3. Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Alyssa
D ean was right. We had a long way to go if we were going to make any difference in Nymeria, and what other choice did we have? Allow Arik to take control? Let the people continue to suffer? Even if we were ready to give up on Damon, I couldn’t give up on everyone else. They’d suffered for decades while I’d licked my wounds in the quiet solitude of the human realm.
No more.
But we couldn’t save a world in a day and we certainly couldn’t do it until we were strong enough to actually fight back. That meant healing and getting the guys through their first shifts. Not to mention Maddox’s strange new magic. Could it be possible that they all had access to something? It should have been impossible. Shifters didn’t have magic, so what was it that made them different, and could it be done again?
Unfortunately for us, Arik had seen the same thing we had. We couldn’t afford for him to use this to his advantage.
The only option we had was to train and train hard. We had to hit back, and we had to do it before he had time to regroup and use that knowledge against us.
Before we could even think about that, though, we needed to decide what we were going to do now. The Spring Court wasn’t a place I’d ever wanted to return to. Fuck, I’d rather be facing down whatever lived in the centre of the Wildling Forest than walking back into that palace.
The dread built inside me, because I knew there was really only one choice for us right now. The only sensible choice, at least. Dean was hurting, and I’d come so close to losing him. We needed a safe place for him to heal, even if he was trying to pretend like it was no big deal.
“We don’t have to stay here,” Ryder said quietly, drawing my attention to him. “Maybe we could head back to that tavern? Hide out somewhere while we get our bearings and come up with a plan for what happens next?”
I knew he was only trying to protect me, and I appreciated it. But after having listened to Dean whisper those words to me and feeling the fierce determination that practically radiated from his wolf, it felt far too much like running away again.
And I was so fucking tired of running all the time.
Dean sagged harder against my back, even as his arms gripped me tighter. I glanced over my shoulder, and the grey sheen of his skin was proof enough of how much he needed to rest. He might not be entirely human anymore, but that didn’t mean he could just walk off a stab wound. He needed rest, even if I did doubt we’d be able to convince him of that.
“We should move further into the court…”
“I can keep moving,” Dean cut in. Even his voice was lacking the strength it usually had.
I’d like to blame it on the alpha awakening inside of him, but I had a feeling he’d always been this stubborn.
“No. We can find shelter here. It makes little sense to move somewhere we know has The Endless nearby. Ryder’s right, we need to regroup and this could be a safe place to do it.”
Stupidly, I thought that would be the end of it, but the guys just clustered closer around me, confusing me about what was actually happening. I felt Tank’s fingers brush against mine as he slowly linked our hands together and pulled me against his damp shirt.
“We’re not questioning your logic. We’re worried about what going back to that place means for you. You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to be. There’s nothing we wouldn’t go through to make life easier for you.”
A soft growl from one of the others whispered through the air in agreement, and I sighed. It was strange having so many people concerned for me. Strange… but maybe something I could get used to.
There was a burden to shouldering your own shit all the time. It might be internal, it might come from your own anxieties, but it was still exhausting.
I looked up into Tank’s eyes, about to tell him it would all be all right when Fizzle cut in.
“It’s time, Alyssa. These ghosts will continue to haunt you until you face them head on and realise that they aren’t at all what they seem.”
“Of course, they’re what they seem,” Dean snapped. “She witnessed something terrible here. She went through a trauma that tore her entire world apart. Walking back into that won’t lessen the impact of what happened. It won’t bring back what she’s lost.”
Fizzle hissed, puffing out his feathers as he stalked closer. A land bound owl gryphon seemed to be more volatile than normal. It made sense, given that his affinity was air. It would anchor him to feel it moving across his wings.
“And what has she lost, human?” Fizzle hissed again. “Do you even understand what a court of Nymeria is? Who Alyssa is and what she means to this land?”
“Stop calling me that,” Dean whispered angrily, but then a frown crossed his face.
Tank nudged me forward, and I closed the single step it took to take me to the alpha, who was anything but a human anymore. My fingertips brushed across the frown on his forehead as I smoothed it down, before leaning my forehead against his.
“I don’t,” he admitted, surprising me that was what had stalled him and not the fact that Fizzle had discounted his wolf.
“We do,” a voice said behind us. “We know who she is and that it’s time for her to claim what should have been hers all along.”
I sighed. The tension I hadn’t even realised I was holding leaked out of my muscles as I sagged against Dean. He didn’t waver even slightly as his arms wrapped around me and I felt him prepare to push me to safety.
“Why do you keep showing up at the strangest times, Rhidian?” I suspected I already knew the answer, but I asked the question anyway, as my gaze fell to Fizzle. The guilty look on his face confirmed more than I wanted to address right now.
Tank, Maddox and Ryder formed a wall of pissed off shifters between me and the man offering us shelter. Shelter that no doubt came with strings I wasn’t ready to become attached to, but could already see I had little choice but to accept.
When I finally lifted my head to look at Rhidian, I saw what had antagonised the others so much. Taking in the collection of armed men standing around him, I cocked an eyebrow and pushed between the others.
This was my world and if anyone was going to make a stand here, it would be me.
“Am I looking at an old friend right now, Rhidian? Or is there something more going on here?” I couldn’t keep the anger from my voice.
It wasn’t just that I could see the hands slowly drifting towards swords, or the subtle shift of feet in the grass as people prepared to move. There was something in their eyes, too. An eagerness that I didn’t quite understand.
