Crystal Caged (Air Awakens: Vortex Chronicles Book 5) Read online

  She brushed her lips against his. Taavin ducked his head, leaning forward for another, longer kiss. She wanted to linger there forever, in ignorant bliss for him.

  “Don’t worry yourself so much about these things,” he spoke against her mouth. “There is much that must come to pass before it’s even a concern. Each event more unlikely than the last.”

  “Are you trying to make me ignore my responsibility as Champion?”

  “At least for tonight,” he said with a sultry note. Vi felt him grin against her mouth and it prompted her to mirror the action. Sometimes, there was simply too much to worry over.

  Troubling herself with what would happen when all of Yargen’s power was collected was pointless until she actually collected that power. First, she needed to worry about getting the crystal weapons and figuring out where the crown was hidden. But even before all that… she’d worry about the man before her.

  She pushed him gently, allowing the back of his knees to meet the bed frame. Taavin sat heavily. The bed groaned under his weight—the ropes supporting the mattress tightened—and the sound jostled her from the trance his touch could put her under.

  Vi blinked at him. His hands were on her hips as she straddled him, one still clutching the stone. Taavin looked up at her from underneath heavy lids lined with long lashes. His lips were already begging for hers again.

  But all she could do was stare, running her fingertips down his cheek.

  “What is it?” Taavin whispered.

  “When you touch this, you’re real. As real as you were in the Crystal Caverns,” Vi mused gingerly. “I think if I linked your consciousness to the crystal, I wouldn’t need to maintain narro hath and you would be here with me.”

  “Vi…” His free hand tapped at the watch around her neck. “I am always here for you. Isn’t that enough?”

  It should be. Some didn’t get half as lucky. But she was needy. And there was some streak of selfish princess in her when it came to this man where Vi would never learn to leave well enough alone.

  She wanted him. All of him.

  “You are always enough.” Vi kissed the tip of his nose lightly. “I just want all of you.”

  “You have all I am.”

  “I still want to try linking your form with the crystal,” she persisted.

  “You might have successfully managed the sword. But this is different. And the last thing you want to do is ruin the magic of the watch. Meddle with that incorrectly, and you really will lose me, along with your and your future selves’ chances to save this world by benefiting from my collected memories.”

  “I know I can,” she insisted. “Let me try.”

  “No, we must be cautious.” A note of finality in his tone made Vi relent.

  She sighed and pressed her forehead against his. “I want you like this.” She wanted to feel warmth from him. To breathe in his scent. To feel his smooth skin and silky hair under her fingers.

  “Do you think I don’t want it?” He caught her lips again, planting a firm kiss as he pulled her closer to him and further away from the idea.

  “I want to roll over and find you in the night. I want to come back and see you here, waiting to greet me,” Vi whispered between short, sweet kisses.

  Taavin leaned back, pulling her with him. He twisted, and Vi found herself beneath him. Their weight made the mattress sink further into the ropes as he continued to clutch the stone in his palm.

  With narro hath he was real to her.

  With the power of Yargen, he could be real to the world.

  “I want to go about my day and run into you,” he murmured, kissing her cheeks. “I want to catch your eyes from across a square, or a hall, or a library, and share a smile that only we would know. A smile to assure you that by night you will find your way into my arms once more.” His lips moved down her neck and Vi let out a soft sigh.

  I need you to give me a place to hide from the world when I need, Vi wanted to say. She had no reprieve, not really… not since she had fallen in love with him only to end his mortal form. The arms that had become her home were taken from her, just like everything else.

  “It’s a beautiful dream,” Vi whispered.

  “Indulge in that beautiful dream, tonight.” Taavin brought his lips back to hers. Vi kissed him so firmly that when he pulled away, he was breathless. “Indulge in us, because that’s all we have.”

  His words were like honey warmed in sunlight, bright, sweet, and oh so tempting. She found herself stuck in them as much as she was stuck in place, helpless beneath his wandering hands. It had been fourteen years since she had a room to herself, and the ground of the Crystal Caverns was far too cold and hard.

