Chapter Fifty
Avari
We walked out of shadows into a land touched by darkness, perhaps even more than the Isles. Every step felt heavy as I considered how many had bled out in the spots where I kept stomping.
During all my years of schooling, I had seen several photographs of these fields, but what I encountered froze the blood coursing through my veins.
These were not fields; my people had turned them into moors.
Flooded and ruined, it looked every bit a land trapped in a war that refused to die. The devastating impact on the environment wasn’t something any of the opposing sides had ever considered.
And although ever since I learnt that Ortensian people used gems to curse Fogoyans, thus understanding River’s involvement in the war, I still couldn’t comprehend why my mother had gone to such lengths to destroy them.
Trees were scorched and the ground flooded. Tears welled in my eyes at the sight.
For a green witch to destroy nature was blasphemous. It was clear as day that Ortensians had lost touch with higher power and reality. The decline of morality only blinded them further with hostility and their monarch’s depraved urges. They had lost their souls in the process.
‘Are you sure we are safe here?’ I asked my father as we neared dark rock formations.
‘It’s the edge of the fields. Soldiers rarely come this far out.’
Pausing for a moment to analyse the territory some more, I created a little distance between myself and the rest of the group.
The one who trailed behind me finally asked, ‘I’m sorry, Ava. I thought we were going to the Fire Court?’
Tension crept across River’s mother’s delicate face, spoiling its softness. It tore me away from the silent conversation I was having with my dragon.
Unable to help it, I kept comparing the woman’s features to his. ‘We are. My father just needs to collect a few crystals to counteract my mother’s curses.’
‘I didn’t know curses could be counteracted,’ she admitted solemnly.
Fogoyans never did understand witchcraft, so I tried to explain. ‘It takes very specific and calculated conditions. And even then, it’s not always possible.’
Staying outside as the rest of my family ventured into one of the caves, the former Queen of Fire gazed at me. ‘I want you to know I will never forget your kindness. I will say prayers in your name until my last breath, for the fact that you reunited me with my family.’
The words deserved silence. I didn’t know what to say.
Ashamed of what I needed to solicit next, I avoided her gaze. ‘I know I’m in no place to ask, but the second River finds out what my father has done, it will turn into a bloodbath… and I know my father kidnapped you, and you probably wish him the worst—’
The woman rubbed her shoulder in a self-soothing gesture before interrupting, ‘I don’t wish him the worst, Ava. I wish him all the best.’
‘I don’t understand.’
She looked at me with a kind of sensitivity I hadn’t known many were capable of. ‘Ava, your father kidnapped me because he believed I was his mate. He never mistreated me, apart from the fact that he kept me away from my family.’
Her claims were hard to believe. ‘But you already have a mate…’
‘Indeed. After spending a decade in his presence, I know he’s lost, but not evil. It would be a lie if I claimed I didn’t harbour resentment, but I am also aware of what matehood is like,’ she explained, looking around the fields.
‘But my father is not your mate, right?’ I demanded.
She smiled before confessing, ‘No, my mate is the father of yours.’
‘What are you talking about? I don’t have a mate,’ I disputed flatly as the woman squinted. The first time Alec shadow-portalled us, I had felt nauseous; perhaps the queen was suffering a brain fog.
‘You can lie to me all you want. I smelled it on you the second you mentioned his name. A name he wouldn’t give you unless you were his. Not as a foreigner, and definitely not as Ortensian.’
Now, I could understand the confusion. ‘No, I smell of him because he doused me in his scent a few weeks ago. It was an Independence Celebration, and I couldn’t control my pheromones. It turned into a whole fiasco.’
The former Fire Queen’s eyes lit up as she spoke, ‘Then he was warning them to stay away, showing that you were his. But such a scent would fade; only a mate’s would entwine with your own and linger over distance.
It’s not bad, Ava. I smell like my mate, too.
Speaking of which, our bond is alive once again—can we please hurry?
I need to see him,’ she begged, fidgeting with barely contained excitement.
Letting the conversation go, I had no intention of arguing. She could think what she wanted, but I knew the chances of finding a mate as a halfling were slim to none. And that a real mate would never pass me off the way River had.
Within minutes, my family emerged from the tunnel carrying a small rucksack of grey crystals.
‘Did you get everything you needed?’ I asked, eyeing their treasure.
‘Yes, you should have come in. The caves are magnificent,’ Miriam mused, her eyes glistening with approbation.
As we readied to leave, I asked them for a moment to myself, claiming my sister had convinced me. Connecting to the land and hoping that my rushed plan would work, I spent most of my energy, eventually falling to my knees.
Light-headed, I waited a moment before coming out and putting on a brave face. I needed it before meeting the king. And as Alec’s shadows encompassed us, I prayed the sight of his mother would distract him long enough for me to breathe.