by Dawn Brower
“You don’t deserve to be trapped in a hell world. No one should be stuck here.” Daire hated she believed for even one second that Malediction was where she belonged. “Stop thinking about that ridiculousness; it isn’t true for one moment.”
“Don’t I though?” She stood and paced in front of the fire. “Even here… Every decision I’ve made has been one disaster after another. What kind of ruler will I be if I can’t even make the right choices with my own life?”
“One that realizes that no one is perfect.” He had to find a way to make her see reason. “Your flaws and how you see the world is what will make you not only the best queen, but the one Zelnon needs.”
Daire may be slightly biased where Elodie was concerned, but he also knew he was right. She’d come a long way in a short time. That was what made her so wonderful. He saw all her flaws and accepted her for who she was. Malediction had attempted to kill all of them more than once. Their survival instincts had been well honed and were sharpened to a fine point. They would find a way out of their predicament. He had to believe that, or why did they keep fighting?
“I don’t know…” Elodie chewed on her lip.
“I do so take my word for it.”
A slow smile filled her face. She almost looked happy with the firelight dancing across her features. Daire hoped that meant she’d started to feel better and had dropped the melancholy mood. She turned and met his gaze. “You’ve always been honest with me.”
“I do try,” he agreed. His lips tilted upward. He couldn’t help it. When Elodie was happy his heart lightened. “It’s good that you’ve noticed.”
“We should try to sleep. When the sun rises, we’ll have another long day of walking ahead of us.”
Their journey was a long way from being finished. Even when they reached Zelnon, they had a battle ahead of them. His aunt wouldn’t give up the throne to Elodie willingly. She must have had a hand in their current quandary. Sometimes he hated his aunt and her machinations, but if not for those same plots, he’d not have found a way back into Elodie’s life. There was a reason he was by her side and helping her fight Malediction’s evil schemes.
When they returned to Zelnon, he’d have a long talk with his Aunt Fiona and her tendency to poke into matters she shouldn’t. If he and Elodie were meant to be together, that was up to them to decide. He wouldn’t marry her if she didn’t love him as he loved her. Without love, they didn’t have anything to build on. He wanted her to be happy. She was right about one thing. They did need to sleep and prepare for their journey. “Do you think you can manage to rest?”
“Maybe if you lay near me.” She looked down. “And hold me…”
He would never refuse her anything, but that she asked made him nervous. “Yes,” he said. “Come lie on the pallet near the fire.”
She did as he suggested, and he lay down beside her. Elodie turned and rested her head on his chest. How could something so simple make his heart beat faster? He pulled his arm around her and willed his breathing to slow. Daire didn’t know if he’d be able to sleep at all, but if it made it easier for Elodie he’d do this every night. She was more important than his own discomfort.
Sunlight poured over her, waking Elodie when all she wanted to do was curl into the warmth that enveloped her. She opened her eyelids slowly, but the sun was too bright for them to focus properly. She lifted her hand and shaded them. The day had started well before she wanted it to, but there was no stopping it. She rolled over and slammed into Daire. How could she have forgotten he’d been sleeping beside her? He’d been the whole reason she’d finally been able to close her eyes. Without him, she’d still be struggling with all the pent up emotions that continued to be bottled up inside of her.
He looked so peaceful, and she didn’t really want to disturb him. They did have to start heading farther south. At some point they needed to form a plan on how to locate their missing items. Elodie didn’t have any idea where to even begin looking. Malediction was a large place and constantly changing. Her necklace and Daire’s family crest broach could literally be anywhere. Still… They’d not find it at all lying on the ground.
“Daire,” she pushed on his shoulder lightly. “Wake up.”
His eyelids blinked open giving her a look at his sea-green eyes. They were lovely and a little dazed from sleep. Daire was a pretty male, delectable to behold. She’d always believed that about him. Even as a boy he’d been gorgeous, but in a different way. He’d become more handsome with age. His muscles and strong physique were a nice contrast to his male beauty.
Daire sat up suddenly and stared at the landscape around him. He seemed almost frantic and searching for something. “Elodie?”
“I’m here,” she said and placed her hand on his arm. “Where else would I go?”
He turned toward her. “For a moment, I thought you’d left. I had the craziest dream…”
“What was it about?” The dream must have been alarming for him to act so frantically. Daire wasn’t the type to panic easily or without reason.
“We were near the fire…it started to grow and…” He swallowed hard, then pulled her into his arms.
“Easy,” she said. “You’re making it hard to breathe.”
“I’m so glad you’re safe. If that dream had been real…”
“Don’t worry about me. I always land on my feet somehow.”
Elodie didn’t want him to worry about her, but he’d never stop. It was ingrained in his soul for some reason. Both Cale and Daire tended toward being overprotective when she didn’t need that from them. She reached up and brushed a stray blond lock behind his ear. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. Fire of a different variety ignited within her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and removed whatever space remained between them. The need to be closer to him ruled her. Daire lifted his hand and ran his fingers through her hair, deepening the kiss with each stroke through her locks.
Elodie pulled back. “We need to go.”
