Alternate Chapter 1 for Dissonance

Author's note: I originally had this opening, where Nirel and Jase go to Trestaine, but I eventually decided that having them land in Lisaire near the prince was better than writing yet another journey south, or just having them chill at Nirel's house before actually doing something related to their mission. By cutting the first several chapters and rewriting the beginning, I was able to hit plot points more quickly and in a way that made more sense, in my opinion.

Chapter One: Home

Nirel

I landed in a tangle of hair and fabric when the wind dropped me next to Jase’s naked form. The impact knocked the breath from my lungs. I gasped, curling my ice-cold fingers around my bruised neck. Shudders ran down my spine, but Kiegan wasn’t here. Corvin’s blade had cut deep, and my gown bore the evidence of his death. Crimson stained my breast, torso, and some had splattered in my hair. Saints, Corvin killed his own father to protect me.

My stomach lurched, but I scrambled on my hands and knees across frosted pine needles to inspect Jase. My heart was already shattered, or it would have broken to see him like this. He lay on his stomach, unconscious. Tendrils of steam wafted from his battered back into the frigid air. Dirt and soot streaked his skin wherever the lash gouges weren’t. I covered my mouth as tears overflowed my eyes. This was so much worse than when I healed him as a child. His back muscles were shredded. Bloody rib bones peeked from beneath the tatters that remained of his flesh. Healing this fully would probably make me faint.

I could almost taste the ice...

We couldn’t stay here. There was no snow inside the wind tunnel, but the cold seeped through the air. I could almost taste ice just from breathing. We needed better shelter, and my home wasn’t far.

I ran my fingers through Jase’s sooty hair, my mind transforming him to the child I’d rescued for a moment.

“Jase,” I called softly.

No response.

I sniffed, grateful that at least he’d be spared some pain this time. Adjusting myself to sit on my knees, I pulled on my light, bringing the green and golden swirls to my fingertips, and pressed the healing magic into him. His flesh was still warm, perhaps a gift from his fire magic. The light filled his back, creating a comforting glow in the freezing vortex. Jase’s muscles reformed as I watched, fibers licking up and covering the exposed bone, stretching to connect. The energy flowed from me to him, and my heart rate slowed as I took in deep breaths. After a moment or two, exhaustion weighed me down, making each movement difficult.

Just keep going. I’d survived healing my brother, I could survive this. As the muscles grew thicker, skin began to knit its way across the swathes of open flesh, slowly covering the raw tissue.

Jase grunted.

“Stay asleep,” I whispered. Fatigue made my eyelids heavy, but he needed new blood or he would be too weak to walk. I pulled on the last of my healing energy, focusing on filling the vessels in his repaired flesh.

Jase’s hand clamped over my wrist, and my surprise cut the healing connection.

“Nirel,” he rasped.

“Jase,” I murmured. “aevii vestimenta.”

Timekeeper clothes replaced my dirty dress and covered Jase’s nakedness. Even in the dim light of the vortex, my peripheral vision darkened. “We must go east,” I whispered. “Home.”

***

I woke to howling winds rushing around me and warm arms holding me tightly. A powerful heart thumped in my ear. For a moment, I thought it was night at the palace and that it was Corvin holding me. I soon remembered. These were Jase’s arms, naturally heated more than any other man. I blinked. We were still in the vortex. Huddling closer to his chest, the cold nipped at the exposed skin around my ankles, hands, and face.

“Nirel,” he murmured.

I didn’t respond beyond glancing up at him, too exhausted to do more than soak up his body heat. His deep brown eyes met mine, and he squeezed me, pressing his steaming hand to my cheek and taking away the chill. The horror of everything that happened tried to rush to the surface, but I stamped it down deep into my soul and locked it away. Feelings would come again later, but we had to get to my home, out of the cold, and eat, or we’d both perish from overusing our magic. An unbidden prayer to the Divine that Warren hadn’t left yet rose from my spirit to the stars.

My tongue clung to the roof of my mouth when I parted my lips to speak, and only a whimper escaped.

“You healed too much,” Jase said, his voice cracking.

“Home,” I mouthed.

His glassy eyes lit with understanding. “East, you said, before you fainted.”

I nodded, the small movements costing more strength than I possessed.

“How far?” he whispered.

According to the map, this vortex was just across a creek at the border of my village’s land, which was roughly three miles from my home.

Father chose this village because of its proximity to this vortex. The revelation came like a wave, explaining why he stayed even though the city held greater opportunity for a physician. He could have literally run here when Priestess Imani called.

I held up three shaking fingers to Jase.

“Three hours?” He winced.

“Miles,” I rasped.

His chest rose and fell, as his mind adjusted to the new information. “Can you walk?”

I attempted to sit up straight but wobbled and collapsed onto his chest. He gripped me close.

“I’ll carry you,” he murmured.

I knew he was strong but carrying me in his arms three miles in a snowstorm didn’t seem possible for anyone. And his back was not fully healed.

Jase unwrapped me from his embrace and knelt on one knee beside me. In a few swift, but gentle, movements, he arranged my upper body around his shoulders. He held my arms steady with his right hand and gripped my hanging legs with his left. I’d never been carried in such a way, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. This way, I was like a rolled-up rug on his shoulders instead of a full-grown woman in his arms. The partially healed section of his back was not touched this way as well. Trust a soldier to be efficient.

