Chapter 16
“You can let me have my horse back. I won’t run again.” Brea slumped in the saddle in front of Lochlan. She’d banked on being better on a horse than Lochlan’s men when she made a run for it. She hadn’t had a plan beyond not going to the Eldur palace.
She also hadn’t banked on Lochlan being the one to catch her. Of course he came crashing down on her like a blond fae-god riding Secretariat.
“You’ve proven I can’t trust you. So, you will ride with me to the Eldur palace. You will sleep in my tent, eat my food, and remain in my sight at all times until I hand you over to the queen.”
“Would you like me to wipe your butt while I’m at it?”
“That won’t be necessary, unless you try to escape again. You would do well not to push me human-girl.”
“The Loch-to-Brea translation there, is he will likely pop that vein in his forehead if you try to run again.” Finn rode beside them, offering helpful tidbits to the conversation, much to Lochlan’s irritation. He didn’t seem to like that his friend enjoyed Brea’s company.
“At least let me ride with Finn so it’s not like riding with a boulder at my back.”
“I think the lady just called you soft.” Lochlan jeered at his friend.
“The lady meant the boulder comment in terms of personality.” She shifted in the saddle. While that was partially true, Lochlan’s bulk was like leaning against a stone wall. A cold stone wall.
“You’re just jealous that the pretty lady likes me more. Honestly, it’s the story of his life.” Finn grinned. “Poor guy never gets the girl when I’m around.”
“Why don’t you go check on the rear and let them know we’ll make camp soon?” Lochlan dismissed his cocky right-hand man.
“Right away, sir. Catch you later, Breanne of Tarth.” Finn winked at Brea before he turned his mount and left them in an uncomfortable silence.
Lochlan snorted at his retreat. “Preening peacock.”
“You’re just jealous because he’s charming and you aren’t.”
“My brother is charming. How did that work out for you?”
“I think I like you better when you don’t speak.”
“Hashtag same.”
Brea turned in the saddle to meet his gaze. “How do you know all the human lingo?”
“I’ve spent a lot of time there over the years.”
“Doing what?”
“Keeping you alive. Now, I’ve had enough of your questions, girl.”
Despite her desire to continue needling him, Brea let the matter drop. She sat quietly until she couldn’t take his stony silence for another second.
“So… who’s your favorite GOT character? Tyrion Lannister was my favorite. That’s what I do. I drink and I know things.”
“Of course you would like the talker.”
“So. Who’s your favorite?”
“Davos Seaworth. A quiet, loyal man.”
“What season was he in?”
“I do not watch television. I read.”
“Oh, you’re like Myles…” Her voice caught on his name. “He was always trying to get me to read the books.” With her thoughts on Myles, she didn’t care about the silence anymore.
As the day wore on, Brea started to sweat. It was really hot in Eldur compared to the relative perfection of Fargelsi.
“We make camp here,” Lochlan called to his men. It surprised her that he would stop when it was still light out.
“We still have hours of daylight left, sir,” a young soldier gave voice to Brea’s observations.
“The oasis is the last source of fresh water we will encounter before we reach the palace. We will rest here and stock up on water before we set out early tomorrow morning,” Finn explained.
Lochlan lifted Brea down from the horse—like she couldn’t possibly dismount a horse on her own—and instead of setting her on the ground he carried her to a small wooded area offering the only shade she’d seen all day. A small lake shimmered in the sunlight.
“What are you doing?” She gasped as he tied her hands together and wrapped the rope around a tree. “Are you even serious right now?” She kicked him hard in the shins.
“Did you just kick me?” A brow arched over his dark blue eyes.
“Come here so I can do it again,” Brea growled.
“Do not ever kick me again or you will regret it.” He turned to address his men.
“Lochlan, don’t you dare leave me tethered to a tree like a dog!” Brea stomped her foot, itching to kick him where it really hurt. He ignored her, directing his men to make camp around her as he walked away to help.
Once the tents were ready, Lochlan finally returned.
“You’re a jerk.” Brea shoved her wrists in his face.
“And you stink.” He tossed her pack and a cake of soap at her feet. “If I have to ride with you for the next two days, you will at least smell better.” He released the knot around the tree, giving her a longer tether before he secured her to the tree again and moved her restraints from her wrists to her waist.
“Release me. Now.” Brea slapped him hard across the face and immediately regretted it.
His eyes flashed with carefully controlled anger. “Go clean the swamp stink off.” He pointed toward the lake, just in reach of her leash.
“I won’t escape.” Brea’s face flamed with fury—the lack of her magic more obvious than before. “But I will not bathe in front of you and your men.”