  “I can’t,” Vi whispered.

  “You can’t?” He slowly pulled away and sat up on the bed.

  “I need to start looking for some leads on the crown,” Vi murmured, standing. She also had some research she wanted to do.

  “Now?”

  “No time like the present.” Vi hooked his chin with her finger and pulled his lips to her for one more firm kiss. When they pulled apart, she gave him a beaming smile. “Perhaps I’ll let you be the one to keep me up all night soon.” Vi held out her hand expectantly.

  “Don’t tempt me.” Taavin passed the stone back to her.

  She leaned away and released her focus on narro hath. Taavin vanished.

  With the stone in her pocket, Vi wandered down to the Tower library—a smaller and more private collection, separate from the Imperial Library. It was late, but she doubted she’d be able to sleep tonight. Her mind was far too full.

  The library was dark and icy cold. Vi pushed her spark to burn beneath her skin, warming her as her breath fogged the air. There was a hearth on the far side of the circular room, but Vi didn’t light it. She didn’t want to draw attention from any other late-night wanderers.

  A mote of fire appeared at her side, just enough to see by. The gold embossing on the spines that lined the shelves winked at her as Vi explored the library. She flipped the stone over and over in her pocket, her thoughts centering around it.

  If she could manipulate the crystals to make weapons, she could manipulate them into the shape of a body. Crystals were Yargen’s magic given physical form. Her presence in this world was proof of that. The body Yargen gave Vi between time, when the world was remade, was a result of Yargen’s magic making a physical form.

  Furthermore, if Taavin’s consciousness could be anchored in a watch, it could be placed in a hypothetical body. It was all theory, yes. But she had facts to back up that theory.

  Still, she knew no matter what she said, Taavin wasn’t going to let her experiment… at least not until she could offer him some assurances that she would succeed.

  Vi came to a stop by a back section of worn, tucked-away books. Most of the titles had flaked off their spines. Still, one volume caught her eye. She knew she should be looking for clues to the crown, but Vi couldn’t stop herself. She hooked her finger on the book, sliding it from its place.

  “The Windwalkers of the East,” she murmured and flipped open the first page. It was a record, put together by none other than the current Imperial Librarian, Mohned Topperen. Topperen. The name was familiar to her—beyond the stories her mother told—but Vi couldn’t place how or why.

  The manuscript was an account of the Burning Times through interviews with one of the last surviving Windwalkers. Vi scanned the pages, which covered everything from magical theory to terrible experiments involving human sacrifice meant to unlock the true power of the crystals. Fiera had learned how to manipulate crystals by reading accounts from the Burning Times. Perhaps, if Vi did her own research, she could find something that would give her the additional evidence she needed to convince Taavin to let her experiment.

  A pair of footsteps approached and Vi snuffed her flame on instinct. She hastily shut the book and returned it to the shelf. But she hadn’t been fast enough.

  “Who’s there?” a male voice called int
o the darkness.

  “Durroe watt radia,” Vi whispered under her breath, stepping back against the wall.

  “I’ll give you one more chance. Show yourself.”

  Fire burst into life in the hearth. It cast long, shifting shadows on each of the bookcases. Vi could see its light shining through the tops of the books between the shelves from where she stood.

  She saw the orange glow falling on a young man who needed no introduction. Her heart began to race.

  Vi had wondered what she’d feel when she first laid eyes on Aldrik Solaris. The man who, in another world, had been her father. The man whose mother she’d taken from him.

  There were too many emotions within her now to count, blending together into something impossible to name.

  His dark hair went past his shoulders, unbound in a style Vi had never seen her father wear before. He was awkwardly tall, mostly legs and gangly arms—a body half grown and still trying to fill itself out. Vi recognized that phase. She’d been there herself.

  This is not your father, Vi reminded herself. Yet her eyes, her heart, tried to tell her otherwise. The magic glyph around her wrist trembled with her hands.

