by Chanda Hahn
I grabbed hold of both wrists, but I could feel my hip sliding further over the ledge.
“Get off!” I screamed, as I felt myself falling.
She leaned back, and I grasped at the stonework and pulled myself back up. But she hadn’t retreated, only regained her footing to charge at me. She jumped, pushing me over the ledge. We both fell, and I screamed.
My hands clawed at the air and latched onto a hanging banner, bringing it with me as I fell. I grasped at the fabric, and I caught it inches before it ran out. Queen Maris grabbed my dress, holding onto me as I hung onto the banner.
“No! You were supposed to fall.” She clawed at my back. Our combined weight was too much, and the banner ripped further from the ring.
“Crawl up,” I demanded, still trying to save us both.
“Never. My blood will atone for that I spilled, and yours will break the curse over the kingdom.”
The cloth ripped further, and we plummeted another few inches. I looked up. It was a few feet before I could reach the ledge while we hung suspended in the air.
I watched the banner give way, felt the tension lesson, and we fell.
“Aura!” Liam appeared, catching the banner at the last second as the end slipped over the wall. I cried out as my body slammed into the stone.
“Liam,” I cried, but could feel my fingers giving way. The queen was too heavy for me, and he was struggling to pull us both up.
I could hear him straining and grunting through gritted teeth as he tried to drag us up slowly, inch by inch. He lost his grip and fell forward, his stomach slamming into the wall. We fell again, losing the precious few inches we had gained. I saw the inevitable.
I looked down below me, toward the burning forest, and remembered my mother’s warning. One of the daughters will fall. I closed my eyes and felt the tears burn as I realized this was the end. I was out of strength.
I met Liam’s gaze, and he read my thoughts. “No, Aura. It’s not the end. I won’t let you fall.” With renewed strength, hand over hand, he pulled us up. But I could feel my strength waning and knew it would be too late.
“Why won’t you die?” Queen Maris cried out, and I felt a painful stab in my side.
I gasped in shock and felt my fingers lose their grip.
“Aura, no!” Liam cried out and dove for my wrist, catching me at the last second.
A raven appeared and dive-bombed the queen.
Queen Maris withdrew the dagger from my side. The bird wouldn’t give up and clawed at the queen’s face, causing her grip to lesson. Maris lunged and waved the weapon wildly at the air, making contact and slicing the raven. I heard Maeve’s mental scream, felt her pain, and watched as her black form plummeted. The queen lost her grip, falling with the bird into the burning mage fire, her scream echoing into the night.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Maeve!” I cried. I heard nothing in response.
My world swam. Pain radiated from the wound in my side. I was so tired. I wanted to let go and join my sister in death.
“Don’t let go, Aura,” Liam yelled, pulling on my wrist until my ribs rammed against the ledge. With a last tug, he pulled me up to safety. Liam’s arms wrapped around me, his lips brushing across my brow as he whispered promises. “It’s okay, Aura. I’ve got you. I won’t let you go.”
Tears streamed down my face and I felt numb. I looked back over the ledge, searching the burning forest below with my eyes and reaching for her with my mind.
I yelled her name over and over with no response until my voice was hoarse. Everything was silent, and then I knew why. I spun on Liam.
“Stop it!” Liam was shielding me with his magic. He was trying to block out the pain and the emotions.
“Aura, she’s gone. She couldn’t have survived that far of a fall, and into the fire.”
I flung his arm away. “Don’t touch me! I have to find her.” I raced for the stairs that led toward the palace exit. Liam gripped my elbow, stopping me.
“No, help them.” He pointed at the burning palace, the courtyard filled with people as they tried to escape the mayhem. Fire blocked every exit while a battle raged on between Maeve’s fire dragon and Tatiana’s magical thorns.
“I don’t care. Let them die,” I snarled. “I need to find my sister.”
“You don’t mean that.” Liam backed away from me, his eyes filled with sorrow.
