by Kristie Cook
“I made a deal,” I said again. “Until I am actually released from it, I won’t renege on it.”
Maeve’s pretty lips turned down in a frown. When she spoke, authentic remorse seemed to fill it. “I guess I’ll have to take a different angle with you to make you understand.”
With a wave of Maeve’s hand, Sadie suddenly appeared, her face badly beaten and bruised, her clothes torn, and her expression seemingly frozen in a perpetual though silent scream.
Chapter 28
Saoirse charged for Sadie, but halfway to her, she screamed as she fell face first into the snow as though something tackled or tripped her. The Skaelach drew their weapons and started for the remaining Winter Court soldiers, but then they went completely still and silent. My mind barely registered the commotion, though, as I stared at Sadie with horror.
“What have you done to her?” I gasped.
“Nothing worse than the Shadow king will do when he gets a hold of her. Which he will, as soon as I’m done. Unless . . . you could make her agony stop, Elliana. I’d put her out of her misery for you. Your choice.”
My trancelike focus broke, and my head snapped toward Maeve. That small, coy smile returned as she lifted one shoulder in a shrug. At the same time, my attention broadened, taking it all in. Saoirse flat on the ground, a hand on her leg that was bent at an unnatural angle, obviously not healing like it should have been. The Skaelach, who stood frozen, literally, ice coating each of the soldiers in mid-step. A half-dozen of Maeve’s men encircling Sadie, her cloak, quiver, and bow on the ground between us, the snow stirred up as though there’d been a skirmish. Had Sadie been here the whole time, cloaked from us?
“In exchange for what?” I growled, though I had a feeling I already knew the answer.
“For marrying me, of course. I’ll renegotiate your deal with Caellach, and you’ll be freed from that. It should be easy enough. Toridhan has already released you. I do believe he’ll find a way to convince his father.”
I shook my head. “Tor hasn’t released me.”
“He indeed has. Just before he left, he told Saoirse to grant you your freedom. Isn’t that right, shade?” Maeve watched Saoirse, who still lay on the ground. When she didn’t immediately answer, a crack shot through the air, and Saoirse screamed, her other leg twisted at a nauseating angle.
“Yes!” she groaned. “Tor has freed you, Elli.”
“See?” Maeve said, pride filling her face as though she’d been the one to make that happen. “Now, I think I can find a way to forgive you for even wanting to be with the revolting elf. You’ll have some making up to do, certainly, which will hurt me as much as it will hurt you, but we can eventually move beyond this, Elliana, and be happy. You and me—we’re meant to be together. We’re mates.”
“You’re fucking insane,” I barked out on a laugh that held no humor.
Maeve’s chest rumbled with a feral growl, her eyes enflaming with hatred. Her upper lip lifted in a snarl, exposing a mouth full of pointy teeth. Good. At least she’d be empowering Saoirse, who might finally be able to heal herself. I was surely feeding her much of my own hatred. But then torment was added as Sadie’s scream was silent no longer, piercing my ears while her agony broke my heart and soul.
I watched in horror as she lifted her hands to tremble in front of her, her fingernails flying off of her fingertips, as though being jerked off by a phantom force one by one, blood dripping down her hands, staining the snow crimson at her feet.
“Stop it!” I yelled at Maeve.
The princess froze, her eyes growing wider with each passing heartbeat as she looked at me, then Sadie, then me, then Sadie. She shook her head, her mouth opening and closing.
Perhaps it was the agony in my own voice. Perhaps something else that made her realize the truth.
“No!” she roared around those sharpened teeth. “It’s not possible!” She jabbed a finger toward me, her nails elongated to lethal points. “You and I are mates! Not—no! I won’t allow it!”
“I don’t think you have a choice in the matter,” I said, now giving her my own smirk.
“Of course, I do!” she bellowed. “I am the Winter Court queen!” Her chest heaved as her gaze swung around, daring anyone to challenge her on that claim. What that meant about her brother, I wasn’t sure. Perhaps she was just posturing, trying to make herself sound more important and powerful than she was. Or maybe she’d killed him. I wouldn’t be surprised at anything she did anymore.
