Sands of Aggar: Amazons of Aggar Book 3 (11 page)

Jacquin shook her head, kissing along her shoulders. “Cry. Your secrets are always safe with me.”

Rox’s hands moved to Jacquin’s shoulders and Jacquin took her right hand, kissing gently along her palm and wrist. Jacquin started to melt, relaxing as her weeping stilled and slowly stopped. Jacquin paused, frozen in surprise as her lips skimmed across a small, warm mark on her wrist. A black-outline tattoo of a stone.

Jacquin pulled away just enough to meet Rox’s eyes. “Where did you get this?”

Rox looked down at her wrist in Jacquin’s hand and her eyebrows raised. “You recognize it? It was left on me by a mage.”

Jacquin sat up, guiding Rox to sit with her. She untied the leather and silk bands from her wrist and revealed her own mark, identical to Rox’s. Rox reached out in shock, touching Jacquin’s mark. “What does it mean?”

“It means you had a run in with Adrian.”

Rox tensed, her face falling, her lips tight. “Is it a curse?”

Jacquin shook her head slowly, running her thumb over the design. She couldn’t forget the horror in Adrian’s eyes when she saw the mark on Jacquin’s wrist, the way she’d fled as if for her life. “If it is, it’s her curse, not ours.”

“Do you know her?”

Jacquin let out a soft breath, running her hand through her hair. How did Rox know Adrian? “Not well. How do you know her?”

“She’s been following my charges. We fought. I grabbed her throat and the mark burned into my skin. I thought she cast a spell on me. I was hoping one of the Tribe mages could tell me what it meant.”

Jacquin’s brow furrowed, her stomach twisting at the thought that Adrian and Rox might be enemies.

A light scratching echoed along the floor of the wagon and Rox’s head instantly snapped to the side, searching for Fisk. The waterferret was still resting on the shelf. “What was that?”

The sound of wood shattering split the air as a dark blue glass knife split through the floor boards. Jacquin screamed in surprise and leapt to her feet. Rox instantly grabbed her knife from Jacquin’s floor and raced out the door. Jacquin grabbed a robe, throwing it around her shoulders as she followed.

Rox dragged a changling out from under Jacquin’s wagon, using her fist and knife in close-range combat. The changling, a sleek, ebony black feline with thinning fur revealing human-like musculature, fought back just as fiercely. The changling twisted out of Rox’s grasp and raced away from the Tribe, toward the outskirts of Oasis. Rox instantly pursued and Jacquin, followed, chasing the changling to an open stretch of sand between the caravan and the city walls. Rox tackled the attacker, sending them rolling a wrestling across the ground.

Jacquin stood back, both fighters were too flexible, fierce and agile for Jacquin to intervene. Their skills were so evenly matched Jacquin couldn’t help but notice how similarly they approached the battle, as if they’d been trained by the same masters.

Rox shifted, digging in her heels and flipping her attacker, pinning the changling on its back, her knife raised, ready to strike the creature’s neck when both fighters froze. Jacquin gasped as her mind exploded, consumed with a vision. She was standing in the dark, cool air skimming past her skin, a trickle of water running in the distance. She knew without seeing that she was standing in a cave. In the distance a red stone glowed, filling Jacquin with an overwhelming sense of dread.

In the distance she could hear a whisper, words cutting in and out, stilted and pained.
Please… Help… Die…

She blinked and was back in the desert. The fighters were still frozen, Rox’s knife raised. She was blinking rapidly, squinting down at the changling, who laid still, breathing heavily, a look of fierce determination in his eyes.

“I don’t understand you, your words don’t make any sense,” Rox hissed. “Magic in my head won’t win you mercy.”

“He’s not pleading for his life,” Jacquin announced. “He’s pleading for his people.”

The changling turned to Jacquin, his eyes suddenly soft with gratitude before turning back to Rox, relaxing, ready to die.

Jacquin locked eyes with Rox, the fighter’s breath catching in her throat. Jacquin spoke softly. “And he doesn’t have magic.”

Jacquin took a few steps forward, wanting to try communicating with the changling again, but Rox suddenly threw the creature aside, the changling instantly fleeing, Rox chasing him away, her knife raised, until he moved out of sight.

“What did you do?!” Jacquin gasped. “I was connected to him. I could have communicated with him!”

“I heard him just fine,” Rox growled as she stalked back toward the Tribe. Her nude frame was tense, covered in scratches and nicks from the changling’s knife. She looked wild, almost inhuman.

Jacquin raced after her. “Do you have visions, too? How did he try to communicate?”

