Chapter 32

"You're actually sharing with me now?" Dessa asked, raising a brow at the piece of toast slathered with raspberry jam. "Did you poison it?"

"Just take the damn toast," Elys snorted, and rolled his eyes.

She was sitting on the kitchen counter, legs crossed, and watching as he then made his own. Both of them were in their leather gear, though she had a sneaking suspicion they weren't going out flying that morning. It had been a while since she'd seen Elys all decked out, though the only weapon their both carried were their daggers. Obviously, this training season wasn't going to include much swordplay.

"Why are we leaving so early? No one's even up yet."

Elys leaned one hip against the counter beside her as he took a bite of toast. "More practice with your portals."

Dessa tried not to groan. After her first true portal of her own will and making, she'd trained solely on that aspect of her magic over the last three days. Most of the time, she left training sessions more pissed off than before, especially when Elys was part of that reason. Not that he was making her mad, per se. Just that he was so encouraging and patient, even when she was anything but for herself.

It wasn't difficult for her to make the portals or even having them lead to the destination she wanted them to, but rather making sure they closed properly afterward. The first portal she made that put them out over the water took her twenty minutes to finally close. That was after she and Elys finally pulled themselves up onto the dock again, both laughing and grinning at each other. When she finally managed, she jumped on Elys's back and he carried her all the way back to the palace.

Now, as they silently finished their breakfast, Dessa could only watch him. Stare, really, because it had been weeks since she really got a good look at him in his leathers, the way they perfectly cut into every line and muscle of his body. The shuddering breath she took then made him glance over.

"What?"

"Why are we in our leather gear if we're not going to be flying or training?"

He grinned and winked. "I know how much you like seeing me in mine."

Oh, two could play that game. "Just like I know how much you like seeing me in them, too."

Without missing a beat, he said, "Can't deny that, you beautiful female."

A blush crept up along Dessa's neck as she took another bite of toast. "Are we going to work more on closing them or...?"

"Not really, though you'll still have to," he said, cutting her off. He almost looked nervous. "Something...different."

"What?"

Elys went quiet as they both finished their breakfast, then turned to face her fully. "You said Lyv really didn't explain what we would be able to do with our magic together, right?"

She shook her head. "Nope. Not even when I've continued to ask her, too. She just tells me to talk to you, but we both know you haven't been any help."

"Because you've been asking me just as much."

"Exactly, but you don't tell me."

"Well, that's about to change."

Dessa straightened as her eyes narrowed. "You're not kidding me, are you? Because I'll punch you if you are."

"I'm not, so no need for throwing fists."

She sputtered, gaping. "What is it then? What are we able to do together?"

"You create portals, Dessa, and I have control over time...so what do you think? It might take us a few tries, especially when I actually don't know too much about what I have to do on my end, but..."

Portals and time...no freakin' way.

Elys nodded toward the doorway of the kitchen. "We'll go whenever you're ready."

She needed no time to even think about it, jumping down from the kitchen counter. "I'm ready."

His smile was bright as he reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear, then grasped her hand, threading their fingers together. "Then come on."

Excitement thrummed through every part of her as they walked through the quiet palace hand in hand. Elys kept glancing over her as she practically bounced up and down with each step, unable to contain herself. Even her magic was excited, humming through her as her shadowflames sparked to life around her hands, sparkling like an endless stary night. They even caressed around Elys, which had him smiling wider.

"You're excited, aren't you?" he asked her, lifting their conjoined hands to kiss her knuckles.

"Getting to try out combining magics with my best friend? Of course, I'm excited!" she beamed. "In your visions, have you seen what we'll be able to do with it, where we'll be able to go? Gods, just think of it all! What about this first time? Where are we...?"

Elys stopped her with a laugh. "Like I said, I'm not sure how this is going to work the first time, but we'll see if we can get this right. I have a feeling we'll be able to manage it."

"Says the Seer."

"Now," he said as they descended the steps in front of the palace. "Other than the first portal, I know you've only made them to places here in Dalcaine. Think you could make one that would put us right at the center of capital city in Escarral?"

Almost instantly, Dessa's excitement deflated and nerves set in. "I...I don't know if I can. It'd be the longest distance I've managed since the first, like you said."

"You can do it."

"Is that just encouragement or confirmation?"

Elys pulled her forward against his side and brushed a kiss against her forehead. "A little bit of both since my favorite person needs it. Come on. Let's see what we can do together, huh?"

Not wanting to let him go, Dessa kept a tight grip on Elys's hand as she moved back a step, turning slightly as she held out her other hand.

Creating her portals was coming much more easily to her than ever before. This time, though, as she and Elys watched the distortion ripple through the air in front of them, blurring the courtyard behind it, her stomach twisted into a hard knot. But she did as he asked, having the portal's destination be that of the capital city in Escarral. That was easy enough...now the only thing to do was go through and get there in one piece.

Elys gave her hand a comforting squeeze.

Then lifted his own hand toward it.

