16. Lysandra
A bolt of lightning zapped my arm. I narrowly avoided the full strength of the blow. Before I could parry, another bound my ankles. It didn’t hurt, per se, but prickled as if my leg had fallen asleep. I managed to cast a vine at my opponent, but she chuckled, casting a spell of her own creation to seize control of my magic. My vines joined the assault, wrapping around my torso and pinning my arms to my sides.
I wailed in frustration, but Katie held me there, her auburn eyes focused on mine as she dared me to yield. It wasn’t until I said the word that she let her magic fall away.
“That’s twice I won in the first two minutes of the match,” she said, tightening her high ponytail and tugging the hem of her red workout tank back into place. We’d been sparring for almost an hour, and I hadn’t won yet. Katie was powerful, but I’d been training under her for two years; I should have been better than this.
“I know,” I whined. She tossed me a towel and I dabbed sweat off my face. I had been letting my hair grow out since being in Salem, but it was just the wrong length that pieces clung to my sweaty neck, and flyaways made the top of my head fuzzy.
“What’s on your mind?” Katie asked. She hadn’t broken a sweat, despite being a month postpartum and—in her words—out of shape. I hated her a little for it.
I summoned a water bottle from thin air and gulped it down greedily. Edina—a Fae emissary to the mortal realm, and Katie’s best friend—taught me to summon on her most recent trip here. It was something only Fae could do, so I had no one to teach me before she arrived. We got along well enough and I hoped that translated to friendship once I went to Faerie.
My stomach sank at the thought of my impending departure. Vlad said I should still have one year before it was time to go to Faerie, but he also warned he could take me at a moment’s notice. It felt like there was an axe poised above my head, and one word would make it drop.
I waved Katie off, but she fixed me with a look that said cut the shit. I was convinced it was a look all mothers developed as soon as they had a child, and it was intimidating as hell.
“It’s…” I plopped down on the mat in the training gym, crossing my legs and hunching over. Around us, soldiers in the witches’ army continued sparring, the sounds of colliding elemental magic keeping my words from carrying. “Why am I even doing this?”
Katie sat beside me and took a swig of her water. “I need you to be more specific.”
“Why am I going to Faerie?”
Her eyebrows rose in surprise. I wasn’t allowed to tell her the real reason I was going to Faerie. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her, but Vlad claimed I needed to keep my parentage a secret to ensure my success in taking back my mother’s throne. Even my human friends couldn’t know.
All my life I knew my path. Develop my power and go to Faerie when my mother sent for me. Only when she was killed did the plan change to ‘develop my power and claim my birthright.’ I never questioned it. I had nothing going on in my life, so why would I?
That was before I was taken in by the witches. Knowing people I didn’t have to hide my magic from made all the difference in the world. It allowed me to connect on a level I was never able to before. I formed a community, a friend group—a family. In the two years I’d been in Salem, Katie and her mate became my brother and sister. Her daughter called me Aunt Ly-sa, though the L was still hard to pronounce for the two-year-old.
Was I really supposed to leave? To never see her grow up?
Katie considered, before saying, “I know there’s more to your story than you’re telling me.” I opened my mouth to make an excuse, but she kept going. “I don’t need to know; I trust you have your reasons. But I think you’re in a similar situation to the one I was in a few years ago. I felt like I was being pushed down a path without my consent. I had no control over the way my life was going.”
“That’s exactly it,” I breathed, and she nodded knowingly. “How did you get past that?”
“Someone offered me an out—to run away and live a quiet life away from it all. Just having the offer made me realize I wanted to stay.”
“Is this you giving me an out?” I joked, hoping she’d say yes.
“You’re always welcome to stay here, Ly.” She took my hand in hers and squeezed. “You know what you mean to me and everyone around here.” She gestured wide, at all the soldiers who’d become my friends, and my eyes caught on one in particular. Katie, being too damn observant for her own good, noted my lingering gaze and playfully nudged me in the ribs.
“You have plenty of reasons to stay.” She waggled her eyebrows. “And selfishly, I want you to stay so I don’t lose my babysitter.”
She surprised a laugh out of me, and we both descended into a torrent of giggles.
“But,” she continued once we sobered. “I know you have reasons to go, too.”
I flopped onto my back and stared up at the gray stone ceiling with exposed metal beams. “I just wish I had a sign, you know? Something to tell me that leaving all this would be worth it.”
“I can have my sister look into your future if you want.” She lay beside me. “But every time I ask her for a reading, she tells me I’m gonna die.”
“I’m immortal.”
“Then maybe you’ll have better luck.”
A delighted shriek made my lips pull wide in a smile as Katie’s daughter, Lorraine, toddled into the training room. Soldiers scattered out of the way, extinguishing their magic with impressive haste as the girl paid them no heed on her way to her mother. Katie held her arms over her head and Lorraine dove headfirst into them. Katie used magic to toss her daughter, who squealed with delight as she spun in the air and then landed softly in the cradle of her arms.
When she saw me, her little amber eyes went wide and she kneed Katie in the gut in her pursuit to get to me. “Nice, kid,” Katie teased as I scooped up Lorraine and tickled her.
Katie’s mate came into the room shortly after, their two nieces running around him as he balanced a baby on his hip. “I’m tagging you in,” he said in his intoxicating accent and dumped the infant in Katie’s arms. “I’m taking these two home.” He gestured to the girls now terrorizing the soldiers, who took it in stride. It was amazing how much a family the army was, and how much they loved each other’s children.
“You don’t want to take our girls too?” Katie batted her eyelashes innocently at her mate.
“I could,” he drawled. “But Misty will need to eat in about—” An alarm pinged and Katie groaned, lifting the infant to touch foreheads.
“Why are you so needy?” she cooed, and Misty gave the infant equivalent of a smile. My friend turned to me. “Training’s over. I’m not going to traumatize everyone by whipping my boob out.”
“Again,” her mate quipped.
She ignored him. “You wanna come hang with me while I feed this little leech? Or did you want to go train with Jared?” she asked me, pointedly looking at the man I eyed before.
“Did she finally admit they’re having s-e-x?” her mate asked. I flipped him off, which resulted in Lorraine, still in my lap, attempting the same. Thankfully, she didn’t have the coordination for it and her parents had a good enough sense of humor to laugh.
“You both should be given an award for subtlety.” I set Lorraine on her feet so she’d follow Katie. “I’ll stay.”
“Yeah, you will.”
I rolled my eyes as she took both her daughters, leaving me lying on my back in the gym, mulling over our conversation. Katie gave me an out. I could go to Vlad as soon as he woke tonight and tell him I was done, that I didn’t want the future my mother planned for me. I wouldn’t have to deal with the vipers nest that was Faerie politics. I wouldn’t have to challenge a murderer who was dangerous enough that Vlad sent me to train with the most powerful witch in the realm. Most of all, I wouldn’t have to learn to rule an entire court, to have that kind of responsibility.
I could find a job here, live amongst these people, and not have to hide my magic. I could let the romance I’d been skirting around blossom into something real.
My life could be blissfully ordinary.
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t picture that future for myself. At the end of the day, this wasn’t the place for me. I belonged in Faerie. I was destined to be the Spring Court’s queen.
With one long exhale, I stood and sauntered over to Jared, the man Katie so aptly guessed I was in a casual relationship with. He sparred with his twin brother, but they stopped when they saw me and simultaneously waved.
“Can I duel the winner?” I asked. They agreed and resumed their match as I waited off to the side to continue my training.