First Earth: A YA Fantasy Adventure to Another World (Arch Mage Series Book 1) by Cami Murdock Jensen

Author:Cami Murdock Jensen [Murdock Jensen, Cami]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Value Publishing LLC
Published: 2019-07-23T22:00:00+00:00

13

Time to Step Up

I pulled myself out of my introspection to find Temnon’s blue eyes, bright with worry, staring at me. I was sitting on the wooden floor of the Apex.

“How did we get here?” I asked.

“Getting out of Dominath’s realm is much easier than getting in,” explained Temnon. “You’ve been staring blankly for nearly half an hour. I knew joining minds with him would strain you.”

I didn’t want to tell him that the strain was caused by seeing my own id. I was too embarrassed.

“Temnon,” I said evenly. “Have you ever asked the Apex to take you to my Aether Stone?”

“That would never work. Nemantia would have spells to guard against it.”

“I thought she wanted my magic. Yours, too. She knows we need the Stone, so why not clear the way for us?”

Temnon’s face froze while he thought it through. “That makes the Apex a trap. Using it would be moronic.”

“True, unless we knew it was a trap and had a counterplan. How well do you know her?”

He grimaced. “Not as well as I thought.”

He wasn’t really lying, but he wasn’t telling me the whole truth, either. It seemed to me that he knew her very well, at one time or another. I remembered the dark portal in the throne room, and Nemantia staring fiercely at Temnon. My legs prickled as the memory of my fear bubbled.

Why did she close the hole before draining Temnon? I pictured her again. This time, safe from imminent death, I remembered a shade more. Within the swirling black circle, Ghost-woman lifted out of her human skin, and Nemantia’s human eyes steeled in determination. Her lips moved, and she cast a spell at the empty hole. So, she was okay draining her great-grandmother, but not Temnon? There was definitely something between them.

“Tem.” I had to be careful not to offend him again. “Back in King Odric’s throne room, I saw Nemantia. Her expression, she looked almost concerned, for an instant. I think she knows you pretty well.”

“There’s no lying to you, is there?” He shifted his weight and sat on the floor next to me. “She does, or did. We were inseparable once. We trained together at Odric’s palace. I spent a ton of time there, with Dame Maudine and Nemantia. But when Dominath accepted me as a pupil, I didn’t see her as much. I didn’t realize how much she changed until it was too late. Nobody did. It started so small. She’d get jealous. Then manipulative. Normal teenage stuff, except that, it wasn’t.”

The sadness in Temnon’s story pulled my throat tight. He cared for her. I knew it. She was way too beautiful for any guy to avoid falling in love with her.

“I’m sorry, Tem. Really. But knowing her is a good thing. It gives us an advantage. What would she expect you to do?”

“To show off. Charge in, level mountains, disintegrate weapons, and compress armies into tin cans.”

After what I’d seen of Temnon’s fighting style, I believed him. “Then we’ll sneak in.

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