That’s Spider-Man, my young Padawan. But we’ll get you there.
Whatever. You be careful. All of you. I love you.
There’s something in the way he sends it over the Link that warms my heart. Tyler wasn’t just speaking to me but to everyone, and while the shadings might be different between all of us, Tyler’s totally dedicated and devoted to all of us equally.
You too. I love you, I send back. Turning, Jacob, Cole, and I progress on, and it feels like we’re starting to climb. As we do, I stay between Cole and Jacob, ready to unleash whatever I can.
“Jacob?” I ask as we twist our way through the maze. “I had a question about my visions.”
“What’s that?” Jacob asks. “How I survived that ass-kicking by Angus MacRae?”
“No . . . Teagan,” I reply. “I thought you told me you didn’t sleep with Teagan.”
Jacob blushes, keeping his eyes forward as we scout the darkness ahead. “Technically, I didn’t. We never went to sleep.”
“Does Tyler know?” I ask, and Jacob shakes his head. “Why?”
“He loves Teagan more than anyone except you,” Jacob whispers. “He’s always held her as the epitome of womanhood, and I never wanted him to think his sister was anything less.”
“I’d say she’s got great taste in men,” I whisper back. “And you were a perv even four hundred years ago.”
“Actually, I think I’d like to meet these women whom you inhabited,” Cole says quietly. “I admit, I saw Gwyn in the Vale.”
“How is she?” I ask.
“Married, with four children,” Cole says without any regret or jealousy. “She left the sexual healthcare trade and works with her husband, running a trade shop. She’s happy.”
“You’d have liked Moyna,” Jacob says, reminding me that one of the women I got to look through was human. “She had spunk, a lot like your sister.”
“I just bet,” I reply when suddenly, Jacob drops into the floor, disappearing. “Jacob!”
I’m here. Watch that step, it’s a doozy.
Are you safe?
Disarmed. I had to drop my knives to grab a bar, he sends back. I can see a path downward but not back up.
Go, Cole sends. We’ll keep going.
Understood, Jacob sends, but I can feel the disquiet in his thoughts. He’s thinking the same thing I am, that whatever is going on, the Dark Rider’s doing this on purpose. Divide and conquer, but he’s also just playing with us. We’re rats in his maze, and he’s confident that no matter what, he’s going to win.
“I don’t think he’s trying to kill us outright,” Cole says, sensing my thoughts after using his sword to test the ground ahead of us. “He doesn’t want to take the risk of hurting you.”
“Great . . . Daddy’s little girl,” I mutter, lightning flickering between my fingertips. “At least I have some of my powers.”
“We may need them,” Cole says. “My sword is powerful, but it’s not on his level.”
“We’ll handle it,” I promise him. “Cole, when we get back . . . how would you like to get married?”
Cole stops, looking at me like I’m insane. “This is hardly the time to ask, isn’t it? I mean, we’re Declared, but to set a date in the middle of hunting the Hell King and trying to rescue the emperor? You really do confuse me sometimes.”
“And I want to spend the next few hundred years confusing you,” I promise him. “All of you. But I don’t want to step into battle again without a ring on my finger.”
Cole takes my hand, pulling me close and kissing me tenderly. “Then as soon as we get back. Unless you want to invite guests? That could take a few weeks.”
“Guests would be nice,” I whisper, cupping his face. “But I’m not inviting my father.”
I kiss Cole again, reaching out through my Link to make it so that everyone feels my lips on theirs, and I feel all four of them kiss me back. It’s intense, and I can feel Jacob chuckle even as he pauses before working his way down the tower. Probably because he wants us to have sex this way. I do too, and I feel that light and love that is my Fae essence bubbling within me.
How could I ever doubt I’m anything but part-Fae? Yeah, I have dark passions, but I also have light inside me, and that light and love are going to be what gets us through the next fight.
Stepping back, I take Cole’s hand, and we keep going, winding our way up the tower. Suddenly, the floor levels out again, and I see ahead of us a chamber lit in evil green light and sunlight. “Here we are.”
