Chapter Sixteen #8
I tried to study her as much as the corner of my eye would let me. “There were people here. They were planning to go to Wind and Wild. Where are they?”
“Wind and Wild of course.”
I tensed, chest tightening around my thumping heart. No! Alisdair!
“But you didn’t say Wind and Wild.” She circled me, forcing my eyes to spin wildly in my head until I squeezed them shut. “You said Lumenfell. You’ve been there before.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, I’ve been, and I’m trying to get back. Were you here when they left?” I asked. “Can you tell me how they did it?”
“I was here when they left, and I’m how they did it.”
Alarms chimed in my head, clenching my teeth. Mama was very clear when she said the person whipping the mob into a frenzy was a she.
“The better question is who are you?” her voice whispered into my ear, making my skin crawl. “There is no rage or revenge in your soul, so what business do you have in Lumenfell? And don’t lie. I do so hate being lied to.”
“Why would I lie? I will happily say to your face, or next to it, that I need to get to Lumenfell to stop a mob of feral idiots who are about to make a huge mistake. Alisdair isn’t a monster, he only looks like one, and the reason he does is because of a curse no one truly understood.
.. until now,” I said, voice shaking. “I know how to save him, Wind and Wild, and all of us from the beast curse, and that’s exactly what the fuck I’m going to do!
“So get me there, right now, or I’ll beat your ass, and trust me,” I barked, “I don’t need magic or sight to do it!”
Silence reigned in the square, broken only by shouts, screams, and booms in the distance.
The mysterious stranger hummed. “Well, when you put it like that, who am I to deny you?”
“Wait, what—”
“Good luck.”
A swirling pool of silver and blue opened up beneath my feet, reflecting my blown brows and gaping mouth.
She laughed. “You’ll need it.”
“You—!”
I fell. Scream clogging in my throat, the ground pulled out from beneath me, ripping me away from the square, Lyrica, and that chilling she.
Tumbling through the air, I landed face-first into a bed of powdery cold. I shoved up, gasping—and immediately choked on the burning air.
“Smoke?” I staggered to my feet. “How...”
I ordered that woman to send me to Lumenfell, and sadly, that’s exactly what she did. I stood at the mouth of the path of Bevin, gazing out at the beautiful, peaceful town of Lumenfell as it was consumed by flames.
Heavy clouds of acrid smoke blanketed the shadowed town, hazing the air and stinging my eyes.
Everywhere I looked, there was fighting.
Villagers fighting the attackers destroying their home.
Soldiers battling the intruders in air and on land.
All of it was horrifying, but none of it struck as much fear in my heart as the flowers.
Dozens— No, hundreds of purple flowers floating through the air, burning in the snow, littered on the street, or clutched in the hands of the mob.
“How?” I breathed. “How did they get all of—?”
A feather-faced man dragged a cat woman screaming out of her home. Howling, he raised his hand high—knife tip glinting in the firelight.
My arrow soared free, sinking in his throat.
Dropping the knife, he clutched his neck and collapsed—dead.
“Thank you,” she sobbed. “Thank you so much.”
“Of course.” I accepted the thanks, saying nothing of the fact that I missed. I was aiming for his knife arm. “Get out of town,” I ordered. “Get to safety.”
Nodding hard, she ducked back inside her home, then came running back out with two furry-faced children under her arms and another hanging on her back. I covered her until they disappeared into the trees, and then I returned the arrow to my back.
Alisdair was a great teacher, but I wasn’t a good enough shot to risk it again. The next time, I could hit the wrong person.
Not that I know who the right people are!
I winced, sweeping through the blinding flames and attacking smoke. All I saw were faeriken fighting faeriken. How was I supposed to know who the victims were?
And weren’t they all victims? They’re all trapped under an unforgiving curse and desperate to get out. They don’t know another way but to fight who they wrongly believed is the enemy.
“Stop!” I screamed. “Stop this, please! You have it all wrong. This won’t break the curse, but I can! I can put everything back to—”
“Argh!” Out of the corner of my eye, a gorilla man picked up a burning barrel, and readied to throw it on a familiar figure.
I burst into a sprint, tackling him around the waist just as he let go.
“No!”
We tumbled head over feet on the snow and cobblestones, painfully crunching a different part of my body with each strike. The barrel soared through the air, crashing on Riordan.
“I hope he was your lover, whore!” The gorilla man guffawed. “Enjoy watching him burn!”
Roaring, I seized my dagger and smashed the butt into his skull—bouncing his head off the stone.
