Assassin's Liege

by A Lonergan

  Chapter Nineteen

  Willow

  My body shook as the frost climbed the tree beneath me. My teeth clicked together of their own free will and my magic was completely gone now. I wondered how the rest of the camp was doing or if I was in the only area that was freezing to death. I hadn’t packed for this kind of weather and with my magic on the fritz there was only so much I could do to keep warm.

  The tremors wracked my body as I pushed myself farther into the tree. I had managed to find a massive tree as I had stumbled around in the dark alone. I hadn’t planned on using it but it was beautiful to look at. I had sat under its branches as I planned out what I was going to do next. Little tiny lights had floated around me for hours as I rested. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were tiny fairies. They left me alone and I watched them quietly. But then the frost coated the ground and I knew I had to hide somewhere. The army was too far away for me to get back before the frost really took over. At the top of the trunk, there was a hole big enough for me to shimmy into. It was warm enough but I didn’t know how long it was going to protect me.

  “Hello there, little human,” Balam said from outside the tree.

  “B-b-balam?”

  He reached his arms into the hole and scooped me out of the tree. “You’re going to freeze out here.”

  “H-h-how did you f-f-find me?” My entire body was shaking now as he jumped from the top of the tree and landed with ease. I had expected some kind of shock from the landing but there was none.

  “Your magic calls to me, heathen.” He pulled a black cloak from his shoulders and covered me with it in one swoop.

  “Smart thinking with the tree and not bothering the fairies. They managed to protect you for as long as they could.” Balam’s voice didn’t shake and he walked like everything wasn’t freezing around us.

  “How are you not freezing?” The tremors in my body started to calm and my limbs started to relax. Much against my better judgment I snuggled in closer into his warmth. His campfire scent wrapped around me. And continued to calm my nerves.

  “My magic keeps my body temperature regulated at all times,” Balam said.

  “How fortunate for you.” I pressed my face into his chest.

  “It comes in handy.”

  “How are the rest of the men doing? Is it freezing there?” My body shook again and Balam tightened his arms around me.

  He stopped walking and his eyes dulled for a minute before he gave me a slight smile. “Cal is healing men as we speak and getting them all together in his tent.”

  I felt myself smile in response. “Good.”

  Panic seized my body as I realized I was not in the tent with the rest of the army. I had gone to sleep next to them, right? My mind felt fuzzy and I could no longer remember what had happened the night before. Something solid was wrapped around my body and I could hardly breathe. I pushed the huge limb off of me in a hurry and worried one of the men had kidnapped me and carried me off in my sleep.

  My fingers wrapped around my knife at my thigh and rolled over quickly. I pressed the blade against the man’s neck.

  Balam gave me an easy smile. “Good morning, little human.”

  My heart skipped a beat and my hand went slack. The blade clattered to the floor and I realized the demon was half-dressed. I gulped and tried to find my voice but it was nowhere to be found. “What happened last night?”

  “I brought you to Cal to show him that you were indeed alive and well and you fell asleep in my arms.” Balam put his arm behind his head and it took every single will power I had to keep my eyes on his face and not on his body.

  “Then why are you so close to me right now?” I considered scooping my knife back up.

  “Your lips turned blue in the middle of the night and I was afraid you were going to die.” Balam raised his eyebrows which caused me to notice how ruffled his hair was. It was dangerous. “Or worse. There are always things that are worse than death. I hope you don’t mind but before you started to freeze I looked into your book.”

  I got off of his lap and waited for him to continue. I yanked a brush through my tangled ratty hair and wished for a bath, a river, anything.

  “There was a Frost Fairy out last night. It was hunting. The entire camp could have been lost to it.” Balam stood up from his sleeping palette and watched me fight with my hair. “You’re at a loss with that mess too.”

  He took my brush from my hands and turned me around. I frowned. I wasn’t used to a man being like this with me. I looked over my shoulder and spoke softly. “Thank you for coming after me last night.”

  Balam didn’t say anything and pulled the brush through my hair gently. He moved my hair from my shoulder and his fingers worked quickly through my hair. He grabbed my hand and ran it down the length of the plaits.

  I chuckled. “Since when do you know how to do a woman’s hair?”

  “Little human, there are many things you don’t know about me. I have many hidden talents. Hel taught me much about taking care of women.”

  “Isn’t it a little girly that you can do that?” I pulled the end of the braid over my shoulder.

  Balam smirked. “If it was girly than why are you so impressed right now?”

  “I never said I was impressed.” I rolled my eyes.

  “You don’t have to say you are, you are letting off the pheromones.” Balam touched my bare shoulder.

  I pulled out of his grasp. “We should probably check on the others.”

  “Not if you aren’t up for it,” Balam said from behind me. “You were pretty overwhelmed yesterday.”

  “That was all your fault.” I shook my head.

