Chapter 18
“FARREN!” I scream.
Farren might be inside my burning cottage. Trapped by the flames.
Bile rises in my throat, my body shaking, the magic feeling like it’s going to boil out of me and burn me from the inside. Rip me apart. My skin can’t hold it.
Farren was everything to me, the precious life that was mine to protect and care for.
I failed him.
I can’t breathe.
“Della, Farren would have run away.” Lillian gets to me before Leon does, but I step out of her reach.
“The wards lock from the inside at any danger. If he was inside when it start—” I’m unable to finish the thought. “It has to be Grayden,” I whisper, tears streaming down my face.
“He can’t possibly know that’s your cottage, right?’’ Anger fills Viella’s eyes at the sight of my home burning, her fists shaking.
Lillian’s intake of breath is the only sound before I start screaming again.
The blinding pain of being split in half and molded back together rages in me.
For the first time, I can feel my own magic swirling with the crown’s, propelled by my emotions, both powers melding inside me.
The agony and outrage of watching my home burn has my magic fusing with the crown’s, bursting to the surface inside me.
Everything that is gold around us begins to melt, gilded rivers pooling at my feet.
Tall rose bushes turn black before the pots shatter, water rising in droplets from the blackened plants. The water from the pitcher on the drink cart rises with it.
Nueena and Tavien are at my side.
My eyes focus straight ahead but I can feel all my friends looking at me.
The magic’s power feels like it’s going to break my skull apart. My precious little fox might be dead, his home on fire, and the blazing anger that fills me is unending.
“Leon, stop! Come back!” Tavien yells.
Grayden thinks he can just burn down my forest? The flames, bright and hot, destroying the home my family built, the ancient place my ancestors used to forge the greatest magical creation ever made. Where the forger made a crown that would control such powerful magic that I now have.
I’m still screaming when I raise my arms up and focus on the small body of water that sits next to my beloved cottage, demanding the magic bend to my will.
Calling to the natural metals in the lake.
Commanding the iron and copper of the soil beneath it to rise.
When I yank my arms back, the water rushes up into the air, rising above the flames.
It moves like a wave spilling onto the fire, snuffing it all out with one motion, leaving behind only large tendrils of smoke rising into the starry night.
Nueena asks with awe in her voice, “Oh, Del, how did you do that?”
“Farren, my love,” I whisper as my legs give out, and Tavien catches me before everything goes black.
Asingle fairy light floating above me casts everything in golden light and shadows. I wince as ice wrapped in cloth is pressed to my head where it’s cradled in Nueena’s lap in my bed. She takes the cloth away and puts it in the ceramic bowl next to her.
“You were burning up,” she says.
I sit up as best I can. Everything hurts, like the first time I put the crown on.
My head feels cloudy, with sharp, shooting pain behind my eyes.
She brings a cup to my lips and pours sweet water into my mouth.
When I’m done drinking, I lie back down on my side. All I want is answers. “What happened?”
Nueena rubs my cheek. “You put out the fire and collapsed. Tavien carried you to bed and you’ve been asleep for a few hours. Although sleep is the wrong word. You’ve been tossing and turning and mumbling. None of it made any sense.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shakes her head; face contoured in concern. “You were incredible! I don’t understand what happened, though. I’ve never seen anyone outside of the Court of Shells control water in such a way.” She brings the cold cloth back to my forehead and pats gently.
“I was just so angry. I could feel my magic again, just for a few moments while it fused with the crown’s magic.
I wasn’t controlling the water. I was controlling the metals that exist within it.
” I pull up my legs to my chest and bury my head in my knees.
“Farren…” His name is a broken whisper I barely recognize on my lips.
“He probably ran away. He is smart and fast and—”
“And territorial and curious. He probably tried to defend that stupid cottage. Remember when Kole tried to bring me flowers seventy years ago? Farren hid in a bush and bit his ankle when he knocked on the door.” Tears slide down my face, and she leans down, wrapping her arms around me.
“Oh, Del.” She moves her hand to my hair, pushing it back in a calming petting motion as tears run down her face too.
She loved him too, just like I did, and he loved her.
“Farren got away; I am sure of it. He was probably up in a tree, glaring down at Grayden’s men. They probably ran screaming the other way, thinking him a dark spirit.”
I laugh despite myself, despite the tears. He would do that, the little scamp. Nueena and I break apart, and I know the one other person I need right now.
“Where’s Leon?” Another wave of dread hits me.
I frantically look around the room as if he is hiding to give us space in our grief. More tears come at the absence of him by my side. Where could he have gone? I need him here, now, at my side.
“Del…he…he left. Tavien tried to stop him. I’m sorry.”
I sit up so fast I feel faint again, fear digging into my gut.
“What? He shouldn’t have gone! What if Grayden’s men are still out there?
He could be taken back to Adreania or killed.
” I attempt to get out of bed, but the world sways and Nueena rests her hands on my shoulders, gently pulling me back.
“Please try to sleep. My mother has sent guards from the Court of Swords to investigate what happened. Tavien is waiting at the back kitchen door for Leon’s return.
You need to rest. Whatever happened tonight took so much out of you.
” She moves to stand but I grab her hand and bring her back to kneel next to me.
“I never told him I loved him. What if something happens to him and he doesn’t know?”
“He knows,” she says softly. “You both look at each other as if you are raising the sun just for them. Whatever the morning brings, trust that you told him, just not with words.” She squeezes my hand. “I’ll leave my door open if you need me. Sleep.”
“Thank you, Nu.”
The crystal light reduces to a dull glow as she steps out of my room. The ache in my head is splitting me open, and I sob ’til sleep offers a merciful moment of peace from agonizing emptiness.