Chapter 37
IZADELLA
Dark gray clouds threaten to drench us as we race away from the chaos that consumes the castle. Guards ushered us through a secret stairwell built for a rebellion, taking us to a stable to secure horses for our journey to my forge.
I glance over at Cyanna, who is tied up, as I am, riding with Everett to ensure my cooperation. At least Everett is more respectful of Cyanna’s personal space than Grayden is of mine.
Grayden is pressed to my back as we ride together through the dead forests of Adreania.
Thick woven rope cuts into my wrist, reddening my skin.
One of his hands holds the reins while resting on my thigh as if this is a casual garden ride among lovers.
They take the long way and I’m grateful that they don’t know the quickest route even if it means more time with Grayden so close.
He wraps around my waist tightly, his arm far too high up my stomach with his thumb occasionally swiping on the underside of my breast.
“I’m so looking forward to finishing our little wedding.” His lips curve into a smile on my ear and my stomach plummets with nausea at the thought.
Anytime I try to lean forward, I’m roughly pulled back to him. I would jump off but one of my ankles has been tied to the saddle, ensuring any attempt to escape will have me dragged by the horse for the remaining journey.
It's tempting, just to get his hands off me, but I’m unwilling to risk Cyanna’s safety or my plans to escape. I try to relax. If the crown perceives I’m in danger, I risk getting us hurt. His hot breath is on my neck, and I spend most of the ride imagining breaking every bone in his hand.
One of Grayden’s guards calls out from the back of our caravan. “Your Majesty! The castle!”
He whips our horse around so quickly I nearly lose my balance.
Grayden screams in rage, but delight fills me. Through the rain, the Adreanian flags are ripped away and replaced by white ones that look much like bedsheets. The rebels have taken the castle and surrendered to Kalvorn before the war even started.
They did it!
“We need to go back!” Grayden demands.
Cyanna and I share a secret smile while Everett yells, “No! Once I have the new crown, we will destroy them all! Those traitors will pay in ways they cannot fathom. We need to hurry.”
Grayden snaps the reins, and our group picks up speed through the harsh terrain.
The moment we cross the divide into the Merawood Forest, Everett and I release the same sigh of relief as magic returns to our veins.
With the iron collar on, the crown’s magic is weak but flows freely again in my blood, bringing with it warmth. I can even feel my own magic again, unreachable and under all the other magic trapped within me but there, like a caress against my very soul, waiting for the day it can be released.
Ready to command gold and silver again.
With the magic returning, new pain races across my shoulders, up my neck, up to my jaw. The golden cracks deepen, spreading. Glittering reminders of my enervation death as the magic leaks out of me again. Unseen, but a gut-wrenching reminder.
The forest is quiet, too quiet.
Finally, we arrive back at the forge. The trees surrounding it are blackened stumps on the forest floor next to my burnt and crumbling cottage.
I want to curl in a ball and mourn, sob ’til I have nothing left but the magic seeping out of me.
The place I shared with my mother, the beautiful home generations of women survived exile in. Where my father made me my first wooden sword to practice with. Where Nueena and I met. The first night Leon truly met me.
Decades of memories. Lost.
It is too much, losing everything.
Seeing the remnants of my life shatters what’s left of my heart, but something else starts within me. Those shattered pieces burn with white-hot anger. This is all Grayden’s fault. He sent his guards to destroy my home.
The idea of watching him die in the ashes he created satiates me enough to focus on what I must do.
When the guards unbind my ankle and help me down, Grayden removes the icy collar.
I nearly crumple at the rush of endless power returning to envelop me, but he grabs my arm, holding me up.
Everett stands near the doorway with a stoic Cyanna in front of him, a dagger at her throat.
Her beautiful face is expressionless but the tear streaks on her cheeks betray her fear.
The agony here leaves me breathless.
The small army Grayden brought surrounds us, some near the ruins of my cottage but most stand on guard around the perimeter.
My head throbs.
“Get to work!” Grayden shoves me towards the forge with eyes full of hate. I fantasize about throwing boiling gold in his face.
A backup plan.
Unlike my destroyed cottage, the forge was made to be fireproof.
I open the door and all the windows so as not to suffocate Cyanna with the heat.
The workshop is just as I left it. Without my jewelsmith powers, I find one of the dusty circlet molds and ready it on my desk.
I pour nuggets of gold in the crucible and place metal containers directly into the magical fire.
It burns brighter; the blue flames are more vibrant now that it has work to do.
The stone hearth is large. I could easily fit inside. No one could hurt me there, I used to play in it as a dewling, but that would leave Cyanna alone.
I turn my back to Grayden, and I let my fingertips dance in flames for just a moment.
Grayden tries to come over to see me work but steps away from the blistering heat. “Hurry up!”
“I cannot lower the melting point of gold. Let the fire do its work,” I snap.
Grayden must have thought this wouldn’t be a time-consuming creation. While the gold starts to melt, I pray to Ellova that no one in the palace sees the smoke and tries to investigate.
I cannot have anyone risking their lives to retrieve me, no matter my fate in the mortal realm.
Cyanna screams, trying to drop to the floor with her arm over her head when I spin around. Everett reaches for her, but a flaming arrow shoots through his palm. He yells in anguish, cradling his hand to his chest.
