“What are you doing here?!” Cyan asked, horror seeping into his gaze at the sight of me there, his natural skin resurfacing. “You cannot be here. Go. Leave!”
Desperation like I had never seen captured his expression, and I stepped toward him.
“Don’t come any closer or they’ll know you are here!” Cyan warned. “They’ll want you too.”
Confusion wrinkled my features as I glanced at him. “Cyan, I know you feel guilty for surviving when your parents didn’t. For escaping when they couldn’t, but you don’t have to do this.”
Emotion swept over his features, resentment hardening them. “Yes, I do. You have to leave before it’s too late.” His frantic gaze landed on Liam and the other two royal warriors. “Take her away from here!” he urged, focusing on Liam. “You have to get her out before they sense her, or they won’t stop until she is dead.”
“What are you talking about?” I shook my head, more confused than ever. “I am sorry I doubted you when you first arrived. I’m sorry for being so harsh on you, I had no idea who you were, I didn’t know what you’d been through. Now I do. Don’t do this. You belong here, Cyan—”
“No, I don’t!” he shouted, the bitterness I thought he’d finally left behind overcoming him again. “You were right to doubt me, Célest. I didn’t tell you the whole truth.”
Visible pain coursed through him, making his corded muscles tense along his arms and neck as something dark crashed against my chest. Doubt. “I know who you are…”
“No, you don’t.”
“What didn’t you tell me, Cyan? Whatever it is, I can forgive it.”
The muscles of his jaw jerked as he watched me, the love he felt for me swallowed by the darkness surfacing in him.
“I grew up watching them torture my parents. They kept us drugged so we couldn’t use our powers against them. They invaded our minds, trying to find a way to claim our ability for themselves. Made us feel terror so strong it paralyzed us until we could barely breathe. It felt like they were ripping us apart from the inside out, but we prevailed. We held on as long as we could, with the hopes that one day we would make it out of there. That somehow our queen would save us… My mother’s heart couldn’t take it anymore, and she died, but my father is still alive.”
Gasps reverberated behind me with his confession, but I didn’t say a word because his pain was tearing through me too.
“When one of the ˈlēTHəl came the next night to drug us and torture us, my father jumped on him, and we fought him together. We killed him and were able to escape, but they caught us on our way here.”
Shame tinged his words, and he looked away from me.
“They threatened to consume my dad, kill him before my eyes in the most horrible way unless I agreed to find out if the elemental powers had returned to Aērelis. They are ravenous for magic, and I couldn’t let them kill my father too. Convinced I would somehow survive, they pushed me through the barrier without even giving me a chance to fully transform… And then I met you.”
Goddess!
A longing gleam softened his green irises, tinged with regret.
“Because of you, Célest, I was welcomed into a place that felt like home from the first step I took. I fell in love with Aērelis. I fell in love with you, and I told myself maybe I could stay. Maybe I could become strong enough to kill them on my own. Maybe I could rescue my dad before they came here… but I ran out of time.”
“Cyan…” The agony exuding out of him lodged in my throat as I finally understood everything he had carried on his shoulders all this time. My eyes burned, tears spilling onto my face. “I understand. I can’t even imagine what I would feel if it was my mom in their grasp. I would have done the same for her. I would do anything to save her, no matter the cost—”
“No.” He shook his head gravely. “The cost matters. I realize now that I should have let them kill us. My dad’s life, my own, are not worth putting you all at risk. I was angry we were left behind, forgotten. I wanted to save the only person who had ever been there for me. The only family I had left, but we are not worth destroying this place. I can’t let you all die… I can’t let them get to you too.”
“Cyan, if they want to attack again, if they want the queen, this won’t stop them,” Aedan reasoned stopping by my side. “Sacrificing yourself is not the answer.”
“Yes, it is!” Cyan roared, tears blurring his beautiful eyes. “If me dying means Célest gets to live, then I have to do this… but I won’t go down without at least trying to make them pay for what they have done… For taking my mother from me.”
He spun toward the barrier, shifting to iron fully—his enchanted spear appearing in his grip.
“No!” I lunged toward him, but Liam gripped my arms from behind, halting me. “Cyan, stop! Please stop!” Tears sliced my cheeks as he marched away from me.
Cyan suddenly looked over his shoulder at me, the ominous wave of yellowish creatures getting closer and closer on the other side.
“I cannot let them get to you, Célest. I will not let them consume your powers too. Not you…”
I blinked the tears away, bewilderment mixing with my anguish. “What? I don’t have any powers, Cyan. I’m not a true Elemental Faery.”
