14. Chapter 14 #4
Each islander would become a truly integral part of the fabric holding this place together.
A rainbow quilt comprised of vibrant colors and unique skills and individual strengths and full stories, all stitched together by Fae Queen magic.
A tapestry that might fray around the edges in the face of adversity, but would not be destroyed.
“You’ve done it,” Silas said when I opened my eyes. “I can feel it.”
“Yes,” I said simply.
Then I returned to the page of the manuscript with the enchantment and began the incantation again.
For the first time in my journey to becoming the Fae Queen, I didn’t feel isolated and alone in my magic.
I felt part of something greater, a part of a team all working for the same goal.
My magic might not be the same as others’, but it didn’t need to be.
That was the beauty of this quilt we’d formed together.
As I spoke the incantation louder, a second and then a third time, I felt my reach extending. The marbles in my chest were glowing, the islanders newly alight with the burst of magic I’d bestowed upon them.
In return, I could feel my reach extending to every part of the island, as if the islanders themselves were little beacons, giving my magic a signal in all corners of the land.
I could reach those fighting lycanthropes in the south.
Those guarding the north where another horde came down from the volcano.
Deep into The Forest, to places I’d never seen before.
To the village, where civilians chose to stay and fight in order to guard their homes.
As I spoke the spell, the snow began to glow again—brighter, this time—as if it’d swallowed the moon. On my third recitation, a snarl ripped the air—we were under attack. But I didn’t open my eyes; I didn’t flinch. I couldn’t .
Silas had instructed me to carry on in the event of an attack. So that was what I did.
I could feel swift movement—Zin would have returned, maybe in her jaguar form. I could hear hoofbeats and feel the tension in the air as I imagined blackened horses with skeletal jaws snapping and lunging at Silas and Ranger Z.
As if sensing my hesitation to sit out the battle, Silas shouted, “Alessia, you must complete the spell!”
Every muscle in me wanted to run and join my mate, especially when I felt a phantom jab of pain down the line that connected us, a ghostly pain that told me the man I loved was injured.
But also, almost simultaneously, the sound of more hoofbeats thundered toward us—not one or two, but a stampede.
There was no way Silas, injured, could hold them alone, even with the help of Zin.
The only way out was me.
I didn’t know what else to do except complete the spell. I did, my voice shaking, even as I felt the spell lock into place. I implored the islanders to hold strong as I used their strength to spread the spell to the farthest lands of this island.
When I opened my eyes, the snow sparkled, dazzled—each flake at work in something greater.
Brightness flared in every direction, the island itself glowing.
A light so pure it made the spirits’ existence here feel impossible—how could such darkness exist with such lightness?
They were shadow and despair; we were love and life.
As I watched, the snow began to melt into the ground.
The temperatures rose, and I knew my wards had taken over the broken ones installed by Dr. Lewis.
It was all, as I’d suspected, related. The enchanted snow was melting, the glowing water beads sprinkling into the earth and healing it as the temperatures rose and the wards reset.
I watched as Zin plunged a sword into the side of a spirit, just as Silas ducked away from two others. A terrifying sight approached from the hillside: an army of solid monsters charging at us. Tens? Hundreds of them? More than we could fight.
The crack was heard across the island. A thunder boom as the last of the snow melted, and the grass began to glow an emerald green again. The spell was complete; the lands were nearly healed. The wards had snapped back into place.
And with it, the spirits no longer belonged here.
I watched them disappear, one by one, as they charged toward us.
Vanishing in a puff of nothingness, as if they were hitting a brick wall that instantly destroyed them.
Our lands were healed, and the wards that were meant to keep out the underworld spirits had gone back into effect, stamping out the unwelcome army.
It all happened in a second. It felt like luck and fate all at once as an uneasy peace settled over the island, like maybe it wasn’t quite real, like maybe it was too good to be true. The silence in the aftermath of the attack was deafening.
“It’s done.” Silas pulled me to my feet, lifting me off the ground as he crushed me to his chest. “You did it, Alessia.”
His hug wasn’t one of joy—how could there be joy in destroying the lost spirits that had been forced into the Darkest Lord’s service? Or in knowing that we’d lost islanders in the short but intense breach from the underworld?
I was relieved it was done, but the emotions that were left behind were ones of turmoil and unrest. As much as this seemed like the end, it didn’t feel over.