by Leia Stone
This time her smile did reach her eyes and she stepped closer. “Of course not. I only needed him because he said he could find me the second dark staff. I almost killed him when he lost it to you shifters.” Her lips curled in disgust. “But he assured me you would fall for the other part of our plan. You’d come and find us here, and he would be able to retrieve the staff, which is rightfully mine.”
“Where is Luca?” I repeated with more force.
“In New York, marching on your people.”
Everything inside of me clenched, and on instinct I reached for my bond to the thousands of wolf and bear shifters I ruled. The essence of my people so strong that I could almost scent shifter on the breeze. As their energy filled me, a power like no other strengthened my body. It was as I had always said, as I had always believed: a queen was only as strong as her people. And I would use my love for them to destroy the winter queen—a monarch who did not value the ones she should.
I lashed out with so much magic it blew both of us back a few feet.
The queen recovered quickly, throwing magic at me in one blue stream of ice. I blocked, and we traded blow for blow in a flurry of ice and wind. I had to hop to stay on my one good foot, but the power of my shifters and their bond to their queen was giving me a fighting chance. Any time I came close to a tree, I leaned against it for support. It was a comfort, like I had an ally right at my side. Isalinda narrowed her eyes on me more than once and I knew she was trying to figure out where my sudden strength was coming from.
If she hadn’t been so selfish and evil, she would have known. It was there all along for her to utilize, but as a true narcissist, she thought of no one but herself.
Neither of us gave an inch, and I was afraid we would be locked in this battle forever. Our powers were just too evenly matched, especially while I was injured.
The tree next to Isalinda moved. What in the…? It actually moved.
Roots ripped out of the ground, throwing dirt and bark everywhere as the queen lurched to a halt, her jaw unhinging as she stared unblinkingly at the mobile tree.
I wanted to stare too. It was probably one of the most incredible, unbelievable things I had ever seen. Animation had overtaken the tree; it had arm-like branches, leg-like roots, and it was walking.
Focus. I forced myself to look away. This was my one chance.
Building up a large ball of magic, I hopped forward, and keeping nothing inside, thrust it at the queen, directing it to encase her. This was the spell she had first used on me in her castle grounds. It felt right, poetic even, to use her own spell against her. Even though she was the winter queen, I could use the ice against her.
She froze in place, literally, too spent to break through my frost. From her toes to her neck, encased in my spell, only her head remained exposed. Kneeling down, I fashioned a sword from the ice, a long, lethal, shimmery blue number. Sometimes my winter magic was beyond incredible. I couldn’t believe I’d ever been afraid of it.
Holding my weapon, I hobbled toward the queen, relieved that some strength seemed to be returning in my leg. The pain was a dull throb now. She tracked my movements, her eyes filled with a tumultuous fury. Even when vulnerable, she couldn’t turn off her bitch face.
“Your reign is over,” I declared. She opened her mouth, but before she got the chance to cast a spell, or speak at all, I swung my ice sword, and in one clean blow took her head off.
It was a more humane death than she deserved, considering the way she tortured people, had cut up a little girl, but I was done playing games. I wanted to prove I was not like her in any way. She would have drawn out my death, hurt me as much as she could.
Her head went one way, her body another, falling to the ground and shattering the ice, her blood gushing into the air before settling to paint the snow in a macabre artwork. Red mist settled across the white signaling the end of a monarch. A tree, the one that had walked and distracted her, shot out a branch and pierced the winter queen’s abdomen, lifting her high up into the air. Another branch pierced through her skull, lifting it as well.
It then carried both to the burning lake, and flung her body out into its flaming depths.
She cared not for nature. Neglected her trees.
I realized another tree had uprooted and was standing at my side, its branch brushing my arm.
As I expected, her inability to put her land and people first had come back to bite her.
Thank you, I said. I will always treat trees and nature with the respect they deserve. You have a friend and ally in me.
It extended its branch arm toward me, and as I reached out to grab it, thinking it was like a handshake, a perfectly polished walking stick broke off. I smiled, sheathing my ice sword just in case I needed it again.