Rox turned and glared, the expression piercing Jacquin to her heart. “I don’t like magic, Jacquin. Especially in my mind.”

“He was pleading for more than his life. There might be a reason the changlings are here.”

“He noticed my mark.” Rox interrupted, lifting her arm to show the mark Adrian had left on her wrist. “He recognized it.”

Jacquin glanced at the stone print on her own skin in confusion. “How would he know?”

“I don’t know. But we’re going to find Adrian and find out.”

Arian curled in a ball, buried deep in the furthest corner of Oasis. After wandering and hiding from both the town and the caravan she’d been drawn to an abandoned junkyard just past the Tribe’s caravan, a pile of destroyed wagons and wagon parts, furniture and merchant carts. The deeper she’d crawled through the sand under the skeletons of the caravan’s homes, relishing the shaded relief from the sun, the safer she’d felt. She reached a small wagon, sunk to the door in the sand, buried beneath larger structures. The inside was decorated with a worn rug, pillows and a table with candles and incense. It seemed she wasn’t the only one to find the wagon a welcome relief from the sun and residents of Oasis.

She dragged herself into the pile of pillows and allowed herself to lie still for the first time since fighting Rox. Her back had opened again in places, blood staining the back of her shirt, the wounds stinging from the sand and sun. Her arms ached and burned, though the skin had closed hours before. A hard, pale stone streaked with veins of color adorned each wrist.

Adrian held out both hands, staring at the stones, tears slipping silently from her eyes. She’d spent her entire life avoiding lifebonding, and now she had somehow bonded to two very different women. She’d never heard of a Blue Sight bonding with more than one partner. Bondmates were physically incapable of living without the other for long. Adrian couldn’t imagine how she’d manage to stay close enough to both a wandering mercenary and a desert dancer to keep breathing.

She eased back, grinding her teeth and wincing with pain. She reached back, trying to ease some healing magic into her wounds but her head instantly spun and her stomach turned. Her magic was bound, warring against itself, destroying her from the inside out, a torrent of destruction and Blue Sight that refused to manifest past her hands.

Her illusion had been destroyed the instant she’d bonded with Adrian. She couldn’t even hide her hair, let alone cloak herself in shadow. She covered her face with her hands and felt a warm buzz over her eyes. Even when she had no voluntary control over her powers, the illusion that hid her eyes remained.

She took a deep breath and tried to find the missteps, the miscalculations that had led her to this place, hiding in the heart of a junkyard, magicless, lifebonded and near death. She could hear her war tutors from her childhood listing every error in her strategies. She’d lost focus, misjudged her enemy, assumed that as she pursued the Circle older threats would fall by the wayside. She should have seen it coming. Her fascination with both Rox and Jacquin should have made her wary, should have kept her away. She should have killed Rox in the brushlands, not just blinded her temporarily. She should have fled Jacquin when she’d felt so natural fighting at her side.

It was the Blue Sight. In her childhood, for every strategy that had been drilled into her head by a slew of generals and war heroes there had been two lessons on magical control. Her skin still burned with the memory of her mage mentors, constantly correcting and burning out every empathic, healing instinct infused in her blood from birth. The Blue Sight was the real enemy, older than the Circle and even older than the rise of the Twins. It was her weakness. Her core flaw. And now it was threatening to consume her again.

Adrian had always known she was inherently flawed. She had failed her parents, her destiny, at birth. She was a liability. Female. Blue Sighted. Empathic. It had lost her everything – her home, her family. Now it would cost her life and freedom.

She lay still, wallowing in pain and memory. She could hear the drums pick up in the distance and she knew night had fallen. A deep chill began to seep through the walls of the wagon, clinging to her destroyed clothing and working through her skin. She shivered once and moaned, the motion irritating her wounds. She closed her eyes, letting out a deep breath as if it were her last. She’d have an infection within hours. Probably a fever by the end of the night. If she stayed very still, if she did nothing to stop it, she could be dead in a day. In the depths of her despair, she wondered if it wouldn’t be for the best. It would certainly break the chains of her bondings.

Adrian shifted in and out of restless dreams, moving from the desert to the icy, endless tundras of the Core, swapping the low wood ceilings of the dilapidated wagon for the towering, lonely, dark stone fortress walls of her childhood. She saw her brothers in the distance, sparring with swords and magic, perfectly synced. They were vicious, brilliant, noble, full of promise. They were everything they were supposed to be. Everything Adrian should have been. Everything she could never attain.