  Everyone was fine as it turned out besides two men that were missing, but Cal believed they were deserters. They had been spewing negative propaganda since the beginning of the mission. So on we went. With no direction and no idea where we were going. According to Cal and his map we were coming upon the Artrovian kingdom any day now. I didn’t know where the map had come from. I didn’t know if he had put it together himself or it was something Loralie had given him when she had pulled him aside. I wondered how Cal was going to approach them and ask them for aid. I knew that was why we were headed in that direction but I didn’t know how he was going to manage any of this.

  I adjusted my belt and went over a few different scenarios on how to speak to Cal. I didn’t know why I felt the need to do but I knew I had to rectify this. I had to try to smooth it over. All I could feel was the tension in the air when we looked at each other.

  Balam cleared his throat to get me to look at him, but I didn’t have time to address it. The mossy, muddy ground collapsed from beneath my feet and I went with it. The air left my lungs as I plunged into the darkness below.

  Unexpected pain shot through my body as I made contact with something sharp on the way down. Not even a second later, my body lurched sideways and I rolled down a mountain of hard, pointy objects. When my body came to halting stop, I couldn’t open my eyes. Everything hurt, which was a first in an exuberant amount of time. I was pretty sure I had a decent cut on my forehead and I suspected my arm was broken, but the pain flowing through me, mixed with my adrenaline was too intense to differentiate what was happening within me. I rolled to all fours and threw up.

  When I opened my eyes, the shock took over. There was only a tiny bit of light being filtered in through the hole I had been sucked into, but from what I could see, I had stumbled upon a long-forgotten library. Somehow I had rolled down a mountain of books which explained all the sharp pieces I had hit on the way down.

  I squinted my eyes to try to see the shelving that went on and on for hundreds of feet and honestly wondered how I had survived such a fall.

  After a few minutes of my body adjusting to the pain and the darkness, I could hear Cal yelling. “My Gods! I can hardly believe it! You’ve found the Cavern of the Lost, Willow!”

  Whatever the rut that was. I pressed my fingers into the wetness dripping into my eyes and h
oped it wasn’t as bad as it felt.

  “Willow? Where are you?” Balam called out.

  A scoff echoed around me before Nico’s voice boomed. “The all-knowing finally doesn’t know something.”

  I couldn’t find my voice. It squeaked out of me. “Here. I’m here.”

  “She doesn’t sound so good.” Nico said, as rubble and dirt started to rain from the hole I had fallen through. A chill wracked my body and I watched as my dark magic wrapped around me like a cloak. Which, I desperately needed, but from the fall, it was damaged beyond repair and snagged on a book at the top of the treacherous pile of treasures.

  “What’s the Cavern of the Lost?” I asked sleepily. I was curious, but judging by how much blood was still dripping from my head, and the dreariness tugging at my mind, I didn’t need to sleep. They needed to get to me as quickly as they could.

  Nico answered, and I wondered where Cal and Balam had gone. There was no more dirt falling down on me, which was good, but also bad. It meant the men could be looking for an alternative entrance. I didn’t know why they weren’t using magic. I rolled my eyes to myself. I still wasn’t used to this rutting magical world and how it worked. “The Cavern of the Lost is essentially what the title states. Books that have been lost or misplaced, sometimes rare trinkets and treasures end up here. I thought it was a legend, like many things in the Mystic Mountains. I’m wondering what we will stumble upon next.”

  “Does that mean we should go through this?” Another wave of dizziness hit me and my body slumped to the side. I gripped onto a book tightly, but my body continued to fall.

  “No, there’s a lot of superstition that surrounds this place. Magic can’t be used here.” Nico’s voice grew farther and farther away.

  “Good to know.” I didn’t know if the words actually got out or not, but I had intended to say them as I drifted from the realm of the living and into the darkness of death.

  Chapter Twenty

  Balam

  Willow was beside me one second and gone the next. I blinked in surprise and looked around me. Damn Hel. I had a feeling she was behind this. Then Nico rushed at me, looking at the ground and I felt like an idiot. The human had managed to find a hole in the realm. One of the only ones in existence. Damn Willow and her skills for stumbling upon lost things.

  Cal was beside the redhead in a few seconds looking through the rift in the dimension. He wasn’t going to find anything. He shouted into the rift and they got a weak reply back.

  “Willow, where are you?” I called through the tear. I didn’t know if she was going to be able to hear me or not but I had to find a way to get her out of this. Hel was going to have my head on a spike if I messed this up. She had placed bets with the other horsemen that I would rut this up and I wasn’t about to have something else for them to hold against me.

  I looked at Nico and could feel my magic swirling up inside of me. “Keep her talking. I have a feeling that was a long fall. She managed to tear through this dimension and right into another.”

  My magic fell around us and I grabbed Cal by his shoulder. “Her magic did this, do you not see how powerful she is? We will not be able to go into there with our magic either. I don’t even think we will be able to go through the hole she made. Her magic is unpredictable. I always knew this but it is more apparent now than ever.”

  Cal looked at me with wild eyes. “She did this?”

  I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. “Of course. How else do you think this randomly happened? I don’t know if you have noticed or not but things aren’t exactly random when it comes to her.”

