FOURTH BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES OF FANTASILIA SERIES
𝘈 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭. 𝘈 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘈 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵. 𝘈 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦.
Xanthiene Vivenca, a fairy with a bounty for her soul, is caught between...
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2412 Iclis 11, Briss
Xanthy stared at the woman sitting across the table from her. How did Xanthy end up here? How did any of them end up here, for that matter?
A bubble of ire churned in Xanthy's throat but she tamped it down. Swallowed it, if she has to. From Peltra to Lanteglos, things had just gone from worse to worst. Not only did she learn that June was the illegitimate son of the High Queen, she had also seen him drive a dagger into his mother's heart because some prophecy said that he would.
Reeca had apparently tricked Xanthy by hooking the Virtakios into a cloaker and using that connection to do something. Exactly what, Xanthy wasn't interested to know. Let that varichria rot in the Land of Wonders, for all Xanthy cared. Her fingers clenched. She shouldn't have trusted that varichria.
Lanteglos was in lockdown. Edgerift was in a panic and a state of ruin. The Crown Princess, who has to fly from Falkirta, the floating city in the sky, has to hunt June down and kill him before being allowed to take the crown. Who invented these rules? Why couldn't just the Crown Princess take the throne and forget June even existed?
It's only a matter of time before the Crown Princess, or Cardovia, or Synketros, or any one else that would want to betray Xanthy caught up to their holing place here in Nanvera. Xanthy was no sitting fowl. She needed to do something. Anything.
Xanthy had been ready to leave to help June. To march to Synketros and Cardovia to tell them to piss off. She had been ready to figure it out on the way. Then this woman showed up and ruined everything, even Xanthy's resolve.
Xanthy leaned back against her chair which creaked under her weight. Her frown pulled deeper as she leaned over to inspect her chair's legs. She wasn't even that heavy, not when she's as thin as a board. Stupid chair. As her eyes traveled from the chair back to the woman sitting across her, her gaze swept past June's form.
He lay on a bed pulled from one of the rooms in this house. His eyes were closed; his hand resting on his stomach while the other was on the sheets pulled to his chest. His pale complexion was ashen. Lifeless.
Xanthy's heart twinged.
"He's resting," Nyxis had said to her when she asked how June was doing. Resting. As if what happened and what would be happening to June were hidden from anyone. It was like Nyxis was rubbing the news she couldn't just accept in her face .
The human's words from earlier still rang in her head. He will get there! When she asked where, all Nyxis told her was—death. Like a phantom looming above her, the word echoed over and over in her head. Death, death, death. The drawback was incurable. It's June's doom.
It's only a matter of time.
Xanthy bit back a curse. Well, damn time.
Tears pricked at the edge of her eyes but she blinked it furiously. She wouldn't cry or get angry any more than she already did. It's time to move. Right before this hooded woman came, Xanthy was more than ready to scour the whole island for an answer to prove Nyxis wrong. Drawbacks could be reversed. They could be healed.
