I must've been right—speechlessness really was her price.
I placed a hand on her shoulder and captured her attention. "All magic has a price. I think yours is being unable to speak afterwards."
I didn't think it was possible, but her eyes widened even further. She looked utterly terrified, her pulse throbbing maddeningly under her deathly pale skin.
"Not permanently," I assured her. "I'm not sure how long it'll last, or what you can do to counteract it, but you'll be back to normal again soon."
I nodded encouragingly, and even though she still looked frightened, her eyes at least went back to a normal size.
Criss smiled warmly. "It's going to take Rob and me a few days, but you'll have both your mothers back soon."
Tia nodded anxiously as she chewed on her nails, and without wasting another moment, Criss and Rob got to work.
Ben came up beside me, wrapping his arm around my waist as he led the rest of us from the room. "We're going to be doing a lot of waiting in between rounds of reanimation as Rob and Criss rest. So why don't we start restoring our kingdom in the meantime?"
I smiled and hugged him tightly back.
Yes, let's make Blackwood worth fighting for.
A FEW WEEKS LATER…
After Tia had been successfully reunited with both her mothers, Rob and Chrissen had immediately gotten to work on reviving Gemma and the other queens.
It'd been a long, slow process, but one we were all quite passionate about. We could hardly wait to spend time with our loved ones without fearing for their lives. And we could hardly wait to enact our revenge on the wicked king.
As soon as Rob and Criss woke up, three days after reviving the final queen—Criss's mom, Faith—it was finally time for vengeance.
Rob turned to his brothers and me with a mischievous glint in his gray eyes. "Who's going first, then?"
"Me," Cal replied, stepping forward to stare at the crumpled and rotting corpse of his ex-father.
As much as I wanted to rip the dickhead a new one, I was kind of glad someone else was going first. I had no idea what to expect, and if I was being entirely honest, I was nervous.
Rob cocked his head and rolled out his shoulders. "All right. Let's do this."
He held out both arms, his fingers curling arthritically at the ends, and forced the unwilling spirit of the Storm King back toward his body. His muscles strained, and he gritted his teeth. I saw nothing but empty air, but Rob was clearly fighting with something, and that something seemed like it was being a bitch. His brow broke out into a sweat, and his face reddened as he breathed heavily.
After a few more seconds of fighting, Rob's hands finally moved above the Storm King's body. "Okay, he's in! Do it!"
Chrissen immediately jumped into action, dropping to his knees and placing his palms on the king's unmoving chest. He closed his eyes in concentration as golden magic began pouring from his palms in waves.
I watched in terrified awe as the Storm King's skin regenerated and faded from gray to peach as color returned to his body. Blood dried and vanished from his chest, and also—ew—his crotch.
I wondered what had happened there, and I took a moment to be sad that I'd missed it. Maybe I could recreate my own crotch maiming when it was my turn?
Just as the wicked king's eyes burst open and he took a harsh inhale of breath, Rob and Chrissen passed out.
My head thrashed in Cal's direction.
Come on, Cal, kill him quick.
The idea of reanimating the Storm King worried the hell out of me. I mean, what if something went wrong? What if he got the upper hand somehow? Why the fuck hadn't we tied him down or chained him up beforehand? Stupid, stupid!
But my worrying had been for nothing. The king was too weak and disoriented to fight back. He tried to climb onto his hands and knees, but he lost his balance and fell over. Cal quickly pounced and pinned him to the ground with a boot to the chest.
"This is for my mother," he sneered, a bit of spittle spraying from his gritted teeth. "And every family member you tortured and killed in your pursuit to control me. You wanted my Sky powers? Why don't you have a taste of them?"
Wind whistled from Cal's hands, swirling around the room as my hair lifted softly. It concentrated right at the Storm King's chest, filling it like a bubble, bigger and bigger until I was sure his lungs would burst. Blood trickled from his nose and the side of his mouth as his color changed from peach to pink to purple to blue. Cal was suffocating him.
