Chapter 35
"Well, wasn’t that sweet? It appears old Rhydian is capable of feeling in his dark heart after all.”
The words were cold and bitter, like razor-sharp ice slicing through the silence left behind by Rhydian’s departure.
My stomach dropped, my hands clenching into fists as I slowly turned around, finding Prince Carrow standing next to my pot of dirt. How did he even get inside the castle? The jagged, brutal scar on his face stood out thanks to the combination of shadows and moonlight.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, automatically taking a step back. I didn’t know where Rhydian was, but with how quickly he’d left, I doubted he was still close enough to hear my call for help if Carrow tried something.
My heart pounded in my ears. I was just a human. I had no magic, no strength against this Fae. If Carrow attacked me, there was nothing I could do. My impending death was reflected in his silver eyes.
“I thought I told you to fail these tasks.” The words were soft, almost a caress, but violence coated each word as they slipped through his clenched teeth. “I thought I told you that it was too dangerous for you to break the curse. To free Rhydian.”
I swallowed the lump of fear rising in my throat, bracing myself like I always did with my father. “I never agreed to anything.”
Carrow tsked, shaking his head. “I thought you were smarter than that, pet. Do humans no longer have self-preservation instincts?” He lowered his gaze to the pot next to him, and my heart ratcheted in my chest.
I fought the urge to lunge for it, not wanting to give away my desperation for him to stay away from it. I couldn’t risk him destroying it. If that seed had any hope of germinating, it had to stay undisturbed. I forced my feet to stay glued to the floor, trying to mask the terror flooding my veins.
“I’m smart enough to know what’s right and wrong,” I replied, hoping to distract him.
Carrow’s silver eyes narrowed. “Clearly you’re not, or you would have listened to me.”
“Why are you so fixated on keeping the curse intact?”
“Why are you so fixated on letting Avalea be destroyed?” he spat in return.
“You don’t know that Rhydian would destroy Avalea,” I said, unsure if I was trying to convince Carrow or reassure myself.
“And I think you don’t know Rhydian at all.”
The words hit their mark, and I flinched.
As much as I hated to admit it, he had a point.
No matter how much I had opened up about myself, he had yet to reciprocate.
He didn’t seem willing to tell me anything but surface level things.
It made it hard to believe that he felt anything for me, that he might share my feelings too.
It was then I realized it.
I was somehow falling for a stranger.
The Prince of Eroth, a once-powerful Dark Fae…I had somehow developed feelings for him, but even after a few weeks here, he was still a stranger to me.
He was a kidnapper and a murderer, yes, but he was also kind—when he wanted to be—and he cared for Nico.
There was some good in there if he had taken Nico in, cared for him.
If he had saved me from the Lavawraith at the top of the volcano, cared whether I lived or died, and admitted he couldn’t get me out of his mind.
He had shown kindness and tenderness toward me in the last few days while we waited for the seed to sprout.
That proved he wasn’t all bad, didn’t it? Carrow couldn’t be right. Maybe he was the one who didn’t know Rhydian.
“It was quite comical,” Carrow continued, oblivious to the inner turmoil that he had caused.
“Watching Rhydian give you a task that was impossible. All the Fae in Avalea know that the soil here in Eroth is barren. Dead. It has been since the day the curse was laid. And yet some foolish human managed to figure out a magic combination and change it just enough to let something grow.” He shook his head in disbelief, anger flaring in those icy silver eyes.
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t felt it myself. ” He took a menacing step toward me.
I cocked my head to the side. “Felt what?”
He ignored me. “Rhydian would have felt it too if his magic wasn’t so weak.” Disgust twisted his features into a hideous mask.
“What are you talking about?”
“The seed he gave you was for the Magmara, a very powerful flower in Avalea. They’ve nearly gone extinct over the centuries, and his seed was the very last one in all four kingdoms. When the seed begins to sprout, it releases a burst of magic.
Every Fae from here to the edges of Siris likely felt it the moment the seed split open. ”
My brows twisted in confusion. “What?” I looked at the pot again, to be sure. It still looked exactly the same as the day I’d planted the seed. Just black dirt. “There’s nothing happening. It hasn’t germinated.”