  He walked down the rows of shelves, searching. “I could’ve sworn…” Aldrik mumbled. Vi remained stone still, and the young prince eventually shook his head and rubbed his eyes. It was late, and he no doubt wrote off her faint light as a trick of his mind.

  The prince set out purposefully for another section of the library. She watched him over the tops of the books. Every muscle was tense; she wouldn’t have been able to move if she’d tried.

  What is it you’re looking for? Vi silently asked as Aldrik scanned the shelves with intent.

  He slid a book from the shelf, his dark eyes almost meeting Vi’s as she stared at him, entranced.

  “Groundbreakers and their fortifications in Shaldan,” he muttered to himself, scanning the first few pages. “Sky fortresses… impenetrable magic walls…” He stopped, eyes on a page. Aldrik snapped the book shut and started back down the row and out the library.

  The fire in the hearth extinguished, leaving darkness in his wake.

  Vi stepped out from her hiding place, listening carefully to the fading steps before relaxing her glyph.

  “Groundbreakers, hmm?” Vi murmured. The prince was reading about the North when no one was looking. He was trying to hide his interest and Vi knew the reason why.

  The Emperor was beginning to make moves against Shaldan.

  And that meant she had less time than she thought to find out what happened to the crown of the first Solaris king, and get out of the capital.

  Chapter Five

  “Ah, punctual I see,” Egmun said as they met in the hallway outside his office door.

  “I wouldn’t want to be late after all you’ve promised me.”

  “What I promised, and will deliver.” He ran a hand over the doorknob and the ice that blocked the lock withdrew into his fingertips. “Please, come in.”

  As they entered the office, the Minister went right for the cabinets in the back of the room. From the uppermost, he retrieved an unassuming box. Egmun set it on his desk reverently and Vi approached with apprehension. Engraved on it was Western writing, worn with time, and Vi knew what was inside before he opened the lid. The minister lifted a shimmering crystal from within.

  “They’re magnificent, no?”

  “Where did you get those?” There were four more stones nestled against the plush velvet lining of the box.

  “Western heirlooms.” Egmun turned the crystal over in his fingers, the faint, blue light catching on the outline of his face and turning his pale hair to the same icy blue as his eyes. “They were a bit tricky to get my hands on, I admit. But I managed. The Knights of Jadar still claim I stole them.” He chuckled. “I’m sure they’ll claim I stole the sword, too, once it inevitably becomes known that it has returned to the world under my possession.”

  “I hope information about the sword doesn’t get back to the Knights.”

  “Truth is like cupping water in your hands.” Egmun glanced at her. “Impossible to keep to yourself for long.”

  “Well, either way, you don’t seem like the sort of man who cares much for what others think.” Vi leaned against his desk and plucked one of the smaller stones from the box. It shimmered brightly underneath her fingers, the magic calling out to her. Vi almost had to make a conscious effort not to absorb the frail power within. Vi suspected these crystals had been severed from the Caverns long ago, during the Burning Times and the reign of Jadar. She wondered if the Windwalkers she’d read about last night in the library were the last ones to have held these stones.

  It didn’t seem like enough power was collected in them that Vi needed to worry about their presence affecting her plans at all. She was trying to preserve Yargen’s power, certainly. But Vi’s plans hinged on the raw essence of the goddess, not tiny offshoots of magic from that essence.

  “I’ve never seen a crystal have that reaction before.” Egmun startled her from her thoughts.

  “It’s just a different way to draw out the magic. You use the flow from your own channel to pull it along.” Vi pulled the lie out of thin air.

  “I’ve never tried that before… or read anything about that.” His eyes had an undeniably cautious glint.

  “I picked it up in my readings in the West. This method is more similar to how the Windwalkers work with the stones.”

  “Not many tomes on the crystal magics still exist in the West. The Emperor took most of the writings with him when he returned south following the late Empress’s death.”

