Chapter 1 #3
Even Javier stilled to watch as I poured the steaming finish onto the lobsters and sent them into the large dining hall.
My whole body felt charged to the full, pain forgotten for a moment.
I looked for Declan, but he must have been eating with the others.
Without him to check in with, I couldn’t stop.
There was always more to do. I swept out the hearth and cleaned the butcher block because no task was too small.
Agnes let me make herbed butter to go with her braided loaf.
I checked on some lesser barrels of wine that needed a little magical help to be served.
I even garnished Javier’s rice pudding without gagging. Who liked sweet, gooey smashed rice?
By the time I carried the last dessert out myself, the high of the night had me pulsing with magic.
In some way, shape, or form, I had touched and tasted everything that left the kitchen for these important guests.
My magic had shaped the entire evening. Head high, I walked into the dining hall to take a well-deserved victory lap and found unmitigated chaos.
My heart seized at the spectacle. It was as if everyone in the dining hall acted out my daily fight with my body.
The wild display of monsters in impeccable eveningwear losing their minds only grew more frenzied the closer I came. My magic poured out into the room. Javier, close behind me, slowly backed up and retreated into the kitchen.
Evie and Ward tangled tongues at the head of the table.
I started toward them, shouting for everyone to stop, even as my magic spiked.
Maggie dragged Noth into doing… something else, luckily shrouded in Noth’s shadows.
I stepped over an Elven noble who stared into his rice pudding and cried.
Others could not stop eating. Food made it to their mouths and promptly fell out because they were full.
I tried to shake servants caught in a loop, pouring endless wine into glasses.
Where was Declan? Surely he would help. I noticed his furry wolf-form savaging a whole ostrich in the back corner of the hall. So no help there.
I cut my foot on a broken plate, pushing through the crowd to get to Evie.
Everyone tried to eat something, even if it was their neighbor.
The dining hall was suddenly the Harrowland’s most deadly obstacle course as more monsters fell back into their basest natures.
Claws came out. Snarls filled the air. Ward’s territory was a shifter haven, and it showed in his guest makeup.
This was worse than the time with the monk librarians.
At least there I was trying to produce havoc for a good cause.
I finally shoved my way to Evie and Ward pushing my hand into their faces to part them, but just ended up with a handful of slobber for my trouble.
Wiping my fingers on my apron, I took stock, fear crowding behind my teeth.
I didn't dare step into Noth’s shadows. I wanted my brain to remain unassaulted.
Searching for my magic, I grabbed metaphysical handfuls of it, reeling it back inside myself.
It had never gotten away from me to this degree. I knew how to stop it. Right?
Evie and Ward sat closest and were free of the feastweaving’s grip first. Ward groaned as Evie kept kissing any part of him she could find.
“Viper,” Ward cupped the back of his mate’s head.
Evie dove her hand under the table. Ward stiffened. Evie jumped like Ward shouted at her in her mind.
“But I’m hungry,” she whined.
I tried to help contain Evie, but Ward pushed me back as if I weighed nothing.
He didn't snap me in half, which I appreciated.
He spilled out a containment spell that trapped my magic tight against my skin.
No wonder they all went mad. Waves of euphoria sloshed against me.
The bear King was usually an easygoing guy, but rage lit his eyes in a glow that would have had me stepping back if I could have moved.
“How dare you endanger my mate.” His low growl filled the room, which slowly quieted as my magic lifted from the assembly. Ward's hand instinctively covered Evie’s belly and I swallowed hard. Oh, cheese on crackers.
“Your magic could have hurt the cub!”
My jaw hit the floor. She was pregnant? Maggie squealed as she stumbled out of the shadows, towing Noth behind her.
She threw herself into her sister’s arms. Frozen on the spot, dark, panicked thoughts coated the back of my tongue.
This would just be one more person… bear…
dragon… dragon/bear between my bestie and me.
No, wait. I was happy for my best friend!
I would be a Goddsmother! It might have been a childish promise made over pastries when we were ten, but I was holding her to it.
Noth’s face rearranging back into his Elven form still creeped me the fuck out.
“Congratulations.” He turned to me. “You pack quite a punch, little feastweaver. I’m booking you for my next state dinner.”
That sounded like a terrible idea. I still didn't know enough about my magic to be sure what had just happened and what the effects were.
Declan stumbled up to the head of the table, weaving, half-drunk on my magic.
Everyone else looked like they were returning to normal, if frazzled, like Ward's panther shifter accountant.
The woman rearranged her clothing to some semblance of sanity, combing back her short hair with her fingers while she looked around.
“Clarus? Clarus, where are you?”
The bowl of tomato soup next to her rocked back and forth, making noises that approximated speech, spoon clattering with a wet slap.
Just as the room came back to themselves, the panther screamed loud enough to turn every eye in her direction. “Clarus!”
Oh fuck.
My magic had never done that before. Fear skittered up my spine. Pandemonium broke out as everyone checked themselves and loved ones.
“I’ll fix it. I’ll fix it,” I yelled into the cacophony.
“I’ll fix it,” Ward roared, clutching Evie closer to his side as if he would personally battle everyone in the room.
