by Aileen Erin
And today, tonight, right now, that path ended.
I wasn’t sure what lay beyond this, but if I could pull this off, then I at least had some hope for what came next.
Van pulled us through realms. The black abyss swamped me—tossing and turning me through space on the worst rollercoaster of my life—until we landed in the middle of the Lunar Court’s throne room.
In the middle of a battle.
Swords clanged against swords. The walls were flickering quickly. I was sure it meant something, but what? Warning? Defense? Instructions? There was so much magic being flung around the room that it was enough to drown in, but I was here to do one job. I would do it and leave and never come back.
I didn’t know enough about the fey to know who was good and who was bad. Were they all from the Lunar Court? Or was this an intercourt war? Van hadn’t said who started the fight or why.
Our group stayed tight in the center of the chaos, but we couldn’t stay there.
“Van?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
“War,” he said, and now I knew why he was still carrying his sword in his hand.
Cosette flicked her wrist, and her flaming sword appeared.
Lucas and Blaze shifted.
They were about to jump into the battle, but they couldn’t. We didn’t know enough. They didn’t understand that this had to stop. This fight—this war—it wasn’t happening. At least not yet.
The bond that linked the new council together pulsed. Each tie led to me. I felt their magic rising as they primed themselves for the battle ahead.
But I had another use for their magic.
I pulled it into myself until the tingles of magic on my skin turned into burning, searing pain. And then I let it brew some more, until Dastien squeezed my hand.
That’s enough! He shouted at me through our bond.
It’s okay. I’m fine.
No, you’re not. You’re more than half-starved and weak and—
I didn’t have time to argue with him. I felt the rest of the council about to move, and I screamed, “Stop!” I released a taste of our combined magic into the room. Just a pulse of it. Just enough to have the fighting slow.
I couldn’t see the throne from where I was standing—the room was too crowded for me to see past all the fey—but I knew where it was by chandeliers swaying on the ceiling.
I shoved my way to the front of the room, using my body and the power pulsing out from me to protect and clear a path.
I didn’t need to look behind me to know that the rest of the council followed me. They would watch my back, and I would keep them safe.
By the time we got to the front of the throne room, I could see Mother on the ground, ringed by four guards. They had a bubble of iridescent magic surrounding her, protecting her.
But it wouldn’t protect her from me.
I felt responsible for putting that broken look in Dastien’s eyes, but none of this would’ve happened if she’d left us alone.
She should’ve left us alone.
“Mother?” Cosette pushed past me, leaping six feet up onto the dais. “What’s going on?” Cosette’s command went unanswered, but the queen tried to sit up.
She tried and then failed. There was blood on the ground under her, but only a few small spots of red on the front of her white silk blazer.
I didn’t feel sorry for the queen, not then. Not even when I saw the pool of blood growing. But I felt sorry for Cosette.
This woman who’d caused so much pain for so many people was the only person Cosette could call Mother.
I had a real mother who was kind and caring and loving. Who would’ve done anything—anything—to protect me from a monster like the Lunar Court’s queen.
What’s happening? Dastien asked though the bond. You have a plan, but is this it?
Kind of. I’m trying to stop a war. I’m not sure that’s possible, but—
That’s why you let them take you. He was in my head again. He knew the answer, but I would give him the confirmation he needed.
Yes. I hated it. I mostly knew what I was doing when I let them take me, but I hated that I’d been apart from him. Hated that what I’d done almost killed him. Hated that he’d felt so alone for so long.
But that was done now. Now I was finishing it.
I gathered up the energy I borrowed from the council and used it to fuel my jump onto the dais next to Cosette. The others jumped up after me, supporting whatever my plan was.
I looked at the fey guards surrounding the queen. “Move.” They parted, and Cosette spun to me.
Her eyes were wide as she stared at me. “How?”
I’ll explain everything. Just let me get through this part, I sent through the bond that connected the new council.
I moved into the space the guards made and stared down at the queen. Her skin wasn’t quite so golden or glowing. Her power had dimmed enough for someone to attack her, and it was my fault.
I knew some of what would happen when Helen took me. I knew that she’d hide my bond from Dastien. I knew that she’d take me away, hold me somewhere. And I knew that to do that, she’d need to weave her magic through the pack bonds and into my soul. Her little barbed threads of magic would wind their way in and out of my soul, over and over until I was hidden. But when Dastien found me—if he found me—then he’d need to find a way to sever those threads.
That’s exactly what Samantha did. She’d destroyed our old bond, and when she did that, she cut Helen’s barbed threads from the source. And when Dastien re-formed the bond, the strands burned like bone-dry shrubs in a brush fire, but some of the barbs of Lunar Court magic remained deep inside of me.
Helen seeded so much power into me—to keep me under her control, to keep me hidden, to keep me from everything that I was—that when Samantha and Dastien finally broke through all of it, part of her burned with her magic.
She was weak today. That wouldn’t last, and I wasn’t even sure if the barbs would be inside my soul forever or if they’d burn up eventually, too. But now—when her court was in chaos, when a battle was happening, when she was weakened by the severing of part of her power—I had a chance to stop her before this turned into a bigger nightmare than it already was.
