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I tightened my grip on the man. His feathers tickled my fingers, but I didn’t mind.
The seed of power still hummed. It spread far and wide, slowly waking up the entire court. We still had a chance. I still had Rhoan.
I cupped the back of his head and pulled him into me so that our foreheads touched. “I’m still here.”
“I’m so sorry,” he rasped. “I went to beseech your friends for their trust again. When I turned back, you were—”
“I ran off on my own. I’m not going to blame you for that.”
Beryl still had the answer to the antidote that I needed. I couldn’t leave here without it. My parents needed me to pull through. There was no way that I could die here. Especially not now that Rhoan was here.
In the distance, Beryl screeched. A blast of Unseelie arcana shot out in every direction. The seed of power I’d planted recoiled. I grimaced, pain ripping through my core. Her power slashed across the garden inside me and left behind a wilted slash. The trees and flowers turned black.
I clutched my chest and fought for air. The urge to scream and curse Beryl’s name slammed into me even though I couldn’t breathe. Anger boiled inside me. It did nothing to help the blackened streak.
“Cerri!” Rhoan cried out.
When I laid eyes on him, I knew there was nothing wrong with a little darkness. He’d been carved out of shadows older than the world itself, yet he was the most noble man I’d ever met.
The dark, wilted streak across my power would have to wait. It couldn’t stop me right now. We had a task. I lifted my head and peered around at the inside of the crumbling castle. This was the place my parents had called home. It was made of magic and love.
Even now, after all these years under Beryl’s curse, I could feel the love emanating from everything. We were in the middle of a bedroom. The pillows and blankets piled high were covered in a layer of dust, but they were still soft. I rolled away from Rhoan and onto my knees so I could reach for a dusty white rabbit plush.
“Was this mine?” I asked Rhoan.
He scowled at the rabbit plush. “I wouldn’t know. I didn’t spend a lot of time around you when you were a child.”
I brushed the dust from the plush and held it close while I looked around. The palace still radiated magic. Its presence felt like a waiting servant, eager to please. I had an idea, though I wasn’t sure how well it would work.
“Palace? Do you know a way to cure mortals of fae food poisoning?” I asked out loud to the magical presence.
Rhoan cocked his head and raised a curious brow, but he otherwise said nothing.
Outside, Beryl’s sounds of rage were growing closer.
“I can’t fight her off,” Rhoan warned. “If she catches up to us, I’ll hold her off as long as I can. Promise me you will not come back here without an army at your side. You can’t face her alone. Not yet.”
Immediately, I snatched Rhoan’s taloned hand and pinned him with my hard stare. “You’re not sacrificing yourself.”
His lips parted. I noticed the slight tremble of his lower lip and the way his eyes widened with shocked surprise.
The sound of stone scraping against stone interrupted our conversation. To my left, a stone door had slid open to reveal a staircase. While I was a little wary of stairs after walking down Beryl’s only to end up in a maze, I knew that I had to trust the castle. It wanted to help its only savior. The castle would never know love and laughter under the bright sun if it didn’t help me get what I needed.
I raced forward, hauling Rhoan behind me. The man made a sound of argument, but he quickly swallowed it when Beryl screeched and asked where we’d gone. She was close. The magic of the castle rippled when she slammed into an invisible barrier outside.
The barrier and I were one, in an odd way. I could feel her hitting it. The castle was drawing on the seed of power that I’d planted. That meant we were all tied together, and I would know the minute that Beryl broke past the barrier.
Was this how my biological parents felt? Had they been tied to the center of their Court, too? I didn’t have time to think too hard about what I’d done. Planting my arcana like a seed and watering it with my own blood might have been a bad idea, but it was working in my favor today and that was all that mattered.
We needed to get the final piece to my antidote and leave. When Beryl caught up to us, we would be goners. I wished that I had the power to fight her for all those who were still trapped here, but if I made a stand here then I would fall, and everything would be lost.
I knew now that I needed to stop her. Of course, I’d known that for a while. I’d abandoned my plan to bargain with her. No fae deal would free the people sleeping in the hedge cages. There was nothing I could say to lift the curse over the small Seelie fae still living in Lakesedge.
Beryl had to be stopped.
Rhoan and I reached the top of a tower. The round room was stuffed to the brim with alchemical tools. Winding glass tubes snaked over several cauldrons. My heart leapt into my throat at the sight of the tools. Shelves filled with dusty jars of herbs and other ingredients lined the walls. Tomes and notebooks were strewn over wood tables.
A table bucked and threw a notebook to the floor. I rushed to snatch it up. The curling handwriting in the book was unfamiliar, but Rhoan’s slight gasp told me that it must have belonged to one of my parents. I tucked away the little piece of information and told myself that I would process it later, when danger wasn’t bearing down on us.
