Chapter Sixteen.4
“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 into 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 faerikens fighting faerikens. 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.
He stood before the raging, torch-carrying mob wearing clothes. Not just any clothes, but light, breezy, colorful breeches and silk shirts—the style of Lyricans. In that second, I knew.
“You,” I hissed, lips peeling back from my teeth.
Meallan looked at me, then flicked away—turning his back on me completely. He didn’t have a clue who I was.
“Today we fight back!” he hollered, sending the mob into a frenzy. Behind them, a wall of wolves clashed with the Lumenfell soldiers, ever obedient to their alpha. “We take back Lyrica! We take back Elva! We free our home from the scourge of Alisdair Shadowsoul!”
“Yeah!”
“Take the flowers, everyone!” Meallan presented the delicate, purple flower crushed in his grip. “Rub it over your fists and weapons. Weave it into your magic. It will protect us, and kill him!”
“Yeah!”
“No!” I screamed against the wind—a lone voice in a raging sea.
“Attack!” Meallan shouted.
They charged the drawbridge, the most unnatural sight with beautiful flowers in their hands, and hate etched into their faces.
“Don’t do this!” I ran out in front of them and was roughly hauled back.
Riordan snapped me to his chest, throwing us both out of the way of the stampede.
“Riordan, the mark!”
“Was on Emiana’s body, not yours,” he finished, helping me up.
I slapped my forehead. “Of course, you’re right. That means he can’t scent that I’m right here. Fuck’s sake, he thinks I’m dead and—”
The mob threw everything they had, magical and physical at the castle doors. Palace guards dropped down or charged around the structure to meet them, but the wolves were coming from everywhere. Pouring out of the forest, overwhelming the town, leaping on fleeing villagers and tearing out their throats. They were Meallan’s army.
“That stupid, bitch-ass pup is using more trickery and manipulation to steal Alisdair’s throne, and his li-fe!” I spun to meet two wolves who broke off from the pack, bounding straight for us. I earthed two vials from my pocket. Lobbing them over head, they flew true—smashing on the wolves’ faces.
They yelped, skidding to hard stops. Shrieking and whimpering, they frantically batted at their faces trying to get the stuff off.
Dropping on all fours, they turned tail and ran as fast as their hands and legs could carry them.
“What was that!” Riordan goggled at me, the crystal he’d been about to use hovering in the air. “How did you do that!”
“You can do it too.” I shoved three vials in his hands. “Now, move!”
I sprinted for the drawbridge, then veered sharply left—jumping off the edge to the frozen lake below.
“Artisa!”
Magic washed over me—warm like the rush of dipping your toe in a hot, steaming bath. I lifted into the air, flying over the angry mob. “That’s it, Riordan! Higher!”
Yes, finally! Once Riordan sets me down in the outer gardens, I’ll find Alisdair and set everything right. I know this castle better than anyone. All of its secrets and hidden corners. All I have to do is—
“Die, stunted scum!”
A hard force slammed into me, vaulting me out of the sky.
“Calli, no!”
I plummeted to the ground. My head collided with hard, unforgiving, frozen earth.
Darkness claimed me.
“ What were their names? ”
Alisdair leaned against the glass, tearing apart a pilfered apple, and watching me tend to its brothers and sisters.
“ Caitriona, Ashling, and Nora .” A soft smile withered away the sharp edges of his features. A smile I only saw when he spoke of his children. “ All so different, but in many ways, the same. ”
I packed in the muddy dirt, loving the feel of living earth squishing through my fingertips. “ What were your days like? Were they like this? Did you watch your girls do all the work with the horses while you kicked back munching on apples? ”
Alisdair chuckled. “ I’ll have you know I did all the work. My faywens told grand tales every morning of all the help they’d be to me, and then Nora would spend all her time petting, grooming, and riding her favorite horse. Ashling, my dreamer, chased butterflies through the field, and Caitriona... well, she would sing. ” He shook his head, laughing softly. “ Like you, she had a beautiful voice. ”
I blushed like the silly mare I was.
“ Her crooning could calm the wildest stallions. Looking back, those are the days I miss the most. Not the carefree days of my youth, or causing trouble with Bradach, or galloping across the plains with the herds.
“ I miss the common days where nothing really happened, because it didn’t have to. I didn’t need any more love or adventure than being with Raelina and my girls. ”
I ducked my head, not wanting him to see me cry.
“ That’ll be what I miss most about you. ”
“ What? ” I frowned, raising my chin. “ What do you mean? ”
“ When immortality takes me away from you like it has everyone I’ve loved, I won’t miss the days you bit me, rolled in manure, or announced to the court I have a hairy growth on my cock that’s bigger than my cock itself. ”
I snorted, bursting into giggles.
