Page 35 of Body of Echoes

I lifted my arm and let my fingers drift through the barrier. It had a wet texture to it, cool to the touch and slippery. Yet, my fingers on the other side were dry as a bone. I retracted my hand, looked at the guard and his neon feather, and said, “Tell the king and queen if they would like to meet with me, they can do so here.”

The guard’s line of vision darted back and forth between us, eyes harshening on Fletcher before he turned and sprinted for the castle, teleporting midstride.

I gave Fletcher a tired look. “I’m not ready.”

He crossed his arms and smirked.

The king and queen materialized on the other side of the wall. The queen had the same square-shaped face and crystal gray eyes as me, while I had the plump lips and eye shape from the king. Both were dressed far more relaxed than I had imagined. The king was in a pewter night gown that brushed the fine blades of evergreen grass beneath his slippers. The queen was dressed in a slim, tight t-shirt with matching sweatpants. I thought I was going to have more of a positive reaction to seeing them, but instead, a tentacle of foreboding seemed to unfurl inside me, darkening the edges of my mind. They were perfect strangers—enemies, trying to take Fletcher from me.

They pressed their hands against the barrier with tears in their eyes. “Is it true? Ripley?” the queen asked, nodding her head and shaking free some dirty blonde strands from her long, messy ponytail.

“Hello,” I said, wishing that Fletcher was beside me for strength. Stars rippled across my skin, and he stepped beside me. But, I noticed the hesitation that faltered his fluid movements, as if the king and queen’s presence had broken something inside him.

When I reached out for him, their eyes turned to Fletcher, brows pulling down and hands pushingthemselves off the barrier. Their once open and eager stances morphed in an instant at the sight of him next to me. The king shifted to hold his wife’s hand, but she drew away from him, crossing her arms and eyes training on Fletcher.

“Darkly,” the queen growled.

A snide smile brushed over his face. “I found her.”

There was a long beat of silence that passed through the four of us. Aged tension filled the space between our bodies, and all I wanted was to be in control of the situation. This was my choice to be here. And I was here for a reason. “I would like your help to give him his magic back,” I said with an open palm.

The queen looked to my hand then back at Fletcher. “She deserves to keep your magic after what you did to her,” a hateful grit textured her words.

I furrowed my brows. They didn’t know what had happened to me in the cages, so what had they been referring to? I gave him a curious side-eye. “What’d he do?”

He rolled his eyes and raked his wavy hair up and to the side with his fingers. “May I?” he huffed then turned to me, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

I narrowed my eyes at him, waiting.

“When I came into your room during the ritual, I was outraged. I yelled at you for scaring me ’cause I thought you were in actual trouble. You didn’t like it, so that’s when you took my magic from me—”

“Not that part,” the queen barked.

His glare turned to the king and queen’s stern faces before his jaw went rigid. “You had a habit of coming to see me outside the kingdom that I didn’t care to break. And while you were visiting me after the ritual was over, I was distracted and… you got kidnapped.”

The queen slammed her fist against the barrier, and a sloshing sound flowed outward as she shouted, “He’s the reason you spent your entire life away from your family, Ripley!”

Before I had time to even process what Fletcher had said, he snarled back, “But, I have dedicated myentirelife to finding her. And I have.”

The queen’s fists balled as her shoulders rose. “Seventeen years later! And youstillthink you are good enough to protect the princess of Elizy?” She let loose an exasperated yelp. “My daughter does not belong with you!”

Fletcher flinched and so did I. And the king.

Fletcher stepped forward with the most subtle outstretch of his hand in front of me as if he wanted toshield me from the yelling, from the way they viewed him. “I did everything in my power to return her home and correct what I have done.”

“By joining the Cidris, damning more of our people.” She bared her teeth and dropped her voice a level. “The wreckage you’ve left in your wake is unforgivable.”

Fletcher clenched his fists.

Seeing him under such stress carried to me, tightening my chest.

“I had to! What if someone else had found her? Huh? Who was going to be inside the operation foryou,” he pointed at them, “keeping an eye out for her? They find Elizians. It’s what they do. I needed their resources.”

It was then that I had decided. Seeing him break was too much for me to bear, and I couldn’t handle it any longer. My body wanted Fletcher. And now, I was sure that my mind did too.

I moved forward and threw myself in front of him, stepping back as a signal for him to calm. “Enough!” His hands came to my shoulders, trying to move me aside, but I stayed still and stepped closer to him. “Fletcher has protected me in ways that I still do not understand. He was the one who worked tirelessly tofind me and put his life on the line in the Ölden Lands.” I slowed my cadence and enunciated, “Not you.”

While the king took a decisive step backward, the queen did the opposite. “We aren’t allowed to leave the barrier to come looking for you, Ripley!” She pounded her fist against it, sending another washing noise into the air.

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