Door in the Garden of Shadows

by April Canavan

  As they all stood there in silence for a moment, Tyler remembered what Anna had said to him before. When she had warned him to stay away from Mykah. “Anna. I need to talk to you,” he said. “Alone.” Without waiting to see if she followed, he walked away from the people who were closer than family to him and waited for the shifter to follow him, knowing that he was causing a ripple with the rest.

  Once they were alone, or as alone as they could get, he asked her what had been bothering him. “You told me to stay away from her. Did you know who she was?”

  “Yea. I did, but it’s so much more than that Tyler.” She touched his arm, “I care about you. You’re my family. That means I don’t want you to get hurt when this is all over.” He felt the calming influence of her touch but shook his head trying to clear his mind.

  He felt like everything was going to be okay, but he knew that was just Anna’s power. As he tried to gain control of himself, he was having trouble putting into words what he had been feeling. “What do you mean, when this is all over?” Anna let go of him, and he felt sense return, as though it had been stolen from him and just returned.

  “She used blood magic, Tyler. She’s been cursed by the mother of all, herself. Is there anything else I can say? You’re not Romeo, and she’s not Juliet. You don’t need a tragic love affair.” She looked away, and a sad smile broke out on her face. “You both deserve more than that.”

  “I can’t walk away from her. Not now.” As he said the words, he knew that it was true. He would kill anyone and anything that stood in the way of them being together. Even though he knew he couldn’t possibly love her, something was calling him to her side.

  With a sincerity that was rare for the shifter, she hugged him. “It’s too late, then. Isn’t it? You may not say it, but you’re falling for the princess.” He looked down at her, and they both knew the answer.

  “I don’t know,” he finally said as he looked down at his feet, “Who am I kidding. I don’t know what I’m missing, but nothing else feels as right as it does when I’m with Mykah. She fits. I mean, I sat in a room with her and a bunch of other royals and didn’t want to rip any of their heads off. That should say enough about how I feel.”

  “It’s only been a few days, Tyler. You can’t know for sure. Just give it time, please?” Anna broke away from him, and he watched as she walked away, knowing that all of it was out of his hands.

  There was no way he would be able to stay away from Mykah. Especially if she was out possibly doing something stupid. He wasn’t left alone with his thoughts for very long. When he turned to go back and join his king, Jonathon was standing there waiting for him.

  “You know, there is something to be said for a tragic love story. Maybe not the story of Romeo and Juliet, but love is never perfect. Hell, you know that better than most.” He looked pointedly at the mangled blue star tattoo on Tyler’s wrist.

  Tyler denied it adamantly, “I don’t love her.”

  “Keep telling yourself that and one day you might actually believe it. You know that as vampires we love once, and it consumes us. We also know almost instantly who our soul calls out for when we’ve gotten a glimpse of them. From the moment you walked into the throne room carrying that girl, it was clear to see that she holds every connection there is to your soul. The only question that remains is when you’ll realize it and if you’ll be able to save her before it’s too late.” Jonathon looked at him, and Tyler was reminded of the power that had flown through his veins. The man was a titan, both in age and ability to see what everyone else wanted to keep hidden. It was one of the reasons he had ruled the Blood Court so efficiently.

  “I don’t know what to do.” Tyler looked away from the man who had been like a father to him, once upon a time, and he stared the green vines that had started creeping along the wall.

  “None of us ever do.” Everyone was gone, leaving him alone, in the hallway.

  Tyler didn’t know how long he stood there, unaware of what was happening around him. There was so much going on. So much that had gone wrong, with nothing he could do about it. Mykah had done something no one else had ever dared, and the mother of all had decided that the punishment for that would be her life. He knew that he wouldn’t let her go. Tyler couldn’t let her go.

  “You’re terrible at keeping your thoughts to yourself, you know that?” Winter tore him from his reverie, and he could honestly say that he was happy to see the witch.

  “Where did she go, Winter?” Maybe they wouldn’t have gotten far. He could catch up to her in no time.

  “We’re family, you know that. So, if you need something you ask, that’s the way it goes. We’re all in this together.” The witch looked at her hands, folded in front of her. Her skin glowed with the power that she had, and her long hair seemed to float on the wind. She didn’t say another word, and Tyler needed to be the one to ask what he wanted to know.

  “Where is she, Winter?” His patience was growing thin, and he felt the growl rising in his throat but was unable to stop it.

  “Watch it, pup. Before I remind you why your neck itches every time you’re around me. You’re lucky that I like you, you know that? Your dark fae princess is in the Forgotten Realm.”

  “Can you bring her back?” Tyler felt heat climbing up into his face, with the memory of Winter breaking his neck when he was a young vampire forever etched into his mind.

  “Why? She’s safe. She’s got the other royals with her, they all left together.” Moving so that she was facing the vines growing on the walls, Winter put her back to him, and he fought the urge to shake her.

  “Well, can you send me to her?” He ground the words out, hoping that his frustration wasn’t as evident as he feared it was.

  “Again, Tyler, tell me why I should.” He could hear the smile in her words, “I don’t see any reason why I should be sending you anywhere.” His fists clenched unclenched reflexively, and he had to physically stop himself from moving.

