I looked at Morgana and sniffed loudly. “I love you both.” I looked from my brother to my friend, and my heart sank. It took every ounce of strength, through blurred tears, to unsheathe the Dagger. My lips parted, my good-bye swallowed at seeing their pain. They held strong, but their defenses against the elders were wavering. I looked at them one last time, admiring every line on my brother’s face, seeing the ghost of a smile on his lips, looking at his eyes so similar to mine and his watery smile.
“We’re proud of you.” Morgana’s final words calmed me as they always did, until I realized it would be the last time I would hear her voice.
I pushed the Dagger down, dipping under the surface, and stabbed it into the center of the hard alive thing in the riverbed. I held it in place as shockwaves rippled from it. I broke the surface and saw André, Adius, and Morgana fizzle away, right as André shouted, “Run!”
I hurried for the banks, wading against the current. I reached the mud and mounds and grasped into the crumbling sides. It was caving in on itself. I tried to climb out but was flung back into the river. The banks muddied the already-dark waters. I tried to swim upriver, but the ground shook as if one of the rare earthquakes were shuddering Magaelor.
A fallen hollowed trunk floated near me, and I grabbed it. Kicking my legs up, I let it pull me farther downriver, figuring I had no other way to go. As I was swept away, the last of the bank wrapped into the water, becoming a slosh of mud.
Howling screeches from the elders erupted in the air, piercing the sky and forest. I kicked my feet, pushing to get away from the area as quickly as possible. On the edges not yet destroyed were vines hanging from low branches, knotting down the earthy mounds.
I was dragged by the undertow. Letting the log drift out from under my arms, I pushed them out and kicked as hard as I could to make it to the bank. Every inhale felt like I was breathing knives. My arms felt like lead as I swam with all my strength until I finally reached a couple of vines. I grabbed them, digging my nails into the twisted, thick green. I tugged, glad to feel they could take my weight, and used them to pull myself out. I footed rocks and mud until I rolled onto the flat higher ground. Spluttering, I lay on my back and sucked in deep breaths. I wiped the river from my eyes, wrung my dripping-wet hair, and looked out as the spirit realm collapsed in on itself.
A blast of energy out from the center of the river, knocking me back. I slammed against the hard ground, and the trees shuddered. It was done. They were gone, and Magaelor was free.
***
“What did you do, love?” Blaise hurried to me and wrapped his cloak around my wet, muddy body. He’d come to find me. When had he arrived? I shivered away the cold. He worried his fingers to tie the cloak, then wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me into his embrace.
I breathed in the smell of clover smoke left on the material and looked up. My feet left the ground, and air whistled around us. His wings had protruded from his back, beating against the winds that picked up the higher we went. The indigo sky glittered stars, reminding me of what true beauty looked like. I nuzzled my face against his tunic, clinging to every pocket of warmth the cloak had to offer.
He tightened his hold as we veered left, descending toward the castle. “We’re almost home.”
The way he said “we” tangled my insides, reminding me of those I’d lost. The castle was just a castle without the people I loved. Morgana and André were gone. Adius was dead, and Florence had lost yet another love. I didn’t know where they were. I guessed there was no real way of knowing what was beyond death, not until I would walk there myself. Was there peace? A place? Energy? Every culture had their own theories, and I imagined it was a mix of all of them. All I could hope was wherever they’d gone, they were at peace. I hoped to see them again one day, and holding onto that hope kept me going. Pain sizzled parts of my body every now and then, hurting more with each beat of my heart, but I didn’t have the strength to see what was causing it.
Blaise landed us in the courtyard. He was a talented flier and had been since I’d known him. My legs crumpled against the ancient stone. He laid me back, cradling my head in his hands. “Help us!” he hollered.
Footsteps pattered through the hallways. Swords were pulled out, then put back once they saw there was no danger. I hadn’t noticed until then, but where the vines had grabbed me were pink slits in my skin. Without the water, I saw blood leaking from them.
“Get the physician. Use your magic.”
“The magic is gone,” I whispered, my voice cracking.
