by Gow, Kailin
“You need a woman to defend you?” Kian scoffed. “You really are the coward, aren't you?”
“I'll show you just how much of a coward I am!” shouted Logan. “Right here, right now. And I'll enjoy doing it.”
“Stop, please!” I cried, but my screams were in vain.
“Now just a second, here.” Shasta had taken a step forward, her hands on her hips. “You're my brother, Kian, and I love you, and I've known you to do many stupid things in your life. But this is the absolute stupidest I've ever seen you. I know you love Breena – believe me, I'm surer of that than I am of anything. So if Kian's acting like a complete bonehead – there's only one thing behind it. Magic. Can't you see – he's been enchanted!”
“I most certainly have not!” said Kian loudly.
“Then what were you doing in Gail Vines’ prison? Just hanging out? Having some fun?”
This caused Kian to fall silent. “I...can't remember.”
“You don't remember how you got there?” Shasta raised an eyebrow.
“Something...” He furrowed his brow. “I was in this room – with Gail. And we were drinking this wine...no...it wasn't wine at all...”
“Potion?” Shasta looked dubious.
“I...don't remember.”
“There you have it,” Shasta crossed her arms. “Looks like Gail's gotten to Kian, too.” She put a hand on my shoulder. “Don't worry, Breena – we'll cure him, too.”
“I don't need to be cured of anything!” Kian exclaimed. “I've already been cured!”
Somehow, I found my voice, my strength, in the midst of my despair. “We'll worry about that later,” I said, trying to restrain my sobs. “For now – we have to defeat Gail Vines.”
“Do you?” A high, cold cruel voice caused us all to turn around. Standing before us was a beautiful woman with dark, blazing eyes, her hands on her hips. “I'd like to see you try.”
Chapter 19
So, this was the woman who stood before us, the woman who had filled our hearts with fear for so long. Gail Vines. Gail. The White Witch. The woman who had in the space of a few days taken away everything that I held dear. My people. My love. My crown.
“Welcome, Breena.” Her voice was sibilant and soft, like a snake's hiss. “I see you have come to try to regain your crown.” She laughed. “Or have you come to surrender, to go into exile the way you sent me and my kind into exile so many years ago?”
“Your kind?” Rodney took a threatening step forth.
“My coven.” Gail smiled, showing sharp-fanged teeth. As she spoke, the numerous shadows that had gathered around her feet began to morph, changing shape and form and color, growing dark and solid. Each shadow transformed into a woman – a woman young, beautiful, and terrifying, just like Gail. “We are the Witches. Many of us were the servants and slaves of the first White Witch, but that was a long time ago. Now, we are the ones who rule. You don't know what it is like, do you, Breena? You were born to so much privilege. To a throne to which you were entitled by virtue of simply being born, nothing more. To men who threw themselves at your feet, overcome by...” she grimaced. “Love. To nothing more than pure, blind luck.” She snorted. “You never knew deprivation. You never knew servitude. You never earned your crown. But I did. I was born to servitude, to destitution. The first White Witch thought I could be bossed around, pushed around, that I was a nobody. But she was wrong. She learned her lesson when I killed her.” She laughed, and as she laughed the other witches laughed with her.
“Now it is I who rule as the White Witch over the Ancient Realms – and soon I will rule, too, over Feyland.”
“You lie!” Shasta's eyes blazed with anger. “Breena has overcome more struggle, more hardship, than you will ever know. She was the one who united the two Kingdoms of Feyland, who restored the Suns...”
Kian said nothing, but only stared at the White Witch – confusion in his dazed expression. Just looking at him hurt me, reminded him of his cold, cruel words. But I couldn't let myself give into that pain. Not now. I just had to keep telling myself, keep reminding myself, that it was a spell, nothing more. That Kian's love for me had to be real – deep down. That somehow, he had to still love me.