I may have left this land, but it was still mine. This was my court, my home, and this time I wasn’t about to run away when someone came here intending to take something from me. Not even if it was someone I once thought I could trust.
Trust was a rare commodity in Nymeria, and I needed to remember that.
Even when it came to old friends.
My attention moved to Fizzle as he moved between both of our groups, and I started to think again about the fact that he’d been waiting for me at the portal. Could he have known that we were coming through? Before now, I’d have said it was impossible, but he was clearly more involved with whatever was going on here than any of us realised. He’d been so adamant that I should leave that I actually believed he was genuine. Out of anyone, Fizzle would know exactly how far he could push me until I’d push back. He knew how to manipulate me, because he knew everything about me.
“Fizzle, you need to explain what’s happening and you need to do it right now.”
I could feel the guys behind me growing agitated. My magic revolted and I felt it building inside of me in response. It had never done anything like this before. Something had changed since I’d returned to Nymeria. It was like a coiled snake preparing to strike and, for a moment, I actually considered letting it. I looked at the two I’d once called my closest friends, and the power inside me purred in anticipation. The shock of the need for violence running through my mind had me tugging back on that power.
Briefly, the magic fought back, and I felt it surge to the surface despite my attempts to hold it back. It recognised the men in front of us as a danger to my mates but my mind wasn’t ready to think about all of that right now.
The ground beneath my feet quaked, and I watched as Rhidian and his men stumbled in surprise. This wasn’t what I wanted, and I stepped back towards the safety of my mates, more to reassure myself they were there than for anything else.
Magic could be unpredictable. Yes, we could funnel it and bend it to our will, but magic was hard to control and had a will of its own. The will of Nymeria was always heard, even if it had to take control of you to do it.
“The lady is waiting,” Dean growled from behind me.
A grin spread across Rhidian’s face even as his eyes darted nervously to Fizzle. I knew him well enough to see the front he was putting on. The bravado he’d always hid behind back then was shining brightly once more.
“It’s true,” he whispered before he shook his head and concentrated on me. “I’ve been around. The sea might have been my home, but the people needed me more. The more we needed to find places for, places where Arik wouldn’t be looking for them, the more this place seemed to make sense.”
“This place? You… you brought people here? Here ?”
“The Spring Court has been abandoned for decades, Alyssa. No one wants to come back here when they know the stories…” Rhidian’s voice faded away, almost like he knew he didn’t need to fill in the blanks for me.
I didn’t need to know the stories. I’d been there to see it with my own eyes.
“So, you moved in? And you! You knew about this?” My attention darted to Fizzle as he sat himself on the ground and groomed through his soggy feathers.
“Nymeria had a way to provide.”
“Nymeria! Are you fucking kidding me, Fizzle? Nymeria stood by and let Arik take control of its creatures to tear the people we loved apart! You saw it. I know you did because you were standing right next to me. And you have the balls to think that Nymeria gives a shit about any of us. You stand there, offering up this cursed place as a way to…”
“To what?” The smugness in Rhidian’s voice was more than I could bear and I bared my teeth at my old friend, considering, even for a fraction of a second, to let the magic that simmered inside me free. “You want to protect them from the ghosts that live here? It’s just a place, Alyssa. A place where something terrible happened, but a place nonetheless. These people needed shelter. They needed a safe harbour where they could recover from the things they’d had no choice but to suffer. They can do that here .”
I wanted to deny it. I wanted to scream and rage that nothing good could come from a place like this.
But that wasn’t true.
There was happiness here once. It had been my home, and I’d loved the life I had here until it was taken from me.
“Even if it’s just because I got you out of Nymeria when you needed me to, I need you to trust me now,” Fizzle cut in, looking between the two groups. “Everything is not as it seems and I need you to believe that we only have your best interests in mind.”
If that didn’t sound like the precursor to a death sentence, I didn’t know what would.
But this was Fizzle. And he was right. He saved me when I couldn’t save myself. Back then, seeing what I saw broke a piece of me. If he hadn’t dragged me out of the palace, I’d have stood there waiting for the infernal hounds to kill me next. I didn’t even have the wherewithal to run. My body locked down in fear, and it was almost like I completely forgot the magic I possessed to protect myself.
Or maybe I just didn’t want them to leave me behind.
My confusion over what to do was evidence of how exhausted I was right now. I knew the guys were waiting for my cue about how to proceed. That alone was comforting enough to have my head slowly nodding in agreement.
Except I didn’t really know what I was agreeing to.
Rhidian stepped forward and the men he’d brought with him surrounded our group. “I’m going to need your weapons, Alyssa.”
I smirked as I pulled my sword free, passing it to him by the handle. If he thought disarming me would make me any less dangerous, he was hugely mistaken. I may have been absent from Nymeria for decades, I may not be as proficient with my magic as I knew I should be, but I could still slaughter them all where they stood before they had a chance of closing the distance between us.
My magic felt like it growled in agreement as my gaze moved around my mates, begrudgingly giving up the weapons none of them really knew how to use. I got it, though. There was comfort in feeling like you had something to protect yourself with.
But they did.
They had more than they should have. An animal… and a power that shouldn’t exist. Because the more that I thought about it, the more convinced I was that they’d all have it. It couldn’t be an isolated incident. I didn’t see any reason why it could be. Or maybe it was wishful thinking on my part.
Because there was hope in them having this magic.
Hope that I wasn’t alone. And maybe finally, there’d be someone out there who understood what it meant to feel so alone, so isolated, even when you were standing in a crowded room.