Part of me wanted to turn away for fear of vomiting, but the other part of me, the sadistic part that demanded justice for all of this wicked man's wrongs, forced me to watch.
After another moment, he stopped moving and Cal finally let the wind die down.
Dan took a deep, shaky breath and spoke. "How'd it feel?"
Cal swallowed hard, still staring at the man he'd called Father all his life. "Good."
Dan exhaled on an almost chuckle and ran his hands through his sandy brown hair. "I want to go next."
THREE DAYS LATER…
"All right," Rob said, rubbing his hands together anxiously. He inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled loudly through his mouth. "We got this. Let's go!"
Criss rolled his eyes and grinned before turning to Dan. "You ready?"
Dan wasn't smiling for once. He simply nodded, concentrating all his intense focus on the slightly festering corpse before him.
My necromancers quickly got to work, straining themselves to force life back into the vile man at our feet. I had a feeling we could kill him a hundred times and it would never get any less nerve-wracking to watch him come back to life. When Rob and Criss eventually collapsed and the Storm King took his first breath, Dan sprang into action.
Water fell from nowhere like rain, soaking us until we were dripping, gathering into puddles on the floor. The Storm King crawled on hands and knees, haphazardly trying and failing to get away, while Dan watched with hate-filled eyes. When there was two or three inches of rain on the ground, he finally strode over and knelt by the king, grasping the back of his neck with a bulging forearm.
"You tortured everyone I ever knew and loved, never once fearing that it would one day be you on the other side of the table. Today is that day, asshole. Today, you are the one being tortured. I hope you fucking enjoy it."
He lowered the king's face until his mouth and half of his nose was underwater, holding him there until he was forced to breathe, sucking up both air and water. He choked and gagged and gasped for breath, and Dan yanked his head back up.
"You raped my mother and my brothers' mothers, and you forced them to be your queens just so you could more easily take their thrones and kingdoms from them. I hate you for that."
He shoved the king's face back into the water until he again started gasping and gagging.
"You flayed our friends and families alive, tearing them apart cut by cut, while you forced us to watch. We were children, godsdamn it! Children!"
Again, he pushed the king's head underwater.
That went on for longer than I honestly thought I could watch, but after Dan had finally gotten all the weight and baggage off his chest, he drowned him and left him lying face down in a puddle.
He strode over to us with taut shoulders and clenched fists.
"You're right," he said to Cal. "That did feel good."
Then he walked away.
For weeks, we kept that morbidly satisfying string of events in motion.
Bring the Storm King to life, kill him in some violent but bizarrely gratifying way, then continue fixing our kingdom while we waited for the next round.
Some might've thought it was overkill—literally. A waste of precious time and resources. But it was a disturbing yet necessary part of our fucked-up healing process. We were not about to dust this pain under a rug, trying and failing to forget about it, when we could hash out every issue we'd ever had, right here right now.
Ben staked him all over with tiny sharpened sticks, th
en eventually impaled him with vines until he slowly drowned in his own blood.
Ash turned into a sloth… and shit on him. Because of course he would. But he didn't kill him right away. He let him live for over a week, watching in rapt interest as he succumbed to Swamp Ass Fever—itching, blistering, and bleeding… going delirious and mad… until finally burning up with a fever and dying.
Ben was right, that shit was terrifying. I would never not wash my hands ever again.
Rob thought about letting his demon friends eat the Storm King's brain for dessert, but then, they wouldn't have been able to reanimate him for Criss and me to have our revenge. All necessary body parts had to be there in order for the revival to work. So instead, he beat the shit out of him the old-fashioned way—with his fists—until the wicked king's bones broke and he died of internal bleeding.
Criss chose a knife. Flaying his skin—as he'd done to Faith and the other queens for so long—before finally stabbing him in the side—as he'd done to Chrissen in the very beginning. It was a fitting end, for sure.
