“I was in the final battle, what we have all been preparing for, but it was like nothing we could have imagined. I will save the graphics, but none of us in this room survived.”
The room now felt suffocating and gloomy. All of the joy everyone had been feeling about my resurrection was now gone.
“How did it happen?” Thomas asked.
“You all died in various ways. In my last trial I discovered one of my gifts, beautiful fiery wings. I used them to fly up to Kennan, who was on the back of a dragon. He had convinced them to help him. I shot up to his level with my new wings, and then knocked him off the side. He had dark magic he had been throwing around, killing everything it touched. I knew he would likely kill me in battle before I could kill him, so the only thing that came to mind was to make sure I took him out with me. He couldn’t fight me because I had my arms wrapped around him in our free fall. My wings were too hot as I wrapped them around our bodies, like a fiery cocoon. If he moved, he was burned. Right before we hit the ground, I exploded for good measure. I wasn’t letting Kennan get away.``
I was greeted with more silence.
“So that’s the story of my death, I want to hear about why we are here, and I am not back in my comfy bed,” I said to break the shocked stillness.
“Who wants to tell this story?” Wisdom looked around after asking his sarcastic question.
“I will, of course,” Trin spoke up, shooting me a grin.
I’m so happy she’s ok and didn’t drown. Well she did, but I’m glad she lived through it.
“I had actually just woken up from my dream, in which a bunch of us had drowned. Now I know that is not just a dream, but real. Thanks for drying us off before you passed out by the way,” she teased.
I rolled my eyes.
“Anyways I had just woken up and I heard the alarm go off. I figured it was no big deal, but one by one other alarms went off until it hit four. I knew we had to flee and fast. I ran through the family wing and forced them to leave with Thomas and I.”
Suddenly Axel jerked forward.
“Where is my family?” he asked.
His face was angry and scared at the same time.
“Relax, they fled with us. I wouldn’t have left there without them. Your mother and Jessica went out shopping for food and should be back from the markets any minute.”
“Thank the Goddess,” he said.
He slumped back into his chair with relief.
He was exhausted, and so was I.
“So what is the plan from here?” Thomas asked.
“Axel and I are going to sleep, then eat. After that we can make further plans. Sounds good?”
“Sorry,” Thomas said. “I guess I got a little carried away.”
“Don’t apologize, you’ve been brought into the group, and thinking ahead is what we do. But right now I can’t dedicate another brain cell to anything other than sleep.”
With that I stood up and pulled Axel over to the bed that was in the corner. I laid on my side facing the wall, with Axel curling in right behind me.
This may not be my bed in the castle, but at least I had my world with me.
Chapter Six
Violet
“So let me get this straight? The best chance we have is to convince the feman, the mermaids, and the dragon’s to help us?” Trin asked.
“Yes that’s our best shot. The feman and the werewolves can battle it out. The mermaids can grant us safe passage to the waters surrounding Tate and keep any unwanted sea creatures away. The siren Queen commands all of the sea creatures. With her help, our army will make it there safely. The dragons, they really need no explanation. It’s not so much about needing their help as it is about preventing them from helping Tate,” I explained. I’d had the past four days to think about what I would want to do, given the chance.
“I agree, but Queen Violet, that’s a lot. We were preparing to attack Tate within what, a week? You’d have to travel all over the continent. Even with your fancy new wings, that’s asking far too much,” Thomas said.
“Not if we split up.”
His eyes grew.
“Look, we don’t have the castle to worry about anymore. That will be there for the winner. Now that we don’t have that weighing us down, we need to do this quickly. What are the people going to think if we let this drag out? We can’t let them give up hope, which means we finish this, quick. A week will be just long enough.”
“But your father?” Trin said.
“What about him?” Axel asked, knowing there was something we hadn’t told him..
“He left here and went to the border of Corone and Tate. He has been sending me secret letters with information. He actually told me about Kennan stealing magic before I saw it first hand in the trial.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
I could see the hurt on his face for a brief moment, before he forced it back to neutral expression.
“Axel, so much was going on at once. I was going to tell you once we were done with the trials...”
“But you died instead.”
“Yes, I died before I could. So here I am telling you now, after a detour. As I was saying, we can split up. Trin, you and Thomas will go convince the Siren Queen to help us. Axel and I will ask the femen for their help on our way to the Dragons. If we split up, we can easily knock a day or two off our timeline, keeping the element of surprise.
“But back to your father...” Trin added.
“He is a grown man, he can take care of himself. It’s my understanding he is on the border of Tate and Corone. He should remain out of harm’s way if we are granted safe travel by boat. We don’t want to draw any attention to him, he will be safer that way.”
“I hope you are right,” Trin said.
“Me too.”
“What about us? What can we do to help?” Star asked me.
