17. Tezya
SEVENTEEN
TEZYA
The rest of the trek to the grave was just as abhorrent as the first half. Everyone was eerily quiet after Rumor’s and Sie’s outburst. I had to fight the urge to punch him myself. The tension between the two of them was palpable and only growing, but it wasn’t fair for me to intervene. She deserved space to work out her feelings, and I had to suck it up, no matter how badly I hated it.
When we first rescued Sie, I was terrified she would go running back to him, and selfishly, I was elated when she didn’t. Remembering how I found her in the dungeons, I could see why she held onto some resentment. Her back was a thick mangle of scars that distorted her markings. Brock tried to heal them back at the castle, but he said the injuries weren’t all fresh. I thought of her tallies on her forearm and hated myself for not realizing what was happening sooner. She was tortured for twenty-seven days within my reach, and I had no idea. She was on the brink of death when I found her, and I knew firsthand those feelings never dissipated, that they hurt worse than any physical scar left on the skin.
I could understand Sie’s frustrations, although it didn’t warrant him acting like a total dick. He did what he thought was right, and as a result, he lost the girl he loved. I would be just as bitter and pissed off if I lost her too.
I scoffed. I had lost her. I barely had her to begin with, and I already lost what little I had of her. I was delusional if I thought any differently. She’d barely spoken to me since she found out I’d been lying to her.
But I kept catching her staring at me when she thought I wasn’t looking. I could hear the slight hitch of her breath whenever I came close. I prayed to Pylemo every damn second of every day that I could find a way to regain her trust.
I wanted to tell Scottie everything back in Lux, but after the King tortured me, I knew I couldn’t. He was keeping her close on purpose, and all I kept thinking about was how I wouldn’t have been able to handle it if our situations were reversed. If he ever brought her into that room instead of me…
I couldn’t risk it with the compulsion user still there. I didn’t doubt the King would use Kole again to go into her mind, and I’d be damned if I gave him any reason to hurt her.
I swallowed, trying to push it from my mind.
The limp in my leg was almost gone, thanks to the Luxian healers at the camp, but it would leave another scar. The King picked his punishment well, targeting my leg would have left me weak for months if I was still back in Lux. I was never allowed to see a healer.
And that was his punishment for keeping Scotlind’s second ability a secret… If he knew she was harboring information about the prophecy, if I had told her everything and he found out… I shuddered. I didn’t care what he’d do to me, but if he hurt her… There wouldn’t be anything left of her after he was done, and I knew he would only keep me alive long enough to watch it.
“We’re here,” Sav shouted over the roar of the ocean, forcing me back into the moment. We were long off the mountain pass, but the area wasn’t any less forgiving. It took half a day trekking through semi flat terrain before we could smell the salty spray of the ocean. Miles of icy, large boulders separated us from the water, forcing us to climb them.
By the time we made it to the water, a storm was coming in. The clouds darkened, and the tide rose to our right. The more we climbed, the worse it got. The waves started spanning high above our heads, reaching the height of the boulders, threatening to join us with the sea.
The only thing that saved us was Dovelyn’s constant shield, blocking the brunt of the water, and Scottie using her powers to slow it down. After an hour, water started seeping past her shield, gently spraying us, making us decide we’d risk having a fire if it meant warmth. We were all too exhausted and too cold to care. I had tightly bound balls of flames following everyone, but it did nothing to squelch the chill. Hours later, I was starting to feel my own powers drain from reforming the flames every time the water wiped them out.
Snow was whipping into us from the wind, mixing with our already drenched clothes. It left the ground slippery, making it impossible not to fall on the rocks. I had no idea how Savannah made this trek alone or why.
I looked up at where she stopped ahead of me. Her hood was down with her short lavender hair falling out of her braids and blowing all over the place. She turned to face me. “It’s over there.” Multiple strands of her wet lavender locks were stuck to her chin as she tried—and failed—to wipe them away with one hand while pointing with her other. The boulders cleared ahead of us and turned into a large clearing about fifty feet past the ocean. There was one singular stone positioned directly in the center of the snow—no. Not a stone, a makeshift tomb.
My gut fell through me. I couldn’t breathe. MaryLynn N. was splattered over the stone in a red smear that resembled blood. Which would have been impossible for it to remain after all these decades, except I could smell the magic holding the prophecy within.
