Chapter 35
The sharp ringing in his ear was starting to get painful as Wren stood in front of Birdie and shielded her from Darrian's gaze. He could feel her cold fingers tightly wrap around his arm as she stepped closer and peeked over his shoulder at the guards standing before them.
"Your mother misses you," Darrian said, a small mocking smile on his lips. "She's been so...broken...since you have abandoned her."
Wren's chest tightened as he thought about his mother. Darrian's words cut through his skin like a knife and that smirk on his lips was no less painful then salt on his wounds.
"What did you do to her?" Wren asked.
"Nothing," Darrian rolled his eyes. "Yet."
"If you touch her, I will k-"
"You can make it all stop," Darrian said. "It's a very simple thing to do. Return to court, face your punishment for killing Jefry and return the moor to me."
Birdie's grip tightened.
"What happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'?" Wren asked.
"You ran," Darrian said sternly. "That was enough of a confession for your crimes, Tamzin."
"You're bluffing," Wren said to his uncle. "You wouldn't dare hurt my mother. She is the only reason the people of Xaiba haven't overthrown you yet."
Darrian's gaze darkened as he stared at his nephew, "You know, Wren. When I became king, I asked myself if I wanted to be loved like your father or feared like mine."
Wren's eyes followed Darrian like a hawk as he walked around the throne room, circling around Emrol and Esma as they stood as audience.
"For a very long time, I thought I could have it both ways," Darrian continued. "I wanted to be loved and feared. But now I see things a little differently."
Wren's body tensed as his uncle came to stand before him.
"Now, I just need them to fear me," Darrian said, his lips curling back in disgust as he spied Birdie behind Wren.
All at once, the guards in their spotless white uniforms aimed their spears. Birdie gasped as they surrounded her and Wren, keeping them both at the tip of the sharp blade.
"You can not kill an heir, Darrian," Wren reminded his uncle. "It's treason."
"We are not at court," Darrian said. "Out here, in the sand, anything goes."
Esma looked at her father with worry as Darrian stepped back and the guards inched forward.
Wren, Birdie shook the fey's arm, her eyes never leaving the glimmering tip of the spear.
Don't be afraid, Wren reached back and touched her hand. You are stronger than you think, little bird. We will get out of there.
But the key, Birdie's eyes flickered to Emrol.
On my count, Wren gave Birdie's hand a hard squeeze. You secure the key and I will distract them.
How? Birdie felt her heart leap into her throat. They have giants!
One...two...
Wren, no, no. Think of another pla-
Three.
Like a gust of wind in the dead of winter, Wren stepped away from Birdie and snatched a spear from one of the guards. Darrian rolled his eyes as the guards all turned to the prince and marched forward.
Birdie, now! Wren commanded.
Birdie's eyes flickered from Wren to Emrol. The large men stood clutching his jewels as his daughter sobbed in his arms for the prince. They paid Birdie no attention as she ran forward and trapped them inside a forcefield.
"Father!" Esma cried as Birdie appeared in front of them.
"What is the meaning of this?" Emrol demanded.
"I'm going to need my key back," Birdie said, reaching for the necklace.
"Do not touch me you moor!" Emrol raised his hand to strike Birdie but she ducked, grabbed his wrist, and pinned his arm behind his back.
"Get your hands off of him!" Esma yelled as she shoved Birdie away from her father.
"Just give me back my key!" Birdie said, her fingers hooking around Emrol's many necklaces.
"Taft!" Esma yelled.
Birdie looked over her shoulder as the giant ran into the room, making the ground shake with its heavy steps. She grew desperate as she spotted Wren cornered by the guards on the other side of the throne room.
Not knowing what to do or how to proceed, Birdie raised her hand and pulled her magic to push back some of the guards pinning Wren to the walls. She felt her palm burn like coals as the extreme heat from her magic made her eyes water.
Get the key, Birdie! Wren said, taking the momentary distraction to grab one of the guards and twist his neck until he heard the sickening crack.
Birdie lowered her hands and turned back to look at Emrol. She summed her magic once more and forced the man down on his knees. Esma cried out in pain as she was much harder to force into submission. Birdie bit down onto the insides of her cheek as her whole body began to frizzle up like a hot stove. She felt her bones ache and her knees shake as she shifted the control onto one hand and reached for the necklace with the other hand.
"Taft!" Esma yelled through her teeth.
Birdie could feel warm blood rushing down her nose as she pulled at all of her strength. She had never pushed herself to the extreme. The back of her eyes burned and throbbed with a pressure that made her want to scream in pain. When her fingers had a solid grip of the key around Emrol's neck, Birdie pushed aside the pain and pulled with all her strength.
"Taft!" Esma screamed once more.
Birdie felt the groves of the key dig into the palm of her skin. She could feel the metal heat up from her touch as she yanked it free from Emrol's chain. But just before she could pull away, an iron grip wrapped around her legs and yanked her high into the air.
"No, no, no!" Birdie yelled as the key slipped through her fingers and fell on the marble floor below her.
"Crush her!" Esma demanded as she stared up at the giant holding Birdie in the air.
"No!" Wren raised his hand to summon a capsule around Birdie. But before his magic could reach his finger tips, one of the guards knocked him to the ground and used the blunt end of the spear to deliver a blow to the back of his head.
