Bravery Read online

  I raise an eyebrow at him and he smirks. “It’s easy for you to say, you were born into this world, born into your magic. I’ve never done this before. I didn’t even know about it until like two weeks ago.”

  “And that’s why we’re going to train you.” He leans in, giving me a slow kiss, making my whole body heat up with lust. Then he pulls back, smiling, winking. “Now that you’re properly charged up, how did you access your magic before? With Rune.”

  What? I blink. “I just... I felt the energy in me and then imagined the field around him and it happened.”

  “Simple enough. You access your magic by reaching out to it, that sounds workable. Let’s try.” He steps behind me again, one hand around my waist, the other one on my arm, holding it steady. “Don’t imagine the same thing as what I did before, my electricity works differently from your fire. For you, imagine a beam of fire coming from the palm of your hand, and it’s directed at the ground.”

  I close my eyes, but all I can focus on is how close Finn is to me, how warm his body is against mine, his strong chest and his smooth skin. Each time I try to focus on something else, my brain gets pulled back to Finn. Having him so close is really no help...

  “Try again. And ignore the boy behind you.” Mum’s laughing voice breaks any concentration I may have had left, and my eyes fly open.

  “Mum!” I step out of Finn’s embrace, going over to her. She’s standing at the side of the house, leaning against the wall, smiling as she looks at us.

  “Hey. I was able to get away from the grown-up stuff.” She gives me a quick hug. “Thought I should see how you were doing, but it seems you’re having a great time.” She eyes Finn. “Your teacher is a little young, but he seems to know what he’s doing.”

  “Mum!” I groan, my cheeks turning a bright red, pushing at her shoulder. “Don’t be mean to him.”

  “I’m being nice. He was on the right way with that, that’s a great way to learn about your powers. And I agree that you’ll need to learn how to control your magic fast. At the speed your power is growing, you need to learn to control it, before you hurt someone by accident.” She walks past me, to the sandy area, but I don’t follow her, my body suddenly cold, my heart heavy.

  Before you hurt someone. That would have been useful advice two weeks ago, but I’ve already hurt someone. I’ve hurt a lot of people. I killed them...

  “Litha...” Finn slides his fingers over my shoulder, over my neck, pulling my attention to him. “Don’t think about that right now, put it from your mind. Let’s try something smaller for now. Let’s think of something easier to start out with.” He carefully takes my hand and pulls me along to the stone blocks Rune has made, sitting down with me.

  Mum stands in the middle of the sandy area. “It’s been a long time since I just played with my magic. The human world doesn’t support magic use, at least, not the same way we can here.” She softly smiles at me. “Giving you my magic to make that shield doesn’t really count as using it. I didn’t do anything with my own magic at the time, just gave you mine.” She holds both her hands in front of her, palms up. “Let’s see if I can still do this. My mum, your grandma, taught me this trick when I was little.” A ball of fire appears over either hand, like they’re hovering for a moment, before falling down in her hands. I flinch, imagining the heat of it, but Mum doesn’t seem to feel it at all. Then she throws each of them in the air, like she’s juggling with them. She’s juggling her own fire-balls, like they’re normal balls to juggle with, and not fucking flames.

  I stare at her and when I glance at Finn, he’s also staring at her with his mouth open, his whole face alight with delight, then he grins at me.

  “Or we could try to teach you that.” He winks.

  I shake my head, grinning back. “I don’t think so. I couldn’t even do that with normal balls back in the human world, let alone ones that are hot enough to burn a hole in my clothes. No, thanks.”

  Mum laughs, the balls disappearing, and she comes over to me, her hands on her sides as she smiles at me. “Well, it’s not like they’d hurt you, you’re the one controlling them, controlling their movement. But I agree with you on your inability to juggle, you were never any good at it. We may need to find a different game for you to play with your fire.” She sits down on my other side, looking at Finn. “How easy is it to get our hands on some easily ignitable wood? That would probably be a good place to start with creating fire out of nothing.”

  It’s like she’s suddenly nineteen too, no longer serious and adult-like, like she normally tends to be, and I groan. I don’t know if I even want to know what she’s up to...

  I like this side of her, the playful side, but it also scares me a little, especially when she talks so excitedly about playing with something dangerous like fire...

  3

  Evening has fallen, and the sky is a warm purple as I step out the back of the house. It’s quiet inside, Rune is asleep in his room and Kit hasn’t moved in his room in hours, but I can hear voices coming from around the back of the house, laughter and loud voices.

  As the warm night air wraps around me, I look around. I don’t see anyone until my eyes fall on an orange glow coming from the side of the house, from the area where we can practice our powers and the magic that isn’t really safe to use inside the house or in the open field.

  Orange glow? Fire?

  I carefully walk over, the voices getting louder. I recognise Finn and Litha’s voices, their happy banter, and I think I hear Litha’s mother’s voice too. They’re laughing at something, and they sound like they don’t have a worry in the world. As I round the corner, I nearly jump back again, having a hard time making sense of what I’m seeing.

  There is a large fire in the middle of the sandy area, Litha is standing next to it, staring at it, her hand outstretched and it almost looks like the fire is moving to her will.

