sweat from his brow and circled Callie, staff ready. She glowered, mouth pressed into a tight line, eyes narrowed. He could tell she was trying to focus on training, but she
was distracted by their impending plans. He gave her credit, though. She had guts.

Rowan feinted right and Callie overcompensated. His staff slammed into her side and the answering rush of air from her lungs washed his face.

Callie gritted her teeth and remained standing. Rowan took that as a challenge and swung low, aiming for her shins. She attempted a block, but it was too slow. Her knees buckled.

“Damn it, Rowan,” she cursed, breathless, scowling up at him from the ground.

He smirked. Callie’s eyes narrowed to furious slits. Suddenly, his quarterstaff jerked from his hands and landed in the grass thirty feet away, though Callie never touched it. Before he could voice his surprise, Callie was on him. Her shoulders connected with his shins and they tumbled, a flailing tangle of limbs, into the grass. Callie wiggled until she was on top of him, knees pressed into the softest part of his thighs, just below his groin. She held his wrists over his head, a perfect pin, but he’d stopped fighting long ago. She smiled now. He felt exhaustion shaking her muscles.

She made a disgusted sound and climbed off of him. Always one to get the last word, Rowan caught her ankle and twisted, rolling out of the
way as she fell so that he could mirror her pin. She went limp beneath him and he pressed his forearm to her throat. Her pulse pounded against his skin.

Callie’s knee connected with Rowan’s groin and he yelped. Steeling his jaw, Rowan caught Callie’s arm and twisted it behind her, holding the length of her body against his. She struggled, but he hadn’t taught her how to escape this hold and she was too tired to wriggle away.

“You’re fighting dirty today,” he said, lips pressed to her ear.

Instead of answering, Callie snapped her head back. He felt his nose flatten beneath her skull, and a few seconds later, blinding pain. Fireworks splattered across his vision like splotches of paint on canvas. Callie rammed both elbows into his belly. He managed to catch one of them and wrestle her to the ground. She resisted, but eventually went slack.

“I give,” she huffed.

Rowan slid off of her and rolled to his knees, sweeping a hand under his nose. It came away covered with blood. She’d broken his damn nose and he had an ache that shot straight from his groin into his stomach.

Callie pushed herself onto her elbows, grimacing. “You’re a real asshole, you know that?”

“Yeah,” he breathed, “I’ve heard that once or twice.” Rowan glanced at her. She had her arm lifted where three parallel gashes welled with blood. If Rowan looked, he’d probably find her skin beneath his nails. The thought made him faintly nauseous. “I don’t know why you bother with all this when you could just explode people’s brains, or send them flying. Does anyone else know you can do that?”
Last he knew, Callie only had four powers, fire, water, the brain exploding thing, and the ability to see inside people’s heads. Nobody needed five powers. Hell, nobody needed more than one. It didn’t sit well with Rowan that Callie could move things with her mind. It was a powerful, coveted ability.

Callie looked up, expression shuttered.
“Just Jack.”

“Good. Keep it that way. You’re already scary enough
with the explosion thing. I think maybe we should quit training, before your hands turn into weapons of mass destruction.”

Callie worried her lip. “It’s not about being able to explode someone’s brain. It’s about controlling my life. My powers seem passive.” She waved an arm with a frown. “That’s not accurate, I know, but looking at someone and blowing up their brain is not the same thing as physically defending
myself.” Their eyes met and Callie sucked in a breath. “You’ve given me more than you know,” she said quietly. She reached out, gently wiping the blood from beneath his nose. “I’ll help you heal that.”

“No,” he said immediately, voice flattened out and odd.

“Don’t be an idiot.”

“Let me heal yours, then.”

“I’m
fine,”
Callie insisted.

“Me too.”

“It looks broken.”

“It’s not.”

Callie sighed and Rowan felt a smile tug the edges of his mouth. Somehow, they would be just fine.

***

Though they’d broken up, and Callie wasn’t sure if it was a
real
break up, as they’d never officially started dating, she still expected Ash to show up at her door laden with study material. As the afternoon wore into evening, Callie realized he wasn’t coming. It was better this way. Maybe he’d be less heartbroken when she left with Rowan.

She’d returned her amulet to the book inside the library, where magic had kept it hidden for her. She didn’t trust herself to leave it anywhere else. What if she got scared and decided to bind herself to the city? She thought of the cauldron, hidden in the caves, which stored the combined energy of
Eirensae.
The magical object connected to each imprint, gleaning a small amount of energy from every faerie, which powered the wards surrounding the city. In exchange, it protected the members and bound them together. Belonging to a city was permanent, and once Callie put on her amulet, the change to her skin and magic would remain forever. With it came the agreement of loyalty to
Eirensae
and willingness to follow the leader of the city.

Hazel.

The permanence of the decision frightened her, and even if she didn’t know Hazel’s plan, it would be a terrifying choice.

Callie was powerful—so powerful that Rowan had been surprised when she’d easily tossed his quarterstaff away with her mind. Even Ash didn’t know she could do that. Callie hadn’t forgotten Hazel’s hungry gaze when the older woman had said Callie was destined to stand beside her.

Without conscious decision, Callie found herself in the walls of the city. The tall buildings rose like sentinels, casting the early evening in shadow. A few people greeted her by name and she smiled at them, amazed that despite everything,
Eirensae
had become her home. She passed the ruins of the palace, now just a scorched, flattened bit of earth, and felt bittersweet nostalgia for the wreckage. Smiling, she remembered the strength of Rowan’s hands as he’d pulled her back inside the window when she’d tried to escape, and dancing with Ash and Jack at the welcome ceremony. Callie remembered the joy on Sapphire’s face when she became prophetess and the night she’d spent in the hospital with Rowan.

Her time in
Eirensae
wasn’t long, but the memories eclipsed those she had of the human world, and obliterated the few happy ones she’d managed over her seventeen years there.

Leaving the newer part of the city behind, Callie wandered into the old section. She’d been here a few times when she
was allowed out with Jack to search for her amulet.

Vines and moss covered the stone houses, broken only by the glass panes of small windows. It seemed that the buildings grew straight from the earth. Many of the vines bloomed, and the scent of flowers was stronger here on the narrow path.

She’d never been to Sapphire’s new home but had seen it in Rowan’s mind. It was supposed to be secret, as Sapphire’s duties did not lie with the individuals but with the whole of the city. She was not a fortuneteller and didn’t hand out prophecies for amusement. But more than prophetess, she was Callie’s sister, and she deserved to know that Callie was leaving.

The low building came into view. There were flowers everywhere. They spilled from the creeping plants that covered the exterior of the small cottage and lined the dirt path to the door. The foliage concealed the roof so that the house resembled a small hill, where a flower patch had taken up residence with flourish. An arched wooden door hid among the vines, adorned with a small brass knocker in the shape of a tree. There was no doorknob or hinges.

Callie blew strands of hair from her face, nervous, and lifted her hand. What if Sapphire turned her away? She knocked; the sound rang around her, sharp as the crack of a rifle.

What if Hazel found her here?

It was oversight, Callie was certain, that she walked freely at all. With Hazel injured and the guards sent on a mission, there just wasn’t anyone for Callie to report to.

Sapphire opened the door, smiling. She wore a simple yellow dress covered by a stained apron. Her hair
was tucked into a bun on top of her head and she carried oven mitts in one hand. “I’ve been waiting for you,” she said, and then she hugged Callie, pulling her over the threshold and into the open cottage, which smelled of baking berries. When Sapphire pulled away, she gestured to the assortment of jars lining the table. “I’m making jam. You can help.”