“Do we?” Daire leaned down and kissed her quickly. “I know we do, but I really don’t want to.”
She didn’t know what was happening between them. They’d grown closer since they’d been forced into Malediction. Her expectations had changed where he was concerned. She didn’t even know what they all were anymore. He made her feel… Elodie wasn’t certain what she felt about him. She knew it was different than it had been before they’d come into the cursed world.
“I’d rather not walk at all. I’m still weak and tire easily.”
“You’re doing fine,” he reassured her. “We’ll continue to take as many breaks as you need.”
“Thank you.” The entire conversation seemed weird and stilted. Something about Daire seemed off.
“Do you know where we need to look or have an idea?”
Elodie shook her head. She wished she did have an idea. “Wait…what did you say you dreamed about?”
“Fire consuming us until we no longer existed. It seemed all too real.”
Why did that seem important? Something about fire was important but she didn’t quite understand why. It would come to her at some point. She hoped she wasn’t too late when it did. “Have you ever had a dream like that before?”
“No and I hope I don’t ever again. It was horrible.”
It came to her rather suddenly why it seemed significant. “Didn’t your broach depict fire?”
“Yes,” he replied slowly. “A dragon breathing fire is part of the family crest.”
“Cale is the key to finding it. He has his ring dagger. I wonder if he has all of the missing items.”
“Then we better hope Donia is able to find him. He’s the key to us finding our way home if that’s true.”
Elodie wasn’t sure one way of the other. Cale might have them or he might have an idea of where to start looking. Either way they needed to find him and uncover what information he had stored inside that brain of his. She took a deep breath and stood. “Let’s start walking. Donia mig
ht beat us to our meeting point, and I don’t want to waste another second.
Daire stood beside her and folded up the pallet, then stored it in his pack. Afterward, he made sure the fire was completely out and turned toward her. “Ready?”
“Absolutely,” she replied. “Lead the way.”
“No,” Daire disagreed. “We walk side by side. Our relationship isn’t built that way.”
Elodie smiled. No, it wasn’t. They were a team and they respected each other as equals. That was the difference in their relationship she hadn’t been able to pinpoint earlier. They had something special between them. A rarity she hadn’t found with anyone else in her life. Daire listened to her and helped Elodie make the best decisions. No matter what happened or where their journey took them, she could count on him. That was a gift she wouldn’t take for granted. She looped her arm through his and they started down the path together. They had some missing items to find, and she refused to let anything stop her.
9
Amulet of Life
The roar of waves crashing on a shoreline echoed through the air. Elodie glanced toward the deafening sound and then back at Daire. “That’s not a river.”
“No, it isn’t,” Daire agreed.
Elodie had a bad experience with a river in Malediction. She didn’t know if another body of water was a good thing or a bad one. At least she had and affinity toward things of the liquid variety. “Have we hit a point of no return?”
“I doubt it.” Daire came to a stop beside her. “I think we need to be here. Something important is in this area.”
“How do you know?”
Elodie had a hard time trusting her instincts. They were faulty lately, and she didn’t know which way to turn. She hated that she questioned every little thing and looked at Daire for validation. That wasn’t who she wanted to be and hoped to shake the uncertainty warring within her. For now, she’d let Daire take the lead and figure the rest out as she went.
“It feels right,” he said. “As if there is something out there calling to me.”
“So, should we keep going?”
Elodie was terrified of what they might find when they reached the water’s edge. She wasn’t even sure what type of water it was. The waves could be a part of a large lake or even an ocean. There were so many places in Malediction they had yet to see, and truthfully, she didn’t exactly want to see them all. Nothing good ever came from anything in the cursed world.
“Yes,” he finally said. There seems to be a set of cliffs over there.” He pointed to an area in the landscape that seemed to drop suddenly. The sun rested at the edge as if cut in half by the horizon. It glowed a brilliant yellow with an orange hue encircling it. Green grass filled the area, giving it an idyllic appearance.
She chewed on her bottom lip. “It seems peaceful.” Nothing in Malediction should be taken at face value.
“Maybe it is.”
She shot him a sardonic look. “Please tell me you’re not that naïve.”
He chuckled lightly. “No. But I was hoping it would at least put you at ease. Come on princess,” he said, then held out his hand to her. “We have to face it at some point.”
Elodie sighed and took his hand in hers. They walked that way toward the edge of the cliff, not speaking the entire journey. It wasn’t a long trek, but tension kept them alert the entire way there. She didn’t have a clue what she’d find when they arrived at the edge. There was one thing she did know though—it was probably going to be bad. They came to a stop at the border before it plummeted to the edge of the water, and they both looked down at the blue and white waves hitting the rocky expanse.
“There’s nothing down there,” Elodie said. “Well, nothing truly terrifying.”
“Speak for yourself,” Daire replied. “I would rather not fall down there anytime soon. That’s a long way down.”
The wind picked up speed around them as if taking a hint from Daire’s words. It whirled faster and faster until Elodie started to sway from the strength. Daire reached out and held her steady, but soon he too was losing his balance.
