Page 92 of Raven's Dawn

“I’m assuming those are human phrases.” Her breaths were even, despite practically sprinting into these woods. “But if I’m understanding you correctly, I can understand your thought process. It’s wrong, but I understand it.”

Ouch. “What’s right then?”

“You Earth Witches…” Rania laughed. A humorless one, edged with anger. “You rely on magic through combinations. You mix this herb with that herb, you say this phrase or that, and something happens. We don’t work that way.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“You wouldn’t.”

I waited a moment for her to say more, but she didn’t.

On my right, a few feet ahead, Luci turned to look at me. He looked back at Rania, annoyance in his tone. “That’s all you’re going to tell her. You’ll simply leave it there.”

“I never asked for an apprentice.” Cresting the forest’s edge now, she still didn’t so much as spare a glance over her shoulder. “I cannot spend hours explaining the intricacies of my work to you. Either of you.”

“You don’t need to explain anything to me.” Luci’s voice was like a blade dipped in poison. “My mother was Fae. I know exactly what you’re referring to.”

Since this was apparently a Fae topic that my silly little earthling brain couldn’t fathom, I turned to Graham.

With a grimace and a shrug, he shook his head. Otherwise informing me that he also had no idea what we were talking about.

“I feel your power, boy. You are no Fae.”

“My biological mother was a Witch. My other mother was Fae.”

With that background information, I had expected—or perhaps hoped—that she would extend a bit of solidarity. Instead, she said, “If you understand us and our customs so deeply, then explain it to her. I don’t have the time.”

Which I had heard far too many times throughout my life. Especially my adult life. Gran had taught me everything she knew about the craft. Every question I had, she answered. But she was one person, and I had always needed a village.

That’s why I was so thankful for Luci.

“Witches on Earth look at Witchcraft as science,” Luci said, holding a tree branch back so that me and my guys could pass. When we had, he continued. “A bit like alchemy. You may even equate it to baking. If you are careful with your measurements, and you follow every step in the correct order as the instructions tell you to, you will get the results you want. The Fae do that as well.”

“I am not Fae,” Rania said, a few feet ahead now.

“There is some Fae in there somewhere, or your eyes wouldn’t glow.”

She swore in Elvan, I had to assume, and Luci responded by flipping her off. Also odd. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen Luci that vulgar.

“The Fae, and the Elves,”—Luci increased his volume for that last bit—“are just as serious about the science to the craft. But they don’t see it as only a science. It’s also something they feel within them. Power from the Earth, from the sky, from the trees, from the water—from the universe itself. It lives within them, and they tap into it. They have a sort of innate connection with it. It’s why they’re seers and most of us aren’t. We can be, if we work hard enough to connect to the world around us and the power it possesses, but most of the time, we don’t. We think about our craft too analytically and not spiritually enough. That’s why they think that they’re stronger than us. They tap into the power of the universe itself.”

I was fairly certain I understood most of what he’d said, but that last part irked me. “We all tap into the power of the universe itself when we practice.”

“And that is your problem,” Rania said, still not so much as turning to look at me. “We don’t tap into the power. It lives within us, and we embrace it with every breath we take. Once you learn that, the magic you’ll possess will be greater than you could ever imagine.”

Fun wasn’t the word I expected to use for this, but it was the only one that came to mind.

Most of this trip had been spent on dragon back, squeezing in naps as we moved from one place to the other. The four of us––me and my guys—hadn’t had the chance for much alone time. But now, until sundown, that was all we had time for.

Rania had drilled the spell we would be using into our minds. She made us repeat the Elvan words until our throats were sore. Graham was the only native speaker, and he mocked us every time we failed to roll our Rs. Then he coached us, patiently, as if we were children learning to speak for the first time.

We basically were. There were a few keywords that Graham used regularly, and I knew those well. Ezra was a British Vampire, so he’d heard both Scottish and Irish Gaelic many times throughout his life. Still, that hardly made it easier. Elvan may have sounded Scottish, but the similarities ended there. And it’s not as if the spell involved a “mo stoirín” or “ye ken.”

“The words we’re saying are even older,” Graham had explained. “This isn’t the Elvan I grew up speaking.”

With that established, even Graham needed help with a few syllables.

But I loved the challenge. Ezra did too. As always, Graham was just along for the ride. Warren had the hardest time with it, getting frustrated whenever he fucked up our chant.