“We’ve no place to return to!” the lanky man cries, clutching his woolen cap harder. “No home, not anymore, thanks to King Rian Valvere!”
My spine pulls straight at this, the other mitten slack and forgotten in my hand. I feel it slip from my fingers and fall with a whisper.
The hallway lanterns flicker unnaturally.
“Whatabout Rian Valvere?” I demand, my soft voice suddenly bladed.
The captain falls back, eyes darting between me and the pilgrims. Most of them are eyeing the oddly-behaving lanterns apprehensively, but the man with a limp steps forward.
“My lady, we’re from the Lunden River valley.” He motions to the dozen or so pilgrims behind him. “King Rian poisoned the river that flows across the border into our lands. The fish are all dead. The wildlife sickened. The forests are dying. Entire crops have turned black, leaving us with nothing. We traveled a week with only the clothes on our backs and what meager offerings we had, when we heard the rumors you’d Risen. It’s divine fate. Our river is poisoned, and a day later, the Goddess of Nature rises. The only person who can heal our river!”
One by one, the pilgrims drop their knees and bow their heads.
I gape at them openly. From their strained but shining eyes, I can tell that hope is the only thing that’s gotten them this far.My eyes fall to the baskets of dried trout, the mended nets. Every scrap of value these people have, they laid at my feet.
My palms tingle, fey energy prickling beneath my skin, gently asking me to be set free.
I want to help these people,I think.Right Rian’s wrong.
Yet, as soon as I have that thought, I think of when my powers decimated the great hall.
I squeeze my fists tight to silence the fey.
“I can’t,” I blurt out, as a wave of panic crashes over me. Before I know it, I’m stumbling back to the safety of the bedroom. “I’m so sorry. I want to help you, but I…I…”
I might raise the river to drown you instead.
The worshippers push forward despite the captain’s attempts to hold them at bay, pleading voices like nails down my back.
“I’m so sorry,” I choke.
I slam the door behind me, back pressed against the wood like a cornered animal, breath so fast and thin that I’m afraid I’ll pass out.
At the sound of the slamming door, Basten jerks awake. Groggy. Exhausted. He rubs his bleary eyes.
“Sabine?”
There. My name. Myrealname. It’s like music to my ears that someone still sees the girl in me.
With a broken gasp, I stumble toward the bed. “Basten, I can’t do it. They ask too much. I want to help, but I’m afraid I’ll destroy everything. I…I don’t know how to do what they need me to do.”
He sits up in bed, raking back his tousled hair, then throws off the covers and swings his legs out so he can pull me into his arms. “Hey. Easy, violet. We’ll find the answer. Get someone who can help. Even if we—” he grimaces, “—have to ask one of the fae to train you.”
I collapse against him, my fingers twist the bedsheet like a lifeline. “So many people were hurt when I made the Ramvik River rise. People nearly drowned. What if I hurt someone again?”
He cups my face gently. “You saved my life.”
I still. Slowly, I hiccup. “What?”
“Your father would have slaughtered me if you hadn’t cracked open the earth with your fury. The river came alive for you. You made roots burst through stone and drag him to his knees. You forced him into a bargain for my life.”
I blink, lips parted, robbed of words.
“You think you don’t know what you’re doing,” Basten continues, smoothing his hand down my wild hair, “but even without your control, your power chose life. It choseme. That kind of instinct? That’s not destruction. That’s mercy, Sabine. That’s love.”
I burst into tears, the ground softly rumbling underfoot, and fall into the arms of the only person who still sees me as human.
Chapter 4
