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twenty-five

Dove

W e make it to the bottom of the mountain with our little wisp friends in tow. Seeing the creatures come to life is pure delight. It is everything I had hoped for when I sang at the feet of the Goddess’s statue on the full moon.

With Rivern by my side, the magic is more potent as it spirals its way through my very soul. As fae, he lit up like the stars in the night sky when the lyrics finished their descent from my lips. The lines on his skin were the most vibrant I’d seen yet, but my fae prince only had eyes for me.

Within the wonder of this new magic, I find worry lingering close by, and a feeling I don’t how to acknowledge. Excitement.

Maybe hope, too. Hope for a possibility of a life filled with joy and love.

But all that comes crashing down when I remember the king and Gideon.

He’s out here, looking for me.

As the suns move closer to the centre of the sky, my body tingles with anticipation at the possibility of seeing the wolf beast again.

Looking at Rivern, my palms itch. “We need to move faster,” I lament.

The boots Gideon gave me are really starting to annoy me as I kick at the brush beneath my feet, the ground more lush with grass than my dying world back over the mountain.

What I’m starting to notice about this side of the mountain is that the fauna and flora seem to be flourishing. There are no signs of death but for the typical stages of the life cycle.

Evergreens and oaks stand tall and luscious, moss grows willingly above ground and small creatures of all kinds roam the underbrush.

“We need to speak to Lucas,” Rivern responds, bringing me out of my head.

He starts doing his usual comfortable move, aiming for my hand, but I pull back. “And what do you suppose we do? I can’t just leave them. Which is exactly what you want us to do.” I can not read his thoughts through the bond—yet—but I can feel his unease and frustration at our slow pace and my insistence on keeping my word.

“We need to leave— you and I .” He points his hand, first at me and then at himself, making sure I know who he is referring to. “You are concerned about the villagers, but they are capable. This land is plentiful, as you have seen from the fruits we have come across on our journey so far.” His voice is firm, leaving no room for discussion.

My coals burn bright at the challenge, leaving Argus to perk his ears at the sudden fire my bonded has elicited. “I promised them that we would bring them to Terra!”

I want to stamp my feet at my aggravation, but that won’t get my point across. It will only make me look like a petulant child, and I am not a child anymore. I have strength inside me for the first time in a long time, and unfortunately for the fae male in front of me, he is one of the reasons I feel that strength. He gives me the freedom to fight without persecution, and I take that feeling, grasping it tightly with both hands.

“But if that dyre wolf catches us, and he’s been instructed to kill you, you are dead .” The last word rings through the air between us, and a shot of pain radiates throughout my body, leaving both Rivern and me gripping our chests.

“I don’t know what to do. I promised them,” I admit, the flames giving way to melancholy.

Taking a step towards me, Rivern tentatively grasps my hand in his golden-lined fingertips and places them on his chest. “This.” He thumps our hands down. “This bond between us guarantees I understand every little feeling you are experiencing, Little Dove, but you know what? It also guarantees—” I shake my head, looking into his deep violet eyes. “It means that it assures you that I have your best interests at heart. And those people over there—you won’t be any good to them if a dyre wolf rips through their camp and takes you away, leaving them for dead. ”

The stubbornness within me starts to give way, and I squint up at his beautiful face. “Can you promise me they will make it to Terra without me? Because that’s the only way I’m leaving them.”

With a swift jerk of his head, Rivern pulls us towards the villagers.

As we make our way to the front of the line, wisps surround us until we find Lucas.

“Where to next?” he asks as he passes a small waterskin to his partner.

“That’s what we need to talk to you about,” I start. “We need to make a new plan.” It eats at me to deliver the next words, but I push them out anyway. “I can’t go with you.”

I promised them. The knowledge devours me. I was the one who was meant to deliver his family and the rest of the villagers to safety.

His sun-weathered face looks downcast at the news. “What’s going on?”

Feeling a tingle down the burn on my neck, I rub at it, disappointment lacing my next statement. “We have reason to believe a dyre wolf is after me.”

“And we believe the safest way to move forward would be for us to separate,” Rivern quickly adds after me.

I drop his hand, giving him a scathing look. He wants to protect me, but I want to be the one to tell these people. I don’t need him talking for me. No one will speak for me anymore. My voice is back in full force, and I intend to use it.

Stepping in front of him, I address Lucas and his now-concerned partner. “What we are trying to say is that I will have to separate from the group here, but Rivern will still guide you towards his home.”

With that, a burn flickers through the bonded fae prince behind me.

“We did not discuss that!” he hisses in my ear.