Dessa had a hard time describing what she felt radiate around him. Elys's magic was so different from anyone else's and this was no different. Time seemed to both fast-forward and reverse, then focused primarily on her portal. That nervous knot tightened in her stomach even more, feeling Elys's magic brush alongside hers, intertwining them together in a way unlike ever before. Once again, she found herself closer to him, snuggling herself beneath his arm as they both stared at the portal in front of them.

Elys's arm tightened around her. "Together?"

Dessa nodded, taking a deep breath before blowing it out. "Always together."

And they stepped into the portal.

This one, though...this one wasn't like her previous. She knew it would take them to the capital city in Escarral, but as to what else happened as they went through it, she couldn't explain. Dessa's magic and Elys's combined in a beautiful dance that pulled them together even closer as they tumbled through both space and time. Everything around them, which was nothing at all, seemed to stretch and condense. The only real and solid thing was Elys beside her. She needed to get as close as she possibly could just so she wouldn't lose herself.

Arms wrapped tightly around him, Dessa pressed her face against his chest, squeezing her eyes shut as everything swirled across the space before them. Elys held onto her just as tight as one hand trailed up her back to twine his fingers into her hair. Even though the leather of her jacket, she could feel him and snuggled closer.

Then, what could have been seconds or minutes or hours later, their boots landed on solid ground as they pitched sideways, crashing against the stone siding building. Dessa was the one to take the full force of the blow. Her head flew back against it, making stars burst in front of her eyes before Elys's full body weight slammed against her. It took several moments for them to realize they weren't traveling anymore, then Elys was leaning back, taking her face between his hands.

"Are you all right?" he demanded, noting the dazed look she gave him whenever she was finally able to open her eyes.

Everything was still twisting in front of her, though his face remained steady. Her stomach twisted and she had to close her eyes again as a wave of nausea rolled over her.

Leaning her forehead against his chest, she took a deep, calming breath. "Give me a minute."

She wasn't the only one to need that minute, it seemed. Though Elys was a steady rock in front of her, letting her lean against him for support, he was still trembling as he held her. She could feel him, not just because they were both holding onto each other. With their magic combining as it had and doing so for the first time, it seemed as if neither one of them wanted to let go. A thin, silvery cord was tying them together, one she'd always felt between them and yet the hold was so much stronger now. They held on tight to each other, both Dessa and Elys themselves and their magics, keeping them as close as possible.

Finally, after a few more moments to steady themselves, they leaned back, only to meet each other's gazes.

"Are you all right?" Elys whispered, leaning down to press his forehead against hers.

That wasn't doing her any good, especially when his warm breath brushed across her face, her lips.

"I think so. Did we...did we do it?"

He didn't have time to answer, not when a group of guardsmen dressed in armor and navy cloaks strolled by the alleyway entrance. A few of them spotted Dessa and Elys in a tight embrace but got the wrong impression of them being lovers hidden away just to be together. It didn't help when Elys stepped closer, pressing her back against the wall, and hid his face in the crook of her shoulder.

"They're gone," she whispered, heart hammering. "What...?"

"If we managed to get to the time I wanted us to go, they would have recognized me...though they would have definitely been confused since here, at this time and place..."

"What?"

Elys leaned back, reaching for the hood of his leather jacket to lift onto his head, then did the same with hers. "Just stay close to me, all right? It's early enough in the morning the only people out should be the guardsmen on patrol, but we still have to be careful. And keep your hood up. They'll recognize you just from your silver streak."

He moved then, carefully and quietly walking to the alleyway entrance to look out into the street. Dessa was right behind him, peeking out into the city square illuminated by the lamps all along the streets since the sun had yet to rise.

They were in Escarral.

Just not Escarral in the present.

"We did it, Elys," Dessa whispered in excitement as she leaned back against the wall out of sight.

Elys let out a breathless laugh. "I honestly couldn't see if we would or not. That was easier than I thought."

She jumped up and down before wrapping her arms around him. "We did it," she crooned happily in his ear.

The first clue was the passing patrol when they let go of one another and peeked out again. Now, with their backs to them, she could spot the difference in their cloaks. Though the navy and silver colors were still the same, the Escarrali crest was slightly different than the one she'd known. Then there was the city, the shops that surrounded the square. Most of them were the same, though the buildings were different, scarred from a siege barely two years before and still in repair. All she wanted to do then was explore, to see the Escarral she knew and loved, the Escarral she grew up going to as much as she could, but in a different way than she'd ever seen before.

But the most obvious tell that they had managed to portal to the Escarral of the past wasn't by the guardsmen or the city itself. It was the two human men walking slowly through the city square.

Dessa's jaw dropped as soon as she saw the younger one. "That's...that's Merek."

The Captain of the Guard she knew, loved, and grew up with had to have been twenty years younger. His hair was dark with no sign of any gray, face youthful, and dressed in a simple white tunic tucked into black leather pants and boots. A sword hung at his side, his left hand resting on the pommel, his glittering gold wedding band circling his finger.

The man he was speaking to, though, was a man Dessa had only heard about in fantastical stories from her parents and her aunts and uncles, one she'd only seen in his portrait that hung in her Aunt Ada's office at the Escarrali palace. Here, though...here, he was just a few dozen feet away.