“Yes, you are. For so long, I’ve been trying to make sense of what happened when our starlight bond rekindled, until I finally understood. It wasn’t our light that brought the monuments and their elements back to life, baby. It was you. You have that power inside you, and if surrendering my life to the ˈlēTHəl is what it takes to save yours, then my life I will give.”
A teardrop slid down his iron cheek, making it glisten before he turned and ran to the Red Guardian, jumping clear across it. He landed on a crouch—unaffected by the spell. With a warrior roar, he lunged toward the evil Elves.
“No!” I jerked in Liam’s hold as Cyan collided with the monsters, beginning to fight. “Let me go!”
Strong hands whirled me around, and Liam’s dread-filled eyes bore into mine. “You can’t go after him.”
“I can’t let him die!”
“Célest—”
“He’s wrong,” I insisted. “I don’t have any powers. They are going to kill him, and I can’t—”
“Listen to me!” Liam shouted, shaking me so I could focus on him. “Right now, Queen Daetha is drinking herself full of every ounce of magic the Solara Priestesses have to give, so she can come spill her blood to reinforce the barrier and fight the ˈlēTHəl on her own—even when she knows this will be her end.”
Confusion filtered through my desperation. “Why would she need their magic when she has her elemental power?”
“No. She doesn’t,” Liam confessed, and gasps reverberated around us yet again. “She was drained like the others during the attack. She fought back and was able to kill her attacker before he could fully consume her. Then she used what was left of her magic to create the barrier. But she can no longer wield her element.”
He paused for a moment, letting me process the shock.
“She had no other choice but to keep it secret so our people wouldn’t panic. She was all we had. The Solara Priestesses came to us in solidarity and have been with her ever since. Thanks to their magic, she’s been able to protect us all for thousands of years.”
A burdened sigh left him, and his gaze bored into mine.
“But that is not the only part of the story that was changed. She wasn’t your age when the evil Elves came to attack us. Queen Daetha was pregnant, and it was her son’s strength that helped her fight them and create the Red Guardian. Her womb protected the prince’s powers, so he was kept secret in fear the ˈlēTHəl would come for him.”
Thunder echoed around us, making the earth rumble under our feet.
Liam glanced back at the Solara Priestess, who nodded to him somberly, as though urging him to tell the whole truth.
“The prince believed he could end the evil Elves once and for all, so he put together an army, and crossed the barrier, going after them. Unfortunately, the ˈlēTHəl’s blood magic was stronger than any force he and his army possessed… They all perished to their curse.”
“I don’t understand,” I whispered, distraught. “What does that have to do with me?”
Empathy warmed his features, and his grip softened on my arms.
“After our prince fell, the evil Elves attempted to break the barrier. His wife was sent into hiding deep in the kingdom, where the ˈlēTHəl would never sense her, and she could live. Where no one would know who she was, and she could give birth to their daughter… We can’t let them get to you, Célest, because if your grandmother doesn’t survive this fight, you are all our kingdom has left.”
“What?” I breathed, the words slamming against my being. I took a step back, falling out of his grasp.
“What?!” Cara screeched behind me, as shocked as I felt. “She’s the princess?!”
Every memory of me and Mom growing up rushed into my mind. How much she’d hated the idea of me joining the army but had finally relented because I’d been so persistent. There was nothing else I wanted to do but be part of the royal guard, serve our queen, and protect Aērelis… my home.
“C,” Aedan called softly, and I lifted glistening eyes to him.
“Say it isn’t true…”
“I’m sorry. I can’t. My family was tasked to protect you both from the moment your mother left the palace.”
New tears fell from my eyes as I glanced at him. “So, it was all a lie? You knew who I was all along. You pretended to be my friend?”
Both alarm and reproach entered his gaze. “No! You are my best friend, C. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” He pulled me into his arms, squeezing me to death. “My parents only told me the truth a couple of years ago, but by then, it was too late. You’d already stolen my heart. You are the annoying little sister I never wanted, but I desperately need in my life.”
Relief coursed through me with his words, because I didn’t know what I would ever do without him either. Yet, I pulled away. “I still don’t have any powers.”
Slowly, Aedan nodded. “Yes, you do. Why do you think you are so good at hunting? Why the trees of the Wandering Woods always aid you in your pursuits? Their magic is not dead, but they only wander for you. The earth feels you as strongly as you feel it, C. You’ve just never been aware of what that feeling is.”
He paused for a moment, releasing a troubling sigh.
“They’ve always been inside you; you just didn’t know how to recognize them. I don’t know how or why, C, but it was Cyan who finally awoke your abilities, allowing them to manifest.”
