by Anya Bast
She quickly dressed in a pair of jeans, a heavy black cable-knit sweater, and a pair of boots, then hurried through the side streets to the square. The fastest way back to Niall was cutting through the heart of the city to reach the ceantar dubh.
All around her people were screaming that the walls were broken, the fae were free! But others were yelling that the Phaendir were loose in the city, the Shadow Queen was dead, and all was lost. Everything had devolved into total chaos, and she didn’t know what was true.
The only thing she knew was that she needed to find Niall and her mother.
Concern for both of them tightened her stomach and made her chest ache. Never in her life had she been so worried. She really hoped that Niall and the others had managed to escape before Gideon had taken the place down.
But she doubted they’d had time.
The thought of Niall being crushed in a pile of rubble broke something deep inside her.
“You bastard,” she muttered as she pushed past a group of fae who were fleeing in the other direction. How dare he make her love him? How dare he make her care so much?
A tall water fae with blue-tinged skin stopped, grabbed her by the shoulders, and shook her. “The walls are coming down!” The woman’s eyes were shiny with excitement. “I can’t believe it! We’re finally free!”
In her head it sounded like, Your mother is somewhere choking to death all alone.
Elizabeth glowered at the water fae for a moment, then pushed past her. The next person who grabbed her and yelled in her face was going to get smacked. Forcing her way through the half-celebrating, half-fleeing throng, she continued on.
Near the statue of Jules Piefferburg, someone grabbed her by the shoulder. She rounded on the person, a diatribe ready on her tongue. As soon as she saw Niall’s face, her scowl turned to joy.
She threw herself into his arms. “Sweet Lady, Niall, I’m so happy to see you! I worried that building…Gideon.” Her words trailed off and she fell silent, gripping him as hard as she could, tears pricking her eyes and emotions clogging the back of her throat. “I thought you were dead.”
He cupped the back of her head and held her close, murmuring into her hair, “And I thought you hated me.”
She pushed away from him. He didn’t have a mark on him, not even a spot of soot or rubble. “I wish I did. It would make things easier. What happened? Have the walls fallen like everyone is saying? What’s going on?”
Niall shrugged. “My guess is as good as yours. All I know is one minute we’re chanting the spell from the Book of Bindings and Gideon is outside slamming the building with Phaendir juice. Next thing I know the building explodes, I’m falling into nothingness, then, pop, we all show up here in the middle of the square. Me, Bella, Bran, Aeric…everyone. Even Blix, Taliesin, and Bran’s stupid crow.”
He motioned to his right, and Elizabeth saw the Shadow Queen, Gabriel, and everyone else. The Shadow Queen had begun collecting a crowd of fae from every social stratum, all looking for leadership.
She frowned at him. “What happened to the book? To Gideon?”
He shrugged again. “The book is gone. The Phaendir also appear to be gone, or at least scattered. Literally.” He paused, wincing. “We keep finding pieces of them everywhere.”
“No one knows what happened?”
“Not for sure. The fae who were near the building in the ceantar dubh say that after the building collapsed, the Phaendir began wailing about how Labrai had deserted them, then Gideon’s barriers gave way and the sluagh and goblins broke through.”
Elizabeth swallowed hard and hugged herself. “That means it’s true. The walls have fallen.”
“We haven’t seen any Phaendir around that are, well, whole. If there are no Phaendir—”
“There are no walls.” Cold fear fisted in her stomach. Where was her mother?
“I didn’t understand the words of the spell we chanted, but Aislinn says she did. She says the spell in the back of the Book of Bindings created a mental illusion for the Phaendir. Essentially, it took away the Phaendir’s faith in Labrai long enough for them lose their hold on the wall. She thinks when they lost the power of their hive mind and their protective magick, that’s when the sluagh and goblins moved in.”
She looked around, still seeing the sluagh wandering. “But the sluagh is still here.” A seed of hope for her mother bloomed. “If—”
Niall shook his head. “The Summer Queen is still alive. They’re waiting for her protective shields to falter.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I wish you would stop saying that.”
