7. Chapter Seven Callum
Chapter Seven: Callum
We moved quickly while also trying to remain inconspicuous through the crowded streets as we made our way toward the Queen's hunting grounds. I wrestled with the urge to sprint to our destination, the need to save Rhowyn driving me hard.
She had done nothing but bring trouble and frustration into my life from the moment I laid eyes on her. Complications upon complications. While I wasn't a very simple kind of man myself, bringing my own baggage and problems into this situation, it would have been so much easier if she were meek or malleable, someone like Charity. And yet, the thought of being with someone like that after experiencing the fire and danger that Rhowyn simply was left me feeling depressed.
As an Autumn Fae that controlled fire, I spent years learning how to control it. Even still, after finding mastery over the element, it could still get the better of me. The excitement and danger were thrilling and made the conquering all that much better. The chase for more and more control was often a dangerous one that eventually got the best of the Autumn Fae who failed to realize that mastery was fruitless, a never-ending quest that was doomed to fail.
In the same way that fire danced and entranced me, Rhowyn pulled me into her flames, tempting me to try and control her, to become her master. A pointless endeavor that I knew I would fail at. She was life and destruction all rolled into one, and I found myself unable to resist her pull.
I had thought, foolishly at first, that I wouldn't need her, that I could help her and then move on, but I was finding out now that this wasn't and never would be the case. Just like the fool who thought they could control fire, if I continued trying to control her, I'd only end up burning us both.
Instead, if I gave in and realized that fire could never be fully contained, then maybe we both might walk away with something so much more. Being a master of fire wasn't utter and complete control. It was accepting the risks and dangers that came with such an element. It was realizing the truth and setting the flame up to do what it did best. It was giving the flame what it needed to bring forth the nature that could either save or condemn.
While I would never truly stop trying to push her since it was simply in my nature to do so, I could also ensure that she had the best path for success before turning her loose to do what she did best. To burn with passion and desire, with anger and violence.
I'd caught the looks of the others while I remained silent and withdrawn over the last five days, but I didn't care. I had needed to work through this gut-wrenching emotion that assaulted me as soon as I had realized that she was gone. It was almost laughable now how I had thought that I was keeping my distance, pushing her away with our arguments and fights. It wasn't until she was no longer there that I realized just how much I had come to care for her. My affection ran so much deeper than simply a Consort needing to protect his Chosen.
When the truth hit me, I had been truly rocked. I needed her in my life. She was constantly challenging me and fighting me, pushing back against my nature until I found myself becoming a man that I respected again. She was everything I had ever wanted and didn't know I needed. And I'd do everything I could to get her back.
I'd like to say that it took me an instant to know this, but it hadn't. It had taken the first three days of silence and inactivity before it had pierced my thick skull that I needed Rhowyn. Another two days to realize that I wanted her with a passion that scared me. The thought of losing her now was near crippling in its intensity. I would raze Avalon until I got her back, with no concern for anyone else. After losing everything I'd held dear, she was the first thing to bring that fight back into me. I hadn't even realized I'd lost it.
With her as our best hope for change in Avalon, her defeat now would ensure that our land failed, everyone doomed along with the loss, even if they didn't realize it yet. That included my people. The ones I had claimed to be fighting for but hadn't done anything more than subject myself to a lifetime of torture.
Avalonia had seen to pull me from the Queen's clutches in the only way that ensured I would keep breathing. And for that I would serve Avalonia and Rhowyn until my dying breath.
As we drew nearer to the field, thick stone walls rose up, going for as far as the eye could see. The roar of the crowd licked at the edges of my hearing. We were getting closer. Searching the bond, I felt Rhowyn's peace and happiness followed by a deep fatigue. Relief passed through me at the sensation. There was no fear, no pain. The ache in my gut intensified as I tried to keep from walking too quickly.
It wouldn't do to draw too much attention to ourselves, especially with the Royal Guard looking for us. If the Queen caught us now, then there was no way we'd be able to help Rhowyn, and she needed us. The Queen had something planned. I knew that with certainty after all the years I had spent with her. She wouldn't let Rhowyn's slight go, even if she'd been outsmarted by my fiery piece of trouble. I bit back a chuckle, wishing I could have been there to see Titania's face. It would have made all the years of torture worth it.
Nearing the edge of the village and the delineation that marked the Queen's property, we slowed our pace as we took in the arena's outer walls. There was no way we'd be able to clear them, and there were no entrances that I could see.
“What do we do now?” Lennox asked, all of us turning to Arryn.
“Brannoc, can you find an entrance?” he asked the Raven, who had joined us shortly after departing the market.
Brannoc smirked. “Of course I can. Finding one that you four can follow through is a different story. I'm sure the Queen's Guards have been increased in preparation for us. They'd be fools not to consider that we'd come for our Chosen.”
“Our?” Lennox said with a growl, his eyes narrowing.
“Yours,” Brannoc clarified. “I said your Chosen,” the Raven tried to correct himself, none of us truly buying it.
