AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Not by him. Reiks genuinely doesn't care about what I could do. It probably means he's a sociopath, but who am I to judge?
"If it's all right with you, we should go. I need to see what happened in Anderkan. To Fifi, my father, everyone else. I'm sure you want to check on your family, too."
I nod, embarrassed by the whole thing. I'm not one for tears, usually.
"All right, let me call my driver."
He pulls his stone out of his back pocket and winces. It's shattered to pieces. "Never mind."
I'm stunned to realize I broke it, but didn't hit one hair on his head. Maybe he's right. Maybe Iwouldn'thurt him, even by mistake. I've seen him walk in a destructive mist of my own making and wave it off.
"How are you in one piece?"
I should be used to his carrying me comfortably by now, but it surprises me every time he lifts me up without so much as a blink.
"I think your power and mine are opposite. Syphoning is a shade ability; they could cancel each other out. That, or you're instinctively protecting me."
I think back to my fall earlier—how I could feel my mind and body breaking, and managed to anchor them through that strange thread coming out of my chest.
I press my hand against his chest and try to focus without actually setting him on fire. At first, I notice nothing, but then the light in the room seems to dim, and suddenly I can see it. A red thread, so fluid it almost seems liquid. It twirls in the air, and connects right on my chest, binding us.
"What in the name of the shade was that?"
I don't have a concrete answer. "When I was days old, someone threw me into the sea from the immortal shores," I say, remembering my vision. "I hit the barrier. Instead of being killed on impact, I managed to get through—and then, there was something pulling me to the mortal shores. A red thread. I would have drowned without it. I don't know what it is. I just know it saved me then. It also saved me earlier today. I felt myself break. I should have died. But I grabbed it and it anchored me. You're my anchor."
"Maybe remember that the next time you feel like locking yourself in a high tower. I'll knock down whatever walls you build, Alis."
I grin against his chest, because I believe him.
I don't remember much of the journey to Anderkan. I sleep with my head on Reiks's lap during most of it. I wake to a scuffle at the gate. Apparently, the evil witch isn't allowed to ever step foot into Anderkan after killing so many innocents in Magnapolis.
I should have seen this version of the tale coming.
The sixth Natheran king sputters and yells, informing Reiks that he's to be banished if he supports the like of me.
I notice the black-clad guards at the king's side, as well as the smirking vicar observing from the palace's doors. I smirk right back.
"Tell only the truth," I call, spells imbuing my every word.
The king's mouth flattens in a line, and his eyes widen with horror.
"See what she does! She cursed our king!" Vonderk screams.
Reiks smirks. A crowd has assembled on both sides of the gates, commons around us, and the king's submissive court in the courtyard.
"Go on, Father. Tell us again what Alis might have done."
The king snarls, and turns his back, to return to the safety of his dreary hall.
"You may also wish to explain just how you and your old friend managed to get back to safety so fast after the rebel attack on Magnapolis. Tell us why there's apparently been no attack here, when every other capital has been bombarded."
"Silence!" the vicar yells. "You're not worthy of your father's crown. You, who consorts with witches of impure blood."
"I'm not a witch," I say, amused these were also some of my first words to Reiks. He'd asked me what I was then. "I'm a goddess, born beyond the barrier."
"Blasphemy!"
"Is it? Then why do you suppose you can't resist the sound of my voice? Tell the truthright now."
