by Wendi Wilson
He looked over his shoulder at Sebille and asked, “Where is the traitor, Puck? He should be here for this.”
Her face darkened, but only for a moment before she smoothed out her features.
“He’s locked up in a prison cell, where he belongs,” she said.
“Bring him to me,” Alwyn shouted at the nearest Zephyr.
“You dare to give orders to my people, Sylph?” Sebille asked, her voice laced with menace.
“My apologies, Your Highness,” Alwyn said, bending slightly at the waist. “Would you please do me the favor of sending one of your people to get the trickster?”
One side of her mouth curled up into a sneer as she nodded at the soldier Alwyn had spoken to so harshly. The man took off at a brisk walk, heading into the building.
“What have you done to my father?” Mom shouted, surprising us all.
“Nothing he didn’t deserve, I assure you,” Sebille said, surprising us even further by deigning to answer. “He is a traitorous beast, but of course, you already knew that, didn’t you? You sent him here to spy on me, to lead me with misdirection and thwart my attempts to bring about this very situation.”
“But he helped you attack the academy,” Mom muttered.
“Ha!” Sebille shouted, obviously hearing the words. “He only pretended to be helping me. He secretly protected the Sylphs inside the building and used his Glamour to hide the location of the lot of you. If this fool hadn’t rushed outside to confront us,” she gave Easton’s body a shake, “none of us would be here right now.”
The door behind her opened and Puck walked out, his arm in the grip of the Zephyr that went after him. My eyes traveled over him, assessing the shape he was in. His hair was unkempt, his clothes torn and his hands were tied in front of him with a piece of rope that glowed with magic. He had a black eye and a fat lip, like a huge, meaty fist had connected with the right side of his face.
“Alwyn, you traitor,” he spat when his aquamarine eyes landed on the king.
“Oh, ho! That’s rich,” Alwyn retorted.
Puck ignored him and looked at our group, his eyes turning sad.
“I’m sorry, I failed. I tried to warn Easton of the attack, but I never expected him to come rushing outside alone.” He jerked his head in Sebille’s direction. “She caught onto me before I could send word. Alwyn has been working with her for months. Spying on council meetings. Reporting Sylph news back to her.” He clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes. “He killed Finn.”
My heart died in my chest as his words registered, and my eyes flew to Alwyn. There was no denial in his eyes. No regret.
“It was incredibly easy, too,” he gloated. “No one suspected me. He was the father of my dear wife, after all.”
“What did you do?” I asked, my voice weak with renewed grief.
“Poison,” he gloated. “I slipped it into his tea at a council meeting.”
I remembered seeing him, hiding in a shadowy corner as the council decided to let my father stay at Oberon Academy. He must’ve been there to gather info for Sebille and used the opportunity to take down the king.
“Once that bitch Freya insisted on going to be with her father,” he continued, “I realized it was the perfect opportunity. I would have unfettered access to him and could continue to poison him until he finally drew his last breath.”
His laughter rang out around us, grating on my eardrums and making me gnash my teeth. He killed Finn. He killed the king and took his place and helped in the abduction of his own son. And he thought it was funny.
The man was a psychopath.
“It’s over,” Sebille said, calling our attention back to her. “The Sylph king does not care about the humans, nor does he want any of you to live to tell the tale of his deceptions. You will all die tonight, and tomorrow, I will execute the final step of my plan to rid the Earth of its destructors.”
“Death to the humans! Death to the humans!” the Zephyrs surrounding us began to chant.
My breath puffed in and out in short bursts, and my body began to sway with a sudden onslaught of dizziness. It was all too much, too fast. Easton had been brutally tortured, Finn had been murdered in cold blood. Alwyn was a killer and a traitor, prepared to let us all die and look the other way while the Zephyrs wiped out the humans.
We’d been so wrong. All this time, we’d assumed Sebille only wanted to enslave them and take control of the planet. And maybe, at some point, that was what she wanted.
But things had changed, and we had a choice to make.
