Door in the Garden of Shadows

by April Canavan

  “We all die, child. It’s what we do with our lives that makes us who we are.” Said with a smile, the words reminded her of what her grandmother had just told her before fading.

  If she were to travel to the Eternal Isles, she would see not only her parents again, but also her grandparents as well. She would have the chance to meet her mother, and to say goodbye to her grandmother.

  Although the thought of seeing her family again wasn’t enough to drive away all of the fear, it was enough to bolster her spirits slightly. “When? When do I have to go?”

  The mother let go of her and stood, clapping her hands together. “Now. We shouldn’t waste any more time.”

  “Before we go, can you tell me one thing?” There was one question burning furiously through her mind.

  “What?” Mykah looked up into the eyes of the mother and saw only love and acceptance there, and she felt herself question how she had ever seen evil in her nature.

  “If every realm is in danger, what do they have to do to save themselves?” She had to find something out, anything that would help her friends.

  “Every realm will face its own challenge,” the mother sighed. “The Blood Court has already faced their demons. The key had been lost to the ages and with it all the power that had been collected in its depths. With its restoration and then use by their queen, their court has been given more power than it will ever need. The connection between it and the door leading to the destruction of magic has already been severed.”

  She needed to know if her marshmallow would be okay. “So, Tyler and the rest of the vampires, they’re safe from whatever is coming?” Even as she tried to tell herself it was just a passing curiosity, she knew that there was more to it. She felt connected to him before they had slept together. She didn’t have time to examine those feelings. Not with what was coming.

  “The warrior and his kind are safe for now.” There was an emphasis to her words that struck a chord of fear into Mykah’s heart. “There will come a time when we must all band together to keep the door leading to destruction from opening on our worlds. That is not for you, though. Your part is now. You must walk this path alone. Go and find your father. He will help you master your power. When you have succeeded, touch this rune.” She reached for Mykah and pressed her hand to her chest.

  A burning sensation filled her mind, but before she could move, the mother had removed her hand. Etched into her skin was a diamond with a tail and a capital letter T carved through the middle.

  “When you touch this, your sister will know that you are ready to come home. She will know enough about what to do. The portal will open soon. When it does, you must go. Do not let it close without walking through.” The mother kissed her forehead and backed away. “I never wanted you to suffer, my child. I never want any of my children to suffer. Mykah, I am undoing the puzzle around your heart, and you will have your power, but do not run and do not leave or you will lose it all. You are tied to the realm in a way that I cannot protect you from. If you do not learn to control your power so that you can replenish the grove, all is lost.” With that, she was gone. Once again, Mykah was left alone with only her thoughts. Waiting for something out of her control.

  Tyler had given up on trying to have any amount of calm after he had sent Winter to find Mykah. Instead, he had wandered the halls of the court, eventually making his way to the throne room. Unsurprisingly, Jessica was there, wearing a pair of bright pink pajama pants and a black hoodie.

  “That’s not very royal attire.” He quipped.

  “Well, my idiot sister and her friends took off to the Forgotten Realm at dawn. I didn’t feel like changing after one of them showed up in my closet because the warlock’s spell didn’t work. So, there’s that.” She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and gave him a dirty look. “What do you want, warrior?”

  “I sent Winter to see If she can bring the princess back. The rest of the royals are there with Zander and Sarah, and I’m not going to be around for that.” He looked around, thankful that she wasn’t surrounded by a ton of people vying for prestige or power.

  “I doubt you sent her anywhere,” she scoffed. “That witch doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to. Were you able to find what you were searching for in the tomes? I know you were looking for an answer to a problem at your court.”

  “Zander asked me to find out why the court had been draining Sarah when she first took the throne,” he answered without malice. “I guess it’s stopped now, but he wants to know why it happened in the first place.”

  “I know why,” Winter said, walking into the throne room. “I know why it happened.” While he wanted to ask where the fae princess was, the look in her eyes told him that he wasn’t allowed question her about Mykah.

  Approaching the throne, she nodded to the fae queen and then turned to Tyler. “It was a challenge that the vampire court had to face on its own, learning to replenish their own power without relying on anyone else. But Sarah is safe now. Tyler, you should excuse yourself. Jessica and I have some things that we need to discuss.” She gave him a small, sad smile, and he felt his heart drop.

  “Winter?” He questioned, praying that he wasn’t about to have his world shattered. “Where is she?”

  “You shouldn’t look for her.” She turned away, but not before he saw a glimpse of fear in her eyes. Doubt that he had never before seen.

  What could Winter be afraid of? She was the most powerful witch there had ever been. “Winter.” He said her name, his voice barely a whisper.

  “I felt her, the mother of all. She’s here.” Winter kept talking, her attention focused on Jessica.

  And if he had stayed and listened, he would understand what was coming. He would know what he was going to face when he made it to Mykah’s side. He couldn’t hear any of it. He was already moving, running away from the throne room and into the halls trying to save her. Tyler had never moved so quickly, knowing that he needed to get to her before the mother of all could take her from him.

