Harvest: Faction 1: (The Isa Fae Collection)

by Conner Kressley

  “Good,” he smiled, waving his hands and releasing the children. Relief filled me as their skin started to return to normal. Just as quickly, though, the fog went away, and I was left with only Westman, this castle, and my horrible promise.

  He clapped twice. An army of people rushed in, settling around me.

  “Bring our queen to the throne room,” Westman said, smiling. “We’re about to save the world.”

  Chapter 33

  I felt as though I were back at the beginning as the army of people circled me, forcing me toward the throne room. I entered the sprawling room—a huge place with high ceilings and lit torches on the walls. A pair of large golden chairs sat at the end of the room, lifted off the floor by what must have been the same sort of dark magic that Westman assured me had always been flowing through my veins. Along either of the side walls, bleachers jutted up toward the infinitely high ceiling. And on them, like death birds circling a corpse, were Westman’s followers. They were here to watch me play my part, to watch me do what I had apparently been born to do.

  It was the Harvest all over again.

  It seemed strange to me that, after everything I’d been through, I was right back here. For all Westman’s talk of equality and justice, he was doing the same thing to me that the Elders had done. He may have been worse, though, because he still wished to remain morally superior through the process. For all the Elders’ faults—and there were many—I always felt they at least partially registered the harshness of what they were doing and the way they acted. Westman, though… Well, he thought he was some sort of twisted savior.

  Again, the people around me cleared a path straight to the pair of floating thrones. As I passed them, my heart in my throat, I heard them call me queen as they took to their right knees.

  My stomach roiled. I had spent my entire life wishing I could be equal to the people surrounding me, but I had never, not for even a minute, wanted to be better than them. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. Still, what could I do? One word of rebuttal from me, and Westman would mercilessly kill those children, maybe more children, maybe all the children. The bastard definitely had it in him.

  I couldn’t be responsible for that. Sure, my actions might destroy the faction and everyone in it, but that was abstract. It was something I couldn’t see, something I couldn’t touch and feel. It wasn’t like those children out in the field. It wasn’t immediate.

  I shook my head, choking back tears and wondering how things had ever gotten to this. Still, even as I lamented the horror I’d found myself in, I kept walking. I had to. There was no other choice.

  Karr’s face flashed through my head as I neared the floating throne. If I had only stayed with him, then none of this would be happening. We’d have found the safe house. We’d have found his people. We might have had a chance of winning this thing.

  I settled in front of the chairs, my entire body threatening to shudder as I took them in. The large golden thrones floated at eye level, bobbing gently back and forth in the air. They were ridiculous: even more indicative of inequality than the faction itself, which seemed insane to me given Westman’s proposed ideology.

  As if he could hear my inner objections, Westman strode up to me. The path the crowd cleared was twice as wide for him. By the time he reached me, the onlookers were either all shoved into the bleachers or beginning to walk that way.

  “Which one would you prefer, my queen?” he asked, motioning to the thrones. “I just had them commissioned. So feel free to take your pick.”

  “I just want this over with,” I muttered, trying to contain my anger and disgust. “I just want to do what I have to do and get away from here.”

  “Away?” he asked. His head dipped back as he laughed. “My dear, what we’re doing today is only a prelude to what I have planned. Once the interior of the Box is fortified with our magic and day and night is stabilized, we will set forth in creating a new kingdom. And a new kingdom needs a dynasty—a royal family for the people to look up to and rally behind.”

  “Royal family?” I asked. The idea shook me to my core.

  “Of course,” he nodded. “With me as king, you as queen, and our children as the future of this place.”

  It took all I had not to retch, but it did not stop me from physically recoiling.

  “I’m not having children with you,” I said through clenched teeth.

  “Really?” he chimed. “Because I remember a time not too long ago when you swore you wouldn’t help me with this spell and, well, look at you now.” He grabbed both of my hands forcefully, and a jolt of energy rushed between us. “You will do as I say, or the world will pay for it. Do you understand me? You might have as much power as I do, but you don’t know how to use it. Even if you did, you’d never be as ruthless as I can be, pity as that is. I was so hoping for an equal.”

  He squeezed my hands so tightly that I fell to my knees, the energy still pouring from Westman and myself. His eyes went red, and the entire castle seemed to melt away. Brick by brick, it disappeared, leaving only us, his followers, and those damn floating chairs.

  “It’s time,” he said sinisterly. “It’s time to open the Box!” He pulled me back to my feet and, with a jerk, thrust me against himself. He pressed his lips hard against mine, and I could feel my energy diving into him.