We could run. Escape the city and Sebille’s revenge. Hide somewhere and lick our wounds as we try to devise another plan. We’d lose Easton, and most likely my grandfather, but we’d still be alive. And we were the only ones who knew of Alwyn’s treachery.
Or we could stay and fight. If we won, we could save the humans and the Sylphs from death and ruin. We could die, but at least we’d die trying to make a difference. Trying to do the right thing.
I looked at the faces of my family, each expression a mix of fear and determination, and I knew they were with me. We were not ready to back down and bow out.
We refused to have our futures dictated to us by a maniacal dark queen and a cold-blooded murderer.
We refused to live in a world where it was okay for faeries to wipe out an entire species.
I looked back at Easton, his chest rising and falling despite the amount of blood he’d lost that stained his clothes and body. My heart swelled with love, and I knew he felt the same way for me.
Easton Oberon was my soul mate. He was also the one true king of the Sylphs. A bright mind, a beautiful soul, and a kind heart.
I refused to live in a world without him.
I would fight. We all would. Even if it meant death would come for us before it was all over.
CHAPTER 36
My breathing slowed, and I counted my heartbeats with each breath as I attempted to center myself and pull my power fully to the forefront. Three beats in. Three beats out. Over and over as Sebille doled out threats and expounded on her vision of the future.
I shut out her voice, but kept my eyes on her, making sure that knife she held to Easton’s throat remained still. I felt my power rise inside me as my eyes took in his pale and bloodied face, and I wished I had Charles’s ability to heal so I could take away Easton’s pain and injuries. So I could wake him up and tell him I loved him and hold him close.
And never let him go.
It began to sprinkle, and it only took me a moment to realize it was water responding to me and my call for power. The droplets grew bigger and fell faster until a steady rain pelted against us, soaking our hair and clothes.
I lifted my hand to brush my wet hair out of my face, clearing my vision of Easton. The rain washed the blood from his hair and body, revealing the excess of lacerations and bruises on his skin. I gulped against a knot of emotion forming in my chest, the horror of what he must have gone through really striking through me.
But then something strange happened. I cocked my head to the side in wonder as I watched the open wounds draw closed, the skin rapidly healing over the cuts. The bruises I could see through his torn shirt began to fade, changing from a dark purple, to green, to yellow right before my very eyes.
My very wide eyes.
“Easton?” I whispered, but no one heard me over Sebille’s shouts at me to stop the rain.
If I hadn’t been watching him so intently, I wouldn’t have noticed the moment his body shifted from slack to tense. Breath whooshed out of my lungs at the same exact moment Sebille stopped shouting mid-sentence and turned her attention back to the boy in her arms.
Easton’s lolling head flew up, and the back of his skull cracked against her face. She screamed in pain and released him, holding her hands to her nose, which was gushing blood. Easton stumbled forward, but was quickly swallowed up by the Zephyrs that surround him and the queen.
He disappeared from view, and I snapped out of my stunned stupo
r at his miraculous recovery. I shouted his name and started to charge forward, but hands gripped mine, stopping me in my tracks.
The steady rain morphed into a torrential downpour in the span of a heartbeat. I could barely make out my parents’ faces on either side of me, but I knew it was them. Not only could I feel their love pouring into me through our connection, only their combined touches amplified my power to such an awe-inspiring degree.
Chaos reigned supreme as the storm intensified. Dark clouds shot sparks and thunder vibrated the ground under our feet. I looked over my shoulder to confirm Shaela and Charles’s safety to find them standing directly behind us.
Shaela was squatted down, hand to the ground, strengthening her connection to earth. Vines grew from the ground around her, twisting and stretching toward the crowd of Zephyrs. Charles stood next to her, using wind to hold the dark Fae back as they struggled against it to come for us.
I watched in fascination as the vines snagged at first one ankle, then the next, pulling faery after faery to the ground and binding their hands and feet. Shaela’s magic was awesome, but it wasn’t enough. There were just too many of them.
