Page 15 of Renegade Kings

Alyssa

Icould hear the screams. Not the loud piercing noises I thought would make my ears bleed like before. No, these were the screams of the memories that haunted this place. They floated on a hidden breeze, wrapping around me and making me wish I could be taken with them, too.

Sometimes, the cruellest thing was having lived. Being made to bear the memories of the lives that had been lost. No one else would remember these people. I was all that was left. The history of this place would be continued. It was written in the pages of nearly every book in the library. But the people? The ordinary people who had lived and loved inside these walls? They were nothing but a collection of memories in my head now, and some days, I didn’t feel worthy of carrying them.

And then I’d touched that tree.

I’d opened myself up to what had lingered in this place when I’d fled like a coward. It was what had always lived in this place, the one thing that existed in all our people. It was Nymeria.

I knew what Rhidian wanted me to do. He wanted me to stride up those steps and throw open the palace doors. He wanted me, the last of the royal line, to step foot on the stones at the centre of Spring Court and claim it as my own. Rhidian thought that by returning to this place, I’d bring to life the magic of the Spring Court once more and it would push away whatever force of Nymeria was trying to reclaim this place.

He couldn’t be more wrong.

I had no markings of royalty. I hadn’t been old enough to be crowned as the next in line for the Spring throne. The same blood might run through my veins, but there was nothing else that said I belonged in this place. My magic had never been offered to the court, and Nymeria had never carved the royal mark upon my skin. We didn’t have the time to do it before it had all been stolen from me. I’d never had my chance to claim my place in the royal line.

Rhidian was right though that the Spring magic that had once filled this place was gone now. It was why the land had seemed so dead to me before. The magic of my people was gone, even if this place still lived. In the plants and the animals, in whatever else dared to stalk the shadows of the forest. But it was wild and free. Untapped by any court. Untamed by any royal.

It was my magic.

It was the magic of Nymeria that no one else shared.

Spring was dead, and Nymeria was taking its place.

My head cocked to the side at the implication. All this time, we’d heard stories of the Court of Light and Shadows, and everyone had assumed it was a fifth court, an unseen court. It either existed in only fairytales or it was in some unseen place in the centre of Nymeria, where no one had ever dared to tread.

But what if that wasn’t the case?

What if the Court of Light and Shadows was nothing but a dead court? One without a purpose, one that had lost the magic of its people and instead was overcome by the wild retribution of Nymeria.

My heart tripped a beat as the thought filled my mind. The implications of going inside the palace took on so many connotations that I hadn’t considered.

Was I about to claim the fifth throne?

Fizzle had always been convinced this was my destiny. Even my parents had believed it. It was why I’d been forced to hide the true nature of my magic.

Was this why Arik had slaughtered everyone here? To create the court that could give him control over Nymeria?

No.

It couldn’t be.

Because Arik would never have left this place if that were the case. We wouldn’t have been able to walk right up to the door if he knew the power that this place could hold.

Which meant only one thing.

This truly was a building filled with nothing but ghosts and memories, and there was no reason for me to stand on the steps frozen in fear.

My foot landed on the first step as the thought formed. I didn’t even doubt the logic in my mind until I’d already made it to the top. Fizzle stayed silent on my shoulder. He had a lot of explaining to do when this was over. Once I’d shown them that whatever hope they’d found in this place was as dead as the people who once lived here.

I watched my hand reach for the surface of the wood like it wasn’t my own. Even the warmth of the wood didn’t register until I was pushing against the surface. The slight hum beneath my fingertips was nothing compared to the screaming in my mind. The tremor of magic filled every cell in my body, awakening a part of me I’d refused to look at since I last ran through these doors, with nothing but death in my wake.

The hinges groaned as the wood moved. Even though these doors had been used in the years since I’d been here, they were inexplicably heavier now.

I felt the magic wrap around me like a familiar embrace. I could almost smell the scent that my father had worn as a feeling of home rushed over me. The past consumed me so thoroughly that I barely felt Fizzle leave my shoulder. Abandoning me to my fate.

This wasn’t what I’d expected. It wasn’t the strange magic that filled me, but was absent in those around me. It wasn’t the feeling of Nymeria that whispered through the trees as proof of the realms’ displeasure at the events that had happened here.

This was my family. It was my people. It was the Court rushing back to life as the magic that had long laid dormant reached out for me in desperate hope.