Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

I am jolted awake by a loud, sharp howl. Even though I am no lykin, I know something is wrong by the sound alone. And I suspect I can reason what it is since I am still naked, in Evander's arms, and not in Conri's tent where I am meant to be.

Evander is up in a blur, tugging on his trousers.

"How long was I asleep for?" I ask as I follow his lead and hastily pull on my clothes as well.

"I don't know, I was asleep, too." His worried expression only heightens my panic.

"You said it wouldn't be long, that you would?—"

"Well you wore me out," he snaps. Though there's a flash of amusement in his eyes, briefly chasing away the agitation.

"The howl?"

"Conri."

"Shit." I situate my cape around me. I had been hoping my instinct and guess had been wrong. "What are we going to do?"

"I'm trying to think." Evander rubs his temples.

Another howl. It rips through me like the night I met Aurora. The noise of a predator. Of warning. Run , it causes a voice in me to say. But there is nowhere to go.

"Mary," I say, leaning toward the grass. Two marigolds bloom like eyes. "I need you, many of you. Perfume the air, then neutralize your aroma, make this place void of all other scents."

A thousand tiny marigolds carpet the tent. I bury my fingers in the ground between the buds, pouring my magic into it. There's the sharp aroma of flowers, followed by an atmospheric ethereal haze of almost too fresh air. It'll do… I hope . It'll have to.

"Thank you," I say to my friend. "That's all."

The flowers disappear.

"What are?—"

"Can you smell our sex?"

Even Evander is surprised by my bluntness. "No."

"Good." Hopefully it works on Conri too. "You are going to go outside your tent and pretend to have fallen asleep."

"What?"

"You're just waking up, you heard the howls," I keep instructing, short and to the point. "You're going to run to him and say that he must come quickly. That you were unable to get through to me."

"Conri is?—"

"Unless you have a better plan now is not the time to argue," I interject. Evander opens his mouth and promptly shuts it. Answer enough. "Right then, trust me."

"With my life," he says, and leaves the tent.

For a second, I stare at where he was just standing. There's something odd about the knight that's been sworn to protect me saying that he trusts me with his life. But we are playing a dangerous game. One that will threaten both of us, should it unravel.

Shaking my head and dismissing the worries for now, I kneel and draw my cape around me. Lightly, I grab at the small tree I most recently stitched among all the other embroideries. I sigh heavily. I truly hate to go back on my word.

"Brundil, I need you," I say softly as I press my fingers back into the ground. "Please, come to my aid."

Nothing happens for a long, held breath. Hope threatens to leave me. But then the earth shifts. A clay figure wrapped in roots emerges, drawn up by invisible hands. Brundil has taken a slightly different shape this time—more plant and less human. But I still know her in my bones.

"You don't seem to be fleeing with Aurora." She tsks, looking around the tent. The weight of her final judgment lands on me. "Witches. All the same, wasteful."

"What I will ask of you will help me flee with Aurora," I say quickly. She blinks her river stone eyes. The dull look is all the prompting I get to continue my plea. "I'm going to summon you for all the lykin to see. I need you to come and make some kind of grand display."

"What sort of grand display?" She sounds mildly intrigued.

"That's up to you. Just…don't hurt anyone?" As much as Conri has proved to be my enemy—alongside some of his alphas and knights—there are innocent lykin here, children. I'm not going to risk harming them.

"You ruin all my fun."

"Apologies." I hear a raucous collection of voices nearing. Conri's chief among them all. "Will you do it?"

"My power to impact the world, while great, is limited," she cautions. Grandma had warned me as much with spirits, especially greater ones. Spirits aren't meant to take corporeal forms and influence the world. Doing so exhausts their powers—much like how Folost and Mary were worn down from having to exist in the Natural World. Different spirits have different strengths, and limitations. "Are you sure you wish to exhaust my strength, here and now? It will take some time for me to recover."

"Yes." I hate to say it, but if I don't get out of this predicament then Brundil's strength won't matter.

"Very well then." She leans forward, her unseeing eyes peering into mine. As if she can look into the very fabric of my being and judge me. "I will. But you'd best live up to your word and get Aurora out of this mess. Or I will make sure that, when you die, not even the maggots will touch your corpse. You will lie cold, dead but undying, never returning to the earth from whence you came. Your flesh will rot, but the soil will not absorb its nutrients. I will place a curse upon your body so great it will taint your very soul."

