by Everly Frost
The Phoenix’s body provides a screen against the crowds. I can already sense the mass of gargoyles and elves who wait for my appearance. I take a deep breath, too far back to be visible to them yet.
I’ve barely taken a step with Elise and Talia at my side when a form streaks down from the sky, speeding in from the mountains. Grayson drops from the sky, his golden wings curved to slow his incredible speed. He slams down onto the roof, Baelen-style, wrapping his wings into his sides in a fluid movement. He is filthy with mud streaked across his cheeks and chest, splattered across his wings, and coating his boots. His destination is Talia who has frozen beside me.
He takes a knee, head down, holding his hands up to her, palms cupped one beneath the other. Inside his upper hand is a beautiful, white chrysalis flower.
Talia glares at it. She swipes it out of his hand, waiting for him to say something. He stays perfectly still, head down, hands raised as if the flower is still inside them, bowed, waiting, allowing her to choose her reaction. His only movement is his rapid breathing. He could have transported himself instantly from the wastelands but he chose to deliver it the right way—by flying his heart out to get it here before it wilts.
The tension releases from her body. She bends carefully in her dress, crouching and using her wings to maintain balance so she can rest at eye level with him. “Grayson?”
He fixates on a spot on the ground but for the barest second, his gaze flicks to hers and away again.
“Look,” she says, waiting for him to do as she asks. When he meets her eyes, she closes her fist around the flower. “Watch what happens.”
When she opens her fist, the flower is crushed, bruised, but the petals slowly blush pink in the middle, swirling to gold at the edges. Its calming scent washes over all of us.
Talia says, “It was crushed and hurt, but now it is even stronger.”
His lips part. She is leaning so close to him that their faces are only inches from each other. His chest rises, inhaling, and it’s obvious that it’s not only the flower’s scent that mesmerizes him. He says, “I’m sorry I knocked you out on the cliff that night.”
“Well… I was about to kill you.” She sighs. “We are both changed now, Grayson. You are kinder. And I… am fiercer.”
She rises up, head high, throwing back to me before she strides toward the Phoenix, “Marbella, if you will?”
Grayson can’t take his eyes off her as she glides away. He shakes himself, adjusting his wings as he rises to a standing position. “Forgive my appearance, Supreme Incorruptible.”
“Forgiven.”
He takes a position at the back of the rooftop as Baelen and I proceed to the front. The Phoenix greets me with a nod before moving to the side, revealing thousands of gargoyles and elves gathered in every available space in the courtyard, across the gardens, down the slope, and even on the rooftops of nearby buildings.
A roar goes up as I appear and it takes a full five minutes for it to die down. Elise spellcasts her voice to project clearly to the farthest onlookers. “Our people, today we crown and mark our Queen!”
This time it takes forever for the cheering crowd to calm down. The crown resting on the pedestal sparkles in the sunlight. It matches the golden flecks in my ivory gown. The dress I wear has two circular cut-outs on either side of my waist that Baelen found irresistible while we were getting dressed, but they serve an important purpose today.
Elise lifts my united crown from the pedestal. At the same time, Talia places her open palm against the bare skin on my left hip. As Elise lowers the crown onto my head, she and Talia speak in turns, their voices projected as loud as thunder across the landscape.
Elise smiles, “We crown you…”
“And mark you…”
“Queen of Erawind…”
“Supreme Incorruptible of Erador.”
And together, they say my name, “Marbella Mercy.”
The crown is light as it nestles onto my head and Talia’s touch is gentle. As she removes her hand, I’m amazed to see the simple mark she has placed on me: a golden circle, representing life.
I can’t help it. I’m glowing.
Two steps behind me, Mom is crying and smiling with Dad and Macsen at her side. Below us in the courtyard, all of my friends and loved ones have gathered, all of the miners and elves who fought beside me and for me: Reisha and my Storm Command beaming with pride; Jordan and Sebastian, whose love for each other inspired me; Llion and Liliana who fought so hard to be together; Roar and Gilda who proved that love can conquer anything; and Indira and Erit holding their two tiny babies: new life, the future of our country.