  Finn is sitting on one of the stone blocks, looking perfectly comfortable where he is, his eyes on Litha.

  Litha’s mother is sitting on one of the other stone blocks, looking very proudly at her daughter, yelling encouragements at her.

  Aideen is sitting on the other side of the fire, on my side, her back to me, and she’s sitting very comfortably as she stares into the fire.

  I nearly jump again as I catch sight of my dad, leaning against the wall of the house, not too far off.

  He turns to me, grinning. “Hey, did you bring snacks? I feel like roasting some marshmallows, maybe some meat too.”

  I stare at him, slowly glaring. He’s always the one telling us off for doing dangerous things, saying that we’re putting people in danger and that we could inspire other students to do bad things. But having a big fire like this is somehow okay with him? “I could have, if I’d been invited... What are you doing here?”

  He shrugs. “I came to see where Eve was, and kind of got distracted along the way.”

  “You always tell us off for making some small fires, but this big fire is okay?” I glare at him and Dad simply shrugs, before nodding towards the fire. I look back and my mouth falls open when Litha picks up a piece of wood, setting it on fire by simply touching it, and then throwing it in the flames.

  “She’s not doing anything really dangerous. Eve is here to keep an eye on things, she’s great at fire control.” He pushes off the wall. “I guess that if I want snacks, I should probably bring them myself. Maybe your mother wants something to eat too...” And he walks off, mumbling more things to himself about what he’d like to roast and if he should bring alcohol or not. Like this is the most normal thing in the world. Like there isn’t a huge fire, twice as tall as Litha, right next to our house, in an area surrounded by trees... Has he lost his mind? What the...?

  “Bane!” Litha bounces over and pulls me back to the fire with her. I’m not sure if the fire in her eyes is coming from inside her or just a reflection of the big fire in front of her. “Look what I did!” She pulls me closer to her as she leans over, so fascinated
by the flames. Her hair has caught the glow of the fire, and it’s almost a dark red, like lava, flowing around her face.

  “Fire. Yes.” I smile, trying to ease up a little. Maybe we should be enjoying a little rest, some time off. “And how does this help your magic?”

  She looks at me, smiling, before she turns to the fire, raising her hands over her head and part of the fire rises, a piece of wood starting to float, sparking loudly, before she lets it crash back into the rest, shooting flecks of fire up into the air.

  Aideen, Finn and Litha’s mother all clap and Litha looks so proud of what she’s done.

  Then she turns back to me, grinning. “That’s all I can do, for now. But it’s definitely better than when I started.”

  I nod, not really sure how to read the way she’s acting, it’s like she’s not really herself. It’s almost scary.

  “She’s drunk on magic.” I jolt as Finn is suddenly next to me. “She’s running low on energy, but she’s so excited by her new powers that she’s gotten drunk on her own magic.”

  “And that’s safe, how?” I don’t want to be the grump of the group, but I’d also like for nobody else to get hurt any time soon... One of us still being severely wounded, and my own hand still not having fully recovered is enough for now.

  “Aideen and Litha’s mum are keeping the fire under control. There’s nothing bad that can happen. Come on, sit down.” He tugs on my arm and we walk to the stones, sitting down. “Try to relax a little.”

  Relax? With a huge fire like that right next to our house

  But before I can argue with him, Dad’s back, his hands full of bags with food, and Mum is following him closely, carrying even more food. Then Litha’s dad and Phoenix’ parents also appear, their hands filled with glasses and bottles, and anything else we may need for a picnic...

  Apparently, we’re having a party.

  The world around us is falling apart, but we’re having a party...

  Right...

  Finn puts his fingers to his lips as we carefully carry Litha into the house. She fell asleep on my shoulder about an hour ago, exhausted from using her magic so much, and since the fire is dying down, it seemed like the right time to get her to bed. “Let’s get her to my room.” He nods at his door, it’s the closest room for her to crash.

  I open the door with my elbow and we’re able to get her in his bed, without disturbing her too much.

  She’s been walking around barefoot for most of the evening, so we don’t need to worry about shoes or anything. I carefully pull the thin covers over her and then back away, but Finn stops me, holding onto my shirt.

  “You can crash here too, if you want to. The bed’s big enough for three people.” He eyes Litha and then quickly strips down to his boxer briefs. “I think she’ll like it, having you there when she wakes up. She’s been sleeping on you most of all tonight.” He slips under the covers with her and she immediately grabs hold of him, curling up against him.

  I almost decline the invitation, but then Litha opens her eyes a little, looking at me blearily.

  “Where are you going?” Her voice is slurred, sleepy.

  “To bed.” I smile, running my finger over her soft cheek, her skin warm, from the fire outside or from the fire inside her, I don’t know. “Go back to sleep.”

  She takes my hand, pulling on it. “There’s a bed here. Sleep here. With me.”

  And I can’t deny the sweet look in her eyes, can’t deny her anything when she looks so cute. “Okay, just let me get undressed so I can get in.” She slowly lets go of me, obviously not sure if I’d leave, and Finn in grinning at me. He was right, the ass.

  I glare at him, but then strip down to my boxer briefs and slide in on Litha’s other side. She immediately pushes back against me, grabs my arm, pulling it under her head, and lets out a happy hum.

