“The air changes temperature much quicker than the water,” she said.
“It certainly does,” I answered.
While the girl had crossed some boundaries earlier, I was glad she found the blanket useful. No one needed to freeze to death, especially on their first day on land. Our cold season was upon us, even down here on the southern coast.
Thomas and Ari laid on the ground under the shade of a tree. I sat down propped up against the tree next to them. I had moved on to snacking on a pear. In the distance, I could hear the waves crashing on the shore. The breeze from the ocean was gentle as it caressed my skin. This was the first restful moment I’d had since before the castle was attacked. So much had happened between now and then, and it was hard to keep up, especially when I remembered I was a necromancer.
I thought back to the moment that Violet opened her eyes and sat up. The moment was just as traumatizing as it was joyful. I’d been scared the whole time that I had messed it up, and when she sat up quickly, I was afraid I’d hurt her, or made things worse. Tears formed in my eyes and I blinked them back. I could cry when all of this was over. I could cry when there wasn’t a chance that Thomas or Ari would see me. I needed to be a strong leader. I needed to be strong for my team, so they wouldn’t see the fear I had for this whole mission, and this war.
When the fear of seeing Violet awake wore off, I felt joy, and then shock. I knew at that moment there was a greater purpose for me than just being the cousin to the Queen. There was another calling for me, aside from being the hand to the Queen. I had something almost as rare as Violet did, and I’d follow in her footsteps and do something great with it. I was going to make my legacy about changing the perception of the necromancers. I’d do good with my magic and earn the respect of those who could wield magic, and those who couldn’t. But I also feared stepping into that role. What if I wasn’t good enough? What if the Children of the Willows didn’t accept me, and didn’t want to teach me anything? Would I be limited in knowledge to what was in this book?
I fingered the hardcover book and wondered what else it could teach me.
What if the Children of the Willows did agree to teach me, but I was a failure or a dud? What if I was able to bring Violet back as a fluke, or only because she was powerful, or Venia willed it?
Too many questions or what-if’s bounced around in my head, which made it ache.
I couldn’t even get started on Ari’s taunts from earlier. I would never admit it to her or Thomas, but her words had struck a chord. I did have feelings for Thomas. While we had acted like a courting couple from time to time, he had never directly asked me to be in a courtship with him. I wasn’t sure where that even left us. Were we just friends; had I mistaken his kindness and appreciative glances as something more than they were meant to be?
I listened to birds chirp as I thought of our evening after Violet and Axel’s wedding. Thomas had taken me back to the location of the ceremony. The magic that held up the lit candles and the raining flower petals was still in place. The area looked just as it did during the ceremony, except we were alone.
He had held my hand and gently tugged me to the edge of the moat. It had been cleaned out since Violet ascended to the throne; there were no more snakes or other creatures, aside from harmless fish.
He and I watched the fish swimming through the water with our feet dangling over the edge. We had spent the whole rest of the evening talking about our pasts and what we wanted for our futures. I had thought we really connected. I expected that he would have asked to court me by the end of the night, but he never asked. He never even hinted that he would ask. I laid in bed that night extremely confused.
I had been a little more reserved ever since that night. If Thomas had noticed, he hasn’t said anything. We had both been busy with preparations, and then suddenly the castle was attacked and it had been chaotic since. Our first moment alone together was when we left for the southern shore. Even then, he didn’t bring up the topic of courtship.
I wasn’t entirely convinced that he felt strongly about me one way or another. He had trained me to defend myself, and knew I was capable. Yet, when the castle was under attack he ran to my office, grabbed my books, and then ran to find me. He spent his time helping me get my family out. I couldn’t have read too much into this. There had to be some feelings there on his part. Was he scared? Was he embarrassed by his feelings for me? Was I not good enough to declare to those around us that I was with him?
I watched Thomas’ even breaths as his chest rose and fell. Once we have accomplished our tasks, I would tell him how I felt. I would let him know that his indecisiveness had hurt me, and I would demand that he lay out all the cards, so that I knew where we stood. We could go into battle as a courting pair, watching each other’s back, or I could go into battle, alone and heartbroken.
I looked at Ari, in all of her beauty. I had no doubts about how I felt about Thomas until she showed up. Until he gave her a sliver of his attention with his stares, and now I was undone. I may have had a lot of control of the Kingdom as Violet’s hand, but Ari had incredible beauty, and that I can’t compete with.
I just needed to hold it together for a few days, and then I would force Thomas to make a decision.
I brought my thoughts back to our mission at hand. I needed to convince the Children of the Willow’s to train me in the magical art of necromancy. It is incredibly rare, and feared. The Children of the Willow lived on the edge of the kingdom for that very reason, so that they can’t be bothered by those who were curious or fearful of them. I couldn’t let myself feel that way either, I needed to walk right in and announce what I was. I needed to make them believe I was one of them and that they could trust me. I was hopeful that maybe I could convince a few of them to go to battle with us. The more necromancers on our side, the better.
I was lost in my thoughts when Thomas stirred awake. He sat up and said, “I’m rested enough, it’s your turn.”