My mother’s abilities were unique, like Dovelyn’s, they were one of a kind. Her powers allowed her to create blood seals. I remembered the King dragging her to parts of the castle and forcing her to use her gifts for him when she was still alive.
She could create barriers and seals, blocking entrances to anything or anyone. When we were little, she did the same to our private rooms back when we all shared quarters. It was our only sanctuary in the castle, the only time we ever got to feel like a family without the King’s looming presence.
No one fully understood what she was capable of, but I knew with certainty I was looking at the last remnants of her power.
Everyone started walking toward her grave, but I stood there, still as the stone before me. I was frozen. The waves were beginning to crash over me as Dovelyn got further away, but I still couldn’t move. Guilt was riddling and festering inside me. My mother died for this. She believed in it enough to end her life so I never saw what she took to the grave.
Scottie came up beside me and only then did I realize I was still standing on the rock. She was pushing back the waves as best as she could. A pallor had filled her sun-kissed skin, and I knew that she had sweat mixed with the water that was splashed all over her. She was struggling against the ocean, yet she didn’t tell me to move.
“Are you okay?” she asked softly.
I shook my head. I couldn’t speak. My emotions were stirring at the surface, emotions I’d been pushing down for nearly a century. But one thought kept outweighing the others. If we open the tomb, my mother’s death would have been for nothing. If we went through with this, I was cursing her.
At the same time, I couldn’t fathom not opening it. One life wasn’t worth the chance of saving countless others. Dovelyn confessed shortly after our mother killed herself that she believed she was trying to protect me from my fate—she thought I was going to die. But if this prophecy meant I had to give up my life, I would do it. I couldn’t not save innocent Advenians just because my mother didn’t want me to. I couldn’t not go through with this even if I was going against her. Because if the King wins, the life keeping me grounded on this slippery rock would be lost with it. I wasn’t willing to lose this war over my feelings, but more than anything, I wasn’t willing to lose her .
“You aren’t cursing her,” Scotlind said softly. “Your mother loved you and that won’t change. Regardless of your actions today, it doesn’t take away the love she had for you.”
I looked at her in shock. Her eyes were just as wide as mine, a deep sapphire blue matching the ocean at our backs.
I hadn’t realized I said the words out loud. I swallowed hard and a lump stirred in my throat. My lips were cracked and dry, and my tongue felt like sandpaper. That’s when I noticed her hand. She had grabbed mine. Our hands were clasped over our scabs, and I realized, somehow, she had gotten into my mind, or I got into hers.
She withdrew her hand quickly, maybe realizing the same thing. “We should go.”
I took one shuddering breath before I started making my way toward the grave. I was staring at my feet, too much of a coward to look at Dovelyn right now—if she was crying, I might give in to her.
I had to remind myself this was what I wanted, even if I was hurting my family in the process.
I wanted the chance at freedom. I wanted to destroy the King. I wanted Scotlind to live in a world without anyone hunting her down. I wanted to spare my siblings from their father’s rage. I wanted to save my own people from his brutality and control. I wanted to save the humans before he tried to take over them too.
I knew in my bones this was the right decision. I just wish I could’ve gone back a century and saved my mother too. If I could have prevented her from killing herself, if I could have done more… After all these years, the ache I felt with her absence still destroyed me. It killed Arcane and Dovelyn too. Our mother was all the good things in this world. She was the one person who showed us love, who took on the brunt of the King’s rage to spare us. Every day I wished she was still with us—
I staggered back into Scottie, not registering what had happened until I felt the sting on my cheek the next second. Sie’s dark eyes were honed in on me. He was about to throw a second punch when Scottie stepped out from behind me and jumped. They toppled to the ground, their bodies entwining into a tangle of limbs. A loud crack sounded as Sie’s head slammed into the tomb, his blood spilling onto the rock.
“What the hell are you doing?” Scottie seethed, her breathing ragged, and hearing her voice broke me out of my trance. I pulled her off of Sie and shoved her behind me, not wanting to wait to see how he would react.
“It’s one thing to pick him over me,” he spat, his eyes narrowed on us. He still hadn’t moved from the ground. “And it’s another to flaunt it in front of everyone.”