Placing one end of the stick on the ground, I leaned into it as I hurried forward, using my bad leg more fully than I had up to this point. My leg didn’t collapse into mush, which was a great sign, but it still hurt like all hell. Pain shot up to my kneecap and I sucked in a breath.
Okay, it definitely needed more time to heal.
I eased some of my weight off it, putting more onto the stick as I headed toward Kade. Through the trees, I was catching glimpses of the darkness, and as I hobbled closer I saw that Kade had the Dark Fae Lord pinned against a tree. Now both of his antlers were hacked off — one lying in a puddle of black oil.
The back of Kade’s thigh had a wide four-inch gash that didn’t seem to be healing, but he was standing strong, so either it wasn’t laced with dark poison or my mate had developed some sort of immunity after last time.
Just behind them was an advancing line of a half-dozen killians, no doubt trying to come to their master’s aid. At this stage, they were being held off by Dante and Kian—who must have crossed the long way around the lake—the pair swinging their swords with precision, taking off heads left and right. Satisfied they were okay, I focused on the more pressing problem.
I limped closer to Kade quickly, one hand on my walking stick and the other on my sword. Whatever the ice magic had done, my weapon remained strong and cold beneath my touch. A breeze blew a wave of smoke from the lake through me, and I coughed a few times as the acridness invaded my nose and lungs.
I’ve killed the queen. I’m coming to help, I sent to Kade, because at the moment I couldn’t see him through the blackness.
I wasn’t sure what state physically or mentally he was in, I hadn’t been able to focus on him during my fight. But I needed him to know that I was here now. I had his back.
Put up your shield. His response was weak and delayed. He has more magic than we presumed. I’ve almost … got him.
I was through the smoke now, nearly at Kade’s side. My focus was on him, the worry bubbling in my gut again. He had sounded so strained. I had no idea what he was doing to kill the Dark Fae Lord but … he did seem to be in control. I slowed, erecting a shimmery bubble of magic across my skin, a technique I’d learned from Violet and Rowan. It was supposed to repel dark spells.
I had no idea if it would work against the strength of this particularly dark fae, but it was better than nothing. When I was about six feet from them, Kade lost his focus. It was no more than a split-second that his energy wavered, but it was enough for the fae lord to find strength to attack. Kade was thrown high into the air. He arced up, and then fell with a thud right at my feet.
I heard a bone snap, but as soon as Kade had fallen he was standing again. Somehow. The look on his face was beautiful and deadly. It was a Kade I didn’t really know, a warrior, a killer. But, when I searched deep in our bond, I sensed my mate under his lethal intentions.
The Dark Fae Lord picked up his hacked-off antler and held it in his hands. It was freely dripping that poisonous oil. Within seconds it had transformed into a long, pointed, wickedly sharp weapon. That dark stone — his staff was in his other hand — had given him some extraordinary gifts. From the story he told me, it sounded as if he had once been just an ordinary fae. He’d wan
ted to be more, and he had succeeded. But at what cost?
The dark fae lifted his head and sniffed, looking over his shoulder at Kian, who was now a mere five feet from him, fighting a killian. Kian and Dante had been pushed forward to the edge of this fight.
“Your kin? He smells of you,” the Dark Fae Lord murmured.
In a motion so fast I almost missed it happening, the fae dove toward Kian, antler-weapon raised. I threw my hands up, calling my magic forward.
“Kian!” Kade bellowed, sprinting toward his brother. He wasn’t going to make it in time, hampered by whatever bone his fall had broken. I shot my magic off in a quick blast, hoping to at least distract the Dark Fae Lord, but my aim was off. It hit a mere three inches from his feet, freezing the ground there.
Before Kade or I could do anything, the fae shoved his antler-weapon low into Kian’s back, slowly ripping it up into his chest, inflicting maximum damage. Somewhere deep in the woods I heard Shelley scream, a haunting wail that filled the air with pain and sorrow. Tears sprang to my eyes, the pain in my heart so sharp and aching that I held a hand to my chest to try and ease it.