“Whatever happens, I’m with you,” Cole promises me. We keep holding hands as we approach the doorway to the chamber, but suddenly, Cole’s pulled back, stopped in his tracks. “What the . . . ?”
“Did you really think you’d get to interrupt my first in the flesh meeting with my daughter?” a voice booms, making me turn around. The Dark Rider stands in the doorway of the chamber, waving me forward. “It is only out of affection for her that I didn’t crush you four gnats on the way up.”
“Eve—”
“I’ll handle this,” I tell Cole over my shoulder, walking forward. I cross into the huge chamber, which looks like a mockery of Kaelen’s throne room. Against one wall is a massive throne of black metal, twisted disturbing shapes that look like screaming figures melding together to form a seat. In front of it is Kaelen, knocked out and lying on the floor.
“Well, honey, it’s good to see you with my own eyes,” the Dark Rider says as I circle him, watching him carefully. “Although last time was really close.”
“Why’d you lead us here?” I ask, raising my hands. The Dark Rider waves his hand, and I feel a pressure against me, but I push back, and he turns, impressed.
“Why can’t a father just want to spend some quality time with his daughter?” he mocks, grinning. “You know, you got your hair from me. Your mother was so much more . . . Fae. That platinum blonde hair certainly did look good spread out on the sheets when I bred her, though.”
“And that’s the difference between you and me,” I hiss. “When I make love with my Guardians, when we make a child together, it will be bound in love from the moment of conception. Not arrogance and hatred.”
“Hmm . . . so you say. Let’s see if you’re even worthy of having my grandchild, though,” the Dark Rider says, sending a ball of green flame at me. I roll, my eyes blazing as I send it right back at him, adding Fae lightning to the mix and racking his body with intense power. He shudders, dropping to his knees, and I approach. As I do, he lifts his head to chuckle. “Well . . . you certainly do take after me in more than my hair.”
“I might be your daughter . . . but I’m my own woman,” I promise him, pulling the Star Stone dagger from my belt. He lowers his head, and I drive it into the back of his skull, figuring if there’s anywhere that can put the Rider down permanently . . . it’s there.
He drops to the floor, wavering in a shimmer of dark energy before disappearing. I gaze at where he fell, marveling that it’s all over.
“Not yet.”
Hearing the words, I turn and see Kaelen, smirking as he sits on the dark throne, his eyes blazing . . . with green fire.
“You’ve passed the test . . . now let’s talk for real.”
Chapter 36
Eve
“Kaelen?” I ask, horrible realization dawning in my chest. “Not Kaelen.”
Kaelen shakes his head, leaning back on the throne and giving me a chilling, ghastly smile. “Actually, yes and no,” he replies, his voice sounding more like his normal tone. “I’ve been in this body for so long that it feels quite homely. Like a well-lived-in apartment.”
“Not for much longer,” I growl, flinging lightning at him. He deflects it with a wave of his hand, laughing as my power bounces off and disappears into sizzling snakes of energy crackling around his throne and into the floor.
“Come on, Eve, I have the powers of the Fae’s most adept wizard and the ruler of Hell. Did you really think that’s going to work?”
“Wort
h a try.” I relax, feeling the exhaustion in my body from the intense use of my power since landing in Hell. I remember something Lorelai told me on the road to Solaria. Magic’s just like any other muscle in my body. I have to exercise it. I have to keep myself in shape. And while I’ve been reaching out and using the Moonstone, I’ve been floating around, flinging lightning bolts, and burning things up with fire from my eyes. I’ve got power, but I don’t have a lot of endurance right now. I need to get my ‘wind’ back. “So you want to talk. Let’s talk.”
“I need your help,” my father says, standing up. He lifts his hand, and in the center of the chamber rises a stone obelisk. On top of it is the Moonstone. “To unlock its true power.”
“Wait . . . what?” I stammer, looking at the pulsing blue orb. It’s just like the other one, glowing in a rolling pulse that mirrors its twin, starting at the bottom and rolling to the top. “The Moonstone?”
