Rosalind’s POV
I was terrible at witchcraft.
The first thing I had done was ask him how long I could stay here before it was morning.
He has rattled off a calculation based on the inflow of time, the rise and setting of the sun, the seasonal patterns and the bias make-up and overlap-whatever that meant and told me approximately a day and a half.
So if I managed to sneak out earlier then I would be able to spend up to three days training before I had to return.
It was insane and had me in awe of how many days I could use to better myself instead of being stuck in my dreary princess lifestyle.
That was until I actually tried to do magic.
So this was the gist that River had given me.
Pureblood usually had the power of controlling nature as the moon goddess/the Mother had granted to us.
Including land, air, water, animals and light. These divisions also had subsects like fire, ice, lava, and the intersections between them that I would never learn about because I couldn’t do magic.
“Take deep breaths.”
“I am taking fucking deep breaths.” I never thought that after risking my life to come here that I wouldn’t be able to actually do any magic.
“Is it possible that the Rock of Surrender had a glitch?” I asked River as we both lay down on the grass looking up into the night air.
We had tried to awaken my powers for the rest of the day but it hadn’t worked.
“You will get better with time.” River was surprisingly optimistic.
I let out a laugh before turning to look at him. “To be better, I would have to be something first. I’m at ground zero.”
He stood up and held out his hand for me. I hesitated but curiosity took the better part of me so I placed my hand over his and he pulled me up.
Then we walked towards…the Rock of Surrender. It was a faint almost luminescent white even now in the dark.
“Why did you bring me here?” I looked at him.
“I want to remind you of what you did.” His voice sounded so solemn as he looked at the rock that I had to joke to break the intense sensation that rushed through me at his words.
“That I bleached the rock?” I looked at the massive structure. “It was shocking to me as well.”
“No, you survived.” River’s dark eyes met mine.
“You could have died that night but you took the risk and grappled with a power beyond our comprehension and you won. Your life is a testament to that.”
Somehow, I hadn’t thought of it like that. I had begun to feel like a fraud and question my memories of that night wondering if I was even remembering right.
But his words awakened a keen remembrance of all I had felt that night. The pull, the certainty that I would die that night, the struggle, the intense pain that followed. The rendering.
If I felt all that, then maybe I wasn’t a fraud. I just needed to find my way back to whatever I felt that night.
“Rosalind?” River’s voice brought me out of my stare down with the Rock of Surrender.
I turned to face him. “River, I want to try again.”
He looked from me to the rock. “Alright.”
We walked some metres away from where we had been standing. It was too close to the Rock of Surrender for us to get an unbiased reading – whatever that meant. I really needed to get a hold of this magic thing. I needed to read and find out more so that I didn’t seem like a novice anytime I opened my mouth.
River placed his hands on my shoulders urging me to relax and although his hand there was distracting it had nothing on Cillian or Killian’s touch so I was good.
“Close your eyes.”
My eyes fell shut.
“Good now take a deep breath and let it out slowly.”
I did as he asked, inhaling deeply.
“Continue to do this while emptying your mind of your thoughts, your worries and just listen. To my voice, to the sound of the wind, to the animals moving in the forest.”
It was easier said than done to empty my mind of all my thoughts when all they wanted to do was take over my mind.
I pushed down my worries of how Cillian and Killian would react to this. How I would manage the stress of becoming a princess. My fear was that I would neglect my relationship with Cullian and he would leave me. I let it all out with my next breath and the one after that and the one after that.
It was difficult and throughout I felt like I was going to break. To dissolve but I didn’t and before I knew it, I was like a vessel devoid of any feelings and able to focus on other things.
My senses sharpened and I could feel everything acutely. It could have taken a few seconds or even as long as an hour.
“Good. Now I want you to stretch out your hand and go back to that night in front of the Rock when your powers awakened and let the emotions wash through you. Don’t push it, just let it flow.”
This part was different. Usually, he just asked me to stretch out my hand and let myself connect with my magic but it seemed like our time in front of the rock had made him change his tactic to this.
Just that stray thought was almost enough to make me falter but I didn’t let myself go.
I dredged up my memories of that night and in my state of absolute concentration, it was as though we had travelled in time back to that moment.
The suction was back and I was dying until I decided that I was going to push and push until my very last breath but I wouldn’t give in like that.
And I pushed. Hard.
I heard a scream. My voice and I heard a grunt and then a thump that broke my concentration and my eyes flew open.
River was on the ground unconscious, his nose bleeding and at least ten metres around me, the grass had died.
“River!”