Kade’s chest was heaving, bear roars echoing across the clearing. We both hobbled forward together — I had all but abandoned my stick now, choosing the pain for a faster gait. When I reached for Kade’s mind I slammed up against a wall of darkness. It was like a thick cloud, but with much more substance.
My mate was in a bad place I could not reach. The Fae Lord spun around, staff raised, but he was too slow. In his pleasure at killing, in his bloodlust, he had forgotten there was another bear brother, one he had just enraged. Kade let out a bear roar and swiped with a partially-shifted hand claw across the dark one’s face.
He was aiming to hurt, not kill. Kade was too far gone in his own pain and fury. All he wanted was revenge. A row of deep cuts sprang up across the fae lord’s face, black blood oozing out of them, and that injury was enough to distract the evil bastard. As he cried out, reaching for his face, Kade swiped again. This time I thought he was going for a kill, but instead he snatched up the Dark Fae Lord’s staff.
Maybe he wasn’t as far gone as I had thought.
He had skipped his chance to hurt the fae lord more, going for the weapon. Because he was the only one here who could handle the dark stone. My mate staked the staff into the ground, and then with one kick snapped it in half. The fae let out a weak cry, which turned into a high-pitched screech when Kade used his mighty strength to propel the top half, with the dark crystal on it, out into the burning lake. The second it hit the fire, thunder rolled across the sky and the Dark Fae Lord fell to his knees.
Chapter Thirteen
Arianna, the great winter.
I never expected fire could destroy the stone, or regular fire at least, as it did not destroy mecca, and the energy of this stone was similar. But I’d already noticed that there was something different about this dark lake of flames, this elven fire. Which hopefully meant the stone was gone. Forever. The defeated-looking fae was certainly acting like it was.
Kade, who was no longer limping, leaned down and snatched up the second dark staff, the one he had been training with. He returned with it in his grasp, face devoid of any emotion, almost as if he were a robot, and stared down at the fae still crumpled on the ground, oily blood seeping out of his face wounds.
A small, whimper-like noise escaped from me, and Kade turned in my direction. I almost screamed when I saw his eyes. Gone was that shimmery bronze that I loved, and in its place, pure darkness.
Oh shit.
When my mate turned back to his enemy, I lurched forward, halting myself. I didn’t know what to do. Should I be stopping Kade from touching any more darkness? Or would the death of the Dark Fae Lord return him to me?
Before I could make a decision, Kade swung the staff around so that the stone was facing the fae. He then lifted the weapon high, shifting into his half-bear form at the same time. I had no idea why, until he slammed the staff — dark crystal side down — into the fae’s chest. He must have needed the extra strength to make sure he could smash it all the way through, to make sure he killed the evil fae once and for all.
As the Dark Fae Lord fell backwards, Kade ripped the staff free, pulling out half or more of the fae’s chest. Everything in the clearing stilled, it seemed as if noise ceased, and then the fae grinned, blood stained teeth on display. “Darkness has … you …now,” he choked out, before coughing twice, and then with one last breath, he stilled.
The air charged with electricity, and then, in an instant, the thunder stopped and the sky shone a perfect, cloudless blue.
The Dark Fae Lord was dead.
I approached Kade slowly. “You need to throw the staff into the lake,” I told him. Already I could see the fire across that expanse was dying down. The evil was dispersing from this land, and when it was gone, so too would be the fire able to remove the crystal from this world. Or at least take it somewhere that was untouchable to any more fae.
Kade snarled in my direction, spinning, and running for his brother.
I was turning to follow him when a line of tall entities stepped into view. All breath choked out of me, and I stood dumfounded for a beat.
The … trees.
While Kade had been fighting the Dark Fae Lord, the trees had been amassing an army. There was a long line now, all of them walking over the ground; a true sense of life filled them, despite their blackened limbs. The darkness leaving had returned some of their power. I watched in awed silence as they started to toss the dark creatures into the lake—creatures who had fallen with their lord—cleaning the land.