By the time they revived him so I could enact my revenge, I was officially murdered-out. I'd witnessed more gore and violence than I ever cared to see again in my life, and my heart just wasn't in it. Still, I knew the bastard deserved it. He'd killed so many innocents over the years—even children…
I took a deep breath and lit a fire in my palm. I was going to set his ass on fire and let him burn until he was nothing more than ash—incapable of ever being revived again.
"Are you sure you want to do that?" a sly voice asked me.
Squelching the fire, I spun around and came face-to-face with Zeus, King of the Gods. Heat tickled my lady bits from my magic usage, but I did my best to squash it down. I never wanted to feel turned on in the presence of that psycho.
"Of course I'm sure," I said, lifting my chin a bit higher in confidence. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Did he think I was weak? That it'd tear me up and break me down to commit murder with my own hands? Well, he was wrong. I'd kill this fucker and never lose a wink of sleep about it.
Zeus shrugged, casually walking around the king and me. "I just thought maybe you'd be interested in a different end for him?"
Cal and the rest of the guys frowned. "Like what?" he asked.
Zeus smiled mischievously and clasped his hands together. "Why, the prison of the gods of course."
"But he's not a god," Dan said, stating the obvious.
Zeus dusted the Sea Prince's comment away with his hand. "Semantics, little Poseidon."
Dan shot me a look, like, little Poseidon? Really?
I merely shrugged and turned my attention back to Zeus. He was sneaky. I needed to pay attention to his every move—just in case.
"Isn't that where you sent Ares?" Ben asked, crossing his tanned arms suspiciously. "If it's safe enough to send your son temporarily, then why would we ever send this asshole there?"
"Because it's not safe," Zeus informed him with a dark grin. "And he deserves to suffer for the rest of eternity." He continued walking around the Storm King and me. I held my breath as he disappeared behind my back and didn't breathe again until he reappeared on the other side. "Ares will only be there for a short time as punishment for what he did here on Giterra. But your king? He will be there forever. A just reward for such a vile creature, don't you think?"
I swallowed hard and turned to the guys. They were the ones who had suffered the most, so they were the ones who should decide.
"What do you guys want to do?"
Chapter 32
ONE MONTH LATER…
Long after Zeus had carted the Storm King away to the prison of the gods… my princes and I stood in front of the entire kingdom for our official coronation.
It was a beautiful day. Glimmering rays of sunshine poured down from the heavens, warming our very souls. Flowers bloomed, filling the air with the sweet scent of new life and fresh beginnings. Animals tittered in the trees, and I chose to imagine that they, too, were excited for this new page to be written in Blackwood's history book.
Our mothers sat front and center, beaming up at where we stood on the temple dais—including Fran, Tia, and Harriette who were all holding hands affectionately.
Gemma and Tristan were seated at the end of the queens' row. He had a big, burly arm draped about her narrow shoulders, while she had both hands cradling a tiny baby bump at her belly. I was so happy for her; I was pretty sure I'd cried tears of joy for a solid twenty-four hours when she told me. Personally, I still hadn't fallen pregnant, but there was plenty of time for that later. I was excited to be a mother one day, but I was definitely not in any rush.
Behind them, all our friends were in attendance as well.
Queen Camilla and her kings: Blane, Zane, and Rafe. Her love affair with the rowdy werewolf had flourished in a whirlwind of passion, and he'd quickly become as important to her as the twins. They'd married and taken their place as kings and queen months ago, and Hydratica, Eristan, and Werewood were already thriving as one unified kingdom.
Peter and Elenore were there, along with their three girls and baby boy.
Off to the side, under the shade of a dark tent, were Malik and Rosie—who'd recently become a vampire, thanks to her newlywed husband—and their newborn daughter, Violet. Taron and Tamara stood in the shadows beside them, watching us with pride and happiness.