Elys's hand pressed against the small of her back as he kissed her temple. "That, Dessa Jai, is your grandfather Bence."

Almost as if he'd heard his name, Bence paused in what he was saying to Merek and turned in their direction. Dessa and Elys quickly hid behind the building once more, holding their breath as they strained to hear the two men.

"Something wrong?" Merek asked.

The deep timbre of the voice that answered was so warm and loving and comforting, it had Dessa wanting to rush out to him. "I don't...no," Bence answered. "Just thought I saw something. Come. We've got somewhere to be in an hour, don't we?"

"You've got that right. You think Lyv..."

The voices trailed off then, turning down a road that led toward the palace, a path Dessa knew by heart.

Dessa shoved her hood off her head and whirled to stare at Elys, who did the same. "That's Bence," she repeated in a choked whisper. "My grandfather Bence who died the year before I was born."

Elys gave her a pained smile and nodded. "It is. I thought...for the first time we tried this...that this would be the best place to go."

"When are we?"

"When? A few months after Lyv rescued me in Filwey. We'd been in Ethran with Jai, Gideon, and Thia, then made our way here since Lyv hadn't seen the human side of her family in so long and her parents were here to visit. This is the morning when Lyv trained with the palace guardsmen and she and Jai finally stopped skirting around each other and fighting with every other conversation they had."

"So, this training session's going to be a good one to watch then, huh?" Dessa asked him, taking his hand in hers as they started out of the alleyway.

Only for her to slam right into a body that blocked her path. Strong hands secured around her arms, steadying her as she swayed back. Even in the shadows, there was no way they could hide themselves beneath their hoods anymore, not when the man had heard every word.

"No use in sneaking around. I always end up catching those who do. I raised four beautiful, smart, sneaky girls. You think I didn't learn from chasing them around? Now, pull those hoods off so I can properly see you."

Dessa stared at his exposed throat, then her eyes traveled up to his bearded chin, the half-smile on his lips, the nose that had been broken a time or two, and finally his twinkling blue eyes as he looked more closely at her as she lowered her hood. She'd only seen his image in his portrait and painted out by her mother and family. But this...he was real and alive and standing right there in front of her.

Her grandfather could do nothing but stare, eyes narrowing as he tried to figure out why she looked so familiar. She knew the exact moment when he realized when he saw the features she shared with her mother, her silver Deverell streak...but then he noted the dark hair, the sapphire eyes of her father.

Bence reached up, cradling her face in his hands as he tried to form a complete question, only to come out with, "How?"

Then he was looking behind her at Elys, undoubtedly recognizing the male standing before him was over twenty years older than the little boy who was somewhere in the Escarrali palace. Dessa looked back at him in the same moment, seeing tears welling up in Elys's eyes as he stared at Bence before he surged forward to embrace him with Dessa stuck in the middle.

"Elys?" Bence choked out when he managed to pull back. His hand reached up to cradle the side of his head as he laughed. "Either I'm dreaming, or you've gotten better with your Seer magic in the future."

"The latter," Elys managed to choke out with a laugh, reaching up to swipe his tears away. "Gods above, it's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you, too, kid," he smiled, then pulled him forward to kiss his forehead. "Lyv give you hell for those tattoos I see peeking out of your collar?"

"Hasn't stopped since I've been home."

Bence's expression turned thoughtful then. "How long has it been?"

There was no need to elaborate on what he was talking about.

Elys's jaw clenched as he answered. "About twenty years. Everyone misses you, but especially Lyv, Ada, Sora, and Rhea. They're all perfect, though. Escarral's the best it's ever been with Ada building on the foundation of your rule. Everything...it's all because of you. You should be immensely proud of them all."

Dessa, still being stuck in the middle, still couldn't stop staring at her grandfather. From what she'd ever been told about him, getting to meet him now...gods, he was so much more. Even though he didn't even know her name, even when only moments passed since they first laid eyes on each other, she could feel the instant love he had for her.

Bence put his hand against her cheek again, smiling as tears welled up in his eyes. "You look just like your mother. Except for your hair and eyes. That's your father. A perfect combination of them both."

She let out both a laugh and a sob, then hugged him as tight as she could. "They tell me that all the time."

He held her close, kissing the top of her head before pushing her back so he could look at her again. "It's so incredible to meet you, Dessa. I honestly never thought I'd be able to."

She leaned back at the sound of her name. "How...?"

Bence's smile turned back to Elys as he winked. "This one liked to talk a little too much about you when he was little. I was the only one he really talked openly about you to. He knew I wouldn't be here when you were born, so he wanted me to get to know you in another away. Through him and his vision."

"Hopefully nothing bad?"

His laugh echoed around them, filling her with warmth and love. "Never. His favorite way to describe you? Stubborn, brilliant, and beautiful. And that you always fought and yet were still the best of friends even after you..."

Elys cleared his throat and Dessa saw him shake his head once out of the corner of her eye.

"Never mind," Bence smiled, and looped her arm through his. "Come. We might not have much time before I'm expected somewhere, but I at least want to get to know my granddaughter a little more before we have to part."