“What do you mean?” I ask, getting a hint of something I’m not sure I’m going to like very much.
“At this point in time, you should be infinitely more Powerful than you are. I should have factored this in, I should have foreseen that it would be a problem. We cannot wait another few hundred years for you to be what you are supposed to be now.”
Huh?
She places Her hand on my chest and pushes me back. I hit the wall and I am terrified now at the look on Her face. She has a burning intensity in Her eyes that freaks me out. “I should have issued this to you in the first place, you weren’t ready, and you aren’t now, but you are strong. I am sure you will survive.” Her hand gets hotter and I feel it burn me as the fear courses through me at Her words. I feel my feet leave the ground and She steps back, but I keep rising, my back scraping against the cave wall. A pure electric current is running between us, hurting my eyes after the dimness in the cave, but I can’t take my eyes off my mother’s. “I am issuing you your full Power, ValamAtrux,” She says as the current ricochets around my body, causing me to spasm and my hair to stand on end. “Your accelerated Powers will be more than a match for any who try to take you down.” Her voice is booming around the cave and I am petrified.
What is She doing to me?
“I will not have my daughter weak!” She screams. The current intensifies and it brings tears to my eyes, which is a bad move because the electricity sparks up on my cheeks as they fall, blinding me momentarily. “I will not have my daughter be bound!” Tiamat’s voice is rising by the second and it is most definitely not natural. It is coming from all around me, I can hear it with my ears, but also inside my head. It’s deafening as She shrieks, “I will not have my daughter be whore to a Fae King!”
On the final word, lightning shoots out of both of Her hands and into me and I have a seizure, in mid-air, which seems to last for eternity. The pain is ripping through me and it feels like it is taking my limbs with it. I convulse one last time before She lets me go and I drop to the cave floor in a quivering, twitching, drooling heap.
Minutes pass, the only sound in the cave is my ragged breathing. It hurts. It feels like my lungs have been scorched and my insides are on fire. My brain has most definitely been fried, and this time I do mean literally. If Ahmed had given me this nine months ago, I probably would have died. No wonder She wanted it to grow and develop naturally over time. This much Power was not meant to be dealt out in one go. Still twitching, but my breathing becoming easier, Tiamat crouches next to me. “You can handle it ValamAtrux,” She murmurs to me as She strokes my back. “Let it settle and then we will balance you.”
I am incapable of speech and even nodding feels like an impossibility. I have enough brain functionality to wonder what this balancing thing is and to know that I want it before I explode into a million pieces. Tiamat continues to stroke my back and when I feel like I can sit up, She helps me.
“To’Kah is not yet ready to take you in. You will use my Guardian this time.” She helps me stand, gripping my hand tightly. “Lo’kar?” She calls out and I look up as an enormous man steps out of the shadows. He is huge, and naked. I fully register Her words and I shrink back against the wall. I don’t know what “take you in” means, but if it involves a lack of clothing, I am out.
“Do not be afraid, daughter,” She says to me. “He will not harm you. He needs to balance your Power. Come.” She tugs on my hand and I meekly follow Her to stand in front of the huge naked man. I stare up into his eyes and see him looking at Tiamat with a fierce love. I look back at Tiamat, and She has the same love in Her eyes for him. Oh, they are lovers, this is so awkward. I cast my eyes down, but that is the wrong thing to do, being that he has no clothes on and is very large in that area, making it hard not to look. My eyes shoot back to his and I see now that he is an older, bigger version of To’Kah. I am guessing father and son. Tiamat takes me by the shoulders and turns me around, so my back is facing Lo’kar. I breathe a sigh of relief that I don’t have to look at him anymore. Finn has joined us and is watching intently as Tiamat steps back. She indicates that I should remove my clothing, but I shake my head. After what happened with Aelfric, I feel extremely vulnerable and I am not disrobing in front of strangers for all the tea in China. I see a look of understanding pass over Her face and She says softly, “He needs to get to your Dragon, just remove your shirt. You will be safe, I promise you, you will not be harmed.”