“It’s been minutes,” I argued.
He looked at the positioning of the suns in the sky.
“It’s been three hours,” he said.
A yawn escaped me.
My body told me to stop being so prideful and to rest up. I was already exhausted and I only had a few days to learn as much as I could to try to convince the others to join us, and then make it back to the ships in time before they departed.
“Ok,” I answered, to Thomas’ relief.
I scooted further down the ground, with my head resting on the exposed roots of the tree I had been propped up against. Thomas passed over his blanket to me. I pulled it over my body and snuggled into it.
It smelled like Thomas and saltwater.
I closed my eyes and felt the ground shift as Thomas got closer. He rested his back against the tree behind me. His hand softly played with the edges of my hair as I drifted off to sleep.
☼
I was shaken awake.
“Trin, we have to go, now!” Thomas shouted, in my face.
“What, why?”
I shot up from where I was lying on the ground.
“Listen, do you hear it?”
I was silent for a moment and then I heard it. It sounded like thousands of swarming bees. I looked in the direction of the sound and saw what looked like a fast moving cloud, and it made its way through the grove. It stopped at each tree in its path. After seconds when the cloud moved on from the tree to the next, it was empty except for a few bare branches.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I grabbed Thomas’ blanket and stuffed it into my bag. Ari had woken up when Thomas started to shout at me. We all threw the bags over our shoulders and began to run back towards the far edge of the grove.
I only tripped once as I ran out of the grove. My foot had gotten stuck on an exposed root. My ankle throbbed, but I kept moving. The alternative looked to be much worse than a limp.
We exited the grove and Thomas asked, “What direction?”
“Right.”
> We ran that direction for several miles, until the sounds stopped following us, and we no longer saw the cloud.
That had been too close.
Chapter Sixteen
Violet
I woke up from my vision with tightness and anxiety in my chest. We were in danger, not here, but back in Arlington. In my vision my mom was screaming at us to wake up while somebody was trying to beat down the door. He was shouting at her, calling her names, telling her what he was going to do to her, and us.
I gasped and held my chest while Axel tried to calm me. He tried to get me to tell him what happened. I noticed that the area was way too dark. My light must have gone out while I was in the vision. I took command of it again, lighting up the area.
When Axel’s face was lit up, I saw the tension there.
“We need to take cover, and we need to go back to Arlington now,” I told him, while I tried to focus on staying calm.
“What? Why now? What is going on?”
“Mom’s now ex-boyfriend, the one that poisoned me, he found out where we are. He is going to try to break into our apartment, if he hasn’t done so already. The timing of these visions isn’t always perfect.”
“Oh no.”
“Oh yes. We need to get to cover, now.”
I felt physically ill just thinking about what could happen between now and when we woke up in my apartment.
Maybe we could go back to the beasts and ask for a place to rest while we made sure we were safe back home. In my heart I knew we didn't have time for that. We need to get back as soon as possible. I almost didn’t trust the Beast King, although I did have a little more faith in his Queen. She was smart enough to recognize she could need my help in the future.
“We are going to climb a tree and tie ourselves in it, and fall asleep there,” Axel suggested.
We didn’t have any better options.
We scaled a large tree, and climbed higher and higher until we were out of reach of any weapons, including an arrow. We were higher than I had flown with my wings, and a fall would surely kill us from this height.
We sat together in the fork of the tree where a large branch met with the trunk of the tree. My back was to the trunk of the tree, to protect me, Axel insisted. He then sat in front of me, to protect my front. He tied rope around us and the trunk of the tree, and secured us to it.
Axel gave me a look that said I really hope this works.
Me too Axel, me too.
☼
I woke up in my apartment and immediately knew we were in danger. I tried to move, and felt restraints on my hands and feet. I opened my eyes and I was lying on my side on the floor in my apartment.
Axel was next to me, on his other side. My mother’s hands and feet were also tied, but she was propped up against the wall. The sick jerk probably wanted to taunt her some more.
My mom’s eyes flashed to me as she saw me stir. I shook my head, telling her not to pay any attention to me.
“My boss will be here soon. I have a feeling he will kill you first, to really mess with her head,” he said, and nodded his head in my direction.
“Then he will kill her boyfriend. Lastly he will torture her before forcing her to marry him, take over her kingdoms, and then he will kill her too. Nothing is going to stop him.”
Nothing, except me.
I felt for my magic and it answered me strongly, even in this world. Those potions Wisdom had made really did wonders. He could sell that stuff and be filthy rich. Not that I would encourage that, but it was possible.
I can’t give this guy any notice that I was awake. I didn’t need him to alert Kennan before we could escape.
I levitated a heavy frying pan off the rack hanging in the kitchen, it floated closer and closer to the prick holding us hostage. Mom was crying at the emotional damage he had caused.
Only I am allowed to do that.
When the pan was right behind his head, I swung it back and slammed it into his head. It made a loud crack and echoed throughout the apartment. His body slumped to the ground, and stayed there. I called my flame to singe away the ropes holding my hands, and then my feet. I unbound my mom since she was awake. Her hands and feet were bleeding at the ropes. Evidence she had been trying to break free, long before I woke up.
