Mystic

Author's Note/Chapter 22

A/N: Alright, so... I'm going to pull an Iceborn. This will be the last chapter of Mystic, at least for now. I reread this story a while ago and realized one of the big problems was that it felt like a sequel. There's so much backstory with these characters, it feels much more natural to me to have a book detailing and exploring all of that backstory before moving into the plot of this book. I started working on that sort of first prequel book a while ago, but it's been a pretty slow go. Even so, I'm pretty excited about how it's been going, and I love the opportunity to explore Taryn's past.

I'm going to post the rest of chapter 22, and then a summary with how the book was supposed to end, given I had the motivation to finish the rest of the book.

Thanks for reading if you've made it this far, and without further ado, here's chapter 22...

Chapter 22

The roads were steep over the next few days. Despite Andre and Zeph's best efforts to keep a positive mind, morale was low. Traveling at this speed, it would take twice as long to get the castle. Add the fact they were taking longer back trails to avoid towns, trying to rescue Neve was going to take months.

Taryn read up on the Princess's notes every night, trying to decipher what they meant, trying to find the Queen's weakness, but she always turned up empty handed. It was frustrating work, searching for something that might not even exist.

What Taryn really needed was a book on essence magic, but even after combing through all the books the Northern family had been holding at their safehouse, she turned up empty handed.

As the days went on, Taryn and Andre remained as distant as every. They would lie to themselves, saying that were better, that what little relationship they had had been restored. They both knew that wasn't the truth. But they kept up the act, for their own sake, and more importantly, for Zeph's sake.

Despite their long days of traveling, Taryn often found herself unable to sleep at night. She'd spend hours sitting by the fire, watching as the embers slowly died off.

Tonight was one of those nights. Taryn trailed her finger through the dirt, drawing a picture she couldn't see. A cool breeze brushed past her, and Taryn pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders.

There was a rustle from Andre's tent. Zeph wandered out, rubbing his eyes.

"Everything okay?" Taryn asked.

Zeph shook his head, wiping his eyes.

"Come here," Taryn said.

Zeph ran towards her, throwing himself into her lap, tears streaming down his face.

"What happened?" Taryn asked.

"I can't sleep," He whimpered.

"Did you have a bad dream?" Taryn asked.

He nodded.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He shook his head. "I didn't want to wake up Andre, but I saw you were still up, so--" He burst into sobs.

Taryn held him closer to her, trying to calm him down.

"Deep breaths, deep breaths," She told him.

"My visions have been getting worse." Zeph muttered, wiping at his eyes again.

"Are you having more visions? Or are they getting scarier?"

"Both." He whispered as he shifted in Taryn's lap, sitting up on her leg.

Taryn brushed his hair out of his face. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

He shook his head.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Zeph glanced back towards his and Andre's tent.

"Oh, I see," Taryn said, sharing his gaze.

"I'm scared." He whispered.

"So am I," She said.

*The group breaks into the castle and somehow manages to rescue Neve and make it out alive. They escape back into the forest, but Taryn notices that Neve has been acting weird. Andre tries to assure her that it's fine, but she doesn't believe him. One night, she takes Neve "hunting." Once they're far enough away, Taryn starts questioning Neve. When Taryn has her back turned, Neve tries to kill her. Taryn narrowly dodges the blade, but it still injures her side. Neve tries to kill Taryn again, and Taryn is barely able to hold her off. Taryn reaches up and presses her palm against Neve's forehead and sees the Southern Queen in Neve's mindscape. The two battle and Taryn forces the queen out of Neve's head. Neve passes out quickly thereafter. Taryn, bleeding out and fighting to stay awake, calls out to Zeph before she passes out as well. 

Zeph wakes up and tells Andre that Taryn and Neve are in trouble. Andre tries to shrug him off, but he's persistent. They wander through the forest and they find the two passed out and Taryn bleeding out. The book ends on a cliffhanger in preparation for book two (Or, I guess, now book three)*