Page 81 of Fae Unleashed
The voice in my head tempted me. It belonged to someone familiar, but I couldn’t quite place why. I knew that it had to be Beryl’s machinations, but still, it gave me pause. That voice belonged to someone who loved me. I knew that much.
That someone wasn’t here anymore, though. She’d been taken from me. Her life, my memories of her, had all been stolen.
Teras filled my eyes and ran down my cheeks. “M-mother?”
There were a few doors in my memories that I’d unlocked. One of them had been of my fae mother. Hearing what I assumed to be her voice threatened to undo my resolve. My hands trembled until I forced them flat against the earthen floor once more.
My weak child, you were never meant to rule. We hid you so that you would stay far, far away from our court. Let the slumbering remain as they are so that they may not see the disgrace you have become.
I let out a weak laugh.
“You’re shit at this, Beryl. I know you stole your sister’s voice.”
That was the only explanation I could think of. No family of mine would speak to me that way. The few memories I had of my fae mother painted her as a gentle and encouraging woman. Nothing Beryl did could shake my faith in those memories.
“You keep taking people from me,” I said as I continued to bolster the castle and my domain with my untamed arcana. “You took my parents and my home from me as a young child. You took Rhoan from me by tempting him with freedom. I will not allow you to take anything else.”
Beryl’s howl of frustration filled the air and shook the castle walls. I flinched and ducked my head as debris rained down. Rocks and timber slammed into the floor all around me.
Without lifting my head, I said, “I know you’re using Faust to separate Rhoan from me. You’re afraid of how strong we might be together. As it stands, you’re already afraid of me alone.”
This was all a shot in the dark. I didn’t actually know any of this for sure, but I really wanted to poke Beryl in her pride. If I could anger her enough, she might become sloppy. If I could catch her off guard, then I would be able to reach her seed and destroy it.
I should have been focused on that all along, but keeping the roof from collapsing on my head seemed pretty important. With a new goal in mind and a new resolve in my heart, I pushed deeper into the domain.
Rhoan hadn’t left me. While his absence stung, I knew that Beryl had tempted him with freedom. She’d made Faust our biggest problem so that Rhoan would go after him and leave me unguarded. Rhoan would receive a stern talking-to when he returned, but I couldn’t hold Beryl’s manipulations against him forever.
“Wherever you are, Rhoan, I want you to know that I love you…” I spoke the words out loud even though I knew that I shouldn’t.
There was no telling what those words would do if spoken out loud, but I needed to say them before I died under this rubble. Sure, I could probably use the moment the roof collapsed as an in-between and step away, but I didn’t want to run when everyone under my protection went down with the castle.
I didn’t deserve to live when others died.
Without thinking, I touched the scar on my throat. I no longer feared Alvin’s hands. Pain was something I could endure. It couldn’t kill me. Alvin’s hands had killed so many others, though. He’d taken the lives of three of our Packmates before Ness and Ryder overthrew him.
No one would die this time.
Not if I could help it.
As I closed my eyes and pushed deep into the gloomy garden of my arcana, I yearned for the warmth of sunlight again. I missed it down here in the damp chill of the dungeon, especially now that my arcana no longer conjured its own light.
I knew that this change didn’t make me any different at my heart, but the yearning remained. When light seared my eyelids, I recoiled in shock and almost pulled my hands off the floor. Another pair of soft hands pushed mine back down and held them flat.
“We thought you could use some help,” Vi said in front of me.
My eyes snapped open. I’d never been so relieved to see anyone in my life. Beside me, Addie knelt on the floor. Small plants emerged from the earthen floor between us. Vi radiated pure sunlight and bathed the undead plants in new life.
An idea struck me like lightning. Gasping, I lifted excited eyes. I’d used Addie’s darkness to counterbalance my own light and rip curses in half. Now that my own arcana was gloomy and bathed in the crimson color of blood, I could use Vi’s divine light as a counterbalance.
I braced myself. This would hurt. When I asked Vi to help, she seemed hesitant but willing. Of course, she was. The daredevil herself was down for anything.
Beryl shook the castle again. I could feel her horrid seed of power pulsing deep within the earth. Tendrils of shadow reached out of it and raced towards my own, weak seed planted in the heart of the maze outside. If she reached it, then all was over. My hold on the domain would crumble.
“You’re the sun and I’m a solar panel,” I told Vi. “Charge my batteries. Addie, keep my soul in my body.”
“Buckle up your horses!” Vi slapped her hands together like one might with the panels of a defibrillator.
“That’s not how that—” My argument was cut off when Vi hit me with the force of her power.