“Not quite,” my father replies, smiling. “It’s the Hellstone. They don’t know about it, of course, and the Moonstone doesn’t often talk about its twin. I’ve had it since this realm split off, right after the Fae got theirs. It’s been waiting a long time for this . . . for you.”
“For me?” I ask, blinking in shock. I feel like I can’t move, like all the strength is flowing out of me. “How?”
“You have been foretold since the beginning of the split,” my father says, walking around. “The ultimate joining of light and dark power. The one who can establish the limit, totally and irreversibly.”
“What is it you want?” I cry out, wheeling on him. “Why am I here?”
“Questions everyone asks themselves. Who am I? Why am I here? For you, Eve, the answer is clear. You are here because you can awaken the Hellstone and the Moonstone. You can protect the two realms by eliminating the third.”
“You . . . you want to eliminate humanity?” I ask, shocked. “Why?”
“Because I am tired of this constant warring. Our side goes over there, kills a few villagers. They repel and kill dozens of my demons, then they send in their counterattacks that destroy more of my people . . . it’s exhausting after all these millennia. Quite frankly, I could use a vacation. But as long as humanity is there, like a permeable bond between the Fae realm and my realm, there will be those who will leak over from one side to another.”
His words sound so reasonable, but then the horror of what he’s saying creeps over me. “You want to destroy the entire human realm?”
“It is necessary,” my father says mournfully. “It is not something I want. If I could, I’d bring all the dark creatures on Earth to Hell and send all the Light creatures to the Fae. But it cannot be. Trust me, my daughter, I’ve tried. I’ve spent thousands of years trying to find a way to do it without too much sacrifice. But the multiverse is a harsh and cruel place. It demands that for the two realms to be secure, the third must be eliminated.”
I gulp, and my father puts his hand on my shoulder. “You must do it, Eve. Only you have the power.”
“Power this,” I growl, unleashing everything I’ve been able to muster as he’s talked. I pour everything I have, every ounce of light and dark magic into a single blast from my hands, hoping to obliterate my father.
Instead, he laughs, the power bouncing off his laughter and splashing outward on invisible lines to crackle upward and into the sky above. I try to push harder, but I’m quickly exhausted, dropping to my knees and panting.
“Oh, Eve,” my father says, amused, “you wouldn’t be my daughter if I didn’t expect that. Why do you think I inhabited Lightwing? I took over this body when I expected your time to be coming. When the Hellstone told me to expect the Fae woman to be on Earth and open to my advances, I knew that you would carry the strength of my darkness with the strength of her light, and I needed a vessel just as capable to protect myself against your childish tantrums.”
“So we’re in a Mexican standoff,” I growl, getting to my feet. “Because I’m not destroying the human realm.”
“You’d think we’re balanced, wouldn’t you?” my father asks, lifting a hand. “You’d be wrong.”
A wave of invisible dark energy grabs me and flings me across the room, sending me tumbling into a heap on the hard stone floor. Pain courses through my body, and my father steps closer, green power coursing from his fingertips into my body. “You may be powerful in the dark, Eve . . . but I am the King of Darkness. You will obey my will.”
My body spasms, and I scream again and again as pain racks my body. Dimly, in my panicked mind, I can hear my Guardians calling out to me over the Link, but nothing’s coming through. Instead, another voice comes through, two-toned and sibilant.
You cannot win with the light and the dark.
Okay, so how do I not get tortured to death?
Your father is right. You are the one we have predicted. The one we have yearned for. The third path.
The third path?
The line between light and dark. More than love, it is the perfect joining of all powers. It is infinite. It is called . . . The Terminus.
At the sound of the words echoing through my brain, something unlocks inside me. It’s not like before, when I felt both sets of my powers working in concert but still separate. This is the sum, the multiplication of the light by the dark, and I rise to my feet, waving my hand. My father’s light flickers out, and he’s sent tumbling head over heels into his throne, which cracks in the middle with the force of his impact.