I ignore him, continuing to give him my back.

His blood boils as I disregard him. “Rivern and the wisps will continue with you, and I will take an alternate path to keep the dyre wolf away from the group.”

Finally making himself known, Rivern comes between Lucas and myself, turning his back to Lucas and towering over me.

“You will do no such thing. I will accompany you to Terra, and the wisps can show the way for the villagers.”

I trace the sharp lines of his high cheekbones and cutting jawline with my eyes, remarking in a hushed tone, “You have to go with them. How can the wisps show the villagers the way?”

“The wisps are pure magic, from what I was told and you’ve read. They have the ability to take orders, right?” he questions me.

I cross my arms, agreeing with him. “Right.”

“Well, if we—you, the song giver—give them an order, they will follow it. It’s how Haven got built. All those tall buildings and bridged walkways were not built by the fae.”

He has me intrigued, but I still don’t like that one of us—mainly him—won’t be with the villagers to guide them. “But how will the wisps discern where to go?”

“Trust.”

That’s all he says. Trust .

“Trust what?” I counter.

“Trust in the magic of the Goddess. It’s what we fae are taught from the moment we are born. Trust Oona’s guidance. She always speaks, she always hears and she always protects.”

Hearing him speak with such certainty strikes me down.

Trust.

Such a simple concept, yet I find it hard to imagine what that must look like. I certainly did not trust the priestesses or the servants at the temple.

Shifting our bodies closer together, Rivern cups my cheeks. “You can trust me.”

Naturally, my whole body presses into his, the blaze within me sparking for a whole new reason.

“Excuse me, Rivern… Dove, the plan?” a voice behind us pipes up.

The fae towering over me does not shift as we bask in our inferno.

Eye to eye.

Heart to heart.

He’s not going to leave me.

“Rivern?” I question as I keep my hands glued to my body, fighting the intensity of our connection.

“Yes?”

Sighing, I say, “Tell Lucas your plan.”

With a soul-shattering smile, Rivern turns to face Lucas, but not before connecting his luscious, soft lips to my forehead, leaving me floating behind him.

“That went well.” Rivern grins, pleased that he got what he wanted.

We didn’t have time to argue with the dyre wolf on our tail.

Seeing the magic the wisps elicited with their own eyes, the villagers eventually relented that our separation was a good plan. No one wants a dyre wolf on their back.

I instructed the wisps to take the villagers to the other fae within Terra, and Rivern gave the troop a general verbal guide of the terrain up to the northern peaks. It is a straight shot, several turns of the suns by foot. If they veer off to the left, they will hit a place called the void, and if they veer too far right, they will find the ocean. Once they locate the lake in the centre of the forest, they just need to go around it and continue on until they discover the mountains.

As farmers, they are used to working with the land, so they eagerly took everything Rivern said on board.

Even the suns shine brighter over this side of the mountain, and the villagers noticed, too. There is no going back for them. I could see it in their new conviction to continue.

Rivern informed them that the terrain is rough in parts, but the wisps would help them through the harder areas and support them in all their needs, from finding fresh water to creating shelter.

The scariest thing in this wood is the dyre wolf currently barrelling towards me , so our separation was needed in the end.

Looking towards the suns in the sky, I take a deep breath.

Opening my eyes, I am no calmer in my irritation with the fae next to me, so I take advantage of our proximity and kick him in the shin. “Ouch,” I give a little gasp at the stone leg I just slammed my boot into.

“Oh, Little Dove,” his humorous laugh reaches me.

It’s like I barely touched him! What is he made of?

Storming off ahead, I move swiftly away from him.

“Where are you going?” He moves behind me, weaving through tree trunks.

Ignoring him, I continue forward with no destination in mind. This bond is suffocating me! I yell internally.

“Stop. Dove, stop…” Rivern grabs me from behind and lifts me off the ground.

“Let me go, Rivern.” I kick my legs and pound the leather vambraces secured to his arms.

“No. Listen, stop.” He grabs my arms and pins my whole upper body to his, my back to his front. “I know you are angry. Angry at me. Angry at this bond. Angry at the king. Angry at your role in all this. You have a lot to be angry about. I just don’t want you to hide it from me. I feel it all.”

“ARGH!” I scream. “Godsdamn right, I’m angry. Why did she choose me? I don’t want this responsibility. Just leave me to the wolf, Rivern. I deserve it.” I slump in his arms.

“Listen up, Dove, and listen closely.” His voice sternly breathes along my cheek. “You don’t deserve this. No one deserves any of this. The first moment I saw you… Your truth, your light, your righteousness. If anybody can get through this, you can. And I’m not letting that wolf get you .”

