49. Elorie
Elorie
Shouts and bootsteps sound overhead. In the levels above the dungeon, there is movement at every corner. Until the iron door at the top of the staircase creaks open, and Overlord Farseth comes into view with Esen directly behind him.
She avoids our gazes as she has in the past when he’s around.
“We need to leave. The queen got word of your presence, and she’s sending her troops to fetch you.” He rushes into the room. “Esen, stifle them.”
Esen frowns, avoiding my gaze as the weight of the void thickens until my blood might as well freeze in my veins. Every pump is thick and unbearable.
He moves for Perame’s cell first, where she’s in and out of consciousness.
“Don’t touch her.” Callum bangs against the bars as the overlord grabs Perame.
She winces in pain as he lifts her from the ground. Her legs nearly give out as one of her wounds splits open. Without magic, she’s not healing, and she’s losing blood too quickly.
The overlord positions Perame in front of him, a dagger to her throat.
“There’s no time for chains, but if you try anything, I’ll slice her open ear to ear.” He tightens the blade against her neck, tight enough for a bead of blood to roll down the blade, and she screams. “Esen, get their doors.”
She’s frozen for a moment, staring at Perame, jumping when he yells her name again.
“Esen, now!”
Esen moves faster than I’ve seen her before, grabbing the keys that hang on the wall and rushing to Callum’s cell first. She unlatches it, and he pushes through. But the first step Callum takes toward Overlord Farseth has him digging the blade deeper into Perame’s throat.
“Callum, don’t. She’ll die.” I reach through the bars and grab his shoulder while Esen undoes my lock.
The moment the door swings open, I step through, but Esen blocks my path for a split second. So quick, the overlord doesn’t catch it. She pulls a small dagger from a slit in her dress and presses the handle to my palm.
“End it.” The words are barely a whisper.
I look into her eyes and see beyond the void for the first time since I met her.
I see beyond the power she wields and the mark on her face.
I see a girl who forgot there was more to her than what the overlord makes her do.
She is a person who can make decisions, no matter how much she fears that, given the hurt she caused her loved ones.
Esen stares into my eyes, and she finds the strength to fight for something.
To fight for herself.
I move to Callum’s side with my hand carefully hidden so the overlord doesn’t see the blade.
A strange comfort fills me with what Esen has done, reclaiming who she is when others have spent her life convincing her she’s something different.
She decides who she is in this moment, reminding me I can do the same.
Long before my magic woke, I was something else. Something to be reckoned with even when the island tried to break me again and again.
I am not only human.
I am not only Fae.
For so long, I’ve feared that by claiming one side of myself, it would mean I couldn’t be the other. I worried that by being Wilder’s queen, I could not care about Lyrichia. That by being Fae, I would not be my father’s daughter.
That’s not true. I can be both.
I am both.
Where I find weakness, I also find strength.
Maybe I forgot that in the Ley Court, surrounded by extraordinary powers.
Maybe I forgot that here, being stripped of what didn’t always exist. But with the dagger in my hand, I’m reminded that it is not my magic in my veins that makes me strong. It is what I choose to do with it.
And I choose to fight whether my magic burrows or flourishes. I choose to fight and never break for anything.
Deep in the black chasm once lit by thousands of sparkling threads, something warms. A path opens, surprising me. A golden spark of emotion floods my heart.
Since being in the Mortal Realm, I’ve sent Wilder my frustration. My fear. My loneliness. Finally, a responding message comes through. And it is not that of worry or dread. It is a calming caress of love that settles in my bones.
A whisper in the depths of our bind, calling out to me.
“I sense your fear, Starfire. But you have nothing to be afraid of. Fear is only for those who step in your path. Show them how bright you burn.”
My fingers wrap the handle tighter, and Callum’s gaze drops behind me in time to catch the glint of the blade at my back. Our eyes connect just as Esen eases the void ever so slightly, allowing me to breathe deeper.
Overlord Farseth’s eyebrows pinch, but Callum is too quick. Even with our magic muted, he burrows into the depths of what he has. He moves with lightning speed, flashing across the room until he is in front of the overlord.
Callum’s hand grips the overlord’s wrist that is holding the knife to Perame’s throat, stopping it from slicing into her. He manages to pull it away, and she stumbles to the ground.
Every part of me wants to go to her, but I can’t. Not yet.
I move quicker than I ever have as I aim for Overlord Farseth’s other hand. Gripping his wrist, I slam it against the wall behind him and shove the blade through three of his fingers. The ring that binds Esen to the overlord clatters to the ground in a mess of flesh and bone.
The moment the connection breaks, the void lifts.