“Trust me, no one will be looking. Fae do not get caught up in the idiocy of human modesty. It’s time you abandon your human tendencies.”
“I’m part human, you jerk.” She kicked a clot of dirt at his face. “And I’m a really good swimmer.” She yanked at the knot around her waist.
“You couldn’t escape even if you wanted to.” Lochlan gave her an arrogant smirk. “We’re surrounded by desert. You’d die of exposure before you could find help. And that knot isn’t going anywhere.”
“Well, if there’s nothing but desert around us, then why bother tying me up at all?” Brea lifted her chin in defiance.
“To teach you a lesson in humility. Now go before I throw you in the lake and bathe you myself.” He turned his back on her.
Brea snatched up her pack and the soap and stomped to the edge of the water. He was right, she couldn’t even get her fingers around the magical knot at her waist. If she wasn’t so incredibly dirty, she’d refuse to take a bath, but she also didn’t want to see if Loch would follow through with his threat to bathe her himself.
Her face flaming with humiliation, she cast a glance over her shoulder to find not one soldier looking her way. She quickly shed her clothes and slipped into the cool, refreshing water until she was up to her neck. The water was crystal clear, and for once she didn’t fear what evils might lurk beneath the surface.
Brea frowned as she worked the soap up into a lather. Everything in Fargelsi was beautiful on the surface with vile and all manner of evil things lying in wait just out of sight. Loch Villandi. The fountain. Magic-blocking Gelsi berries. Beautiful but poisonous flowers, and a vicious queen who spouted lies and played with lives. So far, Eldur seemed to be exactly what it appeared. A hot, dry desert kingdom without the first dragon sighting. Maybe they lived with the queen and guarded the palace? One could hope.
Just as she was rinsing the last of the caked mud from her hair, something tugged at her waist and she went slicing through the water like a fish on a line.
“What is your problem?” Brea sputtered, trying to shield herself in the shallow water.
“Bath time’s over.” Lochlan dropped a linen blanket on the ground and turned his back.
”You know, you could learn a thing or two from your brother.” Brea snatched the blanket and wrapped it around herself several times. “He may have lied to me—and that is unforgivable—but at least he’s a decent person.”
“Griffin is many things, but decent isn’t one of them.” He tugged on her leash, nearly dragging her into his tent. “Get dressed.”
Brea stumbled into the larger tent, grasping for her anger and the magic that normally came with it, but it was gone. And just when she really wanted to use it.
“Stupid handsome blond jerk-face.” Brea let out a string of curses that would have gotten her grounded at home.
“I heard that,” Lochlan called just outside the tent.
Brea stuck her head through the flaps. “I meant for you to!” She called him a few more names.
“Lady Brea!” Finn sounded shocked. “I’ve never heard a noble woman curse like that.”
“You meant to call me handsome, Lady Brea?” Lochlan and a few of his soldiers laughed.
Brea shoved her arms through the soft tunic Neeve had made for her, grateful someone took the time to wash her things after her trip through the swamp. Slipping on her leggings and shoving her feet into her boots, Brea stomped through the tent flaps.
“Let’s get one thing straight, Lochlan. Stay away from me. Don’t talk to me. Don’t even look at me.”
“If you’ll be quiet, you’ve got yourself a deal, my Lady.” Lochlan smirked up at her from where he lounged in the shade.
“Hungry?” Finn offered her a bowl of stew and a chunk of dry bread.
“Starving.” Brea accepted the meal and returned to the tent.
“It’s going to be hot in there, Brea,” Lochlan called. “I’d hate for you to have to take another bath.”
Brea kicked the tent flaps aside and sat down under the shade beside Finn. “What did I just say?” She shot a glare at Lochlan before she turned away, determined to pretend he didn’t exist.
~~~
Brea could feel Lochlan moving around the tent in the early hours just before dawn. She hadn’t slept at all in the muggy hot space. Rolling over to face him, she regretted it instantly. Naked once again with his back to her, beads of water rolled down his lean body after a dip in the lake.
“Jeeze, Loch, put some clothes on.” She rolled away.
“That is what I’m doing.” She heard the rustle of his clothes as he dressed. “Most ladies find my form appealing. Do you not?”
“Does it matter?”
“Not at all. I am simply trying to understand your odd human behavior.”
“I am seventeen years old, Lochlan. In the human world you could get arrested for exposing yourself to someone my age.”
“I am only a few years older than you.” He sounded like he didn’t think any of this was odd.
