Mystic

Chapter 19

Andre tossed in the last bit of firewood, the flames blazing against the dark canyon walls. He wiped his hands and sat down on the ground next to Taryn, who had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

"Fire's going, you're starting to warm up, are you ready to talk?" Andre asked, turning his head towards her.

She stayed silent, staring at the fire.

"Look," Andre said. "I know this is a... sensitive subject, for you. I just want an explanation. What happened?"

Taryn pulled the blanket tighter around her body. "After Ophelia died, I didn't know what was going to happen. My brother, Callin, told me there were rumors going around the castle that something could happen to me once everything about Ophelia passed over. That way, the crown could naturally pass to him, and not have to stay with someone without magic. I wasn't taking any chances. I offered to join the army and pass the crown to Callin myself. I left the next day. I went around the continent helping out wherever I was needed." She took a deep breath, trying to keep herself from crying again. "I killed more people by the time I was fifteen than most people do in their entire life. I returned to the palace a couple years after I first joined, where Lucien told me about the attack on the Northern Castle, asking me if I wanted to join. I told him I would come, but the Northern Heir was mine."

"You... wanted to kill her?" Andre asked.

"I had only heard rumors about her, about how powerful she was. I thought that maybe if I killed her, the queen would finally see me as more than just my lack of powers. So I went with them to the castle. When I found the heir, she was sitting in her room, writing something. She looked up at me, she knew what I was there to do, she knew who I was, and yet she smiled at me. It wasn't sinister, or angry, she was just smiling. That was the moment I realized I had made a grave mistake, but I had committed, I couldn't back down now. We fought for what felt like hours. The rumors were correct, she had been expertly trained in all kinds of magic. I could deal with magic, but it was the fact that she knew all of my movements before I even thought about them, as if she had already seen this whole thing happen before. Finally, I had her pinned up against the wall. She could've gotten out of there, she could've kept fighting, but she didn't. We were both tired, and she told me to go ahead and do it. I lifted my sword and did what I had to. It only took one strike through her heart, and then she slumped over, dead. She hadn't screamed, or yelled at me to stop. That made it worse. Once everything was done, I knew this wasn't right, I couldn't keep doing this. I knew the treason I was committing if I left, but I felt like I didn't have a choice. I said I was going to do one more perimeter check around the castle. Instead, I went back to her room. I took her, carrying her body in my arms, and I found a beautiful spot in the woods. It looked out onto a small lake, the moonlight hit it perfectly in the night. And I buried her. After that, I ran away. I traveled further north, up towards the Ice villages. After days of traveling without food or water, I passed out in the snow, where Neve found me." She looked over at Andre. "Is... that enough?"

"It's more than enough." He muttered. He reached forward and pulled her into another hug, and she started crying again.

"I shouldn't have done it," She muttered between sobs.

"Zeph, go get us some water." Andre said, tilting his head towards the horses.

Zeph nodded and jumped up, running towards the horses. He returned a few moments later with two small glasses in his hands. Andre took one and sat Taryn more upright, handing it to her.

"You've lost a lot of water," He said, handing it to her.

She let out a pathetic laugh and wiped away her tears before taking the water. She swallowed it all once before handing the cup back to Andre, who handed her the other cup Zeph had brought.