Except I was.
Her voice dropped as she reined her anger back in. “I will give you one more chance to do the right thing. One more, Elliana, or everyone you have ever loved will die. I guarantee it.”
She swirled a finger in the air. Nothing happened for a moment, and I began to think she really had lost her mind.
But then suddenly a male fae stood next to her, squeezing my twin’s bicep.
“Brielle!” I gasped.
Her brown gaze swung around wildly before landing on me. “Elliana! Oh, my angels!”
I ran for her, but an invisible force shoved me back, so powerful, I went flying several yards before landing on my ass.
“You know what to do,” the male fae snarled, shoving Brielle forward, toward Sadie.
“Sadie?” Brie asked, seeing her for the first time, confusion filling her tone. She turned back for the male and Maeve, shaking her head. “No. I won’t.”
“You will,” Maeve declared coldly, a cruel glint in her eyes.
Brielle stumbled forward, seeming to fight herself as she slowly lifted her hands, a falchion with a dark, dull gleam gripped in her right, a blue flame growing in the palm of her left. Her body jerked forward, as though against her will. The blade swiped at Sadie, who screamed as her skin sizzled from the shallow gash. Iron. The falchion was made of iron.
“Why, Elliana?” Sadie cried out. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Her focus was on Brielle, even while she blamed me.
“Oh, did I mention that Sadie sees you attacking her, not your sister?” Maeve said nonchalantly. “She can’t seem to differentiate between the two of you. She must not know you as well as you think she does. Or maybe it’s that little mind trick I planted.”
“What?” I gasped at the horror of it—of Sadie thinking I would ever try to hurt her. “No, don’t do this, Maeve. Make it stop.”
“Hmm . . . no, I don’t think I will,” Maeve said, whispering something in Faelic under her breath.
The blue flame flew from Brielle’s palm and slammed into Sadie’s stomach, singeing the bottom of her leather armor to leave blackened bare skin. Sadie glared at my twin, hurt and anger marring her beautiful features, as her own hand lifted, her palm up and bloody fingers crooked inward.
“Don’t make me do this, Elli,” she half-pleaded and half-warned.
Brielle swung the falchion again, the move awkward as she still fought against the power controlling her, but nonetheless finding its mark across Sadie’s thigh.
Then my twin was suddenly falling to her knees, grasping at her head.
“I suppose the elf should at least be able to fight back, shouldn’t she?” Maeve asked nobody in particular. “I wonder if she’s strong enough to break a Knight’s mind?” She glanced at me, before lifting her chin.
Brielle screamed louder, falling over and rolling in the snow.
“Enough!” I shouted, my beast roaring through my chest. She exploded free, her power rocking through my limbs, my torso, filling my veins and every cell of my being. Threading that dark force into my other magic, I blasted a wall of frozen air at the male fae next to Maeve, sending him flying to his back, then pierced a spear-long icicle into each shoulder, pinning him to the ground.
Mimicking Maeve’s own power, I froze the rest of her soldiers in a sheet of ice, then turned my attention fully on her. Sadie and Brielle continued fighting as Maeve and I went at each other.
She was Winter—I’d have to be the opposite. Surrounding myself in flame, I snap
ped my wings out and launched into the air. She threw her magic at me, but it sizzled and evaporated when it hit my fire. I shot fireballs at her, but she easily lobbed them away with mere swipes of her hands. Pulling my wings in and calling on my sword, I engulfed it in white-hot fire and flew at her. She met me with her own sword. The clang of the blades meeting so powerfully made my teeth clatter, and an electric jolt shot up my arm. I flew back, then soared at her again. My sword connected with her shoulder, but her blade slid across my wing, only a scratch but still making me grunt as piercing cold pain shot through the sensitive nerve endings.
