‘I don’t want it anymore.’
Fae looked down at the ruby encrusted locket, before staring at me. ‘But your boyfriend gave this to you. You said it was his mother’s-’
‘He lied,’ I said, balling my fists around tufts of Hawthorne’s fur. ‘Now let’s get back to the others.’
Fae was confused, and a little scared. Regardless, she stuffed the locket into her pack before climbing onto Shadow’s back. She asked no more questions about my short visit with Camryn, and together, we took off into the sky, leaving Frost Arch behind us for good.
~
When we liaised with the rest of the group, who had travelled a good distance in the half day Fae and I had been away, I was shocked to find our group had increased to include another three people. Terry explained to me that they were friends of his from a small town on the outskirts of Scyre. I wasn’t sure why, but I trusted his judgement, and accepted the new followers without question. Perhaps it was because I felt as though I had lost a fragment of my heart after learning about Jack’s betrayal. I was numb.
Terry informed me of the new recruits' Powers, and I couldn’t help but feel as though they would come in useful.
The youngest, a boy of seventeen, had the ability to divide atoms. I didn’t really understand it, but he explained that he could unravel the building blocks of anything, living or otherwise, until it was reduced to dust. This frightened me a little bit, especially when he demonstrated his Power by reducing an entire oak tree into nothing more than a pile of dust.
The boy’s mother, a muscular woman with a wide nose, had a similar power. She could change her own physical state, by transforming into water, gas, or making her skin as hard as steel.
Her husband, a ferret-like man, with thinning hair and a pointy nose, had the Power to multiply objects, such as food, and even water. This would solve our food problem.
Still, despite these new recruits, I was miserable.
The necklace had belonged to Madeline – not his mother like he had said. He’d stolen it from her chambers after her death as a keepsake. I’d been so foolish. As if Jack’s family could have afforded such a fine piece of jewellery in the first place. They’d been commoners.
Then Jack had presented it to me, as a token of his affection for Madeline, a woman I didn’t even realise he knew. Jack had probably been a smitten child, fascinated by the lady. Had my resemblance to her been the reason Jack had spoken to me in the first place, that day in town when I’d stumbled into Seth Swaggart?
I felt sick thinking about it. Here I was, missing him more each day, when everything we had was based on his affection for another.
I didn’t want to see Jack Greenwood again. Though, a nagging part of my brain told me that perhaps Camryn was lying to hurt me. If that was true, how had she known that the locket was from Jack in the first place?
Pushing these thoughts from my mind, I focussed my attention on the journey ahead. I didn’t want to think about Jack, or the lie he had told. It hurt too much.
Every now and then, Fae glanced at me nervously. She was watching me for signs of distress. While I hadn’t told her exactly what had happened, she seemed to get the gist. As a result, Fae rode Shadow beside me the whole way to Concord City.
‘Miss Redding?’ The seventeen-year-old boy was jogging beside Hawthorne, trying to keep up.
I ignored him, keeping my gaze straight ahead.
‘Miss? How much farther until we reach Concord City?’
Travel was slower with so many people following us. We were now a group of nine Mages.
‘Soon,’ was my response.
‘And, um … what will we do once we are there?’ he asked.
‘Stop the Realm,’ I replied.
‘And how are we going to do that?’
I glanced at the boy, whose expression was eager.
‘What’s your name again?’ I asked.
‘Theodore Grimm,’ he said. ‘But everyone calls me Ted.’
‘Ted, we are going to destroy the Realm headquarters. I won’t stop until it has burned to the ground.’
I’d seen it in my dreams; the great marble building, crumbling to the ground, and ashes raining down upon the city. The vision sent a shiver of pleasure down my spine. What had gotten into me?
Revenge. I wanted it more than anything. The very idea made me smile.
‘I’ll do whatever you need, Miss Redding,’ said Ted, his eyes wide.
‘Thank you, Ted. Your power will come in useful.’
He nodded. ‘I can turn the walls to dust.’
I smirked. ‘Yes, the guards too.’
Chapter Thirty
Frankie’s Dream
CECILIA PINSCHMIDT
‘Frankie has anticipated the Fire-Mage's arrival within twenty-four hours,’ said Cecilia to Jack and Kenneth. The three of them sat in her office, discussing Avalon in private.
‘So soon?’ said Kenneth.
Cecilia nodded. ‘Frankie insisted that her dream was extraordinarily vivid.’