by Candy Crum
Cathillian sighed, grabbing Arryn’s hand. "Come with me. I have something to show you."
Cathillian led Arryn into the kitchen, where a large fruit basket was sitting on the table. For food grown without nature magic, the fruit looked surprisingly good.
"What the fuck is this?" Arryn asked.
Cathillian pointed at the elaborate basket on the table. "That was a gift from your evil boss. She came by here to drop it off for you for when you got home. She didn't want you to have to carry it all the way here. She said she wanted to give you a welcome not only to the Academy, but to the city."
Arryn couldn't help but stare at it, shocked that it was there. The fact that Talia knew where she lived bothered her, the gift even more so. At that moment, she noticed that the sheer fabric that had been used to wrap it had been tampered with.
"Did you open it?" Arryn asked.
Cathillian exhaled, clearly exasperated. "Yes, I did. I opened it a little while ago, and I even ate an apple out of it. Do I look dead? Because I'm assuming that's where you're going with this. That she could've poisoned it. There were at least ten other people on the street when she left here, meaning that there are probably just as many that saw her when she carried that basket here. If you or I died, it would have been obvious that she was the one who caused it, so stop that right now."
Arryn shook her head, tears threatening to fill her eyes. She couldn't explain it. She'd never been so sure of anything in her life. There was something inexplicably wrong with that woman, and hearing her talk so harshly about getting rid of someone, and with another teacher at that—especially a new one—just got under her skin.
Now, even Cathillian was convinced of Talia’s innocence.
"I don't know what to say," Arryn muttered.
Cathillian gave a sad smile. "I know you got a bad feeling about her when you first met her, but I think it was just nerves. Those dreams of yours are getting to you, and you are focusing too hard on your past. Maybe being back here is making you feel responsible for your parents in some way. Maybe you feel the need to save the city so much that you're creating a problem that isn't even there."
Arryn’s jaw dropped, her eyes widening as she stared at him.
"You do realize that what you just said is almost the exact definition of insane, don't you? Dammit, Cathillian, I heard it. I heard her say something about getting rid of someone. She's up to something, and I'm gonna prove it. Whether I prove to you she's crazy, or prove to myself that she's the best person in the world, I don't care at this point. Someone is wrong here, and I'm not going to ignore my gut because you're an idiot and got all squirrelly when a pretty girl flirted with you and then you accepted some maybe-tainted fruit."
"No offense, Arryn, but I'm a native druid. I've been practicing nature magic my entire life. That little gut feeling that you keep going on about? Mine is way stronger than yours could ever consider being, and she is not a bad person. I would've known, I promise. I wouldn't lead you wrong.”
Arryn shook her head and laughed, which was the only thing she could do, as angry as she was at that moment. "Thanks for trusting me. I'm going to my room. Don't come in there. Enjoy your not-poisoned-evil-hot-chick fruit. Try not to choke and die on it because I expect your ass to be up and ready for training at six. Food poisoning is not an excuse."
And with that, Arryn stormed up to her room to finish going through the box Amelia had given her.
11
The following morning Cathillian was up early. After Arryn had threatened him, he didn’t want to make the mistake of pissing her off again.
While he understood that she felt uneasy about Talia, he couldn’t understand the blatant hatred with no proof, especially when the Dean had seemed perfectly harmless.
While he worried that she might be acting irrationally, he decided not to talk to her about it again until she’d found whatever it was that she needed. He also figured she needed to take out some frustration, so he’d gone extra hard in training that morning.
Arryn had been up even earlier than he’d managed to be and was running on little sleep. Having stayed up all night the night before, Cathillian had assumed she’d sleep in, but that hadn’t been the case. She was up, ready and determined.
And she’d kicked his ass all over the place.
Yet another thing he shouldn’t have been surprised about, given how pissed she’d been with him. Everyone had seen what she was capable of when angry. He was just glad she hadn’t fried his ass.
