Chapter 52: Plans To Make Her Love Him
Elin did not understand why Big Brother was pretending to be a fox.
He had only knelt before her one night and said, very stern and serious, that she must never speak his name where other people could hear. And if he was ever brought to the Bloom Quarter, she must run and fetch him before anyone else got their hands on him.
He had not told her why.
He only said she must do as he asked if she wished to keep living here.
Elin remembered the cold streets and the empty belly and the nights when there was nowhere warm to sleep, so she had nodded very fast and promised.
Besides, she liked it here.
The senior disciple who watched over her was kind. She always smiled when she spoke, even when she said silly things, and sometimes she let Elin help.
Because Elin could speak to every beast and bird, she was also allowed to stay beside the keeper and care for the little creatures of the Quarter.
She did not want Big Brother to come and take her away, so she did exactly as he said.
She also thought about the lady who promised her sweets. Elin thought she was very, very pretty.
She looked like the sort of lady who lived in one of those moonlit palaces and fed sugar cakes to birds.
Such ladies should spend all day smiling and wearing lovely dresses.
Elin stood with both hands on her hips and frowned as hard as she could at the tall, elegant man fixing his sleeves.
How had such a pretty, gentle lady ended up carrying around her terrible big brother?
As though he could feel her staring, Calhoun lowered his hands and looked down at her.
"What now?"
"Big brother does not deserve the pretty lady," she said, crossing her arms tightly.
One of his brows lifted.
"And how did you reach that conclusion?"
She blinked up at him.
"What is a con-clu-shun?"
Calhoun sighed and didn’t bother to respond to the girl.
He had weightier matters to command his thoughts.
The Aquiline Quarter awaited him.
From the fragments of chatter he had gleaned between Kyva and her companions, he knew the wretch who had dared humiliate her before the Convocation Hall hailed from that same quarter. A fitting providence. If he could not yet topple the entire Order—though the desire burned in him like a fever—the disciple who had shamed his mate would not escape his wrath.
If the fool had dealt Kyva’s humiliation once, Calhoun would see it returned tenfold, and with interest.
Yet vengeance was but the beginning.
He would see Kyva rise as one of the most formidable disciples of water affinity the Order had ever beheld. Though she bore four affinities within her, Calhoun himself commanded three, each mastered until even his uncle and the fox elders named him prodigy.
As her mate, her sworn counterpart, her burden was his burden.
He would shield her, whatever the cost. He would place a weapon in her hand, hone her gifts, and teach her until no soul in the Aquiline Quarter dared cast their gaze down upon her again.
And since he intended to remain at her side through every trial, Kyva would learn soon enough that banishing him was no simple task.
She would fall in love with him—whether she willed it or not.
So twisted was Calhoun’s mindset that he convinced himself that he was doing the right thing.
His aura was even enough to scare off the little Elin.
—----
By the time Kyva, Liora and Selene left the Bloom Quarter behind, the sun had climbed higher into the sky, scattering pale gold across the Sacred Order.
The Aquiline Quarter rose like something one would only be able to picture in a dream.
Its halls stood upon a series of pale terraces carved into the side of a cliff, and it overlooked a vast lake that shone like polished silver beneath the morning light.
Slender towers of white stone climbed toward the heavens, their roofs curved like the wings of a great bird.
But water flowed everywhere.
Crystal streams ran beside the pathways, small waterfalls spilled from one terrace to the next, and narrow canals wound between the buildings, carrying blue lotus blossoms upon their surface.
Disciples in robes of deep blue and silver moved gracefully through the quarter. Some stood upon the water itself, perfectly still as they cultivated, while others practiced in the courtyards below, shaping streams into spirals and blades with elegant motions of their hands.
Above them all stood the central hall of the Aquiline Quarter.
It rested upon the highest terrace, reached only by a long stairway of pale stone.
At the top of the stairs stood two older disciples, both wearing robes embroidered with silver waves.
Half-beasts, they were.
"You three are late."
One of the senior adepts uttered, displeasure plain upon her face as her gaze swept over the three girls.
"The Master has been waiting. Is this how you intend to begin your time here—"
"We had something to attend to," Liora cut in.
The words seemed to startle the senior adepts more than if thunder had cracked overhead.
For a mere human—and a junior disciple at that—to speak over them so boldly left them silent for a brief moment.
Kyva recognized their faces too, as they were part of the seniors who had shown up at the settlement.
Their rebuke was silenced when the door opened, and Lady Mia stepped out of the hall. At once, the senior adepts lowered their heads in a bow. Kyva and the others hurried to do the same.
"I thought I heard voices," Lady Mia said, a faint smile touching her lips when she saw the girls.
"Master," the senior adepts greeted at once.
Then one of them gestured sharply toward Kyva and the others.
"These humans arrived late," she said. "And when corrected, they answered with disrespect."
Liora parted her lips at once, no doubt ready to defend herself, but Selene spoke before she could.
"We ask forgiveness if we seemed discourteous," she said, bowing her head. "That was not our intent. We only wished to explain why we were delayed."
Lady Mia’s gaze rested upon the three girls.
"There are rules within this Quarter," she said gently. "You must honour those above you, regardless of your feelings."
Then she looked to the older disciples.
"But those above must also remember not to be too severe with those beneath them."
Her voice was soft, yet there was something in it that allowed no disobedience.
"Is that understood?"
Both the older and younger disciples bowed at once.
"Yes, Master."
"Good." Lady Mia turned back toward the hall. "Come. We must not linger. Master Caelion has arrived as well."
