Chapter Twenty-Two Riela #2
Trepidation trickled down my spine and trembled in my stomach. I’d gotten so used to him that I’d forgotten exactly how powerful
an Etheri sovereign truly was.
I needed to remember that I was only alive because he’d decided not to kill me. He’d even warned me that he hadn’t saved me
for altruistic reasons, but I hadn’t listened.
And then I’d kissed him.
Truly, it was a miracle I’d survived this long. I needed to root out this senseless desire and focus on staying alive.
If only it were that easy.
I gripped my dagger and waited to see where Garrick would appear next. Moonlight magic flashed, and crimson magic echoed it.
Garrick appeared, then a heartbeat later, an unknown man stepped out of thin air in front of me.
He didn’t waste time with introductions or demands, he just slammed a wall of crimson magic at me. I staggered as my hand
spasmed in pain and I dropped my dagger.
Grim lunged at him with a snarl. The mage drew a short sword with incredible speed and aimed a killing blow at Grim’s neck.
The wolf wouldn’t be able to dodge.
“No!” I screamed the word as I flung out a hand in desperation. My chest compressed and my fingers turned icy. Something in my chest cracked a little more, like it had when I’d diverted the flood, and raw magic poured from me, so dark it was nearly purple.
The mage looked at me in surprise before slumping to the ground. A slender green vine encased in a thick layer of ice had
pierced his chest straight through his armor.
I stared in horror until more magic surged in the clearing, jolting me back to the present. This wasn’t the only mage here.
I forced myself to bend and scoop up my dagger with fingers that didn’t want to work. I was trembling from head to toe and
I felt like vomiting, but I willed my hand to close around the hilt.
Moonlight magic detonated nearby and the ground shook.
The bloodred magic disappeared. The mages and monsters disappeared, too.
Garrick appeared in the same way the unknown mage had, and I raised the dagger before recognizing him. He was bloody and limping,
and his eyes were fully silver. He’d never looked more terrifying and otherworldly, yet I still wanted to curl into his chest
and sob out all of my pain and fear.
He visually checked me for injuries, then he turned to Grim and pointed to the trees. “Scout.”
The wolf vanished into the thicket while Garrick stared at me with an impenetrable expression. The silver had retreated from
his sclera, but his irises still glowed more than usual.
“How badly are you hurt?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed. “So you’re not going to explain this?” he asked, sweeping an arm toward the mage I’d killed.
Or, at least I assumed I’d killed, since he hadn’t moved, and there was still a spear of ice-covered vine in his chest.
Ice that hadn’t started melting.
“I would explain it if I could,” I whispered. “He threw magic at me, and I dropped the dagger. He was going to kill Grim.
I flung out my hand and my magic reacted.”
“And the vine? The Sapphire Court is not known for their affinity to plants.”
“I’m not part of the Sapphire Court—or any court. Last week, I thought Etheri were fairy tales. Last year, I thought magic was only for the mages fighting the king’s cursed wars. I didn’t want Grim to get hurt, and my magic obeyed.
It seems to work best when I’m truly desperate, but I have no control over it.”
“Feylan’s captains are notoriously hard to kill, and yet you expect me to believe you did it on accident?”
“Is he . . .” I swallowed as the nausea came rushing back and tried again. “Is he dead?”
Garrick’s eyebrows rose. “He has an icy vine the size of a fist through his chest. He’s dead.”
“Oh.” Suspecting and knowing were two different things. I stared at my fingers as I fought the growing queasiness. I’d killed someone—not a scary monster, a person.
Garrick’s magic pulsed, and the ice melted away. Without support, the vine slithered to the ground. A hesitant glance revealed
a perfect hole in the captain’s armor—and in the captain himself. Bile climbed my throat, and I turned away as my stomach
emptied itself.
I leaned against the nearby tree, trembling and sick.
Garrick grunted in pain as he closed the distance between us. “Breathe,” he murmured. His magic swept through me and the nausea
receded.
I snorted softly without lifting my head. “If I breathe then I’m going to vomit again.” But his magic had stabilized my stomach,
if not my emotions, so I straightened and rinsed my mouth with water from my canteen, then took a cautious sip.
It stayed down.
After a long pause, Garrick said, “You wouldn’t be the first to react that way.”
I slanted a glance at him. “Did you? The first time?”
His expression hardened with his nod. “I was nine. One of Father’s enemies came after me. It was . . . messy. When it was over, I threw up until I had nothing left to lose.”
He’d been a child. What kind of monster would go after a child?
Garrick’s magic rose as he scanned the area. “He was trying to take you alive.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you’re still alive. The charm likely saved you from some sort of immobilization spell. If he’d truly been trying to kill you, you’d be
dead.”
I shivered at the certainty in his tone.
“When I felt your magic, I thought he’d succeeded.”
“He had a sword, and he was going to put it through Grim’s neck. I didn’t think, I just reacted.” I held out my hand and tried
to create ice or vines, now that I knew I could.
My power churned around me, thunderous blue, but it refused to repeat the feat. I sighed in frustration. While I was glad
my magic had saved me twice now, I needed to figure out how to actively use it—and quickly—or I wasn’t going to survive long
in a world dominated by Etheri.
“Grim is harder to kill than you seem to believe. But I don’t know why he let you get so close.” Garrick looked around as
if he expected the wolf to appear and explain himself.
“Maybe he was worried about you,” I defended, then quietly added, “I know I was.”
Garrick’s brow winkled as his attention returned to me. “Why?”
I waved an arm at the clearing. “Because someone or something powerful enough to break one of your protection charms was waiting to ambush you, and you ran straight at them. Of course
I was worried about you.”
He tipped his head to the side, perplexed. “I told you I was in no danger. I’ve been fighting Roseguard soldiers for a long
time, and these hardly counted. Especially after Feylan opened the door to Lohka last night.”
That gave me pause. “How do you know he opened the door?”
Garrick’s smile had a razored edge. “I gain power every time the door opens because Feylan is unable to stop Lohka’s magic
from reaching for me the moment the connection is activated.”
“Why would he open the door if he knew we were trapped here?”
Garrick laughed. “We weren’t trapped, little mage. I could’ve used magic to return to the castle, but I delayed to give us
both time to recover from the effects of getting too close to the forest’s boundary.”
I winced and glanced guiltily at his injured leg. “And then you were hurt because of me. Use my power to heal yourself.” I
raised my magic and pushed it at him, but he refused to take it.
When I poked him with magic, his eyes flashed and he closed the remaining distance between us in a single, furious step. “Stop
it. I will not use your magic.”
Grim returned with a sharp growl and Garrick’s magic rose. His head snapped to the left and he reached for me, drawing me
close.
I cast out my power and found several more smudges of red magic converging toward us. Fear knotted in my chest. How many more
could Garrick defeat before one got lucky?
Garrick’s furious gaze slashed back to me. “What are you doing?”
“There’s more coming,” I whispered. “And you’re already injured.” I pressed my magic against him. “Please heal yourself. I know I passed out last time, but now that I know what to expect, I’ll warn you before it goes too far.”
“No.” He bit out the word with a scowl. “Stop pushing.”
“But—”
“Sleep, Riela,” he commanded as his magic crashed over me.
I had just enough time to point a furious finger at him. “You basta—” A yawn cracked my jaw, cutting off the insult and probably
saving my life. I slumped against him and fought the pull of his magic with everything I had, but sleep won.
I tumbled into dreams terrified and furious.