Scottie huffed, her chest rising and falling in anger as I kept her pulled back. “I’m not flaunting anything. Can’t you see—”
“Not trying to break up this lover’s quarrel,” Savannah interjected, “but this storm is only getting worse, and I’m freezing my bum off. And seeing as we’re stuck here until we figure out how to open the rock, we need to get started.”
Scottie stared at Sie for another long second before she nodded and stepped out of my grip.
Savannah stepped up to the Dark Prince, extending a hand. He stared at her for a moment before accepting it. “You alright?”
“I will be as soon as I get away from here,” he grumbled .
“I didn’t mean your pride. I meant your head. You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine,” he snapped, not bothering to wipe the blood that was starting to run down his temple.
“Great. So, how do we open it?” Sav asked, rocking back on her heels, and gesturing toward the stone that was now covered in his blood.
Kallon was a few feet away, working on creating a portal to take us home.
I stepped up to my mother’s tomb and placed a hand over the stone. As soon as I did, I felt the surge of her magic infused in it. She used a variation of a blood seal on it, and the second I touched it, more words materialized under her name.
“Whoa,” Savannah noted as she came up next to me. “Ew, why does everything have to be written in blood?”
A lover. A sister. A brother.
“I don’t understand,” Dovelyn whispered. “I’m assuming it’s a clue. That you need all three to unlock the tomb, but what does the N mean? Our last name begins with an X.”
MaryLynn N.
“I have no idea,” I admitted. I hadn’t noticed it before.
“What about her middle name?” Scottie asked.
I shook my head. “Her middle name was Lira.”
“Her maiden name?”
“Wayrin,” Dovelyn answered. “Her maiden name was Wayrin.”
“Um guys, forget the N , the word brother is turning from red to black,” Savannah gasped.
I looked at the stone and watched as the word changed colors, then engraved into the stone itself.
“Is it because Arcane isn’t here?” Kallon suggested taking a break from creating the portal to stare at the grave. “You have Dove here as your sister, Scottie here as your lover. Maybe it won’t open unless Arcane is nearby. ”
Everyone ignored Sie’s rage over Kallon’s choice of words. I stole a glance at Scottie to see what she made of it, but she didn’t seem phased. She was entranced by the tomb as she leaned forward, brushing her hand over the now engraved brother.
“Goddess above,” Kallon breathed as she stared at the stone. I followed her gaze and watched as the word lover darkened before engraving itself along with the word brother. The only word left in blood was sister.
Scottie jolted back as she realized what she’d done. She gripped her wrist, covering her zero, and stared at her palm. I looked between Scottie’s hand and the slab of stone. A drop of blood had embedded into the crevice where she brushed her hand over it.
Everyone’s gaze landed on her. She was frozen, still staring at her palm like it burned her. The chapped air must have caused the scab to dry and crack open again. I felt it against my own palm when she grabbed my hand on the rocks. I swore it was what caused our connection.
“Sie, your last name is Noren,” Dovelyn said, her silver eyes never leaving the stone.
It wasn’t meant to be a question, but Sie answered anyway, “Yeah. Why does that matter?”
“MaryLynn Noren. That’s what the N stands for.”
“What are you talking about?” Sie snapped.
“Tezya is my half brother. My mother… she had an affair with someone from Tennebris. That’s how Tezya possesses abilities from both kingdoms. Her lover had compulsion. Is that not the power that runs in your family line?” Dovelyn asked.
Sie paled. “That’s not possible.”
But Dovelyn cut him off. “My mother’s affair was over a century before you were even born. She loved him. The man used to be on the Dark’s High Council. I still remember him to this day. He visited us often, staying in Lux on a work visa. I was young when it happened, but I swore I would never forget his eyes. The way they always found my mother’s. It was the first time I saw her truly happy. But then he had to return home and shortly after, Tezya was born.” I swallowed as she continued, “The man my mother loved was named Maverich. I never learned his last name, but his first name was Maverich.”
Scottie faltered as she looked between Sie and me.
“No. That’s not possible—” Before Sie could finish, Dovelyn removed a small dagger that was strapped to her thigh. I could do nothing but watch as she dragged the blade over her skin, then let her blood drip onto the stone.
The word sister changed from blood-red to black until it was engraved along with lover and brother forever etched into the stone.
A faint click sounded, and the tomb lifted off the ground.