Heir of Vaashaa: The Lost Child of the Crown (The Lost Child of the Crown Series Book 2)

by Celine Simpson

  “You’re what?” My attention snapped immediately to Dee and I could tell the confusion I felt was clear on my face.

  “The ships on the horizon, if it is true, if it really is the Rouella then I need to go to them, I need to bring them in. Prove who I am and that they have come for a worthy cause.”

  “Then I should come with you…” Terra shot back before the last word had left Dee’s mouth.

  “No.” Her answer was final, I swear it echoed off the trees around us. Terra flinched back as if the word had made a physical blow. Dee’s face softened immediately and she took a step closer to Terra.

  “You are needed here. You know you are. I will make the trip north, perhaps I will even see your people, let them know you are found, and safe.”

  I felt a pulse through the bond, a longing that ached so much I wanted to crawl in on myself. I stepped forward and put my hand on the small of Terra’s back. She looked up at me and ever so slightly the feeling eased a bit, the weight of it shared between the two of us was indeed not so heavy.

  “How will you make it back in time? Should you make it there, you would have to be back within days. And bringing a legion as large as the one carried on those ships? You’ll never make it in time.”

  Terra asked the question with a certainty that made me think Dee would make the realisation herself that the trip was impossible given our timeline. The foolish hope I had put into the arrival of Dee’s people began to ebb away. Why hadn’t we even thought of this earlier. They had been sitting there – unmoving – for so long. How do we even know they would agree to come and fight? Terra moved a hand behind her back to grip mine that still rested on the small of her back.

  “It’s called vanishing. I can’t do it for more than just my own person, maybe one other if I was well rested. But I will be able to make it to Move before you have set up camp for the night.”

  “And to bring them back?” I pressed.

  “When there are many of us, our magic links. Together, myself with all the Rouella we can bring the legion straight onto the battlefield. It will be a mist that grows dense until we appear. You will be able to notice it only moments before we are there.”

  Dee moved her attention back to Terra whose face had softened and I knew she wasn’t going to fight Dee on this, she was going to let her go. I stepped aside slightly as Dee moved up to grip Terra by the shoulders.

  “Terraleise, you must listen to me. Continue west, meet up with your allies from Shellandria and march to Altrey. You must focus only on what you need to do. Do not allow what haunts you, what lurks in the shadows to stop you. You are the Heir of Vaashaa, and we cannot win this if you do not rise up.”

  “Heir? Of Vaashaa? Dee…” Terra stopped as Dee shook her head fiercely, eyes flicking to mine in a way that told me what she was going to say was important for me to know as well.

  “I had suspected that it would be you. Your mother, she also suspected. Her power was vast but yours, yours is limitless Terraleise. We saw it. What you did in the forest, to allow the magic of the earth draw from you in order to take back its own that had been stolen, it should have killed you Terra. The pressure on your mind, your magic. Your soul. It should not have been possible. You sustained the earth with only you magic. Do you realise that? And to be soulbound. Your souls are matched. To be soulbound means to be linked. You can fuel Silas’s magic, and he yours just as you were practising. That power is beyond anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes. In many of the lifetimes that passed before us too. You – both of you – it is up to you in the end, up to you on what you can give. What you’re willing to give.”

  There was nothing to say, how could there be anything to say back to that? Dee stepped back, composing herself once again.

  “I will be there. When you enter the battlefield and the war begins I will be right beside you.” And then she closed her eyes, becoming nothing but mist right before us until we found ourselves looking deeper into the forest in the place she had been.

  I stepped forward, turning to face Terra whose eyes still seemed to be searching the air for traces of her. Looking at the faces of the rest of our company, how they too stood in shock at what they had just seen, what they just heard.

  I reached my hand out to Terra, when finally she tore her gaze from the spot Dee had been and looked at my hand before she slid hers into it without question and followed me deeper into the forest.

  Twenty One

  Heir of Vaashaa heir of Vaashaa heir of Vaashaa.

  I was in a trance that had me so consumed in my own mind I could barely register Silas leading me further into the forest or the rest of our group trailing behind.

  We walked for some time, the path before us clearing naturally. The forest around us must have known that my mind was somewhere else, that walking through, and stepping over, the debris of fallen branches and leaves wasn’t something my mind or body was capable of doing without falling flat on my face.

  My mind was racing over everything that had happened, everything from the last year that could have earned myself the title, the responsibility, of being the only hope to this world. Perhaps it was small minded to think the threat was just to Vaashaa. Should my uncle have the mind to destroy everything we knew and loved here, what would stop him from moving north, to Dee’s home. Guarded as they were by the Rouella, still it was clear his greed held no boundaries.

  I barely heard any of the questions Silas asked me, offering only a nod every now and then when he took my face in his hands and asked me if I was okay. We made it to a spot that seemed sufficient one way or another and our camp was set for the night. It had become incredibly quick and easy to set up camp. Having done it day and night during out journey through the ranges, Silas left me seated under the protective cover of a pine and was back in mere moments.