“I do. I hate this kingdom. I hate this place and wish I had never come. I wish I’d never met you. Then . . . then she would still be alive. She wouldn’t have followed me here.”
“Aura,” Liam coaxed. “I have to shield you. There’s too much death. As an empath, you can’t handle it.”
I was being smothered. The intense pressure was moving in and I could see he was trying to help me.
“Stop shielding me!” I screamed. “If you want me to save your kingdom, Your Highness, then you will stop shielding me right now.”
Liam blanched, and he stepped back in surprise. “What do you mean? I thought you were the heir?”
“You are King Pharell’s and Ophelia’s child.”
“I don’t understand . . .”
“The night of your christening, Allemar took you into the forest and left you to die. It was Oma, Ophelia’s maidservant, who rescued you and took you to the Order of the First Light, the orphanage that Duke Tallywood adopted you from.”
“How do you know that?”
“I saw their memories, and their sins. He drugged and imprisoned your mother, and the queen poisoned her and paid Allemar to get rid of you. I saw your rescue and adoption.”
“I don’t know why, but this explains it . . .” He backed away, and I instantly felt his shield magic fall. “I feel it here. I’ve always felt it. A love and loyalty for this kingdom.”
“Believe me.” My hands trembled, and I felt the madness and the anger roll through my body.
He looked at me with tears in his eyes, and I felt his fear. “Aura, if you love me, save my people.”
“I’m not strong enough to fight her,” I whispered. “I can’t do it.” He handed me the spindle.
“I believe in you.” He reached down and kissed me on the forehead. “You will save them.”
I pulled away and nodded, looking up at the castle, my body shaking as I went to do the impossible.
But who will save me?
Holding the spindle, I ran toward the flaming hall. Liam tried to follow me, but I waved my hand, cementing his feet to the stone walkway.
He cried out my name in protest, but I knew this battle would end in death. I couldn’t save everyone, but I could try to save him.
When I entered the destroyed hall, King Pharell had Tatiana pinned against the wall, a blade to her throat. Her eyes met mine across the room, and I picked from her thoughts how the battle ended. She wasn’t completely heartless as I’d first believed. When she had tried to protect me, she had let her guard down. She lost her advantage, and the thorns retreated.
“I did it,” King Pharell crowed. “I defeated the fae queen. Now you will bow to me, or die.”
Tatiana’s chin raised. “I would rather die than bow to you.”
“So be it.” The knife pulled back.
“Stop it,” I screamed, and the king faltered. Lifting the spindle high into the air, I stabbed it into the ground and reached deep into the earth for the ley line, searching for it, but finding it too far out of my reach. I wasn’t strong enough to reach it through a mountain of stone.
The king smirked. “Is that it? That’s the extent of your power? I knew you were worthless.”
Tatiana’s eyes, glassy with tears, met mine from across the room. “My magic comes from the earth. Your magic comes from emotions. Use it, Daughter, to destroy him.”
King Pharell sneered. “Daughter? What are you talking about?”
I opened myself to the feelings and thoughts of those in the room. A kaleidoscope of reds, blues, and grays flickered across my mind. Hundreds of voices spoke at
once inside my head and I heard them all. I felt their pain, and I took it into myself. As an empath, I desired to take pain away from others. I wanted to heal the mind, but in doing so, I had to endure it.
This time I didn’t. I siphoned emotions and feelings until my knees shook, my back felt like it would break, and my mind split into two. Then I directed all of it into the spindle. The string fell from the spindle as the firethorn took shape and sprouted new golden branches. With the sheer amount of pent-up emotions I’d directed into it, it grew faster than Tatiana’s. Racing across the floor, twisting brambles of gold shot out and went right for the king, wrapping around his legs and working up his body.
The king cried out, desperately swiping with his blade across the thorns. “Help me,” he commanded. “Kill her. Kill the girl.”
The guards and those left in the main hall moved as one unit, raising their weapons against me.