Queen Bria and King Orion were there, looking just as in love as the day he'd been brought back to life. They'd altered fae law and made it so class no longer determined marriage eligibility. Timberlunian citizens had never been more excited about a royal wedding. Cal, Dan, Ben, Ash, and I had even attended the ceremony, while Rob and Criss rested up from their little necromancy side gig.
Princess Veda and her older brother, Prince Verron, were there, along with Princess Velice—the crowned princess and future queen of Valinor. During another of Rob and Criss's resting periods, I'd traveled to her kingdom to see if I could deal with their volcano problem. Turned out, I was better at dealing with lava than I thought. I'd still accidentally burned down part of the city—they'd evacuated, just in case, so there'd been no casualties—but the volcano was officially extinct, and they'd already begun the rebuilding process, so… Plus, Velice was there at our crowning ceremony, so things were obviously still good between our nations.
Captain Akiko, Queen Kiami, and Princess Nalini of Rubio were present as well. As planned, I'd headed the relocation project for the residents of Emory Isle. We promised Rubio they could have the island, and Blackwood had kept our word. Our once-islandic citizens had settled quite nicely into the Wessea coast where Dan and I had commissioned little villas to be built on their behalf at no additional cost to them. I considered the project to be a huge success.
And beyond all of them, sat countless citizens who'd traveled from near and far to bear witness to the most brazen and progressive ceremony Blackwood had ever overseen—the crowning of not just one or two, but seven rulers who would lead the kingdom as a unified group.
We even had the group tattoo to show for it.
I smiled as a priest gently placed a beautiful, ornamental crown atop my head. It was littered in jewels, but I no longer hated the little gemstones as much as I once did—back when I'd been forced to mine them fresh out of the cave.
The priest continued down the row, until all seven of us had been bestowed with a crown.
"All hail the Kings and Queen of Blackwood!" the priest shouted.
I took a deep breath and shared an enthusiastic grin with my guys. Never in my life did I imagine a poor peasant girl would ever rise up and become queen. But there I was, wearing a bejeweled crown, standing before a sea of cheering faces, and surrounded by my princes whom I loved more than life itself.
And they loved me as much in return.
I heard it every morning when we woke up and every night before we fell asleep. I saw it every time they looked at me, tasted it every time they kissed me, and felt it every time they
touched me. I knew it deep in my immortal soul.
The seven of us were a team.
And we were going to love each other forever.
Epilogue
I gripped a smooth, tiny white ball between my thumb, index, and middle fingers. My elbow bent, and as I stared straight ahead at the red cup that was my target, I let the little orb fly.
"Oh yeah!" Dion shouted excitedly as my ball sank into the cup with a plop, a telltale sign I'd hit nothing but the water within. "This girl is a hustler! She's about to wipe the floor with you, Ash."
Asher raised a brow at his friend and pursed his lips. But when he stared at me from across the table, all I could see was love in his amber eyes. "I hope she does. Then I can watch her take your ass down next."
Dion chuckled, while Herc and Percy ruffled his ombre curls and playfully punched his shoulders.
"All right, Sweets," Ash said encouragingly. "One more cup. You got this."
"You got this, Sexy Lexi!" Dan shouted in a slur, more than a little buzzed off the golden nectar of the gods.
Tequila, I think they'd called it? We had wine, beer, and whiskey back in Blackwood, but nothing quite like this. When I'd questioned Dion about it, he'd sheepishly muttered that tequila was just the base of this particular drink, and that it actually contained all sorts of different ingredients I'd never fucking heard of. So, I'd just taken to calling it the nectar of the gods. I used to think that's what caffeine was—now, I knew otherwise.
I took a deep breath, staring once more at the final cup on Ash's side of the table. There were three left on my side. If I sank this, the game would be over, and I'd move on to face Dion in the final round. Excitement trickled through me like every limb on my body had suddenly fallen asleep. I'd never been overly competitive before, but I had to admit, this game really got my blood pumping. Or maybe that was just the alcohol?
Perfect Storms (Storms of Blackwood Book 4) Page 27
