Water's Wrath (Air Awakens Series Book 4) (22 page)

The truth they both were loath to admit was out, and now they had no choice but to face it. Whatever Aldrik had been playing at was nothing more than a fool’s dream. It was the same dream they’d indulged in during the war in the North. Vhalla knew how quickly it could become a nightmare and had no desire to linger over it further.

“Speaking of Northern rebellions,” Aldrik paused, clearly struggling with his words as he became suddenly uncomfortable. “The axe, the one Sehra asked for . . .”

Vhalla dreaded what Aldrik was about to ask her next, so much so that her skin crawled.

“You have it, don’t you?”

“How do you know?” Vhalla breathed. She heard it in his tone, the way he asked, and the way he moved. The question was only a formality, as he already knew the truth.

Aldrik frowned and cursed slightly under his breath. “Does anyone else know?”

“Yes.” She braced herself for what she expected would devolve into a fiery confrontation.

“Who?”

“Daniel was there when I found it in the North,” she confessed.

“
Daniel?
” Aldrik said the name as though it was sour on his tongue. “My brother’s Easterner?”

She nodded.

“You and he . . .” Aldrik looked at her hopelessly.

Vhalla fought to suppress her instinctive response that Daniel and she were nothing more than friends.
Maybe it was better if Aldrik believed her heart could belong to another
.

“Never mind,” he muttered. “Does anyone else know?”

“Victor.” She was in too deep to hold anything back.

Aldrik pinched the bridge of his nose with a heavy sigh. “That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Vhalla affirmed with a nod.

“Baldair’s Easterner.” Vhalla noticed that Aldrik wouldn’t use his name. “Will he tell anyone?”

“He hasn’t told a soul so far; I don’t know why he would now.”

“Pleasure, pain, power—men have many motivators.” Aldrik ran a hand over his hair. “Daniel won’t,” she insisted.

“I leave him to you, then.” Aldrik glanced at her from the corners of his eyes. She let her expression betray nothing. “I’ll take care of Victor.”

“Do you trust him?” Vhalla asked quickly.

“Victor? I do,” Aldrik affirmed. “He was my mentor. We went through a lot together.”

Vhalla bit her lip and refrained from bringing up the crystals. Aldrik had been fairly level-headed throughout it all, surprisingly so. But she knew there were some things that would likely trigger his anger. And now that she knew more of his history, she could see why crystals may be one such thing.

“Aldrik.” She jarred him from his planning once more. “How did you know I had the axe?” Vhalla had a few theories, and the prince was quick to prove them all wrong.

“The Bond.”

“What?” The explanation made no sense.

“
Think
, Vhalla. What is the Bond?” He crossed to her once more, waiting for her to put it together, acting the teacher he had once been.

“It’s a Channel between us . . .” She shuddered in horror, looking up at the dark eyed prince. “An open Channel. Then you . . .” Vhalla couldn’t bring herself to say it. The guilt was suddenly too overwhelming.

“I know what the early stages of Crystal taint feels like,” he whispered solemnly.

Vhalla moved without thinking. She grabbed his hands in hers, clutching them tightly and assuaging the need to feel him, to hold onto and protect the man before her. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” he smiled tiredly at her, squeezing her hands in reply. “I’m fine.”

She was suddenly too close again, so she quickly withdrew. The man was a dark star, brilliant and terrifying, and she was constantly being pulled into his gravity. “I should go.”

“Must you?” Aldrik couldn’t keep the frown from tugging down his lips.

“Yes,” she insisted.

“When will I see you again?”

“You know we can’t make a habit of this,” Vhalla cautioned.

Aldrik opened his mouth, and she felt his protest. But he quickly caught himself. “I can’t sleep, you know I can’t. Most nights I’m in the Tower library.”

“It was you?”

“Me, what?” Aldrik clearly didn’t understand.

“Never mind.” She didn’t want to explain how she’d seen his firelight on more than one occasion.