I dropped to the ground, and we fought in hand-to-hand combat, weapons parrying each other sometimes and drawing blood at others, but we seemed to be evenly matched. Neither of our magic did much damage to the other, and my wings gave me an advantage, allowing me to fly out of her reach, but when I tried to release my feathers to shoot like darts, they bounced off her shield. Only the sword could pierce it, and I couldn’t figure out why.
The ice coating the soldiers on both sides broke away at some point, and they engaged in their own battle. Metal clanging against metal mixed with the sizzles and pops of magic, creating a cacophony I may never forget. Brielle had managed to fight against Sadie’s mind-bending power, back on her feet, but the two of them were also battling it out. I flew back, higher into the air, taking it all in.
The snow around us was no longer a pristine white, but a slush of mud and blood. Shouts and cries of pain rang out, mixing with the weapons’ songs of battle. Bodies littered the ground, some leaking blood and others dead still. Saoirse kept trying to push herself to her feet, only to fall back into the snow, her broken legs unable to hold her weight, her expression contorted with a mix of pain and desperation that she couldn’t fight alongside her men.
And my sister and Sadie . . . trying to kill each other. The ground rumbled and buckled under Sadie’s feet, making her fall to her knees, as Brielle pulled on her earth magic, but roots grew up and out of the snow at Sadie’s call to them, wrapping around Brie’s legs and yanking her to the ground again. While she sliced at them, trying to extricate herself, Sadie took advantage and squeezed her mind. My twin screamed and convulsed in agony.
I threw a shielding spell between them, which worked to stop Sadie’s attack on my twin, but only for a moment before I could literally feel the magic shatter.
“There’s only one way to end this,” Maeve said, dropping her hand back to her side, “and that’s not it. Kill the elf, Elliana. You can end this.”
I could end this. Yes, I could. And not in the way Maeve wanted.
As the battle scene before me continued to rage, I also saw another scene. Ravenbury first, buildings burning, bodies scattered, people shouting for help. And then Misery’s Edge—more dead bodies, everywhere. Shouts of help intermingled with wails of pain and grief.
Dani’s loudest of them all.
I blinked, the other scenes disappearing, yet their ghosts still there, a reminder of what I could do. What could happen with a simple blast of my beast’s power. Yes, I could certainly finish this and even kill Maeve herself. But who else would die with her? The soldiers, who were only doing their commanders’ bidding? Sadie . . . Brielle?
Who would be left to sob and scream and mourn their losses? Me. Only me.
The two most important people of my life—two souls that were embedded in mine—groaned and grunted as they fought each other. Both of them battered, bruised, and bloody, but neither giving up. Because they couldn’t. They had no choice, their wills taken from them.
Brielle’s sword had somehow ended up several yards away. Magic crackled over her fingertips as Sadie crooked her fingers again, trying to twist my twin’s mind once more. Brielle flew at her, tackling her, and then they both scrambled on the ground, over each other as they eyed the same object nearly within reach—Sadie’s quiver and bow.
“ENOUGH!” Maeve shouted, the single word echoing off the mountains. The fighting stopped, and Sadie and Brielle flew off the ground and into Maeve’s hands that looked more like claws, each one curling around a throat. “I’m bored, Elliana,” she declared. “Since you don’t have the courage to do what needs to be done, to kill the putrid elf, I’ll just end them both and make it simple for you.”
Her fingers squeezed, and both Brie and Sadie squirmed and thrashed as their faces began to swell and turn blue.
I didn’t want to fall for Maeve’s taunt, but no way in hell would I let her kill them.
I could still end this.
I had to.
My power roiled through me again. How dark and delicious it was as it flowed freely through my veins and my flesh, gathering and building, becoming something completely Other within me. My beast nothing but an energy force—dark, dangerous, deadly. Beautiful. And all mine—to control.
My mother once told me that during her darkest times, Uncle Owen would incessantly remind her that “In the end, good always wins.” But, she’d said, over the years she’d come to her own conclusion and tweaked the saying to “In the end, love always wins.” Sometimes she would add it to our family motto: “In the end, love always wins, and I will love you until the end of always and forever.” I’d thought at the time it was something a mother would say to make her children feel better—we’ll always win because I’ll never stop loving you. It felt trite, if I was being honest. I even felt it was condescending. She couldn’t say good always wins if her own children weren’t good, I’d thought.
