Lux [h.s]

sixty-one

The next morning, when Cora woke up, Harry was still sleeping. They'd stayed up until dawn talking about a thousand useless and inconsequential things, and she was quite certain they'd slept through breakfast. Her stomach rumbled, so she went downstairs too look for something to eat.

She stole bread with jam from the kitchen and sat in Iris's company as she helped her mend one of her dresses, that was shredded at the hip. Oden was sitting on the carpet in front of the fireplace, reading a book in the shifting red light of the fire. Thalia was in the garden, training the anger from yesterday out of her body, and they didn't see her for hours.

Harry came down for lunch; despite all the hours he'd slept, he still seemed exhausted. Cora wondered if it had something to do with the iron ring he'd worn for hours the day before. He went back to his room after lunch, and she went with him. She recounted her adventure from yesterday, leaving out Ives and the guards, and the mysterious fay meeting her eyes. Like the day before, he didn't get mad, and only commented here and there when she was narrating the way she'd created steps out of ice, following Thalia's advice.

By the time the early afternoon came around, Harry's tiredness got the best of him again. Cora got up from the bed and picked a book from the secret library section about water magic before going down to the dining room.

There was no trace of the lunch they'd had and no one was around, so she put the book on the table and sat on a chair, opening it to the first page and scanning the index to find something interesting to read.

Sudden flames burst from the three candles on the table, and Cora jolted.

"I'm getting better and better, have you seen?"

She turned around. Oden was standing behind her, playing with the wooden sphere he always carried around. Every time he threw it in the air, it took another shape. First a rose, with petals so red and fragile it seemed unbelievable that it wasn't real. Then a butterfly, then a hummingbird, then a ball of transparent ice. Cora watched it reflect the light of the flames until its surface was wood again.

He put it on the table and sat in front of her. Cora couldn't resist and picked the sphere up. It wasn't cold nor wet. It'd been an effortless glamour. In her hands, it turned back into a butterfly and flied into Oden's open palms. The flame of the candles shone brighter, spreading the warmth of real fire through the dining room.

"You haven't showed anyone else, have you?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"Of course I haven't. I know it's weird."

Cora nodded. She'd seen Harry control more than one element time and time again, but it was Harry. She expected him to do things that seemed nearly impossible, because it was somewhat ingrained in him. He'd always been the skilled magician, the one everyone chose to follow—no one expected him not to do things that were out of the ordinary. Oden, on the other hand, was just a child. There was no explanation as to why he was able to do what he did—he hadn't always been naturally skilled at magic. When she'd first met him he could hardly control his ability, air.

Either controlling more than one element was more common than Cora believed, or his abilities should be kept a secret so they wouldn't be noticed by the Orders, or anyone that could wish to hurt him.

Steps came towards the dining room, and the butterfly turned back into a wooden sphere. With a flick of her hand, Cora turned off the three candles. Water drops fell on the table, and she dried them up with her sleeve just as Raven entered the room.