Forever Reign: An Elemental Magic Fantasy Romance by V.B. Lacey

Author:V.B. Lacey [Lacey, V.B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fiction & Fate Press, LLC
Published: 2024-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Isla

I’m afraid she might be here .

It shouldn’t have come as a shock. Rationally, it made perfect sense. Celesine had merely disappeared, exactly as Isla had—no body, no proof. It was painfully obvious. But Isla had forced herself into the delusion that they were safe, that Celesine couldn’t harm them anymore. Even if she was alive, she had no power—did she? How could she, when Isla was now the Aether? If there was truly nothing to fear, why were her bones frozen, her breaths shallow, her muscles locked?

She had the power now. Nobody else. That was supposed to make her nightmares disappear, make the beasts with claws that once shredded her mind run away with their tails between their legs. She hated the weakness that came with fear. Hated the way her mind always shut down and burrowed into the darkest places. Hated the way it made her hide from life and hold herself back. When her mother and Waylan died, she hadn’t been able to function. The idea of danger befalling her loved ones had crippled her to the point that she hadn’t wanted her family to leave her sight. This same kind of fear took her mind captive and made her want to explode in a blast of pent-up emotion and anxiety.

And her elements could sense it, too. They reacted to her quicker than even her mind could catch up. At the mention of Celesine, they writhed within her, unsettled and temperamental. Flashes of cruel, violet eyes flew through Isla’s mind; Arden’s cold, lifeless fingers beneath her skin, the hard steel sliding through her chest. That all too familiar tension rose inside of her, the elements raging and pushing at her skin like they were begging to break free.

She had to get a hold of herself. If she didn’t learn to control her fear, her anger, it would burn her alive.

I will not let this consume me, she thought. Her mother’s soft voice filtered through her, words of comfort and pride taking shape against the shadows. “The fiercest huntress in the land. Never let them stop you.”

Fear was a part of her. That wasn’t something she could change. But so was ferocity. And it was a beautiful thing, how there could be power in both, if she only knew how to wield them.

Sebastian’s hand came to her cheek, his warm breath blanketing her skin. “Breathe with me, love,” he said, inhaling deeply. “In and out. Focus on my voice.”

She did as he said, their chests rising and falling in tandem as she let his words soothe the edges of her fraying mind.

“Better?” he asked after a moment, and she nodded. He kissed her forehead before leaning away, and the tenderness of the action, the familiarity, made her breath catch.

“Why do you think Celesine might be here?” Isla asked quietly.

“When you used the dagger on the other elementals to take their power, they didn’t die, so it’s only natural that she didn’t either. We just don’t know where she went.

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