Page 6 of Crown of Wrath

She treads water in front of me, her brown hair floating in the water behind her naked body as she stares away from me. Even while she treads water, there’s a stillness to her, and then everything changes.

I feel a vortex pull at me, sucking me toward her. Still, Maeve stares away from me. She remains motionless until she begins to rise, and I understand what’s happening. A pillar of mud-colored stone rises underneath her, lifting her into the air. Rivulets run down her naked body, but then she turns toward me.

Those beautiful, emerald green eyes stare straight into me. Heartless eyes. Cold and ruthless eyes.

Nothing of the humanity I fell in love with is left in her. The Painted Crown and I have done our jobs well enough to make even my father proud. She is the Queen of Earth now. Not my Wyrdling.

She told me she wasn’t ready to be the Queen of anything. There’d been no doubt that she could fight, but she was sure she couldn’t lead. Now I know that won’t be a problem. She wouldn’t save humans if it put her people at risk. She wouldn’t chase a gryphon, or get into a wrestling match with a drakeling, or even befriend a village of Lesser Immortals.

“My Queen,” I whisper, acknowledging her stare, and she turns to look away from me, back at the horizon. Stone flows from the pillar over her body like mud, and then it shatters. A thousand pieces of stone explode in a cloud of dust, obscuring her from view.

And when it settles, I see something I never imagined. Instead of the midnight armor made of shadows that she’s created since the day I taught her, she wears a skintight suit of fitted plate armor made of tiny, perfectly formed stone plates. It’s true House of Earth armor.

This is my Queen now. Not the Wyrdling. Not the Princess or Queen of Shadows. No, my Queen wears stone, and she is just as cold.

Chapter 4

The soul is more fragile than the body, capable of being wounded and scarred from a handful of words or injuries to another person. There is a difference between a soul wound and mere sadness. The first can be so disastrous that it can lead to death, while the second will be healed in time.

~Calyr the Gold, A History of Magic and Dragons

Maeve

This has been a week of nothing but existing. In the morning and evening, I would leave my tent to find food for us, a purely utilitarian experience. The animals are all too slow, and now that I’ve realized the extent of my Earth powers, tracking them isn’t even enjoyable.

It feels like I should enjoy the process more. As I run through the forest, I expect to touch a tree and feel something. As I scent my prey, my body tenses as if there was going to be an emotion. Each time, I’m surprised and let down by the lack of it.

There aren’t feelings anymore. At least not like there once were.

I’ve begun to explore my Earth powers more and more, but unlike shadows, I don’t need to practice. They make sense to me, almost like I’ve been doing most of them my entire life.

The only problem is that we’re supposed to go to Stormhaven, and when I look down at my hands, I realize I can’t bring us there. No shadows rise from my fingertips, even when I want them to. I try to imagine the drumming of my heartbeat. I picture the nights with Cole. I even think about the night before everything changed.

Nothing works, though. I can’t feel the desire that I once had. There have been problems with desire since that day, but now, Revulsion shadows are just as lost to me. The darkness seems to have fled me entirely. Those emotions aren’t there any longer.

“I need you to wear the Shadowed Cloak,” I say to Cole as I step into the meeting tent. “I am Queen of the House of Earth, and it seems I am no longer capable of shadow walking.”

Cole looks different from a week ago. The days and nights of rest have helped him to recover. His gambeson is clean and very striking on him. His silky black hair is just as sleek as the day I met him. Bloodshot eyes have been replaced by ice-blue eyes that are filled with thoughts unsaid.

He nods to me. “As you command, my Queen.” He says it with complete submission. Not an ounce of hesitation or argument in him any longer. That’s the way it’s been since that dreadful day. Before then, he made every decision. If I questioned him or disagreed, he was as stubborn as a mule. It was always his way, whether someone thought differently or not.

Now he doesn’t even offer his thoughts unless they’re asked for. He told me he’d be a tool, but this lack of thought or will surprises me.

“You have enough power to take us to Stormhaven?” I ask.

He nods. “Yes. I feel nearly as strong as I was before we went to war with the Nothing. Stormhaven is only a two days’ flight from here.”

I take one more look around our little camp and say, “Then get your things together and we’ll go. We’ll be back, but only after we get what we need out of your father.”

He turns and goes to his tent to gather his few belongings. I look down at the armor that I created from stone a week ago. It fits me perfectly, and yet, it feels wrong. Where are my shadows? Where are my traveling clothes? Where is the soft linen that I spent months in?

The stone feels natural, but it doesn’t feel like me. Nothing does anymore.

It doesn’t matter. Peace flows through me like water, filling me and pushing away any doubts.The Queen of Earth wouldn’t wear linen, and she certainly wouldn’t wear shadows. This is right.The questions fade away just as easily as desire did.

I close my eyes, and just like when I was young, I let myself get lost in my mind. That calm rhythm that I’d felt when I’d climbed the trees. My steady heartbeat. The peace I’d found where no other human could have found me. High in the air, hidden from the world. The place I’d gone after I’d used revulsion shadows on my own father.

I don’t need to be in a tree to feel like that anymore. To feel peace flow through me, I only need to close my eyes and separate myself from the world.

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