“You’ll have to excuse me if I find it odd to wake up to a naked fae butt in my face first thing in the morning.”
“But you will be of age soon. How does a few weeks make a difference in your world?”
“It just does. And how do you know I’m almost eighteen?” She had no idea what the date was, and with the weird fae calendar added into the mix, she didn’t know when her birthday was, only that it was soon.
Lochlan crouched beside her bedroll, still shirtless, his long blond hair dripping from his early morning swim, but at least he’d put on pants. “Your magic is erratic, yes?”
Brea nodded. If you could call absent erratic, then hers was a mess.
“All fae magic is tied to our emotions. Surely my brother taught you that much?”
“Yes. He was going to help me learn how to control my Fargelsi magic.” Brea sat up, clutching her blanket to her chest. “But we never got around to it.”
“There is a reason I goaded you all day yesterday, Brea. You magic has slipped out of your reach since your difficult journey through the Vatlands. You don’t know how to use your magic, much less control it. I was trying to push it out of you through your temper, but that isn’t working. When you come of age, it will return in full force, but you need to be prepared to deal with it when that happens. The last time the magic built up within you, you knocked yourself out. You can’t let that happen again.”
“Then what do I do?”
“I will help you.” Lochlan stood up, reaching for his shirt. “Get dressed and eat something. We leave in an hour.”
~~~
“Seriously? We’re doing this again?” Brea stared up as Lochlan mounted on his horse, reaching down to lift her up.
“Seriously.” The muscle in his jaw ticked.
“You’ve still got me on your leash, so just let me ride my own horse. It’s not like I can go anywhere.” She fumbled with the rope around her waist, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Get on the damn horse, Brea.” Lochlan jerked her forward by her tether.
“Rude.” She climbed up in front of him, dreading another hot day riding far too close to her least favorite person.
“Take this.” He handed her a thick piece of rough-cut glass.
“What is it?”
“Crystalized sand. You’re going to practice while we ride today.”
“Magic? How?”
“Your magic is inside you. You need to find it and funnel it into the crystal. It will glow with the color of your magic when you do it right. This exercise will help you learn to sense your magic when it is close.”
“So, I just find my magic and use it to light up the crystal?” She turned to look up at him. “You do realize you’ve failed to explain how I’m supposed to accomplish that.”
“Focus on your emotions and feelings, and you will find it. This is an internal battle no one can do for you, Brea.”
“You’re just trying to keep me quiet,” Brea muttered.
“That is simply an added benefit of the exercise.” Lochlan nudged his horse forward across the rocky desert terrain.
Brea stared at the piece of crystalized sand for the first few miles, wondering how she was supposed to find her magic when she didn’t know where to look for it.
“You’re not trying, Brea,” Lochlan pressed.
“I’m trying to decide the best approach.” Brea closed her eyes, letting her thoughts drift over the frustrating events of the past weeks. She had good memories of her time in Gelsi, but that it was all a lie just made her angry, and anger didn’t seem to help her connect with her magic.
Instead, Brea focused on happier memories of Myles before all of this happened. But that just made her sad. Sadness didn’t seem to be a strong enough emotion to stir her magic.
“I feel like I’m trying to cast a patronus, and I don’t have enough happy memories to pull it off.”
“You’re not Harry Potter, Brea. This isn’t make-believe nonsense. Now, focus.” Lochlan pressed the glass into her hand and wrapped her fingers around it.
“Of course you’ve seen Harry Potter.”
“I have read Harry Potter. Human books fascinate me. You should try reading sometime. It’s a far better use of your time than mindless movies that never tell the whole story.”
“Myles used to say the same thing.”
It was the only thing they ever argued about. A smile came to Brea’s lips at the memory of all their stupid fights about nothing. Just knowing he was still out there living his life made her happy. She just wondered if he hated her. A surge of fear rose up inside her at that thought. She couldn’t bear it if he hated her for what she’d done to him.
“Brea, look.” Lochlan nudged her. She looked down at the crystal pulsing with a vivid yellow light before it winked out.
“I did it!” A grin spread across her face. “Myles is my patronus.”
“You didn’t do anything because you let it go before you took control.”
“That wasn’t just nothing. You don’t get to poop all over my success.”
Finn’s laughter rang out behind them. Lochlan-the-jerk-face had made him ride behind them today so he wouldn’t distract her.
“I don’t get to what?” Lochlan stilled behind her.
“You don’t get to poop on her success,” Finn supplied—for Lochlan and any of the soldiers who’d missed it the first time.
“That was not a success.”