"Wren!" Birdie's voice shook as she felt Taft's grip on her tighten. "Wren!"
Desperate to gain an inch of space, Birdie placed her palms on the giant and pushed with all the strength from her magic. Her mouth filled with a metallic taste that made her gag and tear up. The blood dripping down her nose fell on the giant's glass skin and reflected back.
"Stay down, Tamzin," Darrian warned from where he stood behind his guards.
He watched his nephew struggle with the guards to rise up. His eyes were locked on the giant holding the silver haired girl as she panicked and called out for him over and over.
"You're only making this whole process harder on yourself," Darrian reminded the prince.
"Birdie!" Wren managed to climbed to his feet. His feet swayed as two of the guards grabbed his arms and began to force him back down on the ground.
Every time Birdie's screams reached Wren's ears, he felt a bit of his insides be ripped apart with a burning knife. His mind panicked along with her as he watched Taft lower her onto his palm and wrap his fingers around her midsection.
"No, no, no!" Birdie yelled as the giant's fist swallowed her.
Her hair spilled through the gaps of Taft's finger as the giant began to crush her. Wren felt his stomach drop to his feet and his chest turn hollow as the first sound of something cracking reached his ears and Birdie cried out.
"Stop! Stop!" Wren summoned his magic and pushed at all the guards, knocking them back a few feet.
He thought he could get to her in time when he realized she was no longer yelling or screaming out his name.
Birdie was quiet.
Every inch of Wren froze like ice as he turned towards the giant.
The smallest sound of a fleeting gasp reached his ear as Taft's fingers closed completely around the girl in his palms.
I hope you live to see everything you've ever loved be ripped away from you while you stand helplessly. Powerless to try and stop it...
"NO! NO!" Wren pushed past the threshold of his magic as Birdie's words echoed in his memories.
"Tamzin!" Darrian's voice boomed out but he could not gain the prince's attention.
Wren was beyond reasoning or listening. He released a shock wave that travelled over the bloodstained floors, knocking down everything in its path. The searing red mist gripped Taft's legs like poison ivy as it moved up and up his body, forming cracks along its deadly journey.
Wren ran forward as Taft's fist began to open and Birdie's broken body began to slip. He didn't care about the guards that marched after him or the way Darrian commanded him to stop. He didn't hear or see anything beside the way Birdie's broken chest barely moved.
"No, no, no," Wren chanted over and over as he caught Birdie in his arms, terrified by how fragile and broken she looked. Her arms were crooked, her chest caved in, her legs didn't look right either. Wren gathered her up in his arms and wrapped her in his embrace. She wasn't breathing...
"Come on, little bird," Wren whispered into her ear. "Come on, come on."
As if listening to the sound of her silent heart wasn't painful enough, Wren was suddenly torn away from Birdie by an iron grip.
"Get off me!" Wren growled as he shook off whoever had dared to touch him. He was about to pull Birdie's body back into his arms when he heard Ira's voice.
"You killed her!" The jinn screamed. "You killed her!"
"Guards!" Darrian yelled over Ira's screams. "Kill them all!"
Wren couldn't care less about the massacre that broke out all around him as he kneeled on the ground holding Birdie. Someone tried once again to pull him away from his little bird but he released a ray of energy so strong, it vaporized whoever had been near him. He felt the ashes rain down from above as he began to lose his mind bit by bit.
"Come on, Birdie," he pleaded, holding the girl in his arms. "Don't go. Please, don't go."
Ira shouted commands, the ground shook with giant's stomps, Darrian shed his expensive cape and joined in on the mayhem, Emrol called his men, Esma secured her father's wealth. It was hell on Pangaea.
But at the centre of it all, Wren sat with Birdie in his arms as her body began to turn cold. Her blood soaked into his shirt as he pressed his lips to the edge of her face and inhaled her familiar scent.
"I can't let you go," Wren felt his insides twist. His bones began to ache as he once again pushed his magic beyond its threshold. "How am I supposed to let you go?"
Using all his might, channelling all his anger, fear and frustration into fuel, Wren pushed the warm golden rays of his magic into Birdie.
"Don't go," he said over and over into her ear. "Don't go, don't go. Don't leave me."
Time was a forgotten concept. Wren sat with Birdie until his eyes began to burn and his tears mixed in with her blood. Her heart was still silent, her body ice cold. It was terrifying to see how she was slipping right through his fingers and the worst part of it all was that he was helpless...powerless to try and stop it.
"Don't you dare touch her!" Ira suddenly appeared out of the chaos.
Wren wouldn't have paid her any mind if she hadn't yanked Birdie out of his arms. His arm shot out and held onto Birdie's broken arm as she was pulled away by the jinn.
"You're hurting her," Wren growled as three other jinns held him back, struggling to peel his fingers off of the girl to restrain him. "Get off of me!"
Wren could have redirected his energy to fight off the jinns, but he couldn't live with the thought of not giving Birdie everything he had. To his last breath, he would surrender all that he had to her.
"No, no, no!" Wren yelled as Ira peeled off his fingers one by one from Birdie's hand and kicked him back into the crowd of jinns and feys fighting for their lives.
The last thing Wren saw before Darrian struck him over the head was Birdie's broken form on Ira's lap.
Someone had commented on Chapter 34 that this chapter was either going to make everything better or worse....I laughed.