[Faye]
I feel the shadows curl around my ankles protectively as I stare ahead at the figure before us. Tendrils swirling at my feet, they create a circle of impenetrable darkness. The darkness calls to me, wanting me to become one with it, to use its power again. It’s call continues to sing to me as these shadows whip around us, flowing into me, filling me from the souls of my feet, to the whites of my eyes.
The man begins to stalk forward. I just stand there, unblinking, watching him approach.
Waiting.
“Faye” Arthur shakes me. “Faye, we need to run.”
[The Queen] Kneeling before me is one of my best horsemen, or so I believed until this evening. He came back to me with a story, and as I listened, I found myself growing more and more angry.How did this little mongrel keep escaping my efforts to bring her here? What is so different from this version of herself than any others? First I send out my Merlin, then I send out my horsemen, and nothing has worked. I love watching him wither under my gaze as he mumbles. When I took him into my court, binding him to my power and trapping him and the others with the curse of the shadowborn, I gained the power of each of their magics, enhancing my own, leaving them a withered husk of their former selves. Spellbound, they belong to me entirel
TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of DEATH, VIOLENCE, and RACISM. Please read at your discretion. [Faye] The drive south is quiet. I can hear the sound of the cars moving past, and the growing sound of the waves on the ocean. My eyelids feel heavy. I yawn and… [England, 1595] …I hear music and can smell roast boar. There is singing and laughter around an open flame. I look down and see a slim dress of simply woven cotton, onion-dyed a faded yellow, and hand embroidered along the borders with roses and bluebells--a symbol of my position as one of the Queen’s Ladies. My stays
[Devona] I can see it in her eyes. She recognizes me. Her spirit recognizes me. In all the times I have watched her awaken, this is the first time I’ve seen this clear look of recognition. Yes, there have been embers, sparks but this…. This is fire. Could it be that she remembers me? I feel my heart rate increase as I watch her blink
[Arthur] After pointing Embyr towards a room at the end of the hall, Faye and I rush up one more flight of stairs to my own private suite. In many ways, this room is more like my childhood bedroom than the one I have in my father’s house in Kensington. This is where we came every summer, where my mom would sing me to sleep. I twist open the door. The maids kept the room looking immaculate, just as I left it. Since my mother died, I have only been here a few times, and never with anyone else. The memories made all this too painful. As I watch Faye enter before me, I feel myself smile a little. It gives me joy to see her in this place that is so special, so private to me. It feels r
[Embyr] So apparently the hot chick in the top hat is some kind of wizard. OK, I can go along with that. She’s also in love with my best friend. I know she hasn’t said it out loud but I know sad puppy eyes when I see them and she’s got it bad. It’s like just looking at Faye breaks her heart. And that must really fucking suck. Yeah, love can be the worst muthafucka of them all. So I guess I was feel
[Embyr]None of us know quite what to say. Slowly, Arthur’s face starts to turn red, as the words finally sink in. Going into full alpha dude attitude, he pounds his fist on the table, spilling half the food. I jump out of the way as he screams “What do you mean you betrayed her? How? What did you do? How is that even possible?” He then practically leaps across the table to grab her by the collar. What I can’t believe is that Hot Chick just lets him. In fact, she just leans in, her face in full “resting-bitch” mode, not saying a damn thing at first. Her expression is completely flat, her eyes expressing that she has absolutely no-fucks left, she stares Arthur down. She either has no fear, or she has no
[Faye] We follow Devona down into the cellar. As we enter the room, it is eerily lit with candles. The horseman from the night before is trapped in a cage of violet light that glows cold, not warm, like the deepest shadows. I watch as the light seems to dance, weaving itself like a basket around his prone form. It is as I stand here, watching that Devona’s words finally hit me and I almost stumble, an arm holding me steady. I look up at the person holding me steady as this comes into focus within my mind. She is holding me steady, keeping me from falling into the spell. She is Merlin. The Merlin.
[Faye] I wake to the sound of an ungodly shrieking. It is dark. The glasses are thankfully off of my face which means my sight has returned to normal, or at least mostly. Embyr is standing over me, and even now she is glowing faintly, the echo of a young man with golden skin, gently curling hair, and gentle eyes framing her like a holographic shadow. It is eerie. I close my eyes again as I try to stand. Closing my eyes, however, did nothing to stop the glow. I can still see the edges of her, the edges of everyone’s true selves, shining around them through my closed eyes. Whatever those glasses did to my vision, to my mind, has not completely faded yet. Maybe the effects never will. Maybe I’ll always see everyone in a type of twisted double vision.