The queen flung her hand at him, and a bolt of light shot from her palm, hitting him squarely in the chest.
“Yanric!” I cried out as he fell to the ground, lifeless.
“Marissa Bane’s blood runs in your veins. She is your mother. Donotdeny that,” the queen said, her voice deadly.
I felt it then, for the first time since everyone had told me I would one day go dark and do horrible things. An unbridled rage rushed through my body at the sight of sweet Yanric’s lifeless form lying on the cold concrete of the cell. I stood, and she moved the blade with me.
“Youwilllet me heal my familiar or I will burn this entire city to the ground.” My voice was not my own, it was dark and full of menace. It scared me. I scared myself in this moment.
The queen looked conflicted for a moment, and I scoffed. “I saved your life at the midterm tests. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
There was a slight flash of guilt in her eyes and the blade left my neck as I fell to my knees before Yanric.
A sob formed in my throat when I saw the stillness of his chest. Was he stunned or…dead?
“Yan,” I wept, scooping him up into my arms as a deep depression pulled at my limbs and tried to drag me under. I immediately felt power leave my body, as if the plug in a bathtub had been pulled and it was being sucked down a drain. My chest ached and felt tight, and I didn’t know what was happening.
Heal him. Please help me heal him,I begged the symbols on the tops of my hands as they spun.
The tightness in my chest lifted then and Yanric opened his little beak and took in a deep breath.
A few gasps sounded behind me from the queen and her guards, but I ignored them. Yanric looked into my eyes with his beady little black ones, and I stroked his feathers.
‘I saw him,’Yanric said, sounding sleepy and weak, his voice far off.
‘What? Are you okay?’
His gaze flicked to the queen and narrowed into a glare.‘I’m going to remove her nose in her sleep.’
Well, he was feeling better. ‘Thank the Light you’re alive. I thought you had died!’
‘I did. For a split second I was in the Realm of Eternity, and I saw Ariyon.’
A full-body chill raced down my spine.
‘What…what was he doing?’
Yanric was quiet.
“I haven’t finished questioning you,” the queen said.
“Shhh,” I shushed her, and she raised an eyebrow at me.
‘What was Ariyon doing? Is he okay?’
Yanric stood on the palm of my hand, shook his feathers, and peered up at me. ‘He was being arrested. I’m so sorry, Fallon.’
“Arrested!” I said out loud and the queen pulled her blade back up to my throat.
“Are you going insane already? That didn’t take long,” she mused.
I knew the queen had her reasons for hating me, but the more time I spent with her, the more I hated her.
‘Go home and check on my father. Tell him to be ready to flee to Isariah,’I told Yanric urgently and hepoofedinto shadows without question.
“Ariyon was killed by Marissa.” I looked over at Queen Solana. “When I went to try to save him, these marks appeared on my palms.” I held up my hands. “The next thing I know I’m in the Realm of Eternity with his body.”
She narrowed her gaze. “You expect me to believe you portaled? There hasn’t been a portal fae in over a century. It takes decades to master that skill. Your friend Eden will have grey hair by the time she figures it out.”