“That's not what the people think?” Gail began to smile maliciously, her teeth glittering like stars. “Shall we ask them, though, just to be sure?” She waved her hand, and instantly the tower seemed to crumble beneath our feet; we were standing not atop the tower but rather in the center of the town square, surrounded by villagers. They were looking at me with eyes full of hatred, of loathing.
“Behold the False Queen!” One of them snarled. “The Betrayer! Breena the Unworthy!”
“Depose her!” Another cried. “She is no ruler of ours – Breena the Unworthy!”
They began chanting insults at me, screaming, hurling oath after oath upon me.
“Can't you see?” Logan thundered with rage. “You're under a spell – it's a lie! When has Breena ever betrayed you, ever let you down? When has she ever done anything but give her whole body, her whole soul, her whole life to Feyland!”
“She's a half-breed!” One of the villagers hurled a stone at me. “A human! A filthy human!”
“She's a human who left behind her whole life, her whole world, to save us!” Rodney took a step between me and the villagers, shielding me from their stones. “She gave up all her dreams, all her plans, to bring an end to the war between Winter and Summer. To bring food to us after the famine. To ward off the Dark Hordes! She never needed to use Shadow Puppets to win your hearts and minds – never needed to use spells or trickery to provoke discord among you in order to gain power. She got her power by being a good ruler, by earning your love, earning your respect!”
“Nonsense!” The villagers cried in a single voice.
Shasta took a step forward. “Can't you see what Gail has done? Taken away everything good in your lives. Taken away your love for one another, your neighborly feeling, your trust? Fostered hatred and discord. Separated families. Made you hate everyone different from you – Wolves against Fey, husbands against wives, rich against poor. Is this what you want from your world? Is this how you want Feyland to be? A place where the most powerful prey on the weak and the vulnerable, where whoever's shadow puppets whisper the most insidious gossip rules over all of Feyland? This isn't the Feyland I grew up in, that's for sure! This isn't the Feyland I believe in.”
Her words were greeted with a bitter murmur from the crowd. They fell silent for a moment, as if made ashamed by her words.
“You see?” sneered Gail. “They don't want you. They don't need you. Now, you needn't worry. I won't kill you. I don't like things to get messy. I'm giving you all the opportunity to step aside. To go to the Ancient Realms, into exile, or else to go back to those filthy Human lands, places where your love, your weakness, might be welcome. For they are no longer welcome here.” She took a step towards me, smiling at me with that chilling, convincing smile. “Come on, Breena. It's easy. Just go home – go back to Feyland. Bring Shasta and Rodney with you. None of you will suffer. You can live out your days in peace – back where you belong.” She laughed. “And I'll even sweeten the deal. I'll re-enchant your love, so that he falls for you once again. You'll finally have the man of your dreams – and none of the responsibility that has weighed you down for so long.”
For a moment I hesitated, charmed by her words. Did she really mean it? That this pain – this pain of losing the man I loved – could end? I could go home – go back to Gregory – me and Kian, together. Ready to live out our days together, happily married. I looked over at Kian, who was staring at me with a blank expression.
For a moment I wanted to believe in Gail's words, willing to believe anything, to do anything, to say anything, just to see the look of love in Kian's eyes once more. Images of Kian ran through my mind – memories we'd shared, moments we'd spent together, everything I loved about him. His beauty, his intelligence, his kindness, his honor.
His honor.
No, the real Kian, the Kian I loved, would choose the good of Feyland over the callings of his own heart. He would choose what was right over what was easy – what was right for Feyland over what was best for him. He would never let love, not even the strongest love in the world, get in the way of the greater love, the love we felt for our land. I felt that love surge through me. Not love for Kian, not love for Logan, but love for Feyland, for its emerald forests and sapphire seas, for its crimson sunsets and snowy peaks, for this land to which I belonged, and which was an integral part of my being. No, this was a love that could never be allowed to die, never be allowed to wither. Giving up, giving in – all those things would prove my detractors right – prove that I was the unworthy leader they said I was.
It was time to make the ultimate sacrifice.