  I was in a daze. I knew he had sat with me for a short while, I knew he had tried to ask me something but the shock hadn’t begun to move on from my system. The words I wanted to form were not coming out of my mouth.

  Heir of Vaashaa.

  The implication of that title alone was enough to run my blood cold. Dee had said what had happened in the forest should have killed me. Perhaps she was wrong, perhaps because of the weeks that Cander inflicted me with the same process it made me strong, more capable of handling the effects of what a magical transfer would do, the damage it would inflict. The theory sounded plausible in my mind, but I think somehow I knew that it was a shot in the dark. An arrow aimed into the fog, flying towards a target that did not exist.

  The movements of the camp around me happened in a blur. The fire was lit and Simeera had ventured out and back – as always – bringing with her a couple of rabbits. She handed them to Asher who had begun working on them quickly and efficiently before skewering and placing them over the fire. There was no smoke that rose from the roaring flame that warmed me from my position under the tree. Courtesy of Silas’s gift keeping us safe and hidden.

  I vaguely began to feel the aches of my body. A full day of walking and movement to all of a sudden no movement at all. I could feel my body start to tingle, the numbness I hadn’t noticed set in had begun to dissipate. Taking a deep breathe in, the absence of feeling was suddenly replaced with an overwhelming rush of emotion, but none of it came from me. I felt it through our bond.

  Silas knew to give me space. There was always an unspoken understanding between us, one that had formed long ago and on its own. I had a tendency to become overwhelmed very quickly, but it only lasted for a short time. While I worked through everything, all the details to I needed to make sense of, he would watch on from afar, looking at me the very same way he was looking at me now. The difference, however, was that I was never able to feel the raging helplessness that coursed through him as he looked on. A sudden pang of selfishness flowed through me. My eyes flicked over to where he stood looking between me and the fire, probably trying not to let on that he was looking at me. I sent back over the bridge between our souls a soo
thing touch. Like a cooling wave of calm over his raging, stormy sea. It was instantaneous, the tension that released in his whole body. The frown that lived between his eyes smoothed out, giving him back his youth before his eyes moved into my direction. I lifted a hand towards him, beckoning him over.

  He moved towards me and where I expected him to sit beside me he merely crouched, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear and placing a tender kiss just below my jaw. When he moved back his eyes pierced me with such incredible longing it was hard to think straight. Hard to remember what exactly it was that had sent me into this spiralling shock in the first place.

  “Walk with me?” His voice was full of the same emotion that coursed through me. I merely nodded, not trusting my own voice. Helping me up, I linked my arm through his and we made our way further into the forest and away from our camp.

  The night was unseasonably warm. If memory served correctly, this was the turning point of the season. Autumn would follow its last warm evening with the start of a very cold winter. Silas led us onward, clearly knowing where he was going. Every so often we would stop, and he would hold me gently, placing a feather light kiss onto my lips. Every time he did it, my body started to tremble with want. His eyes had slowly left their bright casualness for a darker shade that had my stomach tightening into infuriating longing.

  Unlinking my arm from his, he took my hand and led me through an area of thicker trees. I knew where we were going. I could feel it. There was a natural pool of water just beyond what we could see and down a little ways.

  As we came up to its edge, I raised my eyes noticing an unnatural amount of moonlight. Just in this spot there was a break in the canopy above us. Clear as day I could see the night sky above. The stars glittered intensely, set ablaze by the accompanying moon. I closed my eyes.

  There was something incredibly calming about the moonlight. Where the sun filled me with want, a buzz of energy that contributed to my courage and drive, the moon appealed to my heart. Breaking down whatever walls had been built so securely in the day.

  Maybe it was because I had known the dark for what seemed like a very long time to not have light. It was a different darkness, the gloom of a cell beneath a palace. The wet coldness of the dark that had never known a kindness in its existence. This darkness was different, this darkness breathed life into my wrecked soul, my damaged mind. It brought me closer to the surface of the unrelenting stormy swell I felt to be always struggling to catch my breath in.

  I had been so caught up in my own thoughts that when Silas came up behind me to wrap his arms around my waist it pulled me straight back to the present with a small jump. A place I desperately wanted to remain in, especially now.

  Moving my hair to the side, Silas followed the curve of my neck down to the collar of my uniform with his lips. His breath was warm and sent my body into overdrive, my heart picked up to a pace that I was sure he could hear. When he reached my collar, he moved a hand to the front of my jacket, easily undoing the securing buttons and ties until it was open at the front.

  While I was doing my best to breathe I had forgotten that, when I had managed to adorn the uniform in the servants’ quarters I had no time – and even lesser options – to wear anything beneath it. It seemed we came to the realisation at the same time, because his breath hitched a moment before he let out a throaty groan and spun me around.

