Page 94 of Their War

“She might have started out believing that more power would be helpful. However, once she obtained enough power, she was able to break the magic that bound her Oath or to subvert it somehow. After all, she has access to texts and tomes that only the Queens have ever seen. Not even Master Jude has laid eyes on them. Who knows what they hold?”

“Either way, the Oath simply makes the agreement between you and Avalonia formal. She wouldn’t have supported you and helped you get here if there wasn’t already an unspoken agreement,” Jude said, dusting his hands. He looked at my father and Cyerra, who had also finished their preparations. “All done?” At their nods, he turned to me. “Ready, dear?”

I hesitated, understanding the magnitude of this moment. After this, there would be no turning back. I’d be the Queen, and the lives of everyone would be relying completely on me. There would be no escape except through death or upon the next Queen ascending in some indeterminate amount of time. I could possibly wind up ruling for over a thousand years. That amount of time was unfathomable to me.

I was only twenty-five years old, barely starting to live my life before being thrown into this. My wishes, wants, and dreams would no longer exist. Everything I would be would amount to my people’s needs. And yet, I knew I didn’t really have a choice. I couldn’t stop the person that I was. I couldn’t walk away knowing that without me, everything and everyone would be doomed. It was the only choice, but one I made freely.

Looking around at my men, pride shining on their faces, clearly having sensed my commitment through our bonds. “You’ve got this,” Brannoc said, and I smiled up at him, my brow furrowing as I noticed his mouth was firmly shut, one side of his lips quirked up.

Shaking my head, I turned back to my grandfather. Inhaling deeply, my eyes drifted shut briefly as I centered myself. After a couple of deep breaths and long exhales, I spoke. “I’m ready.”

“Good.” He smiled at me proudly, an expression that, before Avalon, I had only seen after fights. “Come around here.” As I walked to the spot he’d indicated, he turned to the others. “Please gather close on the other side and bear witness to the ascension of our new Queen and her Oath to Avalonia.”

He picked up a bowl and turned to me. “Rhowyn Hunt, do you enter into this Ascension of your own free will?”

“I do.” I said, holding my head high, hands clasped behind my back to stop the need to fidget.

He dipped a brush into the dark ink liquid inside the bowl, the one Cyerra and my father had prepared together. “Do you take these marks of Avalonia freely?”

“I do,” I affirmed once more as he began swirling the brush across my skin, forming loops and whirls in a pattern that I couldn’t discern but knew instinctively was a language of some sort.

Once he’d finished, he set the bowl and brush down. He then lifted a glass that held the milky white liquid he’d been mixing earlier. He lifted it high. “Avalonia, I call on thee to bless this mana, to bless Rhowyn as your Chosen Heir and anoint her as your voice on Avalon.” He added a pinch of something, the drink starting to glow as soon as the substance hit the liquid. I could feel the power in the room starting to grow. It felt similar to the magic of Cashel Rí, but purer, starting as a whisper until it pounded through my veins with a roar. I gasped at the intensity, overwhelmed by it but not in pain. It was pleasure and happiness, the beginning and the end, sorrow and hopelessness. It was everything and nothing.

Jude pulled me from the sensation, handing me the glass. “Drink this,” he instructed. I swallowed the liquid which had no taste, no texture, draining the glass quickly. I gasped again as the feeling on the outside began sinking into my skin, coursing through my body until it became a part of me all the way down to each and every cell that made me who I was.

“Do you vow to protect the people of Avalon, to uphold the law of Avalonia, to lead them into prosperous times and maintain the balance that is essential to all of life?” Jude asked me.

“I do,” I said, a buzz starting in my mind and building like a crescendo until it burst from me, lighting the room to the point that I had to squeeze my eyes shut against it, and still, it was painful to behold.

“Do you swear all this upon pain of death?” Jude asked me.

“Yes.” At my final proclamation, the magic surged back into me, the sudden darkness a blessed relief. I fell to my knees as another crack formed in the shell that cut me off from my magic and my true self. I clutched my chest at the pain that left me as quickly as it had hit me, bowing my head as I felt Avalonia’s magic coursing through me, weak but there.

A slow clap sounded out, causing me to jerk my head up to find the Queen standing behind my men, a smile on her face.

Chapter Fifty Five: Rhowyn

“Congratulations, child. You made it further than I thought you would,” Titania said coldly. Her words at odds with her tone.

Looking around, I could still see the altar, and the guard that had once been leaning against the wall was now on his back. The room I had created was no longer there, and we were now in the throne room itself, surrounded by courtiers and servants, all watching us with varying expressions.

My men whirled to meet the new threat, hands going to their swords. “Uh uh uh. I wouldn’t if I were you,” she warned smugly as guards pushed in to surround us all.

When they hesitated, she turned back to me, still on my knees in shock. “Did you think I didn’t know you were here? That I didn’t feel you overpowering my block on the castle’s magic?” At my expression, she simply laughed. “Dear child, how could you think you could best me? After all, your life is insignificant in comparison to mine. It’s amusing to be honest.”

Anger rose up to replace the shock, and I pushed to my feet, the power growing inside me. She laughed again, her voice tinkling in the silent room and echoing around the stone walls, mocking me. Gliding toward me, she stopped when she was within touching distance, leaning in to whisper in my ear. “You fool. As if I would let you undo everything I’ve worked so hard to build. After all the sacrifices I’ve made, I won’t let you come in and take it.”

Glaring at her, I pulled on Avalonia’s magic, determined to fight back. As I did, she raised a fist, and I watched as my men fell to their knees, Baer and Lennox grasping at their throats. “I will kill them all.” I snapped my gaze back to hers as she leaned back, her fist still clenched, their faces reddening in my peripheral vision. “Or you can submit to me now, turn over the power that you just grabbed for yourself, and allow me to raise up Genevieve as the rightful Chosen.”

Arryn fell forward then on all fours as he clearly tried to gasp for air. “Quickly now, they don’t have much longer.” Callum and Brannoc still remained upright, but it was clear that they couldn’t breathe despite their futile defiance. “What will it be?”

“Fine,” I said, knowing she had us cornered and hating every moment, that word like a nail in our coffins.

“What was that, dear?” she asked me. She’d heard me clearly, but now she was just toying with me, like a cat with a mouse.

“Fine. I’ll do what you want, just let them go,” I pleaded with her as Brannoc began to sway, the lack of oxygen forcing his body to resist his control.

She relaxed her fist with a self-satisfied smirk. “Good choice, dear, however, I do believe I’ll keep them around until the deal has gone through. You never know when you might need a little insurance.”

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