FOURTH BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES OF FANTASILIA SERIES
𝘈 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭. 𝘈 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘈 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵. 𝘈 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦.
Xanthiene Vivenca, a fairy with a bounty for her soul, is caught between...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Nyxis clenched his fists. He wanted to punch something but he shook his head. He might damage his precious and beautiful hands, so...no thanks.
Still, that didn't erase the anger bubbling in his chest like yeast on a sugar basin—a great way to treat a certain type of foot fungus, by the way. He prayed to all the gods for it to ease or disappear but even when he saw June tread the thin line between life and death, it was still there—gripping his throat and coiling in his gut.
It's only because of Xanthy that Nyxis was even helping that moron. If June wanted to die so much, Nyxis could have slipped poison in one of the numerous potions he shoved down the half-blood's throat. Faster. Cleaner.
Nyxis glanced at June's limp form that sank on the mattress like it was slowly eating the half-blood up. Ah, if that's possible, why not?
Apparently, June had no choice when he did what he did. Nyxis clicked his tongue. Dagrine crap—that's what it was. June betrayed Xanthy and killed the High Queen because he wanted to. Now, they would have to reap all the consequences, Nyxis included.
Nyxis's gut swirled along with the concoction he was putting to a simmer. His own reflection stared back at him from the opaque green liquid rolling in the cauldron. In the situation where Nyxis should be feeling sorry for June, only numbness was present in Nyxis's heart. He glanced at the array of ingredients and potions spread out from him.
All of these didn't matter. Not with June destined to shrivel away one of these days. It's not arcane magic. Everyone knew that. Drawbacks weren't reversible. Death was inevitable with drawbacks cutting a person's access to magic and without magic, a fairy ceases to exist. Nyxis bit his lip. June was only able to survive this long because that's only half of him, or that's at least according to Nyxis's theory.
Earlier in the morning, Nyxis was herded to Eldan's house as they prepare for Xanthy's journey. Did Eldan know what Xanthy was going to do? Did he care? Marthiaq, a brownie and apparently a fairy close to both Eldan and Xanthy, winked at Nyxis before talking to Eldan in rapid Keijula.
Nyxis took one look at the abundance of exotic wildlife surrounding Eldan's house in the middle of the thick, Komery forest and he forgot that he was supposed to help Xanthy. When Eldan gave him explicit permission to explore, within the next hour, Nyxis had refilled his inventory and had conceptualized two new recipes.
Then, Xanthy talked to June and all of Nyxis's amusement with Dwanzeig flew out of the forest. Xanthy left out a crucial piece in her plan just to get June to agree. She...lied.
For someone who hated being lied to, Xanthy surely had some guts to start doing it to people.
Once June's eyes rolled back inside his head, Nyxis watched Xanthy heave a breath before striding out of the room. Through the window of their borrowed room, he saw her linger on Eldan's spacious porch, staring at the endless horizon of trees. Nyxis blew out the fire below his cauldron and gave his concoction one last stir.