The last time I saw her, I’d been a little scared of her. But there was nothing terrifying about this woman now.
“You.” Her breath was thin and reedy. “You will give me back what’s mine.”
There wasn’t a chance in Hell that was happening. “No. No, I won’t. Because it’s gone, and what’s left in me is mine.” I squatted next to her. She wasn’t scary and powerful anymore. The power from the council pulsed inside me, and I would use it now. Because right now, the fey were in turmoil.
I had one chance to fix this. To fix everything.
I looked at the queen. “You took me,” I whispered. “You tried to slowly kill me. But it turns out, I’m pretty hard to kill. So, I’ll take what’s left of your power in my soul, and I will stop you before you destroy us all.”
I rose and looked at her court. Fey filed into the large room. The countless chandeliers were swaying. The walls were pulsing as they glowed. But everyone was quiet and still as they watched me. There weren’t just warriors, but all manner of fey. People looking to fight and people looking terrified of what I might do.
But I wasn’t going to fight. Not right now. Not today. I didn’t have the energy for that, and that wasn’t why I was here.
I strode to her throne and stepped up on the seat. I wanted all eyes on me. I was only doing this once, and then I was going home. The room was starting to go a little gray, and I knew I didn’t have a long time before the last of my strength ran out.
“Before your queen stole me, I spent months trying to play nice with all of you. You pointed the finger at me. It was my fault you were hiding. My fault that the humans knew about the existence of supernaturals. My fault that the fey had lost control of the portal between realms. But you failed to look inside
yourselves.”
I paused, waiting for anyone to speak up, but the room remained quiet.
“It was you who decided to hide from the humans. You who decided to close yourselves off. That wasn’t my fault. If you truly believe that you could’ve stayed hidden in the age of technology, then you’re stupider than I thought.”
I didn’t care that I was insulting them. I was over them.
“If you hadn’t forgotten about your vow to protect this realm from the one beyond, then the seals never would’ve broken. The portal to Hell never would’ve opened. I only fixed your fuck up. Not my fault. Yours. Your fault. The only reason I have this power is because of your failures.”
I’d tried to say that nicely before in countless meetings, but no one heard me. No one listened. But they were listening now.
“When your queen kidnapped me, she gave me some of her magic. And now, there’s not just witch inside me. Not just werewolf. Not just some archon power linking me with a lot of other powerful supernaturals. I’ve got a little bit of your queen’s magic, too.”
There were some murmurs, some gasps, and I was sure I’d shocked the ones who remained quiet, too. But I wasn’t done.
“Blaming me ends now. Blaming the werewolves ends now. You will be responsible for your own behavior. You will stop acting like spoiled toddlers. You start a fight, I will show up, and I will end it.” I held my hands out, pushing the queen’s ice-cold magic out of me. The light in the walls died. The chandeliers went out. And the room was plunged into darkness for a moment.
And then I did one of the spells I’d been working on with Claudia before I’d been kidnapped. I traced a pattern in the air, and light blossomed around me.
“If you test me, if you try me, if you want to come after me, remember that I have a bit of her magic now mixed in with all the rest. And I’m not alone.”
I spread out my hands to the side, and the glow around me extended to the rest of the new council.
The four fey stepped forward—Cosette, Van, Elowen, and Kyra.
The four werewolves stepped forward—Dastien, Lucas, Chris, and Blaze.
The four witches stepped forward—Beth, Shane, River, and Claudia.
“I’m not alone. You attack one of us, you attack all of us.”
I jumped down from the throne and moved to the edge of the platform. “Together, we can break through any magic. Even the strongest one of you. Even when you work with witches and werewolves. Even when you spend twenty-one months trying to weaken me. I’m still strong enough to take on the most powerful of you.”
I walked back to Helen and squatted again. “I win,” I whispered to her.
I rose and stared at her advisors who stood to the side of the dais. They were the ones I’d spent months trying to reason with.
Assholes. All of them thought they knew everything. They thought they were the only ones that mattered. But they were wrong.
“You wouldn’t listen to me before, but you need to hear me now. You will leave the humans alone. You will stop sending your monsters after us. Because if you don’t, I’ll come back here. And when I do, I’ll bring my friends, and we’ll be a lot less nice.”
The room started to spin a little, and I knew I was reaching the end of my strength. I needed to get home before I dropped.
I needed to eat and sleep and be with Dastien.
I can carry you. He was in my head. He knew how weak I was.
No. They have to believe I’m strong. They have to be scared. If I can scare them enough, they’ll listen to diplomacy. Or at the very least, they’ll think for a while before they attack again. I need time before our next fight.
I held a hand out to Van, and my friends moved without me needing to tell them it was time to go.
There was the darkness and the dizziness and then we were home and Dastien was there. It was still dark, but it felt like we’d been gone for a million years instead of maybe a few hours. I started to sway, and Dastien pulled me to his side, holding me up.
“I’m so hungry,” I whispered to Dastien.
“I know. But you’re going to have to go slow. Okay? You’re going to be fine. The house is stocked.”