Silence settled upon them. It was the calm lurking at the edge of a raging storm that would be there for as long as they lived, threatening to swallow them whole. Vhalla moved to the door. It was time to leave. They’d run out of “business” and any continued interaction now would be a dangerous indulgence in pleasure.

“Vhalla,” Aldrik stopped her one last time. He crossed over to her, holding her in place with his stare. Vhalla swallowed a dry throat as Aldrik rummaged through his pocket. “You’re better than the cutthroats my brother tries to pass as soldiers. Don’t let them surprise you again.”

Vhalla laughed softly at the small vial in his palm. “Thank you.”

His hand closed around hers as she retrieved the vial. “No, thank you.” Aldrik opened and closed his mouth, searching for words. “For never giving up on me.”

“I left you,” Vhalla blurted.

“But you didn’t give up on me.” Aldrik paused, giving her an opportunity to object.

Vhalla stayed quiet. “I never could, even when I was as angry as I was that day.” She gave him a small smile, which he returned in full. Vhalla resisted the urge to kiss him, then stepped away. Aldrik’s eyes followed her as she slipped back out into the night.

Vhalla created pockets of air beneath her feet and walked her hands up the wall to scale back up to the window she’d left cracked open. Vhalla waited, watching the prince leave a short time later through the iron gate that led into the Imperial quarters. No one noticed her on the way back, and Vhalla downed the clerical potion for the bruise on her shoulder before crawling into her bed alone just before dawn.

She didn’t bother with bathing or changing clothes. In her mind, she made the excuse she was too tired. But the truth was her heart wanted to have the scent of roses on her skin for just a little longer.

V
HALLA
’
S EYES WERE
fixated on the axe. She sat in her usual chair, and Victor was fixing his usual tea. But her attention remained solely on the weapon as he went about his business.

“Vhalla.”

Could she continue going on as she had been?
Aldrik was in the forefront of her thoughts.

“Vhalla.”

The steam tickled her nose, rising from the mug that Victor held in front of her face. It brought Vhalla back to life.

“Oh, sorry, yes?” Vhalla took the mug carefully, her eyes returning to the axe at the earliest possible moment.

“What is it?” The minister sat slowly behind his desk. “You’re out of sorts.”

Vhalla’s nails scratched lightly against the mug. She couldn’t deny it, and she wanted to broach the subject that was burning brightly in her mind. But how could she without revealing what had transpired with the prince? Even if Victor was on her side, she didn’t want anyone to know of her meeting with Aldrik.

“Is there another way?” Vhalla finally asked.

“Another way to do what?” Victor leaned forward, his elbows on his desk.

“Destroy the axe, the caves. Is there another way to do it?” Vhalla whispered.

“There is no other way, Vhalla.” Victor frowned. “I have been researching this my whole life. I was the
product
of such research. Why the sudden hesitation?”

“I just want to be certain,” she mumbled, not wanting to explain herself further. “It is crystal magic, after all. I want to be careful before I get too far . . .”

“Too far into what?” Victor laughed lightly and sat back in his chair. “Vhalla, what is the real root of this? You don’t think I really believe that you’re suddenly hesitant about taint after you carried this halfway across the world, do you?”

Vhalla pressed her lips together. She couldn’t say and decided to busy her mouth with the tea to give her a chance to think of a different approach.

“Is it because of the crown prince?”

Vhalla nearly spit out her tea. She looked at Victor in shock.

“He came to me asking very pointed questions.
I know you spoke to him
.” The minister’s voice was low and slow, a frigid edge to it. “I need you to trust me, Vhalla. I’m trying to help us all.”

“I know, I do trust you, Victor.” Vhalla placed the cup on the desk, leaning back in her chair.

“Above all else, I need your unquestioning faith.”

“
I do
trust you.” She frowned, unappreciative of his tone.

“Which is why you felt the need to tell the prince about the axe.” Victor’s words were sharp and clipped.

“He asked!” Vhalla snapped back. “But even if he hadn’t, why can’t he know? He’s the prince and the ultimate head of the Tower.”