“I should never have spoke the words aloud,” he yelled over the howling wind. “It’s like I called something into being.”
“This isn’t your fault.” Malediction would always try to kill them. That was a fact she’d come to live with. “We have to fight it, or we’ll go over.”
They tried to step backward and gain distance from the cliff, but they fought a losing battle. The more they struggled, the harder it coiled around them, pushing both Daire and her toward the water. Elodie didn’t know why it would want to push them into the sea, but she had a sinking feeling they’d find out soon enough—she’d already had one bad experience with a river and didn’t want to repeat it if she could help it. Elodie prayed that the water was deep enough to cushion the fall. It was quite a distance, but if they hit the water right they could survive…
“We need to stop fighting it and dive in,” Elodie said.
Daire’s eyes widened at her announcement. “Are you crazy?”
“It will push us over, but if we jump, we can control the fall.” He didn’t appear to believe her. Daire kept looking at her and then at the edge. All the while, the wind kept pushing them toward it. Elodie was afraid he wouldn’t agree, then he nodded at her.
“Let’s do this.”
They ran together and dove to the sea. The water was dark blue and became darker the closer they came to it. Elodie hit the surface smoothly, but Daire flailed a little before sinking. Water surrounded her and seemed to swallow her in its weight. She kicked her feet to move toward the surface. Daire was beside her as they both fought the current attempting to pull them down. Elodie pushed a little of her magic out and forced the water to bend to her will. It eased their path until they both broke free. Elodie took a deep breath, forcing air into her lungs.
“I hate this place.” Daire swam over to her. “Where do we go from here?”
She glanced around them. There wasn’t a whole lot of land in sight. Elodie had no idea which direction they should go. Then she spotted it. Not land exactly, but as close as they were going to get for the moment. “Follow me.”
Elodie started to swim toward a rocky island that couldn’t be any bigger than her bedroom back in Zelnon. At least they’d be out of the water and they could figure out what they should do next. Once she reached the edge, she pulled herself onto it. Daire climbed on soon after.
The stone’s surface glittered in the sunlight—a mix of pink, yellow, and tan. A little farther inland, a mixture of brown and green trees grew in the center and toward the back of the miniature island. “There’s something in there.” Elodie pointed toward the trees. “Is that a house?”
Daire laid on the rocky surface staring up at the sky. He hadn’t said a word since they crawled out of the ocean. She didn’t like it that he remained silent. Had their impromptu swimming hurt him in some way? Elodie crawled over to him and poked his shoulder. “Daire?”
“Let me catch my breath, princess.” He breathed in and out several times. “I’m not particularly fond of heights.”
And she’d forced him to jump into the water. That had to have been terrifying for him. She hadn’t exactly enjoyed it herself, but it had proven necessary. Elodie fully believed if they had not jumped, then the wind would have pushed them over. They might have broken some bones or worse if they hadn’t controlled the dive. “We need to move.”
“I know,” he replied. He sat up and shivered. “Why am I cold?”
“Because you’re wet,” Elodie said matter-of-factly. “When you dry, it’ll be better.”
Water was part of her magic, so she didn’t feel the effects of it. She should be shivering too, but instead it super-charged her. After she fully absorbed it, she would be high on it for days. It was actually helping her heal from her trip into the Shadowlands. She hadn’t felt that good in a while. Maybe a dip in the water was exactly what she’d needed, and Malediction had helped her in so
me way. She wasn’t sure she trusted the cursed world, but she knew a blessing when she stumbled onto one.
“In the meantime, I’m going to be completely miserable.” Daire sighed and stood. “Let’s go inspect this little piece of land in the middle of nowhere.”
Elodie got to her feet and followed behind him. The trees weren’t as far away as she first thought. She moved alongside Daire as they headed toward the foliage. They were at the edge of the woods in mere moments, and the weird looking house not long after that. Daire held up his hand, indicating for her to stop. He took a cautious step forward and surveyed their surroundings. After he felt it was safe, he gestured for her to follow.
They reached the little cottage and the front door. Daire knocked, and it creaked open. He looked back at her and Elodie shrugged her shoulders. “We might as well go in.”
“Said the spider to the fly,” he retorted. “It could be rather dangerous to step inside that cottage. We don’t know what’s in there.”
“It could be where our items are hiding.”
“Or a witch could be waiting to make a meal of us.” Daire folded his arms over his chest. “I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to be as trusting as you are right now. What gives?”
For the first time in days she was starting to trust her instincts. Something about the little cottage spoke to her. It felt—right. “Can you trust me on this?”
He sighed and then nodded. “I’ll go in first.”
Of course he would. He wouldn’t want anything to happen to her. Daire would rather he was the one harmed instead of her. One of these days Elodie would have a long talk with him about always putting himself at risk for her. She didn’t want anyone to die to save her. Daire was as equally important as she was, and he didn’t deserve to be hurt any more than she did.
He pushed the door completely open and stepped inside. Elodie followed behind him before he motioned for her to stay behind. He would have done it if she’d given him the chance. What he didn’t realize was they were doing everything together whether he liked it or not.