  Grudgingly, he acknowledged the real reason he wanted to go, “I need to be with her, that’s why.”

  “See, was that so hard?” She trailed her hand along the vines, and Tyler watched as flowers sprouted under her touch.

  He knew that he wouldn’t get anywhere with her unless he was careful with how he phrased it. “Yes. Now, will you send me to her?”

  She laughed and turned to face him, “Oh, I can’t do that.” She moved closer to him, and he saw that her smile was hesitant.

  “What the hell?” Tyler wanted to punch something, but he knew that if he did anything more than clench or unclench his fists, he would be torn apart by the witch.

  “There’s ancient magic at play here. Stronger than me, that’s for sure. I’m not about to mess with it. I haven’t felt anything this strong in years, and Moira doesn’t like anyone interfering with her spells.” Tyler looked into her eyes, trying to figure out exactly what she meant, but they were guarded. “Moira. You know, the last of the ancient fae? Just because I can find the princess, doesn’t mean that I’m going to. There’s no reason to, especially not when she has a slew of magical beings at her side.”

  Before he could say anything to her, there was a commotion coming from the main rooms. After seeing the look of confusion on Winter’s face, they both turned and walked back into what appeared to be chaos. A room full of royals stood arguing with one another, yelling about what had happened. He searched through them, but he couldn’t find the red–headed princess. His heart started to race, but he ignored the implications.

  “Where is she?” He bellowed, and they all went silent. When no one answered him, he tried again, lowering his voice so that they understood the urgency. “I asked you where Mykah is. Where is the princess?”

  “I don’t know,” Maddox spoke up. “We were supposed to be transported to the Lost Realm, but we all got separated, and most of us were spit into the Shadowlands instead. It took me a little bit to get us all back here, and that was when we realized that Mykah wasn’t with us.�
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  “Winter,” Tyler said as he turned away from the group of useless royals, “Find her.” Without another word, he watched as the witch faded in front of his eyes until nothing remained but a sprinkling of blue mist that evaporated with the last of her transportation spell.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “It took you long enough to get here, lómhara. I had almost given up hope.” Mykah was looking into the eyes of a snowy white owl, with streaks of gray and black in its feathers. But the owl’s eyes were defining. The eyes gave her away as Moira, the last of the ancient fae. Green and effervescent, they were the eyes of a fae, creating a haunting visage before her. The owl wasn’t speaking, though. Instead, the voice flowed through the air on magical currents.

  “Oh, nan. I’ve missed you.” Mykah couldn’t help the tears that started to pool in the corner of her eyes. “I needed you, so much.”

  “Princess, you haven’t needed me for a long time. You’re here now, though. What can I do?” The owl shimmered in front of her, magic attaching itself to the particles around her grandmother, and reality shifted. In a moment, it wasn’t an owl before her, but the unmistakable woman who had been there for her almost her entire life.

  Gray hair streaming down around her shoulders and falling almost at her knees; black robes that clung to her willowy frame, and the incredible green eyes that Mykah had looked into for so long. This was her grandmother. This was the woman that had brought her grandfather to his knees and forged an alliance between the two fae families. Unable to stop herself, Mykah threw her arms around the older woman and sobbed.

  Moira hugged her in return, rubbing her arms across Mykah’s back, soothing her the same way she had as a child. “I need your help.” She whispered into her grandmother’s arms.

  “I know you do. That’s what I’m here for. Tell me, and we’ll figure it all out.”

  So Mykah did. Starting at the beginning, the night so long ago when she had unknowingly used blood magic. She told Moira everything about living in the human world, all of the pain that came with losing her magic. She spoke about the vampires, laughing as her grandmother smiled at the thought of none of them knowing who she was. She kept going, even when she started talking about Tyler, and what being around him did to her. She pulled the key from where it was sitting on her skin, and the look of surprise on her grandmother’s face said that she knew what it was. Still, Mykah talked. It was only when she was ending her story with the disappearance of her friends after the transportation magic that she started to fall silent.

  “Now I don’t know what to do. I know you told us the stories as children. Stories of the magic being taken away. I just can’t remember what happens, what we’re supposed to do.” She looked to her grandmother for answers but was afraid that there would be none.

  Pride shone in those eyes, bright and clear. “Oh, Mykah. I knew you would remember them.”

  “I don’t, Nan. Not really. I don’t remember what happened to the magic, or how to save it. Or anything that would be useful. Not really. I don’t know what to do.” She felt the thrumming of magic coming from the key around her neck, and Mykah knew that her emotional turmoil was making it easier for her magic to drain itself.

  “I’m sorry, my dear. You did sort of screw the pooch on that one. By using blood magic to destroy the elder grove, you’ve created a vacuum in the fae lands. The only way to save it is to give the mother of all the sacrifice she’s asked for. What did she demand, child?”

  “Me. She demanded that I sacrifice myself. Once she was done with her demands, she bound my soul in some sort of a puzzle. It’s been draining my spirit and magic for five years. The Blood Queen gave me the key, but I don’t know how long it will keep the curse at bay. I don’t know how to stop it. We have all the tomes on magical history, and none of them gave us any information. Then I hummed that tune. The song of power that you used to sing to us, and something strange happened.” She got caught up in the memory of the power that radiated from the key that first time, and she forgot to finish what she was saying.