  The boy-king nodded his head. “You’re right. She is very unpredictable and that was one of the reasons I had to break things off with her. I can’t imagine her having to deal with her powers like this and worry about ruling a kingdom. She’s scared and she’s terrifying. I should have thought over this better before I asked to court her.”

  “She will rule someday and she will do incredible things. But I am honestly shocked that you broke it off.”

  I shook my head and didn’t wait for him to reply. I didn’t care to have a heart to heart with this child. I knew the truth now and I didn’t care for any more information. There wasn’t much I cared about, but Willow was one thing that I had to care for. I didn’t want to lose this bet and I certainly didn’t want to be the laughing stock of the realm of death.

  After an hour of no reply from Willow and no progress on how to get into the Cavern of the Lost, I no longer cared about superstitions. I also no longer cared if something happened to me. I was the most powerful out of all the men around me and the only one that would be able to get her out of there alive.

  I dropped down to the soggy ground and took a deep breath. Nico broke my trance and made a stupid rutting comment. “Are you sure you’re man enough for this?”

  “You keep baiting me and you aren’t going to like it when you hook me.” I looked him in the eye and let my teeth elongate. Nico blinked and took a step back.

  “Just bring her back to us in one piece,” Nico said seriously.

  I nodded my head and gripped the edges of the ground tightly. I slid my body down and the air in the rift froze my legs. I gritted my teeth as I hung there between the two worlds. I held my breath and let go.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Cal

  The demon really liked to show me up. It didn’t help that I didn’t complain or make any comments to him about it. I just let him go and save the day. But in my defense what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t be the hero to her. I had been the one that had broken the short courtship we had. I couldn’t be the one to swing in and try to save the day again. She needed a new knight to rescue her if she needed him. It could no longer be me, no matter how much I wished it could be. The kingdom needed someone that was in control of their magic, someone that could bring us together, someone that could help me restore peace after Armia’s reign. I had chosen to ignore the looks of fear on some of my people’s faces as we had marched through that day. I had seen the fear on the servants and maid’s faces as she stalked through the castle. And at this point, I didn’t know if it was duty of keeping her around or if it was because I needed her to win a war.

  I didn’t want to think that way, but how else could I think? There were too many factors that I had brushed off. Too many components I had looked over. So many issues that Wyna kept bringing up and as much as I wanted to blame it on comparison to Freya, I knew it was no longer fair to the little fairy. Wyna had been right when she had voiced her concerns, even if she was a bit hostile with her arguments.

  But that didn’t mean that I wasn’t left wondering if I was making the right choice, even though my heart hurt. There had been a lot of emotion and passion shared between us and that made me want to take everything back. All the memories made my head spin.

  Nico watched me closely. “You could have gone in there after her, you know.”

  I looked at the rift and the men standing around nervously. The army that didn’t quite know what was going on. “We will march forward. I trust that George will find and bring Willow back to us. His magic is unmatched.”

  The men looked around and shrugged at each other like they were confused. They weren’t alone, I was just as confused as they were.

  “What are you doing?” Nico whispered at me angrily.

  “I’m moving on Nico, you should too.”

  “Don’t turn into a heartless bastard just because you are afraid of confronting your feelings.” Nico snarled.

  “You know nothing of what I am going through.” I barked back.

  Nico turned around and shook his head in disbelief. “What? Giving up love because of duty? You think I haven’t had to do that? For you especially.”

  My mouth went dry and I wanted to make amends. I was burning all of the bridges around me with nowhere to go.

  All I could do was hope I was making the right choice.

  “You’re making the worst decisi
on of your life,” Nico said as he walked away from me and headed to the Artrovian territory.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Willow

  I groaned and rolled over. There was no longer any pain in my arm but my head was pounding. There was a strange tugging at my forehead and before I could open my eyes I yanked my body away from the strange sensation.

  “You are the most stubborn being I have ever met,” a voice growled above me.

  Hands grabbed my face and forced my head to stay in one place. I blinked my eyes open but I was still in darkness. “Where am I?”

  “We are still in the Cavern of the Lost. I need you to stay still so I can stitch you up.” The dark voice finally made sense in my head and I was curious as to why Balam had come for me again. I was probably becoming quite cumbersome for him.

  I shook my head. “You brought a healer’s bag down here with you?”

  He chuckled and continued to pull at my forehead. “No.”

  “Then how are you stitching me up? Don’t you dare tell me you’re using something you found in this hole!” I tried to sit up but his hand connected with my shoulder and forced me back down.

  “Here’s your first official lesson.” Balam began. “Our magic is different from there’s. Magic like yours will eventually have you hunted. Our magic can be turned tangible. It isn’t just a talent. It can take different shape and forms.”

  “I figured as much when you crafted a tent right before my eyes with yours. But I didn’t realize that our magic was the same.” I tilted my head back and blinked in the darkness.

  “It is the same because as much as I had magic before my time with Hel, I couldn’t do what I can now. My magic was minute. But that little bit of magic allowed her to infuse her magic with mine and recreate it.” His fingers brushed down my temples and I wished I could see his face. “It was somewhat of a rebirth.”