I understood better now. Good was subjective. When your papa lay dying in your arms, who did you believe was good? Certainly not the people you felt responsible for it, even if they were angelic beings claiming to serve the higher good. Who was considered the good guys in the battle between the elves and Winter Court when both sides lost loved ones at the other’s hands? As Sadie had taught me, good and evil were only a matter of perspective, and depending on yours, good didn’t always win.
Love, however, was love, plain and simple. Love trumped fear. Love trumped hate. Love trumped bigotry and greed and the need for power and control. Real, unconditional love transcended ego and the need to be right, to avenge, to get what you want at any cost.
“In the end, love always wins,” I murmured.
“Why do you think I’ve done all of this?” Maeve asked, her head tilted back to watch me hovering in the air. “For love. For you.”
“Except you have no idea what real love is, do you?” As I dropped to the ground, wonder and awe glowed in her eyes but a flicker of fear was there, too. I wondered what she saw in me. Brielle and Sadie continued clawing at her hands around their throats, but they were obviously growing weaker by the moment. My power raged. But I remained in control. “If you wanted me to love you, you probably shouldn’t have gone after those I do love most.”
I bent over and picked up Sadie’s bow and plucked an arrow out of the quiver.
“If I eliminate all others, there’s only me left, isn’t there? I know you, Elliana. You pretend to believe you’re a loner, that you can do it all on your own. That you want to be alone, with nobody else for you to worry about, nobody to worry about you. But you really can’t stand the thought, now can you? You need someone in your life. Truly, though, who else can love you but me? Not these two. You know they can’t. You know they deserve better. But I will always be here for you. I am the only one who can handle you. They can’t.” She shoved them to the ground, where they both lay unnaturally still. “Let me be the love you crave like a starving man in the desert. I can do this for you, Elliana. I can show you exactly what real love is. Forget everyone else and focus on me.”
I knocked the arrow in the string and lifted the bow. “Oh, I’m definitely focused on you.”
She tilted her head, her slanted brows pinching together in a sharp V.
“What are you playing at, doll?” she asked. “You know an arrow won’t hurt me.”
“Maybe not an ordinary arrow,” I said, as I brought all of that dark powe
r swirling within me, weaving it into my witch magic and threading within it all the power of love—love for my sister and love for my elf princess. Yes, I could end this, and I knew how. For them, I would be a fucking bomb if I had to be and raze everything in sight. But I did not have to be. As Tor had said, Eliminate the right targets and you can end any battle, any war. And I saw that target directly in front of me. “But you don’t know what I’m truly capable of.”
I lifted the bow higher and pulled back the string, aligning it with my cheek. Murmuring my spell, I released the arrow, blowing my unique brand of magic over it as it flew. A black mist plumed from my mouth and snaked around the wood as it soared for its mark. Maeve tried to deflect it, but she couldn’t. Not even Winter Court royalty could match my power.
The arrow drove straight through her armor and into her chest, eliciting a scream of hatred like no other. And then she fell silent.
Chapter 29
I didn’t wait to make sure she was dead. If I did—and if she was—I’d have to stop and think about the ramifications, and I didn’t have time for that. Not now. Later, I knew, the moment would haunt me. Right now, though, I had to get Sadie and Brielle out of here.
Rushing over to them, I squatted between them, shaking them both. Brielle pushed herself to her hands and knees.
“I’m okay,” she said, though she didn’t really look okay. We stared at each other for a breath, then launched ourselves into each other’s arms. My twin. The other half of my soul. I’d missed her so much but hadn’t realized just how badly until this moment.
But we didn’t have time for this either.
“We have to go,” I said, releasing my hold on her.
Sadie didn’t stir so easily, but when those gorgeous electric blues did finally flutter open and looked up at me, she started thrashing and screaming. Shit.
