“Are you alright, down there?” Maddox bellows down at us, his voice echoing down the stone surface and into the open area below.
“Fine, but we won’t be coming up that way. We’ll find another way out. Head further into the village with the others and we’ll meet you there," Bowen shouts back at them.
With only a single circle of light that beams down from the well opening above, it doesn’t leave much chance for exploration. Wandering through empty wells in the pitch black doesn’t exactly sound like a fun adventure to me.
Bowen must have had the same thought. “We need light, help me look for a torch. There should be one mounted to the stone somewhere nearby. The wells have a way to enter in order for the guards to check the water for contamination,” he explains as he walks out of sight.
Before I follow him, I eye the rope and decide to untie it from the bucket and take it with us, just in case we need it to create our own torch or something.
Unable to actually see, I follow the sound of Bowen’s footsteps. But with the echoing it’s not the easiest task.
“I can’t find it in this, and I don’t have a flame affinity. I’m barely able to light a simple campfire. Nature and fire don’t mix well," Bowen complains.
But maybe I do? Reaching into my magic like Andras taught me, I focus on forming a ball of light to illuminate the area we’re in. Light flares against my eyelids and I open them to see a ball of light floating about six-feet above my head.
“Well that works," Bowen states, walking back to me. He’s grinning over at me, clearly impressed, and pride runs through me. If I can impress a fae who knew magic his entire life, then I’ll take that as a win. Now that we have light, I look around and notice we are standing in an underground cavern.
“This is hardly just a well. Most wells on Earth aren’t attached to a big underground lake.” Everything here seems to be so much bigger than on Earth, though likely far more efficient too. The water is gone at this point, and I don’t see anything that screams stone of power. Am I looking for a pretty, shiny rock among all this moss? “I need to concentrate on my magic. See if I can detect it, otherwise this will be a challenge.”
Trying not to get frustrated at the search ahead of us, I sit down in the middle of the dry lake, immediately calling on my magic. I send out the tendrils in all directions, like tentacles doing my bidding as they feel for any remnants of the magical reaction I found yesterday.
As soon as the magic brushes against mine, I jump up from my position in excitement. Unfortunately it makes the magic snap back into me, losing the exact location. Closing my eyes again, I focus on my search and make tentative steps in the direction I felt it, hoping that Bowen won’t let me crash into the cave walls. Though given his love of joking around, he just might.
The pulse of magic intensifies as I make my way forward, until the pulse grows so strong I can barely stand it. Opening my eyes, I scan the ground around me until I spot a small metal box, half obscured by stones and covered in enough moss to almost make it indecipherable.
“Did you find it?” Bowen asks from behind me. Holding up the metal box to show him, I clear it off and try to pry it open. It isn’t locked, but the latch was rusted shut from years of being submerged in the cold water.
Unable to give up, I keep trying for a few minutes before leaning down and picking up a rock from the ground. The rock is large enough I can hold it securely in my fist, and I slam it onto the latch a few times like a makeshift hammer, until it finally starts to give. The metal box is empty, save for a dull green stone. Disappointment filled me at the sigh of the pathetic little rock that had seen better days. But I doubted the Spirits of Faerie set me up for disappointment.
“Not very impressive, is it?” Bowen grimaces down at the dull, dirty stone. The moment is anticlimactic, but the magic is still strong enough that I don’t give up.
“The Spirits of Faerie said I had to cleanse it, that they would be corrupted.” Holding the small stone in my palm, I focus and push all of my healing magic into it, much like I did in the Spring gardens.
At first nothing happens, the stone stubborn and lifeless. Then a spark of magic flared to life, faint at first then growing in intensity. The magic is sickly and thick, making my stomach churn at the feel of it brushing over mine. But
underneath all the bad, is a pure, strong form of nature magic. It feels similar to Bowen’s magic, but so much stronger. If this is how it reacts while tainted, I’m excited to see what it’s like at full power.
The underlying magic boosts my determination and I push my healing magic forcefully into the stone until it overtakes any lingering corruption within. I push harder than I have before, not caring if it knocked me out in the end.
It takes almost every bit of my magic, but I’m still steady on my feet as I pull it back into my center.
The stone is no longer dull, but radiant and glowing in a beautiful shade of green. The color reminds me of the vines that grow everywhere in the Spring Court. And the depths of Bowen’s eyes.
“I stand corrected. Do you add it to your crown now?” Bowen pulls the crown off of my head and inspects the four indentations.
“Maybe? They weren’t exactly thorough in their rules,” I say with a shrug. “But it can’t hurt.”
The stone I hold is the first, so I figure the first spot should work. Not having a better plan, I simply push the stone into the crown and hope for the best. When the two objects make contact, a pulse of magic shoots out, knocking Bowen a few feet away and lifting me into the air again. The crown starts glowing a vibrant rose gold as the first stone melds into its spot. It’s a testament to all the crazy shit happening to me that I don’t even flinch at being moved around like a puppet and things transforming in front of my eyes. Faerie is anything but dull.
“Are you doing alright, darling?” Bowen asks, sounding nervous. Opening my mouth, I try to answer, but the magic is now coursing through my body and it’s so intense and powerful that I feel like I’m being ripped apart. He keeps talking but I couldn’t answer him if I wanted to. Each moment the magic burns more, an involuntary scream ripping from my throat.
The glow fades, but it does nothing to soothe me. The pain is still real and my magic is too much for my body to contain. Even now it’s coursing through me with a fiery intensity as my body descends back to the ground. The moment my feet touch the ground, I crumple.
“Bella?” Bowen sounds frantic now, throwing himself on his knees so he can reach me. I turn my panicked eyes on his, unable to do much more. Even that simple gesture had tears rolling down my cheeks. My body begins to tremble as it fights against the magical overload. A cold sweat breaks out across my skin and I curl into a ball in Bowen’s lap, not caring how pathetic I must look. “We need to get to the others, I don’t know what to do. Here, let’s put this on and I will carry you.” He takes the crown out of my grip and places it on my head. The magic pulses impossibly stronger, and I manage to clamp my hand around his wrist as I scream.
The moment our skin touched, my magic latched onto him. A green light swirled around us, a mix of my magic and his. Bowen’s screams join mine as our magic reaches a glowing crescendo.
This time as the light recedes, so does the magic. It slowly seeps out of my body and into his until it’s manageable.