Chapter Sixteen.3
“She’s the reason we could never be happy. I love you! I’ve always loved you, but she destroyed everything!” Kirwan strained and thrashed, his limbs pinned to the wall.
Mama halted before him, her back facing us. “I can promise you two things here today, Kirwan. I never loved you. You are the most despicable of men. Lower than a worm. Filthier than the scum-sucking bottom feeders found crawling through shit. I’ve hated you from the moment we met, and every day I prayed to Meya for your death. How could any woman love you?” she hissed. “You don’t even love yourself. The only thing you’ve ever done right in your life is Meliora.”
The delusional fool had the audacity to gape at her in slack-jawed surprise. “Olene, what are you saying? This isn’t you. This is her ! Ruining everything. Coming between us!”
“And my second promise,” Mama continued on, raising her sword. “You will never hurt my children again.”
I grabbed Meliora, covering her face with my body.
“Olene, don’t—”
Mama’s sword struck true—severing his head from his shoulders. It thudded on the ground, the bug-eyed look of surprise still on his face.
I held Meliora close, not letting her look. No matter how much she despised the man, she was only sixteen. I wouldn’t have her watch her mother kill her father.
“Mama?” I croaked. “Are you okay?”
She didn’t respond for throwing out her hands. Snapping them together, Kirwan’s head flew off the ground and pinned back to the wall. “Eldur!”
The body burst into flames, smacking us over the head with heat. Greedily they consumed him, reducing the great and fearsome Kirwan Dawnbreaker to nothing but ash. She swept it out the door and slammed it shut with a cold efficiency that reminded me of something I often forgot. My mother went to war right alongside my father. She was never a wilting flower... and she never feared a monster.
“Mama?” I said softly. “Are... you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay, faywen, but I need you to check on the children.”
“But—”
“Now.”
Her tone brokered no argument. I loosened my grip on Meli standing up. My sister broke from me and ran to our mother, burying her face in her chest as she sobbed.
I left them be, knowing Meli was with the exact person she needed at that moment.
I continued on through the hall, calling for Jaclan and Gisela, but inside, my head was a wreck. Putting aside that my sister’s father threatened her life, so that he could steal our coin and kidnap me and my little sister, the mind-shattering shock was watching my mother perform magic.
How? I thought she was gone, but obviously she just fell into a frighteningly deep sleep. Or did she, somehow, pass away, but then Meya allowed her to return to us—save us—with her true and natural state returned?
“Jaclan—?”
“Yes?” Jaclan poked his head out of his room—whole, healthy, and curious. “Is Mama awake? Can I show her my drawing now?”
Slowly, I stuck my head inside. Gisela and Savia were inside too. Savia napped in her cot while Gisela sat at the small table Jaclan vacated, drawing her own picture for Mama.
“Haeowen?”
“Oh, yes,” I said, pulling out of my thoughts. “Mama’s in the front room. Go and show her your—”
Screams pierced the air, invading through the cracked window. “Faywens, take Savia and go to Mama now!” I ran to the glass and peered into the street.
I choked on a cry. “Alisdair?”
My love wasn’t in the street, but faeriken were. I watched bug-eyed as the source of the scream race through the alley, shrieking her head off as a pack of rhino faeriken charged her. I wrenched back just as they closed in on their target.
“What the fuck is going on!” The faeriken were invading? Why would Alisdair do this? We had a plan. As far as I knew, no secret female assassins have slaughtered Salman in this bed, so why would he attack now?
“Calli? Calli!” Meliora called. “What do we do?”
I took off, racing out the room and making for the back entrance. “Stay inside!” I burst outside and shrieked, hugging my arms to my chest.
Cold! Oh fucking Meya, it was cold! A blast of freezing wind struck me, chattering my teeth.
The pack of rhinos had moved on, but they weren’t the only ones. A monkey faeriken scaled the walls of the home across the street and jumped on the roof. He had to. Two leopard faeriken were on his tail—snarling and snapping at their lost prey from below.
Cries and howls drew my attention, making me run around our building to the alley. Three cat faerikens ripped off their clothes and pounced on each other. There was a cock in an ass, and another in a mouth before they hit the cobblestones.
Their noise startled a bird faeriken into taking flight.
I followed their path up, my eyes turning to the skies as the dark, heavy clouds rolled in—blotting out the horizon. The sun. The light. The warmth.
The world.
“Alisdair didn’t launch the invasion,” I whispered, lips numb from more than the cold. “And these— these people—” Slowly, I backed toward my door.
“Argh!” A group of fifteen, maybe twenty women charged down the street with a familiar face leading the pack.
“Mykel Starsinger,” Shadi screeched. Her hawk eyes bulged in sync with her ruffled feathers. “This will teach you that no means no. Eldur!”
The mansion windows three doors down blew out—the very glass fleeing before the flames.
I bolted inside, slamming and locking the door. “They’re not from Lumenfell,” I cried. “The faeriken are Lyricans! They’ve been changed! The curse—”
“We know,” said a calm, clear voice. “You did say that in Lumenfell, their ordeal frees them from the binding...”
Stiffly, achingly, I turned, and met my mother’s now small, beady eyes and thick, furry face.
