Chapter 11 - The Madness

“Leave it to Lan to fall for a superwoman.” Cristoff commented to his commander Wroth.

“We’ve yet to determine that she’s a superwoman.” Wroth smirked at the couple on the horse before him. Though privately, he had to admit he was impressed by the girl’s resilience.

When the way became so overgrown that it was necessary to stop and chop their path through the forest, Lyla didn’t hesitate to pick up an axe. The woman tried to work as hard as the men and the prince frequently had to take away from her whatever task she was trying to overexert herself with. Lan’s ridiculous possessive pride in Lyla grew over the course of the day. Near lunch, Lan had to drag his darling away from her furious slashing to force her to rest. As he drew her to him Lyla pulled away.

“Please, Lan.” She pleaded. “I’ll slow down I swear. Just please don’t make me sleep again. Please don’t take control of my body away from me again!” With a frown, Lan realized that he had been horribly abusing his power over her. His heart dropped down to his gut and wrenched his innards about.

Lyla’s eyes pleaded with him, blinking back tears as she tried to hold his gaze. He’d been an ass. Even as he chastised himself, he was distracted by the enchantment between them. Gods, she was beautiful. And defiant. And beautiful. Sigh.

It was good. Lyla needed to be strong to deal with what she had seen and to recover from the magic that had almost killed her while bringing news of the heinous crime to Balast. She needed to be strong because she didn’t know if her village was still there or if it had been burnt to the ground. And she needed to be strong to remind Lan that he was under the influence of magic…magic that didn’t seem to be affecting Lyla nearly as much as it was influencing Lan’s judgment. Magic Lan had not informed Lyla of. Yep! I’m definitely an ass. Mother would be so disappointed.

“Of course.” Lan tried not to grimace as he realized that he’d been losing his mind. “I…” Leaning very close to her face to look directly into her eyes, “…I… never want to hurt you. Your body is your own. I will never take your free will from you.” Lyla nodded but the wary light of a feral creature rested in her eyes. Like a kind of subdued panic that she tightly controlled. “I’m so sorry.” It hurt him to his core to know he’d done that to her. He had never meant to make her fear him.

Turning away from him Lyla picked her way over the uneven ground to one of their campfires and sat for a midday meal. Absurdly, Lan felt a tidal wave of jealous rage as Lyla smiled with genuine brightness at the young warrior who handed her a bowl of stew. For the first time since he was five, Rengard Lan started to lose control of his magic.

He had never been considered the most powerful in the family by far. But he had more than enough magic to kill every one of these men in his company, even his fellow mages, and then some. Lan had never tested his limits. He’d chosen soldiering over sorcery. It had been a very deliberate decision on his part to avoid using his magic. The taste and feel of magic use was, for him…, intoxicating. And he’d understood that it wasn’t normal for a mage to feel that way, to crave the next spell, to want to push dangerously closer and closer to the edge of ability.

“Get it under control.” The prince whispered fiercely to himself. In the distance, Wroth watched him warily. The commander was more than aware of the danger Lan could be if he lost himself. Rather than face the older man with his insecurity, Lan stalked off alone. Lyla was just smiling at another man. That was it. It. Was. Just. A. Smile.

A beautiful smile…oh Gods… she had such a beautiful smile. He wanted it to be his smile, for her to smile at him. There had to be some part of her that was special just for him. Some sign that she felt the gut-twisting need to be close that he felt. The overwhelming obsessive force of nature that pulled his soul to her, couldn’t she feel even a tiny little bit of it?

As if to flaunt Lan’s desire to be alone, Wroth stalked up behind him. Lan ignored his father’s man with intense concentration. But the officer was determined to speak his mind.

“It’s happened, hasn’t it?” It was the madness Lan was currently experiencing. Being born of Chaos magic, members of the imperial family weren’t the most stable when something they wanted was out of their reach.

“Yessss.” Rengard hissed through clenched teeth. “She’s mine, but she’s smiling at him!”