“ I’ll miss this, ” he said, smiling that smile. “ Listening to you sing while you play in the dirt. ”
I both laughed and rolled my eyes. “ You won’t miss me, my love. We didn’t start together, but we’ll end together. That I promise you. ”
“...promise...” I rasped. “Alisdair...”
I peeled my eyes open, vision spinning.
Pain assaulted me—roaring through my head and ripping out a groan. Every part of me from my head to the bottom of my feet ached. I lost my boots in the fall. Whipping winds beat and froze my bare feet. How long was I gone from this world? Strolling in a land of daydreams while the world fell apart around me?
Somehow I pushed up to my knees, clutching my head. In the distance, I heard clanging swords and the rage of battle.
“I’m... not too late.” I tried to stand and pitched to the side, my aching head spinning the world upside-down. “Alisdair... I’m coming.”
Flipping over, I screamed.
Riordan draped over the snowbank, blood staining his perch red. Long, vicious gashes raked lengthways on his chest—not the slash of a wolf, but the mangling of a falcon. Riordan tried to protect me from the flying faeriken who knocked me out of the sky. Her, or one of her comrades.
To the end, my friend saved me.
“Oh, Riordan, I’m sorry.” I threw myself on him, my heart cracking in half. “You’re a new husband. You have a baby on the way. Now you’ll never get to see your child’s face, all because of me. Ahhh!” I screamed, frustration strangling me. “Why was I so stupid? Why didn’t I realize how to break the curse sooner!”
“Cal... li...”
I shot up, gaping at his fluttering eyes.
“...help...”
I sprung into action. Ripping the hem of my dress, I bound his chest with the strips, grasped his arm, and heaved him onto my back.
The weight of him bent me in half. Gritting my teeth, I took a step, then another, then another. “It’s... going to be okay. I’ll get you help, my friend.” The gaping hole where the palace doors used to be beckoned me forward. “I promise.”
I stumbled over the threshold and clamped hard on my lip, holding back a cry.
Talulla beheld me with unseeing eyes. My little, quiet taste-tester, who was saved the same night as I when I refused the poisoned meal and decided to eat with the rest of the court. Turned out I only saved her for a few more weeks, only for her to meet her end with a sword driven to her chest—pinning her to the wall.
Tears soaked my face as I forced myself on, refusing to look in the faces of the guards resting still and quiet at my feet. “Healer! Healer Soulstitcher!” I called. “Someone! Anyone, help!”
Creeping around the corner, Riordan and I fell down the stairs together—following the roar and misery of fighting. If the healers were going to be anywhere, it’d be in the middle of the battle.
“You’re not dying today, Riordan!”
He groaned.
“That’s right. Keep talking.” I clung tight to the banister, straining to keep us upright. One slip and we’d tumble to our deaths—for good this time. “Tell me about the baby. Have you thought of names yet?”
“...ric...” he wheezed.
“Gilric? Oh, yes, Gilric. After your father. That’s a great name for a boy.” I injected my dry, raspy voice with all the enthusiasm I could muster. “A strong, warrior’s name. What about for a girl?”
“C-C-C-... Cal...li.”
The corner of my mouth tugged into a trembling smile. “Really?”
He grunted. “Fuck no, keva... it’ll be... Keelin.”
I let out a short, sharp bark of laughter, igniting shaking chuckles in Riordan.
Good. If he’s laughing, he’s alive.
I climbed off the final step. The sound of breaking glass muffled under—
“ARGGHH!”
“Alisdair?” I lurched into the throne room, and there he was.
Aeris, Eadaoin, Bradach, Foalan, and the big, hairy, hulking beast that was the love of my life held a shrinking line against the fray.
My friends were bleeding, sweating, and gasping—all of them fighting to beat back the mob, and destroy the flowers they so eagerly wielded against Alisdair. But some were slipping through.
Alisdair bled from dozens of cuts. He was huge, but not as big as he could be. He was terrifying, but his fangs weren’t as sharp. His claws not as long. He was weakening, and somewhere in the chaos, Meallan was waiting for the right moment to finish him off.
“Agh!” The Lyricans surged, slamming into Foalan’s hastily erected barrier.
Both sides were pushed back with Aeris and Eadaoin tripping over the dais.
“Help,” I shouted, addressing the jumping, screeching stragglers bringing the rear of the mob.
No one bothered to turn around.
“He’s dying! We need help!” I swiped at someone’s arm, and they swiped back—nearly knocking me off my feet. “We’re Lyricans,” I burst out. “We followed you to aid the noble cause of saving Elva, and now one of our own is dying!”
Two, three, half a dozen scrunched, glaring faces turned our way.
“Help me save him,” I demanded, “or you’re no better than the dead-inside animals you’re trying not to become!”
It took a beat, but two of the faces stopped glaring. They moved in our direction.