totally not the approach she needed right now. Removed. Unfeeling. “Have you been having suicidal thoughts? Bad dreams, visions? Are you more depressed than usual?”
An inward sigh went through me. If only he’d injected some feeling behind his hard eyes, a little concern into those questions …
I didn’t need to be in her line of sight to know her eyes were spitting copper fire. “Only when I’m around you.”
Ouch.
The tension came roaring back to life.
“Careful, Bryn,” Aaron responded with a hint of arrogance. “Your youth is showing.”
Oh shit. That was the one thing Bryn hated about her relationship with Aaron—the fact that she was twenty-seven and he was a couple hundred years old.
“And for all your years and supposed knowledge,” she said, standing, “you know very little about females.” Her back was rigid, shoulders back, chin up. But below this show of anger, there existed a wealth of hurt. “I’ll take this as my cue to leave. Wouldn’t want me listening in on whatever the oracle said. Might use it against somebody …”
I watched her go, hoping that Aaron would call her back, to show her he cared, but he remained silent until the door was closed. “I’ll double up her guards,” he said. “I want someone by her even while she sleeps, while she’s in the bathroom, while she’s working in the garden. Every moment of every day and night, she’ll be protected …”
Now why in the hell didn’t he say that when she was here?
“Did the oracle say anything else to help us?” he asked.
“She’s arranging an introduction with a creature she believes can see inside of a person and tell whether they’re possessed or not. Called it a sylph. You ever hear of it?”
Aaron blinked, his surprise slowly replaced byscholarly interest. “A sylph. They are little more than legend, even to us.”
“Well, apparently it’s real, so says the all-knowing Sandra.”
“It’s not an
it,
Charlie. It’s a she. Sylphs are said to be female.”
“Oh. What else do you know about them?”
“I only know what the legends say.”
“And what do those say?”
“Some say that sylphs are a distant relation to the nymphs, that somewhere in our prehistory, they left Elysia for this world, first making their homes in the lakes, glens, mountains, and deep woods of what you now know as the British Isles. It’s said that during this time they evolved, diverged, and developed into shifters of the earth, of this world and its elements.
“Supposedly they eventually mated with male Picts and Celts of the area, sent the male children back to their fathers or killed them, and kept the females. It’s the females who have the ability to shift. Earth, air, fire, water. I’d guess they draw energy from their surroundings; develop a kind of symbiotic relationship with earth. I have long believed that this is where legends of your nature spirits come from. The Lady of the Lake, I assume you have heard of her?”
“The one from the King Arthur stories, sure.”
“Perhaps not fiction, perhaps a water sylph tied to a particular lake. Perhaps, even, still there today.”
“Any idea how they see inside?”
“None, I’m afraid. I wasn’t even aware this was a talent they possessed. I’ll research more. If I find anything, I’ll let you know. How’s your arm?” I followed his glance to my right arm. It was covered by my sleeve, but underneath, the scars from the battle atop Helios Tower remained. More precisely the scar or the imprint left from reaching inside of the agate sarcophagus and taking the divine sword from the grip of the First One lying inside, and using it to kill Llyran, the Adonai serial killer who’d been working with the Sons of Dawn for his own psychotic agenda.
That weapon was meant for a divine being to wield. It meant death to anyone who touched it. But because I had the genes of all three worlds coursing through my body—much like the First Ones—I had lived. And now I
An inward sigh went through me. If only he’d injected some feeling behind his hard eyes, a little concern into those questions …
I didn’t need to be in her line of sight to know her eyes were spitting copper fire. “Only when I’m around you.”
Ouch.
The tension came roaring back to life.
“Careful, Bryn,” Aaron responded with a hint of arrogance. “Your youth is showing.”
Oh shit. That was the one thing Bryn hated about her relationship with Aaron—the fact that she was twenty-seven and he was a couple hundred years old.
“And for all your years and supposed knowledge,” she said, standing, “you know very little about females.” Her back was rigid, shoulders back, chin up. But below this show of anger, there existed a wealth of hurt. “I’ll take this as my cue to leave. Wouldn’t want me listening in on whatever the oracle said. Might use it against somebody …”
I watched her go, hoping that Aaron would call her back, to show her he cared, but he remained silent until the door was closed. “I’ll double up her guards,” he said. “I want someone by her even while she sleeps, while she’s in the bathroom, while she’s working in the garden. Every moment of every day and night, she’ll be protected …”
Now why in the hell didn’t he say that when she was here?
“Did the oracle say anything else to help us?” he asked.
“She’s arranging an introduction with a creature she believes can see inside of a person and tell whether they’re possessed or not. Called it a sylph. You ever hear of it?”
Aaron blinked, his surprise slowly replaced byscholarly interest. “A sylph. They are little more than legend, even to us.”
“Well, apparently it’s real, so says the all-knowing Sandra.”
“It’s not an
it,
Charlie. It’s a she. Sylphs are said to be female.”
“Oh. What else do you know about them?”
“I only know what the legends say.”
“And what do those say?”
“Some say that sylphs are a distant relation to the nymphs, that somewhere in our prehistory, they left Elysia for this world, first making their homes in the lakes, glens, mountains, and deep woods of what you now know as the British Isles. It’s said that during this time they evolved, diverged, and developed into shifters of the earth, of this world and its elements.
“Supposedly they eventually mated with male Picts and Celts of the area, sent the male children back to their fathers or killed them, and kept the females. It’s the females who have the ability to shift. Earth, air, fire, water. I’d guess they draw energy from their surroundings; develop a kind of symbiotic relationship with earth. I have long believed that this is where legends of your nature spirits come from. The Lady of the Lake, I assume you have heard of her?”
“The one from the King Arthur stories, sure.”
“Perhaps not fiction, perhaps a water sylph tied to a particular lake. Perhaps, even, still there today.”
“Any idea how they see inside?”
“None, I’m afraid. I wasn’t even aware this was a talent they possessed. I’ll research more. If I find anything, I’ll let you know. How’s your arm?” I followed his glance to my right arm. It was covered by my sleeve, but underneath, the scars from the battle atop Helios Tower remained. More precisely the scar or the imprint left from reaching inside of the agate sarcophagus and taking the divine sword from the grip of the First One lying inside, and using it to kill Llyran, the Adonai serial killer who’d been working with the Sons of Dawn for his own psychotic agenda.
That weapon was meant for a divine being to wield. It meant death to anyone who touched it. But because I had the genes of all three worlds coursing through my body—much like the First Ones—I had lived. And now I
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