Page 115 of The Rebel Seer

I make my reality, and I have let fear rule for so long.

I reach out and touch her. Which is really simply touching my own skin, but it is a gesture. “Thank you. I can think now.” I turn back to my in-laws, my head in a better place now. How had I ever thought that sound menacing? It’s a sound from my childhood. I focus in on one. The sound of the creek behind our house. It would ease me to sleep on long nights. I would put my feet in the mud and know I was connected to the earth. Lift my hands to the sky and feel the way my soul stretched to the heavens. Earth and air were mine. Are mine.

“I think you might be here so I have one last chance to say good-bye,” Dev admits quietly. “I don’t want to give up, but I cannot allow Myrddin to harm my wife and our child. Shy, is the space Harry stayed in still open? Or have you found a way to close it?”

This cannot be why I am here, but I still reply. “It is open. I would never close my soul space. I wouldn’t want to even if I knew how.”

“I won’t stay long, sweet girl. Only long enough to say good-bye.” His head turns and he stares at his wife. “I will find out if that bastard killed our daughter. If he did, she will be waiting for me, and I will make things right between us. Wherever we go, we will go together.”

“Or you could not go at all.” It’s easy to hear the panic in the queen’s voice.

“Do not touch those chains or I’ll have you in them, too.” The guards are still watching us. We are not alone.

Zoey bites back a cry and steps away, her eyes on the stumps where Dev’s hands used to be. “We can find a way out. You don’t have to die. Shy is right. She’s here to stop this.”

I feel something shift. The cries briefly become louder, but then the spirit beside me seems to amp up her power. “I think the king did his job and opened the door.”

I feel a rush of agreement. The Drowning Woman thinks so, too.

Why do I get the feeling she is proud of me? It’s the oddest thing. It’s almost like she’s sending me a message.

I am so proud. You can do this. You were born for this moment.

It’s almost like she has a voice. A familiar one.

I have an inkling, but I can’t give in to it now. Time is running short.

“Then it’s my time,” Dev says, and it’s easy to see he’s trying to put on a brave face. “My darling goddess, I love you. Be brave. Be Zoey. Take care of all of them for me.”

Tears pour from the queen’s eyes. “I can’t do this without you.”

“You can,” he promises. “You can and you will, and I will be waiting to be reunited with you and Daniel again.”

The door to the tent opens, and he is there. Myrddin’s presence soaks the space in dark, selfish magic. His eyes narrow when he sees me. “Guards, get the seer. I don’t know how she managed to get out of my spell. It should have kept her asleep and incapacitated for days. I want her in chains, and then we’ll add her soul to my pyre. When we slit her throat, her magic won’t matter. Devinshea, it’s time. I have the mountain open, and I have a door to the Hell plane open. The souls have one place to go.”

I feel the panic of the Drowning Woman as two guards wrest me away. “Dev, when the time comes, choose me.”

It’s as much instruction as I can give him. I know the Fae version of Neil made the choice. He wasn’t swayed by the call of the mountain. He chose.

Myrddin can’t force the souls to do his bidding. But he can trick them. They will think they are walking into the light, but the light Myrddin offers will send them to Hell no matter their religious beliefs. I have to think it’s a portal of some kind that will gather energy and allow Myrddin to work his will.

“He will choose his wife every time,” Myrddin says as he stands there, energy flowing off him. His eyes are obsidian orbs, and black veins cover his body. This is the wizard in his purest form. In his magical power. “Choose her now, Devinshea, or I will kill her where she stands.”

The guards haul me back, their rough hands gripping me, and I hear a crack of thunder and rain start to pelt the tent above us.

Myrddin’s eyes narrow but he ignores it. He has an ornate knife in his hand and points it Zoey’s way. “I’ll carve the child out of her and force you to watch. I won’t wait for the Wild Hunt to do her in.”

The guards hold Zoey in place, too.

The only comfort I have is the Drowning Woman who stands near Myrddin now, and I feel her menace.

It is for him. It is not for me. What if there was never menace in this spirit for me? What if I created that because I was not ready to face her? Not ready to lose her again. What if I always knew when I truly saw her face, I would have to let her go?

“I’m going,” Devinshea says. “Or rather Bris is. I love you. Zoey, say my name. One last time.”

I’m sure she says it, but I don’t hear because my mind is stuck on that request.

Say my name.

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