Page 71 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

ELIAS

Fire clouded the sky with orange flames.

Dust and debris coated the once pristine streets leading to my Somnio house.

The crackling was much louder and worse than what I’d witnessed from Teddy’s home.

Every crackle, every pop tore through me until I was certain my soul had splintered.

What wasn’t in flames lay on the ground as snow-covered waste.

Smoke filled my lungs as I took in the destruction that was once my home. My city and kingdom.

It was gone. All of it.

I’d left them vulnerable with Nalari and me in the human realm. With my uncle and many of our warriors ensuring the humans’ survival, that left my own home open to an attack.

So involved with my responsibilities in the human realm, I hadn’t given my people enough thought. Nor had I bothered to check on them.

The tavern I frequented with my friends lay as rubble while a fire raged in the boutique beside it.

Row after row of ruins where shops and townhomes once were.

The citizens, though, were missing from every place Teddy, Brenton, and I searched.

I was frantic to find them, dashing through the city and checking the destruction for some hint of life.

My hands were dirty and bloody from the search, as were Brenton’s and Teddy’s.

None of us worried about my healing magic.

“Maybe your parents evacuated everyone before this took place,” Teddy offered, her eyes wide as she continued to scan the area.

I was too afraid to hope. My breath caught in my burning lungs as wave after wave of shame washed over me. I’d left them. Abandoned and forgot them.

“You were banished,” Nalari reminded me, her voice distant as she neared the Elders’ cave.

“I think we should check the castle.” Brenton’s voice was clipped with the same restrained fury that burned through my veins.

It wasn’t just myself I was angry with but whoever had done this. Families lived here. Younglings and babes. The elderly and those just starting out or trying to figure out life. They all lived here. Laughed here, ate here, slept here.

I rushed through the broken streets, the ground lifted as if someone had torn through from beneath it. Teddy ran a few paces behind me with Brenton alongside her.

When we reached the castle, I heaved in a desperate breath.

Teddy bent over with her hands on her knees as she took in a lungful of smoke.

Her cough came out as raspy and wet as mine and Brenton’s.

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before she took a step beside me.

Her fingers intertwined with mine, and that instinct to protect, to beg her to go back to her human realm, spiked, but I pushed it down and squeezed her hand in return.

She was here with me, for me, and wouldn’t want to leave, so I didn’t waste time arguing about something I wouldn’t win .

Where Somnio and Reignom were decimated, the castle stood tall and proud and untouched.

As if to show the citizens that while their king and queen couldn’t protect them, the castle still stood.

The heavy wooden doors that led to the inside of the home I grew up in remained open without anyone guarding it.

It was strange and left me on edge, so I pulled out my sword and slowly walked inside.

Teddy’s grip grew tighter. I slipped deeper into my primal instincts to better sense the world around me.

but no one was there. Not in the foyer or kitchens or study or any of the bedrooms upstairs.

I ignored the way my heart beat ruthlessly and angled my head to sniff the air and listen to the silence.

I listened for any signs of life within the castle walls.

It was faint, slightly broken, and smelled of waste, but fae were here. Far below us in the dungeon my father had never used. I couldn’t sense my parents, though.

My steps were cautious and unhurried as I searched for any unseen threats.

Reaching deeper into my primal instincts, I was able to steady my heart rate so that its thrashing beat didn’t distract me.

I kept Teddy behind me while Brenton guarded her from behind.

Teddy seemed to take everything in, her own magic surfacing and warming my hand that held hers.

Her fear, though, crashed through her, her heart thrashing against her rib cage while its scent infiltrated my nostrils. Keeping her close, I pushed her fear aside so I could focus on any threats around us.

I called up a sphere of fae light when we started the descent down the dark, winding stairs that led to the dungeon. While Teddy kept one hand in mine, she used the other to brace against the cool wall. Despite our soft footfalls, our approach echoed through the dark space.

“The Elders aren’t in their cave,” Nalari said, breaking the silence.

I almost growled at her intrusion but kept it in so as not to make a sound that would alert anyone of our presence.

“My parents aren’t in the castle either,” I said.