And Baelen… my heart, my love, my forever.
Their voices rise up in unison, a swelling roar. “Supreme Incorruptible, Queen Marbella Mercy, we honor you.”
My heart is full as I lift my voice and my arms to my people. “I am honored.”
Epilogue - Alessia Rath
Twenty-One Years Later
I close my eyes as the air rushes past me and the earth beneath my feet changes in an instant. Liam’s strong arms are a steady force around me, his power to jump distances tingling through my back and neck.
He sets me safely upright in the ash that covers the wastelands on the western border of Erador, a teasing twinkle in his emerald eyes. “You okay, Alessia?”
I scowl at him as he releases me.
“Absolutely fine.” I could fly myself here using my storm power but it would take me an hour, and today I don’t have time to waste. I’m already breaking the rules by disappearing on the morning of my wedding trials.
The sun rises over the horizon, the new dawn breaking across the barren ground, as Liam folds away the golden wings he inherited from his father, Grayson Glory. Liam’s eyes are bright emerald like his mother’s, the High Priestess, Sunflight Talia. She will soon pass her title onto her daughter, Liam’s twin sister, Della. Like Liam, the blood of both a sorcerer and a priestess runs through Della’s veins. She and Liam are as powerful as I am. For that reason, there are many elves and gargoyles who believe that only Liam can be my equal as a mate.
I do love him, but not like that. Not in a way that makes my heart skip a beat or steals the breath from my throat. I don’t love him the way that my parents love each other—or the way that his parents love each other for that matter. Theirs is a love forged out of fire, unshakable despite every challenge that could have torn them apart.
I want that kind of love, but… I haven’t found it.
So instead, I’ve thrown myself into making our world better—a revegetation project to turn the wastelands into fields.
Liam gives me a grin that would make any female’s knees turn weak. “Are you going to break my heart at the first trial today?”
I jab him in the ribs with my elbow. “Oh, Liam. We both know where your heart truly lies.”
He gives me a genuinely blank look. I smother an inward sigh. I’ve been trying to open his eyes for weeks now, but my subtle prods have gone unnoticed. He has no freaking idea that he’s totally and completely in love with my dearest friend—
“Adalie!” He hurries away to intercept the brown-haired female. Her face and body are obscured behind the largest boulder I’ve ever seen, which she’s attempting to carry on her own.
She sways so she can see around the rock, her brown eyes as lustrous as tempered chocolate, but her cheeks are rosy with annoyance. She’s wearing gloves, so she doesn’t skin her hands, along with leather pants and a thick, plain shirt that doesn’t reveal anything of the curvy figure she hides beneath it.
“Sunflight Liam Glory, I don’t need… your help!” She’s scolding but there’s a puff in her voice. “I am… perfectly capable… of carrying this…” She gasps for breath. “By myself!”
Adalie has always been fiercely independent. Seven years older than me, she’s been at my side all my life. In that time, I’ve never seen her take off the chain she wears around her neck, which now sports multiple talon crows and
panther claws. She has proven herself to be a ferocious warrior and a true friend. While my older brother acts as my protector, she’s the one who listens to my worries.
“With respect, Outlier Adalie,” Liam says, keeping his hands at his sides while he shuffles through the ash so he can keep time with her labored steps. “I am certain you can carry that boulder on your own. However, you will get the job done much faster if I assist you.”
Liam could easily use his sorcery to lift the boulder from her arms without even touching it, but he would never show her such disrespect.
“Very well,” she says, bending her knees and tipping one end of the tall stone. He braces his arms against it, his enormous biceps bunching as he guides it down so that they can each carry one end of it. He’s larger even than his father, as tall as my brother and just as physically strong.
Clearing the dead earth has been our biggest hurdle. New boulders fall from the top and sides of the cliff daily. Some gargoyles and elves whisper that one day the edges of our world will crack apart completely and we’ll have no choice but to return to the surface.