  Moira pulled her into a hug, caressing her hair like she had done when Mykah was a child. “You don’t need to tell me anything else. I know exactly what’s happened,” she crooned.

  “You do?” She should have known that her nan would know everything.

  “Of course I do, child. I know all about that key and the power it possesses. I know about the door it’s supposed to unlock, the power it will unleash. I know that this is a journey you shouldn’t be taking alone. There’s only so much you can do. Now I know why I haven’t faded away yet to join your grandfather. There was one more thing for me to do. I had to be here for a reason and you, my love, have shown me what it is.” Moira’s voice, smooth and ancient, flowed over Mykah’s body with power that she hadn’t felt in so long.

  Her mind raced with dozens of questions she couldn’t find the words to ask, and yet she knew that everything would be okay, as long as her grandmother could help. “What do you mean? Why would you willingly fade? You’re the last of our family.”

  “Child, I should have faded a long time ago. I’m not meant to live without my Aidan. He is waiting for me on the other side. Mykah, child, you are not alone. You have family in every member of the Malice Court. In every fae that you come across. You are a princess, royal blood flows through your veins, and it is your responsibility to do what you can to help your people. As for me, I gave everything I could possibly give of myself to ensure that our world would thrive. It’s time for me to go, to pass the candle to you and your sister. I miss your grandfather. I can feel him pulling at me even now, urging me to finish this so I can join him in the Eternal Isles.”

  “Okay, nan. Tell me.” She sat down on one of the benches and made herself as comfortable as possible, waiting for the story to start.

  “Magic is and always has been a living thing fluctuating like the tides of an ocean, with too many moving parts for one realm to control it all. That is why all the different realms were given a part of the power to watch over, to protect.” She looked at Mykah with a warm smile in her eyes. As she reached for one of the rose bushes, the blossoms moved of their own accord and wound their vines around the old woman’s arm, wrapping themselves so that they covered her skin. “With everything changing, with every bit of magic that has been taken and abused, there is a way to get it back. A way to restore the power that has been torn.” Moira pulled herself up from where she was sitting, and the rose blossoms moved with her, winding themselves through her hair.

  “What is it, nan? What can we do?” Mykah hung on every word that her grandmother spoke, knowing that somewhere in what she said was the key to fixing everything, and maybe in saving herself.

  “There will be a challenge for each of the realms to overcome. One by one the challenges will reveal themselves, and each must be fought before their world can be saved. Only then, when you have all worked to save your individual realms, will you be able to save all magic and restore the balance that has torn our world apart. You, my lómhara, my precious girl, you cannot save yourself. Blood magic takes a toll that you are not prepared to pay.” There was pity in her eyes, and Mykah knew that her grandmother spoke the truth.

  “There’s nothing I can do? I’m just supposed to die, to give myself up and let this be the end? I haven’t even lived.” Mykah couldn’t help the anger that forced itself out with her words, and she wouldn’t have stopped it if she could. “Nan, please. This isn’t fair. I didn’t do anything intentionally. The mother of all should know that.”

  “Life isn’t fair. If it were, your mother would not have died. Your father wouldn’t have been taken so early. If life were fair, we would never have to make the hard decisions. Magic is fading, Mykah. You are not more important than an entire world of people, an entire realm of the fae. Sometimes a sacrifice must be made, I’m only sorry that you are the one who must suffer.”

  Desolation replaced the anger in her heart, and Mykah felt tears falling from her eyes. W
iping them, she tried to take a breath and failed to calm herself. Instead, she let the pain and sorrow “But, nan. I don’t want to go.”

  “No one is every truly ready, Mykah. You have a lifetime of memories that you have given them. Your sister and the others will remember you. Every moment, every smile, every laugh. Those memories will make it easier for those you leave behind. They will remember you. Just as you will remember me.” Moira’s voice was fading away, and the tears fell harder from Mykah’s eyes. By the time she realized what was happening, it was too late to say anything else.

  Her nan, the oldest fae that she had ever known, was disappearing into nothing. Fading so that she could move to the Eternal Isles. While she stood there and watched what was happening, Mykah’s heart was breaking. The last link she had to her history was letting go of her hold on this world to join her love in the next life. Nan deserved to move on, even if it hurt those left behind. She was gone, and that hurt. She left, without really giving Mykah an answer to what was happening. There was nothing, she was left with nothing, sitting in the garden that her grandfather had created for her grandmother as an expression of their eternal love. In the realm where nothing would ever change. A death sentence hanging over her head, she knew that she couldn’t tell the others what Moira had said.

  “Damn it. What the hell am I supposed to do now?” She asked the empty garden, unsure of what she should be expecting to happen.

  “You know, for a fae princess, you aren’t very royal.” Mykah fell off the bench in surprise at the unexpected voice.

  “Holy hell,” she grunted as she tried to pick herself up. “What are you doing here?” She looked at the witch, who was busy petting a huge German Shepherd that she could swear was purring at the attention. “Is that your dog?”