I shudder. She leans away with a look of approval. Her words had the desired effect, I see.

"Good, then we have an understanding. I will await your call, little witch." Brundil seeps back into the ground. Leaving me in the cold darkness.

But I've little time to process the threat. The voices are almost upon the tent, close enough now for me to make out individual speakers. Conri is among them. I stick all my fingers into the ground and hunch over. Luckily, my hair is still a mess from Evander's pulling and raking through my tresses. It will help sell my claims.

The tent flap is nearly ripped in two when it's yanked open. I can feel Conri there. His charm slams against me like a wave crashing upon the shore. But I am a breaker rock. Steady and unyielding. The magic pools around me but doesn't seep in. The feeling of Evander within me, of his mouth on mine, of the sweetness of his skin, is far better than any fantasy I could ever concoct and it fights off the charm.

But I do not look up, as tempting as it is. I stay hunched over, swaying slightly. I murmur to myself old chants Grandma taught me. They're words of protection—old spirit names for those long gone, she said. Hopefully Conri does not recognize them.

"What is the meaning of this?" Conri barks.

"She said she needed time and space," Evander says, unflinching, even in the wake of Conri's palpable rage.

"Time and space in my tent wasn't good enough? I demand an explanation. Now! "

I tip to the side, letting my body go limp. Conri moves, but he's not quite fast enough. My teeth slam together with the impact but I don't let the stinging pain show as he pulls me off the ground. Instead I murmur incomprehensible words, forcing shivers, fluttering my lids.

"What is wrong with her? My queen? My queen!" He has the audacity to sound worried. As if he wasn't just plotting my demise with his other alphas.

"C…Conri?" I finally crack open my eyes as if coming to after a long dream. "My king? What…Where…" I make a show of looking around the tent. Widening my eyes as if clarity is dawning on me. "Oh…" I begin to laugh, like I have some monumental relief easing my muscles. "It worked."

"Worked? What worked?" Conri's grip tightens on me. He leans slightly in and drops his voice. "You are verging on making a fool of me, Faelyn. Something that no amount of love for you can spare you from the consequences of."

The words are harsh, void of any concern or compassion. It's a cracking of his facade and I am relieved to finally see it. Not that the rest of them can, or do. Conri wouldn't allow that.

It's easy to smile at his threat. Making a fool of him was what I wanted. How easily it came to pass. But I try to hide my mockery, instead keeping my expression serene and joyful—as if there is nothing for us to worry about even though my insides are knotted.

I hope this works …

"I thought about what you told me of these lands and I have a gift for you. For all of you." I finally turn my attention to the tent flap, where the rest of them huddle, looking in. Evander is doing a good job of being composed. But I can see the worry behind his eyes. The skepticism. "Let's go to the center of camp."

Conri agrees, albeit reluctantly. I keep waiting for the moment he can smell Evander still hot on my flesh. But my spell seems to have worked. When Conri stands and faces the rest of those gathered, he wears a bright smile. He helps me out of Evander's tent. I feign weakness in the process, as though I have exerted great effort and can barely stand without support. However, my wobbly knees aren't entirely an act…

We make our way to the center of camp, where the bonfire has begun to burn low. To think…hours ago I danced around that fire with Conri. I thought that perhaps there could be a path forward together. I almost gave in to the sweet words he was whispering to me—that there was a way I could do right not just for me, but for Aurora, the spirits, and even my home.

I almost fell prey to him once. I won't let it happen again. I will make him regret ever thinking he could use and discard me.

"I am looking forward to seeing this surprise, future wife," Conri says loud enough for them all to hear, then, just for me, "For your sake, I hope it's exceptional."

He releases me and steps away. The whole pack has gathered, no doubt brought to alarm by Conri's howls. Now held in place by curiosity. They all stare at me, some genuinely interested, while others ooze a sense of satisfaction, as if they are waiting for the moment I fail and this all comes tumbling down. I wonder what they think Conri will do to me should I continue to disappoint him. Judging by the hungry gazes and wicked, satisfied grins, it wouldn't be good, and they will be delighted to watch.