You will not attack me.
With a flick of my wrist, I sent the brambles after every one of the attackers and watched with a smile as the thorns pricked the nearest guard. He ran two feet and then collapsed. One by one, the thorns attacked until there was no one left standing except the king who was wrapped in my thorns up to his neck.
“You killed them,” he cried out, glaring at Tatiana. “You’re just like her.”
“I should hope so,” I said smugly. “She is, after all, my mother.”
“Impossible.”
I waved my hand, and a branch rolled up my arm, its leaves stroking my skin like a cat. The thorns did not dare to prick my skin, but glided across it gently.
“Kill him,” Tatiana seethed. “Kill him now, then drive his head on a spike and put it outside the castle as a warning for others.”
“You have to let the anger and bitterness go,” I said.
“Never. I still hear their dying screams. Hundreds of fae, and I was unable to protect them. Only blood will stop their ghosts from plaguing me.” Spit fell from her lips, and I saw the crazed look in her dilated pupils. I knew she couldn’t be brought back. Her mind was too far gone.
“I’m sorry, Mother, please forgive me.” I raised my hand and touched her forehead.
Somnus.
Tatiana sighed and fell to the ground.
King Pharell realizing his defeat, begged and bargained. “Now, if you just let me go, we can talk about your future. I mean, our future. What do you think about an alliance?”
“I would never align myself with the likes of you.” I grinned evilly as the branch that was wrapped around my arm rose up like a snake and pricked the king in the neck. His eyes rolled back in his head before he went limp.
Chapter Thirty
“Well, I never expected this from you.” Mother Eville walked among the destroyed main hall, stepping carefully over a sleeping woman. “Maeve, yes, but not you, Aura.”
“It had to be done,” I said numbly. “I had no other choice. They would have continued to attack under the influence of the king’s compulsion until no one was left standing.”
Mother moved toward a golden branch that was wrapped around King Pharell. The king’s mouth was slack, and drool dribbled down his chin.
“It’s a shame that you’d altered the poison within the firethorn. You could have rid the world of another corrupt king.”
I knew it was a jest, but I was beyond caring. I rubbed my arms and stared across the destroyed hall and the hundreds of people in various positions of sleep. Feet poked from under a table, some had collapsed on the floor, weapons still in hand.
I kneeled by the thorn that had once been the spindle and lifted the golden string, showing the unique knots I had tied and wrapped around it.
“A sleeping spell.”
“It is what I’m best at,” I said.
When I cast it, I had only meant to keep them asleep until the devil’s breath had run its course through their system. I had already discarded the pouch and destroyed the remains. But that was over a month ago, and they had not yet woken up.
“When do you plan on releasing them?” Rhea asked.
“I don’t know,” I answered, moving to sit upon the king’s throne, my fingers running along the wood, feeling the warmth.
Mother watched me warily.
“You don’t?” Rhea asked.
“I like it,” I said, giving them a half smile. “My head doesn’t hurt anymore. It’s quiet and yet”—I got up from the throne and walked over to a sleeping Devin propped up against a wall, his head slumped forward. I fixed a section of his hair that was out of place—“I’m not lonely.”
Rhea sucked in her breath. This isn’t right.
“Who asked you?” I snapped, spinning and knocking a goblet from the closest table. “I didn’t ask either of you to come here. I’m fine on my own.”
Rhea’s bottom lip trembled, her eyes filling with tears. “No, you’re not, Aura. You can’t hold them hostage. They aren’t to blame for Maeve’s death.”
“No, just him.” I pointed to the sleeping king before gesturing across the room to the sleeping Tatiana. “And her.”
“No,” Mother said. “It was Maeve who chose to disobey and come here against my wishes. You did as well, and now you both have suffered the consequences.”
