I didn’t answer.
After a moment of long silence, he let out an irritated sigh and sniffed the air. “I thought you would have learned your lesson after our last deal.”
He was baiting me for an answer, trying to determine where I was. The sky was like a black hole, an endless pit of dark. Clouds rumbled overhead, hiding the crescent moon and the stars, sucking up any possible light. The fae could not see me, but I could see him.
Yet, I knew the second I spoke or moved, I’d tip him off. I had an advantage, but so did he. Luckily, the waves were a roar and the wind whipped so hard that my scent was tossed this way and that.
After another long moment, he snarled. “The deal was that we fight. Cowering in a corner is breaking that deal, goddess.”
I sucked in a breath and began to creep to the right, closer to the rushing water below. Despite my cleverly thought-out plan, my insides had been carved into stone. My palms were slick against the hilt of my sword, and every single inch of me was deathly cold.
He wouldn’t kill me. Of that, I was certain. The sword he held wasn’t mine. But there were so many other lives on the line.
I kept moving until I’d crept behind him. He cocked his head, listening.
“I can hear you,” he said in a sing-song voice, twisting toward the direction I’d just come. But I was no longer standing there.
I bent low and swung my sword at the fae king’s legs. The blade hit its mark, slicing through the skin and tendons on the back of his knees. He screamed out in rage, falling forward onto his knees.
Triumph shuddered through my heart. I lifted my sword once again and sliced it at his—
Oberon hurled himself backwards, and his large, bulky body slammed into mine. I fell with a loud crack onto the hard stone ground, and my sword clattered away from my slick palm.
He rolled off of my body and onto his front, pushing himself up with his pointed sword, his knees strengthening with every moment that passed. Head still ringing, I scrabbled away from him, snatching my sword from the ground before he could spot it.
A laugh rumbled from his throat. “Nice try. Did I not mention that, as the Unseelie King, I heal far faster than the normal fae male? And normal fae males heal very, very fast.”
Again, I went silent.
Next time, I would have to do far more than attempt to weaken him. I would need to land a killing blow, one that he was unable to recover from. Slowly taking him down, wound after wound after wound, would not work as I’d originally hoped. I could dart in and out of the darkness as much as I wanted, but he would merely heal within seconds.
I shifted back to the left and then jumped into the fray once again. Steel clashed against steel. My head rang from the impact of it, and my arm began to ache. Gritting my teeth, I jumped back, disappearing once again into the shadows to catch my breath.
“Enough,” he said in a chilling tone of voice. “I’m growing bored. No more playing.”
He rushed forward, knocking me off-balance. His blade swung toward my head, but I ducked just in time to dodge it. Before I could recover, he slammed his shoulder into mine, and I went tumbling down. He was on top of me in an instant, his sharp teeth inches from my neck.
“My killing blow could be this, you know?” he hissed into my ear. Shivers of horror ran down my spine, and my eyes went black in the corners, more from fear than from pain. “I can rip open necks with my teeth.”
I squeezed my eyes tight, heart throbbing in my chest.
And then something sharp and cold dragged down my cheek. I cracked open my eyes. He held the goddess sword in his hands, the sword that he was now digging into my skin. I gasped, legs flailing as I tried to shove his heavy body off of mine.
“Oh, look at this,” he said with a smile. “Maybe I should kill you after all.”
“You wouldn’t,” I said, heart thundering. “If I die, you’re stuck here forever. You’ll never get to go back to your realm.”
“Maybe that’s not such a terrible thing,” he hissed. “There are no humans in my realm for me to eat. Not many, anyway.”
New fear shook my heart. I didn’t think he was bluffing. My hand tightened around the hilt of the sword I’d been using to fight, and I shoved it between his body and mine. For protection, more than anything. And because I had no idea what else I could do.
He glanced at the sword that I now clung to, its sharp blade digging into my chest. “That’s not going to solve a damn thing. Say goodbye, goddess.”
He slid the tip of the sword down my cheek, and I gripped my own with both of my hands. The sharp edges stung my palms, but they didn’t slice through my skin. Grunting, I pushed against it, harder and harder until it was now only inches from the fae king’s neck.
Closing my eyes, I summoned my powers, transforming my fear into that hot, sharp electric fire that burned somewhere deep inside me. And then I shoved my hands up with every ounce of strength inside my bones, forcing the sharp edge of the blade into the fae king’s neck.
He coughed and choked as the blade cut through his skin, and the goddess sword fell from his fingers. His shaking hands pressed against the wound, and he clawed at me to move away. Blood tumbled from his neck, landing in heavy splotches on my face. My heart shuddered as I stared up into his agony-filled eyes. With the last remnants of my strength, I did the one thing in the world that could finally end it all.
I shoved the sword in deeper. And then the fae king died with nothing but darkness surrounding him.
Chapter 36
The remaining fae left when they heard the king had died.
“Any deals King Oberon made are rendered moot now,” a fae warrior said, stepping forward. “He tricked you. We are not obligated to end the battle, for we ourselves did not make that deal.”
The Queen merely strode forward and stared him right in the eyes, shadows twisting around her body now that the fires had died.
“However, we are tired of fighting a war we never wanted to fight. We are sick of his compulsion. All we want is to return to our realm. So, we shall end this fight. And we’ll take the king’s body along with us in order to give him a proper fae burial.”
“Wait,” I said, reaching out just before they turned to go. “If all the deals have been broken, does that mean…” I glanced at the shifters who grumpily stood beside me. They still weren’t happy I’d agreed to fight the fae king one on one, even if I had survived.
