Apart

Rosalind’s POV
Rivers turned back to face me. My breath slowed as I asked.
“Can I check if I have it?”
River’s brows drew together in confusion. “Have what?”
I swallowed thickly. “Magic.”
I know it seemed crazy. I was the crazy one for even thinking that I could have anything like that but being here had done one thing.
It has taken my mind back to the Mirror of Reflection. The only time I had seen magic before being abducted. I had been unable to fully process it between being in the trials and seeing the princes I cared about due to its reflection.
But now looking back at it, I recalled my scream and the corresponding crack in the mirror.
It might have been a coincidence but I needed to make sure that it was. That I wasn’t like these… rogues.
River stared at me like I had taken leave of my senses. “Currently, only purebloods can wield magic and no offence but if you were one of us, you would have grown up here,” Then he shrugged. “Or you would be dead.”
I rolled my eyes at him.
“I don’t see what the big deal is. Just let me take a test, you must have one. Allow me for curiosity’s sake. It’s just one test.”
River’s gaze hardened and he caught my arm and stared me in the eye.
“This is not a joke. You can’t just decide to check if you have magic just because you feel like it.”
I pulled my hand out of his grasp. “This isn’t a joke to me. It’s very serious.” I took a deep breath. “If you are so bothered about letting me try it out… then I will find out myself. Your leader has given me free rein to walk anywhere I please.”
River released a low frustrated sound. “Do you know how dangerous it can you know what? Fine. I’ll take you there.”
He grasped my arm and began to drag me down the side of the hill. The way he just spoke scared me because I don’t know exactly what the testing entailed.
When he said dangerous, did he mean dangerous like liable to twisting your ankle or dangerous as in life threatening?
It was too late to ask him as we reached the training clearing and I felt the burn accompanying the intense gazes of so many people on my body.
River didn’t seem to mind them as he pulled me along. We came to a stop in front of a monolith that I had somehow missed from when we had been above.
It was a large, tall, black rock made from what seemed obsidian and spanned several feet taller than we were. I backed away subconsciously. It wasn’t because the height was intimidating. No, it was something else.
It seemed to radiate malevolence.
“Not so eager to test yourself now, are you?” River sounded smug. “The Rock of Surrender, the last of its kind currently, is the way of testing. Not that we ever use it. Magical talents manifest early.”
“Why is it so…off?” I was ashamed to say my voice quaked a little as I looked at it, my confidence a far-off memory.
“It’s not off. You are feeling the aura of it. The Rock of Surrender drains whoever places a hand or whatever body part on it. It drains you of everything you are until you are on the cusp of dying, if you have any latent magical talent, it arises and the rock releases you.”
I looked up at the monolith, my chest cold with fear. “And if you have no powers?”
I can hear the laughter in River’s voice. “Then it drains you until you die.”
I backed away from the rock even more. Yeah, no way was I trying that out. I suddenly understood Estella’s warning that there were things more dangerous here than she was.
River was suddenly in my face, his face alight with barely restrained amusement. “What happened? You don’t want to check if you have powers anymore?”
I shot him a side glare. “Shut up.”
His laughter rang in my ears until I was safe on my bed that night. I had been unable to locate a gate or any fence that denoted where their territory ended that I would use in my escape.
How was I going to get out of here?
This place was crawling with magic, rogues, antiquities and Godddess knew what else.
I thought of Cillian and Killian. I wondered if they were safe and if they were still under attack by the rogue witches or if it had stopped when they abducted me. Most of all I wondered if I would ever be free of this place.
The next day, River was at my door again and we walked again. I wondered if this was how my life would play out now. River was right when he said no one here liked me.
The only thing I received while walking with River was looks ranging from curious to downright hatred. Did they hate me because I stood for the empire they wanted to bring down or was it because of something else?
I stayed away from the Rock of Surrender as I watched them fight transfixed by the fluidity of their movements and of course the magic.
I hated the fact that I couldn’t make myself look away from the abominable sight but most of all I hated the fact that I didn’t hate it as much as I wanted to.
“Want to fight?” River said out of the blue and I blinked up at him, certain I had misheard him.
“You are always staring at them. Do you want to spar?”
I blinked. Spar? Fight? I didn’t know how to do all those things. “You are mistaken, I don’t know how to fight.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have admitted it so easily to my enemy but these past three days, River and I had gotten…better at tolerating ourselves.
I secretly still thought he was an ass and I was certain that he thought I was still a dumb princess as well.
“I know. It’s pretty obvious from the way you stand and move.” My mouth dropped open in unspoken outrage at his words. “I was offering to teach you.”
Was he being serious right now? “And why would you do that? I am the enemy. Any skills I learn will be used against you. Why would you want that?”
River’s face was unreadable but I could have sworn that I saw a glint of pain in his eyes before he gave his usual dismissive smile. “Oh, I thought we were becoming best friends. Besides, even if I trained you for a year, you wouldn’t be able to stand a chance against me.”
I rolled my eyes at his arrogance. This was why we would never be friends. He was just so damn arrogant that he reminded me of Killian. I was surprised by how much I missed him.
I missed Cillian and I found myself dreaming of him but then again I liked him so it wasn’t so surprising but Killian? Why was I thinking of that arrogant goat?
It had been three days. Three days and no one had come for me. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I was the omega no one truly wanted to be with the prince.
The only thing I was scared of now was what Estella had told me about what would happen if they didn’t come for me.
Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea for me to learn how to defend myself just in case.
“River?” I caught his arm and he looked at me. “Would you really teach me how to fight?”
His black eyes regarded me seriously. “If you want to.”
“I do.”
And River smiled.
*******
A week later I was standing in front of the monolith feeling like I was cast adrift. I was desperate. I felt abandoned. It was irrational, I knew it.
So what if they had not come for me in a week? For all I knew, they could have acceded to the demands of Estella but maybe the witches still refused to let me go.
Training with River had been good. More than good, I could feel myself getting stronger daily even if he still handed my ass to me steadily without breaking a sweat.
No. That wasn’t why I was here tonight. I was here because I couldn’t take it anymore. The twin feelings of equal draw and repulsion.
Coming here every day to train meant I saw it every day. My fear for it had risen but so had my morbid curiosity. I wanted to know if what River had said about it was even true. Or if he had been saying it to get into my head and make me less questioning about magic in general.
I haven’t seen Estella since that first day but I knew my time here would soon be up. And if no one gave in to her demands, my life would be at stake.
If I was going to die either way, I might as well take the risk of gaining power before I did.
I placed my hand on the obsidian stone. It felt like a normal stone. Cool, solid, gritty and rough. River had played me.
Once I saw him in the morning, I would
I couldn’t remove my hand from the stone.
My eyes widened and I tried tugging on it but it didn’t work. Then the stone tugged back, the world turned white and my mind fractured.
The suction continued and worsened with each breath until I became pain. Until it was all that I was. I couldn’t remember a time without the pain and I tasted blood at the back of my throat.
Was this how I would die? It seemed fitting that I had been the one to cause this for myself. River had been right.
I shouldn’t have tried to do this myself. My life was full of things I shouldn’t have done.
I shouldn’t have taken the job from Ronny. I shouldn’t have taken Cillian’s invitation to go to the palace. I shouldn’t have fallen for Cillian. I shouldn’t have let Killian kiss me. I shouldn’t have tried to win the Princess Trials.
But I had and I was here because that was who I was deep down. An omega with the world set against her but still a risk-taker and a fighter. So even now when it was still hopeless, I would fight.
So I pulled but this time, it wasn’t with my hands. I felt something give way and I screamed.
As I screamed, the world fell apart.