Chapter 81: Chapter Eighty-One

“Isla…”

Light fingers brushed against her shoulder blade, and Isla burrowed deeper into the soft mattress at her front. It was too hot. She’d shucked the blankets down to her waist throughout the night, exposing most of her back to the breeze flowing from one window to the next.

“Isla, I need you to wake up,” Sylvan called gently.

Isla mumbled a disgruntled ‘no’ before shifting her head away from his voice. “Can’t go again. Too sore,” she grumbled.

Sylvan’s soft chuckle seeped into her bones, making her smile against the pillow. “You’re the one who kept climbing back on. But it’s not that. Your mother is here.”

Isla pushed up on her elbows. She glanced over to Sylvan, who was sitting up with his back against the headboard. He sent her a small smile before bobbing his head toward the doorway. Isla looked over her shoulder to find Ameretta standing just inside the room with her arms crossed and her eyes cast toward the ceiling as if she hadn’t heard everything they’d just said.

“You could have waited outside,” Isla remarked, turning over in the bed while Sylvan held the sheets up in a way that shielded her naked body from view.

“He refused to wake you up,” Ameretta noted with a huff.

“I didn’t refuse. I merely asked if you could give her a few more hours, as she hadn’t gotten much sleep.”

“And whose fault is that?”

Sylvan’s smile broadened, and he gave a light shrug.

“I’ll be out in a minute,” Isla said.

“Be sure that you are. Timing is imperative. The more time you take, the less you give yourself for your training,” Ameretta said as she turned and left the room.

Isla fell back on the bed as soon as the door shut behind her.

“I warned you that you should skip the gathering,” Sylvan said, lying down beside her and pulling her against his side.

“Just, shhhh,” she whispered, her head pounding from the night before. “I thought wolves were meant to have incredible healing powers. Why is my head still killing me?”

Sylvan chuckled again, and he kissed her forehead. “The dragon mead has some herbs mixed in that our bodies aren’t able to process.”

“Poison.”

“Poison,” Sylvan confirmed.

“I hate you.”

“I warned…”

“Shhh…”

The door to the room came open with a huff. Sylvan wrapped one arm around her breasts and dipped his other hand down to the junction of her legs a moment before her mother ripped the sheets away from her body.

“Up,” Ameretta ordered.

Fifteen minutes later, Isla was glaring at her mother’s back while she led her toward the beach. The city was already bustling though the sun had barely risen. Cole had been right; while they partied hard during the night, the people of Deveraux were awake bright and early, working as though they hadn’t all participated in a drunken sexual extravaganza the night before.

The two women, heavily tattooed and with nearly identical appearances, drew a lot of eyes as they walked through the streets. People whispered about the fae queen and her long-lost daughter. Ameretta, if she noticed, didn’t seem to care. The smooth stones of the streets turned to the soft sand of the beach. Isla glanced around and was surprised to find that there was no evidence a single fire existed the night before. Ameretta walked to the water’s edge and let out a long sigh before she turned to face Isla with her fingers folded together in front of her waist.

“Normally we would have started your training when you were around five,” Ameretta began without preamble. “We would start with something small… Moving water from a stream into a cup,” she said as an example with a wave of her hand in the air. “If it were up to me, we would start there even now.” She sighed. “However, given the circumstances your mate has put us in…”

“You and my mate,” Isla interrupted. “He may have gone against the oracle in finding me sooner, but you bound my wolf and my fae and left me with an adoptive family who knew nothing of my true power.”

Ameretta shrugged, and Isla knew it was the closest she’d get to a concession. “Either way, the Aradian council will be bearing down on us any day. Your mate’s brother may already have assassins within the borders of the city. We need to hasten your training as much as possible. Sit,” she said, gesturing to the ground with her hand.

Isla sat down cross-legged where Ameretta directed. She narrowed her eyes as the sun hit the water and a beam of light penetrated her pupil and shot straight through to her brain. She winced against the pain.

“Perhaps we can start with healing?” Isla asked, laughing though she was dead serious.

Ameretta laughed along with her, but for a different reason. “Healing is far more advanced than what we will be doing today. Healing requires more than manipulating the magic of water, but creating it entirely while merely using the water as a conduit.”

A stream of water rose up from the surface of the waves and wove through the air until it reached Ameretta’s fingers. It wound around her fingertips, over the back of her hand and around her wrist. Her tattoos started to glow right before she touched those same fingertips to Isla’s forehead. Isla could feel the magic working through the blood vessels of her head as it eased her pain.

Mmmm, thank you, Sylvan whispered through her mind in the wake of the healing of their shared headache.

Isla took a deep breath and opened her eyes as Ameretta flicked the water back out to sea. “Thank you.”

“It’s nothing for me,” Ameretta said.

“It is for me. So, thank you,” Isla pressed.

Ameretta shrugged, though Isla noticed a slight tinge of pink grace her cheeks.