“I wish I had other words to use. Better ones.” He pulled her against him and wrapped his warm, strong arms around her. She closed her eyes. “I don’t.”
“Elizabeth! Niall!” It was the Shadow Queen’s voice.
They turned to find the crowd in front of the Unseelie Queen part, everyone looking at them. The only person Elizabeth saw was Thea, who stood at the base of the statue. The moment Elizabeth recognized her, she broke away from Niall and ran toward her. “Mom!”
She came to a skidding halt, flying into her mother’s arms. Thea embraced her, holding her close. It took everything for Elizabeth not to sob. Her mother didn’t need that extra emotional weight on her right now. She had more than enough to bear as it was.
“Elizabeth,” her mother whispered. “The walls have fallen. I can feel it.” There was happiness in her voice instead of the grief and fear she would have expected.
Elizabeth raised her head and took a step backward. Her mouth worked, but she couldn’t think of a thing to say.
Her mother’s gaze met hers and there was sadness there. “It’s time. The sprae are starting to leave.”
A moment later Elizabeth’s eye was caught by a twinkling. Elizabeth looked around her, staring into the sky. Lights flickered and twinkled all over the city as the sprae rose. She backed away, turning in a circle. “No,” Elizabeth breathed. “Don’t go.” Fisting her hands at her sides until her fingers ached, she watched helplessly as they went no matter her wishes on the subject.
Oh, sweet Lady, this is not fair.
Her mother came to stand beside her, watching them leave.
A strong hand squeezed her shoulder. She looked up to see that Niall was there, with a hand not only on her shoulder, but one on Thea’s as well.
Shoving off his touch, she whirled. “You don’t get to be here, Niall. This is your fault.”
The accusation wasn’t fair and she knew it, but she needed her anger right now. Rage rose up within her and she embraced it, wrapped herself in it like armor. It was better than feeling grief and fear, better than the dread of the certainty she was about to watch her mother die right in front of her.
Thea bristled. “Stop it, Elizabeth! You’re making things worse than they need to be.”
She turned toward her mother, fighting tears. “I’m not the type to just accept the inevitable.”
“You are a fighter, but you have to know when to bend during winds of change. If you can’t bend, you’re going to snap in two. Everything changes, my girl. You have to learn to let go.” Thea looked at Niall. “You’ll be there to catch her, won’t you, Niall? You love her. I can see that. No matter what she says, what accusations she hurls, you love her.”
Niall’s gaze had fastened on Elizabeth’s face. “More than anything.”
“She loves you, too,” Thea answered. “Don’t let her run away from you.”
Niall smiled, his face softening and his eyes filling with love. Elizabeth’s resolve wavered. “I don’t scare that easy,” he said. “Don’t worry, Thea.”
Elizabeth looked between them. They were ganging up on her, not allowing her the rage that comforted her in the face of what was to come. Thea stood in the middle of the square, the Black Tower smoking behind her, face upturned to the afternoon sky and a small smile playing around her mouth. Snowflakes fell gently onto her cheeks. All around them the spr
ae rose, like embers of a fire, swirling into the air and taking her life force with her. Still, Thea seemed calm—at peace.
If her mother couldn’t be mad at Niall over this…how could she?
Elizabeth let out a long, slow breath and closed her eyes. The rage leaked out of her body, little by little. It was like transforming into her water self—giving in, surrendering. Letting go. Flowing.
“Elizabeth.”
Her eyes opened to see Thea swaying on her feet. Niall was there, catching her before she fell. He lowered her to the cobblestones.
THIRTY
SHE raced to her mother’s side. Thea’s breathing was shallow and growing shallower by the minute. Her face had gone pale and her lips were turning blue. Elizabeth took her mother’s hand and stared down into her face, teardrops squeezing from her eyes and hitting Thea’s cheek.
Thea struggled to take in breaths, suffocating from a lack of life force. She reached up with a pale, shaking hand and cupped Elizabeth’s face, then she smiled. “It’s all right, Elizabeth. I’ll see you again, no time soon…but eventually.”
