“Perhaps we could shift the rock.”
“You would have to find a way up there first.”
I listened to my friends debate. Even Percival weighed in, the bastard. But it was like listening through water. I may as well have been back in that massive golden tub in the washroom of my apartments in the goldstone palace. Or behind a wall of ice.
It was impassible. Even if I brought them along, one at a time, I couldn’t be sure they’d land securely. I could jump with them out of the void and find ourselves a foot away from the ledge, freefalling through the air.
If it were just me, I could have risked it.
I still might have ended up in freefall, but I had enough belief in my own sense of self-preservation—and my power—to suspect I’d throw myself back into the void to avoid crashing into a pulp at the bottom of the ravine.
“Could you fly up there? Start shifting the rocks enough that there is a ledge? Then Veyka could bring me up and the two of us could move the rest.”
“I do not think I am strong enough on my own. The harpy could, maybe. But I have no control in that form. Without a battle to fight or someone to defend, I might just fly off in search of something to kill.”
Lyrena’s lips twitched, despite the weight of the situation before us.
Literal weight. A landslide. Huge boulders that had collapsed down over the ravine, blocking our way up the side of the mountain to the rift that I instinctively knew waited on the other side.
“Veyka can move from one place to another. She could take us across, to the rift on the other side, one person at a time.”
“You. Then Percival…”
“I am not leaving you alone with the two of them.”
“He will run off if he goes first.”
“I will not.”
Cyara lifted on hand to her temple, massaging gently. “This is like one of the horrible logic puzzles my father used to give us as children.”
There was no safe way to do it. This had all been a waste of time. I should never have left Arran’s side. I had decided to be the queen he always challenged me to be, to try and do what was best for Annwyn, and now there was a literal roadblock in my way.
Who knew what awaited on the other side, in Annwyn. The realms were geographic mirrors of one another. Did that mean if a rockslide happened in the human realm, it also happened in Annwyn?
I would have to take them all over the landslide to the rift. Everyone through the rift. Then take them one by one back over it, because if Cyara’s maps were correct Eilean Gayl lay behind us. It would take forever, deplete my power. Leave us vulnerable. Who knew what the cost would be for such an expenditure ofpower. If I collapsed into a days-long nap, like Lyrena had after containing that fire in the human village, we’d take even longer to reach Eilean Gayl.
Time. All of it was a waste of time. Time I did not have. The succubus could be in Eilean Gayl already, or in Baylaur, eating my kingdom alive.
Shit. Fuck. I was spiraling. The ice was melting. I was going to fall apart.
“Just… wait!” I screamed. “Wait!”
It was the only command I gave before throwing myself into the void.
I had to get away from them. I could not think, even with my mind trying to filter out their suppositions.
I stepped out of the void at the edge of the forest, where it dipped down into a bare brown mound before continuing on in sylvan hills. Beyond my vision, I knew those hills gave way to the softer knolls and lakes and islands where Avalon lay. Behind me, the towering mountains were capped with snow. I wasn’t certain how far I’d gone, but I could not hear voices.
Not any that spoke out loud.
Train your power, Majesty.
I wanted to claw Morgyn out of my brain. How dare she make demands of me… coddled priestess, safe in Avalon while I had suffered for decades. She said I would need my power for battle, not for this. It was too soon to battle…
I have filled her as best I can. We must give the seeds of magic time to take root.
My stomach rolled over, ready to dump its contents among the pine needles. Gorlois and my mother had tortured me foryears trying to awaken the void power within me. Did that taint my magic? Make it into something ugly, when I’d just begun to love it? How dare they still be able to creep into my thoughts, to torture me even now. All because of that stupid prophecy.
