Chapter 21

Elys had the right description whenever she told them about Dessa's fire magic. Shadowflame, he'd called it. Fitting for the onyx flames dotted with silver that erupted around her. She had absolutely no control over it, though. It wasn't going to hurt her, though, but would defend her from anyone aiming to cause her harm.

"Tell me what's happening!" she begged Elys as tears glistened and fell. "Elys, tell me!"

"You're going to be all right," he repeated. His usually calm and sure voice waivered just enough for Cleo to note. "Your magic...it wasn't wanting to wait any longer. Not that I'm here now. Or that Cleo has magic so similar. We're going to help you. Promise. Cleo and Lyv with your fire magic and me...me with your portals."

Dessa watched the dark flames surrounding her, the way they didn't scorch her skin. It wasn't the only magic she had as she flung a hand out. Her sword flew through the air into her grasp in an instant and would have went straight through someone had they been in the way. The sapphire and emerald stones set in the hilt began to glow as her shadowfire lit the metal ablaze without melting it.

Even as Lyv's pleads for Dessa echoed around the training courtyard, Cleo couldn't move, staring at Dessa's eyes as she screamed, seeing her own reflection in the metal of her sword.

No, not the sapphire eyes she'd gotten from Jai.

Onyx eyes. Ones she'd last seen not only on herself with her own eye, but when dark magic took over Lyv and Jai all those years ago.

But Dessa...Elys had been right with his vision, though she would have never doubted it. Her magic finally broke free from the wall both light and dark created within her – shadowflames that surrounded her, the portal that dragged her through, screaming in terror.

Yet Cleo still couldn't move even in those next few minutes that passed.

"Where did she go?" Lyv screamed, stumbling forward to the space where her daughter disappeared. "Elys, where did my baby go?"

It was as if he couldn't hear her, though. His eyes seemed distant. Not like he was stuck in a vision, but rather the way he usually was when a vision of his came to pass in real life. Lyv was asking question after question, but he remained silent as he took a step forward, kneeling down to pick up Dessa's fallen sword, looking at his own reflection in the metal as if he would be able to see her.

"What the hell happened?" Gideon growled out, as he passed a sobbing Lenora to Thia as the pixies fluttered around the little girl, attempting to stop her tears. He tried to push right past Lyv and Jai to get to Elys, but Jai stopped him with an arm across the chest.

Because it was Jai who was stalking toward him then and yanked Elys forward by the front of his shirt, breaking him from the reverie he was trapped in.

"I will repeat what Gideon asked," Jai ground out through his teeth as he shook him once. "Dammit, what the hell happened?"

Elys stumbled over his words, eyes wide as he stared at the male he looked up to most in his life. "I...I-I don't...oh, gods...I didn't see it happening like that. It was just her magic, but not...her eyes, Jai. They were...they were..."

Dessa's sword slipped through his slack fingers and clattered on stone.

Jai realized then the male was just as shocked by what happened, especially since he was so used to seeing everything. He obviously didn't like being blind, especially when it came to what was happening with his mate.

"That's why I couldn't see where she was going through that first portal. The dark magic...it was the first to show itself. And with her fear..."

"Where is she?" Lyv begged again, putting herself between them. Her hands reached up to cradle his face, to make him look at her. "You said yesterday you'd be able to see where she was once she went through, so where did she go?"

Elys reached up and covered her hands with his own, staring intently at her, at her tears shimmering in her eyes before his own clouded over and he froze. Lenora was still sobbing in Thia's arms as the half-sorceress held her close, rubbing circles along her back, and telling her that her sister was all right. Milena was right next to them, doing the same, though she seemed to be holding back her own tears as she stared at the place Dessa disappeared. None of them knew this yet, of course, but she still needed the little one to hear Dessa would be home with them soon.

Elys doubled over as soon as his mismatched blue eyes became clear again. It was as if he'd been punched in the stomach so hard, his breath rushed out of him and both Lyv and Jai had to keep him upright.

"Elys..."

"She's all right," he choked out, sounding on the verge of tears himself. "She's...she's all right. The portal just took her to another training courtyard. Escarral. She's in Escarral. Balian and Imrie are there with her and she's...she's all right. Obviously shaken up, but..."

"Thank the gods," Jai sighed, and pulled Elys in to hug him with Lyv caught in between. "We need to..."

"No." Lyv was the one to say it, to shake her head as the three of them pulled apart. "Let me go, Jai. Cleo...she'll help me get there quick with her shadows, quicker than I know I would be able to with my own magic. Let me go to her while you stay here and look after Len, all right? In the morning, send Roshan and Eria. We'll be back by tomorrow night and then I'm really going to need a night with you and our girls, just the four of us."

Jai nodded as Thia walked over with Len in her arms and he immediately reached for the still sniffling little girl who then held onto her daddy fiercely.

Lyv leaned up to kiss her cheek, wiping away her tears. "I'm going to go get Dessa, all right, baby? Then we'll be home tomorrow."

"Promise?" Lenora asked, soft voice wavering.

"I promise," she told her with a smile. "She's going to be just fine, even though I know what you saw scared you. It scared me and Daddy, too. Everyone, actually."

"Dessa's got her magic now?" she went on to ask. "She's got fire magic...but her fire..."

"Is a little bit different than ours, yes. It's something she's going to have to work on, just like we're working on yours."

Lyv leaned in to kiss her again, then Jai as he held onto her.

"We'll be here waiting," he told her, though he sounded as if he wanted to do anything but wait.

She nodded and kissed him again, then finally turned to Cleo. "Take me to my daughter."

And with a nod and no hesitation, Cleo's shadows swept forward to surround her cousin, allowing her to step through to the human land of Escarral.