Carrow scoffed and muttered, “Ignorant human.”
And then he shoved his palm toward the ground, a burst of violet magic erupting toward the pot before it splintered into a hundred pieces, the dirt cascading onto the floor.
“No,” I breathed, racing over to it as if I could fix it, even though there was no way without magic. “Why would you do that?” Anger filled my veins. I wished I had magic, a weapon, anything to hurt him back. I’d never wanted to fight back before, but now I desperately wished I could.
Carrow’s face was bored as he explained, “The unique thing about trying to grow plants in moonlight.” He pointed at the dirt now spread all over the floor. “They don’t grow above the dirt until their roots are established.”
I tore my gaze from the dirt and met his, traitorous tears welling in my eyes, trying to understand. When I didn’t react, he let out an exasperated sigh.
“Meaning,” he drawled, clearly annoyed by my stupidity, “your infernal seed has been growing down into the dirt this entire time. It likely sprouted not long after you planted it.”
He brushed away a lump of dirt to reveal a green stem about an inch long, a tiny brown pod sitting at the end of it.
For a moment I could only stare.
Then elation flooded through me, and I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face.
It worked! It was growing this entire time! We just couldn’t see it.
I did it. I had amended dead soil to give life once again.
“You foolish girl,” Carrow snapped, fracturing my happiness at the sight of the sprout. He stepped toward me, and my focus zoned in on him. “You clearly have no understanding of the reality of what will happen if you complete the third task, if you free Rhydian from this curse.”
Swallowing down my fear, I stood to face him. “I think you’re just afraid of Rhydian getting his full magic back. Then he’ll be powerful enough to get rid of you.”
Silence.
Then the world turned into violet light.
***
My back slammed into the wall, Carrow’s face inches from mine as his fingers wrapped around my throat and squeezed.
“If you had any idea,” he spat but didn’t finish his sentence, his chest heaving in furious breaths.
Even if I wanted to ask what he meant, I couldn’t get any air in my lungs, couldn’t breathe.
“I thought you wanted to go home to your family. Why would you abandon them for a monster?” he asked, still digging his fingers into my neck. “Aren’t you worried about them?” His questions were like daggers in my soul, cutting me to pieces.
Of course I was worried about them. This whole time all I had wanted was to get home and make sure they were all right. But Rhydian’s time was almost up, and he needed my help too. I’d never been someone who could give up on those who needed me.
“Maybe I should show you your family, then you’d see how foolish you’ve truly been.”
At this, the blood drained from my face, leaving me dangerously lightheaded. Show me my family? What did he mean?
Carrow released his grip on me, and I collapsed to the floor, coughing.
I barely had a moment to try to breathe before his cold fingers dug into my arms and pulled me to my feet.
With a flourish of his hand, violet smoke coalesced in the air in front of us, swirling for a moment before it settled, showing an image of… something.
I waited for it to become clearer, to stop moving. But that was when I realized it was supposed to be moving. It was some sort of vision or video—whatever you’d call it in a world of Fae and monsters.
At first, all I could see was the inside of a building, and though it looked familiar, the picture was too fuzzy to make out.
And that was when all the air left my lungs and my knees buckled beneath me.
Somehow, I was looking through the mirror that sat on the mantle at home.
Lila and Joey were huddled together on the bed in our room, my mom standing between them and my father.
Her face was riddled with bruises. Even with one eye slightly swollen, she glared at my father.
She was saying something, her face twisted in anger, but whatever magic Carrow was using didn’t let me hear it.
“Mom!” I cried, desperate for her to hear me, to know I was okay and that I was trying to get home. But no matter how much I screamed and sobbed, she didn’t hear me.
The picture grew fuzzy as they moved and Carrow tsked.
“What kind of a daughter are you that you’d abandon your family for a Fae you barely even know?” he asked, driving a symbolic knife into my heart.
I watched as my parents silently argued, how with each step my father tried to take toward my siblings, Mom matched him, not letting him near them.
That’s a first.
Had my absence finally forced her to face that broken piece of herself and protect them?
