Rowans Choice

Chapter Thirty Seven- Sycamore

Sycamore was stood in the centre of his room, his little suit freshly pulled on, no doubt in urgency when he heard me arriving on his Branch. His hair was still sticking up in defiance as he looked to me with confusion and a little tremble of fear. I could see it in his hands. A slight tremor.

I threw out my left hand and sent him violently back against the wall, my magic flying out from my right hand and coiling around his neck like a snake until his eyes began to bulge and his hands desperately attempted to pull it from his windpipe that was being squashed.

"You lied to me" I accuse.

He thrashes about and attempts to shake his head but it is pointless, he can't move more than an inch.

"Lie to me again and il break your neck... we are no longer tied by affection... and your duty to this kingdom is done. Traitors die Sycamore... they die with no mercy and all of the pain I can offer to send them into the after with"

I walk closer and watch the life drain from his face as I bend down and look into his eyes, not releasing him from my gaze "You didn't think it was ever appropriate to tell me that you helped Andromeda hide a baby in Windlere" I asked through gritted teeth.

The realisation hits him, and his eyes plead with me to let him speak, to defend himself. I could kill him with one last squeeze but I needed more. I needed to know everything.

I drop him, releasing the magic from his neck as he fell to the hard floor and curled into a foetal position trying and gasping for breath.

"Get on your knees and beg me not to take your head" I demand with a booming voice.

He scurries over and drops to my feet "I beg you Rowan please don't kill me. Please I can explain. Please don't" he pleads.

"It's Queen Rowan... and don't you dare expect any leniency from me. Traitors to Olamoore will die. And as far as I see it you are. Tell me you didn't hide a royal child" I ask him.

He looks up and tears fill his eyes, he bends down and kisses my feet "please ... let me explain my Queen. I did it for the kingdom"

I laugh out loud, an anger filled laugh as I bend down and pick him up my his throat, lifting him off of his feet "you dare suggest removing a royal child from its kingdom is in our interests..."

I drop him back down and he lands with a thump before getting to his feet. "I can show you" he begs as he takes his mirror from his pocket "I can prove my loyalty"

I frown and look down to the mirror as it comes to life with one swipe of his little hand over it. A movie plays out, real events Sycamore has witnessed, collected in his memory and accessed with his magic through the mirror.

I see the forest, summer flowers dotted around as Sycamore walked through it, following to a pathway I recognised. It's dawn, once my favourite time, but as I watched the mirror... it became the worst. Andromeda was unconscious, obviously so. Her clothing was thrown over her, but she was naked underneath it. Her shoulders completely bare, her legs too. My frown intensified as I see Aspen bent down beside her. Sycamore rushes at him knocking him onto his back "what did you do to her" he asks angrily in his squeaky voice.

"Nothing" Aspen argues.

Sycamore checks she is breathing, she is, he sighs with relief.

"Her magic came in" Aspen explains. "They shouldn't have been out here on this night"

"Who" Sycamore asks.

"Nobody, I just mean Andromeda... she shouldn't have been out here... you should be thanking me for looking after her... not shouting at me"

"I found you out in the forest with Andromeda naked and unconscious. It's not hard to see what happened here. Monsters come in human form too Aspen" Sycamore spits.

"Oh no, absolutely not. I didn't do anything to her. I love her. I'm in love with her" he confesses.

"I think she feels the same for me"

Sycamore ends the vision and looks to me "I took her home and left her safely in bed once I got Aspen returned home. She had woken up by the time I got back and was upset, extremely upset. Im guessing her merging with Aspen rendered her unconscious. It's very common. I tried to soothe her but she was furious. I shouldn't have left her, but I was only a few seconds. She demanded to see you but I told her you were home and in bed as she should have been. I promised Aspen to never mention it. I thought it was done with until I checked on Andy's family a few days later and found she and her mother packing"

Why" I ask taking a seat opposite him.

"I was curious when she didn't return to court. I went to see why. When I saw the reason...I knew there was only one option. I had to send them away. Her mother was about to take her anyway, but under my instruction, I took them myself. I magicked them to Windlere...out of sight"

"Why" I ask. "Say it" I scream.

"Because she was pregnant" he reveals.

Despite already knowing this, it twisted the knife through my guts and left me nauseous. It was true.

"I put two and two together" he confirms.

He moves over to the chair beside me and hoists himself up onto it. He attempts to rest his hand on mine but I snatch mine away

"Andromedas mother confessed they had panicked... and she knew that the only way a Fae would be born into the kingdom was through the royal line too. She wanted to hide the shame of a teenager with child and the evidence of a Royal baby out of wedlock. Andromedas life would have been over if it had been discovered. She was just trying to save her own child. You and I both know a fairy cannot hide a pregnancy, her stomach glows right through her clothes. Andromedas glow was already showing"

"Andy would never leave her baby" I argue.

"She didn't" he whispers ashamedly.

My head snaps back. "What"

"She thinks she died" he confesses regretfully.

"She thinks that her child's dead" I ask, as my throat closes in on itself.

"It was for the best. Her mother and I agreed she would be safer if she thought the baby was gone. If Andy could leave this all behind and go back to Olamoore, she still had a chance at the life her family wanted for her. Olamoores reputation wouldn't be destroyed Rowan... I had a duty to Olamoore and the Oak"

"Your duty should have been to the sixteen year old whose life you destroyed... don't you see that he took advantage of her... clearly what you saw was a monster in action Sycamore. I know this because Andy loved me... we were together. I know deep down you know it too...that Aspen must have assaulted her...my own brother... a monster" I scream. "This explains every moment you've interrupted their conversation and kept him away from her... you knew" I screamed, screaming until my lungs burned with the fury in which the air left me.

I didn't even hear a word as he tried to explain... the air around me went silent, like the oxygen got sucked right out of it as I threw him against the table, leaving him unconscious and bleeding from the blow to the head.

Andy had been living in that nightmare for five years, and it would dawn on me as I shot up the Oak in a powerful explosion of magic that came from some part of me I had never accessed before, that Andy had no idea about Aspen.

Aspens head was already rolling in my mind.