Pissed or not, he was proud of how much she’d improved in such a short time. When she’d requested to train traditionally—with no holding back—he’d wondered how she would handle it.
That had been a mistake.
Hard, relentless training had been exactly what she’d needed. In only a few short weeks she’d nearly doubled her speed, agility, and skills. Since going even harder in the last week, she’d improved even more.
Now, Arryn was able to run and shoot her bow instead of standing stationary. Her accuracy while moving still needed work, but with more training, he knew she’d be just as good moving as she was while standing still.
The other added benefit had been strength. She was stronger than ever. Not having to hold back her kicks and punches had given her an increase in power, power Cathillian wasn’t even sure if she was aware of yet.
He sure as hell was. She’d left marks of her improvement all over his body.
Even after healing, he still felt sore from their match that morning. But he hadn’t wanted to use any more power than needed because he would be helping out his friends later.
Today, they were heading to the Boulevard.
Talia had sent word to the Governor of Cella, who had graciously extended the duration of time for which the one hundred men who had helped rebuild the factory were on loan. Now that the factory was nearly finished and only a few laborers were needed for what was left, the larger group was helping in other areas.
Within the last several days, the street had been torn the rest of the way apart, finishing the job that Andrew and his small group of men had started and leaving nothing more than the foundations.
It would be Cathillian’s job to designate an area for a park of sorts; someplace nice and quiet for mothers to take their children to play.
The idea had been the druid’s and Amelia had been quick to approve it when word had been brought to her by Andrew, a Boulevard man who was more than happy to have wonderful new ideas to make his home a better place.
“This is a lot bigger than I imagined,” Marie commented, looking at the area Cathillian had sectioned off for the park.
A grin broke across the druid’s face. “That’s not the first time I’ve heard a woman say that.”
Cathillian expected a snide comment in return, but was instead punched in the arm from the other side.
“Ouch!” he complained, rubbing at his shoulder as he saw Andrew shaking his head at him.
“You really can’t help yourself, can you?” Andrew asked, his expression a cross between disbelief and amusement.
Shaking his head, Cathillian told him, “Not really, no.”
Andrew nodded. “So, ya just open your mouth and out it pukes?”
Cathillian looked up for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, that’s basically it. And look… Don’t be mad because she complimented the size. I don’t plan to stand in your way. I just accept the compliments and move on.”
Marie punched Cathillian in his other arm.
“Ouch! Damn, guys. You have no sense of humor,” Cathillian complained, now rubbing both his shoulders.
“You know, they say the more you brag, the more you’re compensating,” Marie told him, pointing at his pants.
“Yeah,” Andrew added. “Ever wonder why I don’t ever mention mine?”
“Ugh! I’m gonna go play over here. You guys are huge dicks today,” Cathillian scolded, tossing his hair as he spun with an exaggerated movement.
“How would you kno
w anything about huge dicks?” Andrew shouted after him.
There was laughter behind him, which brought a smile to his own face. It was all in good fun, and he knew it. He was impressed that Marie had hit him, though. She was usually very timid, but over the past couple of weeks she’d grown used to him and his jokes.
It seemed like she wasn’t so timid anymore.
A loud screech cut through the sky, alerting Cathillian. His smile faded as he looked up to see Echo overhead. He knew her calls, and that was a warning.
Cathillian drew on the magical bond between them, allowing him to wordlessly communicate with her. In moments, he turned to the others.
“I need a horse. Now,” he ordered, his tone suddenly serious.
The others’ smiles fell as Marie and Andrew glanced at each other before looking back at him. “There are stables three blocks down on the right,” Andrew answered.
Cathillian didn’t bother responding. He turned and ran at full speed toward the stables. He had no idea why, but he knew Echo wasn’t wrong. He could feel the familiar presence of nature magic being used.
Jenna was outside the Arcadian walls.