I kneel and press my fingers into the ground. I spare one thought for how this all might have been had Conri been genuine. What might we have been able to accomplish? Great things, I dare to think. But I don't need him to achieve my goals. I am strong enough to do it on my own.

"Brundil, great and ancient spirit of earth, hear me, I summon you to my cause," I intone, low and slow, trying to give the air of authority and mystery at the same time.

All those gathered hold their breath. Total silence. I join them. Waiting in anticipation. Nothing happens.

Brundil will come back. She'll help me. I believe it with all my being.

The ground rumbles. Murmuring breaks into outright shouts and screams of surprise and horror as large cracks rip through the camp, racing toward me. The ground around me splits, lifting slightly, as though I am on a pedestal. Lykin jump, avoiding the cracking earth. It rises in places and lowers in others. Whole tents are consumed into the rumbling earth—tents I hope are empty. But I can't do anything to stop Brundil now. Not that I would want to.

The bonfire is swallowed whole. It falls deep into the depths, the orange consumed and reduced to a puff of smoke. As the last curl of gray rises to the air, the lykin catching their breath, clutching each other, and murmuring in shock and horror, the earth begins to groan anew.

Screaming now. They think I have brought about the end times. Or that I am attacking them. The knights change into wolf shapes, trying to find their footing on the earth. What do they think they could really do to me if I was attacking? From my vantage, I'm the one in control.

I stand, wobbling, but Brundil keeps the column under me blessedly still.

"Brundil, come to me!" I thrust out my arms, tilt my head back, and shout to the heavens, my voice echoing across the plains like thunder.

The earth rumbles with the reverberation of my words. A geyser of mud shoots up from the large crack before me. But it doesn't rain down around us. Instead, it hovers unnaturally, slowly melting into the shape of a mighty golem with two smooth boulders for eyes.

"Hello, witch." Brundil's voice rumbles like the deep earth. I appreciate that she decided to leave off "little." "You have summoned me?"

"I would like to ask of you a boon—a blessing on these people of your lands, should you have the strength," I shout so that all can hear. Brundil displayed her might. Now I want her to display her utility and, by proxy, my own. "Will you create a copse of trees here, somewhere that game might thrive for generations to come to feed the lykin of these lands?"

Brundil gives me a hard stare. My stomach squirms as if I have swallowed worms. If she refuses, it will show that I have precious little control of the situation. My ruse will be up.

But she comes through. "Very well. But it will be paid for by your power as well."

"Done."

The word is still reverberating in my ears when she collapses back into the earth. There's rumbling again, but of a calmer sort. The grasses ripple with a wave that pulses underneath them, out from me.

An invisible hand pulls on my ankles. I sink into the earth, the pedestal around me cracking as though I am suddenly an immense weight. My power is pulled out through my feet, down and into the earth. It is the sensation of wet fabric being yanked underneath my skin. Ripped from me with ruthlessness.

I tip my head back, gasping, as if trying to break the surface of invisible water so that I can catch a breath. But my lungs are being pulled with the rest of me. They are collapsing inward. It's impossible to catch a breath. My very soul is being ripped from my body.

Yet, I cling to consciousness. I fight to keep my eyes open, even when all I want to do is give in to this bone-deep exhaustion. From my periphery, I can see the ground continuing to ripple out. And, in the wake of the magic burst, trees shoot up from the ground. Not saplings, but full-grown sentries as tall as the old wood that grew near the redwood by my home.

They dot the landscape around the camp, becoming denser where the tents stop. Their mighty roots span the cracks in the earth as if trying to mend the broken rock and soil. They shore up like bridges, vines and overgrowth carpeting them. The deep smell of fresh earth accompanies the rich aroma of pine and cedar. The cracking and groaning of wood slows.

I am finally freed of the pull. I double forward, losing my balance, and tip off the side of the column Brundil had placed me atop. Wind rushes around me briefly, ended by two strong arms.

For some reason, when I look up, I hope to see Evander's eyes. But I am met with Conri. Even exhausted, I manage to force a smile and hide my disappointment.

"You are an astounding creature," he whispers in awe. Gently, Conri sets me down. I wobble. Not an act this time. But he supports me with an arm around me and a firm grip on my hip. With his free hand, he motions toward me. "Behold, the might of your future queen!"

The lykin erupt in cheers and howls.