Page 39 of Kingdom of Faewood

The little voice inside my head, the voice that had also whispered things to me throughout the seasons, making me question if everything my guardian told me was a lie, threatened to rise.

No!

I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and dropped my chin. My guardian loved me. I knew he did. He wouldn’t have lied to me about my mother, yet once again I was questioning if there was more to it than he claimed.

But until I reached thirty, I would never know.

Defeat swam through me. It was so potent that for a moment, I couldn’t breathe.

“Elowen?” Jax said softly again. “I’m sorry if I’ve upset you.”

I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm. When I was certain that my tone wouldn’t waver, I replied, “It’s fine. It’s nothing I haven’t considered before.” I took another deep breath and exhaled. “But you’re wrong. My guardian loves me. If he said my mother abandoned me, then she did.”

Jax fell silent, but eventually, I felt him nod.

“So now what?” I asked. “You have both me and Guardian Alleron, which means my guardian can wield the adaptor so I’m able to perform a calling for you. So what’s your plan? Do we stop soon so I’m able to find whom you seek?”

“Eventually, yes, but I also know it’s too soon for you to perform a calling, especially after the stunt you pulled when your magic broke you. That had to have taken a toll on you.”

My cheeks warmed again. Jax knew that the injuries I’d suffered from hadn’t been an accident and weren’t something my magic occasionally did to me involuntarily. I cleared my throat and hoped he didn’t sense my returning embarrassment. “And after I perform your calling, then what?”

“Then I’ll let you go.”

“You will?”

“Yes. I told you. I’m not a slave guardian. I have no interest or intention of owning you, Elowen.”

My breath sucked in, and my heart beat so wildly it felt like a trapped bird in my chest. Before, I wouldn’t have believed him. I would have felt it was another pretty lie to manipulate me to do his bidding, but after knowing he hadn’t killed Mushil...

“Do you mean that? Truly?”

“I do,” he replied gruffly. “After you do as I ask, I’ll set you free.”

Hope surged in me. If he let me go, then my life could return to normal. Guardian Alleron and I could return to Emerson Estate. I could continue counting the days on my calendar until my thirtieth birthday arrived, and then my guardian would permanently remove the collar, and everything I’d been working for could still come true.

I just needed to do Jax’s calling, and everything would be set right.

I sat straighter, and a new sense of determination slidthrough me. “All right, Jax. You have a deal. Once I’m able to do a calling for you, I will, and then you’ll let me go.”

A smile filled his words when he replied. “We indeed have a deal, Little Lorafin. Now, no more self-harm on your part and no more stunts to escape. In two days’ time, you’ll venture to the Veiled Between for me, and then, I’ll release you.”

CHAPTER 11

By the time we stopped for the night, we’d reached the mountain range that separated Faewood Kingdom from Stonewild Kingdom. A pulse of magic washed over my skin when we crossed the barrier into the new territory. Heady power filled the invisible border. Land that had once bred elemental power now birthed shifters.

I’d never been to this kingdom before. As the most reclusive kingdom on our continent, Stonewild wasn’t generally welcoming to outsiders, and since Guardian Alleron had found such success peddling his lorafin in the other kingdoms, he’d never felt the need to venture this far north. So I took it all in, soaking up each new sight and sound as though it were a new day.

Here, if I were to give birth to a siltenite—not a lorafin like myself, a rare anomaly that nobody could explain—the magic in the soil would infuse the infant with shiftermagic, igniting each bairn with the ability to turn into a cawing bird or fluffy wolf or prowling cat or some other creature that roamed the Wood.

One never knew which animal the land would choose, but an animal it would be. Or, if the child was blessed, they would develop abilities from more than one kingdom, able to wield not only shifter magic from Stonewild, but psychic magic from Mistvale, or elemental power from Faewood, or sensory magic from Ironcrest. It was uncommon to have magic from more than one kingdom, rarer still to have magic from three, such as the Dark Raider at my back. And I’d never heard of any fairy having magic from all four.

Nostrils flaring, I breathed in the new scents that came with the new kingdom. Dry, dusty air floated around us that carried hints of herbs, magic, and rocky minerals. It was boggling to realize we’d traveled over a thousand miles since leaving Leafton. The stags had moved impossibly fast. In two short days, we’d managed to traverse more land than most fae did in a week of travel.

The sun was falling behind the jagged Ustilly Mountains, like a blazing orb of angry red light, when the stags cantered down the mountain into the new kingdom. Pines covered in sapphire needles rose like spindly cones. Rock littered with sandy soil and course vegetation brushed against the stags’ hooves. Above, the three moons began to glow as the stars winked. And with each breath that passed, the colors of the galaxy came more alive.

Around us, the thick Wood filled the sloping mountainside. Cool air swirled, the breeze dancing around us. It lifted my hair and made the loose strands—that had finally escaped Lillivel’s intricate braids—flutter in front of my face.

Halfway down the mountain, the stags finally slowed to a walk. The slower movement had my muscles protesting. We’d been traveling all day, and despite Phillen’s gait being even and comfortable, his back was hard, my arse was sore, and my thighs felt like mush.

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