They looked at me in a mix of deference and sorrow.
‘I’m going too,’ Alec and Miriam declared at the same time.
I continued making my point. ‘Besides, you’ll be safer with me since I have a sneaking suspicion she wants me alive. She’s got too used to my power to kill me before it recuperates.’
Miriam nodded before saying, ‘I agree. I don’t think she would kill you. The way she looked at you… she wants you back for some twisted reason. I wish I could send nightmares her way.’
‘How do we get there? We can’t exactly portal to Ortensia,’ Alec voiced his concern, scratching his head for ideas.
There was a way. ‘Wait, my portal might still be open.’
‘What?’
‘I don’t think they ever closed it since I arrived for my second session in Fogoya, and they captured me too,’ I mused, starting to find humour in my affairs.
‘But we would need to—’
I nodded. ‘Go through his portal, yes. It’s only open to the Fogoyan castle.’
Alec chuckled sarcastically. ‘Great. Back to Fogoya,’ he muttered. ‘Let’s just drop straight into their portal room.’
And I knew it was my moment. ‘Not so fast.’
Chapter Fifty
Avari
We walked out of shadows into a land touched by darkness, perhaps even more than the Isles. Every step felt heavy as I considered how many had bled out in the spots where I kept stomping.
During all my years of schooling, I had seen several photographs of these fields, but what I encountered froze the blood coursing through my veins.
These were not fields; my people had turned them into moors.
Flooded and ruined, it looked every bit a land trapped in a war that refused to die. The devastating impact on the environment wasn’t something any of the opposing sides had ever considered.
And although ever since I learnt that Ortensian people used gems to curse Fogoyans, thus understanding River’s involvement in the war, I still couldn’t comprehend why my mother had gone to such lengths to destroy them.
Trees were scorched and the ground flooded. Tears welled in my eyes at the sight.
For a green witch to destroy nature was blasphemous. It was clear as day that Ortensians had lost touch with higher power and reality. The decline of morality only blinded them further with hostility and their monarch’s depraved urges. They had lost their souls in the process.
‘Are you sure we are safe here?’ I asked my father as we neared dark rock formations.
‘It’s the edge of the fields. Soldiers rarely come this far out.’
Pausing for a moment to analyse the territory some more, I created a little distance between myself and the rest of the group.
The one who trailed behind me finally asked, ‘I’m sorry, Ava. I thought we were going to the Fire Court?’
Tension crept across River’s mother’s delicate face, spoiling its softness. It tore me away from the silent conversation I was having with my dragon.
Unable to help it, I kept comparing the woman’s features to his. ‘We are. My father just needs to collect a few crystals to counteract my mother’s curses.’
‘I didn’t know curses could be counteracted,’ she admitted solemnly.
Fogoyans never did understand witchcraft, so I tried to explain. ‘It takes very specific and calculated conditions. And even then, it’s not always possible.’
Staying outside as the rest of my family ventured into one of the caves, the former Queen of Fire gazed at me. ‘I want you to know I will never forget your kindness. I will say prayers in your name until my last breath, for the fact that you reunited me with my family.’
