Chapter 36 Tegwyn
Tegwyn
Ivy bleeds out in my arms, and all I can do is hold on to her tightly, hoping she can hear me. “Ivy?”
She doesn’t stir. Her eyes remain closed, her glow diminishing by the second, yet I try again, shaking her harder. “Ivy!”
No response. I squeeze my eyes shut. Just when I thought I couldn’t hate myself further... I let the woman I love die for me.
She took the brunt of that monster’s teeth, and all I can do now is watch, helplessly, as she dies in my arms. There’s nothing I can do. Her wounds are too deep, and my magic simply isn’t enough to heal her.
I’ve never felt so helpless.
“Ivy… why?” I choke, barely able to get the words out of my throat.
It hurts. All of it.
Her breathing becomes laboured, and there’s no mistaking the dreaded death rattle as her lungs give up the fight.
A wheezing sound catches my attention, and my eyes latch on to that naked female. She must have transformed back into her true form the moment my arrow pierced her flesh, and she’s now dying as a result.
As she should be. Those arrows are tipped with iron. The bitch deserved it.
I’m not surprised she was beautiful beneath the dog suit. Most Fae are. Her limbs are long, slender, and her hips curved, but she’s still a demon.
If only I had arrived earlier, I could have killed her before she had the chance to get to Ivy, but it’s too late.
Pressing my forehead against Ivy’s, I whisper her name, hoping she hears me somewhere.
Call it Fae intuition, but I can sense her calling my name… My true name.
After all, she can call to me from anywhere. Even from the place between life and death.
She’s not dead, not yet.
There must be some magic I can muster from the dregs of my soul. I have to try at least.
“Ivy, it’s going to be all right. I can fix this. Fix you.”
Only silence greets me, but I feel her smile from beyond, and I close my eyes.
Last time, I healed her scratches with my tears. Maybe I can be lucky again.
Yet, my tears have zero impact this time when they drip onto her wounds. They truly are too deep for my magic.
Her blood blemishes her porcelain skin, and I finally lose hope. She really is going to die.
Grief like I’ve never known consumes me, and I let my cries carry across the forest. The sound seems to shake something deep in the earth, but all I can focus on is the human in my arms. She’s slipping away, and fast.
What do I do? I think of the only thing I know.
I pray.
Someone, somewhere, has to hear me...
I can’t be alone. Not truly.
Please, someone, anyone…Help.
But when help doesn’t arrive, I shut my eyes, giving up at last.
I really am on my own. No one is coming to help us.
Slowly, I lean forward, kissing her pale lips, and then I whisper the three words I swore I would never utter to another soul again.
“I love you, Ivy...”
Suddenly, a blast of light bursts across the clearing, and I shield my eyes.
It’s too bright, even for me.
When I re-open my eyes, I blink in surprise. My surroundings have changed.
No longer are we trapped inside the overgrown evergreen forests of the north, but in a small wooded glade, one blanketed in bluebells.
Songbirds trill from the deciduous trees, and I jerk my head left and right, trying to find a conifer.
These trees may shed their leaves, yet they’re frozen in time. Because time doesn’t move here, but the trees are still living and breathing. I can sense their roots through the verdant grass, roots that vibrate and hum like a heartbeat.
This land is beating with life.
It beats with magic…
Did I die after all? Because there’s only one name that comes to mind when I cast my gaze around this serene place.
Heaven. Or something akin to it.
The sweet, pealing sound of children’s laughter echoes through the trees, and while I should be afraid, I find that I’m not.
The laughter puts me at ease.
These spirits are not malicious. They’re just as pure as the dewdrops that drip from the bluebells.
Finally, I spy them. They’re nothing more than small orbs of light as they coalesce at the other end of the glade to form the tall, elegant shape of an ethereal woman.
Vibrant, sweet light radiates from her very form, and I stare, open-mouthed. My heart pounds, and I swallow.
“Maghelena.”
She answers with a smile. A goddess in the flesh.
Or in spirit.
I’m not sure where we are or where she has transported us to, but when I look at a nearby cluster of humming bluebells, I finally realise… We’re in her famous bluebell glade.
I must be dead.
Yet the knowledge doesn’t upset me because Ivy is still grasping on to life.
How?
This place is for faeries. It’s where our souls go when we pass.
So, why is she here?
