The Bound (Ascension #2)(96)

“Ava,” Ceis’f called. “You’re practically blinding with power. Cut it loose.”

She shook her head and drank more in. “It’s amazing, Ceis’f.”

“You need to stop,” he demanded. “There’s water everywhere. You don’t need so much earth.”

She rounded on him. “That’s easy for you to say. Your main element is everywhere,” she said, gesturing toward the sky.

“And it all smells wrong, Ava! I’m used to the forest air…the mountain air,” he said softer. “This is city air. It hardly calls to me the same. Now, get up, and let it go. If you want to feel in your element, then we should get off this island with hundreds of filthy humans and go home!”

“Leave her alone,” a voice sounded behind them.

Avoca lifted her head at the sound and smiled. Ahlvie. “You’re here.”

“Stay out of this,” Ceis’f growled. His voice was low and dangerous.

He had unconsciously shifted into a fighting stance. Avoca could see his flames licking at the palms of his hands.

Orden grabbed onto Ahlvie and tried to haul him back. “Come on, Ahlvie. This isn’t your fight.”

“Yeah, listen to the old man,” Ceis’f taunted.

Orden glared at him. “I’ve stuck up for you through all of this. Tried to stay out of your business. Tried to keep all of you together. But you’re all determined to kill each other, aren’t you?”

“If that’s what it takes,” Ceis’f growled low. The flames traveled up his arms, igniting with his rage.

“Then so be it,” Orden said, releasing Ahlvie and crossing his arms.

Ahlvie cocked a smile and took light, easy steps, as if he didn’t’ see Ceis’f’s flames. “Nice trick,” he teased.

“There’s more where this came from.”

“Ceis’f, stop it,” Avoca said. She glared at him. “You’re acting like a child.”

“This is a long time coming, Ava,” Ceis’f spat. “We’re going to have to settle this here and now.”

“There is nothing to settle!” Avoca cried.

“She’s right. When are you going to get it through your head?” Ahlvie said. He actually smiled.

That was the thing about Ahlvie. Everything was a joke and carefree. But she knew, underneath that facade, he was very serious about his friends and extremely loyal, not to mention a skilled fighter.

“She doesn’t want to go home. She doesn’t want you to try to control her. She just doesn’t want you.”

Ceis’f glared, and without a second thought, he shot a fireball toward Ahlvie. Ahlvie’s eyes grew, but he threw himself out of the way. He rolled into a ball and then landed back on his feet.

“Can’t take the truth?” Ahlvie taunted.

“That’s not the truth.”

Ceis’f pushed a burst of air right at Ahlvie. He couldn’t dodge that blast quickly enough and ended up getting knocked backward ten feet, landing on his ass.

“If it’s not the truth,” Ahlvie said, staggering back to his feet, “then why are you fighting me?”

“Because you’re a lying, manipulative, wretched human, just like the rest of them!” Ceis’f yelled, losing it.

He pushed another blast of air toward Ahlvie, but Avoca had had enough.

She drank in the magic that the fresh earth had given her and rocked the ground at Ceis’f’s feet. He tried to stand against the onslaught, but even he couldn’t avoid the effects of her magic. She was stronger than him. Only barely.

“No more, Ceis’f,” she commanded. “It’s over.”

She reached for more and more. She took water from the lake, swirled it around his body, and then threw him backward. He landed several feet away from her. She could see the anger clearly written on his face, but he would never come after her.

“Ava…”

“Ahlvie is not like the people who killed your family!” she yelled. “Not Ahlvie. Not Cyrene. Not Orden. Not Maelia. They are good and kind and flawed. Flawed like everyone is! If you cannot see that and accept that, then you are worse than the people who took your village from you. The loss of Aonia was horrible. So many Leifs were lost at one time due to savagery and the unknown, but holding on to the hatred and letting it be the fuel for your every action has poisoned you! And I could never be with someone who hates so fiercely.” Avoca turned from Ceis’f and looked at Ahlvie. He was staring at her, wide-eyed but unafraid. “I want someone who loves.”

Their eyes met, and her heart leaped at the possibilities in that one gaze. She had no idea what she was doing. Getting involved with a human was…a terrible idea. She would live for hundreds, likely even thousands, of years, and he would have such a short life in comparison. The notion of loving someone she would lose was terrifying and horrifying, but she couldn’t let that fear rule her life the way hatred ruled Ceis’f’s.

Avoca could feel the wrath coming off of Ceis’f, but she just didn’t care. She was tired of the control and the tiptoeing around Ceis’f. She wanted this. What else matters?

She cleared the distance between she and Ahlvie, put her hand on the back of his neck, and pulled his lips down on top of hers. Her magic fled her body so suddenly at his touch that it left her body numb. In that moment, all she could feel was Ahlvie’s lips on her mouth, the hungry way he seemed to devour her, and the need rolling off of him. It had been growing for months. She had been an idiot for ignoring it.