Page 11 of Renegade Kings

My mind immediately went to Damon. Even his brothers hadn’t been able to tell that he was about to betray us. I could see why that would have the people in this realm terrified. If Rhidian had been doing what he’d told us back at the cave, then he had a lot of people in his care who were in hiding. Obviously they were hiding from Arik, but for what crimes? Knowing Arik, it could range from having something he wanted to merely existing. Either way, these people weren’t our enemies.

Probably.

“Fine. Let’s go,” I said again.

There was no point in putting it off. Plus, I had a feeling we were going with them whether we wanted to or not. It was killing me to be so suspicious of Rhidian and Fizzle, but that was what the world had turned into now. Rhidian was right. There was no way to know who you could trust anymore.

With a nod, Rhidian turned on his heel and walked back into the trees. I knew where he was heading, so I didn’t really need to follow him, but I did anyway. This place was part of me. I could find my way back to the palace with my eyes closed.

The guys stayed close to my sides as Rhidian’s men slowly surrounded us and we began our trek. It was the quiet that felt the worst. This place had been so full of life that at times it felt like you could never be alone. Now the silence screamed at me, reminding me of everything that was lost.

As we continued our walk, my attention drifted and I let my gaze wander out into the trees. The forest had changed. Of course, it had. I hadn’t been amongst these trees for decades. But there was a stillness here that, coupled with the silence, felt almost ominous.

“Why are they doing that?” Tank murmured, subtly moving closer to me to make sure I could hear him.

I knew what he’d noticed. The guards Rhidian had brought with him weren’t so much as guarding us as watching the forest, and none of them were straying off the path. Which was strange because this wasn’t the Wildling Forest, this was the Spring Court. The forests here were part of us. The dangerous creatures of Nymeria didn’t live here.

Or at least they hadn’t.

“I don’t like this,” Dean complained from my other side. When I grinned in response, he almost looked like he was dreading what would happen next, but then I caught the glint in his eye.

He’d always be by my side. They all would be.

I stumbled forward, pretending to catch my foot on a tree root, and went down to one knee. Tank and Dean may have been aware of what I was about to do, but I could see how hard it was for them to let me fall.

The group came to a stop. The guards were almost frantic as they scanned the surrounded trees, as if looking for whatever was about to attack.

I didn’t take long. Bracing my hand on the ground, I let my magic flow. This was my home and my magic was as much a part of it as I was. It welcomed the feeling of reuniting with the place that had seen its birth.

But something was wrong. The land felt almost dead. There wasn’t that dancing playfulness of Nymeria reaching back for me. There was barely anything.

I slowly rose to standing, and Fizzle locked eyes with me. “Find what you were looking for?”

I didn’t answer him. The fact that he was perched on Rhidian’s shoulder having a whispered conversation was hard enough to accept. But now, everything he said just fuelled my distrust of him further. It felt sarcastic, judgmental, and not in his usual way. Even after all that time I’d spent in the human realm, I never thought I’d lost Fizzle. Across all that distance, I’d still considered him my friend. Had it all been a lie? Was I just too young to see it before?

Maddox stepped between us and it didn’t take a genius to know that he was glaring Fizzle down. A volatile shifter wasn’t exactly someone to take a chance on, and thankfully Fizzle knew it because he turned away, his attention returning to whatever whispered conversation he was having with Rhidian.

The guards who had been jittery before looked worse now. They regarded the path before us with suspicion, their gaze moving back to the trees as hands reached for weapons.

“What were you looking for?” Ryder asked as he leaned forward to whisper into my ear.

I glanced around us. Rhidian and Fizzle were far enough ahead that they wouldn’t hear us if we were careful, and the guards were paying more attention to our surroundings rather than us.

“I was trying to join with Nymeria’s magic. Get a feel for the land,” I whispered.

“And?” Tank asked.

I could hardly believe what I was about to say. Not just because it should be impossible, but because of the implications. “There’s barely anything left.”

The guys fell quiet. I could see them thinking. They wouldn’t understand what was happening here. Why it shouldn’t even be possible. Or at least I didn’t think they would.

“I thought you said that Nymeria was made of magic?” Dean asked in confusion.

“It is. Which is why this is bad. This land almost feels like it’s dying. It… it feels like the human realm.”

There was no time to say anything further because the trees were thinning and I was already catching glimpses of buildings as we got closer to the town that surrounded the palace.

I was the last member of the royal line for the Spring Court. No one else had survived the massacre. This court’s magic ran through my blood, and I could feel my magic reaching out to connect with the land, even though there was nothing there to answer its call.

---