I thought about that for a moment.
“You know, Star and Luna have control over ‘things of the earth’ as you called it,” Trin said.
“That’s right, you do!” I said. “Hmm… You know, if all of us leave, we need someone here to protect the family. Do you think you two can use your magic to do that?” I asked them.
Star and Luna looked at each other, their smiles glowing. They looked back at me and nodded enthusiastically.
“Perfect. I really appreciate you two. I feel so much better knowing they are safe with you,” I said for good measure. Leaving our family protected was important. Kennan could use them against me, that could have been his goal in attacking the castle.
The twins giggled, appreciating the attention.
“When do we head out?” Thomas asked.
“Tomorrow,” Trin and I said together.
She had put on a brave face. I have a very clear idea about who will be calling the shots on their mission.
I held out my hand and created a beautiful gold tiara decorated with golden sea shells. The front of the crown rose up over the back of the crown looking like a golden tidal wave. Diamonds were encrusted around the bottom of the crown, and around the top of the wave. It was beautiful.
The Siren Queen won’t be able to resist this.
“This will be your bargaining chip. You give this to the Queen as a sign of my gratitude for her agreement to help. If there is anything else she wants, use your judgment. If it’s something within my power, promise it. We need all the help we can get.”
“I will, I promise,” Trin said.
“I know you will. You are the most capable person I know,” I said, and truly meant it.
We just reunited and now we had to part ways again.
This sucked but, what could I do? We would have all the time in the world to relax after we ended this war, ended Kennan. I couldn’t think about any alternative.
“Why don’t you go see the Children of the Willows?” Great Aunt Beetie said to Trin.
“Who are the Children of the Willows?” I asked.
“A small gro
up of necromancers, dear. They live near the border of Morthsoul and Morthshadow. It would be nothing for you to swing towards the border after you speak with the Siren Queen. Maybe they can help you learn more about your powers, or maybe they can join us in this fight.”
Trin’s eyes were huge. I could tell by her closed off body language that she didn’t want to meet with this group, whoever they were. However, she was a logical thinker, and I knew that she would eventually decide to visit them anyways. She was not the kind of person to sit around. If the visit would help her gain some knowledge about this gift of hers, she would jump on it, eventually.
If she brought some of them back with her to fight for our side, then I’d really be impressed.
We spent the rest of the evening talking. Trin eventually moved to the bed to quietly read her book. Thomas sat beside her, playing with her hair. He looked lost in thought. I trusted him to keep her safe. Watching him play with her hair, showed me how much he cared about her.
Axel ate at the table, and he was very quiet. It seemed like he was still lost in the fog of depression caused by my death. While Trin’s magic had healed me, Axel hadn’t been touched by that magic. His depression was an illness that couldn’t be healed so easily. He had lost a lot of weight over the past week. Everything had moved at light speed since he and I left the castle. When I died, he stopped only once to get a few hours of restless sleep. My heart ached for my soulmate. I wanted to fix what broke inside of him after my death, but only time and an end to this war could heal it. I could feel his anxiety from across the room. He got me back this time, but would we be so lucky next time. Could he survive something like that again?
Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.
I leaned up against the window and watched those I care about move around the room. Axel’s mother and sister had returned from the market during our nap. Luckily for them they missed all the drama, but they had been quickly brought up to speed.
Jessica was propped up on the floor with her back leaning against the side of the bed. Her feet were stretched out in front of her, and her arms were crossed. She stared at me, and had not stopped since she sat down there.
I did my best to ignore her stare, but I could feel her just waiting for me to address her. She was going to be passive aggressive until we talked, I could just feel it.
Whatever she had to say wasn’t as important as the mental plans I was formulating. While Trin and Thomas were with the Siren Queen, and then the Children of the Willows, I would need to convince the feman to help us. That would hopefully be as simple as paying a bribe. Venia warned me that they would want something I might not be willing to part with. With my magic I could make anything I would need, aside from another Axel. As long as they don’t ask me to throw him to the bottom of the Red River, then I could pay their price.
After convincing the feman to join us, I would need to get the dragons to help us. I had absolutely no idea how I would do that. After all, I injured one of them.
Would I be able to right that wrong, even though it was an accident?
I have absolutely no idea how that would turn out. If they agreed just to remain neutral, and promised they would not join Kennan, I would consider that a win. If by some miracle they agreed to fight for me, then I would be ecstatic. If I had the dragons on my side, that meant certain victory, right?
After all of that was done we needed to get on a boat and sail to Tate in the quiet of the night. When the sun rises there, they would wake up to the sight of our ships and war on their doorstep. Kennan would rue the day he decided to take a simple rejection and make it so personal.
I would end this, and I would change the vision that Venia showed me. The Morthlands and the rest of the continent would finally know peace.
