They’d been eating for over an hour, and the wine had brought a flush to her cheeks, and then she asked the question.
“Hey guys, I’ve been wondering. There’s this phrase I hear repeated a lot in people’s minds. It sounds kind of like…
Rhys slapped a panicked hand over her mouth as Ava’s eyes widened. In the next second, it disappeared as Rhys’s arm was twisted away and shoved to the side. Malachi bared his teeth as Ava gasped.
“You do not silence her. Ever.”
“But the magic—”
“Never.” Malachi’s grip tightened around Rhys’s wrist and the man winced. “Warn her if you will, but never attempt to silence her again.”
“Let go of my arm,” Rhys growled.
“No one is looking.”
“They will be if you don’t let go
Malachi released him as Ava let out a breath.
“What on earth just happened?”
Rhys cleared his throat. “Forgive me, Ava. I was concerned and I overreacted.” His eyes cut toward Malachi. “As did your defender.”
“What did I do?”
“Nothing,” Malachi said. “You asked a perfectly reasonable question.”
“But you must be very careful, Ava,” Rhys added, his voice dropping. “Remember that the words you hear are in the Old Language. The eternal one. It is the same language we use to cast spells. For scribes, those spells must be written down to have power. But for singers—”
“Ooooh.” Her own eyes widened. “They speak them, right? So if I say something—”
“You could be performing magic you have not been trained for. Rhys is correct about that,” Malachi said softly. “We start to manifest power near puberty. It is why we start training then. But for you, who has no training in magic, even repeating a simple phrase you hear from the mind of a human could be quite dangerous. You do not understand your own power yet.”
He saw the curious gleam in her eye.
“But I can learn? Even though I’m older?”
Rhys and Malachi exchanged a look.
“Irina magic is always taught by other Irina,” Rhys said. “What we don’t know outweighs what we do. Still, there has to be a way. There are Irina in the world, though they are mostly in hiding. We will find a way to let you unlock your power, Ava. I promise.”
“As do I.” Their eyes met in the flickering candlelight, and Malachi had a vision of Ava, her arms spread, her voice raised in song. Magic poured from her. He imagined her voice whispering secrets in his ear, the ancient words a mate would share. The most beautiful power imaginable that bound two into one. The thought brought a rush of emotion he hoped she heard. From the flush of her cheeks, he was guessing she did.
Chapter Twelve
Four days later, Ava was still thinking about Rhys’s words.
Power. They told her the manic energy that had stalked her wasn’t illness or mania, it was power. For someone who had spent her life skirting around the edges of insanity, it was hard to fathom.
Excitable.
Emotional.
High-strung.
Hyperactive.
Troubled…
The descriptions from friends and doctors had slowly devolved as she’d gotten older. They’d gone from amusement to awkwardness. And though her mother had always cushioned the blow, Ava had known from the time she was a child that there was something different about her. Something that wasn’t good. Something that made her “too much” to deal with. Carl had only confirmed it when she’d reached her teens. His constant stream of classes and camps and internships may have given her a resume most twenty-somethings would kill for, but Ava knew it had little to do with concern. She was a problem, one he preferred to farm out.
“Evren?” She turned to the old scribe sitting across the table from her.
“Yes, my dear?”
“Would you say that I’m… normal? For an Irina?”
Evren gave her a slow smile. “But what is normal? For any man or woman?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean.” He put down the pencil he’d been taking notes with and folded his hand. “You are who you were meant to be, Ava. I see nothing damaged or wrong with you. How you came to be who you are?” Evren lifted his shoulders in a helpless shrug. “Who can say? In Irin history, there is no incidence of any Irina being born in a human family. But you are here now. You are among your people. You are a wonder to us, not an oddity.”
“My whole life, I’ve never fit in.”
“Of course you haven’t,” he said. “I’m sure in the human world, you would stand out. Here? You are normal. You remind me very much of a girl I grew up with. She was so curious.” A dimple touched Evren’s cheek. “She was the favorite of our teachers in the village.”
Ava was quiet for a long time, staring at the high, glowing windows of the library. When she finally spoke, she spoke softly.
“I thought I was crazy for a long time. My whole life, really. It’s hard to leave that behind, even with all of you telling me that I’m not.”
“Why?”
“Don’t get me wrong.” She shook her head. “I know it should be a relief. But there’s a part of me that still doesn’t believe it. A part that thinks I’m locked in a room somewhere because my delusions have finally taken over. The voices have finally won, and this is all a kind of dream that my mind is using to cope.”
Evren opened his mouth, then closed it. Finally, he said, “I think…”
Pain bloomed in her knee when he kicked it under the table. Ava’s mouth dropped open in shock.
“Ow! What the heck, Evren?”
He shrugged again. “That wouldn’t hurt in a dream, so you’re not dreaming.”
She was speechless.
“What?” he asked. “You want me to come up with some deep, philosophical answer? You’re not crazy. You’re part of a race that is descended from the offspring of angels and human women. Is this so hard to believe? Look at your legends and myths. There are bits of truth all over. Pieces of the story that have been told for thousands of years. Wise women. Oracles. Heroes of ancient times. We’ve always been here. You just thought the stories were nothing more than stories. So your doctors hear you tell them about whispers, and they call you crazy. A thousand years ago, they might have called you a witch or an oracle.” Evren curled his lip in disgust and turned back to his books. “Modern humans learn much, but they forget even more.”
“Okay,” she said. “Got it. Not crazy.”
“It’s insulting for you to say it.”
“Cut me a little slack, will you?”
“You cripple yourself and your own power when you say this, Ava.”
“I get it.” She tried to turn back to her books, but then she looked up again. “So, these powers…”
“Yes?”
“How… I mean, what do I…” She frowned, unsure of what the right question was.
“What powers do you have?”