  I screamed against him, but I was weakened instantly.

  I fell to the ground as he let me go.

  Above us, a break of sunlight tore through the night sky.

  My heart shot into a panic. I hadn’t expected it to start so quickly. I thought I had time—time I didn’t know what to do with, but time nonetheless.

  But now… now it already happening.

  “There,” he screamed. “There it is! The fruit of my labor, the security of this place… the end of the faction!”

  Chapter 34

  A wave of energy shook the area where we stood, all black and without definition.

  Looking to the source of it, I found a bright blue shockwave of magic rushing into my line of sight.

  “Let her go!” a familiar voice said from the other side of the area.

  Looking over, I saw Karr with an army of his own, full of his own people as well as the fish monsters we’d run across in the forest. He must have convinced them to join sides.

  He had come for me, and he had brought firepower with him.

  “Fools,” Westman said from above me. “Do they really think they stand a chance?” He looked out at his people, who far outnumbered Karr’s army. “Get them!” he screamed, inciting a riot the likes of which I had never seen.

  From the ground, terror shot through my heart. I had already helped Westman start the spell that would destroy the faction, and now Karr and his people would die, too. I was going to lose everything. Evil would win the day, and it would be my fault.

  More than that, though, I felt anger. Looking up at Westman, all I wanted was to rip the black heart out of his body. He had done this to me. He had set me up from the start. He had turned Arbor into a walking obituary to fish me out of Faction One, and for that, he needed to pay.

  But I had no atern. I hadn’t been back to the safe house like Karr, and although I had magic inside of me to keep me alive, I still had no idea how to use it.

  And then there was Mr. Renner, or rather, the memory of him. He stepped back into my mind, reiterating his words of wisdom. His voice still with me, his words reminding me: what I wanted mattered. I had spent my entire life as an afterthought to other people. I had been the girl without a family, the worker without a future, the tenant without enough atern to pay my rent.

  Now I was the second half of an evil empire I had no desire in seeing win a war I had no business being part of in the first place. When did I get to be me, the person I wanted to be? When did what I want matter? When would I get my say?

  Right now, my voice roared in my head.

  With that one thought, a dark energy ripped through me. That thought alone tore something in
side of me, some anchor holding me back from my full potential. It didn’t matter why or how, though. All that mattered was that I was free. I knew it because the power encircled me, lifting me to my feet and then beyond that.

  I floated in the air, staring eye-to-eye with Westman and then looking down at him.

  His face whitened as he saw me, but then his expression hardened again—a façade this time.

  “Does baby girl think she can handle me?” he asked, glowing with energy and floating up to me himself.

  The war waged on around us like my worst nightmares brought to life as he neared me, but I couldn’t think about that right now. I needed to focus on Westman, focus on this hate, focus on the power it gave me.

  “Does the orphan think she stands a chance?” he asked as the sunlight inside the Box grew more and more prevalent. If I was going to put a stop to that, it would have to be soon.

  Rage pulsated inside of me. “Let’s find out!”

  I flew toward him, energy sparking at my fingertips. Slamming into him, I drove him down into his thrones, knocking them to the ground and rendering them shards of golden waste as I tackled him to the floor.

  Westman looked up at me, his red eyes narrowing. “You’re out of your league,” he said.

  He blasted me with enough energy to send me flying up into the rapidly lightening sky.

  But he was wrong. I wasn’t out of my league. I was an orphan, and that made me a survivor. It made me strong.

  It made me the strongest.

  I reversed course, gathering all the strength I had, and barreled back toward the bastard. Something lit inside of me as I tore toward the crowd of fighting people. They had all been through so much, all been at each other’s throats for generations, and now it all boiled down to this.

  I caught sight of Karr. He was fighting hard, atern magic crackling around his body. If I could win this, then maybe we would have the life we wanted. Maybe we’d get to be together.

  But just as I thought it, a sword of red energy drove through his gut. His eyes locked with mine as he crumbled to ground.

  “No!” I screamed, and tried to pull up, but it was too late. I was going too fast, full of too much energy.

  Still, my hesitation had been enough for me to miss Westman. I crashed into the ground in an explosion of energy.

  My mind went blank as the concussive force sent me rolling on the ground. Every piece of me hurt as I lay there, completely drained. I had put everything I had into this move, and it was wasted.

  As I opened my eyes, I saw that I was lying next to Karr. His body was still. He was dying, and the sun was almost up inside the Box.