Grayden grabs me, slamming the iron collar around my throat, screaming for his guards.
Panic pulses in me as the magic is cut off.
What is happening?
Cyanna runs towards me. Another guard grabs her, but she elbows him in the nose, scrambling away just before an arrow goes right through his eye.
Pride and hope she can escape replaces some of my panic.
Chaos erupts around us, more burning arrows meeting their marks and taking out the few of Grayden’s guards that followed us into the workshop.
I yank Cyanna behind me as I try to shield her from the fighting.
Everett rips the arrow out of his melting skin and lunges for me, but my fist connects with his nose, breaking it, sending him stumbling back.
Hope shatters my horror.
Outside, Viella and Tavien are fighting with sapphire flames in their hands. Lillian’s gold swords, lit with her purple flames, clash with the iron ones of her enemies.
My sobs echo off the stone walls.
The joy of seeing them is short-lived. If they are here—that means…
My heart plummets in fear as Nueena and Leon burst through the forest with identical expressions of furious vengeance, running straight into danger. Leon is fae again, his ears poking out from his gray-and-black streaks. They both make a run for me.
Air is impossible to get into my lungs, horror and elation shredding me apart.
Leon is here. He came for me! Even when I said I never wanted to see him again, he races towards me, crushing anyone in his path.
Nueena shouldn't be here! Ellova needs her. Gods, if something were to happen to her, her family would never recover!
Adreanian iron soldiers clash with Ellovian honeyguards, their purple capes blowing behind them.
Tears sting in my eyes at the sight of that beautiful color.
Grayden’s guards outside try to intercept them, but Nueena strikes them down with a blow of magic. Leon moves alongside her, meticulously slicing and stabbing with graceful merciless retribution, the two of them an unstoppable force making their way through the trees to get to me.
They leave rivers of blood in their wake on the forest floor.
My heart stops beating as two more guards descend on Nueena, but with a flare of magic taking them out at the knees, both men collapse, howling in pain as they fall, legs at awkward angles.
Purple thorny vines shoot up from the ground, wrapping around their arms and legs. The building shakes from her power.
Everett runs out of the forge, sword in hand, and lunges at Nueena, who is just outside. I scream her name; she turns just in time. Her blade slides into Everett’s side, blood gushing out of him.
More of Grayden’s guards try to form a circle around the forge to keep anyone from getting inside.
I rush towards the door, holding the doorframe, about to warn her about more guards coming while she’s occupied with Everett, but I only make it a few steps when pain explodes in my stomach, stealing my breath.
My knees make a sickening crack as I hit the stone floor.
I reach for the source, finding metal tearing through me.
An iron sword protrudes out of my stomach. My blood runs off the sharpened edge, splashing on the forge’s floor. Everett staggers away before he falls to the ground in front of me, holding his side, and I think for a moment he was the one who stabbed me, but it wasn’t him.
It was Grayden.
Nueena races into the forge, screaming, finally reaching me, “No, no, no!” Tears stream down her face as she gently takes my cheeks in her hand, kneeling in front of me.
More guards race to attack Leon, who breaks through their numbers, screaming my name, the sound echoing around the forest.
Everett raises his sword behind Nueena’s back.
NO!
He slams the sword down and I use my last remaining bit of strength to push her out of the way, knocking her to the ground, his sword driving through my chest. Blood flows down me in rivulets on my already stained white dress.
Was everyone in my family cursed to die in this fucking cottage?
Nueena scrambles to get to me. “You're going to be okay! You have to be! Della!”
A scream of rage rings out.
It sounds exactly how I feel, but it’s not coming from me.
Leon finally reaches the workshop and charges at Grayden, who is trying to escape.
The cowardly king lunges to avoid Leon’s blade and raises his own to block the attack.
Grayden is only mortal and so much slower than Leon.
His emerald-and-opal sword finds Grayden’s chest, sinking the silver blade straight through him until the king slams into the wall behind him.
A small painting of Nueena and me as dewlings falls off at the force.
“You are a vile abomination, and you will never get near her again!” Leon wraps his hand around Grayden’s throat, blood pouring to the ground from his chest.
“Fuck you, healer.”
“It’s King Zilas, you pitiful fuck!’’ Leon squeezes. Black veins spread under his hand, and Grayden’s eyes redden, blood running out of them. Something snaps in Grayden’s neck, his head rolling to the side. Dead.
Good.
“Della, please, no, no, no, no!’’ Nueena pleads, sobbing.
“Leon, fucking save her! LEON!” She and I stare at each other.
This was not how it was to end, but I am already halfway in the grave.
She needs to live. For her family, for Ellova.
She opens her mouth to speak again but her face freezes in shock.
Blackness slides across my vision but I force myself to stay present for a few more moments with my closest friend.
To say goodbye.
I’m desperate to say that I’m sorry, that I love her and everyone else I call family who risked their lives to save me, but when I open my mouth, the words never come, only blood.
Everything is fading away. The pain, everyone in this room, Leon, but I hope he knows. Even after all that has happened, I love him. My magic snaps away from me on the inside, floating away.
Leon races towards me, anguish distorting his perfect face. He slides on his knees to get to me, the ashes of the forge scattering around us. Leon’s roar of rage is the last thing I hear as I take my last shuddering breath.
The scent of strawberries and blood reaches me, but Leon never does.