From the way Teddy gripped my arm with her unused hand, I knew Nalari had opened the communication between the three of us.

“There are fae in the dungeon,” I continued. “We’re checking it out now.”

The smell of decay grew stronger as did the vague sound of breathing and whimpering. A wave of pain and helplessness swarmed me, making it hard to move, to breathe.

Again, I called to my primal instincts, slipping deeper into it so that their dismay didn’t suffocate me.

“I’ll wait for you in the courtyard,” Nalari told Teddy and me.

“I can feel. . .” Teddy started, her palm getting sweaty. “When Leanora talks to me, I feel something. I don’t know how to describe it, but I feel it now. She’s here, but she isn’t.”

I knew what she meant. The closer we drew to the last step, the more a sense of otherness overtook me.

A few steps before we reached the bottom, I stopped and dug even deeper into my primal instincts, needing to be at my most basic level, where my magic recognized danger before my senses could.

I nodded at Brenton, who cast out his gray smoke while the silver ribbons of my magic twined around his.

Together, we prowled through the dungeon.

Through the cells filled with fae, all of them lying down unmoving.

Some already dead while others hung on to life by a thin thread.

My magic hardly noticed them as it continued to slither forward, setting a slow pace so I could take a moment to pray for them.

Using my primal instincts was different this time.

While I saw the void it promised me, I hadn’t stepped into it.

I was both myself and not, able to see what was around me with my eyes while my magic worked on a deeper, more primal and ruthless level.

Teddy’s magic joined us in a strip of peach. When her magic wrapped around mine, my whole body seemed to uncoil. I was surprised to see her magic, though. Surprised she’d managed to control it without any training.

I wasn’t sure if it was because we were in my realm where magic was as normal as breathing. Or maybe it was because we’d forged our bond, our magic twining together so that my magic called hers, just as hers called mine.

A thread of black pulsed around those still alive.

Teddy’s magic seemed to pause around the black before she thundered through it, passing rows of cells until she reached the back.

Beside me, she gasped, her hand gripping mine tighter.

Entranced, I watched as her magic swam over a male I didn’t recognize. She ran her magic through him, around him, seeming to investigate him.

A small noise croaked from her throat, and I withdrew my magic, forcing Brenton’s and Teddy’s back with me.

“What is it?” I whispered.

She jolted when her magic returned to her with a snap.

“Alastor,” she replied, her voice as low as mine. “He recognized my magic and talked to me.”

My grip on her hand tightened, ready to take her away from this cell, this realm, and the dangers Alastor posed.

“What did he say?” Brenton asked .

“Leanora’s absorbing everyone’s magic.” Teddy rubbed the front of her neck. “We have to break the connection between them. She’s draining them, killing them.” Her tone was desperate, seeming to beg me for answers I didn’t have.

“How do we do that?” Brenton asked.

“I don’t know,” I answered.

Despite my need to protect her, I followed Teddy down the remainder of the steps with Brenton close behind. Together, we passed the rows of cells on either side of us. My anger flared with every fae we passed, the smell of their impending death swarming me.

When she reached Alastor’s cell, empty of anyone but him, she opened the unlocked door and stepped in. Her features calm, she knelt beside him and rested a hand on his frail shoulder.

I stood there motionless, watching Alastor as my magic swarmed around and inside him, trying to note what he wanted. All I saw was a dark emptiness that pulsed weakly.

Her eyes widened when she peered up at me.

“He wants to help us while Leanora’s busy in the human realm,” she told Brenton and me.

“He. . .” She startled, her lips pressed in a thin line as she drew her brows together.

Her hand shook when she gripped Alastor tighter.

“Blaise’s death,” she whispered, her voice coming out distant.

“Leanora will kill all of us the way she did Blaise. She’ll take everything from us.

If we don’t stop her, she’ll be strong enough to destroy more realms.”

I didn’t care about other realms, only ours.

I knelt beside Teddy, taking the hand she held against Alastor so she wasn’t touching his thin frame anymore. The mage was lifeless on the cold floor aside from the steady lift and fall of his chest. His lips were cracked and as pale as the rest of him while his greasy hair fell limp.