“The Kian I love,” I said, “would never love a Breena who gave up on Feyland. And I wouldn't love myself. I would rather fight for Feyland and lose everything in the attempt than live in the shame of knowing that I didn't try hard enough – that I let the land I love down.”
My words were met with silence. The townspeople looked at me suspiciously, eyeing me with a wary gaze. They looked back and forth from me to Gail, letting my words sink in.
“See!” Logan cried to the townspeople. “That is what a leader does! A leader who loves her people. Don't let Gail and her Shadow Puppets fool you, trick you, take you in. Don't let her fool you!”
Kian remained staring at me – gazing with increasing intensity.
“Attack!” cried Shasta, and Rodney and Shasta tried in unison to shoot bolts of fire and ice from their fingers. But nothing appeared. The Witches' power was too strong; our magic did not work here.
Gail scoffed. “You are powerless here,” she said. “This is my domain. Without your magic, you see, you are nothing. You are powerless.” She smiled cruelly.
“Not so fast, Gail!” cried Logan. “You're forgetting something.”
“What's that?”
“We Wolves know how to deal without magic. We've been doing it a long time. And we know exactly how to deal with your kind.”
And with that, he gave a long, loud howl.
And then the Wolves attacked.
Chapter 20
Kian
I watched the Wolves come; I watched the Witches. I did nothing – but only stood, and watched, and waited. Some voice in my brain, some part of my subconscious stifled by the rest of me, was crying out for me to take part, to help my sister, to help the woman I had once loved – but my body remained immobile, sluggish. I was reeling with exhaustion, with confusion. I didn't feel like myself. Something had happened – but what? There was something I was supposed to do, supposed to feel – but what? I felt only a curious emptiness at the bottom of my stomach, within my heart.
I watched as the Wolves began to attack the Witches, their bodies tensed and taut as their animal instincts anticipated the Witches' every move. Logan nipped and snapped at Gail's heels; Breena too was wielding a sword, buckling only slightly under its weight without the power of her magic to sustain her.
Breena. The woman I had once loved. As I watched her fight, I felt curiously numb. I was removed from her struggle, from any fears from her safety. Once, I could remember, I had cared for her – once she had hurt me. But she was nothing more to me than a human half-breed. I knew that, now. Gail's potion had made me see the light.
And yet her words burned within me. The Kian I love would never love a Breena who gave up on Feyland. I had seen her weep at my feet – regarding her with a cold, distant eye – when I had told her that I had no longer loved her. I had seen, had sensed her pain. This was a woman who had loved me, of this I had no doubt. And yet, when Gail had offered to force me to return her love, she had refused. She had chosen Feyland, chosen honor, chosen the battle over an easy surrender. Against myself I felt admiration bubble up within me. I may not have loved her, but she was without a doubt a force to be reckoned with – a true daughter of Feyland.
I could not tear my eyes away from her as I watched her fight. She was beautiful – made all the more beautiful by the intensity of battle. Sweat made her cheeks turn rosebud in a blush; her eyes blazed with the passion within. I bit my lip as I watched her raise her sword, clashing against the Witches, fearlessly fighting to the last.
I remembered Logan's words about her. About her selflessness, her courage, her vision. About all that she had done for Feyland – and all that she had sacrificed. I saw the looks on the faces of the villager – the admiration that had broken through their hatred of her, through their fear.
Were those things true? I thought back to what I knew of Breena, to what I remembered, despite the blur that made thoughts of her run together in my mind. I thought not only of her beauty – beauty that was painfully clear even now – but of her courage, her strength. Of how she had saved me from Delano, King of the Pixies. Of how she had fought to save her father, the Summer King, and stood up to her stepmother, the Summer Queen. How she had saved Feyland, time and time again.
Breena...I felt my lips whisper her name.
“Fool!” Gail was struggling against the Wolves. “You don't have the power to banish me – nobody does, except the one who let me into Feyland!” She was weakened, now – injured by Logan's savage bites – but glowing with a black fire, the fire of magical strength. “You will be remembered forever as Breena the Unworthy, Failed Queen of Feyland.”
