Page 68 of A Kingdom of Magic and Rain

“I will,” she replied, stepping closer to me at the same time I offered my shoulder to my father for support.

Adrian and I locked eyes as Lady May placed her hands on my father and me, and a moment later, his features vanished because I vanished from the throne room.

When the colors returned, I was standing on the border, with the Enwyld Forest an impenetrable wall before me.

“Father! Emelin!” Sebastian’s panicked voice rang out in the clearing.

“Your Majesty!”

“Your Highness!”

“The king and the princess are back!”

My brother, the border guards, and the royal guards all rushed to our side.

“Thank the Stars you’re alive!” Sebastian exclaimed, wrapping his arms around me and our father.

“It’s not the Stars you should thank,” the king rasped. “It’s Emelin. She saved me. She saved us all.”

“Not yet I haven’t.” I pulled myself from my brother’s embrace and stepping away. I looked at Lady May standing nearby. “I want to release Silberium into the land. How does it work?”

“Estelle once told me that it’s similar to how you would transfer your magic into the land to heal it, but instead of focusing on one small area, you cast the net of your powers far and wide, over the entire realm.”

I swallowed, anxious about the task. Could I truly make such an impact? Could the magic I had siphoned from Adrian heal Emeraldia?

“Estelle told you that?” I thought about the Golden Queen, who looked so much like me. When Lady May nodded, my dreams resurfaced in my mind. Not dreams—memories. They weren’t about Adrian and me. I had been seeing Oberon and Estelle in them. “They were lovers,” I said, more of a statement than a question. Though my dreams had never been explicit, the romantic undertone was undeniable.

“Yes, they were. Their story has a tragic ending.”

Before I could ask what that ending was, another thought occurred to me. Our history claimed that Estelle hadn’t borne any children, but our history could not be trusted. “If Oberon and Estelle were lovers, did they have any children? Could it be possible that Adrian and I are related?”

She shook her head adamantly, and a breath of relief escaped me. “Their entanglement did not produce any offsprings.”

Entanglement? I had so many questions, but the most pressing of them was whether I had found the solution to the climate change in Emeraldia. Because if I hadn’t, then I had pledged my allegiance to Aubrielle for nothing. I would have to stand by and watch my kingdom wither and die from the other side of the border. On weak legs, I stumbled away from Lady May and put some distance between me and the group behind me.

“Is the princess all right?”

“Does she need help?”

“Should we follow her?”

The guards asked my father.

“No. Give her some space,” he replied.

I could feel dozens of eyes on my back when I stopped walking. My boots sinking into the snow, I lifted my eyes to the gray sky, from where more snowflakes floated down, adding to the blanket of white on the ground. I couldn’t deny that there was beauty in the winter, but it was nothing compared to the beauty of emerald pastures, golden crop fields, sunshine, and warmth that had always filled Emeraldia. That beauty was what I focused on as I lowered my gaze and closed my eyes. I conjured images of my kingdom in my mind. The places I had seen before for myself, like the capital and Zalie, and the places that I had only heard about or read about in books.

Cast the net of your magic far and wide.

But most importantly, I thought about Emeraldians because the kingdom was not the land, but its people. Taking a deep breath, I exhaled slowly as I reached inside my well. I didn’t have to travel far, for it was brimming with the ancient magic. The water was clear, glistening, and warm. A smile tugged at my lips as I ran my hands through Silberium, enjoying the velvety softness of it on my fingers. I wanted to swim in it, to be enveloped in its healing waters. So I jumped in.

Peace and serenity wrapped around me, but I didn’t want to keep the blissful sensation all to myself. The ancient magic was a gift, and it was meant to be shared, for all of my realm to rejoice together. Still swimming in the sea of tranquility, I let myself soak it all in. I became a vessel until Silberium was flowing through my veins, saturating my every pore. Another deep breath, and then I released it. I pushed it out of me, and it easily followed my will. Like a powerful wave, it splashed outward, carrying through the air deeper into my kingdom. It wasn’t a wave of destruction, but of salvation as Silberium settled into the cracks in the ground and molded to sick plants and trees. Like a salve, it healed and restored, breathing new life into the tired land. The land that had given us so much. It was my honor and duty to nurture it back to health.

A gasp escaped me when the last drop of Silberium left my body. I felt empty and exhausted but fulfilled. The gravity pulled on my limbs, dragging me down. The earth called out to me, ready to welcome me in its embrace when I inevitably collapsed. My eyelids grew heavy as my knees gave out. Two strong arms wrapped around my waist to hold me up.

“I’ve got you,” Adrian said next to my ear.

My head fell onto his right shoulder as I relaxed into his hold. “You do have. For as long as we both shall live.”