15. Chapter Fifteen Rhowyn
Chapter Fifteen: Rhowyn
It had been two days since the incident where I’d broken my glamor and set my magic free. Two days of this incessant pull in my gut, which only intensified the closer I got to wherever Avalonia was taking me. For some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she needed me somewhere quickly, causing me to push our little group harder than we’d probably be able to stand.
After the standoff with the guards, I found I was brimming with energy. It felt unstable, ebbing and flowing through me, threatening to burst from me at the most inopportune times. Throughout our travels, I kept having to clench my jaw and close my eyes to focus fully on pushing it back down. Instinctively, I knew that if it did burst from me, carnage would follow. Even though it threatened destruction at an unheard-of magnitude, it didn’t feel that way. It felt like light and life, love and happiness, everything that was good in the world. The destruction wasn’t for destruction’s sake but a means of rooting out evil, of bringing good into a world that had fallen to evil. My magic felt the same as when I’d been possessed by Avalonia?full of righteous anger, promising violence only when it was unavoidable.
Right on cue, it swelled inside me as we continued walking, so intense this time that I had to stop, fists clenched and trembling as I bore down to keep it inside of me. Sweat beaded on my forehead, dripping down my nape as it threatened to slip from my tenuous grasp. My breaths came out in choppy gusts as I clamped down as hard as I could on it. My ears started to ring, my head swimming from the effort I was putting forth, but finally, just as I was about to fail in my efforts, it ebbed, sliding back inside me. The sudden relief had me falling to my hands and knees as I gasped for air and gathered myself.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cyerra asked me hesitantly, her voice full of concern.
“I’m fine,” I told her, pushing back to my feet and starting our trek again.
Her hand grabbed my elbow and jerked me back to face her. “You’re not fine.”
“Cyerra…” I warned her, not wanting to talk about it, unsure of what we could even do to fix the problem. The only thing I was sure of was that I needed to get to wherever Avalonia was pulling me.
When she didn’t let me go, I jerked my arm free. “What do you want me to say? That my magic is threatening to break free and destroy everything? What does that change? Nothing. But I’ll tell you that what matters is not my problems. Avalonia needs us, and if we don’t get there in time, it will all be for naught,” I snapped at her, tired from our frantic pace and having to fight myself. “Now, if you’re done, we need to get going again.”
“Fuck, Rhowyn,” she cursed me as I turned and started walking again, determined to get to our destination on time. We’d already been slowed because I couldn’t risk carrying everyone with my volatile magic, and Cyerra didn’t have the strength to carry us this far. “What happens if you lose control of it?” she asked me, jogging to catch up with me.
I sighed. “I don’t know, which is what truly scares me. I get the feeling though that it definitely won’t be pleasant.”
“Maybe we should call the guys? You know they’d be here in a heartbeat to help you,” she tried reasoning with me.
“I can’t, okay. Avalonia insists that I do this without them. You don’t think I want them here? That I’m not going crazy without them? That I’m not barely holding myself together because all I want is for one of them to help me?” She didn’t answer me, knowing the truth deep down. I could feel our new companion watching us, or rather me, like I was going crazy, but he was smart enough to keep his concerns to himself.
I turned back around, speeding up my pace as I continued on toward goddess knew where. All I knew was that we still had a ways to go, which meant more time away from my men. While we walked in silence, Cyerra and her boy toy wisely keeping their mouths shut, I worked hard to compartmentalize. Reacting emotionally was not what was in everyone’s best interests, and the sooner I could reign mine in, the better off we’d all be. It took me longer than I expected to get control of my thoughts and feelings, whether that was from fatigue or something more, I didn’t care. All that mattered right now was that I did regain my composure.
What felt like hours later, hours of walking through field after field, dotted only by the occasional cottage, vacant and devoid of life, I was beginning to think that Avalonia had me on a wild goose chase. Before, she had sent me an image, something to help guide me. Now, it was just a feeling, a gut instinct that I was close to where I was supposed to be, but there was absolutely nothing in sight.
A prickling awareness had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, and I slowed my pace, using my new eyesight and hearing to strain for the source. Cyerra approached me. “You feel it too?” she asked, her voice barely audible on the wind that blew my hair into my face.
I nodded, continuing until several feet later, a faint whisper came to me. “It’s got to be her.”