He flopped flat on the ground, not laughing anymore.
“Riordan? Riordan, no!” I dropped to my knees, sobs wracking my chest.
He was my friend. In the end, the truest friend I ever had. He saved my family not once, not twice, but three times. And his reward was to die under a burning pile of compost.
“Oh, Riordan, I’m so s-sorry. I was supposed to save you. I was supposed to save all of—”
“Calli?”
I choked, blinking through the haze as the smoldering mound of fruit peels moved.
“Calli, is that you?” The trash blew off him.
Riordan rose up, clutching a crystal in his hand.
“What are you doing here? Wait— Did you come with them?” he barked, shouting at me for the first time in our life.
“I can’t believe you, Calli! Someone tells you faeriken are monsters and you just believe them?
You used to be someone who judged based on action, not reputation! Fucking shame on you—”
“Riordan, can you save the scolding on prejudice for after I save my husband and everyone here from the beast curse, and no, I’m not going to do it by hurting anyone.” I got to my feet, swiping away my tears. “This curse was born of hate. More hate was never the answer.”
“You’re going to what?” All of the angry bluster whooshed out of him. “And who is your husband?”
“Alisdair, obviously.”
He blinked at me. “I’ve missed something very important, haven’t I?”
“Yes, and it can all be summed up with this—body-switching spell.”
Understanding dawned even as his eyes bugged. “So the whole time... it was you.”
“Yes, but we don’t have time to get into the details,” I shouted over the melee. “There are flowers everywhere! If the mob gets to Alisdair, they’ll be able to hurt him. Kill him! We can’t let that happen. You have to help me get to him first.”
“What can I do?”
I pointed at his crystal. “You can use magic. I can’t. Just help me get to the castle, and I’ll take it from there.” I made to run, then stopped. “Wait, is your wife safe?”
“She’s visiting her family in the Yararill Caves, and thank Meya for that.”
“Then let’s make sure you get back to her. We’ll stick together, yes? Have each other’s backs?”
He snorted. “I learned a long time ago that the safest place is by your side, Volka. Let’s go save Lumenfell.”
No more talk was needed. We took off for the trees, trying to avoid the crush as much as possible. Skirting around the outer edge of the village, Castle Riagin loomed over the horizon—swaying through the stinging, teary haze of smoke.
Flying figures surrounded it—pummeling the windows, walls, and doors with fire spells. But just as many flying figures faced them with weapons of magic and bronze—the proud uniform of the Lumenfell Army on their backs.
“Hold out a little longer,” I whispered. “I’m coming.”
“Riordan, what happened?” I called to him.
He ran from my left side to my right and back to my left, keeping an eye out for anything that might come from the light, or the dark.
“It’s taken centuries for the curse to bleed over the borders of Quatassa and Sarabai, but now it rips across two thousand miles and transforms half the people in Lyrica within a week?
I asked Treasa to trigger the spread, but I didn’t expect this! ”
“I don’t know who Treasa is, but I do know what happened on the day the temperature in Lumenfell dropped a life-crushing fifty degrees, and the sky grew so dark, not even the orblights could brighten our days.”
“What?” I asked, keeping my dagger out in front of me as I ran. “What happened?”
“The kingdom received word that Queen Emiana, ruler of Wind and Wild, had died.”
I tripped. Stumbling over a tree root, I pitched forward—knife flying out of my hand. Dazed, the pain took longer to reach me, because his words had first.
“Dead?! Alisdair thinks I’m dead? Why?”
“I don’t know, Calli, it’s just what we were told. All of Lumenfell has been in mourning for days, and then today, the sky just opened up and...” He gazed out at his burning home. “They attacked.”
“Oh no,” I cried. “We need to get to Alisdair now!”
I raced off leaving Riordan to follow.
“Get him!”
“Kill them!”
“Shadowsoul did this to us!”
We burst out of the trees beside a burning home.
Broken glass crunched under our boots, the shattered remains of the greenhouses I so admired.
Was it really me who walked side by side with Alisdair, beaming so wide my face hurt while he led me through the greenhouse that was to be mine?
It was hard to remember being so happy while everyone and everything I came to know and love. .. burned.
“He turned us into beasts! He’s robbed us of the sun and stars, forcing us to root around in the muck and dark like pigs while he sits on a throne of gold!”
“That’s not true,” I burst out, charging around the cover of building. “You have everything all wrong! Alisdair didn’t curse you! He didn’t curse anyone! He’s the one who—”
I rushed into the street, and locked eyes with Meallan.