I see the problem a different way. The cracking cliff face is only due to the splintering of the earth at its feet. The earth breaks because there’s no vegetation to bind it together. By ensuring that trees and grass can knit the soil, we can stop the instability and preserve our land. Uncle Iago agrees with me and it was he who originally supported my idea and got me started.
So far, we’ve succeeded in rejuvenating half of the southern wastelands and we’re now working our way along the western end toward the north.
I tell myself that coming here today has nothing to do with escaping the responsibilities waiting for me at home.
Adalie side-eyes me as she and Liam pass. “You should be at home, Princess. Today is an important day.”
“Not without you, Adalie.”
She hides a smile. She is as relentless as I am in our pursuit of mending the wastelands. She grew up here, lost her brother to its savagery. There’s nothing more important to her. Except perhaps Liam. She’s always there for him.
“Did you come to fetch me, then?” she asks.
“Yes,” I call, even though we both know it’s an excuse, not the truth.
They carry the boulder away from the cliff face farther inland where it won’t obstruct the new earth. Liam maintains a respectful tone when he speaks in a puffed voice. “Will you permit me to lower the boulder into position, Outlier Adalie?”
She looks relieved but hides it when he glances in her direction. “That would be fine, Liam. Thank you.”
She thinks she’s too old for him. Well, she’s never actually told me that, but she’s implied it whenever I’ve tried to encourage her to act on her feelings. To my mind, seven years is nothing. If anything, Liam needs someone who doesn’t swoon at his wings or fawn over his power like some of the girls at the palace. He needs someone who isn’t afraid to tell him when he’s wrong or to ask him to consider life from other points of view. She challenges him in good ways.
I admire that he’s been raised by his parents to respect power and never take advantage of it. I don’t know all the history between his parents and mine, but I know that things nearly went very wrong between Grayson Glory and my father. Once the real evil was destroyed, it was only through acts of faith and forgiveness that our land healed after the war.
Liam lifts the boulder with his power and Adalie rests her gloved hands on her hips, catching her breath. Despite his task, Liam barely takes his eyes off her. She has no idea how beautiful she looks with her hair rumpled, her cheeks glowing, and her breath coming fast from her efforts.
Deciding to give them some space, I incline my head at a distant patch of mud. “I’m just heading over there for a minute. I won’t be long.”
“Don’t go far,” Adalie calls, giving me her attention for a scant moment. “Sol bears have been seen around this area in the past week.”
Creatures we call sol bears started appearing after the war, around the time that the talon crow and shadow panther populations were finally brought to extinction. Unlike shadow panthers, they come out in the day, so we named them after the sun. Some gargoyles believe the bears rose from the malevolent force of Grievous, whose deep magic can never be extinguished—in the same way that our moon endures. Others believe that the bears are born from the slain bodies of the murderers who followed Howl and the elves who followed the Elven Command. All I know is that even my parents are worried about them. Dad fought one and was injured despite his strength and power. In the last few years, sightings have been rare, causing new theories that they’re fighting and killing each other.
I banish the beasts from my mind as I give Adalie and Liam space. Maybe today, they’ll finally recognize what’s right in front of them.
I hurry away from the present with the speed with which I want to escape the future. Using my storm power to move is too easy. I need to feel the impact of the earth thudding through my legs, kick up the ash, and convince myself that all I need is a husband who is kind and intelligent, who understands that my people’s welfare will always be my priority.
I don’t need love.
I reach a group of boulders at the far end of the clearing before I realize how far I’ve traveled. Before I turn back, a patch of white in the mud ahead right next to the soaring cliff face catches my eye.
Chrysalis flowers! They’re incredibly rare. I haven’t seen one in years. I turn to call back to Adalie, discovering that she’s a mere speck in the distance and won’t hear me, let alone see me.