Cyan! Urgency returned to me, and I wiped the tears away, whirling around to find him fighting the monsters on the other side. Thankfully, everything he’d learned in the academy had helped him command his abilities like never before, and he was doing serious damage.
ˈlēTHəl flew from the force of his blows, his staff piercing through some of their heads and ripping them off one moment, his hands capturing them with his abilities the next.
Cyan manipulated the minerals within their bodies, scrambling them, pulling them out of their cells, and robbing them of everything they needed to survive until their wrinkled forms disintegrated into nothing. Bits of iron, copper, sodium, zinc, and many other minerals grouped after leaving them, dropping like small rocks to the ground.
Suddenly his left hand elongated into a second spear, and the enchanted one melded with his right arm as Cyan began to turn and thrust, sending blows faster than the ˈlēTHəl could attack him.
I watched, half terrified for him, half awed by his skills. He was holding his own against them, but it didn’t mean he could take them all on his own.
“He can’t do this alone,” I reasoned and turned to look at the others. “I have to help him, and if this force, this instinct that has always been with me is actually the powers I never knew I had, then I will find a way to wield them. But I have to go out there!”
“C, you can’t—”
“Yes, I can!”
I stared at the agony in Aedan’s eyes, his need to protect me becoming fiercer than ever. What he didn’t understand was that it was my turn to protect him… My chance to protect them all.
“I have to do this, Aedan. I am not going to lose the grandmother I’ve finally gained, and my boyfriend on the same day because I’m afraid to even try. I understand what Cyan wanted to do, and I am going to help him.”
My mind traveled to the night we became one, when all those feelings rushed through me, and all the elemental altars ignited in response. Only then did I realize that I not only had power, but I had felt every element inside me in that moment…
The peace of a sleeping forest.
The impetuous energy of the ocean.
The burning passion of wildfire.
The lightness of air.
The strength and resilience of metal.
“I can do this,” I announced feeling them awake within me once more. Every element around me became alive. “I can win this war.”
With the acknowledgment, my mom’s words returned to me.
“It looks like your destiny finally caught up with you. You were born for this, honey. No matter what happens, trust yourself...”
I understand, Mom.
Closing my eyes, I centered myself, calling upon the power that resided in my core. Instantly, each element swirled inside me, becoming stronger the more I focused on them. I felt long, pink strands lift from my shoulders, my feet leaving the ground as the energy coming from the earth became overwhelmingly strong.
“C!” Aedan’s call mixed with everyone else’s alarmed voices as gusts of wind swept the earth, but they didn’t come from nature, they were born inside me.
Fire ignited in my hands, and the slap of mighty waves resounded in my ears. My skin tingled as iron slithered over my arms like snakes, suddenly disappearing into my pores.
I was in all elements, and all elements were in me.
“Daughter of earth, iron, and fire,
from me you were born, my power you carry.
Essence of water, spirit of air,
rise and renew the warriors you once were…”
The ancient whisper, as familiar as my mother’s voice, inundated my ears, echoing within my being and commanding my every cell.
Our goddess…
The words reverberated through me over and over like the waves of the ocean slapping against the shore. Stronger and stronger they became with each echo until they boomed in my very core. A call to action that had waited millennia to be heard.
Opening my eyes, I landed in the forest again, ready to comply with our goddess’ request…
I was Danu’s instrument, and I accepted that as my truth.
Whirling around, I gripped the sides of Aedan’s face. “Wielder of Water and Sea…”
His eyes instantly ignited with my declaration, glowing a light blue. His body became rigid as the energy rushed through me and into him, endowing him with the goddess-given gift.
“Wielder of Fire and Flame.” My hands landed on Cara’s arms, and her eyes sparkled to life with royal blue light.
She gasped when I let her go, glancing down at her hands as the sparks once in her eyes began to exude from her fingertips.
“You can scorch my ass later,” I conceded, seeing the naughty gleam in her expression. “Right now, we need to fight together.”
Liam’s irises shone white with my touch next.
“Wielder of Air and Wind,” I endowed, and his body vibrated with the magic coursing into him.
When I turned to face the other two guards, they hurried toward me—ready to receive their powers. Shea was a Wielder of Earth and Florae, like my mom, and Eoin a Wielder of Water and Sea like Aedan.
I was now a wielder of all elements.
“Hold hands!” Bedelia, the Solara Priestess urged the others.
With new determination and power rushing through my veins, I fiercely faced the Red Guardian and shot toward it. Queen Daetha’s blood ran through my veins, my grandmother’s blood, so I knew her dark spell wouldn’t hurt me.
The bow and arrow disappeared from my back, no longer needed, as I jumped into the barrier.