I look back over my shoulder, but Lo’kar isn’t looking at me, he is looking at Tiamat, and casting a quick glance at Finn. He isn’t looking at me either, he is looking at his father. I quickly pull my long-sleeved t-shirt over my head and place it in front of my breasts, gripping it to my chest tightly. Tiamat nods stiffly and Her gaze hardens as She sees the burn marks that Aelfric made, that still have not healed, and the Royal Faerie markings adorning my arms. “Proceed,” She orders.
I stand there cowering as I feel Lo’kar place his hands on my back, but then all my anxiety leaves me as the Dragon on my back accepts his touch. She is starting to get warm, but pleasantly so, and in the gloom, I can see a golden glow coming from Her. Lo’kar steps back, removing his hands from me and the strangest sensation goes over me. It is like he is peeling the marking off my back. It doesn’t hurt, but it is definitely weird. I hear him step back further and further until I can feel the Dragon gone completely from my skin. My anxiety returns tenfold and I start to shiver violently. Tiamat comes to stand next to me and puts Her arms around me, soothing me. This is the most contact I have had with Her since I met Her, and I sink into Her embrace. “Turn around,” She says. My eyes widen, but I shake my head.
“Turn around,” She says again. “Watch what he is doing.”
I must admit, I am curious, so I hesitantly turn around and my mouth drops open in shock. Lo’kar is standing there with his head thrown back, his arms stretched out to the sides, his long black hair floating gently in the flap of my Dragon’s wings as She grows. Her outline is a glowing gold, and She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. As She reaches the height of Lo’kar, She sinks into his skin and he absorbs Her completely. He starts a chant, in a language that I don’t understand, but I have heard Tiamat use it before, when She turned back time. Th
e gentle wind picks up and he is now glowing the same gold as my Dragon was. My jaw drops even further as I see that he is highly aroused, which probably is why he has to do this naked. No clothing, no matter how loose, would be able to contain what is going on down there. I blush furiously, bringing my eyes back up to his face, really not wanting to think of him and my mother together. Gross, gross, gross. I cover my eyes and Tiamat turns me back around. I thankfully open my eyes to look into the gloom of the cave again and I feel Lo’kar move forward and place his hands on my back again, replacing my Dragon. As the ritual is complete, I feel completely at peace now. The raging Power that I had felt before he took Her is now a simmer and all the anxiety is gone. I pull my t-shirt back over my head and turn to thank Lo’kar, but he is backing into the shadows and has disappeared before I can open my mouth.
“To’Kah will do this for you. You should engage in this ritual at least once a month to start with, and definitely after you have exerted a full force of Power. Your body is strong, but you need a Guardian to soothe the Power and to keep it calm. You must use him, ValamAtrux. Do not go your usual way of thinking that you can handle everything by yourself.”
I nod, thinking, yeah, I’ve heard that before. This, however, is definitely something I am going to have to keep on top of.
“Go now,” She says. “Let your husband comfort you.”
I look up at her. Is She joking? I am not telling Cole, or anyone else about what happened with Aelfric. When I said come clean before, I meant about the Faerie thing. Not about that.
“Do not keep this from him,” She warns. “It will come out eventually and he will be more hurt that you didn’t trust him enough to tell him in the first place.”
“No, it will hurt him if I tell him,” I insist.
“Aefre,” She sighs, reverting to my birth name, “He is not the weakling you make him out to be.”
“I never said he was weak!” I say, indignant that She thinks that is what I meant.
“You do not think he is strong,” She contradicts me. “One of many reasons he was Chosen is for his fortitude. Dealing with your life is no easy chore and it will only become even more intense. He is handling it quite well by all accounts. Well, leaving you aside, of course,” She adds wryly.
Of course. “What specific purpose does he have?” I have to ask. “You said before the time shift that he had to be by my side, as my husband.”
“All will be revealed in good time. Just know that he is the one, Aefre. Do not push him away.”
The one? The one what?
“Tell him of your ordeal and let him comfort you,” She says again. “You will need to explain your accelerated Powers and the presence of To’Kah in your life. Do not make the mistake of lying to get away from it.”
Says She who asked me to lie to Cole, and to all of them, in the first place about what happened in the Other world.