The sounds of shifting sand and wood echoed through the wagon and the door opened, sending a burst of icy air over Adrian’s battered frame. A lantern lit the interior of the wagon and a soft, feminine gasp made Adrian shift, her eyes opening to slits. A shallow breath passed her lips. She knew that voice.

Jacquin raced toward her, falling to her knees beside Adrian, cautiously reaching out to touch her shoulder. Adrian winced, torn between never wanting to see Jacquin again and an undeniable need to be closer to her.
Don’t save me. Please. You don’t know what you’re binding yourself to.

“Adrian? Adrian, can you hear me?” Jacquin’s voice was full of sorrow and fear, her hands insistent.

“How did you know she’d be here?”

Adrian’s breath caught in the back of her throat and her eyes widened with fear as she recognized Rox’s voice. She instinctively shifted, fighting against her pain and magical paralysis to escape, expecting to feel a glass knife in her back at any moment.

Jacquin reached out to her, trying to calm her as she attempted to scramble away. “No, no Adrian, you’re safe. You’re going to hurt yourself. Please.”

Adrian pulled away from Jacquin, her lifestones buzzing with both her bondmates near, her mind a swirl of confusion. Her heart yearned to find peace in Jacquin’s arms, but her instincts screamed that there was nothing safe about Jacquin and Rox together. Bondmate or no, Rox would sooner see her dead than help her heal.

Jacquin reached out to her again and their eyes met, every chaotic, desperate, lonely feeling in Adrian’s heart latching onto the visionary, paralyzing them both. Adrian’s Blue Sight abilities flared, making her acutely aware of Jacquin’s emotions as she was flooded with Adrian’s pain, her past and her fear.

Jacquin trembled under Adrian’s gaze, tears streaming down her cheeks as she tried to make sense of the mental assault of Adrian’s heart. Her eyes glazed with vision, her lips moving in a silent scream. Adrian could feel her heart racing, her breathing shallow and labored as if it was Adrian’s own body. Adrian tried to look away, to release Jacquin, but she couldn’t move, her magic just as focused and intent on Jacquin’s
amarin
as Jacquin was on Adrian’s past.

“Jacquin?” Rox raced across the wagon, grabbing Jacquin and pulling her away from Adrian’s stare. Jacquin collapsed across the sandy carpet, gasping aloud as her vision broke.

Rox met Adrian’s eyes instead, her glare steady and steely. Adrian locked onto her, but instead of overwhelming the small woman, Adrian began to feel her passion, her ferocity, her presence like an icy taste of pine and sea water in the back of Adrian’s throat. Rox didn’t flinch as her heart and presence were opened to Adrian’s Sight, her face steady, her muscles tight as her will slowly started to overcome Adrian’s wild power.

Stop it.

Adrian could hear Rox’s words in her mind, traveling over their shared connection. Adrian’s brow furrowed in confusion. She’d never been able to telepathically connect with someone. She couldn’t tell if the words were really Rox’s thoughts, or her Blue Sight interpreting Rox’s
amarin
, translating her feelings into words in an attempt to make sense of them.

You don’t know what I’ve been through.

Instead of wilting beneath Adrian’s past, Rox’s eyes burned, her shoulders squaring with pride and rage.
You’re not the only one in pain.

Adrian’s past flickered through her thoughts again, releasing old memories and insecurities.
You don’t know anything.

I know the Twins.

Not like I do.

They continued to magically square off, locked in a battle of wills and pain, but as Adrian’s strength began to fade, Rox was unwavering. Within moments Adrian started to lean on Rox, her steadiness, seemingly unaffected by Adrian’s chaotic instability, calmed Adrian’s heart, slowly bringing her back to her senses.

“Are you done?” Rox snarled as Adrian let out a heavy breath and collapsed heavier against the pillows, breaking eye contact and covering her face with her hands. Jacquin let out a soft whimper, still lying across the wagon floor, Rox’s ferret curled against her chest. Rox moved to her, pulling her into her arms and holding her tight. Adrian glared, trying to understand where the two vastly different women could have met, let alone become so close.

Adrian felt a subtle warmth spread just beneath her skin as her Blue Sight calmed, mingling with her magic in ways that sapped her destructive magic instead of stiffling it. Adrian reached back and touched the base of her back. Her magic swelled from her hands in tiny waves, lapping at her injuries and resealing her wound while washing away various minor cuts an bruises.

She slowly sat up as Jacquin left Rox, turning to light the candles on the small table near the front door. “Did I hurt you?” Adrian whispered, afraid of the answer.

