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“Not even your fae court?”
She lowered her spear. “That’s impossible. I watched you burn them to ash.”
“No Mara, you have suffered in vain for all these years. You’re no more the last fae than I’m the last dragon.” She looked down at her thumb and back at me in shock.
“What do you mean?” She whispered.
“You’ll never know if you kill me.”
Ravensford crashed through one of the tall windows then, “Oh good, you haven’t killed him yet.” He said, wiping the blood off of his arms while he shook the glass off of his glorious night black wings. His skin glowed The shaking quickly dislodged a blob of darkness that rolled straight for Mara. The smoke was thinning around him and I smelled the faintest trace of the same herbs Mara had taken from my dress.
“Perfect timing, as always,” Mara said with a kiss.
Ravensford breathed her in deeply before looking between Mara’s lip and my neck as if he could smell our bond. “Looks like I missed out on all the fun, I expect a full reenactment when we finish here.” He declared with enough confidence it felt less like a possibility and more like reality.
Roya unfurled into her full form to roll her eyes at Ravensford when Mara gave a silent command. Determined steps brought Roya to Drago quickly, though when she tried to enter his mind a green flash from my vines stopped her.
She looked at me in surprise before offering her hand again. Fearless I shortened the gap between us before joining our hands.
“Can you tell the vines to let me pass? Or ask them to recede?” The familiar bells asked.
“I don’t know how, can you show me?”
“They no longer recognize me.”
I looked at Mara, her eyes were full of unbridled hope.She says she can still hear their screams,Ravensford had said. She’d been suffering for long enough, if these memories could restore even a part of what she’d lost then it would be worth the risk. I asked the thorn covered walls of my mind to come down.
Roya looked at me with surprise as I sent my first thought down our connected hands. “Can you enter my mind and use my magic through me?”
She nodded, pulling us closer until our foreheads touched.
Roya’s form hesitated at the threshold of my mind, and I beckoned her forward. As her foot crossed the threshold the shadows melted into a fair-skinned fae dressed in a short dress of flared maple leaves. Her eyes met mine and rather than gold I found a riot of orange, yellow, and red. She stretched out her limbs, twirling and releasing her twinkling laugh. Green sparks came from the corners of my mind to swirl around her like friendly fireflies.
“You have the powers of a summer druid,”she said touching one of the green sparks, “just like my sister did,” it glowed red to match her autumnal garb. She stepped back over the threshold and it returned to green.I can only control the vines from your mind, you were right, your control on them is too new, most likely strengthened by the mating bond. Don’t ask them to recede, or they will crumble completely.
“What should I do then? Can you enter Drago’s mind from here?"
“I can but there is great risk in entering a hostile mind and you will need to leave yours open to me or I will be lost there.”
“I want to do this for her, for Ravensford, and the dreadlings. Please. You took the chance to trust me, let me return the favor and trust you.”
“If there was any other way I would deny you, but your magic is strong. If anything goes wrong ask it to protect you,”she warned.
I nodded and she placed her small hands on the floor of my mind. I saw my vines retreating on Drago before her dreadling self placed her other hand on Drago’s mind. Her form slowly disappeared into Drago’s mind, turning his eyes dark as pitch. A small thread of shadow was gripped tightly in my hand, the only sign she’d entered from my mind rather than hers.
“Find the others Roya, show me what he’s hiding.”
Mara shifted her shadows into a screen behind me but if I closed my eyes I could see the images more clearly. We were ducking under what looked to be a fallen beam, his mind crafted like a dilapidated prison. It was only Roya’s nimble maneuvering of a mind dripped in corruption and greed that kept us from what was sure to be a series of traps.
“Wait Roya! There!” Mara called, pointing down a corridor veiled in shadow.
A memory glowed behind the open cell,scattered letters penned by four different hands, each detailing the movements of the different houses of Fae, all alive but scattered.Roya moved on in search of more.
“Be careful Roya, don’t go too deep.” Mara cautioned.
We paid no mind, opening the next memory cell where he flew to their new locations.There in the north were the missing floating islands of the air fae, populated by fire and air alike. To the west in the endless ocean, the water fae had populated both the islands and the depths. And finally, the earth fae, in the sheer cliffs of a volcanic archipelago to the east.
“That’s enough Roya, it’s time to stop,” Mara commanded. A river of shadows split the floor, but across the bank, from the next cell I heard the booming laugh of Master Jericho.