His lilting voice and his conviction soothe the gremlins in my head.

Feeling my anger dissipate, he releases his hold and sets me down. “Come, Mage is this way.”

“Mage?”

“My horse,” Rivern answers swiftly, moving through the thick forest.

Silence passes between us as we navigate our way. I know this peace well. It is one that I savour in the uncertainty of my future. It is a space where I can find my thoughts and muddle them back together again.

Solen has been touching base with us every so often, and Rivern receives his messages with grunts and murmurs as we continue on our way.

While walking, an idea occurs to me. With the villagers on their way to Terra, besides breaking this bond, what is my purpose there?

My final goal isn’t Terra. It is Haven. The king, Castor. If I want to save all of my people, I will need to kill them both.

If Rivern wants the song, I can teach it to him, and he can bring it to his people. And if we both want this bond broken, I’m sure that can be solved on my mission to kill the king because his death will more than likely result in my own.

This bond twists me up something fierce at the notion of leaving Rivern, but I continue my mantra— I do not choose this . Rivern said to trust the Goddess, but I cannot trust as easily as him. I did not grow up in the sort of environment that fostered that ideal. What is it even like to trust someone fully? Sure, I’d surrendered to her after killing Cardinal but this is different.

Is it?

I twist and turn the fragments of my sanity, and my only conclusion is to return to Haven.

I must keep my plan a secret from the fae leading me.

I may be broken and inconsequential to the priestesses, but I burn. I burn with a fire and rage I don’t want to squander. I want to finally unshackle the cage I was placed in as a child. Release the monster within. Give them back my wrath tenfold.

We find Mage, Rivern’s stunning dappled stallion, grazing a small field.

The wind blows salty air through the surrounding trees, letting us know we could touch the sea if we wanted to.

“It seems the wolf is going slow.” My head whips up at Rivern’s melodically charming voice. It feels almost strange to hear after being surrounded by the soft, mellow sounds of the forest for the last while.

“Slow?”

“Solen says he has not shifted, but is instead in his human form, ascending the mountain.” Strange . I would have bet the wolf shifter would be in his animal form. Surely, in his natural habitat, the wolf in him would take over.

My mind reminisces on one very toned and muscled wolf shifter’s backside.

A longing pricks at my chest. Do I miss the beast? Surely not. I barely know him . Here I stand, staring at the most beautiful male alive, my bonded, and I am missing the dyre wolf who has been sent to kill me.

Shuddering myself out of my strange reverie, I approach the stallion carefully. “I’ve never ridden a horse before,” I express in amazement.

“Here.” Rivern guides my hands towards Mage’s speckled coat.

Instant heat hits me as our hands glide in unison over the stallion’s side.

Our hands move towards the soft leather saddle covering Mage’s back.

Warmth coasts over the tip of my ear, and my breath catches as Rivern whispers, “Jump up, Dove.”

“Okay.” My thighs clench with the proximity of the prince behind me. His utter grandness overtakes all of me. I could get lost in him, and he knows it.

Stick to the plan, Dove, I berate myself. This fae male is dangerous. I have to keep a sense of separation between us. The plan is to leave, make my way back to Haven and do away with the king and his son.

Maybe I can spend one night with the prince and slip away under the cover of darkness? Do fae even need sleep? Anyway, with a dyre wolf after us, will Rivern even allow us to rest? This is my only option, though, so I have to hope.

Grasping my hips, Rivern eases my body up his and whispers, “Lift your right leg, Little Dove.” I do as he asks, my heart rate skyrocketing at our closeness. “Good girl. Now, slide your leg over the saddle. That’s it.” He continues to praise me until I’m comfortably seated.

The bond whirrs happily.

Rivern places the reins in my hands and then effortlessly swings himself up behind me, his cloak billowing across Mage’s back.

“Show off,” I mutter.

Rivern laughs a full belly laugh, filling my insides with all sorts of flying creatures. “Says the little human who can’t keep her eyes off me.”

He didn’t. I elbow him in the ribs, and he sets back to his previous laughter. “Damn entitled fae prince! ”

“Well, If I’m an entitled fae prince, that must make you an entitled princess.” The damned little creatures in my belly do a full-on jig at his admission, the bond alight in fiery, melting magma.

His hands skim my waist and glide freely down my arms until he grabs hold of the reins. “Save some of that heat for when we get to Terra, Little Dove.”

I elbow him on his other side. “Ouch,” he jokingly exclaims. I’ll show him fiery.