The Bound (Ascension #2)(99)

“And who are you?” Ahlvie asked.

“Manners on that one,” Vera chided.

Ahlvie flashed her a smile.

“He means,” Orden said, “who the hell are you and what are you doing to Cyrene?”

“This,” Cyrene said with a dramatic pause, “is Matilde and Vera.”

All three of her friend’s mouths dropped open at the same time. Cyrene wasn’t sure if they had even believed that Matilde and Vera could be found. They had been away from home for so long, searching and searching with such little information.

Cyrene would be the first to admit that she had been losing hope, but everything had changed. All it had taken was for her to lose control of her powers and cause a massive explosion—the very thing she had been avoiding since she got here.

“Thank you for the introductions,” Vera said politely. “However, in the palace, I go by Mari, and my sister goes by Kathrine.”

Avoca reverently ambled forward. “It is an honor to meet you both.” She pressed the tips of her fingers to her lips in a sign of deference.

“Oh, I have missed Leif manners,” Vera said with a smile.

“You know about…Leifs?” Avoca asked.

Matilde snort-laughed. “Know about them? You have much to learn.”

“Perhaps they should not learn it while out here, in the middle of a tunnel,” Vera suggested.

“Yes, of course, Mari. I was just getting to that.”

“Shall we depart then?”

“Yes, I think so.”

Matilde and Vera walked forward at a rapid pace. Cyrene jogged to keep up with them. She had no idea where they were walking to, but she knew that she desperately needed their teachings. Her friends followed in her wake.

“I suppose we’ll have to get her out of the country,” Vera said.

“I think Ika Roa would be perfect this time of year,” Matilde said.

“Yes. I do hate that we have to leave so soon after the Eos. I would have preferred to show more respect to the gods with the elements so near.”

“I believe the gods just gave us a blessing.”

Vera glanced over at Cyrene. “Yes. Ika Roa then.”

“That way, we can start from scratch. She has the power and something else I’m not sure about,” Matilde continued, as if Cyrene wasn’t standing right next to them. “Something powerful though.”

Vera nodded. “I feel it, too. We’ll have to discover what that means at a later date.”

“Yes. We should bring the Leif girl. She’s young, but they always look that way.”

“What exactly are you talking about?” Cyrene asked in confusion. “Ika Roa?”

“We need to leave the country immediately,” Vera said as they rounded another corner.

“What?” Cyrene gasped. Why?”

The women looked at each other and then proceeded up a flight of stairs without answering. They took their time climbing to the top. Matilde griped under her breath about flying, and Cyrene just stared at her in confusion.

“Don’t mind Kathrine. She misses the sky.”

Cyrene nodded, having no idea what that meant.

Vera took a deep breath when they reached the top of the stairs. “Ika Roa seems like the perfect place to begin your training. And you must be trained, or you’ll be a danger to everyone and everything.”

“At the rate you’re going, you’ll burn yourself out,” Matilde warily told her.

Cyrene shuddered at that thought. She couldn’t lose her magic, and she didn’t want to harm anyone. But leave the country?

She was about to say something, but Matilde turned her attention to Avoca.

“Shira is still Queen in Eldora, isn’t she? I heard she took the throne after Eve’a fell in battle.”

Avoca’s eyes widened again. Matilde and Vera were talking about something that had happened two thousand years ago.

“Yes,” Avoca peeped.

“Perhaps we should go there,” Matilde said dreamily. “We haven’t been in Eldora in so long, Mari. Just think about the woods…”

“But if she’s anything like Sera, then it will be water first. The rivers aren’t enough. We’ll need all of the Lakonia.”

Cyrene’s head was spinning. “You have to take me out of Eleysia to train me?”

“Yes, and we should move with haste,” Matilde said irritably. “Are the boys coming with us?”

Vera cast her gaze over Ahlvie and then Orden. “They might as well. They already know too much.”

“Wait!” Cyrene cried, silencing their endless tirade. “I can’t leave Eleysia. Why can’t we train here?”

“Just like Sera,” Matilde mumbled under her breath.

“Let me guess…something to do with this Prince Dean you mentioned?” Vera said.

Cyrene’s cheeks heated, but she couldn’t deny it. She didn’t want to leave Dean. She wanted to see what could be with him. At the moment, he felt essential to her magic. Maybe it was selfish to want this…him. But she had walked away from Edric without even a backward glance. Her heart couldn’t do the same to Dean.

“Yes.”

“Oh, how history always finds a way of repeating itself,” Matilde said. She shook her head and looked at Vera, as if to say, You reason with her.