Reign the Earth (The Elementae #1)(76)

Calix kissed my hand. “Are you all right?”

I nodded. “I feel a little ill. The fresh air helps.”

He kissed my mouth, nodding and relinquishing my hand. I watched them walk in together, and I turned away, looking for solace and finding only the endlessness of blue sea.





The World Spun Upside Down

I didn’t sleep well that night. I woke early, hiding the comb in my pocket, eager to go to the garden and practice my power. I bent every tooth of the comb forward and back, even focusing enough to lift the comb off my hand, but it wasn’t enough. In the garden, I moved the stone bench, I raked my power through the ground and tore up small rocks, large rocks, tiny flecks of minerals. It was never enough.

I had everything I had been hoping for—a child, and a tenuous grasp on peace that was slowly becoming stronger. My husband would finally lay down his arms.

My power still felt desperate, something wild that was artificially pinned down and aching to be freed, and it never felt more wild and desperate than when I was with Galen, when he looked at me and touched me and said the things that I spent hours turning over in my mind.

I was so close to everything I wanted, and it felt like I would never possibly be happy. I walked the garden twice over, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling.


Zeph and Theron both came with me to the Erudium that day, and when Adria and I walked outside the castle, I saw a carriage waiting for me.

“We will walk,” I said, directing an imperious stare at Adria.

“It wasn’t me,” she said quickly.

“My lady, the news of your condition has spread throughout the city. The people are overjoyed for you, and I just want to ensure your safety. Crowds can be dangerous,” Zeph told me.

I lifted my head. “Then you will protect me as you so ably do, but I will not take a carriage.”

“My lady—” Zeph started.

“Zeph,” I interrupted, stepping closer to him and speaking softly. “The carriage makes me ill,” I admitted. “And my stomach is uneasy already.”

“Oh,” he said. He crossed his arms over his big chest. “Hm. How about a horse, then?”

I nodded. “A horse I can manage.”

“Theron!” he shouted. “Horses!”

Both guards fussed over me as I mounted the horse, as if I would suddenly tumble from the creature’s back and shatter like an egg. I scowled at them both, and they mounted their own horses when they were satisfied I was safe. It was a wonder it didn’t take them tying me to the saddle.

“Theron will go first,” Zeph told me. “And I’ll be behind you and Adria. You must keep going, no matter what, and keep pace with him. Yes?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

He nodded once. “Good. After you, my queen.”

Theron started riding, and I followed him at a quick canter. The guards opened the gates, and my heart soared as I saw flowers lining the walkway, and then people at the bottom of the slope. At the sight of me they started cheering, and people started pressing in toward us. I didn’t even know where people were coming from, but it seemed they were multiplying.

“Faster!” I heard Zeph say behind me, and Theron sped up. The people parted for us, and we sailed through. They blurred around me, hands waving and reaching out for me. I felt them touching me, and spurred my horse.

The crowd thinned away from the castle, but it never dissolved completely. When we arrived at the Erudium, the children were all gathered on the front steps, and they cheered and clapped for me.

People from the city flooded in behind us, and the young men sprang into action, running into a formation to block the others so I could come in. I dismounted, and the children rushed around me, pulling at me and hugging and touching me.

“Back!” Zeph growled, sweeping an arm out to clear the children. They gasped and leaped out of the way. “Is this how the Erudium conducts itself ?”

This seemed to mean something to the children, and they all went back to the steps, standing in formation to welcome me. “We have a very special day planned for you, Tri Queen,” the praecepta told me. She gestured me forward, and I drew my back up straight, going inside.


When we left, we faced a smaller crowd, still calling to me, waving at me, praising and blessing me and my baby, but not so many that I was frightened. Zeph didn’t even insist we ride fast or in any formation, but he and Theron stayed by my side, watchful.

Our route to the Tri Castles wound mostly along the coast, where the road was wide, and it seemed to be traveled more by merchants and wealthy women than the common people, but there was a small stretch where the road narrowed and went by the edge of the Maze, a tight warren of houses in the center of the city. We had just turned the corner where the road shrank, and we could hear shouts and yelling coming from an alley.

“My queen, we should—” Zeph started.

“Theron, would you see what’s going on?” I asked him. A scream rang out, and I paled. “Theron, please! Zeph can stay with me.”

Zeph nodded his agreement, drawing his sword and circling his horse in front of me and Adria as Theron dismounted and entered the alley. I watched him for a moment, and when I blinked in the sun, I couldn’t see him anymore. Adria made a whimpering noise.

The ground shivered, and I clasped my hands, for a moment thinking I had caused it. As soon as I realized it wasn’t me, I looked at Zeph.