“I was skeptical,” Mama continued, “but I confess, it feels a fair trade.”
THE THREE OF US SAT at the dining table.
The twins were there too, but Jaclan and Gisela were busy poking Mama’s face and scurrying off giggling. She looked at them fondly, while she devoured an entire chicken.
“At least, they’re not afraid of you,” Meliora remarked in a small voice.
“Mama’s fuzzy,” Gisela shrieked in agreement.
“Are you afraid?” I asked Meliora.
She paused, then shook her head. “I think it would be wrong to be afraid. I mean, the—saved you, didn’t it? It cured you of the wasting sickness.”
“Almost immediately,” Mama said around her gnawed chicken leg. “All I remember is being somewhere dark and warm, and then just like that, I was awake, the nausea was gone, my magic was thrumming under my skin, and I was hungry. Starved . Like I hadn’t eaten in months.”
“But now you’re a...?” Meliora blinked at her. “What are you?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Me either,” I echoed.
“A koala.” Gisela blew in, poked Mama, and scurried off again.
“How do you know?” I called after her.
“I just do.”
Mama shrugged. “A koala. I’ve heard of those. They can only be found in Rajadom. I never thought my inner animal would be a creature I’ve never seen before.”
“Why are you so calm about this?” Meliora burst out. “You’re—. All of Lyrica is—! Fae-beasts are running through the streets! It’s the middle of the day, and it’s pitch-black outside! Why aren’t you yelling, screaming, raging, something!”
Humming, Mama tipped her head, actually considering the question. “I think maybe koalas are calm creatures—”
“They are,” Gisela assured, not slowing her whirlwind race with Jaclan for a second.
“—because I feel panic, stress, and fear, but they’re all very quiet voices in my head,” she finished. “The only emotion screaming loudly is relief that my faywens are safe.” Mama stroked Meli’s cheek. “And love, my treasure. Always love.”
Meliora calmed a bit. “What about me?” She looked at me. “Why haven’t I changed? Or you? Or the twins? Or Savia?”
“The curse changes people in its own time.” I hesitated, not wanting to say the rest. “And it already has you.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Meli, haven’t you noticed that you can’t say cursed?”
She stared at me, brows wrinkled, then understanding dawned as quickly as her paling face. “Oh.”
I reached for her hand. “The good news is that you’ll get your magic back. That’s exactly what we wanted.”
Two heads swung to me. “We?”
“Well, yeah,” I said, drawing back slightly. “The beast curse is the only thing known to break the bindings. I had to save you, Mama. And undo what was done to you, Meli. Done to every woman in Elva. Animals get to live free.” I looked to my mother. “Why should we accept less?”
Mama sighed. “Your intentions were good, Calli, and I am very thankful that I’m alive, and you’re all finally safe from Kirwan, but, my love, I very much doubt what’s going on outside is what you planned.”
I winced. Rising up, I went to the window and drew the curtains back. Somehow, the chaos outside had gotten even worse.
Smoke rose from multiple locations, telling of the numerous fires that fed them. Of those that weren’t fucking passionately in the streets, the rest of the faeriken were fighting, clawing, snapping, and snarling at each other.
I winced when two fox faerikens bodily threw themselves through our neighbor’s window, then came racing out loaded down with their looted treasures.
“Why are they avoiding our home?” Meliora asked. I hadn’t noticed her come up behind me. “None of the mob or looters are even looking this way.”
“Calli’s father.” Mama crossed to the larder and claimed the cheese and sausage. “It’s why he left us this house, and why I would have no other. Protection runes were carved into every brick and cinder,” she said. “I’m feeding them my magic to keep them strong, so I can’t go with you, Calli.”
“Go with me? Go with me where?”
“Outside,” she replied, calm as could be. She immediately set about reducing her meal to ground-up bits in her newly awakened stomach.
“Mama, why on earth would I go out there?”
“Because it appears that koalas also have excellent hearing,” she replied. “There’s someone in the square right now—shouting, carrying on, and whipping up a mob to invade Wind and Wild.”
“What!”
“She’s saying that...” She tipped her head. “This is all the doing of Alisdair Shadowsoul, and if they want to save themselves and Elva, they must march on his castle and kill him now.”
The world dropped out from under me. “But they can’t! They don’t—”
“Wait.” My mother held up a hand. “There’s more. She’s saying—shouting—that killing him will be no difficult feat. All they need is a little purple flower? Is that right?” Mama screwed up her face. “Wait, yes. She definitely said flower. All right, all they need is a flower, and...”
“No, please—”
“...she has dozens of them.”
“Dozens?” I cried. “How is that possible!”
My mother shook her head. “I can’t say, but she is whipping the mob into a frenzy. I can’t hear her anymore over the shouting and hollering for Shadowsoul’s blood.”
“But they can’t do this.” I rose on tiptoe, straining to see the square. “They have it wrong. We all have it wrong! Killing Alisdair won’t break the curse. They’re about to make everything worse, and take away the man I love with one horrible mistake!”
“Unless you stop them,” Mama said firmly.
