Page 71 of Fae Unleashed
I had a feeling that the seed of arcana that I’d buried had something to do with why I’d been reborn. The seed remade me, but there was more going on than just that. The look on Beryl’s face told me that not just any fae could get away with feats like this.
There had been fae who were neither Seelie nor Unseelie. They’d been something different, able to tap into raw arcana before it could be tempered into any one set of abilities. Cerridwen, my namesake, had been among them. Yet, the longer I sat here in this middle state, I wondered if she’d been more than just my namesake.
Her journal had been in my biological father’s tower. He’d been studying her work, but I never stopped to question why. Instead, I dove into the magic hidden between the pages like it was sustenance and I’d been starved for months.
What if…? No. That couldn’t be right.
I felt a tug in the core of my spirit and found myself falling downward. I would have screamed had I not immediately slammed to a halt. My eyes flew open, and I found myself inside the red-glass walls of the coffin.
The impact of rejoining my body sent a recoil through me that made me ache. I grimaced and shoved at the glass above me. When it didn’t immediately move, I panicked. Rhoan watched me curiously through the glass.
I couldn’t get out because his big chimera ass was on top of it.
He slid off in a fluid feline motion, but he still didn’t change back to the man I loved. I shoved open the casket lid, sat up, and threw my feet out. My toes dangled above the flower petals beneath the casket.
Rhoan sat back on his haunches and watched me with a feline tilt to his head. I extended a hand, and he placed his chin in my palm so I could scratch it for him. The man had lost to the beast, and I didn’t have the slightest clue how to get him back.
I needed him to return. The only reason that the last fight had gone as well as it had was the fact that Rhoan had come back to lead a counterattack. My people were safe because of his quick thinking and determination.
“What’s next?” Vi asked impatiently.
She glowed in the night like a star that’d fallen to earth. Perhaps that wasn’t too far off considering her father’s nickname: LuciferMorningstar. She rocked back on her heels and took in the domain around us with renewed interest. I could tell she was starting to feel the effects of some sort of energy drink. Any moment now, she would take off and burn half of Faust’s forest to the ground.
“We need to oust traitors,” Tal said. “That’s what we should do next.”
I nodded, even though I knew Del would be far, far away from here. Considering the fact that I could see Feri poking out of Tal’s front pocket, I knew that the cursed man hadn’t been involved in this round of betrayals.
It was exhausting, though. I didn’t want to be on guard any longer. It would have been nice to be able to let go of this tension cinching my shoulders tight. Instead, the knot burned like the light of a thousand suns no matter how I tried to stretch it out.
Wincing, I said, “Isn’t this body new? Why does it already ache like I just ran a marathon?”
“Do we know who let the bitch queen in?” Vi asked.
Addie looked to Tal, but I was the one who answered.
“It was Delphine, Rhoan’s assassin friend. Faust got to her.”
While Tal’s nose wrinkled with distaste at the sound of Del’s name, I knew that she wasn’t the real problem. The man that we really needed to deal with was Faust. If we could kill him once and for all, then he wouldn’t be able to use fear tactics to turn our friends against us. It seemed to be Faust’s real talent. He wormed his way into minds and convinced them that they had every reason to go along with him.
We’d cornered him once, but Beryl had a tight leash on him now. I doubted after that last battle that he would be able to get far from her. She’d threatened to string him up the same way she’d done to Tal.
Rhoan had retrieved Tal from his punishment. If we could get in, then we would be able to kill Faust while he was at his most vulnerable. That meant turning Rhoan back. And for that, I got the sense that he and I would need to be alone.
I asked Tal to give my friends a tour around the domain. Though Addie and Vi each gave me a different look, one supportive and the other dubious, they said nothing. They followed Tal off into the castle where they could meet the dryads and explore hidden passages.
I wished I could have gone with them. When was the last time I’d had fun for the sake of having fun? It felt like never. At a young age, I got forced into the position of a small adult. I had to learn how to survive as a mortal in a dangerous shifter world. And after that, I’d had to become a fae princess and lead an army against a bitch of a queen.
Not once in my life had I been able to just have fun. I doubted Rhoan ever got the chance to, either.
Flopping onto the ground, I spread my arms wide and stared at the plethora of stars glinting in the sky. They sparkled with rainbow colors. The familiar order of them that I knew from the mortal realm seemed to be shaken and tossed back into the sky. I couldn’t make sense of any of the arrangements, and the moment I thought I recognized something, the stars rearranged themselves again.
The fae realms were beautiful. I yearned to see more and explore the whimsy of it all.
Rhoan tucked his wings into his body and settled his feline body alongside mine. His warmth seeped into my muscles and helped ease the knot growing in my shoulder. When I turned and buried my face in his fur, I breathed a sigh as I held tight to him.
We’d survived. We had another chance.
“I’m starting to think that we can survive anything,” I said to the beast with a laugh on my lips. “It’s going to make me cocky and reckless. What do you think? Can we do anything we put our minds to?”