It didn’t take Cathillian long to reach the stables, and he was fast at coaxing a horse out. Jumping on its back, he used nature magic to will it to do as he asked and was happy when the horse obliged.
As Cathillian came up to the gates, he was met with a terrible sight. The four guards at the gate had all been killed.
What the fuck? Cathillian thought.
“Echo!” Cathillian shouted. The eagle called out in response. “Get Amelia!”
The golden eagle had accompanied Cathillian to the Capitol building before, and he hoped she’d be able to get in.
Cathillian stopped his horse at the gate, inspecting the men on the ground only to see he’d unfortunately been right.
They were all dead.
Confusion took hold of him as he studied them. Normally, the recently dead still had lingering energy surrounding them, but these men didn’t. It was as though they’d been dead for days, but that was impossible.
Looking up, Cathillian saw Jenna standing roughly a hundred feet outside the gates, a dark smile on her face. A mix between disbelief and bewilderment gripped him as he began piecing things together.
Jenna was clad in black leather instead of the normal brown, green, or other earth tones the druids of the Dark Forest generally wore. The magical energy swirling around her was also dark and terrible.
Cathillian looked at the bodies lying on the ground around him, now realizing why it had seemed that they’d been dead for much longer than they had.
Jenna had used dark nature magic to suck the life from them.
At that moment, Cathillian realized that Jenna had joined the dark druids along with her brother Aeris. She'd always been rather slow and weak with warrior training as well as with nature magic, but it had now become very clear that her talents had laid elsewhere.
When it came to dark nature magic, she had been a very quick learner.
Cathillian took a few steps outside the gates toward Jenna. He stared her down, but realized that he was at a loss for words. He had no idea how to handle the situation, because it was obvious that she had come there for a fight.
"What have you done?" Cathillian asked. "How could you do this?"
Jenna's dark smile grew. "I never thought you'd actually leave the Dark Forest. Especially for an outsider. For an Arcadian."
Cathillian tightened his fist, doing his best to keep calm, although instinct told him to tear her a new asshole. If she’d crossed the line from nature magic to using magic to drain the life out of innocent men, then in his eyes, she no longer deserved to live. But until he knew what had happened, he needed to keep his wits about him.
"Arryn spent more time in the Dark Forest with us than she ever did in Arcadia. She's a druid. You and your family were the only ones who didn’t share that opinion. Don't you see that it's you who is the outsider? Can’t you see that you are the traitor?"
When Jenna laughed, it chilled Cathillian to the bone. This girl was nothing like the one he'd known in the Forest. Even though she'd always been stubborn, rude, and very unforgiving about things she didn't understand, she'd still been one of them.
Now, she was something else entirely.
Something darker, far more confident, and far more powerful. He'd never gone against a dark druid before, but he had heard stories. His grandfather told him about dark magic, and what they were capable of. It now seemed that he was going to find out first-hand.
Still smiling, Jenna called, "Cathillian, you are one of the strongest they have. You always have been. You could've been a lot more, but you wasted your time on the Arcadian. You know as well as I do that I was nothing in the Dark Forest. It wasn't until I left that I realized my true potential."
Cathillian narrowed his eyes as he took a few steps forward, further studying his opponent’s appearance. Her green eyes had started to turn grey, and her beautiful, healthy skin had become lighter in color.
He and Arryn hadn't been gone very long, so her transformation must have been a very fast one. As the years passed, her skin would turn more and more ashen, and her eyes would become cloudy or smoky in color, only a hint of their original green evident around the edges when she cast.
"You know, that sounds like a recruitment speech. You've always been rather stubborn and unbelievable, but you must be absolutely brainless if you think the grandson of the Chieftain—the only real Chieftain—would join you."
Jenna's hands rose at her sides for a moment before falling back down. "Well, you can't blame a girl for trying. I always thought that you and I would be good together, but that Arcadian bitch was always in the way. One day, you'll come to see just how pathetic she is. That is, of course, if you're still alive by then."
