Betrayals of Spring (33 page)

I pull the depths of my magic from my
body and as I do the strength I once had has diminished to where there is
nothing left. I give one final push to send that magic into Kalen’s body and
when it does, the room explodes with the brightest light I have ever seen. My
body is too weak to keep myself upright and I end up falling over beside Kalen.
The end is close to coming and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I slowly
turn my head to look at Kalen and he is frozen in place with his eyes closed.
Tears are pouring down my cheek as I look at the man I tried desperately to
save. I’m so sorry, my love. Please forgive me. I swallow hard and it takes all
the strength I have left to whisper my final words.

“I love you, Kalen.”

I open my eyes slowly to a world of
light. The air blowing around me smells fresh and clean and I notice that every
single thing here is colored in all shades of white. The ground is white, the
trees are white, and even the sky is white. I look down at my body and I myself
am in a long, white dress. Am I in the Hereafter? How can I be in the Hereafter
if I am alone? There should be other fae here as well, but as I look around
there is no one. The landscape before me rolls on for miles and miles in all
directions. How did I get here? I close my eyes to concentrate and that is when
the memories begin to start flooding back. I fall to the ground in despair when
the final memory of my life resurfaces. I remember seeing Kalen pale and
motionless on the floor after he said his final words to me. I failed to save
him and now he’s dead. How could I let this happen? I cry for what feels like
an eternity until I hear the sound of the one voice I have been longing to
hear.

“Meliantha, please come back to me, my
love.”

“I’m here, Meliantha. I need you to find
your way back.”

“Kalen, where are you?” I call out
uselessly. I don’t know how long I have been here, but every time I hear his
voice I yell the exact same question. No matter how loud or how far I search, I
never seem to get a response in return. It’s as if this is my punishment for
not saving him. I still feel hope in my body, and that is what has been getting
me through. What I don’t know is how I can hear him and not see him? He has to
be here somewhere. I shout again, but only louder, “Kalen!”

My voice echoes across the land, but
still I am met with only silence. Determination flows through my body giving me
a sense of purpose. If I have to spend the rest of my life searching for Kalen
I will do it. Wherever this place is, I’m determined to find my way back to
him. My heart aches to be with him again to tell him how sorry I’m for not
being able to save him. I thought we would be together in the Hereafter, but
maybe I am supposed to live out eternity alone since I failed to save him. No,
I have to stop thinking like that, I yell at myself. I have to fight the
sadness or I’ll never find my way.
I look around the world where I’m
clearly trapped, and I begin a determined pace to the hill of trees beyond.
Something about the trees draws me to them so I’ll start my search there. I
will find you, Kalen.

- Dark Sorcerer
-

One Week Later

“‘Tis there anything else ye want,
Master?” the Redcap asks. He’s one of the Redcaps that turned on his clan and
has now made his home here in the Black Forest. I’m now back here in my
dwelling in the Black Forest resting up before the celebrations tonight. I’ve
been here for the past week loading up on power from fae and humans that my
army has abducted for me.

“I’m fine for now, but bring me ten more
mortals within the hour,” I demand.

“Yes, Master.” The Redcap bows his head
and blood drops down from his cap onto my bedroom floor. A trail of blood
follows him as he leaves my room. I love blood, but I don’t want it all over my
floor, especially mortal blood. The smell of it is pungent and disgusting, and
the last thing I want is for it to be on my floor.

“Gothin!” I call out. The troll walks in
and bows his head. Out of all the servants I have he is the most loyal. Gothin
was cast out of his tribe many years ago and has been a faithful servant to me
ever since, even helping me with Calista’s capture several years ago.

“What can I do for you, Master?” he
asks. He looks around the floor and I think he already knows what I’m going to
ask by the expression on his face.

“Will you clean up that shit on the
floor,” I say as I point to the floor. “The smell of mortal blood reeks of raw
waste.”

“I’ll do it right away, Master.” He
cleans up the mess and shuts the door on his way out.

When the bitch Meliantha ousted me out
of the prince’s body it took everything out of me. I didn’t know her arrows
were laced with hers and her guardian’s blood until I felt it pierce through my
barriers. The pain was unbearable and it was worse than the pain I felt when
Calista stabbed me with her dagger. The longer these women have their power the
stronger I think they become. A week has passed and I still feel depleted. Now
that the fae know I exist they have been confined to their courts for
protection and not venturing out as much; therefore, I have been forced to
taking mortal lives instead to sustain me. Their life force is weak, but it
gives me power nonetheless.

Also, during this week I’ve heard no
news of what has passed. I sent my dwarf spy out yesterday to find out as much
information as he could about what the courts are doing now. He left the dwarf
Kingdom and I heard that Durin, the Dwarf leader, has his men out searching for
him. He is to be sentenced to death if they ever find him. They eventually
figured out he was the messenger that brought Finn’s cuff and Meliantha’s
arrows to the Summer Court that fateful day. If I knew Meliantha’s arrows were
fortified with blood then I would have confiscated them when I had the chance.
I didn’t know Durin had made another guardian weapon other than the dagger.

The pain of the arrow in my chest felt
like molten lava being sent through my veins. After I was thrust out of the
prince’s body I was able to stay long enough to see him and Meliantha lying
lifeless on the floor before my spirit form was forced back to the Black
Forest. My power is the strongest here and I am constantly pulled here when I am
weak.

A grand celebration has been planned for
this evening in celebration of our victory. The Spring Court will never exist
now that Meliantha is dead, and the prophecy will finally tilt in my favor. If
the four courts cannot be formed that means my power will supersede all of
theirs. I have waited over a hundred years for this victory, and once I get all
the power I need from the Four I’ll be able to take over the Land of the Fae.

My next step is to plan out how to get
the next girl under my grasp. I saw her at the Winter Solstice Ball and her
glow was just as bright as Meliantha’s. The power has to be taken in a certain
order and now that I have Meliantha’s power the next girl’s power will be ready
for the taking. It gets me hard and excited when I think about the things I’m
going to make the royals do when I take over. It’s time like these that I wish
Breena, or hell, even Meliantha was around so I could unleash my dark desires
on them. I’m sure I will have no trouble finding another traitorous whore to
fulfill my needs. I laugh thinking about it all until a knock at the door
interrupts my humor.

“Come in,” I answer in annoyance. It
would be nice if I could have some peace and quiet for a while without someone
bothering me.

Gothin opens the door and ushers in the
dwarf spy that I have been waiting anxiously to hear from. I can’t stop from
smiling because I have been desperately waiting to hear how devastated the
courts are over their dead kin. The dwarf has his head down when he enters and
after a few minutes of silence my smile slowly begins to dissipate. The anger
begins to build and my patience is running thin. He’s scared to tell me
something and I must know now.

“Tell me, dwarf. What news do you have
from the courts?” I demand in annoyance.

He looks up at me trembling with fear in
his eyes. I don’t even have to hear it to know what he’s going to tell me
because…I think I already know.

The game is not over.