Staffs were lifted, but nothing came from them. It was another proof that I had, indeed, destroyed the spirit realm. Panicked chatter rose as more and more attempted to access their magic after seeing the guards unable to.
“Fuck!” he shouted. He looked into my eyes, panic glistening in his. “I’m not good at healing.” He let out a shaky exhale. “Hold still.” He held his hands over my wounds, closing his eyes. It took a few attempts until I felt warmth tingling my skin. He did it on each one, pressing with a gentleness I didn’t think him capable. “It’s stopped.” He breathed relief. I looked at my wrists and ankles. The cuts were still open, but the bleeding had stopped.
A pixie was brought by the physician to fix my wounds entirely, and I was taken to my room. I sat on my bed, still processing what had happened. I pulled pieces of twig and moss from my hair and reached down to my thigh, at the empty sheath. I’d lost both Objects of Kai. They would be buried under the mess of whatever was left of the river where the veil had stood for centuries. It had housed so much energy for so long, I wasn’t surprised the ground it was on collapsed after the veil had been destroyed.
Blaise hurried in after the physician finished. He ordered a maid to draw me a bath and another to get me a clean nightdress before settling me down against several duck-feather pillows. I waited for him to berate me on going there alone like he’d told me not to do, for almost dying, but instead he held me with a tenderness that was new for him. He pressed his lips against my cold cheek, sighing against me. “I’m proud of you, love, and—” He paused, sadness creeping through his expression. “I’m sorry. I saw the bodies.”
Tears glossed my eyes. “André, Adius, and Morgana helped,” I said hoarsely. My voice was still not my own. Almost drowning would do that, I guessed. “I couldn’t have done it without them.”
He rubbed his thumb against my temple. “They couldn’t have found peace without you.”
I thought of them fizzling away and expected the familiar twinge of hurt in my heart, but instead, it was replaced with numbness.
“I was so worried about you.” He shook his head, tears swimming in his gray eyes. “I came as soon as I returned and realized you were gone.” He kissed my forehead, holding his lips against my skin for a few seconds longer than usual. A comforting aroma of soap and jasmine lingered the air around my bed. “Bath’s ready.” His lips curved against my skin. “Are you ready?”
“Not yet,” I whispered. “Hold me… for a little longer.”
He kissed my hand and entwined his fingers with mine. “Always, love.”
EPILOGUE
The sun had risen, giving us another day, but the kingdom was still healing under a new order. I kneeled against the mossy mattress, taking a dead flower in my hands. I whispered, and after a few minutes, the flower came back to life.
“It’s still here,” I whispered, smiling. Spirit. Like it had been before the spirit realm was created. We no longer needed staffs as we took residual energy from the soil, bones and ash, final good-byes, and, of course, painful last moments. All of it together allowed us to practice again, but it wasn’t the same. It felt pure, untainted, but not as strong.
I turned and walked out of the forest, gazing up at the bright sky. It had been three months since the spirit realm was destroyed and Morgana and Adius had died. Neoma was healed and sent back to Berovia. Kiros didn’t break the treaty. It was more than I had expected, but then, I’d never told him the full
truth of our kidnapping Neoma. Some secrets needed to stay that way.
Blaise joined my side, staring up at the glorious colors of the blue mixed with gray. “It’s time.”
I held his hand, resting my head on his shoulder. “I know. Just five more minutes.”
His lips curved upward. I allowed myself a few final moments of peace.
Behind us, Ian, Adius’s friend and my head guard, crunched twigs under his boots. “Your Majesty.”
I turned, looking down at the cloth wrapping. “Thank you, Ian.”
He nodded and handed me the Dagger wrapped in cloth, then left.
Blaise slipped it from my hands, earning himself a glare. He shrugged. “Until the curse is broken, which will be any moment now, you’re still mortal and this”—he waved the Dagger in his hand—“can still send you mad.”
“I’m so happy it’s finally here. I’m sorry I didn’t do it sooner.”