  Then, within moments, she’s asleep, fast asleep. Out like a light.

  Finn lets out a low and soft laugh. “She got really excited about trying out her magic, you know? After she got over her initial fears. It was like watching a child find something new and cool. It was very sweet.”

  “A fire this close to the house isn’t so sweet, you know? What if something had happened?”

  “Pff. Not with her mum and Aideen around, it was perfectly safe.” How can he really not care?

  “You weren’t worried?”

  “Of course, I was. But I didn’t let that stop me from relaxing for once. This has been the first night in months where I’ve actually felt my age. I felt like a kid, doing slightly dangerous and stupid things, making crazy decisions. For once, I didn’t feel like I had to act twice my age. For once, I could just be a teenager going to college, and nothing more.” There is a longing in his voice that I feel deep inside me too, a longing to not always have to worry about catastrophic consequences of our small choices. “It’s been years since I felt like that, probably back when we used to stay at your parents’ place over the weekend. It’s been years...”

  “We kind of became too big to sleep under the table in the living room, squished together on two inflatable mattresses.” I laugh softly. “Our own little cocoon of childhood.”

  “That, or your parents caught onto Rune and Kit getting sexy together... They must have known far before we did. We were so blind to their relationship.”

  “They’ve always been together. They always went to each other first. That has always been the case, from the moment they met. We simply didn’t expect them to take things further than that. They were always so close, so why would we expect there to be more?” They’ve always been together, which makes the current situation so strange and uncomfortable, Kit locking himself off from Rune like that. “Has Kit even eaten anything since we were attacked?” Since Rune got hurt?

  “Barely.” Finn’s voice is low, sad. “He’s eaten some, but not enough. You can already see it, the way he’s starving himself.”

  Realisation sets in. “It’s killing him.”

  “Yes.”

  Tears spring in my eyes. It’s hard to keep everything together when Kit is so obviously hurting and doesn’t seem to know how to get out of it. Cool fingers slide over my shoulder, to my back, Finn. I still, but then realise he’s wrapped his arms around both Litha and me, holding us both closely. “Finn?”

  “Sssh. Just sleep, like we used to do, just with an added cute girl into the mix.” There is almost a smile in his voice, even though I can still hear his sadness.

  I remember how we all used to curl up together under the table, blankets turning the table into our own tent. All four of us, one big heap of body parts and soft voices. Our need for this type of seclusion was worst when it had been an especially gruelling couple of weeks between two trips to my parents’ place, when things had been worse than normal.

  I bury my face into Litha’s warm hair, breathing in her scorched rosemary scent, extra strong tonight, and finally relax enough to fall asleep.

  Maybe we’re all our best being when we’re not on our own, but when we’re hanging out together, doing things together, needing the others...

  Is that part of our prophecy too, or simply the need of four princes, alienated by the world around them, finding comfort with the few people who really understand how they feel?

  But before I nod off, I realise, I don’t care which it is, prophecy or companionship, it’s the one thing that has dragged us through the rough times, and it’s the only thing which will keep us all alive in the future. We all need each other, that’s our strength.

  4

  When I wake up, the house is silent, finally.

  They were having a party outside last night, which was hard to ignore, I wanted to be there so badly, but I stayed in my room. Then, when everything calmed down, I fell asleep, too exhausted.

  It’s now early in the morning, around six or something, and everything is still quiet in the house.

  I pull on shorts and a shirt and then open the door of my bedroom. I can’t hear anyone move
around, so I slip out and close the door behind me, making as little sound as possible. Then I make my way over to the stairs, looking at the big stash of boxes resting against the railing. I guess we’re going to have to find a new place for those things, or I can try to take most of my own things with me when I leave...

  Shaking my head, I quietly make my way down the stairs. Still no movement anywhere else. Good.

  I eye Rune’s door, but then push him out of my mind, I’m on my way to the kitchen, nothing else. A quick trip there and then back upstairs, before anyone notices that I’ve been out of my room. I just need something to eat, my stomach feels like it’s trying to eat itself, I’ve not had a full meal in days. Just a couple of sandwiches and I’ll be back in my room, nobody the wiser.

  I slip through the dining room, the door on that side is quieter than the one from the hallway, and I finally take a deep breath as I reach the kitchen, finding the place empty.

  What should I get? I can probably only get cold things on my sandwiches, any type of cooking or heating up will let the others know that I’m here. That I’ve been here...

  It’s better if they forget I exist, it’s better if they stop thinking of me, if I slowly disappear from their lives. Better for all of us.

  My eyes fall on the fridge, there is usually enough in there to make a couple of good sandwiches, especially if there is any meat left from last night. I could smell that they were roasting meat over the fire.

  I move as quietly as possible, not making a sound, my movements deliberate and smooth, years of experience kicking in.

  I’m nearly at the fridge when I’m suddenly grabbed from behind. One arm catching my arms at my sides, a hand over my mouth, preventing me from screaming out. But I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t be able to. Because my ‘attacker’ is touching my skin and I can clearly feel Rune’s pain, and his force of love for me, as he keeps hold of me.