Excalibur's Seven - Chapter 25: Chapter 25

WHEN KIT REALIZED THAT Morgana wasn't with them, it was too late.
"We left him there," he whispered, staring ahead of him, though his eyes saw nothing. "I could've tried to help, but I just left him there."
"Kit, it's not your fault," Selene said between a series of grunts as Giselle tended to the wound in her side. "I would've died without him. He saved me, and he knew the cost."
There were tears welling at the corners of his eyes. All he could hear was the scream of the banshee and the drumming in his chest as he thought about what it meant.
"They're gonna kill him, Selene. He was right about that. They don't care about him." He was pulling at his hair now, doing everything he could to keep himself from crying.
Giselle was just as worried as he was, he could see it in her eyes, but she was keeping her focus on Selene. "I can still feel him. He's not gone yet."
"Maybe they won't even kill him," Eurion reasoned, drawing Kit's focus. "I mean, if the castle thinks we're going to go back for him, they won't kill him until we do."
"But we are going back for him, right?" he asked, eyes searching all of them.
Chalice was the next to speak. "We'll try, Kit. But we need to find the rest of the shards before we can. Excalibur is our best chance at getting him back alive."
"He still has the shard. We can't get Excalibur back even if we got all the others."
The druid swallowed. "I know. We have to go back there anyways, though. There's another shard there, it's been there the whole time. If we can get all the others and then the ones in the castle, we can bring Excalibur back in time to get us out."
Kit hated the idea of leaving Morgana for so long, but he didn't see how he had a choice. They'd have to risk it if they wanted to save the people of Avalon. They mattered the most.
"Okay," he said quietly. "Where are the other shards?"
Chalice pulled the book out. They never once got rid of their satchel, even at the ball. He admired their commitment.
"Apparently one of them went to Fells, but if a shard was there, I would know. It must've been taken somewhere. And there's one in the North, in a tomb."
"I know that place." It was Lionel, and that was the first thing he'd said since they left the castle.
"What place?" Kit asked. "Fells?"
Lionel nodded, eyes focused on the worm he was holding.
Kit and Chalice shared look.
"What was her name?" Chalice asked.
Kit pulled back the memory of the maid's name, scrawled across parchment in Léona's cursive. "Sera Andrea or something."
"Audrea," Chalice said. "That's a Fells name."
"Do you think she took the shard?" he asked. "It's a long shot but maybe she knows something about this. She trusted me with her kid, and the timing doesn't feel like a coincidence."
Chalice shook their head. "I have no idea, but it checks out. You guys were the first outsiders in Fells for years that we know of, the only way the shard could've left the village is if one of the druids took it."
"Hey kid, do you remember where you live? Or lived, before you found us?" Selene asked, already sounding more energized thanks to Giselle.
Lionel dropped the worm, wiping the dirt off on his pants and picking at grass instead. "I live at Aenyf."
"Is it snowy all the time?" Chalice asked sweetly.
He shrugged. "Yeah, sometimes. It's a lot colder than here, though, it's really hot here."
Kit looked to the druid. "That sounds like the North," he said. "At least, further north than we are now."
"We know one shard is in the tomb for sure. We'll start there." Chalice tucked the book back into their satchel and rose to their feet. "We should get that one first, then find an answer in Aenyf. The sooner we go, the less time we leave Morgana alone."
It was already getting bad again. If he didn't get something soon, Morgana would get like he did before, a single sniffle away from mortality. Unfortunately for him, though, he wouldn't be getting any kind of help as long as he was in the castle.
He honestly expected to be beat to death when the hoards of guards clambered into Kit's room after he cut the rope and let Selene escape. They beat him, certainly, but by the time they knew he was the only one there, they changed their mind about the death part.
So now, he was being tossed to the ground before the King of Avalon and his insufferable firstborn. If Morgana had to pick which brother to put up with for the rest of his life, he knew for certain it wouldn't be Connor.
"There you are," King Wylan hummed. "You're the bastard that tried to kill me, and you nearly succeeded, too."
"Your time will come," Morgana quipped.
The old man laughed. "You're a mean little thing, aren't you? I'm sure Connor will enjoy getting information out of you."
"You'll have to be careful with your torture. If you want me alive, you'll have to avoid the finger crushing," he told them.
Connor grimaced. "Or we can just let you rot in the deepest crevices of the dungeons, and when your traitor friends come to save you, they'll die trying to find you."
"That's assuming they'll even come for me," he laughed. "They probably already think I'm dead."
"If I know anything about my sorry excuse for a brother, it's that he's a stubborn little ass, and he won't leave you even if we took your head from your neck right in front of him," he said.
"You should know it isn't wise to threaten the Fair Folk, Your Highness."
"May I remind you of what you've already told me?" Connor said, crouching in front of him. "You're an inch away from death. Your little magic tricks don't scare me."