Maybe being away had done some good in the end.
My heart broke watching my father advance on my mother, on seeing the fear in my siblings’ eyes. I wished I could reach through the magic and pull them to safety over here. Not that here was currently any safer.
“Wouldn’t you rather be there, right now, to help?” Carrow taunted.
I was too lost in watching through the magic mirror to answer.
And then time seemed to stand still, and my mom moved.
It was impossible—there was no way my mother could actually see me—but somehow, her gaze flicked to mine for the tiniest second, those gray eyes that I’d inherited briefly flashing in surprise, before being replaced by the most determined look I’d ever seen on her face.
She gave the smallest, infinitesimal shake of her head, as if to say, “Don’t you dare come home.”
The words she’d told me before I went into town the day I was kidnapped repeated in my mind. “You deserve to live your life.”
I had never felt like I could, because my mom wouldn’t fight back. She wouldn’t stand up for my siblings. It had always fallen on me.
But, with me being gone, she’d finally been forced to step up.
Though she faced the wrath of my father, her eyes shone with love for me, silently telling me to live.
Tears welled in my eyes and I tried to reach for her when the violet magic collapsed on itself, and my family was gone.
“Bring them back,” I demanded, reaching for nothing.
“I don’t think I will.”
A sob worked its way up my throat. “Please.”
“As much as I like it when you beg me…no.”
My stomach churned, my insides twisting with a boiling rage that I was struggling to hold back.
“If you’re so desperate for me to fail, why don’t you just send me home right now?” I spat at Carrow, courage surging through my body after seeing that look on my mom’s face.
A muscle flexed in Carrow’s jaw. “The curse forbids my interference.”
“Excuse me?”
“Unless you choose me, to leave Rhydian and to go home, I cannot interfere in such a way. The curse won’t let me.” His words were bitter, like he detested the fact. He’d probably like to slay me where I stood if he could.
The words were a relief, though I never thought I’d say such a thing. I didn’t like the idea of Carrow having the ability to send me away when I didn’t want to leave.
Because if there was one thing I realized, especially after seeing my mother and having her silently tell me to live my life, it was that I wanted to stay here with Rhydian. I wanted to see what a life with him could look like.
I’d fallen for him, and without the burden of my family needing me, I was free to make the decision I’d wanted to make all along and had been denying. But could I? Could I still leave my family forever for a Fae I had met only a few weeks ago?
You deserve to live. My mom’s words repeated in my mind. I loved my family so much, but maybe my mom needed me to be gone. Maybe that was the only way she’d step up and fight back. I’d been enabling her to hide in her fear for years. Maybe my absence had been for the best.
Maybe Mom wouldn’t need me anymore.
But Rhydian did. He couldn’t break the curse without me. Without my help, he would perish, Eroth and Nico along with him. If it was within my power to help stop it, I couldn’t turn my back on them, could I?
“You’re a terrible daughter for not going back to your family,” Carrow chastised, as if it were his last resort to getting me to give up on Rhydian.
“You’re right,” I said. “But I was also a terrible daughter for enabling all that I did.” A breath shuddered out of me. The words were difficult to say, but I managed to add, “My mom can handle things now.”
Carrow’s silver eyes flashed with fury. “Why would you want a broken, dying prince of a dead kingdom when you could stand by a Fae with all the power you could ever desire?” he asked, holding his arms out and releasing a display of his violet magic.
It swirled and arched in the air. While it was impressive, I wanted no part of it.
I looked Carrow dead in the eye. “Rhydian has all the power I desire—none.”
Violet light engulfed me before I could move, and I was suddenly weightless, the air violently leaving my lungs as I slammed into the wall again.
“You’re a fool,” he snarled in my face.
Though I had every reason to be afraid of this Dark Fae, I saw his display of rage for what it was: rejection.
“Am I the first to deny you, Prince Carrow?”
His fingers returned to my neck and squeezed. That was answer enough.
I wasn’t sure if the curse prevented him from killing me, or just sending me home against my will, but I took a chance at stoking his anger.
“I would never choose a monster like you.”
Silence fell, like the calm before a storm. Then violet light engulfed the room.