Sapphire Falls (The Lost Realm #2)

14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Savine

S trange rumors were circulating through the land of fae who were worn thin, as if their essence had been nearly depleted. Savine wasn’t sure if they were just rumors, or if it was a remnant of his father’s use of dark magic. Had his father been using that dark force against the Latians as well as the forest? The forest, drained of its essence like skeletons on the mountains, would forever haunt his dreams. There still hadn’t been any explanation for what Jasper had done to the trees before that final battle of the war, but Savine knew there had to be some evidence of it here in the King’s Residence.

Darby entered Savine’s office, her pale green skin flush from rushing to his call. “I heard you needed me, my King. What can I do for you?”

Savine smiled at the small fae. She still wasn’t as short as Avery, but she was petite for a fae. “First, I want to thank you for all your hard work during this transition. I know it hasn’t been easy for you.”

Darby’s face lit up with a smile. “Thank you. It’s what I’ve always dreamed of. Seeing you with the boughs and antlers on your head. Your mother would be proud.”

Savine nodded, not letting his grief over her absence get to him. “I have a few things to speak to you about. Private matters that I don’t want anyone to hear of.”

“Of course,” Darby said as Savine showed her to a set of chairs in the corner of the room. With high backs and sumptuous bison leather, they made a comfortable place to discuss daily business with Raikin or Darby. His office near the throne room was quickly beginning to feel like his own personal refuge. With a view of the city below and close proximity to the throne, Savine found himself spending most of his days in this room as he sorted through the mess of reconstructing his nation.

“Would you like me to get us anything?” Darby asked.

“If you would like a refreshment, please help yourself.” Savine pointed to the sideboard with honeyed cakes and a pitcher of water. “I don’t need anything.”

“I’m fine as well. What would you like to discuss?”

Savine fisted his hands, thinking about the memories that brimmed forth with this conversation. “Two things. First, you know I have chosen to stay in my old rooms. I want them prepared for Avery’s arrival. I’ve thought about it, and I cannot move into the king’s apartment. It–” Savine’s throat clenched as he worked to make the words come out. His father’s angry face came into his mind, himself as a frightened child, facing his father’s wrath in his study. “As you can assume, it holds many negative memories. No amount of redecorating will change that.”

Darby’s mouth drew tight. “Of course. I understand.”

“However, I believe Jasper was hiding something. I know he was experimenting with magic somehow, possibly even corrupting deep magic. I could feel it in the trees Avery and I healed before the final battle. Do you know what that could have been?”

Darby scowled. “There were rumors that he kept a small bone near him. How he used it, I do not know, but I believe it was said to hold dark powers that no fae should have access to. No one dared to speak out against King Jasper, so everything is just whispers in the wind.”

Savine felt a sense of dread come over him. What had driven his father to such dark magic? Was it all in the name of safeguarding his crown from Savine? Savine couldn’t fathom how Jasper had let himself be degraded to such extremes. “Would you be able to search his personal effects and see if there is any evidence to corroborate these rumors? Perhaps he left the bone here. He had to have been using something powerful to destroy the forest in such a way.”

“Of course. While we are on the subject of dark magic, I wanted to ask if you have heard the rumors of the young fae appearing with their essence nearly depleted. Do you suspect it is tied to Jasper?”

Savine pressed his thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose. Healing his folk from his father’s disastrous reign was a burden he always knew he’d inherit, if he survived the war. But, the day to day work was exhausting and disheartening. If it was his father who caused these fae such extreme levels of harm, what were his motives? “I suppose it could be. So far it’s only been rumors outside of Orofine, correct?”

Darby nodded.

“I’ll let Garnel and Raikin know I’d like one of these fae brought to the King’s Residence. I’d like to understand how a young fae can become so depleted.”

“While I’m searching for the source of Jasper’s magic, I’ll see if there are any clues to these fae. May the Goddess bless their poor souls. Could you imagine being drained of your essence in such a way?” She shook her head, a sincere look of worry on her face.

“Thank you for all your help, Darby,” Savine said as he stood and showed her to the door.

He sat in his chair, looking out over the city and yearned for Avery’s company. The burden of the crown was heavy, its cold, gilded metal an ever-present reminder of his duty.

Morgan

Morgan’s shadows danced around her, wrapping her in a cocoon of dark comfort. She’d lost all sense of time as she sat in the darkness, letting the encompassing silence draw all her previous fears out of her until she felt like she was being eaten alive by the terror within her.