His eyebrows wrinkled. “Love, you did right by Magaelor. I will never fault you for it. You saved your people, and I couldn’t be prouder. You became the best half of us.”
I rolled my eyes, tsking. “You have too, bringing the humanity back to most of the feral fae. It seems we both had good in us.”
He chuckled. “Don’t start thinking me a savior.”
I grinned. “Oh, I would never go so far.” I winked and walked us to the altar that had been prepared by Morgana’s sister, an alchemist who’d remained on Inferis until Morgana’s death. My mother, who had become more withdrawn since the spirit realm was destroyed, had decided to go back to Inferis. I’d offered her a place at Court, but she didn’t want to stay. I guessed the memories of André still haunted her at the castle.
Blaise placed the Dagger next to the Sword, Amulet, Crown, and Ring. “Are you ready?”
“I still don’t know if it will work,” I said. “I wish I used the energy from the spirit realm when I destroyed it, to break the curses.”
He gave me a knowing smile. “There is residual energy and a lot of it. The elders were enraged. We can use the emotion left behind.”
My stomach knotted into ribbons. I hoped it would work. I needed it to. Blaise deserved peace, and it was the only thing left standing between us. Pushing my hands into the soil before the altar of wood, I latched onto the energy and felt it as a living thing. Anchoring myself into the ground, I opened my sight, which I had been working on finessing through Morgana’s grimoires and journals. I closed my eyes to align my focus, removing the need to see with my eyes and allowing the images to clear in my mind. I felt their fear and anger course through the ground. I curled my fingers and inhaled deeply, feeling the air fill my lungs. The magic from the energy moved through me as if it were a part of me. My lips tingled. My grief remained in the ground too, as did Adius’s sadness and Neoma’s fear, all residual emotions from that fateful day. Tears leaked through my closed lids, tickling my cheeks as it all consumed me. I steadied myself when it forced me to convulse under the building pressure. I imagined a locked box in my mind and imagined the magic filling it, then closed the lid after.
I exhaled shakily and opened my eyes. Magic coursed through my veins, spiking my heart rate, taking away every ache and pain in each of my muscles until it was gone.
“Are you okay, love?”
I concentrated everything onto the Objects, hovering my hands over them. I recalled the words Blaise and I had practiced many times, going over the pronunciation until I said them perfectly. My voice was light when I uttered the incantation with precision on each curve to the words and change to their accents. Warmth emanated from my body, sparked around me, and dove into the Objects. They rose from the altar, a few inches from the ground. I imagined a snakebite. The magic in me sucked the venom-like curse from the five Objects of Kai. Inky liquid seeped from each of them, moving like the bloodworms in the forest, stretched across the wood, and finally came together into a dark, black-oozing liquid.
“Incendia,” I whispered, and the inky darkness caught alight and swirled into smoke. A breeze swept it away, disappearing it into the sky. The energy fizzled from my body, leaving me lethargic. I whipped my head around, smiling. It had worked.
“Blaise?” My forehead wrinkled. His dark hair tousled in the spring breeze, curling around his crown of silver. The pain from his eyes sizzled away, leaving behind the silvery gray I loved. Burst blood vessels healed, turning the normal bloodshot whites of his eyes brighter than ever. He breathed in and smiled on the exhale. He closed his eyes, rolling his shoulders back, and his nose wrinkled when he smelled the air. I took his hand in mine as the curse lifted.
He opened his eyes and gazed at me, seriousness swallowing his expression. I’d never seen him so focused before; I worried something had gone wrong.
“I’d die for you and live for you, over a thousand lifetimes,” he said.
My eyebrows shot up my forehead. That was intense but my heart raced, as it had years before when he’d told me he couldn’t love, when he’d pushed me away during our dance because he was afraid to love. “I love you so much.”
“I want you to know I will remain at your side no matter what. I’m yours, love,” he said. The intensity in his gaze caught my next breath in my throat. “I will never leave you.”
I touched his cheek and traced my fingers to his lips. I grabbed him by the front of his pants and pulled him closer. My lips brushed against his, and he devoured my gentleness into a deepened need. He held me unlike he had ever done before. There was unrestraint to his kiss.