He stood still for a moment, then bent his head down and stepped through the vortex. The air grew colder with each step, biting my cheeks as my hair whipped into my face and my clothes rippled against my body. Jase’s fingers dug into my limbs, but he kept going until it was just the snowstorm blowing all around us, frozen flakes quickly burrowing into the crevices of our necks, eyes, anything not fully covered by our timekeeper clothes.

Jase’s sense of direction was impeccable. Winter storms usually came from the north. He shifted direction until the wind pummeled his left side, heading east. My legs shivered, but at least my head wasn’t receiving the brunt of the weather. I suspected he’d arranged me this way purposefully.

We’d not gone far when I began to shake uncontrollably.

Jase stopped walking and pulled the ring off his pinkie and clumsily put it on my index finger. “For safekeeping,” he said, his breath billowing out in white steam.

Why would he have me wear his mother’s ring? That was so odd.

Jase’s shoulders grew hot under me and his hands heated more than flesh should. Any hotter and he’d burn me. But my desperate body clung to him, drinking the warmth, forgetting winter. He restarted our journey once I stopped shivering.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“I promised I’d get you home,” he said softly in Trestainian.

I still couldn’t believe he knew our language this whole time. Too exhausted to talk beyond a word or two, I rested on him, feeling the strength of his back, the steadiness of his footsteps, the depth of his breaths. Questions could come later.

Jase walked on and on, never stumbling or complaining. After some time, we passed the huge willow tree where Warren and I had harvested bark just a few months ago, which meant we were just over a mile away.

The cold didn’t dampen his heat. We would have died in this snowstorm if he wasn’t a fire wielder and somehow able to keep both of us warm without bursting into flame. After what felt like hours, Jase and I left the shelter of the Trestainian forest and met the full force of the north wind.

The snow made the darkness less pervasive, and the closest village homes were visible between the falling snowflakes. No candles lit the windows, no farm animals made their noises, and no smoke rose from the chimneys. Either everyone was trying to hide their presence, or the village was deserted.

Jase shuffled through the knee high snow, passing our empty chicken coop, the fenced-in herb garden blanketed with snow, and the covered well by our back door.

“Go in here,” I said between chattering teeth, pointing at the back door.

He did, stepping carefully up the stairs and knocking. After a moment and no answer, he tried the handle. It didn’t budge.

“Warren,” I called weakly.

“No one is here,” said Jase. “This whole place is empty.”

He trudged down the steps and around the frozen exterior walls of my home. Snow clung to the curved wooden logs, filling the seams. It wouldn’t get inside. Warren and I had repainted the seams with pine tar in early fall.

Jase reached the front entrance. He didn’t knock this time, instead gripping the handle and pushing against the bottom of the door with a strained grunt. His shoulders shook with the effort and from supporting my weight. He exhaled with a quiet curse and stepped back.

I was home, but we couldn’t get in.

“The window,” I whispered.

His neck twisted as he surveyed our options. If he broke the front window, we could climb in and then block out the weather with the curtains and extra blankets. Instead, Jase reached for the front lever again. This time, he kept his hand over the metal and stood still. Flames licked between his fingers.

I tensed. Heat was one thing, but I’d never get used to seeing fire dance on his unharmed flesh.

He jiggled the handle as a metallic tang filled my nostrils.

“It’s working,” said Jase, pressing on the lever. “The lock is looser.” The handle turned orange as he continued to jiggle it, then it folded in on itself.

“Shit.” Jase pulled back and flung the half-melted metal into the snow. Whisps of steam rose into the air as everything nearby melted with a hiss. He shook his hand, the red heat of his palm cooling back to his normal skincolor.

A blackened hole adorned the wood where the handle had been. Jase pushed the door in and entered sideways so my head wouldn’t get smashed. The wind could no longer torment my skin or whistle in my ears. He strode across the room, lowered to one knee, and gently pulled me from his shoulders, and leaned me against the corner of the hearth. I could barely sit up even with the wall support, and being separated from Jase’s warmth made my skin prickle in gooseflesh.

I glanced around at the dry herbs hanging from the ceiling, the tonics along the wall, the long wooden table where we always did our work. Jase stumbled around the table and grabbed one of the heavy wooden chairs that father had custom made for mom. He closed the front door and shoved the chair in front of it to keep it closed. He looked around, then grabbed a scarf hanging from the hook by the entrance, and stuffed it into the hole, halting the draft.

Fire burning in a hearth

Jase came back to me and examined the hearth. Plenty of seasoned split logs sat nearby, thank the Saints. Jase arranged a few in the hearth, but instead of looking for kindling and the flint, he caught the bottom log on fire by touching it with his finger for a few seconds. His power was incredible. Melting iron and starting fire with his bare hands. I just hoped he wouldn’t accidentally burn the house down.

Jase went around the corner into the kitchen, and the clink of glass and heavy thumps indicated he was looking for something. Maybe food. If his fire wielding caused hunger like mine, then he must have been ravenous.

A lump formed in my throat as my chest constricted. Despite my empty stomach, I didn’t want to eat. All the death we’d left behind in the capital settled in my gut.

I’d wanted to be home more than anything. But now that I was here, it meant nothing without Mom and Warren. I was too exhausted to cry, so I stared into the hearth as my mind went blank and my heart numb.