58. It’s Not Forever
fifty-eight
It’s Not Forever
I barely had time to gather my thoughts before I heard the sound of Elera screaming.
Whipping my head around frantically, I searched for her, only to find that she was being accosted by a group of men wearing plain clothing and carrying an array of weapons and ropes.
“No!” I screamed, the pitch so loud I felt my eyes reverberating inside my skull like porcelain ornaments.
I struggled to get to my feet, fighting dizziness as the sky became the ground, and Wrenlock appeared in my peripheral vision, looming above me.
“No! Let her go! Give her back! She’s not yours! She’s not yours !”
Elera bucked wildly, and the sound of her squeals cut through the forest like sirens, like needles aimed straight for my heart.
She pulled against the ropes with all of her might, her large, dark eyes reaching for me hopelessly as I struggled against Wrenlock’s arms, and she ducked her head, trying to hit her assailants with the ends of her horns as they secured the ropes around her neck and yanked on them.
“We’re not hurting her,” Wrenlock swore, grunting as he heaved me onto my feet. “She’s all yours, I promise. If you come with us peacefully right now, I’ll tell them to let her go, but you cannot go near her until we know you will stay with us.”
“You bastard!” I yelled, the words searing my throat. “You fucking bastard! How could you? Who’s fucking side are you on?”
His answer was immediate. “The rebellion.”
I was too disoriented to ask which flavour of rebellion he was flaunting, considering there were two opposing sides between Lucais and Owain, and the men stealing my unicorn seemed to have betrayed both of them in the same breath.
The rebels stumbled from one side to the next as they worked in a group of seven or eight to lead Elera away from me.
She snorted furiously, ears flattened against her head, hooves digging into the dirt as she resisted.
Three additional men came jogging out of the shadows, and one of them was carrying a whip.
My eyes widened in horror. “No!” I screamed. “Wrenlock, no!”
“Fuck.” He dropped me, leaving me to crumble onto the dirt like a sheet ripped from a washing line. I couldn’t see straight, let alone stand upright. “Stay here—”
The sound of the whip cracking split the air, followed by Elera’s enraged screaming, and I rolled over and wretched onto the ground, though nothing came up except for saliva and the misery leaking out of my nose.
I dug my fingers into the ground, desperate to haul my body closer to her even if I couldn’t stand up, coughing and spluttering as dust filled my mouth and lungs.
“Abello! Stop!” Wrenlock roared, and his voice was already a fair distance away from me.
There was a scuffle of shoes and incoherent shouts from all around, but the crack of the whip didn’t sound again, and when I peered up through tear-filled eyes, I saw that Elera had stopped fighting them so hard.
Abello.
I took the name from the air and seared it into my brain.
Abello.
I’d make sure that Abello died first. After he suffered.
“It’s not forever.” Wrenlock’s tone was a cruel taunt when he returned to me, though I knew he was trying to be gentle and sincere.
It simply didn’t matter; I’d never be able to stomach his voice again.
“As soon as you’re ready, the dagger will guide you to me wherever I am, and I will make sure you are safe. ”
My head tilted up, hatred overtaking the water in my eyes, burning through me like a fever at the height of illness. In my delirium, the spinning of the universe ceased to mean anything, and a counterfeit strength returned to my limbs. “Like you kept her safe?” I snapped.
Wrenlock’s eyes were depthless, but his mouth turned down at the corners, and his shoulders lowered ever so slightly. “I am so sorry about that. Abello didn’t realise she was for you, and she was trying to stab his friends with her horns—”
“Because they were kidnapping her!” I scrambled to get to my feet and pulled the blade out from where it was tucked into the side of my belt. “This stupid blade is going to show me to you?” I demanded, shaking it in the air between us.
He nodded warily.
“Then I don’t want it!” I whirled, breathless and dizzy and furious, and stabbed the dagger into the trunk of the nearest tree. To my absolute shock, the entire tree went up in flames a second later. A raging fire devoured every last inch of bark and leaves, but left the dagger untouched.
I watched on in awe and horror, panting heavily.
I wish I could’ve stabbed him instead.
“You’ll see why I’m doing this,” Wrenlock promised, sounding like he was trying to reassure himself more than he was me. “I know you will, and when you do, I’ll be waiting for you.”
“Your promises aren’t worth anything to me.”
“Please, Aura. I know it’s not the City of Light. I know it’s not High Queen of Faerie, but if you come with me, you could be my Queen. Our Queen. You could have the Court of Rebels to yourself, and I would worship at your feet. Aura—”
“Go away,” I commanded weakly, my eyelids fluttering as they waged a war on my exhaustion. “Go after them. At the very least, make sure they don’t hurt her again. You owe me at least that.”
“Find me,” he stressed, his face torn even as he glanced behind him. The forest was empty and quiet with Elera and the rebels already making tracks away from us.
Fuck yourself, I thought, but I kept the sentiment quietly tucked away in my mind because I needed him to prioritise my unicorn even when I wasn’t watching. I needed him to keep her safe until I could equip myself to take her back and kill every last one of the monsters who had taken her from me.
And from Lucais, who—
The thought was a knife to the stomach. I couldn’t finish it.
I held myself together with my arms locked around my waist, feeling like I’d unravel into a pile of string if I took pressure off the space around my left rib where the bond had gone quiet and still.
I pressed my pointer finger against it, feeling the tension flicker faintly inside my flesh and bones.
If he was already in the dungeon, he was surrounded by iron.
Lucais wouldn’t be able to hear me. He wouldn’t be able to feel me, either.
I tried to suck in a breath of air, but it was so sharp it felt like broken glass as it went down. Holding myself still instead, I searched the forest for any trace of life—anything beyond the slow death of my own heart knocking to be let out of my chest.
It wasn’t until long after Wrenlock had disappeared into the trees that I allowed my knees to buckle and the vertigo of my unravelling curse to win.
The forest floor was littered with tiny stones and jagged rocks that dug into my flesh as my body crashed onto the ground.
I braced my hands on the dirt in front of me, my fingertips curling into the earth as I forced myself through a series of deep breathing exercises that did nothing to placate the panic.
I squeezed my eyes shut, bringing my fists to my chest as my heart screamed through an impossible pain. It tore through me—mind, body, soul, and bond—until I couldn’t take it anymore.
Folding in on myself, I rocked back and forth on my knees, and I whispered into the devastating silence.
“Tommy. Tommy. Tommy.”