Page 79 of Degradation

“Snow,” Garron said in soft warning.

“Hush.”

Focusing, I closed my eyes and told myself to see and feel the truth, not what the caster wanted me to see and feel. When I opened them again, the street looked much the same. All the homes were well-kept, but the people were missing, and only one home had smoke drifting from the chimney.

“There,” I said, pointing.

The door opened at our approach as it had at Pogwid’s.

Not waiting for an invitation, I walked inside and slowly peeled away the layers of the spell hiding what truly existed until I saw the older woman standing before me.

“You’re the distant relative,” she said a moment before I felt her attempt to touch my energy. I brushed it away and made no attempt to connect with hers.

“I am, and I am not, much like your neighbors and your home.”

“So I see,” the old woman said. “Then what are you?”

“The future queen,” Garron said, speaking from behind me.

The old woman’s gaze shifted to Garron, assessing.

“The sixth prince,” the woman said. I liked her more for not fawning over him.

“I am,” he acknowledged.

“And do you think that you’ll take the throne over your brothers?” she asked.

Garron laughed, surprising me.

“My brothers and I will not fight each other for the throne once the queen is removed.”

The woman’s assessing gaze came back to me.

“What do you want from me? Help? You think the two of us can face the queen?” She scoffed, turned her back on me, and settled into a chair facing the fire.

Only…she didn’t, not truly. The woman in the chair was the result of the subtle spell she’d been casting while speaking. What she did was walk around the room as if to leave the house.

I used a breeze to close the door before she reached it then cast a spell of my own. From nothing, I created two chairs and sat in one. Something that should have been complex was easier than anything I’d previously cast because I finally understood. The energy inside of me was whatever I needed it to be.

“I’d like a few moments of your time,” I said, meeting the gaze of the real caster.

I could feel Garron’s surprise and knew he’d been watching the woman at the fire.

“My name is Kellen. May I ask yours?”

“Getaina,” the woman said. Her gaze shifted from me to the chair. “It’s real?”

“Find out for yourself.”

She shuffled forward, touched the chair, then sat facing me.

“You’re the one Pogwid was protecting.”

“She said I was dangerous because I lack control. Did you feel me when I cast just now?” I asked.

“No. Do you still lack control?”

“Yes.”

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