14. Chapter 14
fourteen
Fortunately, Millie had had the foresight to have all the medical equipment removed from the bedroom in the castle where I’d spent the last six days monitored by the Rangers and Healers and medics.
When I climbed onto my bed and pulled my Fae textbooks toward me, the room looked just as it had the night I’d prepared for my coronation ceremony.
Next to the bed sat a platter with tea and toast. I happily warmed my hands on the mug of minty tea while nibbling on the edge of a piece of bread.
For not having eaten anything for six days, I was shockingly less hungry than I would’ve expected.
Then again, I had a few pressing items that needed to be dealt with, and the stress of it all was something of a distraction from the way I was feeling—weary, run down, and depleted. All that would need to wait.
I flipped through the books, focusing on any pages that mentioned wards. By now, the language of the ancient Fae texts was becoming clear. I could comprehend a significant amount of the pages I found myself wanting to study.
While that made things significantly easier, there were still hurdles to understanding texts that were centuries old. Like someone who could read English trying to understand a textbook written by a famous physicist: just because I could read the words, didn’t always mean they made sense.
Hours later, after my tea and toast were long gone, I rubbed my weary eyes and glanced at Silas.
“I can’t extract much helpful information from this stuff.
My mom did say that setting the wards is unique to an individual queen, so I guess that is very literal.
There are almost no technical instructions whatsoever. ”
Silas came over and silently worked the knots in my back. I felt the tension release as his thumbs dug into the taut muscles. He didn’t offer any words of wisdom, just the comfort of his support.
“Not to mention, it’s snowing worse than ever now.
” I glanced toward where the wind was now howling, and the snowflakes were descending on the island in hordes so thick I could barely see the spirits waiting on the river.
“I take that as a sign to mean the wards are weaker than ever, being that it’s the wards that keep this place balmy in the first place. ”
Silas moved to crack open the window to look out, and as he did, a rush of snow hurtled into the room.
Instinctively, I raised my hands and blasted the snowflakes back out into the cold.
Snowflakes were really nothing but particles of water, but even I was surprised by how easily I’d been able to manipulate the flakes.
Like I hadn’t even had to think about it.
Silas slammed the window shut, turning in awe to look at me. “You can wield snow?”
“I mean, it’s water, I guess,” I said. “I didn’t really think about it. But I guess so.”
“Think how powerful that could be,” Silas said. “The entire island is covered in snow. If you could somehow figure out a way to weaponize it…?”
The way he said it— the entire island is covered in snow —niggled at something deeper in my mind. But where Silas’s thought immediately went to weaponizing the snow, my mind went in the direction of Fae—the direction of healing.
I’d been stuck on the map that Dr. Lewis had drawn on the back of the napkin.
The way he’d sketched out the deadened lands as something completely separate from the lands of the living had struck me as interesting and odd.
I understood why he’d done it, but I’d never thought of the island like that—as separate pieces. The living and the dead.
But Silas had a point. One thing united it all: snow.
He was right. The snow reached every part of this island, a thick quilt smothering both the greenery and the ashen soil alike.
“Silas, that’s it. I could use the snow,” I said urgently. “If I can figure out a way to enchant the snow to heal the island, it’s possible I could heal the island en masse.”
“You mean the deadened lands?” Silas’s eyes flicked toward me, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was very likely thinking about the same map, that separation between life and death sketched so black and white on paper. “What makes you think that’s possible?”
“It’s a long shot, but it’s one way I could reach the entire island and quickly. If I could somehow enchant the snow, and then force the snow to melt, it just might work. Before, I struggled with touching the entire island at once.”
“Like you were explaining to Ranger X,” Silas said. “How you can’t feel the dead lands like you can the living.”
“Exactly. I wasn’t sure how to reach it with my powers.
But this wouldn’t require me to feel the dead lands at all, or even touch them.
I am, however, connected to water as one of my Triune Queen elements, my strongest connection, and snow is just frozen water.
If anything, it’s easier to connect with than water.
More solid. I’m used to healing the island one tiny patch at a time because touching those dead lands with my magic took so much out of me.