“Our house.” I’d almost forgotten.
I turned to see the house I’d dreamed of. The exterior was a mixture of white stucco and red brick. The roof was matte silver metal. There was a large wraparound porch with a few rockers at the front with small tables between them, and I could make out a swing along the next section of the porch.
There were so many windows—larger on the first floor, smaller on the second and third—and it was massive. We didn’t plan on something this big. Why was it so big?
“I expanded it a bit.”
A bit? A bit? “How many square feet?”
“A little over ten thousand.”
My mouth dropped open. “Jesus, Dastien.”
“And it’s fully furnished.”
My eyes started to burn, and he wrapped his arms around me. I was surrounded by the scent and feel of him. He was in my heart, in my mind, in my soul. And I was home.
“I missed you so much.” I felt the first tears come. “I missed building this house. I missed everything.”
He held me tight against him as he stroked my back. “I used the binders of ideas you made. I think you’re going to love it. Chris and Cosette helped me with a lot of the decorating part, but your brother and—”
I pushed him away. “Axel?” I’d seen him, but I didn’t get to talk to him. To really see him. “Is he—”
“Fine.” He brushed his fingers through my hair. “He’s fine. A werewolf with not super great control, but—”
“What? It’s been twenty-one months. I was fine after a couple weeks. Why is he still not totally in control?”
He ran his fingers down my face. “And you had me in your mind, in your soul, even before we cemented our bond. I was there with you, keeping you steady. He doesn’t have that. He’s doing great for the most part. He just needs to be with someone very alpha.”
“Where is he now?”
“He’s been living with me. I’m assuming he’s still inside, waiting for you. I can—”
A throat cleared, and I turned to see Van standing with everyone else. I’d forgotten about them. “I’m sorry, I—”
“You guys have a lot to catch up on,” Claudia said as she stepped forward. She pulled me away from Dastien to give me a hug. “I’m so glad you’re home. Finally. I wish I’d been able to—”
No. Absolutely not. I wasn’t letting her do that. “Don’t blame yourself for this.” I leaned back from her. “I knew what I was doing, and I knew what I was asking of you. Of Dastien. Of everyone here.”
Then I stepped away from her to look at the rest of my friends. “I know I can’t say the word that rhymes with shmank-shmoo because of the fey here, but know that I’m thinking them all the same.” I turned to Cosette. “I…I don’t know what to say about your mother. I—”
Cosette held up a hand, cutting off my apology before I could really get into it. “Don’t. She deserved that, and I think this might have stopped a war. Only time will tell.” She looked back at Van.
He gave her a long look, and I knew they were talking in their own way.
Van finally shook his head before glancing at me. “I’m not sure, and I’m too old to hope, but it’s possible. I’m going to be spending a lot of time among the fey. They need to stabilize now, and if they don’t…”
He was quiet, but he didn’t need to say the words.
If they didn’t sort it out, we’d have to sort it out for them.
“There are others who will need to pay for the part they played in this,” Dastien said, and he was right.
But not tonight. Nothing else was that urgent.
Yes, Imogene was a problem. I wanted to find out what had happened to her. And the New York coven had to be dealt with before they did any more damage, but I couldn’t deal with that now. From the way Claudia was leaning agai
nst Lucas, I couldn’t send her to deal with it either.
I could’ve asked Beth or River—because it needed to be another witch that took care of it—but we could figure it out later.
Next week. Next month. When I wasn’t so tired that I couldn’t plan that far ahead, but we’d figure it out. Together.
“I’m going to take everyone back where they belong,” Van said. “You two need privacy.”
“Hey! You’re back.” A voice called from behind me.
I turned to see Samantha and Axel striding from the house.
“Been waiting over a day,” Samantha said. “I want to catch up, but it’ll have to be later. My mom is flipping out, but dang, Dastien. The house is really amazing.”
“A day? I thought it felt like minutes, and I guessed we’d been gone hours, but a day?” I looked at Cosette.
She gave me a small shrug. “It’s normal. The time varies widely at court.”
I guessed it must. I walked to Samantha and my brother, stopping just in front of them. “Thank you for your help,” I said to Samantha.
“I’d say it was my pleasure, but it kind of wasn’t. I really hate getting mixed up in this fey, werewolf stuff. I’ve got enough on my plate without adding that in.”
I wasn’t sure what else she was dealing with, but I totally understood wanting to stay away from all this drama. “You need anything—”
“I’ll let you know. Promise.” Her gaze darted beyond me to Dastien. She gave him a little two-finger salute. “You’re going to regret owing me a favor.”
“No,” Dastien said. “I don’t think I will.”
“If you say so. I’ll let you know.” She sighed. “And thanks for the money. My mother immediately put most of it into savings for college. She wants me to write you a thank you note.”
“Money?” I asked. What were they talking about?
I’ll fill you in later. “No need for a thank you. You found her. You earned it.”
Samantha started to say something, but then stopped. Instead, she pulled out her silver skull earbuds, shoved them in, and turned on some music. “Can I get one of those nauseating trips home?”
I looked at her for a second. “Why do you need the earbuds?”