Maghelena steps closer, or she floats, because the grass barely makes a sound as she glides across the glade, her long, silken robes flowing behind her as she heads our way.
When she stops before us, I lose all ability to speak.
I can’t even begin to describe her. She has the long, tapered ears of a Fae, but her azure eyes are spheres of swirling light. Pure, divine light. Goosebumps rise up and down my arms.
She bears a large pair of translucent wings, and when I peer through a segment of her left wing, I spy the treeline beyond.
“Hello, my child.”
My heart thumps when she speaks. Her voice vibrates through my bones, settling somewhere at the base of my spine.
It even sends a tremor through the green earth, yet I still can’t form words. Our goddess simply leaves me spellbound.
Maghelena kneels, casting her blue gaze over Ivy. “So…this is what they look like? Endearing.”
Endearing?
She meets my gaze. “I’ve felt them this past millennium, but I haven’t had the fortune of meeting a human being just yet. Quite beautiful.”
The goddess reaches her long, slender fingers across, brushing aside Ivy’s blonde hair. The human’s pained expression softens, and soon she breathes steadily at Maghelena’s touch.
“It seems the time has come.”
Finally, I find my voice. “What time? Your…your grace...”
Shit. How does one address a goddess?
Technically, she’s supposed to be my mother. She’s the mother of all my people.
Maghelena smiles. “The time for humans to prove they are worth saving. They’ve become corrupt over the last couple of centuries.
A darkness plagues them, turning once great friends into foes, and it must be stopped before it’s too late.
But one human had to prove their worth first, acting as an ambassador for their people. ”
An ambassador?
The goddess takes my chin in her hand. “I saw what she did for you. She put your safety before hers, and a creature that inspires that much love in my eyes is worth saving.”
The tears drip from my eyes at the memory. In Maghelena’s presence, my tears come freely as she awakens my heart.
She wipes them from my cheeks like a good mother should, and I release a sob. “I… couldn’t stop her, and now…now she’s…”
I can’t stop. The floodgates are wide open, yet she’s here to soothe me through every wave.
“Fret not, child. She’s not gone. She’s still holding on. As your mate, your souls have become entwined.”
Mate? How and when did that happen?
She brushes away another tear. “You bit her and gave her your true name, but both of you had a connection before you even realised.”
Now that I think about it, I have always been attracted to Ivy’s scent. Honeysuckle and buttery biscuits, it's indescribable.
“So, Ivy was my mate? This whole time?”
“That is correct.”
“But… I thought only faeries found their fated mates?”
Maghelena runs her fingers through my hair. “They do. But there’s a first for everything.”
I guess there really is.
Now I ask the most pressing question on my mind. “So, will she live?”
She nods. “Yes. Through her act of selfless love. She may just be the one to bring back peace between faeries and humans. Someone needs to fight the darkness that has spread through the human lands like a disease, and she may just be our saviour.”
The word sends shockwaves through my system. So, that’s what she meant by ambassador?
“But she will need help, and that is where you come in, Têr nghalon.”
Maghelena uses my true name, but I’m not surprised she knew it. She must know everything about her children.
In that case, has she seen all the stealing and cheating that I’ve done? Have I brought her shame?
Maghelena shakes her head. “No. You do not bring me shame. You’re my child, and I will always love you. Just as I love all my children.”
Her love wraps around me like a blanket, putting me at ease, and I am utterly speechless.
“But I’ve done bad things. I am not pure by any means. Ivy is good. I’m… I’m corrupt…”
She narrows her eyes. “Only because the humans in your life made you so. Humans are plagued by prejudice and fear. They seldom accept what is different from them.”
Well, that’s not entirely true. My mother was a good human, and my grandpa, too.
“Your human family are an exception to the rule, and maybe there are more humans out there like the one in your arms.”
Silence falls over the glade as songbird continues around us.
“So, what now?” I ask.
Maghelena rises. “You return to the world of the living and help Ivy. From this moment on, you are both ambassadors of your people.”
I don’t care what I have to do. So long as I get Ivy back.
“I’ll do it. We both will. We will bring back peace between our kind.”
There’s also the matter of the political strife amongst the Fae. The Seelie and Unseelie turned their backs on the Rogues a long time ago, around the time the human scourge spread through the lands, and that was when they finally closed the gates to the faerielands forever.
We can’t go back.
