Chapter 41
VALANCE
There was so much blood, so much carnage in the palace. Everywhere we stepped, fragments of my destruction painting the walls, the floor, the ceiling.
By Danu…
I stopped by my bedroom to gather some fresh clothes and wash the blood from me quickly. Some of it lingered in my hair, the metallic stench searing my nostrils and setting my stomach to an acidic roll. But at least most of it was gone, my fresh black elven armor free of gore.
I retrieved a sword and some daggers from my weapons chest. Avoiding the mirror, I threw a long black cloak over my shoulders in preparation for our journey north. I tried to use my silver magic, testing the waters in case this was all nothing but a terrible nightmare.
My seed magic came to the forefront, whispering to a potted flower over by the window. There was no trace of silver magic.
“Then it’s real,” I muttered to myself.
I opened the bedroom door. Kormac was waiting in the corridor, keeping watch, his broadsword drawn. So strong, so magnificent.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s been so quiet out here.” He started to walk.
I followed him, shivering at the silence within the palace. It didn’t seem like a royal household full of life but a place of death, its largeness closing in on me. Rejecting me, hurt by my wrath and carnage.
I’m sorry…
Eventually, we reached fresh air. Thank Danu! The palace was cloying and too hot. The clean sea air in my lungs was a welcome reprieve.
I didn’t look back as I followed Kormac down to the beach.
If I looked back, the pain would be too much.
I’d left the palace before. I could do it again.
Only, this time it seemed much more final as if too many lines had been crossed for me to ever have the right to go back, let alone look upon its splendor again.
Carefully, I navigated the steep stairwell down to the shore. I saw Lord Cullen lying in the shallows, his big amber eyes on me. Waves bounced off his huge chin.
I hated to be so defeated, so weak. I should be summoning my inner strength to fight onward, determined to regain my power with a wish from a jinn. But what would that bring? What consequences would come to strike me down for asking such a thing?
Wasn’t being the Tuatha king part of my destiny, though? Would a wish be free of a price, seeing as it would be the correcting of destiny’s course?
My head throbbed with too much thought.
“Hello, Your Majesty,” the giant greeted me. “I am glad to see you well.”
“Thank you, Lord Cullen. For waiting, for coming here.”
“Of course.” He turned his body to position himself on all fours, offering his back. “Climb aboard.”
We did, Kormac helping me.
“We will stop at an island for you to rest, Your Majesty,” the giant said. “Unlike Kormac and I, you will not be so waterproof. There is a place we passed on our way here.”
“Do you know I’ve lost my magic?” I asked.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“How?”
“I saw that woman leave here on the back of a giant eagle. She crackled with the magic that always came from you—a special kind of energy. I knew then something terrible had happened here.”
“I’m sorry,” I breathed. “I failed you.”
Kormac explained the wish as the giant swam out into deeper waters.
“I see,” he said after a sickening silence.
“I can’t fulfill my promise to you or the dark fae.” My shame burned so cruelly.
“You still can,” the giant responded. “There is always hope. You have shown me by giving us back so much.”
My chest ached. “I wish I could…” I couldn’t finish my sentence.
Kormac wrapped his arms around me, pulling my spine to rest against his chest.
“I’m here,” he said, Lord Cullen picking up speed. “We will do this together, just like last time.”
“You died last time.”
“I won’t let it happen again.”