At her final statement, Victor’s brow furrowed, and he opened his mouth for some hasty retort—then paused. “He asked?” Victor mulled this over. “Aldrik doesn’t ask unless he’s fairly certain he knows the answer. How did he know?”

Vhalla looked away.

“Vhalla,
please
,” the minister sighed, pleading. “Tell me the truth. I can’t help anyone if you don’t grant me that.”

She sat at a crossroads—her personal vow to remove lying from her life, as much as possible, against the desire to keep one of the most personal aspects of her life private.
Perhaps the minister was right,
and she only needed to trust him. “We’re Bonded.”

There was a long stretch of silence where Vhalla wasn’t even sure if Victor had heard her. The man stared at her in shock. “Excuse me?”

“The prince and I, we’re Bonded.” Vhalla wanted to explain as little as possible, but she’d already come this far. “He knew because he felt the magic of the crystals through the Channel between us.”

“A Bond . . .” Victor breathed, as though the veil had suddenly been lifted from a great mechanism he’d been trying to understand for ages. “You and Aldrik have a Bond.”

Vhalla nodded, uncomfortable.

“His ability to see you Projected, his surviving the fall in The Pass, the feats of magic that I hear you two performed together.” Victor pressed his fingertips together in thought, as though he was running through every possibility that surrounded the idea of her and Aldrik being Bonded. “It’s more than a Bond, isn’t it?”

“Joined as well,” she confessed like a child who was put on the spot.

“Bonded and Joined . . .” Victor stood, walking to the window. He surveyed the gray sky for a long moment. “So then, is it safe for me to assume you have his magic in you?”

“I think so.”

“You think so—or you know?” Victor turned and looked at her with an intense expression.

“His fire doesn’t hurt me, so I’m fairly certain,” Vhalla insisted.

“Without doubt?”

“Yes!”

“This is excellent,” he breathed, turning back to the window, tapping the sill. The Minister of Sorcery was suddenly overcome with barely contained energy. “Most excellent, indeed.”

“What is excellent?” Vhalla asked when it became apparent that he wasn’t about to expand upon his mutterings.

“Oh.” He turned quickly, as if remembering she was there. “Because you don’t need to worry so much!” Victor clapped his hands with a smile. “Whatever Aldrik is feeling now should be the worst of what he will feel.”

“Are you sure?” She wasn’t nearly convinced by the minister’s optimistic words.

“You know Aldrik’s and my history.”

“More or less.”

“He’ll act as he needs to avoid taint,” the minister continued, avoiding giving her any more of the aforementioned history. “But this means we can move faster. The Emperor is pressing hard for the axe. I don’t know why the North hasn’t told him yet they don’t have it, but the Emperor will eventually find out it’s gone. I thought we would have to stall until spring, but now—no, we can push, we can move. I’ve found the other pieces. We can end this vicious cycle we’re trapped within.”

“Other pieces? What vicious cycle?” Vhalla tried to remember if she’d ever seen the minister before her; something was alive in him, and he seemed like a different person as a result.

“The oppression of sorcerers.” He ignored her initial question.

“Minister?” she asked, suddenly cautious.

He was at her feet, kneeling before her. “Vhalla, you can remove the possibility once and for all of being used by the crystals. You can set us all free.”

“Right . . .” Vhalla wished she could move the chair away from him. The man before her made her uneasy. He had a glint to his eye that Vhalla recognized. It was the same glint the Emperor had, that the Northern Chieftain had, that Major Schnurr had had. The look that would overcome a reasonable and sane person when presented with power.

She would not be used again
.

“How are we going to use the axe to close the caverns?” Vhalla asked as the minister stood.

“I’ll tell you once we get there. For now, let’s get to work.”

Vhalla hid her reservations and did as Victor instructed. She needed to speak with Aldrik. But she didn’t think she could even tell her prince everything since it involved crystals. Day by day, it came more abundantly clear that she was the only one truly fighting for peace. Not a peace anchored in blood and power, but a lasting peace that would benefit the people of the Empire. A peace that would focus on the citizens more than their leaders.