The weight dissipates.
Esen pulls off her own ring, tossing it aside, while the overlord struggles against Callum’s grip. He holds his hand out for the dagger, and he doesn’t hesitate when I place it into his palm. Without a drop of magic, he drives the blade through the overlord’s heart.
Overlord Farseth grins a final time, his eyes on Esen as his soul leaves his body.
Yelling intensifies outside. Even in the depths of this dungeon, the clatter of hooves on dirt perks my dulled Fae senses.
Spinning, I find Esen on the ground, cradling Perame’s head in her lap.
“She’s breathing.” Esen looks up at me. “But barely. And the overlord wasn’t lying. The queen’s troops have received word of Fae in the territory. They’re coming for you.”
“Then we need to go.”
“I’m going with you,” Esen says, brushing Perame’s hair off her face.
“You don’t have to,” I say, even though I know that if she doesn’t, it will doom our realm. “You’re free now. You shouldn’t be used like this. Not anymore.”
She shakes her head. “I’ve already destroyed so much. I need to make something right. I want to help. Maybe this is my chance. I don’t know if I can, but I’ll try.”
I swallow hard, nodding. “Then let’s go.”
Callum is the first to move. A storm of wind surges in the room. He shudders a breath because he used too much magic rushing the overlord, and what little we can access in this realm has yet to recover. He lifts Perame into his arms, then holds a hand out for Esen.
She eyes the offering like she’s never been handed anything that wouldn’t inevitably hurt her. A weight leaves her shoulders as she accepts his help.
“This way.” Esen hurries toward a different door from the one the overlord used. “There are horses at the back of the property. We need to avoid the main streets, or someone will see us.”
Callum and I follow Esen through a winding tunnel that takes us deeper before we reach a set of stairs that climb. Perame groans in Callum’s arms, and I grip her dangling hand, squeezing.
“We’re going to get you home.”
Esen leads us up the staircase until we reach a hatch overhead. The doors peel open into the forest, far outside the manor, where a stable is tucked between the trees.
Callum is careful as he gets Perame onto his horse, while Esen and I climb onto another. Thankfully, she seems to know how to ride because the only other time I’ve been on a horse was with Wilder.
Shouts ring at a distance as we escape into the forest. The trees thicken, and we ride without stopping until finally we have to abandon the horses at the outskirts of a town to stay hidden. We move slower without them, but it’s easier to be quiet.
Only once the manor is far behind us do we stop and rest. Callum sets Perame beside a tree while Esen sets down the bag she pulled from the horse before we left them.
“Here.” She pulls pants and a shirt from the sack. “This is my traveling bag. These clothes might not fit you perfectly, but they’ll be better than a dress.”
“Anything is better than a dress.” I smile, taking them. “Thank you for this.”
Her smile tightens, and I hope she knows I’m not simply thanking her for a change in outfit, but for her help. For taking a chance on us even though we came here with the same intent as the overlord—to use her.
I slip behind a tree and change quickly. Thankfully, Esen is around my height. But she has a slightly thinner build, so the leathers hug my hips and ribs tightly.
When I rejoin the group, Callum is standing watch, while Esen sits beside Perame, looking after her.
“Is she asleep?” I kneel down at Perame’s side.
“In and out.” Esen frowns.
“We need to do something,” I say to Callum, who is scanning the forest.
He turns to walk over to us. “The best we can do is get her home.”
“Can you make a Gate?”
His fingers flex, frustration pulling between his brows. “I used too much magic fighting the overlord; I’m still recovering.”
This would be nothing to him if we were back in our realm. Here, every spurt of magic takes hours—days—to replenish, especially in this dying forest.
“Then we’ll continue on foot.” I offer a smile, but it does nothing to ease Callum’s tension.
“Do you know where we’re headed?” Esen asks.
“The Arch outside of Moongrove is closest,” Callum answers.
She surveys the forest, thinking. “If we veer east, we can get there quicker. There’s a shortcut between the hills.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s the path my father would take.” She frowns. “He was a mineral trader, and his route stretched through the southern continent. He went that way frequently because it was faster. It’s where I’d stop and turn around to keep an eye on my mother while he was gone.”
Her gaze drifts off, and I look up at Callum, his expression solemn. Esen mentioned her parents rejecting her, but to hear how she stood on the outside of their lives, watching them, mourning the loss of her family, is heartbreaking. She looked after them long after they banished her.
“We go east then,” I say, and Esen looks up at me.
Perame groans as Callum picks her up, but she doesn’t wake.
“Hold on,” I whisper, over and over. “We’re going to get you out of here.”