Breaker (Ondine Quartet Book 4) (58 page)

Helene nudged Lucas. “Tell me you’re staying. You don’t know how bored I’ve been since you and Dax left.” She paused and glanced at all of us. “No offense.”

Cam muttered something under his breath about being too old for this shit.

“Of course I’m staying. I’m not missing this.” Lucas turned to me, his face turning serious. “Whatever you need, Kendra. I’m fighting.”

I nodded. “Helene can bring you over to Michael later and get you set up.”

Helene beamed. She dragged her friend to a chair, excitedly talking about everything that had happened since they last saw each other.

“You look like you haven’t slept in days.” Daniel frowned and pushed his wire-rim glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I’ve never had a patient take such delight in ignoring my advice.”
 

“Too busy saving the world, Daniel.”

He gave a mock sigh and lifted up a bag filled with sandwiches. My stomach rumbled.

“Thought so.” He headed for the kitchen. “Eat first,
sondaleur
. Then save the world.”

By the time I waited outside the Council Chamber, my mind had cleared.

The others were waiting in another room for their cue.

This had been a long time coming.

Jeeves met me by the doors. “Whenever you’re ready,
sondaleur
.”

I entered.

The Council had just been called into session. Rumors, fueled by the increase in security, had spread through Haverleau like wildfire and the chamber was packed.

An abrupt silence fell at my entrance. All eyes followed me across the floor until I stood to Tristan’s right.
 

Patrice nodded at me. “You have the floor, Marquisa Irisavie.”

A prickling sensation added to the thrumming itchiness of the silencing spell. Jourdain watched me from her glass tank, creepy black eyes boring into me.
 

I had yet to say a word when my opposition spoke up.

“This is an outrage.” Marquis Rosamund’s face pinched, making it appear narrower than it already was. He pointed a shaky finger. “This ondine has no business being here. She walked away from the Governorship and gave up the Irisavie seat on the Council!”

“She gave up her right to speak before us,” his mate agreed.

“Just because I’m no longer on the Council doesn’t mean I’m no longer an Irisavie.”

I was still Redavi, with all the privileges accorded to me by that status, including my right to address the Council on the floor.

“What an utter disgrace,” Marquisa Rossay huffed. “Rhian Irisavie would be absolutely appalled —“

“On the contrary, Marquisa.” Catrin folded her hands on the table and smiled. “Rhian was my dearest friend and I can assure you she’d be utterly delighted by this turn of events.”

“Says the person who has benefitted from her actions,” Marquis Blanchard said snidely.
 

Catrin’s expression cooled. “I’m here solely at the request of the
sondaleur
. The moment she wishes her seat back, I will be more than happy to return it to her.”

“So you admit she shuns her duty to the Council?” Triumph gleamed in Marquisa Rossay’s beady eyes. She smelled blood in the water. “Continues to avoid her duty to her people?”

Gabe’s jaw clenched. “Killing Aquidae and dealing with the Shadow is more than serving her duty.”

“You are in no position to speak on this, Chevalier Renard. She is your niece and your behavior has also not been exemplary —“
 

“Enough,” Patrice said coldly. “Kendra Irisavie is here to testify at my request. She may not be a member of this Council, but she is Redavi, a resident of Haverleau, and a chevalier so she will be —“

“And the
sondaleur
.”

The chamber went so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.

Patrice shifted. “Excuse me?”

“You forgot to mention I’m also the
sondaleur
,” I said pleasantly.

It was the first time I’d spoken those words aloud in front of everyone.
 

“How…have you forgotten there is no proof?” Marquis Genevieve tapped his finger against the table. “Considering your recent behavior, how can you ask any of us to believe you?”

“I can’t.”

Tristan’s gaze felt like a physical caress, a gesture of support.

Here goes nothing.
 

“I used to think I had to have all the answers. But I don’t. I can’t tell you why someone lives and another dies. I can’t tell you why the good among us, the innocent are hurt.” I braced myself. “I can’t tell you why so many of us, our families and loved ones, have had to bear the consequences of a war that doesn’t belong to us.”