I burned Axel’s ropes and his hands and feet were free. I sprayed him with water from the tap and he woke up startled.
His eyes moved to the slouched man on the floor.
“I always miss the good stuff,” he said, disappointed.
“We can talk about that later, lazy,” I said. “We need to get out of here now, Kennan is on his way. We also need to get rid of this guy. There is a janitor's closet down the hall. Let’s tie him up and stick him in there.”
Mom helped me secure the guys hands and feet and then Axel and I dragged him down the hall, with Mom as the lookout.
We locked him in the closet and ran back to the apartment and shut the door. We packed light and got the hell out of there. We made it into my car and then down the road without incident.
“Duck!” I shouted at my mom and Axel.
They immediately slouched in their seats. We passed by Kennan in his yellow Camaro who was now only a mile or two from my apartment.
We woke up just in time…
I made myself as inconspicuous as possible, and Kennan’s car faded off into my rear-view. He was none the wiser that he just passed me.
“Where do we go now?” Axel asked me.
I glanced at my mom thinking the same thing.
“A hotel, maybe?” she suggested.
“I agree, but it needs to be far away from here.”
We drove for hours, across state lines, again. Axel was fascinated by the radio, playing the voices of different singers. I tried to tell him how it worked, but he told me to stop because I was going to give him a headache.
We had been on the road for five hours when I pulled into a rest stop off the highway with a nice looking hotel.
“Can we afford this?” Mom asked me.
“Yes we can. I’m loaded.”
She gave me a look that accused me of not sharing, but then let the issue slide. We’d have plenty of time later to even the score there. After all, I had promised that after this war she could come to Morthsoul. I’m sure she would find something there she wanted to make us even. She liked fancy things, and there were plenty of them in the castle.
We checked into the nice hotel, brought our baggage in and then collapsed from exhaustion. A long drive could wipe anyone out, especially when on the run from an enemy along with the use of magic in a world it didn’t belong to.
I took a nice long shower, before I left the bathroom. I had dark circles under my eyes, my skin was dry and my hair was dull. This pressure was taking its toll on my body here. If only I had another one of Victoria’s potions, but I didn’t have Wisdom or the ingredients here to help me make it.
Axel let Mom shower next, before he finally took one himself. We ordered room service and ate dinner. I told Mom about what was happening in the Morthlands, and where our other bodies were. Her face turned ghost white when I told her we were strapped to a tree well over a hundred feet up.
“Are you sure I can’t come back with you?” she asked me, again.
“Mom, I told you. When this is all over, I would love to bring you to Morthsoul. I’ll show you my Kingdoms and everything, but right now it is not safe. I have too much going on, and too much to do to bring you there safely right now.”
She relented with a nod of her head.
Axel and I fell asleep on the couch and moved from one uncomfortable spot to the next.
☼
We woke up still in the tree. Our legs and our asses hurt from sitting all that time on a wooden branch. The climb down was scary, miserable and painful.
After what took forever, my feet touched solid ground, and I almost kissed it. I was too sore, and if I got down to kneel, I wouldn’t be able to get back up.
�
��Do you think your mom will be ok?” Axel asked.
“I have to hope so. She is a strong woman. She knows that keeping watch over us is important. She saw the consequences of what being unguarded could do to us,” I answered.
We stood there for a moment, as we tried to figure out where to go from here.
“Now what?” I asked out loud. I tried to brainstorm what our next move was.
I knew we needed to get to the dragons and ask for their help, but I had a nagging feeling that I had forgotten something.
“Well, we need to keep going west to get to the caves that are in the dragon’s sanctuary,” Axel responded.
“I know,” I said, as I started moving that direction. I pulled out a snack from my bag and split it in half. I handed half to Axel and kept half for myself. We needed to keep our energy up.
“I just feel like I am forgetting something,” I said.
The feeling was still bugging me. Like I was moving further and further away from whatever it was I was supposed to remember.
“You know, I feel it too. I’m not sure what we could be forgetting. Do you think this could be a spell? Maybe someone be-spelled us while we were up in the tree?”
“But why spell us to feel like we forgot something. There were other things they could have done instead,” I considered out loud.
I noticed the forest was quiet and the hair on my arms rose. A shiver went down my spine, and the air around us seemed to get colder.
I stopped walking, like I couldn’t physically bring myself to take another step. Against my instincts I stood there like a deer in the headlights. I was aware that someone besides Axel was watching me. Axel stopped beside me, as he tried to figure out what was wrong.
“Do you feel it?” I was barely able to ask.
“No, what do you feel?” he asked me. His voice dropped and he was already assessing the forest around him for the threat I sensed.
“Something is stalking us... me.”
The forest was quiet except for a twig snapping.
My head swiveled in that direction to see a man step out of the forest. He was pale with white shaggy hair. His eyes were a deep blood red, and he had no iris. His finger nails were long and ended in sharp points. His clothes, although nice, were disheveled.
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