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We both knew the reason that I was chosen was that this was my birthright. All that waited for Nala here was training and ensuring the higher members of the coven were looked after. My heart ached for her. I wish I could take her. A companion, a friend, to bolster my nerves and help me assassinate King Araki with her wit. She was always overlooked in the sanctuary, and I always did my best to make her shine alongside me.
I silently pleaded for her to do that for herself while I was gone.
Nala held me for one more moment before Opaline gently tugged me away. Opaline has been motherly to me but not a mother. She only took in an orphaned princess found amongst the rubble of the old palace. Opaline saved me once. She had to save me again by ensuring I left the room and did not collapse into sad goodbyes.
“Success is vital,” she reiterated, holding my gaze. “Be aware of the danger but know you must be the most dangerous.”
“I will,” I said dutifully.
“Remember your rightful claim. It is yours to take.” Her eyes were fierce with her words. “Burn that place to the ground, Reilyn. Emerge as the queen you were born to be.”
Bound Souls
Reilyn
No! My eyes widened in fear and my stomach hollowed in trepidation. I didn’t know the spell, but I wasn’t going to stick around and find out what it was. The strength of his power started to wrap around me, like thick ropes working their way into my blood. My heart beat fast enough to be two hearts in an uneven rhythm. And I committed the single most grave sin an assassin could.
I panicked.
None of my training could have prepared me for the surge of emotions that went through me. They burned under my skin like a flame but weren’t mine. Something foreign invaded my mind, and the fear of being destroyed from the inside out blinded me to my mission. All I could think was I had to escape from him and that sinister, scorching power. I dredged up the magic I’d already stolen from him and pictured home, my quarters in the Nightshade coven. Nala, Master Briggs, Priestess Opaline. My fellow assassins, witches, collogues.
I wrenched one wrist free and drew a sigil in the air, summoning a teleportation spell, “To where-” I choked on the words.
Oh no!
Something was wrong. King Araki’s power spiked through me, snapping me back to him even as it drew him with me. And worse, my own more subtle power was flowing back through the connection. He was stealing my magic! I drove my fist toward his face, but light enveloped us. A whirring, howling noise like a tornado deafened me, and the light flashed from hotwhite to red to green to blue and back to white. My stomach rebelled. My skin froze. My eyes felt like they were being sucked from their sockets. Pain burst through my skull like my brain was melting.
And then it stopped suddenly, and I keeled over into something soft and damp. The light remained burned into my eyes. I blinked rapidly. My chest throbbed, aching with every beat of my heart. I panted heavily, my lungs feeling like they weren’t working properly but the flow of power between us had stopped. What I took from Araki still flowed hot in my blood, but nothing new came in, and no more of my magic leeched into his body. I closed my eyes, but it did nothing to stop the lights. The galloping of my heart started to slow. With it, the knowledge that I had failed sunk in. The shame of failing tore through me. I had been so close! What had gone wrong? Where did I mess up? When could I have seen it was a trap, not one I had made? Had he thrown the ball to lure out the Nightshade from the start? He said he knew every young woman out in society. Had he recognized me as the niece of the man he murdered for his crown?
I groaned in pain and assessed my surroundings, feeling out with scent and sound. Laboured breathing sounded beside me. My eyes snapped open. The light that had blinded me faded. I turned over to my hands and knees. Beside me, Araki copied my actions. We both knelt there, staring at one another in shock. My mouth dropped open, but I quickly shut it again. So that’s what went wrong with the spell. It was only meant to transport one person. For it to drag this Usurper along with me had changed my destination. He started to stand, his wings dragging from the ground, and I scrambled to my feet. I looked around for my dagger, the motion making me feel dizzy. It wasn’t there, so Iquickly yanked the one from my thigh. Araki held his sword and brought it up, pointing it at me.
“Before you attack me, you should take stock of our surroundings,” he spoke, those violet eyes gleaming. They glowed visibly in the darkness around us.
Only, it wasn’t so dark anymore. I backed up a step, giving myself space, and glanced around. We were in a forest, with trees with trunks big enough to carve a house into on every side. Their towering branches rose in dark greens and blues to the sky, with purple lichen draped like lace over vines that hung between the branches. Glowing fungi littered the tree trunks. The ground was soft and springy. My feet were already sinking into the wet ground, a puddle of water pooling around them. My breath caught in my throat in fear as I realized where we were. The Forest of Shadows. It was a place that only the most foolish ventured into and would drive a wise person insane and suck the strength from the most powerful. It was the most magical place known to the world, the forest where magic had been born. And I had brought a plunderer straight to it.
Araki lifted his hand and snapped his finger. A lightning bolt shot from his fingertips straight to the sky, a sizzling blast of thunder knocking us both backwards.
“Don’t use magic here!” I shouted. How could any magic-bearer not know this place? “The forest twists whatever spells you use, but there are no laws to its changes—you can’t predict what will happen!”
Araki got back to his feet, rubbing his chest. “I’m aware of that, thank you very much.”
My nostrils flared as anger bubbled in my stomach. He nearly fried us both and then dared to talk to me in that tone,treating me like a simpleton? I clutched my dagger tighter as I straightened. My bloomers were wet, clinging to my legs, and the translucent sleeves of my bodice provided no warmth against the chilly air.
“What did you do?” Pain stabbed the centre of my chest—exactly where he was rubbing his chest. “Fix it. Undo whatever spell you put on me, you—”
I shut up. In the Forest of Shadows? No, he couldn’t use any magic here. Couldn’t fix anything. But that didn’t matter. I didn’t need him to fix anything anyway. This feeling of his strange magic would die when he did. I strode forward, knocked his sword aside, and was surprised when he let me without a fight and stabbed my dagger toward his chest. Araki caught my wrist, pulling it to one side. His other arm snaked around my waist and pulled me tight against him. He pressed his fingers into a bare strip of skin at the small of my back. Sparks of fury ignited through my skin, and I headbutted him in the chin. Pain erupted on my forehead and chin.
Flames licked where he touched me. I wanted nothing more than to remove his hands from his body. Was he still using magic on me? The forest twisting it to make me feel… whatever this was? I didn’t care how objectively attractive he was. He was a monster, a beast, and my job was to kill him. To avenge my parents! I could see their smiling faces in my mind’s eye. What would they think of me if they could see me now?
I bared my teeth and lunged to bite his neck. I’d tear out his throat if I had to!
He spun us and shoved me against a tree. One of my arms pinned between our bodies, the other held tight in his hand. I tried to kick, bite, and headbutt him again. Araki dodgedmy attack easily. His weight pressed into me. I couldn’t get the leverage I needed to hurt him. His shoulder pressed into my face; my head pinned against the rough bark.
“Hurting me will only hurt you as well,” he said. His voice was low, calm. The way one would speak to a spooked horse.
I stopped struggling because I knew it was useless and didn’t want to waste my strength. My anger only burned hotter, fighting against the chill, damp air.
“What did you do?” I demanded, my voice muffled by his chest.
