“Fine. Have it your way.” I pulled out my faithful throwing knives and ran my fingers down the intricate design embedded in them. I’d trained my entire life for this. I shut my mind down from the distractions of the outside world, from the pressure of the future, and focused solely on Nealla, planting my feet and holding my knives loosely.
I threw a knife, and she moved with pure grace, dodging it, then tilted her head backward as the makings of a mangled laugh escaped her. She spun and struck me with the barbed end of her tail, sending me flying again. I barely managed to get to my feet before she hit me again. Blood pooled in my mouth, and as I spat on the ground, it sizzled in the heat of the sun. I watched it turn to steam and vanish then realized what I was meant to do. It wasn’t about the weapons I had brought. It was me. I was the weapon.
I bowed my head and called forth the small bit of magic I had. She hit me again. This time, with the wind knocked from my desperate lungs, I went down and stayed down. I lay there and pulled on that magic.
Get up.
I wouldn’t. I shoved the magic from me and hoped and prayed it did what I needed. The moment the monster was struck, I jumped to my feet just in time to see the beast form melt away and the female saunter forward.
“Oh yes, I forgot,” she said as she approached me, moving over the top of the sand like a serpent.
I pulled my throwing knife, and she looked at me, daring me to throw it. I didn’t take that dare. I let her walk right up to me and place her palm on my forehead as she whispered into my mind,gan cheangal.
Everything went dark. The pain of a thousand deaths tore through my body as I felt myself fall through the world and land over and over again. There were no words, no sounds, no emotions. Only pain. So much pain I knew for certain that I had crossed the world only to die. I felt the blood leave my body until I was drained of all life. I felt my soul, recently damaged. I felt everything and nothing as the shadow of the reaper dragged me to hell.
The only thing that kept it away was the small flicker of light within me. I knew it wasn’t mine. Nealla had taken everything that was a part of me, and whatever was left was something else. Someone else’s. But it was just enough to keep the God of Death at bay. I lost myself in that small flame. That foreign fire that tied me to the land. That tiny promise that I was not like the others. That I was meant to do something greater than die at the hands of a wicked being that had once promised to protect me.
Do you see?I heard her say.He is still there.He is the only thing that holds you now, girl. Your will to die costs him. You have no sense of self preservation, but still, he protects you.
A numbness settled over my body as my soul reached for that little flame and wrapped itself around it. In the endless pit of despair I was currently suspended above, the only thing that mattered, the only thing that held me, was him. Fen. I didn’t know how or why after I had left him, but he refused to let me go, and somewhere within that conviction was my entire heart, no matter how much I fought it. I wanted everything that broody fae would give me. Flawed as he was, he was mine. A peace settled over me the moment those words filled my mind.
All at once, I was shoved back into my broken body, and the anguish from being rebuilt encapsulated me so thoroughly my back arched and a foreign scream left me. I cracked my eyes open to see that once again I laid on the floor of Nealla’s empty cottage.
She stood above me, staring. “You are unbound.”
I groaned and rolled to the side. I felt the same yet wholly different. Something within me had changed.
“Sit,” she demanded. I crawled over to the chair, pulled myself up and laid my head in my hands on the table. “Shall I begin?”
I wanted to slap the laughter from her, but I could barely move.
“When the seven gods came together and created this world, the first faerie also became the first king of Alewyn. He was elven and lived and breathed for the immortal fae of this world. However, after conquering the land from the creatures, the fae became bored, so they began to bicker and fight until the entire world was divided. The first king began an arduous journey of hunting many sacred artifacts to create a blood oath to the land. He bound his oath by sacrificing the precious immortality of the fae. In return, he asked for a promise. When the lives no longer mattered and hatred ruled the lands, a fae would be born in secret to save the world.”
She shifted in her chair and reached for my hand. I lifted my head, gasping. She filled me with an emotion of complete love and adoration. Within that touch I heard the first cry of a newborn, the first laugh of a babe, a long embrace from a father’s arms, a mother’s smile, a first kiss, the devotion of lovers.
“This is the message that king left for you. No words other than this feeling. To remind you that hatred is not the only way forward. He promised a Guardian to protect you as you completed your destiny, child. And so, you will see that you cannot sever the bond between you and the Prince. You are mates, but you are more than that. Though the king pledged you to the world, he vowed your Guardian to you.”
The truth hit me like a blow to the chest.
“You may have spoken out of rash anger, but your heart never denied him. You accepted that bond when you found him in The Mists. However, the bond between you is special. It is a bond that can never be broken, no matter how foolish or reckless you are.”
There was comfort in her words somehow. Because even though he’d lied, I knew him. He had done it because he thought it was the only way to protect my tumultuous heart. He might have known I’d chosen him in The Mists, but I’d chosen him before that. A hundred times. And that’s all I’d ever wanted. A choice. He’d given that to me the only way he knew how, and now that I’d left him behind, I wondered if he would ever forgive me. I’d never let her know that, though.
“Is that all, then?”
“When you were born, the prophetess told the sea queen the Promise was born. You then revealed yourself to her, as your raw power is far vaster than hers. Look within yourself to see the truth.”
I stifled the groan as I closed my eyes and searched for my magic. No longer a small basin, but seemingly an endless pit swirled within. It lit my veins and pumped my heart. The magic was so vast, it pressed at the seams, overwhelming me the moment I became aware of it.
“Control it.” Nealla stood and latched onto my arm. She knew I couldn’t.
“I’m trying,” I ground out.
“That magic is as pure as the magic of the first faerie king. It is your will alone that rules it. Remember that. Just as I bound the tongues of the fae from speaking of you, I bound the magic from you, but the closer you got to me, the closer you got to your true power.”
I could barely concentrate on the words she said as the pressure continued to rise.
“Control it, girl,” she said again as her eyes glowed brighter within her cloak.
