Page 45 of Shadows of Air and Earth
Xi and Riley glanced at one another warily before peering back down at the shadows dissipating from the worn, rough table, leaving behind therealEmpedolces staff. Gleaming in the sunlight pouring from the window, its sacred polished wood was like a sparkling jewel lying in the dirt. Reverent and alluring, its power invoked full command of the room—and of the elementals within it.
Barely breathing, Riley and Xi leaned in towards one another, never taking their eyes off the staff.
“I’m going to need the one you stole back,” I said slowly.
A pair of hazel eyes and one grey snapped up to me. “Do you hear it too?” they both said in unison before turning to one another wide-eyed.
A small smile danced across my lips, still amused by how perfectly harmonious they always were with one another. I shook my head. “I hear nothing, but then again, I’m not meant to.” But I knewwhowas. Controlling the accelerated beating of my heart, I tucked my wavy, black hair away from my face, before leaning forward with commanding eyes, “Touch it.”
Xi’s hand shook, the first to respond, and then she paused to look towards Riley. Smiling, he placed his hand on top of hers, his eyes glittered with love and devotion as he whispered encouragingly, “We are one, terrella, we always will be.” Guiding each other's hands down to the artifact they held their breaths.
The root flared to life the moment they touched it, colors of blue, grey, orange, and gold rippled across their bodies, glowing brighter and brighter until it consumed the room—fully immersed in the stunning color, vibrant with life and energy.
This…this was what it was like to behold the power of Faerie, but just as we began to bow in deference to its greatness, the power disappeared, snuffed from the room like a burning flame.
Gasping, Riley and Xi snapped their hands away from the staff, staring at one another with wonder and fear. Their chests heaved, both unable to speak.
Standing, my chair scraped softly against the wooden floor, I bowed my head low to the newly crowned Lady and Lord of the elemental fae. The true leaders of their people and now…a target for the wrath of the Queen of Faerie. “Well met, Lady and Lord of the Elemental Court.”
Xi licked at her exposed lips, her eye flickering up at me, then snapping back down to the staff, “I—no this has to be…”
“A mistake,” Riley choked, finishing her statement, nodding furiously.
“Yes, a mistake, there is no way we could be—” Xi’s voice broke off into a small cry.
Riley’s air wrapped around her, tucking her hair back from her face, and soothing the sudden trembling of her body. The sharp bite of panic and doubt could practically be tasted and I wished I could say it was unwarranted. That there was no chance in this goddess damn universe where I would ever let harm befall them, but fae could not lie.
“It is no mistake,” I said softly. “You asked me once how I knew it was you in the City of Light,” I gave her a sad encouraging smile, “I see aura’s Xi and both of yours flare like stars in the sky, a quality I have not seen from any other fae before. I did not know what it meant then, but I do now. It is the mark of the goddess, the mark of the true leader of the elemental court. She has chosen you both. You sought the Empedolces for it to crown your next ruler. To find the leader that would free your people from the harsh reality of the queen’s rule butyouhad it within yourselves all along. It called to you, not the other way around.” I sighed and shook my head at how fucking cruel fate could be. “The way I see it, you now have two choices.” I held up my finger, “One, you announce your claim of the elemental court without the full power of your people behind you and likely fail. Or two, you wait, you gather your resources, you find your allies, you learn your enemies, and you infiltrate the system from theinside. You play a different game.”
Xi licked her lips and I could see the burning question in her eyes, one I had asked my own self many times over.
“Ask,” I said, my stomach twisting in knots.
Looking between us, Riley frowned but remained silent and Xi fidgeted in her seat, quietness holding the room before she summoned the courage to speak.
“What about Deirdre? You are the General to the Faerie Throne. Your vow is to her and yet you will help us? What about your…relationship?”
I could not blame her for asking the same questions I have wondered myself, and as such she deserved an answer.A real one. Spreading the shadows around the room, I caged us in our own cocoon of darkness to speak freely, for the first time in two hundred years. “Be at ease, the shadows are to prevent anyone from overhearing the truth I am about to tell you.” I gave them both a small encouraging smile. “When I joined the crown, it was because my mother and court had been ripped apart by bloodshed and loss. Something she had sheltered me from and as such, I was uninhibited by the ghosts of the past and was a dreamer of a new future. Deirdre was dangerous and her enormous power called mine, power that made us both outcasts of our own courts and we found solace in each other as a result. I did not anticipate falling in love with her, and if you asked me even now if I still love her, my answer would be yes.”
The shadows shimmered around the room, attempting to comfort the bitter regret and sadness I felt at admitting that truth out loud and at the way Xi and Ri stiffened at my confession.
Taking a deep breath, I pulled a shadow from the floor up into my hand, cradling it like a dark wisp sent to comfort me on the twisted path I chose. “But that love between us, it is a dying flame, one that dims with each passing day and each time another fae hangs on the walls of the city.” Closing my fist, I met their attentive stares, concern for themselves or for me I was unable to distinguish. Tilting my chin high, my voice was firm and true. “Know this. When I made my vows, my oaths to the crown, it was to the Faerie throne and her lands—not to aqueen. I have done thisalonewithin the presence of enemies and foes, playing the games of heathens and monsters, masked behindbeauty and splendor, and I have done it all for these lands—the fae within them.”
The shadows snapped promptly back from the walls at my beckoning and licked up my brands to deliver what I requested of them. Curling my hand around the items, I leaned upon the table, the roughened, worn surface abrasive upon my skin. Hair falling around me in a dark curtain, I slid my hand across the surface, the sound of soft tinkling and scraping echoed in the tension-filled room—then silence.
Exhaling softly, I uncurled my fingers and lifted my hand, watching as they both bowed in unison to look upon what I had revealed.
Glittering in the soft morning sun alongside the staff, two delicate silver pins lay. Manipulated and strenuously molded from silver of the Argentine caves, they resembled the smokey tendrils of the shadows that were always a part of me. Made from a dream, they were a symbol of trust and friendship, of loyalty and unbreakable bonds, of the vengeful beast and the resilient beauty that lived in the shadows.
“The choice is yours,” I said softly before turning away, swallowing hard. The acidic burn of the unknown rising in my throat while I took the last few steps to the door.
They would need time—time to weigh the consequences of a decision that would alter the course of their very future, likely putting their lives at even more risk. It was for the best that I walked away now.
Grasping the knob of the door, my eyes falling on the leather cord tied on my wrist, I swallowed hard again. I could fucking do this. I could walk away. I was used to being alone and I could still find another way to restore Faerie without them. I just needed to—
The door ripped from my grasp with a forceful wind and my booted feet spun back around, to the inner sanctum of the room.Blinking, I found Xi and Riley standing before me, and I stilled when my gaze fell upon the silver shadow pins anchored on their shirts, flickering in the sun-filled room. The Empedolces staff was left discarded and forgotten on the table behind them.
In unison, they knelt on one knee, bowing their heads, speaking as one. “We pledge ourselves to you, Remnant Dark, in both this life and the next, as our general, our leader, and our friend. We vow to always remain by your side, together, in whatever way the universe will have us.”
