29. Regent
REGENT
The moment the rock hits the edge of the carriage and it spins out of control, I extend my arms, twisting growing vines to reach her. Esther careens over the cliff edge in the carriage, the wind greer flocking to the sky as I ignore her and let my soulless beasts defend my back.
I won’t let her go again.
My extended vine-like fingers brush against the carriage, using her vibrant red hair as a beacon until shards of water shove my magic back.
The vicious current tears through my vines, shredding them into tattered strands.
The rebuke to my magic immediately forces my own arm to drop, hanging limp as the shard-like magic wraps around my arm, cutting through my leather coat and staining it with red.
My mare rears on her hind legs, the push from the dark magic forcing us back.
My eyes widen in disbelief as a vortex of water surrounds the carriage, lashing out at anyone or anything advancing toward her.
The wind greer and fire greer I dealt with—but I suspect not permanently—fall back.
Wisely retreating to reassess the new threat.
I take a hit to the stomach as the uncontrolled soulless beast that takes the shape of a snake wipes out one of my earth beasts. I relinquish my control over them. Whatever her curse, it seems threatened, and I need to make sure it doesn’t hurt Esther in the process.
Then in a split second, ice shards bullet toward us, and I immediately buffer them, forcing a solid earth wall around Reene and myself.
Water and ice roll over my shield, and I can only see through a crack.
The earth screams, the elements running the other way as Esther’s magic twists, raging with the need to survive and protect her.
I’ve never met a greer that can channel such raw power, to the point of overwhelm, even for someone such as me. This is power that binds the gods.
Her silhouette suspends in the air, the carriage being torn apart around her as I attempt to send out vines to reach her, but the moment any magic approaches her protective cocoon, violent waves of dark magic lash out.
The soulless beast seems to turn in on the vortex that protects her, and I realize too late that sirens are caught in the whirlpool, drawn to her magic like a moth to a flame. Her magic, uncontrolled, will do everything it can to protect her, even if it consumes everything else.
This isn’t just magic influenced by Felia. It is pure unbridled power being expelled from a greer who has no control of her gifts. Or in her case, curse.
The snake slithers through the vortex, flinging out sirens, dark beasts who can take the form of greers but only in the night.
Sunlight immediately burns away their flesh.
The moment the first siren is thrown onto the cliff edge it immediately bursts into flames.
Fuck. I produce moss over my fingers and cover Reene’s ears, too late to do the same for myself as the siren’s high-pitched screams echo, bursting my eardrums.
Miasma leeches out of the sirens body, shifting through the snake that continues to attack and flick out other sirens and latches onto the person who killed her.
A sirens curse.
Fuck.
I jump from my mare, liquefying my earthly shield momentarily so I can break through, leaving Reene protected as I run toward Esther. Once the miasma infiltrates the magic and curses her, everything bursts like a bubble as Esther is forced to sleep.
I swoop my magic in, creating a vine netting to reach her in time. My other arm hangs limply by my side as I leap over one charcoaled siren, her body drifting into flakes and picking up on the breeze that sends her back into pieces over the cliff edge.
Rocks crumble as I skid to the edge, my heart racing as I look down, relieved to find her caught in time. Esther’s arms and legs are sprawled, her hair matted to cover her face, and her clothes drenched. She lies unmoving. Cursed.
It wasn’t just her I caught. Three sirens prevail around her, like a graveyard of corpses, quickly turning to ash and catching on the wind.
I look over my shoulder, counting the other four.
Fuck, seven sirens collectively cursed her with ten years of deep sleep as is the mark of anyone who dares kill a siren. Let alone seven.
This little greer never seems to do things in halves, if I can even call her that anymore, because the startling truth is blatantly staring at me now.
It was only when Volmere mentioned the ruse and idea of her pretending to be an omni greer that I momentarily questioned the strange oddity around her magic, the mingling of our magic, and so forth.
But they were wiped out fifteen years ago, the likelihood far too small for me to consider. Because if it were true, it would mean the Fates were working in my favor to bring us together. And they have never worked in my favor.
The truth was glaring as I understood the reasons why they pushed me to find her in the depths of the Boey Jungle, caught in my net.
After all these years of being cursed, the one thing I needed most was her.
The water breaks against the cliff edge, reaching as if to pull her into the sea.
The elements whisper, the Fates giggling, and I know they play a hand in this. For whatever reason, they want her at the bottom of the sea, and I fucking refuse to hand her over.
Pieces of my clay mask begin to crumble, my body aching and screaming from the assault of battle, but mostly because of Esther’s defense. My face twists tighter, correcting itself as fury pumps through my veins like a welcome friend.
I’ve been a fucking idiot. I took her to Volmere auctions where now whispers of her existence would reach those who will stop at nothing to get their hands on her.
I did this.
I have no right to beg for her forgiveness.
But I will do my best to save her, at least from herself this time.
My netting creeps up the side of the cliff, pulling her toward me.
Had I known, would it have changed anything? No. Because the events that have unfolded were definitely orchestrated by the Fates, which only pisses me off more for both her and me, forever being puppets in the gods’ games.
But why her?
Why me?
My markings radiate with heat, a knowing in my stomach sinking as I rebuke the answer, refusing to acknowledge even the slightest glimmer that she is my mate.
Ridiculous and impossible.
Such a union would be an abomination to the gods.
The Ariagem hums in my pocket, as if joyfully reminding me of its existence. But what are the odds that I would uncover two of my missing pieces in one day?
I scoop Esther into my arms when she’s within reach, bringing her close to my chest. She limply hangs as I carry her bridal style, a sickening stir in my stomach as I realize it answers why her use of earth magic was so trivial.
But it also means she connected with my own magic.
What did she see inside me? What can she take from me? It feels perverted and intrusive.
I readjust my hold and recall the elements’ whispers on the night I was drawn to her.
The whispers ushered me in Esther’s direction.
I consider the elderly man who met us at Lake Mahoori, having passed over to the other side, I question if he was the one who taught her how to wield water as she has displayed.
I wonder if he was a king, and in the way he looked at her at Lake Mahoori, I understood he loved her as a father would.
I look down on Esther’s sunken face, irritated by all the things that drew us together, making her my responsibility. And yet, I’ve been too blind to see it, too consumed by my hatred of greer and men alike to protect one of the most vital pieces to undo my curse.
My inner beast stirs, conflicted by the need protect her but also keep her at a distance.
Maybe my inner beast has always known what she is to me.
Maybe I have as well.
Like I do now, knowing there is only one place I can ask for help.
My earthy shield falls apart around Reene, and I can sense the greers with whom I went into battle with are long gone. The wind greer most likely returning to her master, dragging the fire greer with her.
I carry Esther into the forest, stopping at the foot of the assassin who is knocked unconscious and tied to a tree.
What is even worse than one dead weight is two.