Jacquin hesitated, but slowly shook her head. “No. I’m fine.” Jacquin was so distant, almost aloof, that Adrian didn’t believe her. She’d hurt her bondmate already. Things would only get worse if Jacquin stayed.

Jacquin paused, her mouth slightly open, unsure of whether to speak or not. Finally, “You’re fighting your nature, Adrian. That’s why you can’t control it. Why it tries to feed off others.”

Adrian grit her teeth. “It’s not my nature. I can stop it.”

“What do these mean?” Rox interrupted, holding out her bare arm, her sleeve pulled back to the elbow. Adrian’s eyes immediately went to the stone tattoo on her wrist.

Adrian shook her head and looked away. “I don’t know.”

“You’re a liar.

Jacquin took Rox’s hand. “Leave her alone. She’s hurt.”

“I don’t care. She cursed us.”

Adrian glared, her blue eyes flashing. “I didn’t do anything to you.”

“You’re dangerous.”

Adrian’s voice was sharp and ragged as she tried to stand and confront Rox. “Says the mercenary guarding the Circle.”

Rox’s skin darkened with rage as she took a step forward toward Adrian before Jacquin stood between the two women, her hands outstretched, her lips curled back in determination. “Stop it. Both of you.” Jacquin’s voice was unquestionable and firm, shocking both women into silence. Fisk sat on Jacquin’s shoulder, trilling angrily.

Rox scowled at her pet. “Traitor.”

Jacquin knelt before Adrian, taking her hands. “We didn’t come here to attack you. We’re just scared. If you didn’t do this to us, what did?” Jacquin turned Adrian’s arms, revealing the two lifestones embedded in her wrists. “What happened to you?”

Rox gasped and fell to her knees beside Adrian, the anger vanishing from her face, replaced with fear. “I never saw them clearly.”

Adrian’s cheeks burned to chocolate brown with embarrassment. Jacquin turned to Rox. “I don’t understand.”

Rox grit her teeth. “She’s a Blue Sight. Those are lifestones.”

Jacquin’s mouth twitched in recognition. “But that… The stories say lifestones are chosen?”

Adrian pulled her arms away from Jacquin, holding them close to her chest. “Lifestones haven’t been voluntary in millennia. Not since the Purge.”

Rox ran her fingers through her short mane of curls. “Blue Sights are so rare. I’ve never met one, but I grew up with a boy whose cousin was one. He said the bonding is biological.”

“We don’t have Blue Sights in the desert,” Jacquin admitted. “At least not that I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s a disease,” Adrian hissed, catching both women off guard. “A warped mutation. The Terrans dumped nanobots into our atmosphere and the only Blue Sights who survived were bonded. The lifestones changed their genetic makeup enough to keep them safe from the disease. A few hundred years of evolution and adaptation later and now they’re a part of us. Any Blue Sight born without a lifestone dies at birth. Purged. But the rest of us?” Adrian held out her wrist again, the light of the lanterns catching the smooth angles of the lifestone, the iridescent veins of color dancing in the faint light. “They lie dormant under our skin, triggered by deep, emotional contact with our bondmates. We don’t choose who we bond to. We can’t escape them. One touch and we’re no longer our own.”

“Bondmates?” Jacquin ran her fingers over Adrian’s lifestone, the sensation warm and electric across Adrian’s skin. She stared down at it in shock. She hadn’t realized how sensitive the stone was, connected so tightly to her nervous system Jacquin might as well have been touching her skin. “Like in the old stories of the Council?”

Adrian nodded. “Permanently bonded – mind, body and spirit – to a stranger.”

“That’s terrible,” Jacquin whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

Adrian looked up, staring at Jacquin’s lips, refusing to meet her eyes again. Her voice was fragile, trembling with fear and unanswered questions. “I didn’t mean to bond with you.”

Jacquin held her hand tightly, the security in her grip comforting. “I’m honored.”

“You bonded with me?” Rox voice was cautious and tense. Adrian looked her over, unsure if she was angry, confused or both. “I understand Jacquin, but me? I was trying to kill you, and you tied yourself to me for the rest of your life?”

“It wasn’t my choice,” Adrian argued. “And I intend to find someone who can break the bond. There are mages all over the Great Market. Someone has to know how to reverse this.”

Rox was becoming more agitated, shifting from foot to foot, her eyes moving back and forth as her mind spun with unspoken thoughts. “You think so? Most don’t know anything about Blue Sights, let alone bonding. And I’ve never heard of a bond between more than two people, have you?”