Page 106 of Renegade Kings

Comes through it?

“I… can feel their emotions. Not all the time, but I get glimpses of them. I also get a sense of where they are. Like I know, if I concentrated on it, I’d be able to follow the pull of the bond and follow it back to them.”

The sigh that Fizzle gave at that information sounded like he was on the verge of giving up on me. Personally, I thought it all sounded pretty impressive. Especially considering that most fae wouldn’t even dare to make such a bond, so there wasn’t exactly a manual out there about it.

“Their magic!” he said in exasperation. “What of their magic comes through it?”

My head reared back at the words; I was that surprised by them. It wasn’t until I opened my mouth to deny that any magic was involved in the bond that I actually thought about.

The bond was magic, and it wasn’t a far stretch to believe that it was partially responsible for what the guys could do. Yes, they’d shown signs of magic before we’d bonded, but part of me wondered if it was already there, but in a different form. A bond made through fate that we hadn’t yet had the opportunity to solidify. But if that was the case, then the magic would have to travel between us, and in some form, I’d already experienced this. I’d felt the pull on the bond and the curiousness of my magic when it reached out for it.

“I’ve felt my magic reach for it,” I started slowly. “But I don’t think I’ve felt any move through it. Not in any amount that I’d be able to sense, at least.”

It seemed like a reasonable answer to me. I’d even taken a moment to think it through before speaking. Fizzle, however, looked at me like he was about to throw me overboard, and I was rethinking my earlier thoughts of how I preferred Fizzle’s way of teaching. I could do with a few of those meaningless platitudes right about now.

“Sometimes, I honestly don’t know what to do with you,” he complained and then sighed again. “Stop thinking of the bond like it only works in one direction. Think of it like a loop, one where the magic you all contain can freely flow through. You are all joined, making you greater than any one of you alone. You don’t need to drain yourself on the battlefield. You need to look to your bond and share the load with your mates.”

I knew I was looking at Fizzle with a blank look on my face. It was probably the shock to my system of him trying to tell me now that my magic worked in an entirely different way than I’d ever used it before. Or maybe it was the annoyance at the fact that he could have told me this weeks ago and saved us so many problems.

“If you’d told me this before, we would have had the opportunity to practise before literally taking a perilous journey that ended with a fight where everyone’s lives fell on my shoulders.” My voice was slowly getting louder as I spoke, and I knew it was a mistake, but I couldn’t hold it back.

Maybe this was Fizzle’s version of the bullshit I’d always assumed he didn’t bother with, because right now, I couldn’t think of a better word for it. How could he be this irresponsible? Holding back information like this could help me keep every single person walking into this fight safe. It shouldn’t matter if it would prevent whatever prophecy he didn’t want to tell us from taking place. My life would never be more important than all of theirs. Otherwise, what the hell were we even bothering to fight for?

I thought he’d shout at me then. I was expecting a Fizzle-sized tantrum as he called me a child for not knowing my magic and then sulked off in a corner somewhere for someone having the audacity to question him.

Instead, Fizzle just seemed to deflate on the spot, his wings sagging to his sides as he watched the other ships move to drop anchor around us.

We were here. It was time to go to shore and face why we’d come here in the first place.

“You don’t need my guidance, Alyssandra. You never did. Look at all you’ve achieved since you arrived here. All the things you’ve done by working it out for yourself. You were always fine on your own, but for some reason, you always felt like you needed an explanation, a set of steps to follow to reach your goal. Giving you those only leads to you making assumptions. Setting yourself limitations that don’t even really exist. You need to feel your magic, get to know it on a personal level. Trust it, and it will guide you through even the darkest of nights.”

He sounded so defeated, and it was so unlike Fizzle. It was shocking, to say the least.

I wasn’t so sure he was right about this, though, and I looked at my old friend in concern. Now felt like the time to ask him to tell me the prophecy. He looked so beaten down and ready to give up that I almost thought he’d relent and actually tell me. But I wouldn’t do that. Fizzle was hurting right now, and I knew it came down to the real risk that we wouldn’t make it out of this. I wouldn’t exploit that just to get my way. Besides, what he’d said was right. Even now, I couldn’t afford to assume anything about what I could do and what I couldn’t. We were always saying that Arik was continuing to get the upper hand because he could do things we didn’t even know were possible. So, maybe that’s what our problem was. We placed too many limitations on what the power we contained could do. It was time to let it flow and do as it pleased.

The words of the dryad came back to me about how our incessant need for control did nothing but smother the magic. How many times did people need to tell me this before I’d actually listen?

Fizzle and I watched in silence as the crew slowly lowered the rowboats to the water. It was time to get everyone to shore. This was the point of no return. We could turn back now if we wanted to. Head out for that new land instead of fighting for this one, but none of us would.

Nymeria was home. If we didn’t free it, we lost everything, and then what was the point of surviving, anyway? Besides, if we ran, Arik won, and that future was enough motivation for me to stand up and fight. Even if it was just pettiness that fuelled me.

Chapter 42

Ryder

We walked for almost a day. The mountains in this part of Nymeria were beautiful, and it was more like a rough hike than what I’d imagined. No one was really having much difficulty apart from the tiredness of a day’s journey setting in. The trail we were following was rough, but if anything, that reassured me enough to not feel like I had to keep looking over my shoulder. Because trails got rough when they weren’t used and we were banking on not coming across any of Arik’s forces until we were ready to fight.

My wolf didn’t like this one bit, though. He was constantly at the edge of my mind, watching our pack, our mate, looking for any sign that our enemies were nearby. It was difficult to calm him down when I had the same concerns. But him being so alert was giving me some reassurance as well. No one would get close without him realising it, even if it was exhausting to deal with him.

Damon had been quiet for most of the day. The chains on his wrists and ankles clinked softly as he moved, and every single sound tore at my heart. It felt so wrong to see him this way. Especially when we’d had no sign of the nightmare all day. This was the longest time he’d stayed as Damon, and the hope that it meant he was getting stronger was going to be hard to deal with if I was proved wrong.

The deal with the nightmare hung over us, and we were all trying not to think about it. I didn’t even know Damon’s thoughts. It had to be tempting, but I guess that's why it had made it. Knowing that I had something like that in my head, though, would be hard to live with.

The wolf huffed indignantly in response. “You know I don’t mean you, and you’re not a worm taking up residence in my brain,” I reminded him softly.

There was no response as the wolf sulked in the back of my head. At least it gave me a break from his constant anxiety.

My gaze found Rhidian, who seemed to be subtly falling back through the group, no doubt to get closer to Alyssa. I felt sorry for the guy. We’d all known we wanted her as soon as we met her. I couldn’t even imagine how it would have felt if she hadn’t felt the same. Let alone endure it for decades, only to watch her bond with others.

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