34. ZARA
ZARA
“Focus, Zara.” I was starting to dread hearing that word, but this time it was coming from Gideon, not Taryn.
The shield I’d been trying to create pinged into existence a few seconds too late and another peanut bounced off my forehead and joined the growing pile on the floor at my feet.
“You have to anticipate what your opponent is going to do next. If you wait until they actually do it, you don’t have time to react.” I dropped the shield and he immediately lobbed yet another peanut at me. “See what I mean?”
“I thought we were taking a break,” I muttered. Another peanut hit my top lip in response and this time I stuck out my tongue and caught it before it could fall to the floor.
“Five minutes and then we go again. And if you don’t get the hang of it soon I’m upgrading to lemons to give you an incentive to do better.”
For a moment I thought he was serious, until I saw the smile tugging at his lips and realised he was teasing me.
The Gideon I was getting to know now was certainly nothing like the cold, arrogant stranger I’d met for the first time in Terrah’s cottage, and I was so glad I’d let Alara persuade me to give our relationship a proper chance.
“I dare you to come to the beach and say that again,” I joked. My shield might need some work, but I was doing a great job of pummelling imaginary foes with my water fists.
“Yes, I heard that your water calling is coming on in leaps and bounds since you let yourself believe you could do it,” he said.
“The same principle applies here. It should be instinctive. Don’t think about raising the shield, think about the shield already being in place.
It’s an extension of you, of your energy, you don’t have to call it into being because it already exists. You just need to switch it on.”
If only it were that easy.
“Here. Drink some water.” I took the bottle Gideon was holding out to me gratefully and downed it.
“Maybe we should go and get some lunch. Give you a proper break. And then I think we will start using something bigger than peanuts. Taryn said anger was a catalyst for you. Maybe the prospect of getting bruised will be too.” Great.
Steven intercepted us just as we were leaving the training room.
“Her Majesty sent me to inform you luncheon is served if you’d like to join her.
” He didn’t look happy about being used as a messenger and I felt a flash of sympathy for him.
I’d actually grown to quite like him over the past few weeks, much to Alara’s disgust, and she’d jokingly threatened to disown me for betraying her.
I couldn’t fault him for doing his job though, which was keeping her safe however much she disliked it.
“Thank you Steven. We’re just on our way there now.” He bowed and headed off, pausing when Gideon called after him, “Oh, and Steven?”
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
“Next time the queen decides you’d make a good errand boy, you have my permission to remind her we have other servants for that.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty, but I doubt it would have any effect,” he said wryly. “And it’s not like I had anything else to do.”
“Or in other words, he was glad to get away from her,” Gideon said with a chuckle once he was out of earshot.
“The man has the patience of a saint. He’s the only guard I’ve assigned to her that’s lasted more than two weeks.
And I have to admit he’s a clever one. He lets her think she’s getting to him, but I believe he actually enjoys the challenge. ”
“Hmm. You may be right,” I said, thinking back to that day she’d left him sitting on a bench in the sun and he’d only seemed uncomfortable when he knew we were looking at him. “But why does she want to rile him up all the time? He’s only trying to do his job.”
He gave me an approving smile. “That’s exactly what he’s doing. And I’m glad you understand that because I don’t think I could cope with both your mother and you baiting your guards once you’ve been assigned one too.”
Oh, crap. “Well, I won’t bait mine if I ever need one,” which hopefully I wouldn’t, “but I can’t promise not to make them carry parcels,” I added with a grin.
We completed the walk in companionable silence, arriving to find Alara giggling to herself.
“What have you done now, my love?”
“Not me,” she laughed, “Mavis. She escaped from the greenhouses and has been raiding the pantry again. This time it was an entire lemon meringue pie. It seems she’s developed a sweet tooth. So no pie for lunch I’m afraid.”
“I’m so sorry,” I groaned. “Isn’t there some way I can uncreate her?”
Alara looked horrified. “You can’t just uncreate a sentient being.
That would be barbaric. Don’t worry. She’ll settle down eventually.
Do you remember when I accidentally made that spider talk, Giddy?
” She said with a giggle. “And he spent the next six weeks pointing out all the dust bunnies the cleaners had missed to Mrs Higgins. That was our head housekeeper at the time,” she added for my benefit.
“I remember the spider,” Gideon said, “but not what happened to him.”
“He just disappeared one day without a trace,” she said sadly. “And I’m pretty sure Mrs Higgins had something to do with it, but I could never find any proof.”
“Tragic,” I sympathised, wondering if there was any chance of the same fate befalling Mavis. One could only hope.