Morgana's eyes held a glint of mischief, a roguish smile lighting up his face. "Oh, but they should."
He lifted up his wrists, effortlessly freed from their chains. They'd been freed for a minute, but he was waiting for the right moment to properly shock the haughty look right off the Prince's face.
He took the opportunity to drive his fist right into his eye that was no longer an eye, which was now covered in a patch. Selene must've done him in good.
Connor scrambled back with a pained scream, but Morgana didn't move a muscle. Even as guards went to attack, he smiled the whole time. He wasn't nearly as slippery as a faerie of normal health, but he could still play tricks.
"Hurt me," Morgana said, stopping a man mid-swing, "and you will suffer the same. I do not expend any energy when karma does the work for me."
"Karma is a figure or speech," the man huffed, driving his foot into Morgana's side and shoving him to the ground.
He laughed in response to the loud cry the man let out when the pain got to him, too.
"He's not bluffing," Connor groaned. "Just take him to the dungeons and don't hurt him unless you're feeling brave."
"You saw how he got out of those chains," a man protested. "There's no way we can keep him there."
"Sure there is," King Wylan interjected. He motioned to the Knight at his side. He was holding a thick metal chain, and Morgana's grin finally vanished as soon as he realized what it was.
"No," he said, scrambling away as fast as he could. He was caught by two guards, tossed roughly back to the ground and held in place. "No, you don't want to do this, please, you--"
His pleas were interrupted by the screams that followed as his wrists were bound again, this time in burning iron. He fought to pull them off, but the more he touched the iron, the worse it hurt.
Another clamped around his neck like a collar, and he could hardly let out a sound when his screams were replaced with heavy, silent sobs that shook his shoulders and pushed against his lungs.
Wylan was grinning from his throne, watching the tears spill from the Unseelie's eyes. When he finally released another cry, it was reminiscent of a banshee's scream, and it echoed through the room with an unsettling tension.
The King sat on his throne and laughed as he was yanked to his feet, dragged forcefully from the throne room. His screams persisted until the corners of his vision darkened. He was unconscious by the time the guards tossed him into a cell, leaving him there to rot without an inkling of remorse.
There was no pain like watching Giselle in pain, Selene thought. The princess sat before the dying fire, eyes red and damp, her usually vibrant hair now dull, without a trace of light.
"He's a good man," Selene said, lowering herself next to Giselle. "He tries not to act like it, but he is."
"He's a suicidal idiot," the princess bluntly announced. "Sometimes I think he wants to die, but he'd feel guilty if his death was meaningless, so he just takes every opportunity he can to sacrifice himself. Because maybe then he'd be useful."
It would hurt less if Giselle was crying. But she wasn't. She was as cold as ice, any trace of emotion gone from her body, like she was becoming a shell. Selene knew Morgana meant a lot to her, but she wasn't prepared for her to shut down like this.
It was almost enough to make Selene cry.
"Giselle," she whimpered. "Please, please don't get like this. You're the one that cries, I'm the one that shuts down. I don't want you to get cold."
The princess didn't even blink. "Maybe when you lose a piece of you like this, you'll understand."
Selene froze, eyes fixed on the girl she loved that wasn't a thing like the girl she loved. "Giselle, I do understand. That gutted corpse we saw was my sister, my best friend. I know right to my core what this feels like."
At last, Giselle turned her eyes, half looking at Selene now. She didn't speak.
"I shut down, too, because I had no one to turn to when she died. But you have people, Giselle, you have us. You don't have to shut down." She placed a cautious hand on the princess's cheek, turning her face to her own.
"Don't make me lose another, Giselle. Please."
She thought for a moment that the princess wouldn't do anything. But suddenly, their lips were crashing together and Giselle was doing everything she could to get closer, like she was desperate to lose herself in Selene.
"Darling, slow down," she whispered, pulling back and looking into her eyes. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Then let me just kiss you."
"Giselle," she said sternly. "Don't use me to shut down more. I love kissing you, but not like this. Not when you're not you."
It was silent. Selene gripped Giselle's sleeve, ready for her to get up and leave, but she didn't. All at once, tears spilled and she let out heavy sobs, falling into Selene's arms.
She held her as she wept, tears spilling until she'd properly cried herself to sleep. Selene couldn't get her mind to rest, so she just laid on the ground and watched the princess sleep.
The sun was yet to creep up over the horizon when Selene felt a sudden fear in her chest, a dread that didn't take much to become familiar to her. She knew it was coming before it came, a scream so awful, she felt her eyes get hot.
It woke the others up, and refused to let them sleep for several minutes as it carried on. Selene wished she'd never have to hear another banshee's cry again, but there it was, echoing through her mind like a ghost.
"Morgana," she breathed.