Chapter 13 #2
My mother walked back to the mist. It swirled around in front of me, causing me to stumble back. I landed on my butt and looked up just as my grandfather appeared before me. Blood bloomed over his heart.
“No!” I screamed, the cry ripping away my strength. “Please, this isn’t real! I know you’re still alive!”
Silver hair threaded into his dark strands, and more wrinkles cornered his eyes. His shoulders sank as he frowned. He didn’t speak; instead, he turned and walked back toward the mist.
“Stop, wait!” Scrambling to my feet, I chased after him.
My hand passed through his back just as he disappeared.
I stared at my shaking fist. “This isn’t real. It’s not.”
It is, the mist whispered back. You have failed everyone.
Tears blurring my vision, I shook my head, refusing to believe that everyone I cared about was dead.
“You let him kill me.”
Crispin stood in front of me, blood splattering his clothes and chin. The front of his shirt had been ripped open, revealing the angry sewn wound.
“No. I tried to save you!” Stepping forward, I reached out to him, needing to know if he was real.
My hand landed on his arm, its solid state making me gasp. “Is this real?”
When his fingers curled around my arm, I knew it couldn’t be a hallucination. Nothing that magical could have substance, right?
“Crispin…” I reached in to hug him, to wrap my arms around his waist and bury my face in his chest.
He stepped back, pulling away from me as if I wasn’t his everything.
His face twisted, skin decaying, eyes sinking in, and a rotted stench wafted off his body. “I will roam the Never, lost and alone because of you.”
Shaking my head, I stared at the corpse of my husband, my heart beating so fast that my head swam with dizziness.
Not real. Not real. Not real.
“I am!” Crispin shouted and charged me.
I screamed, falling to the ground, covering my head and curling into a ball as a sobbed.
“It is my fault. I never should’ve run away.”
It is. What will you do with the guilt of death in your heart?”
The grass beneath me withered as I screamed out in pain. I ripped it from the ground with my fingers. Everything in me rocked with sorrow.
What could I do?
Crispin’s outstretched hand entered my thoughts.
That night I escaped from the temple, he had been the one to whisk me out.
He had arrived in my room in the middle of the night and said, “Do you want to be free?”
“It’s not possible.”
Holding out his hand to me, he replied, “It is. I’ll show you how.”
Breathing deeply, I commanded myself to stop crying, to will the tears back and bury them inside.
“Show me how… Show me how to change my destiny.”
I glanced up to a smiling Crispin, all the blood and decay gone. He winked once then vanished with the mist.
The fog rolled out, taking the chill and illusions with it. Wiping my eyes, I surveyed the area.
Was that it?
Wind whooshed through the grove.
Rolling to my side, I spotted an obsidian unicorn land on the grass.
I sat up, blinking twice.
The legendary creatures were rare and mostly myth, and in all the stories the fascinating beasts were white.
Was this another test?
What was I supposed to do now?
The unicorn stepped forward, and I noticed something odd about this one. Its eyes were bloodred, and it didn't look very happy.
Who dares enter my grove?
…Is it… Did it just say something?
I am not an it, and yes. Now answer my question.
I moved to my knees, holding my hands out, attempting to appear as docile as possible. The unicorn took another step forward. Lowering its head, it snuffed, and smoke left its nostrils.
That can't be a good sign.
Gideon and Liora both said to be myself.
Rising slowly, I kept my hands out, palms up, showing that I was nothing to be afraid of.
“My name is Deirdre. The fae king has brought me here for a trial to be queen.”
You mean to be Queen of the Fae. Show me your worth, human.
The majestic beast pawed the ground and then charged forward.
Terror racing through me, I did the only thing I could and reached out to the grove and commanded it to protect me.
A blast of magic shot out of my hands, sending me flying on my back. Massive brambles rose out of the ground, creating a wall between me and the unicorn. The bloodred roses were the same color as the beast’s angry eyes.
Fire blasted through the barricade, obliterating the wooden structure. The magical creature stepped through, smoke wafting out of its nostrils. It swung its head back and forth, incinerating every bramble in sight.
With a yell, I called the trees forward, begging them to come to my aid. Roots shot up into the sky, followed by an absurd amount of rosebushes I hadn’t summoned. Tingles spread through my body, the magic in this area reacting to me instead of following my commands.
Thorns weaved around the ground, the roses rising to my defense.
The unicorn brayed.
How could a creature so majestic be so terrifying?
All Father, save me…
Crawling backward, I searched the surrounding area, panicking that this was the end… but I held on to Crispin’s words: I’ll show you how.
The unicorn swung its head back and forth, stomping on the roses and leaping over the roots attempting to slow its gait.
A maze of bushes surrounded me and when I held out my hand to move their destination, they enclosed around me instead, leaving an opening for the unicorn to come.
Closing my eyes, I pictured Crispin’s face, his smile, how every time I was sad, he picked me daisies. A symbol of purity and new beginnings.
Digging my hands into the earth, I envisioned us together amid a field of daisies, their floral scent so vivid I could smell them now. Holding on to that image, I summoned all the strength I had and said out loud: “I am the child of prophecy, and I will not die so easily.”