CHAPTER SIX #3
Be safe and be well, I thought. And I was gone, diving back into the waters, gasping in pain, my lungs screaming as the freezing lake swallowed me into darkness.
Brennan’s fear had given me a fresh burst of magic, but a second mermaid transformation would drain me beyond repair. I was close to running on empty, already using the final dregs of my reserves to escape.
I had to get away before I grew too weak. Before I really did revert back to my original form. To my pale skin, my blue eyes, my honey blonde hair. The face that Brennan had somehow conjured when he was half-conscious.
The face that confirmed what I was. Azete.
So I swam, and I swam, without stopping, without thinking. My tail glided through the waters until I reached the lake’s other side. Too far for Brennan to find me again. Too far for anyone to find me ever.
Tears burned behind my eyes. My heart felt heavy. It had happened. I’d lost everything. Again.
As I reached the shore, I threw myself onto the grass, coughing and shivering.
A small glow of power shone inside of me, radiating out from my skin.
The only bit of my power that was left. And it had come from Brennan.
It was all I’d ever have from him, and already it was fading.
I wanted to keep it, to hold it, to maintain my glamour just a little longer—to hold onto him.
But I was too cold. And my energy was fading.
I let his lifeforce spread through my body until I was dry, and no longer freezing with cold.
And then, at last, I stepped beyond the edge of the lake and looked down into the waters, into my reflection, and saw my true face. The face I hadn’t allowed to exist since I left Azeal. The face I’d hidden, that I’d tried to forget.
I let the tears fall, my chest heaving.
I already missed Finlay and Thomas. I hoped they were okay, and Cecelia, too. I hoped everyone was.
I wrapped myself in my arms, knowing I needed to decide what to do next. I needed somewhere else to go. Somewhere else to hide.
A way to steal some energy, to become someone else. To start again. A new face. A new name.
But as a tree branch snapped in the distance, I realized too late—I wasn’t alone. A set of footsteps stalked behind me, slow and measured, until another reflection appeared in the water beside mine. His figure was distorted as the ripples settled from my swim.
A cold, male voice filled my ears. “Princess Shamhira.”
I stopped breathing. I was still in Kalder Forest, but I’d swam too fucking far. Forgotten that the other side of the lake brought me too close, too near the borders of Eskalon, where the witches still hunted.
“Well, well, well,” he purred, “look who we have here.”
I knew his voice, his face. I always had, always would. Because in my twenty-seven years of life, and according to every other witch I’d known, his face had never changed. Never.
He was the male witch known only as the Hermit, the one who often vanished for years and reappeared at court without warning.
His long black hair flowed down to his waist, and his piercing indigo-blue eyes were exactly as I remembered.
According to the rumors, he’d survived the Doom.
Come to Eley from the old world—not with the migration, but after.
If that was true, then he was hundreds of years old.
The Hermit had terrified me as a girl. He terrified me even more as an adult.
Placing a hand on his hip, his eyes met mine in the water’s reflection, almost purple in this light. “Who would ever think that I would come to find you here of all places?”
My throat tightened, my eyes burning. He lifted his stave, the tip emitting a bright blue light. Seven jewels had been embedded into the wood, one of every color of the rainbow. The light sharpened his appearance, showing off his angular features.
“What’s it been, Shamhira?” he asked. “Five years?”
“Seven,” I spat.
“Seven,” the Hermit purred. “Seven years your aunt’s been trying to find you. And seven years that you’ve been hiding.”
“I can continue hiding,” I said desperately. “There’s no reason to tell her you saw me. I’ll disappear again. I’ll change my name, change my face.”
“Why would I want you to do that?”
“Please,” I begged.
“Please? Do you think that’s enough reason for me to lie to your aunt?”
There was a flash of light from his stave.
“No!” I yelled.
Weeds from the lake rose up from the waters, tangling around my wrists, cuffing them together before looping around my ankles, leaving me completely shackled.
“Just a formality. Remain calm, and I’ll bring you home.”
I shook my head.
But he only grinned, like a wildcat. “You know, she will be so pleased when I bring you before her. So pleased,” he said again, and whistled, calling out to the witchmoth that had to be flying nearby.
I sniffled. Of course. Of fucking course this was how my night would end.
Leave Geoffrey’s after years of being afraid to, only to go back to the last place I ever wanted to be.
The place I’d run away from. Had vowed to never return to.
The place where my mother no longer ruled, no longer resided. Because she no longer lived.
Because of me.
I shook my head, my vision blurred with tears. “So be it,” I said, resigned. It had to happen eventually. Going home, seeing my aunt. I lifted up my chin and met the Hermit’s eyes. “Bring me to the Witch Queen.”