Elizabeth smiled down at her, thankful her mother seemed to be at peace with this. “I love you,” she whispered. “I’m going to miss you so”—she drew a shaky breath—“so much.”
Thea took Elizabeth’s hand and put it into Niall’s. “Not…alone,” she managed to force out.
Her head fell back onto the cobblestones and her eyes went wide for a moment. She gasped and clutched at her throat, unable to draw any air at all. Then a curious calm overcame her features. Her eyes focused on something neither she nor Niall could see, and her body relaxed. She smiled. Slowly, the light died in her eyes until they were glassy and vacant.
Then she was gone.
Elizabeth rocked back on her heels, pressing her free hand to her mouth. Tears filled her eyes, obscuring her vision. She squeezed them shut and the drops rolled down her cheeks. When Niall extricated his hand from hers, she realized she’d had a circulation-cutting grip on it.
He leaned forward, kissing Thea on her forehead, and then he gently closed her eyelids.
Elizabeth stared up into the sky. The glowing embers of the sprae were nearly gone, just one flitted here or there. Now only snowflakes fell against the gray velvet of the afternoon sky.
Sounds that had seemed to disappear while her mother had died grew louder in her ears. Laughter. Yelling. Gunshots in the distance. The crackle of the fire in the remains of the Black Tower behind them and the magickal efforts of the fae to quench the flames.
“Elizabeth.”
She blinked, the numbness slowly turning to pain. “Niall.” She didn’t know what else to say.
“The Wild Hunt will come for her soon.”
“I know.” She looked down at her mother’s body. A faint smile marked her pale, breathless lips. “She’ll be off to the Netherworld to see my father and my brother.” She glanced at Niall. “Do you think it was them she was smiling at as she died?”
Niall shrugged. “There are more mysteries in this world than I can explain. Maybe so.”
“I want to think that.”
He stood and held out his hand to her. “Elizabeth, the walls have fallen. We’re free. Will you come with me?”
There was so much more to that question than the obvious.
She stared at his hand. If she took it, she was committing herself to him. She would be forgetting the past and forging a new future…in a new world. She would be leaving the bosca fadbh behind, his decisions behind, her decisions behind. She would be forgiving him for leading her mother to the queen…and, as an extension, to her death.
Forgiveness of the past. Forging a new future together.
Could she do it? Did she love him enough? She looked up into his face and saw the note of fear and uncertainty in his expression. He was worried that she would walk away from him right now. Her heart swelled as she looked into his eyes.
She was done walking away from this man.
Reaching up, she took his hand and let him help her to her feet. She cupped his face in her hands and held his gaze. “I love you, Niall.”
Niall’s face crumbled in a rush of emotion, and he dragged her up against his chest, burying his nose in her hair. “I love you, too, Elizabeth. More than I’ve ever loved anyone.” He cupped her face between his hands and kissed her hard. She tasted teardrops on her tongue and wasn’t sure if they were hers or his. “I want you to be with me always.”
She kissed him, her tongue skating into his mouth to meet his. Breaking the deep kiss, she feathered her lips across his and breathed against his mouth, “I want that, too. Let’s leave this place behind.”
Leave all of it behind.
“Elizabeth?”
She turned in Niall’s arms at the sound of the queen’s voice. Aislinn’s face held a gentle expression. “I’m so very sorry you’ve lost your mother. She wants you to know that she’s fine and she loves you.”
Elizabeth stiffened, then remembered that Aislinn was a necromancer, able to communicate with the dead once they’d passed.
“She’s here with us right now,” the queen continued, “waiting for the Wild Hunt.” Aislinn smiled. “Honestly, she seems excited about what happens next. None of us know, you know. Not a necromancer like me or even the leader of the Wild Hunt.”
Elizabeth gazed out over the square, feeling the warm presence of her mother’s soul at her side, and watched the fae. They were no longer fleeing or screaming. Now they all celebrated, jumping around, laughing, and dancing. Even the human soldiers who had been there to keep the peace had thrown down their weapons and seemed to be having a blast, fear forgotten. The Faemous crew roamed the area, interviewing excited fae who yelled and laughed into the camera.