Her mind kept spiraling to the horrible darkness of the mine shaft, to the fear she’d felt as that fae loomed over her, a look of angry hunger etched in his features. The memories left her soaked in a cold sweat, gasping for breath as shadows squirmed across her skin. She couldn’t get them to stop, couldn’t control how they seemed to suck all the oxygen from the room and left her struggling for some semblance of security in the deafening darkness. Even hearing other prisoners would have been better than the sensory deprivation she was experiencing.

When she wasn’t trying to claw her mind out of that mine shaft, she kept thinking of what Selene had forced her to relive. She’d always tried to meet her high expectations she’d placed on herself. She’d always been convinced that if she wasn’t perfect in everything she did then she wasn’t worthy. Her parents never overtly said this to her. It was more in the way she was always praised as a child for her good grades, for her quieter demeanor compared to Avery’s loud and rambunctious attitude. That praise had felt good and it had made her seek it more and more. Eventually, she’d convinced herself that being the sister with the perfect grades and the plans was who she was.

She could remember the first time she began hiding her slip ups from her family. She’d been a teenager and had an algebra test that she’d spent hours studying for. She’d studied so long that she didn’t get enough sleep, and when it came time for her exam she couldn’t concentrate, her eyes closing as she tried to think through the equations. So she looked at her classmate’s test while her teacher did something on her computer, distracted from the seemingly quiet test takers. She was seated next to the smartest boy in their grade. They usually worked together to quickly find the answers to their daily classwork and she knew he would be a reliable person to cheat off of. She ran the calculation herself to check the answer, but it was correct and she spent the rest of the test checking her own answers against those of her classmate’s. They both received a perfect score and the teacher hadn’t noticed.

Then in college she’d found relief from the growing pressure she placed on herself in the bodies of strangers. It gave her a sense of power to have these fleeting sexual experiences without needing to be the perfect girlfriend or worry about making time for a relationship in her busy schedule. She’d never told Avery, only sending her location to a close friend. She was safe, always prepared with a condom and an IUD and she got tested regularly. Avery had always assumed Morgan was too busy to want a relationship, and while that was true, Morgan also liked the thrill of being with a stranger and knew her sister wouldn’t understand.

There were more. Many instances of a crack in her perfect facade. Of the ways she’d let herself slide from perfection when nobody else knew. That was why she’d begun practicing yoga. She thought if she could just get control of her mind’s desire to stray from perfection then she’d become her best self. Meditation retreats, daily yoga, none of it had relieved her of the need to keep herself in a tight, orderly box, only to let herself do something quietly reckless when the pressure became too much. The attack at Quartz Mountain had splintered that box, and she didn’t know how to gain control again.

The darkness consumed her as she tried to let her mind be blissfully free of thoughts. She stretched herself out on the stone floor, the shadows licking against her cool skin. Selene said she had ambition and cunning. She looked into her soul, released the kernel of darkness inside her that she’d tried to bury so deeply.

Her shadows curled around her, and she willed herself to control their writhing movements. As she tugged at them, they bucked and expanded, making the room feel even more dark and more claustrophobic. Her vision was filled with the bear, pressing down on her before he wrapped his jaws around her head, and it was like he was in the room with her. She could feel the heat of his breath and the prickle of anticipation that came from knowing his maw would be on her next.

Morgan screamed as the shadows roiled and burst from her, tearing at her skin while her mind slipped back into the jaws of the beast that had caused her so much terror. The shadows were whirling around her, and she thought she’d be choked on their grip—a grip so reminiscent of the one that once surrounded her skull.

She gasped for breath and let out a fearful cry, but nobody came to help her. She was lost, alone in this darkness that would surely suffocate her.

The only thing that could save her from this heavy darkness was herself. She was the source of these smothering shadows, and nobody was going to help her escape that part of herself. As Selene had suggested, they were a part of her, and she wasn’t about to let her own magic destroy her.

Morgan took a series of deep breaths, letting her mind travel to a place of serenity. A place she often let her mind wander to while meditating. She opened her senses to a place with cool, streaming water as she let her racing heartbeat relax. The shadows loosened around her and she sat up, crossing her legs. With eyes still closed, she envisioned a fern-covered forest with a creek flowing through carved stones. The shadows swayed with her steady breathing as she visualized them becoming a part of her, a part of her that would never harm her. The heaviness like a dark mist in the room began pulling back, slowly sinking into her. Her arms lifted and her body began floating in a sea of shadows. The sensation was soft, delicate. The shadows didn’t fight her or suffocate her. Instead, they responded to her mind’s grasp on them. Gently, she went back to the ground, her magic pulling into her as she continued to visualize that peaceful location.

For the first time since she entered this cell, her shadows weren’t writhing and blustering around her. Morgan controlled them. They were a part of her, just as her arm was a part of her, and she’d never let them overpower her again.