Page 14 of Renegade Kings
Instead, she spread her fingers wide across the tree bark as she stepped close enough that her lips were just a breath away from the tree. Her head cocked to the side before she gasped in a breath, her brow scrunching in thought as her hands stroked across the surface.
My cock twitched in my pants as I watched the caress, my mind moving back to the one night we’d spent together. It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. But I knew how that caress would feel, as if I’d been feeling it for my entire life.
Tipping her head forward, Alyssa rested her forehead against the tree and the ring of steel pierced the air as whatever fear was ruling them overcame some guards.
“You should have told me, Fizzle,” Alyssa said as she finally moved away from the tree, one hand lingering on the surface until she almost reluctantly dragged her fingertips across the surface as she moved out of reach.
“Would you have come here if you’d known?” The owl gryphon finally jumped from Rhidian’s shoulder, spreading his wings wide as he glided across the distance between us.
I moved to the side as I saw him coming for his usual perch on my shoulder. It might have been petty, but I wasn’t in the mood to be accommodating for the little creature I didn’t know I could trust anymore. He hissed in response before moving to land on Alyssa’s shoulder instead, and I could have sworn I saw a smug look on his little face as he wrapped his tail around her neck.
“Nymeria doesn’t scare me like it does the rest of you,” she said mysteriously.
“Because it’s a part of you,” Rhidian added.
The smile on his face was more terrifying than anything else we’d witnessed since we’d been here. It screamed that whatever was happening here; he was certain now that he was right and Alyssa was the answer to whatever his problem was.
“You’ve no idea what this is, and it terrifies you because you don’t feel the land anymore. You might still be able to do your little magic tricks, but you know you hold nothing but a shadow of what the fae once were.” Alyssa’s voice sounded so different. Stronger almost. “We keep moving.”
When she strode forward, she pushed past Rhidian with a sense of purpose and the rest of us followed. The guards who had seemed an oppressive force before had no choice but to fall back and follow, too.
Dean and I let her hands drift from ours but stayed close behind her, as Maddox stalked closer, closing his distance and covering our backs.
It didn’t take long before the forest seemed to grow more ominous. What had once been nothing but trees changed to something my mind couldn’t quite comprehend.
At first I saw glimpses of broken buildings between the trees, broken down structures with collapsed roofs, stones dotted the ground where they’d fallen from the walls.
But then other items appeared that made no sense. An upturned pot, gleaming like new metal in the shaft of sunlight that pierced through the canopy. A cart, stacked with boxes and bundles of cloth that looked like it was waiting to be moved except a tree had seemingly punched through the side of the wood and one wheel entirely.
Then there were the more ominous signs. The perfectly preserved doll wrapped in vines like they were trying to wring the life from its soft material body. Clothes still drifting on the breeze even though the vines were creeping along the line they hung from.
It was like the forest had sprung to life overnight in this village while people still lived here. But if that was the case, then what had happened to them? Life clearly hadn’t continued on because this place seemed abandoned and it didn’t take a genius to realise that whatever had happened here was why the guards were so terrified of the forest.
I didn’t even see the massive structure in front of us until we were practically steps away from it. The trees now reached as far as the palace’s walls. Vines crept up the surface as if trying to swallow it whole and claim back what the plant life had yet to break through.
“The palace is the only structure that remains safe,” Rhidian said from somewhere behind us. “We had to move the refugees inside a few months ago. No one hardly ever ventures outside now if they have any choice.”
Alyssa said nothing at first. She came to a stop at the bottom of the steps that lead up to a massive pair of wooden doors. Ironically, they’d been carved with an intricate pattern of vines, similar to those that were now trying to take over the rest of the structure.
The pain on her face tore at my heart. This was where she’d run from. It was where her parents had been killed and she’d never even had the chance to say goodbye.
“You just need to go inside,” Rhidian said quietly after we’d stood here for a few moments.
Only she didn’t move. Alyssa kept staring at the doors, not moving even a fracture of an inch, no doubt lost in the memories of the tragedy that had happened here.
“Just open the…” Rhidian tried again, only to be interrupted.
“Shut up!” barked Fizzle. “You can never understand what this is like,” he added quietly.
I heard the words he didn’t say. The confession that I knew Alyssa didn’t care to hear right now. He’d been back here already. There had been a day when Fizzle had stood frozen at these doors, even though he’d led Alyssa to believe otherwise.
We fell into an uneasy silence. The guards lined up behind us, turning their backs on us as they stared out at the forest we’d travelled through.
I had so many questions, so many accusations that wanted to scream out of me. Instead, I stood in silence.
I may not understand what was happening here, but Alyssa did, and I trusted her with my life. We wouldn’t have come this far if she didn’t want us to, or at least if a part of her didn’t want to. And if she wanted to stand here for days working up whatever courage she needed to move through those doors, then that was what we’d do. Rhidian would just have to get over it on his own, or I and the men around me would show him how to.
Chapter 7