“No!” My soul cried out before my mind realized what I was saying. “No!”
Not Breena. Not the wisest, bravest, strongest girl I know.
Not the woman I love.
My limbs seemed to snap to life; my whole body began to move, glowing in a powerful sapphire light. I began to walk towards her, emotion washing over me in waves. Memories of Breena – of the smell of her hair, of the sound of her voice, of the tantalizing sweetness of her skin, of everything that I held so dear – reminding me of how much I had loved her, needed her, wanted her, missed her.
When I reached Gail, I reached straight through the fire. The black flames burned my hands, but I barely felt the pain. I could feel nothing now but love – love certain and true, strong and powerful, love for Breena that dwarfed any physical pain in comparison.
“No!” Gail was crying out. “It's impossible! It cannot be! Nobody can break that spell! Nobody can overcome my potion!”
“Don't you ever,” I snarled, “speak that way about the woman I love again.”
“Kian!” It was Breena's voice – a voice overwhelmed with emotion, with joy. With happiness. With happiness I would give my whole life to ensure was never destroyed again.
I lifted Gail up with my bare hands, no longer feeling the pain of the flames. I walked towards the stone gates to the Ancient Realms, holding her aloft.
“You'll regret this, Kian!” Gail was screaming. “By the power of the White Witch, I'll make you regret it! Your love is making you weak – it's making you foolish.”
But I no longer heard her. I threw her across the gate.
No sooner had she landed with a heavy thud than the other witches, too, began to vanish, one by one, dissolving into shadows that in their turn dissolved into nothingness.
And then there was only silence.
I turned to Breena, who was standing before me, tears shining on her face. I collapsed to my knees, overcome by joy, by love, by the desire to take her into my arms once more. I knew then that no spells could ever separate us again, no potions, no enchantments. She was mine and I was hers; our destinies were ever intertwined.
“My darling...”I whispered. “I'm so sorry – so, so sorry...the spell...”
“You broke it.” She began to shake like a leaf in my arms. “You broke the spell.”
“I could never stop loving you, Breena. I never did. I loved you so much I thought it would kill me – but I never stopped. And I never will. My love for you is stronger than the strongest magic – and if you'll let me, I want to keep loving you until the end of
time. Please, Breena, if you'll forgive me, if you'll have me, if you'll only accept my profound regret for all that I've done in my jealousy, in my stupidity. Please, Breena, do me the great honor, and give me the greater still joy, of becoming my wife.”
Her words were all but indistinguishable through her tears. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, yes, I will.”
And then, again, through telepathy – through the connection that surged through us both like a flame.
Yes.
I love you.
Epilogue
Logan
So, this was the end. This is how Breena and I ended – how I always knew we would end, deep down. Me watching her pledge her heart to another – me knowing now, for the last and most certain time, that they were going to be together forever. That my love for her, strong as it was, wasn't true love. Would I have been able to withstand that potion? Perhaps, perhaps not. I would never know. I'd had my chance with Breena, after Kian left – and I had not taken it. It wasn't circumstance that had kept me and Breena apart – it was destiny. I knew that now. And I knew that the road towards moving on would be long and hard. But necessary.
But I knew that much lay still in store for me. One day, I hoped, Breena and I would be best friends again. As I had learned from the Summer King, the bond between the Summer Heir and the Wolf Prince was a historic one, one imbued with ancient magic. But before I could be a friend to Breena, I had to learn to move on, to find my own love, to follow my own heart, wherever it led.
Could I love another? The idea seemed possible for the first time. For the first time I wanted to love another – wanted to fall for someone whom I could love the way Breena and Kian loved one another. But could another love me? A face popped involuntarily into my mind – a beautiful, round face surrounded by a cloud of bright saffron-colored hair – a face so often brought to a blush of embarrassment, of flirtation...