Page 62 of Their Chosen

“Okay,” she said simply, glancing down at the water glass she played with in her hands as she considered his words. “So, if I understand correctly, all my power is rushing out at once, and it's burning me up?”

“Correct. We've never seen something like that before, and we were lucky that Lennox just happened to have an affinity that prevented that from taking place,” Arryn said.

“It wasn't luck. It was the fates,” Baer stated. He stepped forward, drawing all of our attention. “I think something bigger is going on. I think it was more than luck that brought us all together. They knew Rhowyn would need someone who could balance out her magic, and so they gave her Lennox.”

My initial reaction was to protest. I wasn't sure I believed in the fates after all the pain I had seen occur at the hands of my mother. Surely, they would have seen what destruction she would bring, and yet she was selected to be queen during the last trials. But when I sat with it, I couldn't deny that something more was pulling us together, something outside of the consort relationship and the trials.

Rhowyn went to laugh, but she stopped, holding my gaze. “As much as we want to deny it, Princess, I think he may be right. There's something else going on that we haven't discovered yet,” I said, leaning back into my chair.

“I agree,” Callum said as he entered the room again with a large tray of finger foods for us. He set the tray on the table and filled a plate, handing it to Rhowyn.

She took a bite, considering us, “I'm not so sure I want to believe in fates. Because that would mean we have no choices, but that's not the case. I make my own choices and decisions. Fate doesn't get to decide that for me,” she said, almost angrily. Watching her, I caught a glimpse of pain behind her eyes as she ducked them down to her plate to eat more.

“The fates don't take away free will, they simply set the board for those choices from what I understand about them,” Callum said as he handed me a plate. “The choices we make with those pieces are up to us.”

“How else do you explain the fact that I just happened to have a rare affinity, so rare that no one else currently living has the same gift, and I just so happened to be there when you needed me?” I asked her.

“Coincidence,” she stated firmly, not ready to believe us. I didn't blame her. She wasn't raised with the knowledge we had. She had never heard of or seen magic before in her life, and now we were asking her to believe in fates and destinies.

“That's a bullshit answer, and you know it,” I pushed her. Needing her to be on the same page. The others coddled her too much, and Callum was too withdrawn. So, the job fell to me to push her when no one else would, for her own good.

“Excuse me?” she demanded. “It's not bullshit. It's merely luck. Nothing more.” She glared at me, her food temporarily forgotten.

Arryn looked at me questioningly, but I ignored him. “So, you believe in luck but not the fates?” I asked her.

“Yes. Because luck doesn't mean that someone chose to put me through everything I've been through. If there is such a thing as the fates, it means that they decided I should be hurt. I can't accept that anything good would ever put anyone through that kind of pain,” she spat at me, her anger flaring with her words.

Ah. That was the crux of the matter. “Sometimes, it's the pain that makes us into better people. A sword can only become a true weapon through the tempering process. It must be molded, which is what the fates have done for you. They made you into a fighter,” I explained to her, my voice remaining calm but firm.

“No. I don't buy that. They had no way of knowing I would be able to rise above that. If I hadn't, then I would have suffered for no reason,” she said, still in denial.

“I'm sorry to tell you, Princess, but that was the choice in the matter. You chose right, and you survived. The fates can't make that choice for you, but they did set up the choices.”

“I didn't have a choice. I have never had any choice in the matter. I was abused and raped. How can that be what they wanted?” she demanded, her hurt pouring from her eyes and slamming into me before they widened in shock as if she hadn’t meant to let that information slip.

“What!?” Callum growled, but neither of us broke eye contact. I refused to let her see the pain I felt on her behalf. She wouldn't want sympathy from me. So, I hid that from her.

“Someone raped you?!” Callum demanded again, his fists clenched as he stomped between us, breaking our eye contact. She flinched back from him, startled to find him so close.

“It's no big deal.” She tried to brush him off, but we all knew it was a lie. It was probably what had prompted her to learn how to fight and why she was so good at it now. “I don't want to talk about it,” she told him firmly, not backing down from him.

“I promise you this, Rhowyn, when I find out who did that to you, they will pay. No woman should ever have to go through something like that,” he vowed, his voice low, the threat evident in every line of his body.

“Well, I did. And I’ve moved on. I've dealt with it, and he’ll never be a problem again. I didn't intend on y'all finding out, but the fact is, it did happen. And so, I can't believe in the fates, because if they exist, they allowed that to happen to me,” she said firmly, ending the discussion completely.

It wasn't over for me, but I would drop it for now. I could push her later when it was just us. I let it go and started to eat from my plate, shoving the food into my mouth so I could regain my strength and fetch Master Jude.

We sat in silence for a moment, Callum having stomped away after her declaration, his fists still clenched. He paced back and forth, his fury evident. No one knew what to say, even Baer, who was surprisingly good at relieving the tension between us all.

As if my thinking of him spurred him into action, he cleared his throat. “So, the current plan is to have Lennox get Master Jude to help us with a limiting spell that we can use to put a cap on your magic, so it doesn't get out of control again. That way we can train you on control of small stuff before moving on to more complex spells.”

Jumping on the chance to change the subject, Arryn chimed in. “Yes. Basically, you have a river of magic at your disposal, and we want to turn it down to a trickle until you have a handle on it. Then we can increase the amount of access slowly. At least that's the hope,” he explained to her further.

“That sounds smart. I don't want to go through that again,” she mumbled, pausing between bites. “Although it felt intoxicating, it was terrifying.”

“I can imagine,” Baer stated in sympathy.

The room fell silent again as we all processed what happened and what had been said. I shoveled food into my mouth as quickly as I could. When I felt I was finally strong enough to make the trek, I stood. “Hopefully, Master Jude will have some answers for us. I'll go get him now.” Even though I wasn’t quite feeling up to the task fully, I needed answers more.

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