Page 48 of The Crown the Fae Forgot
Within just a moment, all three of them were gone from my sight, nothing but the sound of their distant yelps and groans to tell me the fight still raged on. But my attention still remained firmly, and terrifyingly, fixed on the bear still within my sights.
Without the sounds of the fight to mute my descent, the snapping of twigs and branches as I dropped the last few feet to the base of the forest floor finally drew the fiend cub’s attention straight to me. I saw the moment its neck tensed and suddenly rose from where it’s nose was buried in the leaves, iws own eyes locking onto mine with the same intelligence—if only a smidgeon of the same intensity—as its mother’s before.
It wasn’t until that moment, with my own body standing over Shiel’s unconscious one, that my mind truly began to race.
And with it, so did my heart.
What did I do now? Was I about to fight this bear?
It may have been a cub, but as a fiend, it was the size of a full on, full grown brown bear.
In the short time I’d had full access to my powers, I’d already grown cocky. Part of me had thought I’d just order it away, justlike I did the guards before, forgetting for a moment what I’d been told about the fiends.
They had protections against the glamour.
The cub, apparently satisfied with whatever scent it had sniffed from me, now, started a slow, steady path straight towards me.
Each step thudded into the ground, dulled only by the damp earth and the thick coat of needles. Dulled as it was, each step seemed to echo within my ears, drowning out all other noise.
I had no weapon, no training, no skills, not even the strength to lift Shiel’s forgotten broadsword—an unfortunate truth I learned as that cub moved ever closer to me.
But what I did have, I discovered, was that feeling that had once overwhelmed me, back in Lady Phyrra’s court. Just as I was beginning to think that all hope was lost, that three more steps and the cub would take one swipe at me and then at Shiel and end us both, a strange sense of calm washed over me in the place of fear.
I knew the feeling at once, and this time, I let it embrace me instead of fighting it.
Instinct.
It was different, this time, however, when the instinct reached down into that well of glamour within me. It reached for something beyond the river, something tangled deep below, and then it gripped it, I felt something new begin to slither over my spine.
This time, the magic didn’t flow out of me. It flowed through me, pumping into my veins and muscle and sinew. I felt it, saw it, like black tendrils reaching beneath my skin.
This glamour, it was different. It was forging a path through me that didn’t yet exist. It prickled with pain, but more than that, with power.
It wasn’t just me who sensed it, either. The cub paused, head cocking to the side as it took me in again, as if sensing the curious change within me.
Strength overwhelmed me as I reached down and this time, picked up the sword with ease.
As soon as I did, that curiously on the cub’s posture shifted. He leaned back, eyes widening as something like an animal uncertainty took over.
I, meanwhile, didn’t fight the tingling, burning sensation in my veins. I leaned into it, let it strengthen me even as I felt it poison me.
My grip on the blade tightened as I lifted it higher, fixing the tip of its point with the tip of the cub’s nose.
It sniffed again, head turning the other way as it took another hesitant step towards me.
I had to fight a shaking in my arms that had nothing to do with the newfound strength flowing into my veins. Despite the fact that this creature was a bloodthirsty fiend easily several times my size, it still was a cub. It’s head and paws were just a little too large for its body. It’s face was innocent, even in how it measured me up, trying best to decide—most probably—how to eat me.
Despite all that, I still loathed the idea of having to kill it.
The thought of lifting the sword over my shoulder and swinging it down, feeling the slice of muscle, fat, bone…it made bile rise in the back of my throat.
I fixed the creature with a glare.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked.
The bear stopped again, once more fixing me with that glare. That intelligent, searching look.
I considered trying to glamour it, despite Zev’s warning that it wouldn’t work. But even just thinking about it made thatstrength in me start to waver. The sword grew heavier until I once again concentrated.