  He couldn’t lose her. Not before he ever really had a chance to know her. To show her a different life. He needed more time. They needed more time. Opening the door to her room, he didn’t know what to expect. What he saw, however, sent every protective instinct in his body into hyperdrive.

  Mykah shouldn’t have been surprised when the vortex opened up in her room. She shouldn’t have jumped in the air and started freaking out. She shouldn’t have thought about everything she was going to miss because there was no way to know if the mother of all could be trusted. She shrieked when the portal appeared, bringing along the feeling that someone was watching. Looking around she didn’t see anything. It was only her imagination, but it was psyching her out. She had spent what felt like hours trying to convince herself to walk into the vortex when her door finally opened in reality.

  Mykah didn’t need to look to know that it was Tyler. He called to her on a visceral level, but him being there made it harder for her to do what she had to do. Something that was made ten times worse when she heard his voice.

  “Come back, Mykah. Just walk away from it. You can’t give up on this. Not without a fight.” He reached for her hand, but Mykah didn’t reach back. “Please, come back to me.” The black hole she was staring at had started to change colors, collapsing in on itself and sucking anything that was in its immediate vicinity into oblivion.

  A breeze picked up from nowhere, and Mykah could feel it pulling her back. Incoherent voices seemed to rise from the hole, and as she glanced back again, she knew that it would destroy Tyler to watch her disappear into that pit. It would bring peace to the fae realm, though. Maybe once she had finished her journey, it would be enough for her to save their part of the magical world. She needed to go. The voices grew stronger, even as she felt herself wishing to give in and walk into the nothingness. Her name, the voices were calling her name. Yet when she felt herself begin to move toward it, Tyler’s voice dragged her back.

  “I’m not givin
g you up.” Though he spoke quietly, his words echoed through Mykah’s head.

  “This isn’t where I need to be, Tyler. You can’t control this. It’s time for you to let me go, I have to do this.” It hurt her to tell him to let go, but there couldn’t be a future for them together. She had been honest with him from the beginning.

  “I love you. You don’t let the things you love go.” She was stunned by his admission, especially since they barely knew each other.

  “You don’t love me, Tyler. You love the idea of me. The truth is, this is the path I was on long before I ever met you. I can’t back away from it now. Not when the fate of my realm is relying on me.” Because she knew that looking at him would strike a blow to the center of her being, she looked away.

  The vortex whirled behind her, beckoning Mykah to just let go of everything holding her to the living world, to let go of Tyler. She stared at it and was memorized by the sheer ferocity of the object that she was supposed to hurl herself into.

  “I didn’t ask you to come here. I didn’t ask you for your love. I told you, from the start of things that there could never be anything between us. Goodbye, Tyler. I hope you find what makes you happy.” She stepped forward into the gaping vortex beckoning to her.

  He was there, grasping her by the wrist as her body was sucked into the nothingness. Preventing her from leaving. Mykah looked at him, at the fear in his eyes and wished that he hadn’t tried to stop her. He was grimacing, with sweat pouring down his brow from the exertion of trying to keep her from vanishing.

  “Hold on to me. I don’t want to be here without you. I know you’re tired. Please don’t give up now.” Mykah wanted to listen to him, she really did. Unfortunately, she had been fighting for so long, and the answer was literally pulling at her to accept it. All she had to do was trust the mother of all.

  “I can’t do it, Tyler. There are so many more lives at stake than just ours. Your realm is already safe, just let me go so I can save mine.” As she looked up at him, struggling to hold onto her although the vortex was pulling her into it; she knew that he wasn’t going to give up without a fight. She would have to do something drastic.

  He must have sensed what she was about to do. “Don’t leave me.” His voice broke, and she knew that if she didn’t do something now, she would never be strong enough.

  “Tyler. I could have loved you.” Shocking him into submission, she reached up with her other hand and peeled his fingers off her wrist before he could tighten his hold. She fell into the vortex; into the hole. She disappeared into the portal to the Eternal Isles and finally felt the tears fall down her face. Mykah knew that she was making the right decision, and maybe if she survived, she could convince him to forgive her.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Just one more dance and she could leave. One more turn around the ballroom and she could say goodbye. She was afraid to look into his eyes and see the pain there. She had turned away from him to give everything she could for her kingdom. She had sacrificed her life and her very soul, and all she had was this one last dance. Time stood still while he spun her in his arms. She knew where they were, the ballroom she had spent so much time in while she was growing up. The Malice Court had never looked so magnificent. The cracked marble walls were covered with vines, branches of trees and plants converging upon one another to create a beautiful look. There was sun streaming in through windows high above the ground, but they too were covered by vines, so the light was fractured.

  Mykah looked up, trying to get a glimpse of Tyler’s face as they moved together, but her eyes wouldn’t focus. She could feel the smile on his lips, but she couldn’t see him. Instead, she looked to his arms, which were covered in a soft black shirt. Her outfit was fit for her station as a princess. Black and red, it hugged her chest as though it was painted on her skin. She felt the band gathered under her breasts and the silk and taffeta creation flow over her body. Her auburn hair fell around her shoulders and reached her waist, where it looked like it was a part of the dress around her.

