The Seelie Curse

Chapter 50

Out of the memory, Rowan takes a shaky breath. She'd never thought anything much of the phrase 'hindsight is twenty-twenty,' but it really is. The man that protected her in her nightmares was the Forest King, but it must have been. There is no one else her younger self could have meant.

She looks around her at the thousands of droplets of memories and sighs. She has to find something here, inside her mind, but how? She doesn't even know what she has to find, let alone where to look. She squeezes her hands together but then pulls them apart when she feels something hard.

When she looks down, there is a runestone in her hand. This one is different than the others, the writing is a blinding white-gold colour rather inky darkness. Is she supposed to use the runes to find her way? Rowan shrugs. It won't hurt to try. The Guide rune swirls up to the surface of the stone.

Rowan smiles and whispers into the space inside her mind. "Lead me to what I need to know."

There is a sharp tug from the rune and Rowan starts walking, twisting through the memory-filled clouds around her. A few times she almost walks right into one of the memories, but the guide rune diverts her movements at the last minute. Is the guide rune preventing her from getting sucked into any of the memories?

She hadn't realized she was supposed to be in a rush. The Guide rune keeps pulling her further and further into her mind. Instead of growing darker as she had thought, it gets brighter the further into her mind she goes. Rowan squints, lifting her free hand to shade her eyes. It's so bright she almost can't see.

You'd think her own mind would be more accommodating. The space around her dims and Rowan gasps in shock. Then she shakes her head. Of course, she actually had to think about wanting it to be less bright for the space in her mind to actually grow less bright. Rowan lowers her hand and looks around as she walks.

The memory droplets are changing now, they look different. Not by much, but she can feel the difference. She reaches out to touch one, and the guide rune tugs, trying to pull her away. Rowan pulls back, murmuring to the rune. She knows it won't understand her, but she can't help but say it.

"Let me see. I want to know what's different about these memories." The rune's hold on her tightens and she grimaces. "Let me see."

The rune releases her after a moment and Rowan moves forward to touch the nearest droplet of memory. She squeezes her eyes shut against the flash of light. When she opens them, she is in a stone chamber. It's familiar, one of the rooms in the Seelie Lord's strange home. There is a young woman sitting on one of the chairs, her back to Rowan.

Carefully, Rowan steps around one of the other chairs scattered around the room to see the woman. Her dark hair is unbound, slipping over her cardigan-clad shoulders to reach towards the floor. She has her arms folded over her belly and a strange expression on her face. It's a mix of shock, joy, and fear, a combination Rowan finds to be strange.

It's accentuated by the tears silently sliding over the woman's cheeks. The woman is familiar to Rowan as well. She's seen her before, but she can't remember where. Rowan shakes her head, and her eyes widen. It's Oriana sitting in front of her, Rowan's great-grandmother. It looks like this is before she fled the Seelie Lord too.

But why is this memory in Rowan's head? It's at least fifty-five years older than she is, it can't be one of her own. Rowan swallows nervously, taking another look at Oriana. The way her hands are positioned, there's something about them. Oriana shifts, moving to her hands to lie on the top and bottom of her belly. Rowan gasps.

This must be when her great-grandmother found out she was pregnant. There's a scream from elsewhere in the stone compound and Oriana jumps, standing from the armchair. With one hand still on her stomach, she creeps toward the doorway, peeking out. Then she slips into the hall, following the sound through the maze of rooms.

Rowan follows her, breathing shallowly. Oriana finds herself at the pit-like entrance to the place where Rowan found Andrian. The pit is still lined with iron nails, but there are larger spaces between them here. Oriana takes a deep breath and crosses the boundary, slipping on silent footsteps down the slope.

Rowan shudders and follows her down, reminding herself that she's in a memory, nothing can hurt her here. Oriana continues down the corridor towards the dungeon, slipping off her cardigan and bundling it in her arms. Rowan frowns. Why did Oriana do that? There is a cracking sound from beyond the poisoned metal gate and Oriana flinches.

Rowan does as well, gasping. But Oriana keeps going, stepping through the open gate to peer into the dungeon. The Seelie Lord is standing there, a long fiery rope in his hands. There is another member of the Aos Sí there, huddled at the Seelie Lord's feet. It's a dryad, his green skin torn in places and oozing with amber blood. The dryad is weeping, his face shielded by her arms but turned up toward the Seelie Lord.

"Please, we didn't mean to intrude!"

The Seelie Lord laughs cruelly. "Your trees came too close to my home, your intentions are not important. You must be punished."

He cracks the whip of fire again and laughs at the dryad's cry of pain. Oriana inhales sharply from beside Rowan and the Seelie Lord looks up, his voice going cold.

"Who's there?"

Oriana creeps back into the shadows and swings her cardigan around her shoulders, inside-out. Rowan lets out a soft laugh. Of course. Oriana was preparing herself to hide if she needed to. The Seelie Lord takes a step towards them and pauses, turning back toward the dryad. He hoists the dryad up and practically tosses him into one of the cells, closing the door with a bang.

Oriana takes that moment to turn and run back out of the dungeon, sprinting towards the room Rowan first saw her in. Oriana takes a deep breath and slumps onto her chair, pulling her cardigan off to drape it over the back of the chair. It doesn't take long for the Seelie Lord to come sweeping into the room, his face a composed mask. He gives Oriana a bright smile, and for once it doesn't look fake. He frowns at Oriana's expression and tilts his head. Rowan inhales sharply. Does he know?

"What are you thinking about, darling Oriana?"

Rowan sees Oriana shudder as the power of her name sweeps through her. She bites her lip, fighting it. Rowan holds her breath, watching and waiting for Oriana to be forced to say what she'd just seen. Oriana exhales shakily.

"I'm pregnant."

Rowan's eyes widen as the Seelie Lord stumbles back. Why would her great-grandmother have told him that after what she just saw? But then she pauses. Oriana was forced to tell him what she was thinking about, she chose the option with the least risk. Rowan blinks in understanding as she's pulled from the memory.
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Do you think Rowan was right about her younger self's dream? Where is the rune stone trying to take her? Why are their memories in her head that aren't her own? What do you think of Oriana? What's going to happen next? Tell me your thoughts!

Also, heads up for you guys. I'm doing NaNoWriMo this month, I'll be working on Frosted Dreams(yes, the book that currently has a few small and sad chapters and no recent updates.) It needs some TLC. I'm buddying with Imperfetto_Tesoro this month, maybe go check out her stuff? Okay, back to what I was saying. At this rate, Seelie Curse keeps adding more stuff for me to wrap up, so I'm not even sure I'll be able to finish it by Sunday. Over the course of November, I also probably won't be posting chapters for the Seelie Curse. (I think, I could change my mind and decide to post them) But don't worry, this book will be up and running again in December. I'm not going to abandon it at 325 pages and in the final leg of the journey. So that's your warning. I will not be very present on Wattpad for November, but I will still be writing, and I will be back.

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out.