Page 111 of A Spark So Bright
She placed her hand over his, pressing down to thank him as she turned her attention entirely to the spirit who had crouched down in front of her.
"He never wants to tell people what he needs. Magnus's greatest downfall was always that he expected people to anticipate what he needed from them."
Rose smiled. "Yes, that sounds like him."
"It's never changed, apparently, but I can't say I'm surprised by that." The man reached out and placed his hand on her knee. "You have to do the work for him, I think. Unfortunately, he has never learned to be better about this."
"What does he need?"
"The girl. The one he fell in love with as a boy, who has haunted him his entire life. She had a unique power, one that would have worked with his magic almost perfectly."
She furrowed her brow. "A power? What could possibly... Oh. Oh."
"Exactly. The power he fears is the one that could shake this earth. He is part of the story, but she? She is his other half. Dangerous. The two of them could end the world if they wanted to."
She swallowed hard as the spirit faded away. And then she spoke up, everyone stilling as they heard her quiet voicebreaking through the argument of the two largest men in the room.
"What was her magic?" she asked, and everyone froze.
Magnus stared her down, not a muscle twitching on his form.
"Magnus," she said. "You have to tell us. If you're concerned it's the girl from your past, then what are we going up against?"
A strange rumble moved through the room. Stones grinding against each other, the ceiling suddenly rained down dust. The one and only time Rose had heard of this happening in Trollveggen was an attack from the humans. They had used trebuchets to attack the mountain itself, hoping they might find an opening that would be revealed in the destruction afterward.
But there was no attack now. Just him. Gods, she could almost feel the magic. The rumble, the anger of the mountain itself, but it came from him.
Magnus hadn't moved at all. He was still staring at her while everyone else in the room braced for cover, but somehow she knew that he wasn't going to let anything happen to them.
Gunnar swore and lunged over her, covering her entire form with his body as a massive chunk from the ceiling broke free. Ragnar grabbed Maia and pinned her against the wall, his body a shield between her and the inevitable death that would crush them all. And Bjorn did the same, hiding his wife with his body.
The stone hovered in the air, frozen just above their heads, as Magnus spoke. "My father and all his fathers before him wanted to create a new being. Dark elves. Better than the ones who came before. What he did not anticipate is that in creating us, he would also create more power than any of us know what to do with. So careful what you ask to know, Rose. I'm not sure you'll like the answer."
Through it all, Rose held the prince's gaze. "I know the elves," she said. "I have met them, talked with them, learned fromthem. I know their language, Magnus, and I know their history more than anyone alive because I can speak to them."
"Then you should know their greatest fear." He opened his arms wide. "That someone like me could exist."
"I don't think they feared the trolls creating their own power. I think some of them were even excited by that possibility." Her brows furrowed. "But I think you're diverting this conversation because you don't want to tell me what she is capable of. Why is that?"
He glanced above them at the hovering stone and she watched as it lifted back up, slowly knitting itself back to the ceiling. And then the other trolls in the room released their wives, looking like they wanted to pummel Magnus into the ground for threatening their women, but also afraid to take that step because he was clearly capable of killing them all with a blink of an eye.
"She is like me," Magnus finally admitted. "If it is her. She's just..."
Rose leaned forward in her chair as far as Gunnar's arm would allow her. "Say it, Magnus."
"Elemental," he ground out. "I can control the earth. The mountain herself. I can knit stone and I can use the earth to destroy anyone I wish. But her? She's air, Rose. The last time I saw her, when she was ten years old, she sucked all the air out of an entire building. Everyone inside suffocated before they could reach the doors. She killed them all, and it didn't even make her tired. I'm not entirely sure what she can do now that she's twenty years older."
All the blood drained out of Rose's face. She leaned back in the chair, both for comfort and because she didn't think she could sit up straight.
"Elemental?" Ragnar asked. "As in you can control all aspects of the element?"
"Anything that has to do with the earth. Stone, plants, dirt. I could make a sinkhole open up beneath your feet, stick Bjorn in quicksand, and entomb Gunnar all with a snap of my fingers. I've done worse," Magnus muttered.
Astrid sucked in a breath. "So that means she can control the weather."
"Among... many other things."
They all stared at each other, stunned with this realization because the implications were disastrous.