  She couldn’t see them, but she knew that she was wearing something soft and flat on her feet. The room around them was crowded, but she couldn’t see any of their faces at first. As they danced, she saw that all of her friends were there. The royals who had tried so hard to make sure that she was given another chance were standing at the edge of the crowd, smiling at her and Tyler as they passed. Jessica was there, hand in hand with Christopher, and the fae rulers seemed to glow luminescent.

  The men were dressed in black, without any further distinction between them than the color of their ties. The women, they were stunning in a way that no one could ever compare. Jessica was wearing a gown of dark gray embellished with blue jewels. Aubrey was standing just to her side, dressed appropriately for the first time Mykah had known her, in attire fitting the Queen of the Damned. Her crown was a simple signet made of bones, sitting upon her head exactly as it should. Adam stood just behind her, and pride filled Mykah’s chest at the sight of the twins embracing their roles. Both Ben and Anaid stood together, each glowing with their own power. Anaid was dressed in a soft turquoise gown that hugged her slim frame until it reached her knees, where it flared out looking like a mermaid’s tail. Before she could see any more details of the others, Tyler guided Mykah to the other side of the ballroom. The people standing along this side of the room did not have any distinction in their faces. She felt their power and knew that they were fae, but she could not figure out who they were.

  In a corner stood a string quartet, with someone playing the ten–foot harp that had stood silent and untouched for generations. Mykah was amazed that it was being played at all, let alone that the person playing it could create such beautiful sounds. The music playing in the background should have moved her to tears, but she was unable to discern any of the notes. Instead, she was caught up in the moment. Reveling in the fact that she was in Tyler’s arms, celebrating the stolen time they had together. The dance they never had before. The love that could have been had she given it a chance.

  “I loved you,” She found herself saying. “I loved you from the moment that you first saved my life. Even if it was just a little, and even if I’ll never really understand why I was drawn to you, I loved you.” Even as she knew that he would never say anything back, she could imagine exactly what it was that he would say.

  “You’d tell me that I shouldn’t have given up. What you didn’t know was that I had to. To give every other person in the world a chance to have their own happily ever after. I couldn’t be selfish.” Mykah was talking to herself, but it didn’t matter.

  When she tried to look at him once more, she saw something flash in the corner of her sight. A flower had dropped its petals to the floor. Flowers in various stages of budding were adorning the walls. Mykah felt herself struggling to see the red blooms, but when she realized what they were, her heart stopped.

  Roses. In the court, itself. They were everywhere, growing with every second that passed. Beautiful, and deadly. She knew that they didn’t have long. They were all going to die. There wasn’t anything more deadly than the roses of the dark fae realm. Just being in the same room as them would bring death more sudden than any spell could. She could feel the anger flooding into the space around her. Fear and every other emotion were missing from the people who stood around her. Tyler kept spinning her through the room, and as the lights were dimming on the edges of her vision, and she knew that they had no time.

  “Run.” She called, hoping that any of them would listen to her. “You need to leave.” She had dropped her voice to a whisper, and she knew that no one could hear her.

  Instead, the people that she loved. The most powerful of all the magical families would die. Here. Because of her, with nothing she could do about it; she was helpless.

  She watched as the ballroom, which had been crowded before, grew strangely silent and steadily less crowded as people laid down in a swift and silent death. Still, Tyler twirled her around to a soundless me
lody. Soon she couldn’t see anything outside of his arms, and when she tried to concentrate, she felt her eyes grow too heavy to keep open. As he spun her and weaved their way around the dozens of bodies that now littered the floor, Mykah felt tears threaten to spill through her closed lids, but she fought to keep them in check.

  Although she knew it wasn’t real, her heart was still breaking for the lost lives in what she saw. She and Tyler never had that dance. They had never had a chance at forever. It was time for her to let go. Time for her to release the last hold that she had and find her father. She had to learn how to control her power. Even though she was more afraid than she had ever been in her entire life, Mykah knew she was ready. She had to prevent the deaths that her vision was foretelling. She had to do something to help save the people she loved and cared for. That meant she had to struggle through the Eternal Isles and find her father. He would be able to help her.

  She called out to him, expecting to hear only silence in return. There was nothing but the sound of rustling cloth for a few moments, and then she heard her name called through the distance.

  “Mykah. Mykah you have to open your eyes. Don’t get caught in the mists. Fight through to me, daughter.” His voice, as robust as it had been in the years he had been alive, called to her.

  “Papa, where are you?” She looked around, but couldn’t find him.

  “Mykah, you’re trapped in the mists. You must open your eyes. Child. Now.” She closed her eyes and then opened them.

  The ballroom was gone. Tyler was gone. Instead, standing before her, was her father looking just as she had remembered him. They were standing in an empty grove. Trees lined the distance, but there was nothing else but grass where they stood. There were no flowers, no animals, no other people.

  “Oh Papa,” she whispered. “I missed you.” She threw herself into his arms, afraid that he was going to vanish right in front of her.