“Argh!” he cries out, fear in his voice. “How—”
“Because for all your chess playing, you forgot one thing, Father,” I reply, reaching out and taking the Hellstone in my hands. He struggles to his feet, and with a glance, he’s pressed back, gasping in pain. “There are those who play the game . . . and those who create the board. Do not doubt that I can remake the board to my whim at any moment. Be glad that I leave you here, for the dark needs you. But stay out of the light and the human realm. Or else, I may need to remake the board again.”
My father stares at me, fear etched in his very features as I snap my fingers and find myself outside the tower. Another snap of my fingers, and my Guardians are with me, Tyler blinking as he looks around. “Where . . .”
“One more pickup,” I assure him, snapping my fingers again. Kaelen appears in a flash, his eyes going wide for a moment before he collapses forward, Noah catching him in his arms. “Now, we can go.”
“What happened?” Jacob asks, looking at me with admiration and total devotion. “I was hanging by my fingertips, and—”
“And it’s over . . . for now,” I answer him, lifting the Hellstone. “Now, hold on.”
I stare into the Hellstone, waiting until everyone’s touching me, and close my eyes.
Flash.
Chapter 37
Eve
Emerging from Kaelen’s personal chambers, I find my Guardians looking at me nervously. “So, how is he?”
“Still weak,” I answer quietly. “Lorelai’s doing her best to help him though. He’s . . . shaken up.”
That’s probably the biggest understatement I’ve made in the Fae realm. After getting back, the first thing I did was join the Moonstone and the Hellstone, the two halves merging before wavering and disappearing. The second thing was calling for Lorelai. Not only did I need her guidance, but also her skills.
Actually, summoning her was a fun little surprise. I reached out to her through her Link with Cole, and as soon as she understood, I snapped my fingers and flash, she stood before me. Talk about saving on travel time.
Thankfully, Captain Connor has been helpful. Understanding the threat Cassina’s posed, he’s worked with us, and over the past two weeks, we’ve kept things going.
“So, what are the orders today?” Cole asks, straight to business. He’s blossomed, leading not through pure rank but through his natural skills, and now even Connor defers to him most of the time.
Although Cole admits it helps to have the ‘baddest babe in the three re
alms’ by his side.
“Why not ask him yourself?” I reply, smiling. It’s hard to hide things from my Guardians now, our bond is so deep. But when I can, it’s always for playful reasons, and the effort’s worth it as the door behind me opens and Kaelen steps out, Lorelai by his side.
“Why, Cole, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Kaelen says with a still-tired smirk as he emerges in full regalia. “Trust me, reports of my demise are highly exaggerated.”
“You look well, Excellency,” Cole says, bowing his head along with my other Guardians. Raising his eyes, Cole looks at Lorelai. “Your skills are greater than I gave you credit for.”
“Oh, your beautiful sister has been very helpful,” Kaelen says, and I lift my eyebrow at that one word. Lorelai even blushes a little, and I wonder . . . maybe. I hope so. “Right now, especially. The only way I’m walking is because of her energy.”
“She’s acting like a triple-espresso,” I explain to Jacob, who looks confused, but he nods gratefully. “Apparently, being possessed for so long is tiring.”
“If I can ask,” Tyler says quietly as we make our way slowly down the corridor, “what was it like?”
“I was in there the whole time,” Kaelen admits, “and there were times . . . there were times I was in control. Not even most of the time, but I was constantly on a leash. Soon after I took the throne, I tried to say something about it, but before I could even get the first word out of my mouth, the Hell King yanked back control. So I tried what I could. It doesn’t forgive what I did to you, but it has helped me sleep with fewer nightmares.”
We reach the throne room, where the Council is also assembled. Cassina stands closest to the throne, and her disgust is apparent as Kaelen enters, Lorelai, myself, and my Guardians behind him.
“Your Excellency, I demand—” she starts, but her voice diminishes by the second until she’s ranting, but like she’s been turned on mute. Finally, after ten seconds of looking like an idiot, she shuts her mouth and just glares daggers at us.
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