The effect was instantaneous.

Magic lashed against me like a whip. It singed across my skin and buried deep, crawling into my bones.
 

I heard the sharp intake of breath beside me. The others felt it, too.

Patrice frowned. “What do you mean?”

Jourdain swirled inside of her glass tube, her hair floating angrily in the water, the glow around her growing brighter.

I stared at her. “This war has been fought because of a lie.”
 

You have no right to do this.

Her voice echoed from the air itself, vibrating with old, powerful magic.

The words were meant to stop me, but had the opposite effect. Murmurs raced through the crowd and several members of the Council recoiled.

People didn’t like being told they had no right.

I stepped forward. “Oh, I have every right. Every elemental here has the right to hear this.”

This was my trump card, my way of proving to everyone I told the truth.

Haverleau may not trust me. But they trusted what they could see and Jourdain had a hell of a time controlling her temper.

“We were told this war was a result of the Shadow’s innate evil. That as elementals our sacred duty was to fight this darkness, to protect our creator from this threat, for this is the way it has been since time immemorial. This is a lie.”

Magic sharply twisted through my stomach, the even pressure of a blade sinking into my flesh.
 

I kept going. “Yes, Original Magic created the Shadow as our opposite, the dark to our light. But the lie was that this dark is naturally evil, that it is born of chaos and violence. This is why we have wrongfully excluded nixes, along with other dark creatures, judging the whole of their people for crimes they have not committed. The Shadow’s blood, his magic, became unbalanced. It turned demonic, not by nature, but by choice.”
 

Energy swirled faster, clamping down on my chest. I gritted my teeth and raised my voice above the roar of magic.

“This war began between Jourdain and the Shadow because she refused to honor the binding Original Magic arranged. She created ondines as a way of preserving what she believed she deserved. We were nothing but dolls, toys for her to play pretend with. She gave birth to our race, but our lives have never belonged to us.”

Magic pried under my skin. But I no longer feared pain.
 

I’d lived with it my entire life. I’d gone through every nightmare, every fear.

Pain defined our mortality.

I could live with it, bear it.
 

I could accept it.

“In retaliation, the Shadow created his own children. The Aquidae were a perversion, a way of mocking Jourdain’s obsession. The war began between the two and she soon realized she would lose this fight for power.”

Energy clenched my mind in a tightening vise.

Stop this.

“The selkies weren’t enough. But her ondines had discovered the solution for her. We’d begun mating with humans and a new race was born. Demillirs couldn’t do magic. But they were strong and fast. The perfect soldiers.”

All that existed was Jourdain, me, and magic.

Heat blistered my insides. The chamber swam. Sounds dissipated, vision liquified.

I needed to get this out.

“So she created a new rule, one that ensured she’d have the numbers needed for her war. Ondines, who had always been able to bind with whom they pleased, now could only mate with humans or demillirs. She created recall magic, her own system of punishing us with duty.”

My insides trembled. It was too much. Magic scraped and devoured me, consuming everything in its path.

“All of your fathers and sons,” I raised my voice, “all of the countless deaths we’ve endured generation after generation, all for a burden we should not bear.”

Finally, the truth.

It snapped through the chamber, rejoicing in its release.
 

It took but a moment for change to tilt the world.

She could no longer stop us.

Magic drilled deeper into my bones, chewing at nerves and veins.
 

Jourdain raised her hands, palms glowing now, illuminating the translucent webbing between her fingers.

You belong to me.

I stepped forward. Magic roiled around her, a living energy that hissed and stung.

Tristan stood and flanked my right. His ancient selkie power joined mine to push against her.
 

She was strong.

Creepy eyes watched me, glossy and alien, and in their depths I saw an immortal confused and hurt by our resistance, a being genuinely unable to fathom the desires of the very mortals she’d created.
 

I lifted my knee, pulled my foot up, brought it forward.

