Chapter 35
Terror claimed Scarlen, a strange weightlessness in her bones, a calm vortex around her.
The descent was slow and warped, giving her time to think of those she had left behind.
What would they remember of her? She was foolhardy for running from privileges?
Strong for withstanding such torture? Would there be a royal memorial for the shapeshifter?
After everything she’d been through, she expected her death to be unkind. No ripe old age, drifting off into her forever sleep, snuggled in a soft bed. What could death bring that life hadn’t already exhausted her with?
Inhaling the heat from the swirl of embers, she relaxed into her destiny, a gentle peace bringing respite from the noise of pain. All was well now. She could rest.
Scarlen closed her eyes, allowing her body to shut down piece by piece, welcoming the darkness, the end.
In the quietening of her mind, she hoped she would see her mother again, perhaps both of them. The one who raised her, the one who should have. It was a nice dream to slip into, to remain until no more thoughts floated.
‘To those who loved me. And the ones who truly saw me,’ she whispered.
A buttery hue glowed up to greet her, bringing comfort and the soothing sound of a gentle fire crackling in a hearth.
Mercifully, there was no pain, no regrets, and no desire to fight, just the flight of a feather in a light breeze. Then her backside hit hard ground with a thump.
‘Ow!’
Iridescent lilac eyes came into view, peering down at her sprawled body. She hadn’t imagined Death to look in his forties and so weather-worn, or to smell of stale whisky.
‘Well, that’s just great!’ he huffed, raking a hand through long, straw-like, messy hair.
‘Am I dead?’ was all she could think to say, her heart unsure whether to race or stop beating altogether.
‘No, but you will be when Principal Warren gets a hold of you.’
Tightening her hands to her chest, she noticed the book was gone and so was her flowery dress, replaced by a deep-blue-and-silver uniform. ‘Where am I?’
The boozy breath was back, even the bottle holding the amber liquid was waved before her eyes. ‘How did you even do it?’
‘Do what? Who are you?’ Scarlen peeled herself from the polished wooden flooring, her attention drawn to the many screens lining a white desk, moving pictures in colour on each one.
She glanced at the black swivel chair the man dropped into with a huff and a curse word, then looked at the mural on the wall to his side of a big wheel with symbols and the seasons.
His blond eyebrows lifted a touch as he swigged from his bottle before putting it away in a drawer in his desk. ‘Give it a minute, darling. You’re disorientated from being reborn. It’ll come back any second. Did for me.’ He gave her a thumbs-up, confusing her even more.
‘Reborn?’
He shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Happens from time to time, but good news, it only happens once to a person. Your next Tour should be a piece of cake. Well, the journey there and back, that is.’
‘Tour?’
He leaned forward, elbows on knees. ‘You shouldn’t be here, Garcia. No one has ever come back through the portal before their task is complete. What the fuck did you do?’
Taking a well and truly needed deep breath, Scarlen showed her shaky palms. ‘You know what would be really good right now? If you told me what just happened to me.’
‘Sure, darling. You’re a Guardian. Recently graduated.
Went on your first Tour. Was reborn, which means you had no memory of where you came from.
’ He stabbed a finger to the floor. ‘Here.’ He blew out a sigh as she simply watched him, mouth ajar.
‘Normally, those going on Tour arrive as they are, but every so often a glitch happens, and Guardians are reborn instead. You grow up in that kingdom and have to rely on the bookkeeper to find you and inform you of your quest.’
The information was there, but it wasn’t fully sinking in, and Scarlen found all she could do was stare at him.
He tapped his chest. ‘My name is Orik Skylark. Ring any bells?’
She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t know you.’
‘Oh, you do, darling. I’m the visioner for House of Knight.’
It didn’t matter how much she strained her brain; House of Knight was all she had heard of because of the book. Whisky man was a stranger. And a grouchy one at that.
He sighed heavily. ‘You should remember by now. The reborn usually have their memories back within a minute. That king did mess with your mind, that could be why you’re a tad frazzled.
’ He stood, circling her. ‘Well, I guess it’s also different for you, seeing how you came back alone, before completing your task, and you brought the book back with you.
’ Those lilac eyes were back in her face, narrowed and curious. ‘Do you know what this means, Garcia?’
‘Who?’
‘You.’
Her words were dying on her tongue as bewilderment consumed her.
His hand shot to the mural of the wheel. ‘You have to graduate the final year again in order for the book to reappear, and you need the book to get back to Zanstonia to free the kingdom of wyrmocs. Make sense now?’
Nope! Nothing did. Where she was, who he was, and why he kept calling her Garcia.
‘Wake up, darling.’ His hands clapped together loudly in her face. ‘You’re already fucked, don’t make things worse by not remembering your home.’
‘But I don’t know any of this. I don’t know you.’
‘Just go back to your old room, sleep it off, we’ll figure this out in the morning, because, apart from needing another drink, I have to tell Principal Warren about this.
’ He clutched his head as though it hurt.
‘Why me? This has never happened before, but it had to go and happen to me, because why not! Let all the shit come my way.’ He flopped to his chair and reached for his drawer to grab the whisky, taking a quick glug.
With her temper surfacing, Scarlen straightened, shaky hands on hips.
‘I’m so sorry this is happening to you, but excuse me if I don’t make that my priority.
I just watched my father have his head bitten off, I fell off a cliff, leaving my fated mate surround by deadly creatures, and I was sucked in by a ring of fire, and now I’m here, with you, not knowing what the fuck is going on.
’ Fire raged within, itching her skin, and darkening her green eyes. ‘Where am I?’ she screamed.
Orik winced at the noise, rolling his chair over to the mural.
‘You’re back in the school where you trained to be a Guardian.
Someone who would travel to other kingdoms to help save them when needed.
Your name is Garcia Aggerty. You’re a shapeshifter of the bear family.
You are twenty-two years old, and you were one of the top five in your year. ’
‘School?’
His hand lazily stretched towards the blue-and-silver mural. ‘Welcome back to Wheel Academy.’