For the first time since the Summer Queen had come to her with the pieces, Elizabeth could see beauty in Piefferburg.
She twined her hand with Niall’s. Yes, what the queen said was true on more than one level. None of them knew what came next.
A sparkling caught her attention and she looked down at her feet to see her mother’s body shimmering with an internal light. “What’s happening?” she asked, stepping away.
Aislinn was quiet for a moment, speaking, Elizabeth presumed, with her mother’s disembodied soul. “The sprae are no longer here to maintain her physical structure, so it’s disintegrating.”
Elizabeth knew that the body at her feet was not her mother; her mother’s soul was standing right next to her, after all. Still, even though the disintegration was a beautiful shimmering, sparkling event, Elizabeth choked on a bubble of grief as her mother’s body turned to ash.
Niall pulled her toward him and shielded her face as a brilliant flash of light enveloped them. When Elizabeth looked back, even the ashes had blown away. Niall gently kissed the top of her head.
“Gabriel, Aeric, Melia, Bran, and Aelfdane have been called by the Wild Hunt even though it’s daytime,” said Aislinn. “Gabriel told me he’d never seen the Hunt arrive with so many horses.”
Of course. That was because today the Hunt would ride all over the world. All the free fae who’d died since the Wild Hunt had been imprisoned would finally be reaped, along with those, like Liam’s wife, who had committed murder.
“Your mother will be in the Netherworld very soon.”
“Where is the Summer Queen?” asked Niall.
Elizabeth jerked; she’d totally forgotten about her.
Aislinn’s face grew grim. “Gideon is dead, and the walls have fallen. She’s defeated.” She turned and looked pointedly at the Rose Tower. “I have a good idea where to find her. Shall we? She still needs to be dealt with, after all.”
“With reinforcements,” Niall answered. “Sure.” He motioned at his brother, Ronan, who stood with his wife, Bella, not far away. Ronan and Bella joined them, as did Charlotte and Emmaline.
The group made their way to the opposite end of the square, where the shiny rose quartz tower still gleamed in the falling snow. T
he double doors were thrown open. Elizabeth entered with Niall by her side and tried not to gawp. The only times she’d ever seen the interior of the Rose had been on Faemous, and that coverage had never done the place justice.
Walking into the Black Tower had been like having the enormous wings of a raven enfold her. Walking into the Rose Tower was a little like entering the human idea of heaven.
The foyer was made of polished rose quartz and marble shot through with warm veins of gold. A sweeping staircase stood directly in front of them, and two long corridors stretched off on either side. Except for the roaming, frustrated sluagh the place was completely empty.
“I called off the goblins,” said the Shadow Queen, her voice echoing through the place creepily. “As living creatures with lives and children, I don’t like putting them in harm’s way unless it’s absolutely necessary. The sluagh can do what needs to be done next.”
She meant the destruction of the Summer Queen. Elizabeth hated Caoilainn, but she couldn’t suppress a shiver of dread for the woman’s ultimate fate.
Their footsteps echoed as the Shadow Queen led them to the right, down a long corridor to a set of elaborately carved doors.
Elizabeth frowned. “Where is the loyal Imperial Guard? I saw at least twenty of them back at the cliffs.”
“They’ve either deserted her, or she’s sent them away,” answered Aislinn. “I wouldn’t doubt the latter. Caoilainn is a sore loser and can be unpredictable when her will is thwarted.” She stopped in front of the throne room doors and drew a breath, as if marshaling her strength. “Remember that unpredictability and be ready for anything.”
She pushed the doors open.
WHITE light poured from the Summer Queen’s receiving chamber, making Niall blink. He pulled Elizabeth against his side as if he could protect her, all the while with a defensive charm ready on his tongue. All around him, claws scuttled on the marble floor as the sluagh scrambled around them to enter the chamber.