Another step. Another.

The resistance was massive, like slugging through the deepest quick sand, each step heavy with magic.
 

Finally, I reached the tank. A raging current of heat seared my flesh and my entire body shook.

“We do not belong to you.” With my last ounce of strength, I raised my hand and touched the glass. “If you can do this without me, then do it. Kill me. If I am lying, break me!”

Sweat dripped down my face. Magic blazed between us, hammering my mind.

Air turned to fire in my lungs. I was burning, engulfed in flames.

Immortal power crushed my pitiful body. I couldn’t last much longer.

The pressure abruptly eased.

Jourdain wailed, an inhuman sound of desperation, fury, and longing.

With a final burst of white light, she disappeared down the hole at the bottom of her tank and fled to her beloved ocean.

Magic receded in a rush, leaving me dizzy. It was as if a thousand ton weight on my head had suddenly been yanked away.

I kept my hand on the glass and concentrated on staying upright. My pulse slowed and I did a quick assessment.

My body hurt, but I was still alive.
 

I turned and faced the chamber. Hundreds of disbelieving eyes watched me.

“That is why I’m the
sondaleur
.”

I’d withstood Jourdain’s magic and she had been unable to refute or kill me.

I’d demonstrated what was true. There was nothing more I could do.

Patrice’s skin was the color of parchment. She looked as if I’d slapped her. The rest of the Council remained frozen in their seats, expressions ranging from wariness to fear.

I squared my shoulders. “On the day of the solstice, the Shadow will attack Haverleau. It will be our final battle. I will end this war for good.”

A buzz filled the air as the audience absorbed that statement.

“How…” Marquisa Blanchard shook her head. “How do you know this?”

“It doesn’t matter how I know,” I said calmly. “It’s the truth.”

She gave a nervous laugh. “You expect us to simply trust you? You, who has abused the trust of the public, our people, even the memory of your grandmother who entrusted you as her heir?”

“You may fault me for choosing my friend over the governorship. It’s your right to do so. But I won’t apologize for my actions. I did what I believed was right. Ian MacAllister’s life was worth saving. And now war is coming to the streets, woods, and sands of Haverleau. I intend to finish it, but I can’t do it alone.”

I took a deep breath. “You have a choice. You can leave. Or you can fight.”

The chamber exploded. Shouts and jeers bounced around, a messy cacophony of angry disbelief.
 

“That is enough.”

Patrice lacked the iron authority Rhian had, but her voice was shrill enough to cut through the discord.

“If you choose to leave, the Governor has arranged for safe escort to the other communities. But if you choose to stay and fight, you can help end this. You can use your magic in battle.”

Chloe and Amber drew up on my right.
 

“Or help with weapons production.”
 

Aubrey and Holden joined me on my left.

“Those of you trained in combat or weaponry can fight alongside chevaliers and gardinels.”
 

I couldn’t see them, but I knew Julian, Cam, and the others had moved in behind me.

A sea of faceless, nameless elementals loomed above me.

I removed my father’s
kouperet
. Essence blazed, illuminating the air before me like a vivid golden flame.

“Like my father, my grandmother, mother, and aunt before me, like my uncle who stands by my side, like the generations of chevaliers and gardinels who died so we may live, I will fight. We have always had a choice and I have made mine. Now it’s time to make yours.”

I let go.
 

The
kouperet
dropped with a clatter on to the Council table.

I turned and strode to the door.

A beat of stunned silence, followed by Helene’s approving voice.

“Now that’s a speech.”

***

Time was fickle.

The more we held on, the quicker it drained through our fingers.

Each passing day grew shorter, inexplicably faster until all that remained were flashing moments, a sea of snapshots and echoes.

I stepped out into the beautiful afternoon. Holden’s voice drifted through the open windows, explaining the complex workings of a device trigger.

I shut my eyes and lifted my face to the sun. Focusing on the warmth caressing my skin, I tried to ignore the insistent demand of magic pulsing beneath it.