"Why are you here, Jenna? Why did you kill these men?" Cathillian asked. His urge to punish her for what she'd done was rising, but he had to know more first. There was a reason she had come to Arcadia, and he feared she wouldn't be the last dark druid to do so. He had to know if the city was in danger.
"I had to see for myself. I had to see how far the almighty grandson of the Chieftain had fallen. The future Elder of our tribe."
Cathillian shook his head. "Not our tribe. Not yours anymore, traitor."
Jenna glanced at the ground before looking back at him. "I suppose that's true. Fair enough. But it's not like you'll have a tribe to go home to soon. And don't think that Arryn's precious Arcadia is safe either. Well, I guess I should say your precious Arcadia, Arcadian."
That was all Cathillian could handle. Not only had she threatened the Dark Forest and by proxy his family, but she'd also threatened Arcadia and Arryn. Given the damage she had already caused, the lives she had already taken, he didn't plan to stand for any more.
"I'm sorry to hear you say that, Jenna, but I can honestly say I'm not surprised. You always were a piece of shit. You and your family."
Cathillian’s hand was a blur as he pulled the knife from his belt and threw it at her. Jenna only narrowly missed getting hit in the throat when she dodged at the last moment. Apparently, whatever she'd been learning had made her even faster on top of being more skilled in magic.
Jenna ran toward Cathillian and he toward her, quickly closing the distance between them. As he ran, Cathillian jerked a hand through the air, causing a large chunk of dirt to break free of the ground and hit her directly in the chest. The newly-turned dark druid was thrown backward onto the ground, but she was quick to roll over and get back to her feet.
Just as Cathillian was about to make contact, she spun out of the way, yanking the sword out of the sheath on his hip as she moved. She hit him in the back of the knees with its broad side, taking him to the ground before kicking him hard in the throat and collarbone as he tried to rise.
Cathillian fell back, coughing hard as his hand involuntarily reached for his throat. Before he could reach it, Jenna had s
traddled him, knocking his hand out of the way and wrapping her hand around his throat instead.
It had been hard to take him down, especially for Jenna. There were a handful of warriors in the tribe that were stronger than he who could take him down with little effort on their part. They were the warriors he loved to train with most because they made him better.
Jenna had never been one of them.
In fact, she had always been the weakest. But there he laid, flat on the ground, barely able to breathe, Jenna straddling him with her hand wrapped around his throat. He didn't want to be bested by the likes of her, but he very quickly found himself unable to move.
As he did his best to throw her off, he felt his body growing weaker and weaker. Just as a druid of the Dark Forest connected to nature and used their power to push that pure energy toward their target to heal them, Jenna was using her power to pull energy from him.
Soon, Cathillian was unable to move, forced to lie there staring into her cold grayish-green eyes as she looked down at him and smiled.
"I always wondered what it would be like to get you in this position. Well, with a little less clothing and a lot less dark magic." Jenna shook her head, her eyes never leaving his. "Unfortunately, we don't always get what we want, do we?"
Cathillian swallowed, the pain of that action terrible from both the kick to the throat and the dark magic flowing through him. Still, he found the energy to speak, unwilling to let her take him without some sort of fight.
"I always knew you were capable of treachery, just like your brother. In case you hadn't noticed, I was raised by the strongest woman in the entire tribe. There's no way in hell I would've chosen the weakest in the tribe to bring home to her. It would've been an insult to her and myself."
Jenna turned angry then, her expression revealing her rage as she leaned forward, her face only a breath away from Cathillian's. "You have no idea how sorry you are about to be. I would kill you, but you're my messenger. I need you to live."
Though it pained him, Cathillian forced a smile. "That's too bad. I guess that means I'll have to suffer through seeing you again. On the other hand, it also means I’ll get the privilege of seeing Arryn again." He threw that last bit in just to piss her off even more, though he knew it was a bad idea, given that she literally had his life in the palm of her hand.