“I can help,” Noth said.
We all turned to him and said, “NO!” at the same time. Maggie patted his shoulder in consolation.
The panther shifter came toward us with a full head of steam. “You need to do something about this. Right this second.”
Evie stood between me and the outraged woman. I couldn’t have been prouder of her when I knew she hated confrontation.
“We’re working on it, Margory.”
Claws came out. Very sharp ones at that. I swallowed hard.
“Not good enough. How can you even let her stay in this Keep?”
Evie calmly folded her arms across her ample chest. “I’m not.”
“That’s outrageous. I can’t believe…” The shifter ran out of words.
We all ran out of words as we turned to the Queen of Harrowood.
Ward was so surprised that he released his containment spell.
My magic dissipated beneath my skin. Without the high, the pain crept back through my bones and I fought to stay upright.
This definitely wasn’t the time to lose it in front of everyone.
With a theatrical sigh, Evie spread her arms. “What am I to do with my best friend?”
“Are you having a stroke?” I asked her.
Evie’s eyes shot daggers over my shoulder but no one stood there but Declan, who looked just as confused as I was. Evie’s face twisted for a second like she mind-spoke to Ward, but Declan jumped instead.
“It might be the dead of winter.” Evie mimed a cloak. I couldn’t figure out if I was witnessing one of the worst plays I had ever seen. “And the middle of the night.”
Okay, I knew Evie took the Queen stuff seriously, but she was usually smoother about announcing her decisions than this.
“Evie. Don't.” Ward crossed his arms over his chest.
Evie flapped her hands again looking over my shoulder, but Declan wasn’t there anymore. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose as if the weight of the Harrowlands rested on her shoulders. The entire performance had me cracking a laugh until her face fell into severe lines.
“I’m terrible at this,” she whispered. Straightening to her full height, Evie looked me right in the eye. “I love you, but you’re banished, Fallon.”
The laughter died in my throat. The room tilted. Could you pass out from shock? My heart beat out of my chest, adrenaline curing the heavy ache in my joints.
“She deserves more than banishment. Clarus is edible.” The panther shifter lunged forward and my life flashed before my eyes along with those claws.
Only Ward’s paw of a hand kept her from stripping my meat from my bones.
“Ha ha, Evie.” My voice wavered as I backed up. The other shifters moved toward us as well, scenting violence in the air. The terrible play had turned into the worst joke ever.
Her head was held high, mouth tight. She wasn’t joking. I’d never seen her look more like a Queen and less like my friend. “Clear your head, and not just from your magic. Fallon, you need a break.”
“You’re serious!?” I almost screamed it. My world crumbled and it was everything I could do to keep standing. Never mind the claws trying for my throat, my best friend was kicking me out. Which way was up?
Evie straightened her spine to steel. “You can't stay in our territory if you can't control your magic. That was how the Godds reigned.”
Yeah, maybe like a million years ago. She couldn’t be serious.
Evie’s face was dead serious. “I can’t have you risk this territory. It’s my duty to protect everyone. Including you. Someone will escort you off the grounds.”
My best friend looked around the room as if she had someone in mind, while I reeled into a dark spiral of fear.
Banished? For one mistake? I scrabbled for something to hold on to, some magic answer I could produce to change her mind.
In times of genuine panic, I never escaped the truth that I was never really in control.
My body, my mind, my power would always betray me in the end.
Noth clapped a few times before Maggie snatched up his hands, pressing them together.
Ward leaned over her. “Viper, that's a little—”
One piercing glare from his mate and Ward shut his mouth immediately. Even the panther stood a little shocked. Still, the rest of the room extended claws and sharpened tongues. I could already hear the whispers about Evie’s rule. I hadn’t meant to make them question her.
The tension pulled tight in the room as I took Evie to the side, refraining from shaking her. “Bestie. What the fuck? Where do I go?”
How was I supposed to not turn someone into a bowl of soup? I'd just have to work harder, but at what? If I laid out a five-point action plan, would she let me stay? Evie’s eyes said ‘no’. She patted my shoulder.
“Let everything calm down. Ward will reverse your magic eventually, but I’m serious.
You need to get it together, Fallon. Find help to control your magic.
It will be like your lessons with the cheese dragon.
You’ll master it in no time and be back in the kitchen.
Godds forbid you do something like go on a date. ”
My love life was the last thing on my list. She glanced at the room brimming with fury. Shifters gathered around Ward like waves crashing on a rock.
“Viper?” Ward’s voice rose higher than I’d ever heard it.
“It’s for the best right now.” Somehow the softness with which she said it made it worse.
My breaking heart turned to anger. I knew they didn’t want me here. One too many dinners where I was the third wheel. An inconvenient request to hang out when she had Queen things to do and I got no second chances. She could hang her good advice. And I didn't stay where I wasn't wanted.
“Declan will–”
I didn’t need Declan to wheedle me back into their good graces. This had been a long time coming.
Turning on my heel, I didn't stop to pack or feel. I grabbed whatever was in front of me and a cloak, and disappeared into the winter night.