Faethfully Yours: Unbound

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

I held myself very still as waves of emotion knocked ragingly against my stomach. Nauseated, I gripped the doorframe, holding onto the fraying edges of my sanity.  I smelled Ivan everywhere, haunting me like a ghost. I struggled for a breath, but his phantasm’s scent wrapped its invisible fingers around my lungs and refused to let them contract. Reason warred with doubt, and I couldn’t force my eyes to believe what was in front of me: a dead girl whose ashen skin was stained with Ivan’s branding marks.

 I took a single slow step back. The world wobbled in my head as if I’d taken millions of steps in contrasting directions all at once. Breathless, I looked around to see if anyone else felt it. Through the specs of color they’d all become behind my tears, I could see they all stood perfectly still. It was only me that shook. Only the foundations of my soul were rocked to the core.

“Do you believe it now?” Vlane hissed behind me. “Do you accept that your common is a murderer and a traitor to the cause?” The satisfaction in his voice was as scalding as his anger.

“The Great Mother said we mustn’t rush to judgments,” Vurim started from beside us. Vlane would have none of it.

“You’re as ridiculous as all of them, old man! All of you all believed His Grace would help us. My sister died proving you all wrong! ” His strained voice echoed down the hall, repeating the accusations over and over.

“Ivan must have had a reason,” Kheelan said in a dangerous calm. “If he killed her—“

“He didn’t kill her…” My words came out as a breath, yet ravaged like a whirlwind. They too echoed through the hall in a violent gust of wind, as if chasing Vlane’s accusations to the ends of the earth. The gaslights outside of each door exploded in a booming synchronicity with my passing voice. Everyone flinched as shards of glass burst around us, casting deathly rainbows in the glaring light coming in from outside. The release was a sad imitation to the rage welling inside of me.  Only fire from the sun would have been a balm to my pain.

I reeled in my anger, using it to push out the last of my words. All the while, shards of glass remained stagnant in the air like razor sharp snowflakes. They trembled the way I did when saying, “Ivan may have left me, but he would never do this. Even he would not be so heartless, and I won’t believe it until he tells me himself…”

As I said the words, I forced myself to believe them. But not knowing when—if I would ever see Ivan again gnawed at my conviction, and the shards of glass shattered against the floor.

“He won’t ever get the chance,” Vlane said, drawing dangerously closer to me. Aeval held a hand to his chest, but with a feral growl Vlane brushed it aside angrily, silver eyes boring into mine. “I’m going to kill him the second I lay eyes on him. You protected his brother; but His Grace will die. So will you if you get in the way.”

Beside me Kheelan stiffened. His tightened fists crunched like ground ice…or rather, bones. I knew whose bones he had in mind. I held up a staying hand to Kheelan. The other I lifted between Vlane and I.  I spread my palm open before our stares. With the agonizing beat of my broken heart, I whirled an orb of fire within my palm and spun it tauntingly before his eyes. The orange flares reflected dangerously in his silvery stare that flickered with black rage, illuminating the truths of his mind. He really did mean to kill Ivan. He wouldn’t have to. If Ivan branded and killed Gwin, I’d be the one to do it.

A low rumbling resounded when behind Vlane, Fae guards appeared from the stairwell. They mobilized, snapping their elements into hand at seeing the flaming orb in mine. It did things to me, seeing them there ready to fight. I needed a release, and I’d level the building if given the chance.