“It was,” Brea insisted. “Now we know my magic is yellow.”
“Yes, we do.” Lochlan sighed. “What emotion filled you when the magic pulsed in the crystal?”
Brea didn’t want to tell him it was fear. She could only imagine how many ways he’d try to torture the magic out of her. “Happiness,” she finally said.
“Do not lie to me, Brea.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Yes, you are.”
“So, what do I do next time when the light pulses in the crystal?”
“Take control.”
“How?”
“Use your instincts, Brea.”
“What if I have no instincts?”
“Just try it again. And keep your eyes open this time.”
“Fine.” Brea stared down at the crystal in her lap and revisited some of the scariest moments of her trip through the swamp. The image of the alligator-dragon beast filled her mind. She conjured up every last harrowing detail she could recall right down to its creepy forked tongue.
The crystal glowed with a faint yellow light, and Brea focused harder, urging the light to shine brighter. Sweat beaded on her forehead and rolled down her face. Her hands shook with the effort to keep the yellow light from winking out. When she lost it, Brea cursed and chucked the crystal as far as she could throw it.
“Brea. Don’t be a child.” Lochlan raised his hand and somehow summoned the crystal, catching it in his outstretched hand and stuffing it back in hers.
“Why don’t you show me how to do that?”
“Because you haven’t mastered the most basic mechanics of magic that even our youngest children learn through instinct alone.”
“How about we do the not-talking thing again for a while?” Brea felt like crushing the stupid crystal in her bare hands.
She spent the next hour running the gamut of her emotions, searching for the right thought or feeling that would stimulate her magic. But the darn thing refused to light up again.
Looking up, Brea saw stunted trees and cactus replacing the barren desert sands they’d traversed. “Where are we?” Brea yawned, reaching for her canteen.
Lochlan pulled her back against his chest, his arms tense. “Quiet, Brea.” That was when she realized he gripped his sword in his free hand.
“What’s going on?” she whispered, not liking the way Lochlan’s soldiers had fanned out around them. Before he could answer, a crossbow bolt slammed into a boulder just feet from Brea and Lochlan. She nearly jumped out of her seat, but Lochlan’s arm was like a vise around her waist.
Several more bolts whizzed past them, and a battle cry echoed through the sparse forest as men and women charged toward them. Brea’s heart lodged somewhere in her chest as Lochlan and his men entered the fray.
“Take this.” Lochlan shoved a huge round shield in front of her. Brea clutched it tight and huddled behind the barrier. His arm slid around her again, but his free sword hand hacked away at the nearby soldiers.
“My uncle’s men.” Lochlan snarled in her ear. “None of them leave this place alive!” He shouted to his men.
Brea had never experienced a battle up close before, and she had no desire to experience this one. Ducking her head behind the shield, she just managed to avoid an arrow to her face. The shaft stuck in the shield, and as she reached to snap it off, three others replaced it.
Adrenaline and fear shot through her system. Still clutching the crystalized sand, it blazed with the yellow light of her magic now.
Lochlan struggled with a fierce warrior Brea thought she recognized from the Iskalt delegation party in Fargelsi. Their swords clashed, and Brea screamed, clutching the shield, grateful for Lochlan’s hold on her.
“You can tell Callum O’Shea he’ll have to do far better than an ambush in the desert. I’m coming for him and everyone who serves him,” Lochlan snarled, sending the man flying from his horse. Lochlan turned his horse around to meet another attack.
“Loch!” Brea screamed, and her magic exploded from her body in a useless wave of yellow light.
The soldiers kept coming, and Lochlan slashed his way through them with his soldiers at his sides. He was ruthless in his rage. The icy blue light of his magic tipped his sword, dropping his enemies one by one.
“There’s another one.” Brea pointed at a woman charging past Finn with a determined set to her jaw.
She was so focused on the woman she didn’t see the man riding toward them until it was almost too late.
Lifting the heavy shield, Brea deflected his sword, saving Lochlan from a grievous injury.
“Stupid girl.” The man spat, his blade coming down on her.
Brea felt the tug and rip of fabric first as the sword bit deep into her shoulder. The shock of his cold magic lit up her insides as the soldier sliced down her arm. She screamed in agony as her arm went limp, and she dropped the shield.
“Brea!” Lochlan shouted over the din of battle.
Magic churned under Brea’s skin, latching onto her fear. Without a thought to what she was doing, Brea grasped hold of her magic and sent it soaring toward the man who’d tried to kill Lochlan. The last thing she saw was the horrific sight of the man’s head parting ways with his body before her magic rebounded on her and darkness won.