When he pulled away, a glimmer shone his eyes. “I’m going to have to take you back to the castle.”
I couldn’t help but grin. “First, we should bury these.” I eyed three of the five Objects of Kai. “We only removed the curses on them. If anything, we made them more dangerous. Now anyone can use them without consequence.”
“I’m keeping the Dagger, for Niferum.”
I nodded. It was the right thing to do. The fae deserved the right to be able to end their immortality if they wished. “I’ll send the sword to Berovia, to Cedric.”
Blaise tilted his head. “Speaking of Cedric, how do you feel about letting things go with his brother?”
Anger trembled my hand, but I hid it before he could see. I’d never really be able to forgive him, but I didn’t want to kill him anymore. “Fine. As long as he stays far away from me.”
“Good.”
We turned our heads as a hummingbird flew past us, its wings flicking so fast, they blurred. I smiled. The animals were returning to this part of the forest again. Most had abandoned it when the leaves turned gray—a side effect of the spirit realm dragging the energy from the trees—and the ground filled with dust and bone.
“We can bury the Objects in there.” I pointed at the uneven path between the tall trees. “We will go as deep as we can, then separate.”
“It’s a good idea, love. They’re dangerous in the wrong hands, and getting rid of them is the right thing to do.” He paused, looking at me with a softness to his eyes I wasn’t used to. “But couldn’t someone use a locator spell to find them?”
I’d been waiting for that question. I pulled a few runes from my pocket, ones Morgana had used to cloak me. “They’re already hidden from anyone with foresight. As for those who can use magic…” I rubbed the gray, smooth stones together, a similar symbol on each one. “These will hide them. Morgana spelled them to cloak anyone with one from being located by magic. If we bury one with each object, they’ll be cloaked.”
“It’s a great plan, love.”
“Thanks.” I pushed the runes back into my pocket. “The mer king won’t be happy he’s not getting the crown back, but he’ll have to live with it.” The idea of a temperamental mercreature with the ability to compel anyone was quite terrifying. “He won’t be as mad without the curse, so I’m hoping he’ll be manageable. Perhaps he’ll be so grateful we broke the curse over him, he won’t react to the news the crown’s gone.”
His eyes wid
ened. “Was that optimism… from you?” He feigned shock, and I rolled my eyes. “Maybe this is a new chapter after all.”
***
It was late morning when I woke in Blaise’s arms. We’d buried the Amulet, Ring, and Crown each with a rune and arrived back at the castle at dusk.
Mercreature attacks had already lessened yesterday. Our fishing boats hadn’t seen one all day or some of the night, according to Adius. I was sure it wouldn’t last. The mer were predators. They were known to eat a sailor who’d fallen overboard or take someone who’d swum too far out in the ocean, but they’d become far more vicious in the last ten years, taking down ships and even going aboard to grab men, making being a sailor almost impossible. We had later learned the mer took on characteristics of their king or queen, and with Aqugar cursed, they inadvertently also were. Now that it had been broken, it was nice to know the rage-induced attacks would lessen greatly.
I propped my head on my hand, pushing my elbow into the fluffy pillow. He looked so peaceful now, even happy. I was certain if I told him it was possible for him to be so a couple of years ago, he’d have never believed it.
I moved slowly, careful not to wake him, and climbed out of bed. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I looked at the window. Spring had come early this year, bringing with it fields of corn and daffodils of yellow sprouting from every flower bed in the kingdom. We needed it. While we held a fractured magic system, people were trying something new. Some turned to elemental magic. With Berovia and Magaelor at peace, many solises had come to see the wonders and soul of Magaelor.
Aquarius was offered to be the head of the Magaelorean Navy but expectedly refused. Instead, he took up sailing the new trade routes between Magaelor and Berovia, making a lot of coin while doing it. The kingdom’s economy had boomed with the trade deal, giving a win to my people who had suffered so much.
The Fate of Crowns: The Complete Trilogy: A YA Epic Fantasy Boxset Page 85
