Page 59 of The Jester

The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is he tried to betray me. He killed one of my guards. A guard I took from a Shadowkind orphanage and raised to be exactly what I needed.

No one takes what is mine and gets away with it.

I stoop down, and push Kayan’s blond hair from his face. It is a weak face with no discernably interesting features. How she could ever fall for this creature, I have no idea.

I sigh and scoop the boy into my arms. His limbs flop loosely as I fly up into the air and over the buildings that surround the castle. It is high tide. At this time of night, the citadel is locked in by water. Cut off from the rest of Luminael. The way I like it.

When I reach the part where the water is deepest, and where he will be carried out into the ocean when the tide goes out, I hover for a moment.

I close my eyes and mutter the words we always mutter when someone dies. Then I send him plummeting into the icy depths of the Luminael sea. His body lands with a splash and is instantly submerged. She will be sad that there is no grave. But I cannot allow myself to care what Alana Leafborne feels.

When I return to the castle, I go straight to my chambers and into the room I keep hidden even from my most trusted aides. Accessed via the bookcase at the back of the living quarters, it is small and dark.

I exhale slowly, and my magic surges to life.

In here, I can let it be everything. I can let it surge without fear of revealing too much of myself.

The walls crackle with electric energy. Miniature lightning rods fork across the ceiling. I reach out and brace my hands on the walls; the room is small enough that I can touch each side of it without needing to stretch.

I release a deep, primal roar and feel the stone shake beneath my fingers.

When I open my eyes, I mutter the incantation that will show her to me.

And there she is... a shimmering vision in the centre of the room. Bright against the pure, inky blackness of my secret space. Exactly as I anticipated, she is not in her chamber. Instead, she is making her way quickly through the castle.

And, of course, she is with him.

The jester.

They head for the dungeons. As I requested, there are no guards on duty. Because if there was ever a time for Alana to show me what she is capable of... it is tonight.

When Finn suggests that she can take their pain away, I study her eyes carefully. She doesn’t believe it, and why would she? Her magic has been oppressed for so long, she’s forgotten what it feels like. But empathy is powered by emotion.

Right now, she has all the power she needs. It is thickening in her veins, pumping fast through the deepest parts of herself. She just needs to access it.

Finn gives her a pathetically inadequate explanation of what he saw when another empath attempted to take away a person’s emotions. He is a poor teacher, but then he is Shadowkind and has lived a cloistered life here in the castle. So, his failings are to be expected.

As I watch the scene unfolding, my heart races. Alana hesitates, doubt etched upon her face.

I lean forward as she begins to pace, wrestling with the decision to embrace a side of herself she was always told to ignore. Then something shifts. I see it. A flicker of violet in her eyes.

And in that moment, I know exactly what is about to happen.

As Alana lowers the gates in her mind, I clench and unclench my fists. The flood of emotion that engulfs her is palpable. She falls to her knees, overwhelmed by the sheer force of the Leafbornes’ pain and sorrow.

This is it. All she needs to do is take that pain, and use it.

My breath catches in my throat as Alana extends her hands.

She knows what to do, even though she has never been taught.

A small ball of purple light appears. The light grows, spreading like a blanket over the entire cell. The prisoners, even Maura, stand transfixed by Alana’s ethereal glow.

It settles on them like snow, melting into their skin, and they watch it in awe while I watch Alana. She doesn’t know it, but she is glowing too.

Her wings shimmer, her face brightens, and there’s that flash of violet in her eyes again.

Fuck, me, she is incredible.

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