I moved quickly toward one of them; it halted, waiting for my touch. Can you please place the Dark Fae Lord’s body in the fiery lake? I asked, when my hand was pressed to its middle.
With pleasure, it responded.
Thank you!
I turned then and ran, still a little awkwardly, toward Kian. As I dropped down at his side, on the opposite side to where Kade knelt, my mate lifted his face to meet my gaze. “He’s dead.”
Those words came out quietly, before he dropped his head back and the deepest, most grief-stricken bellow emerged from him. I heard an echoing cry, louder than before. Shelley was coming for her mate; she was going to see his lifeless body lying here.
“Kade…” I didn’t know what to say. I was terrified at the darkness in his eyes, and absolutely devastated about his brother.
Kade sat there for two seconds, frozen. Then his grip on the staff tightened. “Violet,” he breathed.
Violet? Violet couldn’t get here in time to help, and she definitely couldn’t bring people back from the dead.
“Kade…” I repeated slowly, hoping to jolt him out of whatever weird place he was in. Grief had obviously affected his mind, which was to be expected, but with so much darkness within him I was worried about his next actions.
The crystal on the end of the staff pulsed then, the black blood of the Dark Fae Lord sliding away; the veins in Kade’s arm that held it turned black. I could see rivers of ink throbbing up and down his arms.
“Violet showed me the way. She foresaw this,” he said in a voice I didn’t recognize.
“Kade, you’re scaring me. You need to let go of the staff now. It is changing you. Kade!” I moved closer, reaching for him, my energy already surging forward in preparation of siphoning the darkness from him.
“I can save him,” he said as the black ink in his veins continued to expand, surging up to his throat and down in under his shirt.
“At what cost?” I shouted, losing my cool as I dove forward, ready to rip the staff away from him. Kade anticipated this move, though, and while he didn’t push me away, he did angle himself so that I tumbled past him.
I crashed into the ground, and as I pushed myself up, Shelley came tearing through the woods. She was cradling Jota, Kian’s lifeless familiar in her arms. We hadn’t brought our familiars with us, but Kian’s must have crossed over to the Otherw
orld somehow when he sensed his bonded one dying.
“Kian!” she shouted desperately, slipping and sliding across the melting snow as she fell at his feet.
Kade faced me warily. I’ve got this, Ari. You need to trust me.
I recoiled as his darkness brushed against my mind, and I couldn’t get the fae’s last words out of my head, darkness has you.
What the hell was I supposed to do? Charge my own mate and rip that staff from his hands, or do as he asked and trust him? In normal circumstance that wouldn’t even be a question to ask. I always trusted Kade, but this was not my Kade. Not completely. The essence of him was slipping away from me, and I was afraid it might already be too late.
But what if he could save his brother?
If I stopped him, he would never forgive me. I would lose him either way. I remained frozen for a beat, taking in Shelley’s sobbing figure, the dead familiar, and my mate, who was strongly resembling the Dark Fae Lord right now. I lowered my arm, knowing there was no other option.
I would just keep faith that I had saved him from the darkness once, so I could do it again.
But I still had to offer him one last thought, so he would understand how I felt. “Are you sure, Kade?” I asked him. “Will Kian return as he was? Your brother. Or will death have taken him only to return a shadow of the shifter you knew?”
Could we truly be returned from the dead? Should anyone mess with something that was the domain of the gods?
Kade took a deep breath in, staring at me with his black eyes. “This will work, Arianna. The darkness took him and the darkness will return him. But I must hurry, there is only a short window before his soul is beyond my reach.”
I nodded, stepping back, giving him space. Kade raised the staff high over his head as that black ink visibly pulsed in his veins. Then he spun the staff upside down so that the dark crystal was hovering just over Kian’s chest and brought it down hard, smacking his brother in the chest quickly before pulling up again. It was the same movement he’d used on the Dark Fae Lord, only this time he didn’t pierce his brother’s chest.
