Chapter 39
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
Islide from Merlin’s back with a thud, my feet hitting the wet grass. I rip my cloak from around my neck and throw it over the saddle with a groan, giving the horse a pat on his rump to send him on his way before I implode.
Rage courses through my veins. Hatred and anger tingle at my fingertips as tears slide down my cheeks. They haven’t stopped, not since I first saw a glimpse of my friend tied to a stake.
I pace around the clearing, running a hand through my hair and pulling at the strands.
That’s not how our stories end.
I wouldn’t want their faces to be the last ones I see if it was me.
We do not hide.
Hazel’s voice is clear in my mind, as if she is here, standing right in front of me. But she’s not. She is gone. Nothing more than ashes washing down the bricks in town square.
I take a deep breath as I clench my fists, my emotions rising within me, like a well that is quickly flooding.
The sound of hooves in the soft grass makes me spin, and when I see deep green eyes looking at me, sympathy laced in them with every blink, my rage quickly slips into pain and hurt.
“He’s evil,” I say, my voice trembling as Rylan walks slowly towards me, like he is approaching a wild animal. “She knew, she knew that one day he would come for her. She knew he would kill her.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “What poison are they drinking to make themselves believe that what they are doing is justified?!” I spit. “Witches don’t exist!”
Rylan stays quiet as he stands metres away from me.
“I told her that this isn’t how our stories would end,” I cry, the anger breaking way and leaving my pain bare and exposed. “I promised her.”
My knees collapse beneath me, leaving me on my hands and knees in the wet grass.
My skirts are soaked and dirtied, but I can’t bring myself to care.
I can feel my emotions rise within me, bubbling over the top as I cry, as I sob uncontrollably, clawing at the ground for answers, or for help I’m not sure.
I can’t lose any more people. I fear I won’t survive it. I am not certain I’ll survive this, not as I feel my body giving up.
I hear Rylan’s voice through my sobs, a steadying presence as he says, “Let it all out, Everleigh.” His words call to me, like I have no other choice.
I sit up, tipping my head up to the sky before I scream, the sound hoarse as I cry out, letting all of my emotions escape from my lips as I let go.
I feel hot, like I’m burning, like every thought or emotion is flooding my system, and I try my best to get them out. And when all of my breath has run out, when my body feels like it might slump against the ground, I open my eyes.
That gold shimmer surrounds me, like a halo of energy, and when I let go of another shaky breath, it dissipates into thin air.
I stand up on weak legs and stare at the grass that is completely flattened in a large circle around me, the epicentre exactly where I stand, as if something exploded right here. As if I exploded right here.
Around the circle, leaves litter the ground, far more than were here before, as if someone shook the branches bare.
I turn ever so slightly to see Rylan, his face lit with something like pride as he looks over at me, a small smile curving his lips. The complete opposite of the fear that quivers in my own.
“What in the gods’ names was that?” I whisper, looking down at my shaking hands in front of me.
Rylan takes deliberate but slow steps towards me, landing only a step away. “That was your power, Rosie.”
I shake my head vigorously, my eyes filling with tears again. He just cradles my head in his hands. “What are you accusing me of?”
“Nothing, beautiful. If I were, I'd be accusing myself of the exact same thing.” I can’t stop my head from spinning, but it doesn’t land anywhere.
“Rylan.” I can feel my entire body shaking, as if a chill just shot through the clearing. “What are you talking about?”
“You’ve felt that spark,” he says, his eyes igniting with passion. “That energy that flows through your body just as easily as the blood pumps through your veins, but it feels different.”
His words are familiar, like my body knows exactly what he’s speaking of, but my mind refuses to acknowledge it.
“I see how animals flock to you. The way nature perks up in your presence. Did you ever wonder if that was normal? Did you ever notice how that didn’t happen to other people?”
I shake my head lightly. “I don’t—” Of course I wondered why things happened around me that didn’t happen to others, but I never tried to give it a name, a reason. It has always been there. It’s all I have ever known.
“The only reason I recognise it in you,” Rylan drags his thumb across my cheek, “is because I have it too.”
“Have what?” I breathe, my heart beating erratically in my chest.
Rylan steps back, pulling his hands away from me. I mourn the loss of his touch instantly, as if it is the only thing holding me steady as his words rock me.
A boyish smile graces his lips as he lifts his palms to the sky, raising them slowly. I’m about to ask him what he is doing, but then I notice the leaves rising from the ground around me.
I swivel, watching as they all float off the ground, a familiar strand of gold swirling between them. I lose my breath as they move in a circle, the leaves spinning around me.
I mindlessly wander closer to them, plucking one from where it’s suspended in midair. It floats above my palm before it’s twirling around my body, spinning in a slow circle around me before it slips back into the cluster of the other leaves.
I look back to where Rylan’s smile has lit up his entire face, the gold flecks in his eyes shining as he looks back at me. He drops his hands, and the leaves delicately fall back to the ground as if nothing happened.
“Witches aren’t real,” I whisper, even as I try to make sense of what I just saw.
“Witches?” He steps back into my orbit. “No, not the way they think they are. But magic is, and you have the power to use it.”
“No, I don’t.” I shake my head.
His smile is warm, but his eyes are sad. “How else do you explain what you did just then?” he says, his voice gentle. “Or how the water held you up at the lake that day,” he adds.
“I was floating, just like you said.”
He tips his head, tucking my damp hair behind my ear. “You used your power to pull the water under you, just like I hoped you would.”
I step out of his touch. “You…” My mind pulls me in two different directions. “So you knew I had this?”
“I suspected it, but I wasn’t sure, not until now.”
I hold my hand out in front of me like a shield between us. “So that’s what all of this has been?” I say. “You got close to me so that you could what? Test me?”
His brows pull. “No, Everleigh.” He shakes his head as he steps towards me. I just step back.
“You told me to trust you,” I say. “But all this time you were lying to me. Were you trying to figure me out? Trying to—I don’t know, Rylan. What was your goal here?”
“You don’t understand—”
“Hazel is dead!” I scream. “She is dead, Rylan, accused of witchcraft. So you can keep…whatever this is,” I wave my hands between us, “away from me, because I want nothing to do with it.”
“Everleigh,” he whispers as I push past him, but I don’t utter another word before I shoot up the wooden steps and slam my front door behind me.
I press my back into the wood, letting it take every ounce of my weight as I sink to the floor. My hand shakes uncontrollably as I raise it to my mouth, a sob cracking through the silent room as I cry until I have nothing left.