Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
Iwasn’t going to make it. My legs pumped as I ran for Rowan, heart shattering into a thousand pieces and wishing I had seen our potential earlier, seen him earlier.
If I had, we wouldn’t be here on a battlefield surrounded by the dead.
Time slowed as I ran for him. Rowan hadn’t yet realized death was at his back, but I saw the moment he realized my expression had changed from one of relief into one of horror.
He would be too late, too.
An agonized scream ripped from my throat. In a last-ditch effort to save him, I leapt toward Caelan, a spear of hawthorn coated with poison forming in my hands as I flew. Magic tore from my veins, burning through me like a wildfire.
I willed myself closer, promised the universe anything it ever wanted if it allowed me to save Rowan, even if it meant sacrificing my life.
I moved, a pop of air the only sound of the magic finally working. A second later I was before Caelan, reaching for his neck with one hand, and spearing him through the chest with the other.
Shock crossed Caelan’s face, followed by a bark of pain. We flew backward, my momentum carrying us at least a dozen yards back. Finally, we slammed to the ground, me on top of Caelan.
“HOW DARE YOU!” Magic thundered through the ground. Trees snapped and cracked under my power. Stones rumbled from the earth, massive ancient pillars of rock rising around us.
Caelan coughed up blood.
My hand was still tight around his throat, claws I’d never seen before dragging ragged gouges down the smooth skin of his neck.
“HOW DARE YOU!” I said one more time. My vision was misted in a fine haze of crimson. Dark hair streamed around me, floating in a wind I couldn’t see or feel.
“Evie,” Caelan wheezed. He stared up at me with wide eyes.
“DO NOT SPEAK, TRAITOR.”
A hesitant hand touched my shoulder. I stilled, squeezing my eyes shut when I realized it was Rowan.
“He tried to kill you,” I whispered.
“I know.” Rowan crouched down beside me, hazel eyes taking in my clawed hand and the spear buried deep within Caelan’s chest, along with the starburst black mark where the spear entered.
“Poisoned?” Rowan observed.
I nodded. Tears streamed down my face.
“Will it kill him?”
I nodded once more.
Rowan let out a breath and put a hand on my back. “Do you want to do this, Evie?”
Caelan bared his teeth. “She would not kill me.”
Rowan’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Look at my mate’s face, Lord, and tell me whether you still believe those words.”
Caelan blinked and met my gaze. The moment I saw him leaping through the air for Rowan’s exposed back flipped a switch. Any love I’d ever felt for him died, dried up like a summer drought.
The ground rumbled once more. A wizened woman rose before me, carrying a glowing staff. She was old. Ancient. Her skin was the color of old bark and had the texture of an ancient tree.
“Daughter.”
I bared my teeth at her. “Busy right now.”
The crone’s gaze took in the scene. “I see that. If you kill him, you will reap unfathomable consequences upon your people.”
“I do not care,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Child,” the woman said quietly. “Of course you do. You no longer care for this man, but you care for your people, for the man beside you who will allow you to make whatever decision you think you must, no matter what hell it brings down around his head.”
I exhaled. “What do you want?”
“Is that any way to speak to a goddess?” the woman chided.
My dark look did not diminish. She laughed. “Very well. I have a proposal. It would solve your problem and one of mine.”
I scoffed. “You wish to bargain. Right now?”
“What better time than when poised on the edge of a knife’s blade?”
“Fine,” I snapped.
“Good.” The goddess snapped her fingers.
I stood in a place of stone and earth.
“My proposal is simple. Take my position, and I will strip the rest of those locks on your magic. You will finally become who you were meant to be, and I can…” The ancient goddess smiled. “Well, I can retire.”
I stared at her. “I have no idea what position you hold. Why would I agree to such an open-ended thing?”
“Child, you’ve already been doing much of my job already.”
My eyes narrowed. “Danu?”
The goddess smiled. “It is nice to meet you, Evangeline.”
I sighed. “I don’t have to kill Caelan, but he’s not leaving my territory without punishment.”
“The spell is worse on his property. A lesson, if you will, for his treatment of my favorite daughter.”
Realization slammed into me with the force of a train.
“You,” I breathed. “You’re the one responsible for all of this?
This horrific spell killing the earth?” I stared at her in horror.