“The illusion protecting your city is gone, and the gargoyles will not turn to stone if you leave this place.”
Relief and despair waged war inside me. I’d gotten what I wanted but at the cost of something else.
“Would you be willing to make another deal?” I asked, but immediately a chorus of “no” exploded around me. From not only my shifters but from the witches and even from some of the fae.
So, I winced, mouthed an apology, and watched the fae leave.
* * *
After we tended to the wounded and cleaned up the city as best we could, Kipling called a pow wow in the Scriptorium. Even though we’d won, the aura of defeat hung heavily in the air. I grabbed a blanket and curled up on the sofa that sat next to Alaric’s frozen stone form. Tess squeezed in next to me while Eli perched on a chair by the desk. Sebastian and Silas glowered in the corner. Marcus stood behind me, massaging my shoulders, and Jasper…he was still injured from the fight.
“Rowena,” Kipling said with a nod. “I want to thank you for what you did, though I would have stopped you if I had any idea it was happening.”
“Yeah, good luck with that,” Sebastian said in a bark.
I glared at him.
Kipling continued. “And now it looks as though you finally have your sword, and you are well on your way to conquering your powers. Not to mention, the deal that trapped you here has now been broken. So, you may now be on your way.”
I blinked at him, taken aback by his words. “What?”
My thought was echoed by all of those around me. Marcus’s
hands tightened on my shoulders, and Tess’s spine went stick straight.
“What are you talking about, old man?” Sebastian asked. “She’s got to stay here with us. The magic hunters are still out there.”
“Ah.” Kipling steepled his hands underneath his chin. “But she is strong now. I think she proved that tonight. If she wants to go, we must allow it. The lack of an illusion complicates things, but we can handle it. I’m certain of it.”
“I…” My heart throbbed. This was everything I’d wanted before. Freedom, to go wherever I pleased. To see the world. To live my own life as I saw fit. But something had changed in me this past week. Marcus had shown me a different side of life, one where I didn’t have to feel so alone. One where sticking together was far more important than being on my own.
I reached up behind me and squeezed Marcus’s hands. “I’m not going anywhere. This is where I belong.”
* * *
On my way back to my room to change into some clothes that didn’t reek of blood, I stopped by Jasper’s room to see how he was doing. He was tucked up in his bed, his chest rising and falling underneath the chalk-white sheets. I eased onto his bed and took his hand in mine. He’d been so strong, so brave. If he hadn’t hurled himself at the fae the way he had…those witches might not have gotten away.
He peeled open swollen eyes and blinked up at me, a lazy smile spreading across his face. “Ro. Kipling told me you kicked some serious ass.”
“Thanks to your great training.”
His golden eyes went serious, and he laced his fingers through mine. When he spoke, his voice was rough. “He had the sword. You could have been killed.”
“But I wasn’t.”
A hunger sparked in his eyes, and he pulled me to his chest. My fingers splayed across his corded muscles, and a thrill went through my gut. Sighing, I leaned into him, enjoying the way his body felt against mine. And then my eyes caught on his mouth, at the way his tongue whispered across his lips.
My thighs clenched tight.
“You don’t know how much I want you, Ro,” he growled.
Before I could answer, he slid his hand around the back of my neck and brought my mouth to his. His lips were hot and needy, and he crushed them against me with an intensity that took my breath away.
And then I pushed him away, gasping as I jumped off the bed. “Jasper, we can’t. You said you’d turn to stone.”
He shook his head, crooking his finger in an invitation to come back. “We already kissed once, and nothing happened. I—”
His body snapped like an unseen force had slammed into him. The roar that exploded from his throat was one that shook me to my very core, and it was one I swore I’d heard in the past.
I rushed to his side, but he pushed me back as he jumped from the bed, his entire body naked but for a low-slung pair of dark gray shorts.
“Something’s happening,” he said, golden eyes wild and strange.
“Jasper,” I said slowly, reaching out to take his hand, hoping, praying that this wasn’t what I thought it was. But the pit in my stomach only grew and grew when Jasper ran from the room, his bare feet slapping on the stone floor.
I followed, hand clutched to my heart.
And then we were outside. The clouds had cleared, and a crescent moon hung eerily in the star-studded sky. One, two, three, the clock tower chimed out.
“No,” I moaned, chasing after Jasper. This couldn’t be happening. I thought I’d beaten this vision. I thought it had vanished when the fae king had died. But now, I realized, this had never been about the fae king and that terrible deal. It had been about me. Me and Jasper.
He was bound by an oath to protect me, an oath not to touch me.
And now we were paying the price.
A roar shook through the night, and I rounded the corner. Jasper’s body rippled and shook. I tumbled toward him, tears streaming down my face. He reached toward the sky as the stone consumed him whole. And then the roar stopped. The stone became still.
I wrapped my arms around his body and sobbed. Jasper was no longer here.
* * *
Thanks so much for reading the second volume in Rowena’s adventure with her stone guardians. BOUND BY STONE, book 3, will be released on February 23rd and is available for preorder on Amazon now. Just click here to grab your copy.
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About the Author
Jenna Wolfhart is a Buffy-wannabe who lives vicariously through the kick-ass heroines in urban fantasy. After completing a PhD in Librarianship, she became a full-time author and now spends her days typing the fantastical stories in her head. When she's not writing, she loves to stargaze, binge Netflix, and drink copious amounts of coffee.
Born and raised in America, Jenna now lives in England with her husband, her dog, and her four ratties.
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Carved in Stone_Protectors of Magic_Book 2 Page 16