  Silas had already done the hard part of removing the top half of his fighting leathers. He stood in front of me showered in moonlight, the hard planes of his chest defined by the muscles of the warrior he was. The corded muscles of his forearms were taut, much like the bond between us, with anticipation.

  All over his body were pale pink lines. The only reminder of his encounter with the ancient wind of the land. I knew he felt the pain that coursed through me at the sight of them. His hand reached for mine and squeezed it in comfort, but now was not the time to dwell on the pain of our past, of our journey here. It was the time to be set free of the shadows they had cast upon us.

  It was easy to forget how strong Silas was, that it wasn’t just his magic that was lethal, but his body was a weapon in and of itself. Most of his time growing up, I remembered, was spent training to become the man that I beheld today.

  My need for him didn’t subside, but I found myself needing to also take in the moment a little slower. So many things I had never thought I’d see again.

  I lifted my hand up, tracing my fingers gently from the base of his throat all the way down his abdomen to where the lower muscles of his stomach disappeared below the line of his pants. I took another moment to appreciate that he was before me wearing nothing but tight leather pants and I felt my core coil all over again, a shiver wracking my body.

  Moving my eyes back up to his face I found he was looking at me with an intensity that meant he was done waiting. Not breaking his stare, I took off my jacket that he had expertly undone and let it fall to the ground beside me. His eyes moved so slowly it was excruciating, roaming down my body. A breeze that was laced with spring floated around my body like a ribbon, causing my breasts to peak and become heavy. A small sound escaped my mouth and before I could take another breath Silas crushed his lips to mine.

  Hoisting me up with ease, I wrapped my legs around his waist. He had one hand pressed securely to my back while the other made its way up to hold one of my breasts. His mouth only left mine to occupy the other.

  My hands moved to fist his hair, a silent demand to bring his mouth back to mine.

  He obeyed without question.

  Turning us around moving a small ways from the bank of the water pool he knelt down gently before placing me on the floor of the forest. The leaves beneath me didn’t bother me in the slightest. Their presence; being surrounded by the forest and immersed in a spring breeze that continued to roam my body; I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. Kissing me once again before he moved up to standing, looking down on me with a primal sort of appreciation. His hand untied the band securing the top of his pants and he slid them down before standing back up to his full height in front of me. My mouth hung open slightly as I took him in with greedy eyes. I gulped too loudly for him not to hear and flushed with the thought. All he responded with was a small smile that grew on the side of his mouth and the darkening of his eyes, matching the forest around us.

  We had been together before, but it wasn’t like this. It was rushed, and fast and hurried because we didn’t know when, or if, we would ever get the time again, the space. But now, after so much had happened… so I slid my gaze down from the top of his light brown hair, the blonder streaks looking silver in the light of the moon, all the way down to the impressive length of him and didn’t cower when I moved my eyes finally back up to his, having watched me the whole time, and gave him a smile of my own.

  An invitation.

  He knelt before me, taking a moment to move his own gaze down my body before swiftly removing my own pants.

  “Gods.” The word left his mouth in a rasp.

  I couldn’t handle the distance any longer. I reached up to hook my hand gently behind his neck to pull him down to me, our mouths meeting again as if they had never parted. He slid his hand that cupped the side of my face – his other holding him up as to not crush me with his weight – began to move slowly down my neck. He continued his passage down my shoulder and over the curve of my breast. Along the dip of my waist and the line of my hip, down my thigh before he circled back and pressed his fingers to the spot where I needed him most. He caught the sound of my delighted surprise with a kiss and he continued to move his fingers in a circular motion.

  He was driving me insane.

  “Silas.” I was hoping for it to sound strong and in control, but his name slipped out feather light and sounded more like a plea. I suppose it was. He smirked and moved himself to my entrance before entering me slowly. A gasp left both of our mouths at the joining until he was pressed firmly to his hilt. He remained still, giving me time to adjust.


  “Okay?” He asked breathless, the muscles in his jaw twitching at the restraint. I answered him with another deep kiss that caused him to begin moving. Slowly at first, every emotion we had both felt swam between us on the open line of our bond. Everything that had been hidden in the shadows, locked away and attempted to be forgotten burned in the light of the night around us as the ashes swept away on the wind that was Silas. My throat felt thick with emotion as Silas brought his forehead down to meet mine.

  “I love you.” And with those three words he had begun to sew my soul back together. “I love you.” He said again, louder this time because he knew I needed to hear it.

  “I love you.” I repeated back to him, closing my eyes and savouring the closeness. When I opened them again his gaze was piercing green. The lust I’d seen before had been building more taut until it finally snapped.

  Grazing his teeth down my neck he built up speed, his hand moving under me to press against my back, lifting me closer to him. In a sudden wave of intensity we both climaxed, my yells absorbed by his mouth and his by mine. Seeing stars, he lowered me back to the forest floor leaning down to rest his body on mine, not all of his weight, but most.