“I’m really not the best one to talk to about shit like this,” he said. “I think you should tell Max and Darius. They’ll know what to say.”
“No,” I growled. “I won’t. I’ve already ruined one friendship, I’m not dragging everyone else into this and ruining things with them too. But how can I fix things with Cal? What can I do-awoooo.” I broke into a sad howl.
“Stars give me strength,” Orion said under his breath, but he didn’t let go of me as I curled myself tighter around him and panted heavily against his ear. “Look, I’m sorry Seth, but it’s happened now, so the best thing you can do is to have it out with him. Tell him how you feel, apologise for shit getting weird and try to figure out how you can both move on from there. You’ve been friends long enough that your bond should be salvageable regardless. He’s probably feeling shitty about this too.”
I nodded, whining softly. “Or how about I bury my feelings, act like it never happened and hope all our problems magically go away?” I suggested.
“I don’t think that’s-”
“Yeah, that’s what I’ll do, thanks Lance. That’s great advice,” I said decisively, snuggling in as I prepared to have a snooze.
“That wasn’t my advice,” he hissed, but I was already falling asleep, finding some peace in the arms of my new friend and thankful that he’d come up with a plan that could really help me.
F our months was a hell of a long time to live on a heathy diet of things we could grow. Particularly mangoes. Fucking mangoes. If I never saw a mango again after this, then I would be one happy Fae.
Of course, the limited menu was somewhat tempered by the fact that we’d been working our asses off to learn the ways of our ancestors and we were now beyond proficient in swordplay, archery, brawling and could even wield a bunch of weird weapons with reasonable skill like a flail, mace or spear.
It was pretty badass and I had no complaints about learning these things, but I was growing restless stuck in this palace. Sure, it was beautiful and we had spent the first weeks exploring it during any free moments we got from our training, and I’d even grown used to wearing the tunics and long dresses which we’d found stored in a chest that had been spelled to keep them fresh and clean so long ago that time had forgotten them. But it didn’t feel like home. The jungle courtyards and oppressive heat were just too alien to me and though I enjoyed them to a point, I was aching for some change in the weather, some variation in the temperature and most of all, I was desperate to see Darius and the rest of our friends.
Days of worrying about how they were doing and what was happening in the war had turned to weeks and months with no answers for us and no way to leave this place and find out. The golden gates were firmly sealed and Queen Avalon had made it clear that the moment we left, the spell holding her ghost or spirit or whatever the fuck she was in this place would shatter and she would be gone. That meant this was our one and only opportunity to learn from her and so far she wasn’t convinced we’d learned enough.
On top of the training we’d been doing, we’d spent hours working together to try and drive our Phoenix flames through Darcy’s body and burn the curse from her and we were certain it was working.
She didn’t tire or weaken nearly as often as she had before we’d come here, and her magic was holding up well to the vigorous routine that Queen Avalon had us abiding by.
Every morning when we woke, we met her in a grand hallway where the walls were lined with carvings representing the zodiac and long windows looked out into the jungle where we practiced casting our Phoenix magic in ways I’d never even imagined we could before.
We had learned to create weapons the way Darcy had already figured out, honing that skill and imbuing them with our fire magic in more subtle ways too so that we knew how to provide our army with the means to stand against the Nymphs and win. Rather than focusing on one mighty weapon the way Darcy had for the Heirs, Orion and Geraldine, we had learned how to gift a smaller amount of our flames to a larger amount of weapons at once, enough to arm the rebels when the time came for them to use them against the Nymphs. It was the kind of advantage we desperately needed to be able to face Lionel’s army on a battlefield and it was so reassuring to know that we were learning things that really would change the way this fight went.
Queen Avalon had also taught us more about the magic of the Phoenix Kiss, though she warned us not to offer it out unless we had no other choice as it stole an ember of our own flames which could never be returned to us. We’d figured that out too, but the way she spoke about it was like she was afraid of that, hating the idea of giving some of her fire to another Fae and could see no reason why we ever would.