“Yes, yes,” I breathed, running to the door, then back to the window, then to the door again. My mind spun in faster circles than I did. “How do I get there? I sent Bradach away. It takes two weeks to get to Lumenfell by carriage.”
“Same for them too,” Meliora reminded. “It’s not like the mob can get to him tomorrow.”
“The ones that fly can. The ones that have mastered speed and transportation magic can even faster than the rest.”
She winced. “Oh, right— But, wait,” she cried. “Mama has her magic back. Can’t she put a transportation spell on you?”
I spun on my mother, expression hopeful, until her shaking head obliterated my smile. “Transportation spells are dangerous. A single mispronounced word, or badly written rune, and you appear a mile above your destination and fall to your death.”
“What about a speed spell?” I asked.
“Those burn out quickly, my love. After fifty miles, someone would need to feed it more magic, and you can’t. I’d just be stranding you fifty miles away.”
“We have to think of something!”
“Why not go with the mod, Haeowen?”
Our conversation halted. Mama, Meli, and I turned to Gisela.
“What was that, sweetling?”
“The mod,” she repeated. “Mama said all the angry people are going to the Wild place. If that’s where you want to go, go with them.” The little eight-year-old shrugged. “Just say you’re angry too and they’ll help you.”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
“Meya, take it, Gisela,” Meliora cried. “Are you, like, a genius?”
Gisela burst into giggles. Grabbing her twin’s hand, she tugged him out the door to play.
I blinked at the spot she was standing in. “We’ve been jokingly calling her a prodigy. I think it’s time we stop joking.”
Even Mama nodded, surprise shattering her koala calm. “She does have a point though. They must know they need numbers to take on Alisdair Shadowsoul. They won’t have them if most of the mob is taking the slow path,” she said. “They’re likely figuring out a way to get everyone there. You need to be there when they do.”
“Okay, okay, okay.” I bounced on the balls of my toes, liking the plan more and more. “This makes sense. It’s not ideal to get there at the same time as they do, but it’d be infinitely worse to get there two weeks after . And I know Lumenfell better than anyone in Lyrica. I know I can get to Alisdair first and warn him. Save him.”
I halted mid-turn. “But wait— What about you, guys? Mama, how long can you give magic to the protection runes? At some point you have to sleep. And Meli,” I cried. “The curse has already taken you. I can’t leave you to face the change alone. And—”
“Calli, stop.” Mama rose up and grasped my shoulders. “My love, hear me and hear me well, you’re officially relieved of the position of borrowed mother. I will take care of everything,” she said gently, kissing my forehead. “So you go. Go and save your one true love and mate. You both have waited long enough.”
“I...” My eyes filled. “I will. Thank you, Mama. I love you. All of you. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“We love you too, now go.”
I didn’t waste another minute.
Racing upstairs, I rescued all the weapons Alisdair gave me on the way out, slung the bow and quiver on my back, and then I ran back downstairs to the kitchen to get some more. Only when I positively clinked and jingle did I kiss Savia and the twins goodbye, then head out the door.
The streets were no better than they were before, but I kept low and out of the way of the chaos, racing to the square with one thought in mind—saving Alisdair.
I’m coming, my love. You’ve waited hundreds of years for someone to finally see the truth. Just wait a little longer.
The newly born faeriken ignored me. They were all too busy fucking, fighting, or unleashing pent-up rage on their enemies. Most of the people out on the street were women, and most of the bellowing victims they were chasing with rage in their eyes were men.
I rounded a corner, turning down an alley that was a shortcut to the square, and I saw the bloodied, clawed-up mass that used to be Mykel Starsinger. I didn’t know if Shadi caught up to him, or if the other women he forced himself on did. Either way... he wouldn’t be forcing himself on anyone else in the Burning Plains.
I backed away and went down another alley.
Up ahead the statue of King Salman loomed high over the darkened horizon, lit up by the fires burning in the square. He loomed, but not as high as he should—thanks to the stone head I skirted tripping out of the alley.
Someone knocked the thing clean off his inaccurately broad shoulders, and then they vented on the rest of him, blowing chunks of stone off his legs, arms, and abdomen. As angry as those gathered here were at Alisdair, it seemed a few of them knew who the true enemy was. Part of me wondered if any of them got their hands on the real thing.
But I couldn’t ask... because the square was empty.
“No!” I whipped around, eyes huge in disbelief. “Already? How have they found a way to Lumenfell already!”
“Did you say Lumenfell?”
I jumped, backing away. A figure had appeared before me—a woman, I assumed, from her light, musical voice. But assume was all I could do. Something was wrong, I couldn’t quite... look at her.
My gaze traveled in her direction then flicked away, flicking on Salman’s head or piles of tattered, bloodied clothes that would come with a horrible explanation. The most I could make out were the leather tip of her boots, and a flash of auburn hair. But truthfully, her hair color could’ve been a trick of the fire light.
“That’s an impressive concealment spell,” I stated, blunt as ever. “Those are supposed to be rendered useless when the caster draws attention to themselves. Hmm, just like in reality, I suppose.”
She laughed. “One’s magic is only as limited as the books they read and runes they know. Thankfully, I have never been limited.”
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?”