****
“What are you doing out so early?” Cillian asked me and I froze in my tracks.
It was the next morning here but two days had passed over there.
River had recovered swiftly after a session with the healer. Apparently, I was a telepath with opposing natural powers.
So when I pushed, I blasted him back with a telepathic wave that might have killed him if he hadn’t put a shield up in time.
Thankfully he had and I was banned for now from training with magic until they could estimate the extent of my powers so that they would prepare safety precautions in advance.
River and I – after I had apologised profusely -had trained in sparring, breaking of holds and running.
He focused on this for now because we didn’t have much time and since I was in the palace so I would have a security detail that I j6st needed to run to.
I just needed to keep myself alive long enough to do that without revealing I had magic.
Doing all that had taken so much time that I had miscalculated my return hence this situation with Cillian. Thankfully, I was in a dress I had taken there for this very purpose not in my training leathers.
I hated the fact that I could not just tell him what was going on.
I couldn’t trust anyone with this secret because not only could it prove dangerous for me but it could also prove dangerous for the treaty if it was found that the witches had helped a princess master witchcraft but it could also put my princes in danger by relation.
I rubbed my palms against my gown. My hands felt moist and sweaty and I hoped that Cillian would buy my lie.
“I came out to see you.”
“Really?”
Cillian’s eyebrows went sky high as he glanced at the direction I was coming from with a dubious look in his eyes that clearly stated how much he believed what I had to say. Not much at all.
I was immediately on the defensive as I folded my arm looking up at him.
“Yes. Why do you sound so disbelieving?”
Cillian opened his mouth to speak either to call me out or to explain himself, an attendant pulled up next to him and bowed deeply.
“Prince Cillian, you have been summoned by the council.”
*****
After doing the stretches that River had instructed me to do in order to alleviate muscle pain that would come from the intense training I had undergone, I took a shower and decided to get some much-needed sleep.
My plans were disrupted by Adelyn who barged into my room when I was still drying my hair.
Two guards stood behind her giving me dejavu of the time she had tried to frame me and dragged me to the council so she could frame me for theft.
This time was different though. Not only was I stronger but I was of a higher rank than she was.
“Evelyn,” I said as dispassionately as I could. “To what do I owe the displeasure of your presence?”
Adelyn flushed a bright vivid red.
“You are the reason that Cillian doesn’t want to mate with me.”
I rolled my eyes. There was one reason why Cillian wouldn’t want to mate with her and it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her bitchiness and manipulation.
Fine, it also had something to do with his feelings for me but even if I weren’t in the picture I had serious doubts that he would have ever chosen her to start with.
I was already having a headache because of this conversation and I wanted to rest.
“Look,” I said as calmly as I could. “I don’t want to talk to you. I really don’t, so please use the door and leave.”
Adelyn glared at me then she raised her brow imperiously. “Too bad because I want to talk to you.”
Before I could explain how much she didn’t want to mess with me, she nodded to the guards behind her.
“Hold her.”
They stepped up with one of them on either side of me holding on to my arms.
I was so stunned by her boldness that I stared at her surprised. “Have you lost it?”
Adelyn bristled and stepped forward towards me, her eyes flashing with anger and so much anger.
“You are the one who has lost it. You already have Killian but it is my mate you are eyeing. Instead of you being content with what you have, you want to keep them all.”
For the first time, she was speaking sense and I didn’t care if it made me seem greedy, I wanted them all. And I would keep them for as long as they would have me.
I tipped my chin up and met her gaze.
“Tell your men to let me go now and we can pretend this never happened.”
This would be the last warning that I would give her.
Adelyn stared at me for a second before breaking into a feral smile. “Pretend this never happened?”
She swung her hand hard and slapped me. My temper skyrocketed and my anger rose uncontrollably but she didn’t see this as she leaned in and whispered callously.
“I don’t want to pretend I want this moment to be seared into your memory so you don’t try something like this again. Cillian is mine.”
They weren’t holding me tightly enough as they didn’t quite think I was a threat so it was easy to break their hold using what River had taught me and I had practiced all through the previous day.
It was mainly the element of surprise that formed for me and the fact that I fought dirty hitting them right in their crotches the moment I was free.
I was in front of a shocked Adelyn in seconds.
“How did you do that?”
She barely rasped out before I grabbed her hair and slammed her against the wall. People like her would only understand violence as much as I wanted to refrain.
“Listen, Adelyn, the next time you try something like that, I will fuck you up, I will not be bullied by you or anyone else. As for Cillian, I will do as I please. Stop me if you can.”