Chapter 16 #2
I dug my nails into my palms. Whatever. She had her secrets, and I had mine. And now they were all out in the open.
“So,” Hildur said, peering down her nose at me, her tawny skin radiant and flawless—like her daughter’s. There were no other sounds, except the drag of fabric, as she slowly circled me; it felt like my heart had ceased to even beat. “What is your name?”
“River,” I managed to say without my voice cracking.
“River.” She stressed each syllable, testing it out. “What are you doing in my kingdom?”
My gaze slipped from her face, wandering over the crowd.
Heat seared the back of my neck. Was I really supposed to explain it all now? There must have been two hundred people in this room, half of them armed guards.
Drawing in a sharp inhale, I held it and counted to ten. Afraid to move—afraid to speak.
“Go on,” the queen urged, now on her second lap around me. “Explain yourself.”
“I’m looking for the Angel of Earth. I tried her watchtower, but as you know, it’s locked.” I started out strong, until murmurs from the assembled elves had anxiety clawing at me from the inside out all over again.
Hildur’s long fingers came to rest beneath her chin. I took it as a silent command to go on.
“I’m told you might be able to, uh, assist with that,” I continued, fighting to keep the fear brewing within me from playing across my face.
She held her elbow with her other hand. “I’m afraid you have been misinformed.”
I didn’t move—didn’t even dare breathe—biting my own tongue.
“That watchtower is locked for good reason.” She tilted her head, her diadem sparkling. “What is yours for trying to break in?”
Face pinched, I shot Freyja a glare. We’d talked about this in the ice cave, and this was not the note we’d left on. What kind of story had been spun to her mother?
Hildur smiled, and in that coldness, I saw her daughter. “You know Gunnar and Freyja weren’t the only spies on the Dyrhólaey cliffs. The birds, the wind, even the hills have eyes for their queen.”
“It’s not what it looks like.” Freyja might hate me for this next part, but I needed some ground to stand on. “Just ask the princess. I’m not your enemy, Hildur.”
The queen snapped her spine straight, her eyes flashing with ice. “I am not your friend; I am not even your acquaintance. To this kingdom, you are nothing but a prisoner—an enemy, at that. Mind your tongue. You are lucky to even address me as Your Highness.”
“Please, Your Highness.” I gritted my teeth, Source swirling in my veins, mingling with the adrenaline pushing me to run and settling in my thighs until they started to quake beneath me. “I had no idea this was going to cause so much trouble.”
“Any—all—who try to breach the realms go straight to the ice dungeons.” A chill blew over me with her threats. “This is elven law. We do not make exceptions, no matter if you’re a pixie or the highest-ranking seraphim. There’s room for everyone down there.”
I shifted on my feet. “I’m not here to start a war with you.” In one fluid clink, the guards unsheathed their weapons. “I’m here to stop it.”
Hildur raised her hand, the only thing stopping a blade from slitting my throat. But I had to act quickly—I could sense that she wouldn’t keep her loyal knights off me for long.
“A bold statement, I know, and I’m aware I don’t look like much, but I had a glimpse of that war in a vision.
The death, the blood, the screams…” The scene played out in my mind, and I hadn’t realized it until now, but the people who were left scrambling and hopeless were mostly…
elves. “It’s been haunting me every day since.
And it took place on those very bluffs, just outside the lighthouse. ”
A muscle in her eyelid twitched.
“Regardless of what I saw in the vision, I know more pain and suffering is next.” I drew in a slow breath, measuring my words.
Across the dais, Freyja threw me a look that said, Careful.
“It’s all part of Chthonia’s plan to bridge the realms so they can re-create hell on earth.
No one is safe from that. Not even you.”
It was probably a trick of the light, but I could have sworn the queen’s face paled.
That look was just the glimmer I needed to go on. “Whatever is coming to your land is coming for us all. Finding Gaia and the rest of the Watchers might be the only thing that can stop what very well could be the apocalypse.”
“The Watchers,” the queen tsked. “What do the archangels care about the elves? Empyrea deserted our kind long ago when they left us with their broken mortals and their fallen gods.”
I tried not to sink into myself, to not let my confidence shutter. This line of thinking was exactly what Chthonia preyed on. Clearly, I wasn’t going to change the queen’s heart permanently, but maybe I could change it for a moment.
“Think about the last war you were dragged into,” I said, projecting my voice so she would not mistake my words.
And maybe so the other elves in the room would hear it, too.
“I know it decimated an entire village. Probably more. I know you lost family, people you love.” Behind the queen, a light flush crept over Freyja’s cheeks.
“And I know you’ll do whatever it takes to stop it from happening again. ”
The bloody scene from Chet’s tribunal floated to the top of my mind. My heart twisted. All those innocent lives lost. All the panic and chaos. Because of me.
“This is your chance to save your kingdom.” My eyes widened, pleading. “Release me. Let me into the watchtower. And we can figure this out with Gaia. Together.”
The queen’s eyes narrowed to slits. “I have to say, this is the most creative story I’ve heard in at least two hundred years of prisoners groveling for mercy at my feet.”
“W-what?” I was too shocked by the accusation to notice the thud of boots, the clank of steel prowling forward.
“Take her away.” She swatted the air before turning back to the dais, as if I were nothing but an annoying fly buzzing around her throne room. “Isdyflissur.”
A firm grip locked around my bicep. “No,” I begged. My other arm was captured. “No! Get off me!” I turned wild eyes on Freyja and Gunnar, but they met my panic with a coldness that turned my heart to stone.
With a rough tug that nearly pulled my arms out of their sockets, the guards dragged me across the room. The chamber doors were flung open, a loud crack reverberating off the walls—wood slamming against stone.
I knew where they were taking me. Dread pressed against my chest. I’d seen the entrance to the dungeons—that icy cellar door in the courtyard.
There’d be no miracles there.
Eyes darting to the chandelier, I funneled every drop of power rushing through my veins into each of those dangling ice crystals. As the guards bore me off, I caught a flicker of movement above.
Or maybe that was just my body, trembling with fear, panic shaking the whole room.
My waist cleared the doorway.
No. I wouldn’t let them take me to that abyssal pit of hopelessness. Wouldn’t let the look of knowing pity twist the faces of the elves I’d stupidly considered friends.
Digging my heels into the ground, I silently called to the water.
With a chime, the ice fixture jolted.
My ankles passed the doorway. In moments, they’d lock me out forever.
I clenched my hands into fists, ground my teeth, and focused every thought, every beat of my heart on the fear, the magic, the rage.
The ceiling rumbled. Hairline cracks erupted around the chandelier’s mount.
Judging by the widened stares, the sharp gasps, the rustle of silk shoes—people fleeing—I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
And just in time. Another breath, another pulse of Source, and the chandelier broke off from the ceiling. In a glittering shatter, it crashed dead center, where the queen and I had been only moments before.
Screams erupted. People ran, ducking for cover. Splintered shards of ice ricocheted off the columns, the floor, sticking to hair and velvet robes.
Hildur did not move from the middle step of the dais. Her lips parted just barely, lavender gaze electric and accusatory, piercing over her shoulder at me.
Palms raised, the guards backed off, their faces feral with fear.
Minutes passed like hours; the queen scrutinized me with each ticking second. Finally, she cleared her throat, and fully turned to face me.
“You have my attention, Angel of Water.”