Chapter Seven
Violet
I went home in my sleep that night, as did Axel. We didn’t want to go home in the middle of our journey and be unprotected, so we settled for one last trip before we started the new quest. There were things we needed to do there before we committed to spending many nights in The Morthlands without returning to Arlington, like making sure our earth bodies were still breathing. I’d spent over five days away, and had died in another world. I needed to make sure I took care of this body too.
Luckily our bodies were ok, just very cold.
After we wrapped up in blankets and took care of hygiene, laundry and some husband and wife activities, I finally relaxed. I just wanted two hours to myself to unwind without being under someone’s scrutiny. Without having a Kingdom to think about. My mind would always worry about it, but there was less pressure here.
Axel and I were halfway through a mindless romantic comedy when there was a loud banging on my door. It sounded frantic, and certainly not friendly.
Axel got up and checked through the peephole.
“It’s a woman, who looks a lot like you,” he said.
Crap, that must be mom! What is she doing here, and why is she banging like that?
“Let her in.”
She came bursting through the door the second it was opened, and she looked like she had been through hell.
“You were right, you were right. I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you.”
“Mom, what happened to you?”
She was covered in bruises, her hair was a mess, and her shirt had some holes. I was going to kill the asshole responsible for this.
“He tried to kill me.”
“Who?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
“Don’t make me say it,” she pleaded.
I wouldn’t be that cruel.
“Ok, ok, sit down.”
I directed her towards the couch, wrapped her in a blanket, and rubbed her arms up and down. I was kneeling in front of her.
“Did he follow you here?” I asked.
“No, I don’t think so, but I can’t be certain.”
She was so shaken. I had never seen her like this before.
“Axel, grab the sword and be ready,” I told him.
He nodded his head, and he ran to the bedroom to grab the sword that was propped up against the wall next to his side of the bed.
My mom’s head whipped around when she realized it wasn’t just us.
“Who is he?” she whispered.
“That’s my boyfriend,” I said proudly.
“Why didn’t you tell me about him?” she asked.
“Because you wouldn’t have cared unless we double dated with your boyfriend,” I said. I struggled to keep the resentment out of my voice.
“Ouch, I deserved that,” she said, as she nodded her head.
“Yes you did,” I said, evenly.
Axel came back into the room holding the sword.
“Mom, this is Axel. Axel, this is my Mom.”
Axel remembered what I taught him about our customs and reached out to shake her hand. She stood up and grabbed his hand, and then she pulled him into a hug. Mom’s back was to me, so I saw Axel smile at the warm gesture.
She pulled away.
She looked back to me and then asked, “so now what?”
“Now that you believe me that he is a murderer, I have a very, very long story to tell you. I hope that you will believe it.”
Then I explained what has happened since I found Victoria’s necklace.
☼
Two hours of storytelling later, I was a little breathless and mentally a little unstable. The story brought me to a lot of things that had weighed me down for so long. They still did from time to time, but keeping my eye on the prize, killing Kennan, was what’s kept me afloat.
“Wow,” was my mom’s first word.
She sat quietly through the whole story, intently listening. She grabbed my hand when I had needed support, but let me continue.
“Wow is right,” Axel added.
“You brought Mom there?” she asked, very well knowing I mentioned that in my story.
I nodded.
“Can you bring me th
ere?” she asked.
“Mom, it’s very dangerous there right now. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Vi, I just almost died. I escaped because I took my stiletto off and stabbed him in the head with it. Then I ran all lopsided to my car. If I can do that, I can accompany you there and defend myself.”
It was a completely different set of circumstances. She was lucky that the guy didn’t have a gun or knife. He underestimated her and thought his size and brute strength would be enough.
She’d explained that when he had grabbed her by the neck he’d mentioned something about following orders. I knew exactly whose orders they were. Kennan was desperate now to destroy me, and he was going to retaliate any way he could. I was just relieved my mom was now in the know, now she knew she needed to be careful, and that she was in real danger. Because of me.
“I’m going with you,” she said.
We were all getting ready to split up. I couldn’t take her there now. She’d be in more danger there. Not to mention, now that we were all together and she was being hunted, we couldn’t leave all our bodies here unattended.
“How about a compromise? Axel and I are leaving on a mission there, where we can’t take you with us. There is about to be a war, and I can’t worry about you being there. I will take you to the Morthlands when it is over, when it is peaceful.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Mom…”
“No, I will wait until after your mission, but you will come get me before the war,” she negotiated.
“Fine,” I said, letting her think she won. I would do no such thing.
She’d have no way to know what was going on. I had spent the better part of a year lying to her. What was one more lie? Especially now that I came clean about the rest. She was too headstrong, like me, but I was trained, and she wasn’t.
Emerald Wars (The Dream Traveler Book 3) Page 4