I wasn't a fool. I'd seen the way he studied Rhowyn as if she was a puzzle he couldn't quite figure out. She'd managed to ensnare him too, as evidenced by the fact that he hadn't left her yet. His job had been completed after getting us to the Gwyllion, but he'd hung around. At first, I'd thought it had been because of Arryn. Now, I knew better. He was just as infatuated as the rest of us.
“Sure you did,” Baer said with a weak smile, trying to bring his humor back. He'd been missing his joy since leaving Rhowyn and was just as antsy as the rest of us to get her back. Not waiting for any more of our heckling, Brannoc disappeared before us to scout for the best way forward.
“Anyone else buying his excuse?” Baer asked.
“Nope,” Lennox said, his jealousy and possessiveness peeking from behind the mask he'd donned in the last several days.
I shrugged, not feeling the need to say anything. Arryn looked pensively after his childhood friend. “He's clearly drawn to her. The last time I saw him look at someone like he does her was when he decided to befriend me.”
“He better not think that he's going to become a Consort,” Lennox snapped.
“What if he does?” Baer asked. “If Rhowyn wants him and he proves himself, then I don't really see the problem.”
“He wasn't chosen by Avalonia,” Lennox argued.
“We all know fate has different plans than what we'd like. Somehow, I feel that he was drawn to us for a reason. I just haven't decided what that reason is yet,” Arryn said.
“The argument is pointless,” I told them all. “In the end, it'll be Rhowyn's decision and she hasn't shown any interest in him. Maybe we're putting the cart before the horse here.”
“Yet,” Lennox said. “She hasn't shown any interest yet.”
“So, what if she does. It doesn't mean that we're any less important to her,” Baer said.
“Says the guy she's already slept with,” Lennox pouted, crossing his arms.
“Your time will come as long as you pull your head from your ass,” Baer said with a smile. “I've felt the tension between you two, and it's just a matter of time before you can be with her in that way too.”
A jolt of fear from the bond, stronger than anything we had felt from Rhowyn in the last five days, had us all on high alert. None of us moved, the shock from the blast of emotion freezing us in place until a stronger burst flowed down through us all.
Not waiting for Brannoc to return, we all rushed off in the direction that we had felt her, no longer concerned with hiding. Rhowyn was in trouble, and we needed to reach her.
Turning the corner of the arena, we were spotted by a couple of Royal Guards. “Halt!” one of them yelled out to us.
Disregarding his command, I charged forward, pulling my sword. It'd take a lot more than these two to stop me from reaching my Chosen. The Guard who yelled at us met the swing of my sword with his own, and I made quick work of him, slipping under his next swing and hitting him on the back of the head with the pommel and knocking him out.
The second guard held his hands up, not reaching for his sword. “Arryn.”
“Drew,” Arryn said, holding his own sword cautiously as he approached.
“I don't mean any harm. When the Queen made that accusation about you being a traitor, I didn't believe a word of it. There's no way you'd harm Avalon. You were always the most honorable of us all,” Drew said.
“She was right, though. I am a part of the rebellion,” Arryn admitted to him.
“So. You wouldn't have joined them if you didn't think there was good reason to.”
Nodding in affirmation, Arryn said, “I have my reasons, but I am always devoted to Avalonia.”
“Not to interrupt this reunion or anything, but Rhowyn is in trouble.” Lennox prompted.
“Of course,” Drew said, the sense of urgency growing as Rhowyn's fear morphed into pain.
“How do we get to her?” Arryn asked.
Without hesitation, Drew answered him, “Halfway down this way is a tunnel. Once inside it, you'll need to go left and then right at the intersections. The arena entrance will be clear from there.”
Clapping a hand on Drew's shoulder, Arryn said, “Thanks for your help, Drew. I'll remember this. And hopefully you'll forget this next part. Sorry, but I've got to knock you out.”
“I know,” he said with understanding, bracing as Arryn hit him and gently lowered him to the ground.
Brannoc returned as we sprinted toward the tunnel that Drew had told us about. “We need to hurry. Rhowyn is in serious trouble.”
“No shit,” Lennox snapped at him. The pain from the bond intensified.
Turning the corners as Drew instructed, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. In this case, it was the good kind and not the kind that meant the afterlife. Rushing through the opening, we were greeted by the forest that had been created for this trial.
“Which way?” I growled at Brannoc as he led us to her. Wave after wave of pain assaulted the bond, and I could feel Rhowyn slipping. My wolf was pushing to take charge, but I needed a clear head until I knew the full situation, so I held him back by force.
Brannoc surged forward, leading our group as we raced through the trees until we stumbled to a stop at the sight that greeted us. There, lying prone on the ground, shackled by vines, was Rhowyn, her beautiful face black and blue as Genevieve kicked her.
Her Consorts turned, sensing our presence, their sudden movements briefly distracting Genevieve from her assault. Shock lit all their faces as she hissed, “You shouldn't be here.”
“Well, we are, and you're about to pay for messing with my Chosen,” Lennox snapped back at her.
A nod from Arryn was my signal, and I lunged forward, shifting into my wolf, no longer caring who was destroyed in the process as I sought to return the favor to this bitch.