But maybe I can make things right for the Rogue Fae and the humans. After all, we share a plane. It makes sense.
No longer do we have to live in hiding.
No longer will we be persecuted.
Shouldn’t be too hard a feat.
Maghelena steps back, extending her hand. “When we meet again, child. Just remember, I am always close. When you need guidance, pray. I am always listening.”
I grin. “I will.”
I never believed she was gone. Other Fae have lost faith in her, but I always sensed her presence, and it seems I was right.
Always trust your gut.
Light bursts from the goddess’s hand, and flowers and vines twine around me and Ivy. I hold her closer, pressing my head to hers as I kiss her lips. “It’s okay, Ivy. We’re returning home. Just hold on.”
The light vanishes with another bright flash, and when I open my eyes again, I find myself back in the cold north.
A shudder rushes through me. Everything seems so dull in comparison, even with my heightened Fae eyes.
I’m just sad that Ivy never got to see Maghelena’s glade, but it doesn’t matter now. All that matters is that she’s alive. Her wounds have finally healed, and she may as well be sleeping.
Carefully, I run my claw down her cheek, rousing her gently. “Ivy?”
She stirs, fluttering her lids, and time ceases to a standstill when I finally spy those luminous starburst eyes.
I don’t remember them shining so brightly before.
As a matter of fact, she’s dripping with magic. It shines from her skin, giving her hair a flawless glow, and she almost looks Fae.
I guess as an ambassador of the human race, it’s only fair that she should be compensated in some way. Especially after she selflessly put my life before hers without a second thought.
A smile curves her sweet, rosebud lips, and my heart thumps back to life.
“I love you too, Tegwyn.”
Tears gather in my eyes, and I send a silent prayer to Maghelena. “Thank you.”
Ivy reaches up, stroking her finger along my cheek, and I’m too overcome with happiness, too overwhelmed by her gentle touch to take much notice of the new threat.
It hovers in my peripheral vision, a black, ominous shadow in the shape of death, and before I have a chance to react, Ivy springs into action.
She brings up the handle of a fine blade, one that was hidden amidst the undergrowth, then plunges it deep into the she-wolf’s heart.
Wait. The she-wolf?
No, that can’t be right. I saw the bitch die; I killed her with my own arrow.
But the shock soon wears off once I spy the way Ivy fights. The human dances circles around the lupine, and I’ve never seen her move so fast.
She has all the liquid grace of a Fae, but the constitution of a human. That steel would weaken any faerie, yet she wields it like a seasoned fighter.
The she-wolf drops to the ground as Ivy lops off its head, and it turns out that she wasn’t fighting the she-wolf after all, but a bugbear.
The same one that came prowling around the mountain a few weeks prior, coincidentally.
The creature evaporates into dust, disappearing with a swirl on the wind, but I don’t take my eyes off Ivy.
The starburst of her eyes glows like fire as she lowers the blade, and there are no words.
She really isn’t the same girl anymore, and once again, I thank Maghelena for her gift.
Ivy is not only alive, but she moves and fights like a Fae, and I wonder what other gifts the goddess bestowed her with.
Perhaps she can wield magic.
The human wipes the bugbear’s blood from her long, thin blade, noticing my curious gaze. A blush takes over her cheeks. “Erm…it was a gift from my father. I thought I’d lost it, but it turns out that it was just hidden in the undergrowth this whole time.”
Well, that explains it.
“Well, it’s a good thing you were so quick-witted. Should I be…worried?”
I eye the blade warily. The steel is making me a little sick, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.
She smirks. “Only if you piss me off.”
I have nothing to say to that.
Ivy laughs, wrapping her blade up in her cloak to lessen the effects on my person, and I chuckle along with her.
“Come. Let’s return to the mountain,” I announce. “We’ve got work to do.”
“Work?” she asks.
She really was out of it in the glade, but that’s fine. I can catch her up.
I meet her gleaming, starburst eyes, a smirk arching my lips. I haven’t lost my impish ways.
“Congratulations, princess. You are now the official ambassador of your people. Well done.”
Her expression is almost comical, and now she’s at a complete loss for words. But then her eyes land on the top of my head, a gasp drawing from her lips.
“Tegwyn...”
“What?”
She points at my head.
Heart pounding, I reach up, and my hand trembles when I finally brush my fingertips along a familiar curve.
Well, what do you know?
My horn grew back.
End