WARNING: Tower of Dawn spoilers ahead from this chapter onward.
Evalin
"Daddy hates me," Evalin pouted. She was sitting on the side of a bridge next to her two best friends, swinging her legs and watching the tadpoles in the water. Evangeline was sitting beside her, a chaperone to the two nine-year-olds that bracketed her petite form.
"Don't say that," Evangeline said, slinging a comforting arm around her shoulders. "It's not true. All dads have to love their kids." Josie nodded in agreement, her curly hair bouncing.
"My dad doesn't," Evalin said, sulky. "He never talks to me or smiles or anything. Today's my birthday and he barely said a word."
Josie shrugged. "He's probably sad 'cuz today's when your mom died. And he's really busy, too, with all the king stuff."
Mom.
Evalin didn't know her mother. She knew what she had looked like from all the descriptions and paintings. She knew what her personality was like, from all the lords fondly remembering Aelin as a child and the inner circles telling their stories on her birthday. The golden hair, Ashryver eyes, the assasin's skills and Brannon's gift. The short temper, the quick wit, and the penchant for crazy schemes.
She knew who her mother was. She just didn't know her.
"Uncle Aedion likes me better than my father," she sulked.
"At least you have a father," Evangeline pointed out. She ran her fingers up and down one of the scars on her cheek out of habit. She had long stopped being bothered by them.
Evalin snorted. "Very true." Josie snickered and slung a companionable arm around Evangeline's shoulders.
The nine-year olds sat in companionable silence until Evalin started hearing a strange humming noise. "Evangeline, Josie, you hear that?" she asked, knocking on her head.
"Hear what?"
Evalin shrugged. "Never mind, then." But the humming only got worse from there, getting louder, louder. She clapped her hands over her ears, but it made its way through her veins and under her skin.
The humming reached a crescendo, and Evalin screamed. Josie was on her feet in moments, dragging her up by the hand. "Eva, what is it?" she asked worriedly.
"Josie...help...me…." Evalin got out through clenched teeth. Her hands stayed clenched over her ears. Tears lined her eyes. "It...hurts..."
"Stay with her," said Evangeline, turning away. "Your mom's the healer. I'll go get help."
Josie nodded, and started murmuring to her friend. "What hurts?" she asked quietly. "Ears," whimpered Evalin. "It's so loud…"
"What's loud?"
"The music."
"What kind of music?" Josie bit her lip and concentrated, drawing out white magical energy to probe her friend. But she found nothing to be wrong with her.
Except Evalin's magical energy had kicked into overdrive, flooding her blood vessels and threatening to take over her brain.
"Humming," she said, and squashed her eyes shut. "Make it stop!"
"I'll try," Josie replied determinedly. She forced her probing magic into the heart of her friend's magical core and pushed.
She needed to make a wall, a temporary one, that could stop the outpouring of magic. Slowly, painfully, Josie built one to block the source of Evalin's magic. It was a wild, pounding magic that eddied and flowed and twisted. It wanted to sink its fangs into her wall, anything to keep from being caged again.
Again? Josie wondered. So her magic had been suppressed before.
But the girl couldn't put the effort into pursuing that chain of thought, because the magical energy tried to shake her off again. She managed to put in the last brick before blacking out.