“Well, that’s enough depressing thoughts, come and eat. You must both be hungry after training all morning. How’s it going?”
Gideon said ‘fine’ at the same time as I said ‘abysmally’ and she looked between the two of us in confusion.
“Well it has to be one or the other. Which is it?”
“Fine,” I said at the same time as Gideon said ‘abysmally’. Hearing him admit it made me feel even worse, but there was no point in trying to delude myself.
“Hmm. Maybe you need to up the stakes,” she said when I’d finished bemoaning the fact that my shield refused to respond to me until it was too late. “Having peanuts thrown at you isn’t much of an incentive. I bet you’ve ended up eating half of them, haven’t you?”
“I may have eaten one or two.” Dozen.
“When I was learning, I used to imagine a boy I didn’t like was about to try and kiss me. Worked like a charm.”
“What boy?” Gideon demanded instantly, and I giggled.
“Maybe it was Steven,” I said, then laughed so hard at the look of horror on both their faces that my stomach hurt.
“Seriously though,” I said when I’d pulled myself together, “maybe I’ll give that a try.
” If the thought of my dickhead ex trying to get in my personal space didn’t do the trick then probably nothing would.
Between my lessons with Taryn, my defensive magic with Gideon and learning to create things that weren’t accidentally sentient with Alara, the weeks flew by quicker than I’d dared to hope.
Although I still hadn’t managed to stop anything bigger than a peanut with my energy shield, it had been incredibly satisfying to watch that peanut bounce back and fall harmlessly to the ground.
Until Gideon had followed it up with an apple that had smacked me on the shoulder and then smirked as he told me again to focus.
I’d felt a little glow of pride later though, when he’d told Alara over dinner how well I was doing.
Offensive magic was proving the hardest for me and apart from that one time he’d made me angry, I still hadn’t been able to use water to attack Taryn.
He insisted it was my reluctance to hurt him that was holding me back though, not a lack of ability, or I wouldn’t have been able to direct it at my imaginary enemies.
“You will come back again soon, won’t you?” Alara demanded when the time finally came for me to return to the mortal realm. “I know you won’t want to be apart from Seth for a while but promise you won’t forget about us.”
“If she does, we’ll just go to the mortal realm and remind her,” Gideon said. “She belongs to us just as much as she does to him.”
I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of belonging to anyone, but at least he was acknowledging that Seth had an equal claim on me now, so I decided to let that one go.
“I’ll be back before you know it,” I promised, adding, “I still have to learn how to stop you turning me into a fruit salad, Papa,” with a grin.
“We’re going to miss you, daughter,” Gideon said gruffly, surprising me by pulling me in for a hug as he wasn’t the most demonstrative person.
I was going to miss them too. As much as I loved my life with Seth and my friends in the mortal realm, Fae was starting to feel just as much a home to me.
Especially after a few nights in the tavern with Terrah, getting tipsy on strawberry wine and singing along with the band that had been playing.
The gods help me if Gideon ever heard about that little escapade.
I’d said my goodbyes to Taryn and Alissa the day before, and delighted Taryn by making a mermaid dance in the waves before reshaping her into a fist and punching the air with it.
“Are you sure you don’t want to try and cast your own portal?
” Alara teased as she prepared to open one of her own for me.
I’d been steadfast in my refusal to try portal magic because Terrah’s warning about not using anything I could turn inside out while it was still alive had echoed in my head every time Alara had suggested it.
“I’m sure I’d like to get back to the mortal realm in one piece, so I’ll pass this time thanks.”
“Wait! Wait!” A flash of red out of the corner of my eye was the only warning I got before Mavis launched herself at me.
I braced myself for teeth as she landed on my shoulder, then relaxed as soft petals tickled my neck and a flurry of tiny kisses landed on my jaw.
“Thank you for the gift of life, Mama.” She was gone as quickly as she’d arrived, shooting off down the path towards the greenhouses. What the actual fuck just happened?
“Please tell me she did not just call me Mama,” I pleaded. Alara was laughing uncontrollably and even Gideon was chuckling.
“I think we just became grandparents,” he said.
“Better finish casting that portal, my love, before our new Royal Princess decides to tag along with her Mama.” Gods no.
I cast an anxious look around to make sure she hadn’t snuck back ready to leap into the portal with me and heaved a sigh of relief when I caught sight of a flash of red still bobbing along the path to the greenhouses.
Giving Gideon and Alara one last hug, I stepped eagerly into the swirling pink and blue mist that was waiting to take me back to the manor, excitement coursing through me at the thought of being reunited with Seth in just a few more days.