Page 93 of Calling of the Crown

I whipped my head up at the sudden sound of Myra’s haughty voice.

She stepped into the circle of trees, sporting trousers and a tunic typical of soldiers in Ambrolia. Her long white hair was braided, and it swayed with her fox tail as she took a few steps toward me, then stopped.

She smirked, flashing her canines, and threatened, “I want your death to be drawn out and public, so it won’t come today.”

Well, that’s comforting, at least. Neither of us want me to die today.

I swallowed down the flurry of nerves at her sudden arrival and pulled my shoulders back. “I didn’t call you here to battle. I asked you here because I wanted to extend the offer to join our side. To join your sons and husband.”

Myra gave a humorless chuckle. “You must be even more brainless than I originally thought.”

I kept my face calm and sure, refusing to be affected by her words. “Wouldn’t Balgair want you on the same side as Rune?”

Her face instantly darkened. Her nostrils flared, her lip curled, and her fists clenched. “Don’t you dare say his name.”

My skin prickled with a new layer of fear. I’d just poked the agitated Fox, so I knew it was now or never. Inhaling deeply, I drew water to me from the air around us, as well as the earth below. As it gathered in the space between me and Myra, she watched with a look that could only be described as boredom. She clearly found me to be no threat, which I tried not to take offense to. Once I felt I had enough water, I focused past the need to gather the element and more on the deep connection that allowed me to tap into this newer ability.

“Is that all?” Myra asked, quirking a brow at the mass of water. “What do you expect that to do?”

I ignored her taunt and felt a rush of relief and excitement as the familiar weak fog wrapped around me. I managed to hold my ground and watched as the water morphed until the large man I’d only seen in pictures and in my mother’s memory stood between us.

He clutched his watery head and shook it like he’d just been jostled and needed to steady himself. When he finished, he looked up at his ex-wife and gasped. “Myra?”

The Fox Fae’s face went red when she saw Balgair, and she started to stomp toward me as she screamed, “What is this trick? You vile monster! I’ll slaughter you where you stand for such trickery!”

Balgair’s watery form met her before she reached me and held his hands out to her. “My flame. Darling. It’s me.”

Myra’s golden eyes immediately locked on his, and the air sputtered from her suddenly trembling lips. Her face drained, and she collapsed to her knees in front of Balgair, who sank to his own knees in front of her. I nearly followed as the toll of bringing Balgair here was starting to hit me, but I leaned back against a tree and focused on keeping him here a bit longer.

Balgair cupped her cheeks with his translucent hands, and even though his body wasn’t physically here or as defined as normal, there was no missing the misery flooding his eyes. “Oh, my love, how you’ve changed. This isn’t you, Myra.”

Tears poured down her cheeks and merged into the water making up Balgair’s form. “Isn’t me? Balgair, I am nothing without you. How could you leave me? I needed you.”

“And Rune needed you. Don’t let my death steal away the woman I know and love.”

Her eyes closed, and her lips quivered. “She’s already gone. She died the same moment you did.”

Another dizzy wave unfurled within me, and even with the tree’s support, I wobbled on my feet. Balgair’s form rippled and nearly lost form at the same time, making Myra’s tear-filled eyes widen in alarm. She tried clutching onto Balgair’s arms, crying, “Don’t! You—You can’t leave me again!”

Still cupping her cheeks, he leaned forward to place a loving kiss to her lips. He seemed to sense I was losing my grip, because he begged, “Please. Go back to our son, and no matter what, keep burning brightly. I love you, my flame.”

Unable to hold onto the connection any longer, I let go. Balgair’s watery form collapsed into a puddle. Myra bellowed out an agonizing cry that made my own throat tighten with the threat of tears. It was a sound of pure desolation, and because of it, I felt her sorrow deep in my bones. Her shaking fingers tried to cup the water at her knees as she pleaded for him to come back.

I’d never liked Myra for all the cruel and hateful things she’d done to her children. Despite this, my heart broke as I watched her wail over the slowly disappearing water. The powerful Fox wasn’t numb to emotions, after all.

Before I could make an attempt to console her or tell her she could see her love again, a figure emerged from the trees behind Myra. I tensed as Elias sneered at Myra, who continued to sob on her knees.

“Pull yourself together, Myra,” Elias snapped. “It’s unbecoming for a Fae of your status to be so unhinged and emotional, especially over such an obvious parlor trick.” His green eyes flicked up from Myra to meet mine. “When Myra got your message, I wondered what you could possibly have up your sleeve. I must admit, I didn’t expect such trickery from you.”

Myra suddenly looked at me, and that’s when I saw it. The look flooding her eyes was a desperate need for what just happened to be real. “Trickery? But it was his voice. He—He called me his … his flame.”

I nodded quickly. My heart pounded as alarm flooded my chest. My control of the situation was slipping through my fingers, but I couldn’t stop, not when she seemed to be closer to our side than she ever had before. I wanted to reach out to her then, but my heavy limbs forced me to continue using the tree for support.

“It was real,” I argued. “It’s an ability I—”

“Please!” Elias scoffed. “You think because he called her by their old nickname that somehow proves it was real? You expect her to believe Rune didn’t just tell you about the name for this farce to work?”

Myra went rigid, and the anguish clouding her features morphed. Anger moved in like a thundercloud, and she slowly rose to her feet with a deadly calm. The usual gold of her eyes began to change like it was being lit from within.

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