“Shh…You’re going to give us away.” A soft oomph sounded out as if the second voice had elbowed the first.
A rustle, clothes against grass, met my ears. Cyerra caught my eye, an eyebrow raised in question. I nodded at her, giving her my permission. She stepped forward, her voice ringing with authority. “Show yourselves, by order of the Queen.”
“I told you it was her,” the first voice sounded out.
“Shut up, Liam,” the second voice hissed.
“Show yourselves now, or I will be forced to deem you foe,” Cyerra stated more harshly, clearly done with her warnings.
The image of an empty field and ditch fell away to reveal two children, who were standing, dusting their clothes as they did so. One boy and one girl. The boy stuttered, “We’re sorry, Your Majesty. It was Aspen’s idea.”
“Oh, it was, was it?” I said, raising an eyebrow at the girl in question.
She glared at the boy. “Thanks for ratting me out, Liam.” She hissed the words at the timid boy, who dropped his head in shame before turning to me. She curtsied as her voice shifted to a pleasant greeting. “It is an honor, Your Majesty. You’ll forgive our subterfuge, but we needed to be sure it was you.”
“And why is that?” I asked her, amused by her precocious nature, so grown up for all of her appeared age of eleven.
“It is difficult to explain, but Mother told me to keep an eye out for you and to bring you to her once you had arrived.”
“You were expecting me?”
“Oh, aye. It’s all the kingdom has been talking about.”
“And who exactly is your mother?”
“She’s the lady of the manor, Heir to the Autumn Court,” the little girl said proudly. She then grabbed my hand, making Cyerra lunge before I held up my free one to stop her. “Let me show you,” she said, oblivious to the fact that my Raven friend had been close to ending her.
She dragged me forward, and I couldn’t help the smile on my face as the boy followed along. The girl turned to him. “Liam, run ahead and tell Mother that she’s here.”
Liam nodded, darting off and disappearing from our sight about sixty feet away. One minute he was there, running toward an open field, and the next, he was gone. I pulled up short. “Where’d he go?” I asked the girl.
“Oh, that’s what I need to show you.” She grinned broadly and proudly. “We’ve been waiting for you. Come on, it’s just through here.”
“And where is here?” I asked her, completely confused now.
Cyerra leaned in to whisper, “It’s a shield and glamor.”
“But…” I started, not sure where to go with my question.
The little girl smiled up at me. “If you think this is awesome, just wait.” She didn’t explain further, just dragged me forward. I couldn’t help but balk at the faint shimmer in the air that I could see now that I was closer to where the boy had disappeared. I heard and saw nothing beyond it. No whisper of the wind over grass and leaves, no scuttling from field animals. Just nothing.
Looking to Cyerra, she just nodded that I should continue through, but both of us put hands on our weapons, my magic starting to surge in preparation for an ambush. We passed through the barrier, a faint tingling against my skin the only indication of having crossed over. As soon as the barrier magic left me, I bent over, my own magic surging forward so quickly and harshly that it left me gasping for breath as I desperately tried to contain it. I didn’t sense any harm or animosity from the girl or the barrier, and losing control now would be catastrophic.
As I finally wrestled control of my magic, tamping it back down deep inside me, my breathing slowed, and noises came to me. Hammering sounded out, voices yelling back and forth, laughter and chatter from dozens of people. Pushing up from my doubled-over position, I opened my eyes and finally got my first glimpse of what the girl had been talking about. “Holy shit! It’s a castle.”
“It’s much more than that,” a feminine voice sounded out, walking down a narrow path followed by Liam.
I turned to her, gawking. Her auburn hair and green eyes were so familiar that I was lost for words. She just smiled at me softly. “This is a headquarters, Your Majesty.”
“Headquarters for what?” I asked her, dumbfounded by what I was seeing and the scale of the operations here.
“Why for the war we’re about to wage on Titania, Your Majesty,” she said with a wicked smile.
“I’m sorry, I’m not sure I caught your name?” Cyerra asked harshly, moving to stand slightly in front of me.
“That’s because I didn’t offer it, but my name is Lady Aurelia, heiress of the Autumn Court before that bitch destroyed everything, taking my brother as her hostage as she murdered my parents.”
My mouth dropped open in shock as the pieces clicked together. “You’re Callum’s sister.”