Hurrying to the flowers, I bend over them. Not one, but ten! My heart lightens at the sight. It’s like a ray of light in my day. I brush my fingertips across their brilliant surface, dying to pick and crush one to inhale its glorious scent for the first time in years—
Crack! Thud, thud, thud—
The cliff face shudders beside me and the earth splits apart beneath my feet. I jump back onto solid ground, ripping the chrysalis flower out of its bed before the earth opens up beneath it, swallowing the entire flower bed in a fissure three inches wide.
No! It’s my fault.
My weight must have been all it took to shift the brittle earth. To my relief, the ground stops splitting several paces along, but the cracking sound wasn’t all I heard.
My head snaps up.
Boulders thud down the cliff face from thousands of feet above me, smashing against each other as they fall, crashing into smaller boulders, cracking off new ones. An avalanche of rocks is seconds away from falling on me.
Mom taught me that fear is not failure. Fear can help me act faster and think more clearly. But right now, I’m frozen to the spot, unable to move as a mountain of rock falls toward me, rocks that will smash my body to pieces. My inner power won’t let that happen despite my frozen thoughts. It rushes to the surface. Virtuous, Prime, Lightsworn, and Incorruptible, the powers that Mom carries in stones on her crown, I was born with them in my blood. I sense them sizzle through my body, my storm power melding with them, causing the air to move around me.
Oomph!
A massive warm body slams into me and I fly backward under the force of the movement. An enormous hand and two strong arms cushion my back and head as we hit the ground. Shocked to my core, I stare up into the deep brown eyes of a gargoyle I’ve never met before, a gargoyle whose determined gaze meets my own. He releases his wings with a thump, the largest, blackest wings I’ve ever seen spreading across the air above me and completely obscuring my view of the falling rocks, forming a shield between me and the danger.
“Stay beneath my wings!” he cries.
“But I…” Don’t need your help.
My whisper is lost in his roar of pain as the first rock hits his back, striking so hard that he jolts down onto me, his bare chest pressing into mine for a moment. For a crazy second, my gargoyle instincts kick in and I inhale his scent. He smells like earth and wood, like a slowly burning campfire. Warm. Capable of ig
niting into a furious flame. I’ve never inhaled such a scent and it fills my head, overwhelming me, forcing me to lie still beneath him.
The muscles of his stomach and chest tighten against mine as he quickly slides his arms out from beneath me and punches his fists into the earth on either side of my head, pushing up so he doesn’t crush me, bracing for the second wave of rocks.
Rational thought returns and I struggle to move. I should be protecting him, not the other way around. It’s my duty, my job, to protect my people from harm. Doesn’t he know that? Doesn’t he know who I am?
The vibrations through his body, the way he dips toward me as the rocks hit, tell me that they’re tearing his skin to shreds. He clenches his fists hard enough that they flush pale with blood loss.
The rocks are breaking his back. A sob of fear rises inside me. He’ll be killed trying to protect me.
If he dies…
I can’t heal the dead.
My power roars to the surface, ready to push him out of the path of the falling stones, but the thunderous downfall stops as suddenly as it started. The final pebbles clatter along his wings and join the others forming piles on either side of us.
He retracts his wings with a groan, his head tipping forward. He’s barely conscious and his body slowly lowers toward mine. I arch up against him and for another crazy second, my senses go wild, my body flushing hot in a way that shocks me. I fight a sudden need to shift my legs and hook them around his hips, wrapping my arms around his massive chest instead and using my inner strength to lift him carefully upright into a standing position.
His head drops to my shoulder. He inhales, his breath tickling the skin beneath my ear and making me tingle to my toes. “You smell like dewdrops on lilies.” He sighs against my neck. “This is a good way to die.”
I cast him a fierce frown, sliding my way beneath one of his arms, supporting him as I maneuver my way under his wings around to his back. I guide him to the ground so that I can kneel behind him, leaning him back against me. Fear is sharp inside me as his wings droop on either side of me, indicating he’s close to death.