I called to the air around me, intending to combine my magic with Charles’s to increase the wind speed and hold the Zephyrs at bay. Only, it worked a little too well. With Mom and Dad’s powers intensifying mine, a gale-forced wind whooshed toward the dark Fae and sent them all tumbling to the ground.
That’s when I saw Easton, who was still standing despite the strong current. He appeared to be struggling as his arms formed steel bands around his father’s torso. It looked like he was trying to squeeze the life from Alwyn, a vengeful expression twisting his face.
He must have heard. He’d either been faking unconsciousness or he’d comprehended Alwyn’s bragging account of events even while in a comatose state. And the time for reckoning had arrived.
My eyes chased over to Sebille, who stood strong as well, her black hair flying in a halo around her head. Her hands were blazing with magic as her narrowed black eyes were locked on me. Sharp, white teeth glowed between her parted lips. Her smile could only be described as predatory.
With a flap of her wings, she rose into the air. Fire grew from her fingertips as she flew up, streaking across the night sky toward us, unaffected by the downpour I’d created. Keeping her grip on me, Mom threw up her free hand and a stream of icy fog flew out to meet Sebille’s attack.
The fire blazed white, slowing more and more until it completely stopped. My eyes widened with wonder as I stared at what remained—a stream of solid ice that hung in the air for just a moment before falling to the ground and shattering.
Sebille’s scream was filled with outrage and frustration. Before she could launch another attack, I squeezed my parents’ hands and flapped my wings. Mom and Dad followed suit and we rose up in to the air to meet the Zephyr queen head-on.
I focused on my hatred for Sebille, using the emotion to strengthen my power. As her actions and intentions flashed through my head, my anger grew.
Fact—Sebille wanted to wipe humans off the face of the Earth.
Fact—she tried to kill me on more than one occasion.
Fact—she killed Rowan.
Fact—she kidnapped my grandfather.
Fact—she hurt Easton.
If it were even possible, the sky seemed to darken further as my rage spiked. Dark clouds roiled above us as the wind whipped around our bodies. Faster and faster it spun until a tornado had formed, leaving only me, my parents, and Sebille floating in its center.
“Nice trick,” the queen scoffed. “But I’ve already seen it. I’m not impressed.”
Her bored expression only fueled my anger, and the cyclone twisted at an even higher speed than before.
“This needs to end, Mother,” Dad called out.
“Oh, my son thinks to command me? The traitor and his mutt daughter? And who is this?” she asked, looking at my mother. “Is this the Sylphid trash you betrayed me for? Perhaps I shall kill her first to teach you a lesson.”
I tightened my grip on Dad’s hand as he lunged forward. I pulled him back to my side and turned my head to speak directly into his ear.
“Don’t let her goad you into breaking our connection.”
He nodded, keeping his gaze locked on Sebille. In perfect synchronicity, Mom and Dad released their grip on my fingers and moved their hands to my shoulders. The move freed up my hands, which immediately filled with blue-green fire.
I threw the fireballs at Sebille, who redirected them away with a bored swish of her hand. Over and over, I tried, but the result was the same. Nothing got past her magic.
And then she started to laugh.
Maybe it was my youth and immaturity, but after everything Sebille had done, it was that derisive laughter that pushed me over the edge. A scream of rage exploded from me as my body heated to a near-unbearable degree.
Lightning streaked from the clouds above us, the thunder that boomed simultaneously vibrating my body. The wind around us spun faster and my hair whipped in all directions as electricity visibly sparked across my skin.
Sebille’s eyes widened the tiniest bit, the only indication that my change in appearance had startled her. She raised her hands to fire some bit of magic at me, but she was too late.
Another bolt of lightning flashed across the night sky. I grasped it with my magic, and directed toward the queen. She dodged right, the bolt barely missing her.
Another bolt, a dodge to the left. I missed again, but a twinge of satisfaction twisted my lips as Sebille stared at me with wide, fearful eyes. But I didn’t let her fear sway me. I couldn’t.
This had to end. Now.
