Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 57

Voices murmured in the back of Cole's consciousness. They swam in and out of her hearing as she fought against the heavy pull of sleep. Memories of where she was and what had happened came back to her as she realized that her head was resting against her mother's lap and that a hand was slowly stroking her shorn head. She wanted the moment to last a little longer, so she kept her eyes closed and tried not to move.

The voices continued to talk.

"Your highness, it's best if you go back to Avallen and try to collect what support you can," Tanwyn said.

"Please, don't call me that," her mother replied, her voice soft and thin. "I gave up that title long ago and I don't want it back."

"You gave it up only because Gethwine tricked you," Tanwyn said. "You'd never have met that man if she hadn't specifically found him to serve you."

"Whether she planned for me to fall in love or not, it happened and I'm glad of it," her mother said. "It brought me grief and a banishing from my people and world, but it was worth it."

"I don't see how," Tanwyn replied. "You could have married Eldritch nobility and ruled for hundreds of years. Yet, you gave up your magic and wings for a human and will die like one soon too."

"And your magic and wings and lifespan were all taken from you by Eldritch because of the throne, too, Tanwyn," her mother said. "What difference is there, except that I knew love and gained a daughter from it as well?"

"I gained the drive to take the throne away from a woman who does not deserve it," Tanwyn said. "I fought hard to get you out of the castle, and I even brought you your daughter. Surely you won't just ignore me and slip back into obscurity when Gethwine is running the Eldritch to extinction by ignoring Thijs and even attempting to make peace with him?"

"I'm not trying to belittle what you went through, but I don't think that your mother and what she did should be a reason for me to risk everything to try and take back the throne."

"My mother was just as greedy as my aunt," Tanwyn replied. "Neither of them cared for the wellbeing of Avallen because their sights were too narrow. I can see that Thijs is doing something dark and unspoken in Soma. He is beyond just a pesky human snapping at Eldritch heels. He's becoming a true threat, and we need powerful people to stop him before it's too late."

"I'm not that powerful person," her mother whispered.

Cole stirred, breaking the conversation as she stretched her arms and slowly sat up.

"Did you sleep well?" asked her mother, smiling softly.

"I still feel like I could sleep days more," Cole replied. "But I heard what you were discussing. Tanwyn's right that Thijs is growing powerful."

"I won't go back to Avallen," her mother said.

"I don't want you to," Cole said. "But we need to find a way to keep us safe against both the Eldritch and Thijs."

Tanwyn frowned. "How do you propose to do that? Thijs has been pursuing myths and legends that were better off left in the dust of the past, and my aunt has untold magic on her side. None of us have wings, and you're only half Eldritch. We wouldn't be able to use it like my aunt can."

Cole cringed. "Don't call me Eldritch," she muttered. It made her skin crawl to think that something like Eldritch blood hid under her skin. She was just Cole, a girl who worked in the mines, not a legendary creature that she'd grown up hearing stories about. It felt like living a lie, claiming to be something too grand for her own good.

Tanwyn snorted. "Your mother is the blood heir to the throne of the Eldritch. She's as pure blooded as they come, and if your father hadn't been a mortal human, you'd be one of our most elite and sought after blood nobles."

Cole rubbed her arms, feeling the scars and roughness of years of exposure and hard labor. This wasn't the skin of a gorgeous faerie princess. She was a human, just like everyone she had grown up around. She didn't want a claim to a mythical race of tricksters who lived in an impossible land far away.

"She doesn't belong to that world, just as I no longer belong there," her mother said. "We don't want any part of your quest for the throne, Tanwyn."

Grunting in frustration, Tanwyn raked a hand through his hair and leaned back against a wall with a thump. He kept silent, a rare occurrence when there was so much to snark about, but Cole took the opportunity to change the subject slightly.

"Let's figure out how we're going to get away from Soma and the fae," she said. "We're surely getting close to the time where the fae can track where we vanished to, so we need to get moving."

"We have about twenty minutes left," Tanwyn muttered from his corner.

"King Thijs will be looking for us all throughout the city," Cole said. "Not only did Tanwyn and I attempt to kill his heir, but now the Avallen heir is out of his dungeons too."

Her mother glanced at the ground and crossed her arms over her chest, drawing herself inward. Her fingers tapped swiftly against her arms.

"What's the matter?" Cole asked, afraid that she might be slipping back into the bouts of madness that the years in the dungeons had brought on her.

Tanwyn ignored her mother's strange behavior. "We should just start moving now. I can send Meegan a message and meet her at the safe house that I set up. She'll help us cross the border and get out of Thijs' kingdom."

"Shut up, Tanwyn. My mother's not feeling well," Cole snapped. Tanwyn snorted in offense but did as she had told him.

Her mother shivered even though it was still sticky and hot in the small room. Her eyes stayed pinned on the ground. "We'll...." she whispered.

Cole leaned in closer. "What?"

"We'll... have to get... magic," she said.

"How? We don't have wings," Cole replied. "Tanwyn could charge our rings back in Avallen, but we can't access that now without the fae coming after us."

"There's another way," her mother said, her eyes widening and her voice becoming breathless. "A Sparkstone touched by the ancient storm that formed the rift between Avallen and the human realm."

"What are you talking about?" Cole asked, her eyebrows dipping downward. It sounded like nonsense and she worried that her mother was slipping away faster than she thought.

Cole glanced at Tanwyn, who now looked more interested and was leaning forward. "Do you know what she's talking about? Do the fae have stories about something like this?"

He shook his head, his brow furrowed. "No. The ancient storm is part of our history, but I've never been told about a special Sparkstone."

"It's told only to those with the royal blood," her mother said. "It's the fuel our hatred for the humans, because our precious magic, that which separates us from the humans, is trapped within a Sparkstone in their land."

"But isn't that what the rings are?" Cole asked.

"No, not like this stone. The rings are finite. Only borrowed magic. The stone is something more. An infinite source of magic that would make humans the same as Eldritch."