Page 69 of Fae Unleashed
The ever-churning thoughts were disrupted when I saw the pale petals of a massive bloom in the center of the maze. The dryads danced around the giant flower like it was a festival bonfire and they were all drunk. I watched and wondered why they were all so happy in a moment of true despair.
Then, I felt it. Cerri’s arcana swelled inside the flower right as the petals began to peel away and fall like pillows. The rippling aura pulled in tighter around what seemed to be red glass. I cautiously stepped forward.
The dryads weren’t so patient. They rushed me and grabbed at my fur and wings so they could drag me up to the crystalline structure laying flat in the heart of this blossom. Their laughter tinkled like bells. Pixies joined us and darted about in joy.
A familiar face appeared beneath the glass. Cerri smiled serenely in her sleep. She rested upon a bed of pillowy flowers like she was the growing fruit of a miraculous plant. My heart skipped a beat.
This shouldn’t be possible. Her parents before her had fallen, and nothing like this had happened. For a moment, I wanted to believe it was a cruel trick, but even Beryl seemed enraged.
She howled and slammed a fist down onto the red crystal. I hissed, taking a swipe at her. My claws raked along her face and sent her reeling back, but her eyes never left Cerri. Jaw slack, Beryl tried to regain her composure. The woman only fumbled.
“I knew it,” she whispered.
Knew what? That Cerri was unkillable?
“Witch,” Beryl spat like that was something every fae should fear.
She backed up and disappeared through a portal that swallowed her whole. Everyone stood still for a quiet moment. Not a single soul dared breathe. We all turned our attention from where Beryl had been to where Cerri slept.
What did it mean to be a witch? I struggled to grasp why that would be such a bad thing. The only ones bothered were the high fae, the Seelie. Foxglove and Tal shared a look that seemed heavy with information that I was not privy to.
Instead of arguing, I climbed atop Cerri’s resting place and curled up to wait for her to wake again. Though she’d been reborn, there was no telling how long it would take for this crystalline case to release her. We could be here minutes, or we could be here decades.
I didn’t mind waiting so long as I remained by my love’s side.
28
CERRI
Iheard Beryl’s hiss even though I was still very much asleep. The experience, as a whole, was very much strange.
Witch, she’d called me.
The word didn’t feel like it should have been uttered with such distaste, especially from someone like Beryl. But she’d said it like I should have been ashamed. I felt no such sensation while sleeping.
If anything, I was elated to still be alive. At least, I thought I was alive. I had a new body, and my spirit was still hanging around. That counted as being alive…right?
I lingered near my glass coffin as the sun set and the sky turned to night. Rhoan never left his perch atop the coffin. He never turned back to his human form, either. The beast kept his eyes on me while I slept, so I climbed up next to him and stroked his fur with my spirit hands.
At some point in the night, a portal opened, and several figures stepped out into the garden. Most of them looked around in astonishment. Only two looked in my direction.
Tal’s attention was on the glass coffin. Guilt lined his face with unexpected shadows. I never thought he would care so much about me. Yet, I could see on his face that he blamed himself for what happened, too.
The other person looked directly at my spirit. That’s how I knew Tal had gone to my friends. I smiled and waved at Addie. She gave me a weak wave in return.
“She’s still here,” Addie said to Tal. There was a heavy note of concern weighing down her voice. To me, she said, “I thought fae didn’t have souls.”
I shrugged. I didn’t know what was going on, either. “I think I was…reborn. Don’t take my word on that. This is a weird mess. If anyone here understands what this is…it’s going to be you.”
Tal couldn’t hear me. He started explaining that Fae were manifestations of magic, but some could have souls depending on where they came from. He, for instance, had a soul since he’d been a mortal before Foxglove took him as a fae lover. Whether or not I had a soul was another question all together.
“Do you think love creates a soul?” I thought aloud as I stroked Rhoan’s fur.
The fae weren’t that kind to one another. Sisters murdered each other for power in this world. It made sense that the fae wouldn’t be able to manifest a soul if love were the main ingredient.
“Could it be that my mortal parents created a soul for me? Or maybe even the love my fae parents had for one another created the blueprint of one.”
Addie put her hands on her hips. While she stared me down with her metaphorical thinking cap on, a bright light flashed behind her. Tal snapped at Vi, who’d started a fire trying to get some of the trapped fae out of the hedge.
