AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What did you fight about?” Nua asked hesitantly.
A sob tore from my throat. “About… about him wanting to leave. He s-said I was trying to trap him here.”
I heard Nua let out a slow breath.
“Well, I think we can safely assume, then, that he left of his own accord,” he said gently as he hurried to keep up with me. “I’m sorry, Ash, but you can’t force him to come back. If he left, he doesn’t want to be here. I know it hurts, but you can’t bend him to your will.”
Lonan’s favour burned at my throat, telling me I could.
“You knew this day would come,” Nua said, keeping up with me as I strode through wide meadows, past the fast-moving river that cut through seelie land. “You knew he’d have to go eventually.”
“We were supposed to go together,” I snapped tearfully.
My breath caught when the forest came into view up ahead. I started running.
“Wait.” Nua’s voice rose in desperation. “Ash, what are you—He could be anywhere! He could be anything. He likely shifted into something small and quick to get away—”
I flinched even as I kept running, still unable to believe that Lonan had truly snuck off to get away from me. Did he despise me that much? I’d only been trying to keep him safe, to stop him having to worry about his vile family. I’d only been trying to protect him.
The treeline got closer. I didn’t even know what I planned to do—run all the way to unseelie? What if he hadn’t even gone there? I’d scour every inch of the forest if I had to. I refused to just let him go. I had to at least try to fix this.
This couldn’t be the end of it. It just couldn’t.
I pumped my legs faster, breaking into a flat-out sprint as I got closer to the treeline. The Woods of Orna sucked up all the bright seelie sunshine, their depths dark beneath the canopy like a shadowy mist shrouded them. The trees looked thinner than they should have, barer and drier. The wall of them that marked the edge of seelie land lacked its usual lush vibrance. Everything was muted.
I crossed the natural barrier, not slowing my frantic sprint. My boots crunched over dry leaves before it felt like I slammed into a wall.
A familiar pain exploded through my body and then I was flying back through the air, my lungs emptying in a rush when I landed on my back on seelie land. I stared up at the bright blue sky for a few seconds, completely dazed, before sitting up in a rush.
“What the fuck?” I seethed, jumping up and running back into the forest.
It happened again. Just as it had happened every time I’d tried to leave unseelie land when I was still mortal, when the Carlin had tethered me to her.
“No,” I shouted when it happened a third time, groaning in agony as my head smacked into the ground.
Nua hurried to help me up, but I shook him off and jumped to my feet.
“What the fuck is happening? Why can’t I leave?” I shouted.
“Ash,” Nua murmured, sounding apprehensive as he suddenly gripped my shirt and tried to tug me back. I shook him off again, realising why he suddenly seemed so uneasy when I spotted movement from the corner of my eye.
“Are you doing this?” I snarled at Fioda as she approached along the forest edge. Mol was clopping along beside her, gazing at me with big brown eyes that somehow conveyed disappointment.
The sight of the Higher Spirit made my blood boil.
“Mind your own fucking business,” I roared, jabbing a finger at the forest. “Let me go. Leave me the fuck alone.”
“I have left you alone,” she said, her tone infuriatingly mild. “We haven’t spoken since the Solstice. I was waiting for you to come and talk to me. I told you I was here if you needed me.”
“I don’t fucking nee—” My throat burned, cutting off the words. I gritted my teeth and pointed at the forest again. “How can you stop me from leaving? I’m the king.”
“Mm.” She did nothing but raise a brow at me, which made me murderously angry. A tiny part of me wondered what would happen if I shot her with my bow and arrow. Fioda’s brow quirked again as if she knew my thoughts, her gold eyes gleaming in the sun.
“You know this needs to happen, Ash,” she said calmly, resting a long-fingered hand on the side of Mol’s neck and stroking absently. “The balance is wrong. Your power is spreading too far. Lonan is your counterbalance. He will restore the order of nature. You need him on his throne. The Carlin’s power has been weakening for a while, but she and the Brid had found their own balance. You and Lonan need to find yours.”
I exploded.
“So now you interfere? This is how you interfere?” I shouted, my throat already raw. “You could stop all of this if you wanted to. Aren’t you all fucking powerful, all knowing, mighty Higher Spirits?”
