Page 7 of Renegade Kings
“It’s time, Alyssa. These ghosts will continue to haunt you until you face them head on and realise that they aren’t at all what they seem.”
“Of course, they’re what they seem,” Dean snapped. “She witnessed something terrible here. She went through a trauma that tore her entire world apart. Walking back into that won’t lessen the impact of what happened. It won’t bring back what she’s lost.”
Fizzle hissed, puffing out his feathers as he stalked closer. A land bound owl gryphon seemed to be more volatile than normal. It made sense, given that his affinity was air. It would anchor him to feel it moving across his wings.
“And what has she lost, human?” Fizzle hissed again. “Do you even understand what a court of Nymeria is? Who Alyssa is and what she means to this land?”
“Stop calling me that,” Dean whispered angrily, but then a frown crossed his face.
Tank nudged me forward, and I closed the single step it took to take me to the alpha, who was anything but a human anymore. My fingertips brushed across the frown on his forehead as I smoothed it down, before leaning my forehead against his.
“I don’t,” he admitted, surprising me that was what had stalled him and not the fact that Fizzle had discounted his wolf.
“We do,” a voice said behind us. “We know who she is and that it’s time for her to claim what should have been hers all along.”
I sighed. The tension I hadn’t even realised I was holding leaked out of my muscles as I sagged against Dean. He didn’t waver even slightly as his arms wrapped around me and I felt him prepare to push me to safety.
“Why do you keep showing up at the strangest times, Rhidian?” I suspected I already knew the answer, but I asked the question anyway, as my gaze fell to Fizzle. The guilty look on his face confirmed more than I wanted to address right now.
Tank, Maddox and Ryder formed a wall of pissed off shifters between me and the man offering us shelter. Shelter that no doubt came with strings I wasn’t ready to become attached to, but could already see I had little choice but to accept.
When I finally lifted my head to look at Rhidian, I saw what had antagonised the others so much. Taking in the collection of armed men standing around him, I cocked an eyebrow and pushed between the others.
This was my world and if anyone was going to make a stand here, it would be me.
“Am I looking at an old friend right now, Rhidian? Or is there something more going on here?” I couldn’t keep the anger from my voice.
It wasn’t just that I could see the hands slowly drifting towards swords, or the subtle shift of feet in the grass as people prepared to move. There was something in their eyes, too. An eagerness that I didn’t quite understand.
I may have left this land, but it was still mine. This was my court, my home, and this time I wasn’t about to run away when someone came here intending to take something from me. Not even if it was someone I once thought I could trust.
Trust was a rare commodity in Nymeria, and I needed to remember that.
Even when it came to old friends.
My attention moved to Fizzle as he moved between both of our groups, and I started to think again about the fact that he’d been waiting for me at the portal. Could he have known that we were coming through? Before now, I’d have said it was impossible, but he was clearly more involved with whatever was going on here than any of us realised. He’d been so adamant that I should leave that I actually believed he was genuine. Out of anyone, Fizzle would know exactly how far he could push me until I’d push back. He knew how to manipulate me, because he knew everything about me.
“Fizzle, you need to explain what’s happening and you need to do it right now.”
I could feel the guys behind me growing agitated. My magic revolted and I felt it building inside of me in response. It had never done anything like this before. Something had changed since I’d returned to Nymeria. It was like a coiled snake preparing to strike and, for a moment, I actually considered letting it. I looked at the two I’d once called my closest friends, and the power inside me purred in anticipation. The shock of the need for violence running through my mind had me tugging back on that power.
Briefly, the magic fought back, and I felt it surge to the surface despite my attempts to hold it back. It recognised the men in front of us as a danger to my mates but my mind wasn’t ready to think about all of that right now.
The ground beneath my feet quaked, and I watched as Rhidian and his men stumbled in surprise. This wasn’t what I wanted, and I stepped back towards the safety of my mates, more to reassure myself they were there than for anything else.
Magic could be unpredictable. Yes, we could funnel it and bend it to our will, but magic was hard to control and had a will of its own. The will of Nymeria was always heard, even if it had to take control of you to do it.
“The lady is waiting,” Dean growled from behind me.
A grin spread across Rhidian’s face even as his eyes darted nervously to Fizzle. I knew him well enough to see the front he was putting on. The bravado he’d always hid behind back then was shining brightly once more.
“It’s true,” he whispered before he shook his head and concentrated on me. “I’ve been around. The sea might have been my home, but the people needed me more. The more we needed to find places for, places where Arik wouldn’t be looking for them, the more this place seemed to make sense.”
“This place? You… you brought people here? Here?”
“The Spring Court has been abandoned for decades, Alyssa. No one wants to come back here when they know the stories…” Rhidian’s voice faded away, almost like he knew he didn’t need to fill in the blanks for me.
I didn’t need to know the stories. I’d been there to see it with my own eyes.