“I did what you didn’t have the strength to do. What she should have done years ago. Instead of imprisoning Tatiana, you should have killed the king and queen, and then none of this would have happened. Now there’s peace in Rya. I did that.” I pointed out across the kingdom, to the fog that was no more. Tatiana’s thick forest of thorns was still present, a wall of protection around the palace that was currently keeping unwanted intruders out. But the rest of the kingdom had slowly begun to rebuild. Refugees returned to their homes, their crops, and their families.
“It wasn’t time,” Mother whispered. “Events had to occur in a certain order to get the outcome that would do the most good.”
“Oh come now, Mother,” I teased. “Isn’t this what you wanted. Revenge on the kingdoms? I finally did it, and I now rule a peaceful and sleepy kingdom. You should be proud.”
She’s gone mad. Rhea let her thought slip.
I snarled. “I hate that word.”
“Why do you hate the truth?” Mother moved to stand over me. She was still an intimidating figure. “You are an empath. It’s your destiny to heal, not harm—and yes, that destiny leads down the path toward madness, but not always. When you use your gifts for good, you can live a full, long life, but when you harm others”—she gestured toward my crazed mother—“it brings nothing good.”
“You should talk,” I said bitterly. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about her. You told me my mother was dead.” I pointed to Tatiana, who I had moved to the table. Her head propped on a red pillow, her petite hands crossed across her chest, her long white hair carefully covering the burns and scars that covered her arms.
Lorelai shook her head. “The sleeping spell is called the sleeping death.”
Rhea kneeled by the spindle and began to sweep back the dried leaves. When it was free of debris, she broke off the original spindle from the thicket. With a wave of her fingers, she easily transfigured it back into a spindle and wound the remaining gold thread around it, tucking it into her apron pocket.
“Plus,” Lorelai continued. “It wouldn’t have done you any good to know about your mother too soon.”
“You said she went mad.”
She pointed at the missing roof and the destruction of the main hall. “She did.”
“I guess I will never understand your motives, or why you took me,” I said, as angry tears threatened to fall.
“When I brought Tatiana back to the fae court to imprison her, an injured basajaun approached me, holding out an infant. Your mother believed you were dead, but the basajaun must have protected you during the attack. It was that grief, losing you, that sent her spiraling out of control. I had already sealed the vault, or I would have placed you inside with her to sleep until the spell
wore off in a hundred years.”
“I wish you had,” I said sadly, wiping away tears that had fallen, my rage waning.
“Nonsense. If I had, you wouldn’t have been able to save the day here. Although, someone will need to stay and clean up this mess.” Mother Eville frowned and looked around at the destroyed palace as we headed up the stairs to the tower.
“Not me,” Rhea piped up.
I sighed as we passed the stairwell window, and I looked out at the empty courtyard. Those sleeping there had been moved to the closest shelters, inside their tents, or inside archways so they were out of the elements. It was slow work, but I did it.
We walked into the same tower room where I had stayed, and I stared at Liam sleeping peacefully on the bed. His aura drew me to him, and I’d spent many hours sitting by his bedside watching his dreams. I rested my hand on his forehead, and I caught the glimpses of his thoughts and dreams.
And they were always about me.
Heat rose to my cheeks as I blushed. He was dreaming of kissing me.
“Aura, are you listening to me?” Mother chastised and moved to the other side of the bed.
“Hmm?” I dreamily looked up at her.
“I said, what are you going to do now?”
Glancing down at Liam, I dropped my hand and felt my throat constrict. “I’m going to leave, and then I want Rhea to release the castle from the sleeping spell.”
“I can do that.” Rhea nodded, her brain already working on the counterspell needed. Then, she pointed to Liam. “What about him? He will be mad when he wakes up to find you gone.”
“He won’t remember I ever existed.” I leaned forward and brushed a kiss across his forehead, whispering the words of the forgetting spell.
His breathing changed, and as I closed my eyes and touched his forehead, I watched his dream change. Liam and I were standing in a field surrounded by yellow flowers. He was watching the sunset, and he lifted my chin to kiss me.