  “What did you say about truth? Like holding water in your hands?” Vi smiled thinly and returned the crystal to the box, hoping to end the conversation. Egmun placed his crystal back in the dip in the velvet.

  “You said you weren’t with the Knights of Jadar.”

  “I’m not,” Vi insisted.

  “Yet you have a fascination with the stones one would expect a Knight of Jadar to have. You have knowledge one would expect only a Knight to possess.”

  “Don’t assume just because I am Western and appreciate the power of the crystals that I must also be a Knight of Jadar.” Vi straightened away from the desk. “I don’t assume that just because you are Southern and obsessed with items of great power that you are working on behalf of the Emperor to gain weapons for him to use against Shaldan.” She let the words unless you are remain unsaid.

  Egmun laughed from his belly. “Fair, fair.” He shook his head, as though the notion had caused him great amusement. “Though I’m not working with the Emperor and have proof of that.”

  “Oh?”

  “You’ll see soon—” He was interrupted by a knock on the door. “There they are now.” Egmun smiled in a most devious way. He passed her a folio on his way to the door. “Here, take this ledger and record what happens.” Vi accepted it wordlessly, allowing the tides of fate to pull her along. “Good morning, my prince. Victor.”

  Victor. Vi recognized the name from her studies as a girl. She also recognized it from Taavin’s tales of past iterations of their world. This man was always behind the ultimate destruction of the Crystal Caverns, usually involving the crown of the first Solaris King somehow.

  He was the one whose name her mother cringed to speak, and her father scowled to hear. He had been the source of suffering in their lives. Vi could only wonder what he’d end up being to her now.

  His eyes met hers as Victor entered the room with a relaxed gait. She kept her face passive save for the small smile that had worked its way onto her lips. In this world, she would be the one to find the crystal crown, not him.

  “Good morning, Egmun.”

  Another voice stole Vi’s attention. Her gaze shifted and Vi saw Aldrik clearly for the first time. His dark eyes settled on her and Aldrik froze in place.

  “Who’s she?”

  “She’s a recent graduate of the Academy of Arcane Arts in Norin,” Egmun lied de
ftly.

  “Does the Academy still accept students?” Aldrik asked, clearly unsure of the answer.

  “Graduate? You don’t look like you could be any older than I am.” Victor rubbed the makings of a goatee on his chin, which was currently little more than a ghost of stubble.

  “We all progress differently.” Egmun said, going behind his desk. The two young men assumed their seats in the chairs opposite. Vi remained poised, her folio at the ready to take notes as instructed.

  “Yes, not everyone is as slow as you, Victor,” Aldrik said with a grin. He clearly intended the words to be mischievous, but even Vi could tell they struck a sensitive spot instead.

  “And what is your name?” Victor asked her, pointedly ignoring the prince. He clearly had a well-established relationship with Aldrik, seeing as the prince let his doggedness slide.

  “Vivian.” Vi bowed her head. “It is an honor to be observing two of the Tower’s most illustrious students.”

  “So you told her about us?” Aldrik lounged, looking between Vi and the box. “About everything?”

  “She has a good handle of the situation herself.” Egmun gave a nod. “Vivian is well studied on the matter of crystals.” Just the word “crystals” felt like crossing a threshold from which there was no turning back. “She’s my new research assistant.”

  “I thought you knew everything?” Aldrik quipped. He was the epitome of a young prince, from the way he draped himself across the chair to the way he said the first thing that flew into his mind without any concern or filter. Vi felt herself inwardly cringe in embarrassment on Aldrik’s behalf… and her own. She was old and wise enough now to know that she had been much the same once. “Isn’t that why we’re bothering to learn from you?”

  “We all have something more we can learn,” Victor said firmly. “Now, don’t embarrass yourself in front of our guest.”

  Aldrik glanced back at her, awareness of how he had sounded appearing across his face. Vi held his eyes for a long moment—long enough that he was the one to break the stare.

  Egmun slid the box across the desk and clicked it open. “Shall we begin?”