Page 59 of Renegade Kings

“If you can help us figure out a way to break his hold over them, we can take him down,” I rushed out. The dryad looked at me doubtfully but I surged on, hoping to change their mind. “Whatever he’s doing to control the other creatures, he’s doing it to the fae as well. He has an entire army of fae that he’s… I don’t know, taken away their will somehow. I could break a few of his hold, but I can’t take down an entire army alone.”

“Why do you think you can’t do this alone?” the dryad asked curiously.

I cocked my head to the side as I considered his question. “I don’t know how.”

“Again, stop trying to be in control of everything. Some things are because they need to be. Trust your magic, you carry a part of Nymeria that few have had the luxury of witnessing, let alone experiencing for themselves.”

“I was always told that I should keep my magic hidden. I don’t know how…”

“Stop!” The dryad sighed, climbing from their mound and instead choosing to pace in the space between us. “Why do you constantly question, constantly look for ways to bend things to your will? What makes you so important that you believe you should stand above Nymeria itself?”

“That’s not what I’m saying! If you would just let me explain,” I snapped.

“Explain. You’re looking for a way to control, to dominate, to break, just like the rest of them. I’m disappointed in you, child. You hold so much promise, but you’re just like the rest of them. The fate of the fae is sealed. If it is not Nymeria’s lost child who will see the end of you all, it will come when the land forsakes you.”

The dryad turned from me then, clearly intending to head back into the forest and leave me to figure this out on my own. But this was our only opportunity to figure out how to stop Arik. How to save the few fae that needed us. I couldn’t just let them walk away.

“Wait!” I cried out as they neared the treeline. “Please, wait. Help me understand, help me figure out what I’m supposed to do. Please. We all need this.”

The dryad glanced back over their shoulder and I could see the pity in their eyes. “You have no clue what it is that you need. How do you expect to save the rest of them when you can’t even save yourself? I can see your self-doubt, your fear. You know the end is in sight and yet you sit here begging for answers rather than standing up and looking for a way to fight.”

“I am looking for a way to fight! Why do you think I’m here?” I was on the verge of losing my temper, and it only seemed to amuse the dryad even more.

“You’re here looking for someone else to solve your problems for you. You have all you need to solve them, but you’re too blind to see it. Blind or ignorant, only time will tell.” They hesitated, and I had a glimmer of hope that they’d change their mind. “Figure out who you are, find your potential, and we will speak again.”

Then they slipped into the trees and disappeared from sight.

I could have chased after them. I could have tried to demand they give me the answers I needed, but I knew it was pointless. This whole thing had been pointless. I had no answers, only more questions.

As I stood in the meadow feeling sorry for myself, the trees began to move again. I wasn’t afraid. If the dryad had wanted me dead, I would be. Instead, the forest thinned, and the palace came into view once more. I hadn’t walked as far as I’d first assumed.

As I made my way back to the palace walls, I ran the conversation over and over in my mind, desperate to find any kind of hope. Maybe the dryad didn’t have any answers, and that was why they’d refused to give them to me. Maybe they were just as helpless as the rest of us. Still, their parting words echoed in my mind and I couldn’t help but feel them as the blow they weren’t intended to be.

I knew who I was… didn’t I?

Chapter 22

Tank

Ipaced the length of our chambers, the bear begging to be released to go on the hunt for our mate. Rolling my neck to release the tension from my shoulders, I held tight to my control. Rampaging through the palace wouldn’t help right now.

When we’d woken to find Alyssa gone, Dean had slipped into a frenzy, especially when he tracked her scent and realised that she’d slipped out of the bathroom window in the night. Wherever he’d gone in his rage after that, I was hoping it wasn’t to wherever Alyssa was right now. I knew he wouldn’t hurt her, but she’d pushed the alpha wolf too far and he wasn’t about to let her forget it easily.

“Why does she do this?” Maddox gritted out.

I could tell he and Ryder were struggling to stay in their human forms as much as I was. It was impressive that they’d done so for this long. In fact, given how pissed off he was, it was impressive that Dean had stayed in control as well.

I sighed. It would be so much harder for them than for me. I’d had the luxury of spending years at her side. I knew Alyssa as well as I knew myself. It was easy to forget that they hadn’t known either of us for that long. We all just gelled together so easily.

“Because this is all she’s ever known,” I explained, finally stopping my pacing and turning to the two other concerned men in the room. “Alyssa came to the human realm having experienced a loss many wouldn’t have survived. She was young, alone, and in a foreign world. All she had to rely on was herself. Then, when she finally found people to be around, she didn’t know if she’d be putting them in danger just by being with them. Alyssa has spent years not only guarding herself but trying to save everyone else around her. She doesn’t know how to rely on anyone else. Not when she always thought the danger was her. Even when she lived here as a kid, they kept her isolated, afraid others would find out about her magic.”

Maddox and Ryder said nothing at first. I knew it sounded like I was making excuses for her, and maybe I was, but I genuinely felt like we were going about this entire issue the wrong way. We couldn’t demand that Alyssa changed. We needed to show her we weren’t going anywhere, that she didn’t have to be afraid for us.

“I can’t imagine what that must have been like,” Ryder eventually said. “Even when I felt like I had nothing, I still had my brothers to turn to. I was never truly alone, even if it felt like it sometimes.”

Maddox nodded in agreement. “We should try to find Dean. Calm him down before he sees her. He’s going to go off on her the minute he sees her, but it’s only because he’s afraid. He knows he won’t survive losing her, especially not so soon after losing Damon.”

“We’re going to get him back,” I told him firmly. “I know we said it was impossible before we came here, but we were wrong. He’s here, and he’s alive. There has to be some hope in that.”