“So,” Isla began, sanding her hands over her thighs. “If a cup is too small a task and healing is too large, then where will we begin?”

Ameretta clasped her hands together again. She turned toward the ocean and gestured outward. Isla smirked and shrugged one shoulder in question. “Five hours.”

“Five hours?”

Ameretta nodded. “In five hours the tide will have risen enough to touch your toes,” she explained. “I want you to keep it from doing so.”

Isla stared up at her biological mother. “You… want me to…”

“Stop the tide from touching your toes,” Ameretta agreed.

Isla’s shoulders folded inward and she clasped her hands in her lap as she stared out at the ocean in confusion. “My first training session, you want me to control the tide?”

“That’s right. You are a Tideborn, Isla. Water is your element, more specifically the ocean and the seas.” Ameretta took several steps back until her feet touched the waves curling onto the sand. The tattoos on the tops of her feet started to glow. The luminescence slowly worked its way up through the various swirls of ink. “You must learn how to work with two of the greatest forces known to this world: water and the moon. Both of which control the tide.”

“Okay, how am I supposed to do that?” Isla asked, placing the back of her hands on her knees and settling in for instruction.

Ameretta smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “You are a Tideborn. Working with the tide should come naturally.”

Ameretta started to walk away, leaving Isla alone with her mouth open. She swiveled on her butt and stared at her mother’s retreating figure.

“Excuse me? You want me to control the two most powerful forces in this world without instruction?!”

“I’ll return in five hours to check your progress. I would start focusing now,” Ameretta declared, not even bothering to look over her shoulder.

For the first two hours, Isla was actually hopeful. With her eyes shut in meditation, she would picture the water in her mind and imagine pushing it back out to sea. That method didn’t last long, however, as each time she opened her eyes, she couldn’t remember where the waves had been when she’d closed them. Another hour spent with waning hope that sparked each time the waves would retreat back to the ocean left her in complete dismay. She called on her wolf, hoping it would help her with the power of the moon. All that did was stir up her anger, her irritation, the primal desire to leave this meditation and move on to more practical things like honing their physical bodies, tracking, and, well, seeing to their mate. By the fourth hour, Isla was fuming without any help from her wolf to stir her ire. Even still, she closed her eyes, tried to find the magic within herself and control the tide. At the fifth hour mark, she felt water kiss her toes.

Isla screamed in frustration. She opened her eyes to water dipping below her feet and moving steadily upward with each wave.

“Hm.”

Isla shut her eyes hard, pinching them together in the hopes that her mother would just evaporate.

Instead, she said, “We will try again tomorrow. Perhaps if you don’t spend the night partying, you’ll be able to focus."

Isla smacked her palms against the sand and shot to her feet. “Or you could tell me what I’ve done wrong so that I may learn!”

Ameretta paused for a moment before she turned back around. Her face exhibited extreme boredom and disinterest in Isla’s outburst. She took two steps closer. “You have felt the power before, yes?”

Isla nodded. “I saw what I could do within Sylvan’s memories. I know I have the power to flood cities with massive tidal waves. I can use water like a blade to cut through my enemies. I can use it to call to those I wish to lure. I can…”

“I asked if you’ve felt it,” Ameretta interrupted. “Those moments you’ve described were made out of desperation, a failsafe if you will, from your body trying to protect itself. What you did in that town was not your full capability, but merely a defense mechanism. You calling to your mate? Out of loneliness and desire for comfort.” As she spoke, she walked closer. “All of those things you have described are your soul calling forward your abilities to ensure your survival. Now, I ask again, have you felt it or merely let it control you?”

“Do you have anything to offer me other than philosophy and parables?” Isla asked.

Ameretta sat back and sneered down her nose at her daughter. “Apparently not.”

“Fine,” Isla hissed, sidestepping her mother and walking away.

“I expect to see you here at dawn tomorrow, Isla,” her mother called. “If you cannot keep the tide from drowning you, your enemies will have no problem doing the same!”

Isla ignored her mother’s ranting and walked through the streets of Deveraux toward the home they were staying in. As she walked, she noticed a crowd of people all hurrying in the same direction.

“Did you hear?”

“Are you going there too?”

“I heard he’s taking down a dozen of our warriors already!”

“I heard he beat Morris to a pulp!”

“I’m so happy he’s returned. Finally a real man.”

Isla’s attention followed the crowd of mostly women toward an area that seemed to be bustling with activity. As she grew closer, she could hear the unmistakable sound of flesh hitting flesh. A loud thud sounded as she pushed her way through the dozens of bodies circling the area. The crowd erupted just as she made it to the front. There, in the center of a makeshift arena, stood her mate. His shoulders heaved with exertion. Sweat poured down his bare chest. Mud and blood mixed together along his skin. Sylvan grinned down at the man he’d just laid flat before he spat the dirt beside him. Then his eyes flicked up and traveled around the crowd.

“Alright then, who’s next?”