  “Surely you knew better.” I looked up to see Westman over me, grinning like a cat who’d gotten into the family milk. “Surely you knew you couldn’t stop me. This is a blessing, though. For both of us. Now your mind will be clear. You’ll be free of this man and able to move on to the life you were always destined to have.”

  I looked up at him, breathing heavy. Something about what he said hit such a chord with me.

  The life I was always meant to have. He meant alongside him, of course, but he couldn’t have been more mistaken. The life I was meant for was one of my own choosing, a life alongside Arbor, a life in Karr’s arms.

  He had taken that from me but, as I took him in, remembering all the slights he’d done to me and all the ways he’d used me, a thought came to mind.

  Now was my turn to use him. Now I would do to him what he had done to me.

  I grabbed his leg, letting what power I had flow through me. Then I did as he did. I found the energy in him and began funneling it into myself.

  “What are you doing?” he asked. He tried to pull his leg away, but I was already using some of the energy I had stolen to hold him firmly in my grasp. “What is this?”

  “This is an orphan,” I said, “who belongs to herself and no one else.”

  My entire life had prepared me for this. I was trained to take what I could get. And I did. Second after second, I let the energy flow through me. I took and took and took until Westman was on the ground next to me. Even then, I didn’t release him.

  “Stop… this…” he said, his voice weak. “Stop this… right…”

  I didn’t stop until nearly all of that energy was mine. Until Westman couldn’t move. Only then did I release him, and while he lay on the ground, I stood. My body glowed with our combined power.

  “How?” he asked weakly. “How are… you holding… it all?”

  “Because I’m stronger than you,” I said, my voice even, but my words buzzing with power.

  Then I leveled a blast of energy into him so wide and so fierce that, when it subsided, the evil known as Westman was gone from the world. Obliterated. Not even dust left in his place.

  Spinning, I felt like I could accomplish anything, though it wasn’t long before reality slammed back into me. This energy would burn through me if I held it for too long. I needed to find a place to put it, or at least half of it. Luckily, I had the perfect vessel.

  I threw my hands out, knocking everyone back from me with magic, save for Karr. Then I knelt over him and poured half the energy into him. It felt good. It felt right.

  Within moments, his eyes flew open—eyes that were now like mine—and he threw himself into me, kissing me hard and muttering the words “I love you” against lips when he finished.

  “I love you, too,” I said. “But we have work to do, and fast. If this spell finishes its course, then the faction and everyone in it will die.”

  He took my hand and stood. “What do I need to do?”

  “Just be here,” I said. “Be here and believe in me.”

  He smiled. “That’s an easy one.”

  Epilogue

  The little girl looked up at the old man who had been telling the group of children the story.

  “So she fixed it all?” she asked. “She put the day and the night back into the faction?”

  The old man grinned. “Well, it’s here, isn’t it?” he asked, laughing loudly. “And that was over a hundred years ago.”

  “Sounds fake to me!” a little boy said, standing and shaking his head. “I mean, how does anyone even know what happened all those years ago?”

  “Because we have stories that live on,” the old man said. “What we do… it becomes our legacy. The woman used her power—the power she shared with her love—and she freed the good people from the Box. Stranding the evil inside, she sealed it up forever and took it where it would never be found.”

  The boy sneered. “Yeah, right. How do you know?”

  “Because,” the old man stood, leaning on his cane for support. “I was one of those people. I was a child then, a young boy who had never seen this place or the sun. Westman tried to kill me, but that woman, in her mercy, saved me. And she did it at great cost to herself.”

  The little girl sat up more eagerly now, brushing hair from her face. “What cost?”

  “You see,” the old man said, “when that woman embodied the power, it bonded to her… and the same thing happened to her love. Because they split it, she received the day and he the night. So…”

  “They can never be together,” the little girl said, blinking back tears. “That’s so sad.”

  “Don’t fret, child. The day meets the night with every spin. And some say, if you look out into the sunrise or sunset, you might even see them holding hands.” The old man nodded. “Now, isn’t that a love we can all strive for?”

  “Love is gross,” the little boy said before running off.

  The old man looked after him. “I remember when I felt that way,” he said. Then, turning back to the little girl, he added, “Come now. You’ll be late for supper.”

  But the little girl was looking out into the sunset. And for a moment, she thought she saw a man and woman out there, holding hands and locking eyes and just about to kiss.

  “You’re right,” she whispered to the old man. “That’s not sad. Their love is a
love that lasts forever. It’s…”

  “Magic,” the old man said. “Indeed, it is.”

  The End

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