I pushed my power even harder into the storm brewing above us. As lightning flashed once more, I guided it, concentrating on Sebille herself, and not the spot she was hovering in. She tried to veer to the side again, but it was no use.
The bolt of electricity followed her, striking her in the center of her chest. Without a sound, she fell from the sky, the winds from my tornado sweeping her up and spinning her away from us for the last time.
CHAPTER 37
The warmth of my parents’ hands left my shoulders, and the power of the cyclone around us cut by half. Taking a few deep breaths to slow the pounding beat of my heart, I released the elements one at a time. Fire left me, and my body returned to its normal temperature. I let go of air, and the winds died, the tornado dissipating within seconds. Lastly, I whispered goodbye to water and the rain stopped.
Mom, Dad, and I drifted back to the ground as the sky cleared. The full moon illuminated the scene around us, and I my eyes darted all over, looking for Easton.
A flash of light blue caught my eye, and I turned, expecting to see his smiling face and ice-blue eyes. Instead, the snarling visage of Alwyn Jameson hurdled toward me. His hands were raised as he prepared to attack.
I threw up my own hands, but before I could summon my magic, Alwyn screeched and fell to the ground. My eyes chased to my parents, who looked as bewildered as I felt. We moved toward him, magic at the ready in case it was a ploy.
But it was no trick.
Alwyn lay on his back, his wide, unseeing eyes staring at the stars in the sky. A thick, spiky branch protruded from his chest as blood bloomed across his shirt. The projectile had struck him right in the heart. He didn’t stand a chance.
I looked away from him and my eyes caught on Freya, who stood several feet away, her chest heaving.
“Is he dead?” she gritted out.
“Yes,” I said, nodding.
Her shoulders slumped in relief as she nodded in return. That’s when I noticed movement at her feet. Brown, pointed vines, much like the one that protruded from Alwyn’s body, receded into the ground beneath her.
Freya had come to help us. She protected us, protected me with her power. She killed her husband.
A smile lifted her lips as we stared at each other and she mouthed, “I’m free.”
I smi
led back. She was free. Her husband was dead, and there were plenty of witnesses to confirm he’d admitted to killing Finn and helping Sebille. The council wouldn’t dare convict her of a crime. She’d be a hero.
“December!”
I whipped toward the shout, the sound of that voice making my blood sing. Easton was jogging toward me, a vision straight from heaven that made me feel light as a feather. I yelled his name and took off, running as fast as my legs would carry me.
I jumped just before I reached him, slamming against his chest and wrapping my legs around his waist. He stumbled back a few steps and grunted, but his feet remained firmly beneath him.
Our mouths crashed against each other as tears poured down my face. The kiss was filled with desperation and desire. Relief and commitment. Joy. Hope.
Love.
And a profound sense of rightness. We were alive and well and reunited. The threats against us had been eliminated, and we were free to be who we wanted to be. Together.
A throat clearing behind me made me giggle as I broke off our kiss. I felt giddy as I looked into Easton’s ice-blue eyes, smiling like a loon. He smiled back and set me to my feet. I turned to find the others gathered behind me.
They converged on us, hugs and handshakes and more hugs until we were all laughing and crying at the same time. Shaela and Charles had remained untouched, thank God, while they’d worked tirelessly to hold back the Zephyr hoard while my parents and I fought Sebille in the sky.
Easton held Freya in his arms, and I had to look away as they cried together over the loss of Finn. Grandfather was hugging Mom, their reunion filled with tears of a different kind. Tears of joy and retribution. Shaela caught my attention and waved me over to where she stood with Charles.
“Remember sociology, when we threw out guesses as to what could be the driving force behind the Zephyr agenda?” she asked. When I nodded, she added, “I think you were right.”
She jerked her head back to the right, and I looked over her shoulder to the scene behind her. Zephyrs roamed around as if in a fog, shaking their heads to clear it. Some were on their knees, fat tears rolling down their cheeks. Some looked angry, and argued amongst themselves.