A goddess responsible for nurturing the world and all the green and wonderful things inside it had gone to extraordinary lengths to bend me to her will.
I was so, so tired. When would this stop? When would all these gods and goddesses and Lords realize I was not their plaything and could not be molded into the shape they wanted?
“You needed a nudge,” the goddess said simply.
“A nudge,” I echoed. “A nudge? You almost got my mate killed, you tree-bark bitch!”
Danu’s smile fell away. “I care not for the love lives of others,” she snapped. “You are the only one with the power required to maintain this world. I am…diminished.”
I resisted the urge to kill this bitch, and it took everything in my power to stay my hand. But as I stood there, horror filling my veins at her sheer arrogance and cruelty, I made a silent vow to myself and to the world. I would take her down. One way or another.
When I’d gotten my fury under control, I crossed my arms over my chest. “What does this have to do with Caelan?”
“I will show you the potential of your power, Evie, something no one but I can do. You will become limitless. Once you have the power you were always meant to, punish him how you see fit, but do not kill him. The Lords play deeper games than many of us can see. I can’t see everything, Evangeline, but I can see killing him will cause a chain reaction none of us are prepared for.
You are within your rights to punish him.
Not even the Lords will argue. But be clever in how you approach it, girl. ”
“What do you mean, the power I was always meant to have?”
Danu’s eyes sparkled. “Someone put a lock on you. There’s no telling when or who did it, but that’s one of the main reasons you cannot access the full well of your power.”
“Dad would have seen it,” I argued.
“No. He never looked hard enough. I felt it when you were in the earth with me. We were…joined in a way. Someone doesn’t want you to reach your potential. Start there, girl. Your journey, and that of your hated Lord, is not quite over.”
The supposed lock aside, Danu wasn’t telling me this because she was benevolent or gave a shit about me. “You want me to be Mother Earth.”
Danu grimaced. “I hate that name. It makes me sound like a flowery princess. But yes. I want you to become the earth’s guardian.”
“I’m the fae queen.”
“I’m aware. This bargain will only help you more firmly secure that role.”
I studied her. “Why don’t you just rip off that lock anyway?”
Danu laughed. “Because I am fae. We do not do things for free.”
“Don’t I know it. Bunch of assholes,” I grumbled. “I have no idea how to be a steward of the land. I already am on my own lands, but the world is a vast place.”
“The knowledge will come to you when your power becomes unsealed.” Danu smiled. “It is not as difficult as it sounds. With the job comes a knowing. You will know where the earth bleeds, Evangeline.”
“Will this help my Chimera magic?”
Danu nodded. “Everything is linked. The lock affected everything. Find the one who did this to you and punish the one who broke your heart. They are linked.”
I thought about it. “How pissed is Dad going to be?”
Danu shrugged. “Very. But he will be relieved when you rise from the earth once more and he sees you are no longer diminished.”
I thought about it. My Floromancy never seemed affected by this lock or whatever it was, but Dad had mentioned something a long time ago. The words escaped me, but a plan formed in my head.
I tilted my head and studied her. “Are you more powerful than my father?”
Danu laughed. “Apples and oranges, girl. We all have different skills.”
DAD. I sent a shout and a mental image through the link we’d occasionally shared.
The ground rumbled a second later.
Danu blinked, her eyes narrowing. “What are you doing?”
A golden hand punched through the dirt, followed by my father’s grinning head, like an upside-down groundhog. “Need a ride?”
“I’ve been manipulated by the best, Danu, and I’m tired. I’ll have Dad remove the lock.”
Dad’s amusement drained from his face. “A lock?” His swirling gaze went to Danu, who wisely shrank away.
“Yep. Can you help?”
He didn’t answer, but I could tell the answer from the look in his eye. “Take my hand, Evangeline.”
I reached up for my father with one hand and flipped Danu off with the other. “You should have opened an IRA when you were younger so you could retire sooner. Fuck you and fuck your job offer. I have enough shit to do.”
Dad’s hand clenched in mine and power roared through my body. Something ripped inside my abdomen, a tearing and rendering pain that made me scream in agony.
A second later, sweet, sweet power flowed through my veins, and I was tunneling up through the earth, safe in my father’s arms.