But working with water doesn’t take much exertion at all. ”
“What do you need?” Silas’s tone was determined. “Anything.”
“I need access to some of the dead lands to start testing my theory. If I can find a spell that will work, and there’s one I’m already thinking of from the text books, then I need to test it out on a small portion before I set to work trying to touch the whole island.”
“It’s too dangerous to set out for the dead lands now,” Silas said. “In this blizzard? Not to mention, the curse is active and spreading, which means if you’re close to the border, you could be touched by the curse.”
“I know the risks, but this is the only way,” I said.
“The spell I found is an enchantment for water. I always thought it was interesting, but I had no idea how to use it. I think I can tweak it to be effective for snow, too. And if I can heal the island, maybe it will eliminate the curse, and I’ll be able to set new wards.
All these pieces are connected, I just know it. ”
Before Silas could reply, I tucked the book containing the water-based enchantment under my cloak and moved toward the door.
“We need to go now, before the spirits can leave the dead lands too,” I said. “Otherwise, it’ll only get harder. There’s no way things will get easier by waiting. This is our only option.”
Silas nodded, unhappy but resigned to the path I’d declared necessary.
I could feel the tug in him, the desire to take charge, to command.
If he wasn’t so committed to me on so many levels, I knew he’d have wanted to be on the front lines with Ranger X, not babysitting a new queen as she tested out finicky potions.
But Silas was the sort of man to put aside his wants and needs to support mine. Warmth and gratitude rushed through me as I looked at him. Finally, I allowed myself to feel the surge of joy crushing through me at having been returned for a second chance with my mate.
I threw my arms around Silas and kissed him, tears streaming down my face. I hadn’t had the time to bask in our reunion; we’d barely had time alone, and the time we had been alone had been spent scouring the textbooks for spells to fix this island.
While it wasn’t the celebratory reunion I would’ve wished for, it was deep and tender and real. And wasn’t that what mattered at the end of the day?
Silas looked surprised at my display of affection, but it didn’t take him more than a beat to wrap his arms in return around me. He squeezed, and I knew he felt it too. The reunion we’d pushed to the side in order to tackle the more pressing problems of the impending attack.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered in Silas’s ear. “I never meant to hurt you by going into the underworld. I knew it would, but I also…I didn’t make the decision to go lightly.”
“I know,” he said. “I understand that. I love you.”
“I’m sorry that my duties as Fae Queen conflicted with our relationship.”
“They didn’t conflict. I just wish you’d told me of your plans so I could’ve helped.”
“I wish I’d been able to,” I said. “But you wouldn’t have let me go. We both know that, Silas. It was either tell you or enter the underworld. In no universe was there another option.”
“Maybe you’re right.” His hand stroked my hair listlessly, and he pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “Maybe you’re right.”
I thought of Silas and Liza and Lily and Millie, and the rest of the islanders—so many people who had come into my life in such a real, tender, deep way.
After a lifetime of relationships built on fragile, surface-level priorities, it still felt new to me to experience the depth of emotions that came along with real friendship. Real love.
But as much as it had hurt me and those around me to go to the underworld, at the time, it had felt like the right choice.
Now, I wasn’t so sure of anything, except that maybe choices weren’t right or wrong at all, but just that—the best decisions we could make with the information we had.
One choice, then another, trying to make it through life as a decent person.
“Let’s go.” Silas tucked me under his arm and led me out onto the castle’s second-floor balcony. “Ranger Z will be in touch with HQ to let everyone know our plans. She’ll accompany us to the dead lands. She’s stocked with supplies.”
The way Silas leaned on the word supplies told me he meant armed.
Normally, Silas was the sort who of person who preferred to move alone, without backup if at all possible.
The fact that he wasn’t arguing about looping the Rangers in on our plan told me as much as I needed to know. We needed all the help we could get.
When we stepped onto the balcony, I froze. Not because of the wind’s bite, although the temperatures had dropped significantly. But because there was a brand-new, soul-sucking chill in the air.