The Iron Raven

by Julie Kagawa

  I could see the worry on the faces of both Meghan and Ash, and felt Nyx’s steady presence beside me. The howl came again, closer this time, and a chill crept through the air, coating the stones with frost for a split second before it melted away. I shivered and blinked ice crystals from my lashes, as the Forgotten in the cell curled into itself, making hopeless, nonsensical sounds. Fragmented bits of “it’s here, it’s here,” drifted out between giggles.

  Meghan closed her eyes. “All right,” she said, and her voice turned steely. Opening her eyes, she gazed at all of us. “Let’s do this. Be careful. Watch out for each other. We don’t know the extent of what this thing is capable of.”

  Ash drew his sword, and Nyx called her light blades to her hands. “We’re ready, Your Majesty,” she said. “We follow you.”

  “You can’t stop it,” the Forgotten moaned as we turned to leave. “No one can stop it. The end approaches. Evenfall has come. The world will crack, and the abyss will swallow us whole.”

  And on that cheerful note, we walked down the stairs, back through the castle, and into the courtyard, where a monstrous shadow appeared at the edge of the Briars.

  I took a deep breath, forcing back the fear, the rage, and all the other emotions that came rushing to the surface. It was him, all right. The big bad himself. The monster with a capital M.

  It towered over the wall, a horrible conglomeration of animal parts twisted together into the ugliest mofo that ever walked the Nevernever. It was even bigger than last time, and the shadowy tendrils on its back and shoulders were everywhere now, making it look part squid as well. It stepped over the wall, and as it did, black tentacles sprouted from the ground and stones around it, writhing and snapping at the air.

  A challenging roar rang out as we reached the edge of the courtyard, not coming from the big Monster, but from the shaggy beast we’d met earlier. The lord of the castle stomped forward, bristling, the spiky hair on his back and shoulders standing straight up. “Intruder,” he snarled. “You are not welcome here, creature! Leave my castle, or I will be forced to tear you apart!”

  The Monster turned its antlered head toward the smaller beast, pinning it with that cold, blank-eyed stare. Raising its head, it howled, making my gut contract and the tentacles surrounding it thrash wildly.

  The beast gave a roar of his own, dropped to all fours, and charged the Monster.

  “That’s not good,” I muttered.

  The Monster also dropped to all fours as the beast came in and leaped fearlessly for its head with its claws and fangs bared. The Monster didn’t move, but the tendrils rose up, a black tide that intercepted the lunging beast, wrapping around him and dragging him from the air. The beast gave a snarl, fighting and ripping several tentacles from the ground, but the Monster continued to lift him, and he eventually vanished beneath a tangle of darkness.

  “That’s also not good,” I said as we all hurried forward.

  Another roar echoed over the courtyard, and the beast burst from the knot of tentacles, landing on all fours in front of the Monster. He was bigger now, his horns longer, his paws huge and tipped with massive talons. Growling, he swung a thick, blocky head toward us, fangs curling from his muzzle, his eyes empty of reason.

  “Trespassers,” he rumbled, ribbons of saliva dripping from his fangs to the ground. “Kill you. Kill you all!”

  “Oh, that’s really not good!” I said as the beast growled and sprang toward us, huge jaws gaping wide.

  With a bellow of flame, Coaleater reared up into his stallion form. “Nyx,” he cried, and Nyx immediately leaped onto his back. “Stop the creature,” the Iron faery told us. “We will deal with the beast.”

  Nyx met my gaze, her golden eyes shining with several emotions I couldn’t place. “Be careful, Puck,” she said firmly. “Don’t lose yourself completely. I still want to see the Nevernever when this is all over.”

  I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat and grinned back. “Count on it.”

  Coaleater whirled and galloped straight for the beast bounding over the courtyard toward us. I watched them go, feeling my heart leave with the silver-haired faery assassin, my insides a tangled mess. Coaleater charged at the beast, swerving aside at the last minute, and Nyx’s swords lashed out, scoring the shaggy hide. The beast roared in fury and whirled, chasing them toward another section of the courtyard, away from the rest of us.

  I breathed deep, trusting my assassin would come through this just fine, and turned toward the real problem at the edge of the Briars.

  The Monster let out a bellow and prowled forward, and the carpet of tentacles began creeping toward us as well. The closer they got, the colder the air became, and the more my own stomach churned with fear and anger. I could feel the taint now, the roiling mire of rage and hate, emanating from the Monster and seeping into the ground. The ruthlessness in me stirred, responding to the glamour aura, as unwelcome thoughts and memories began flickering through my head.

  “Nothing to say, Goodfellow?”

  I blinked and glanced at Ash, walking beside me with his sword at his side. He shot me a look, then turned his attention back to the Monster prowling ever closer. “This is the quietest I’ve ever heard you before a fight. You’re usually taunting our opponent or making ridiculous comments by now. Don’t tell me you’re scared.”

  I sneered at him. “Me? Scared? Who do you think you’re talking to, ice-boy? Is this the face of someone who’s afraid of the big bad monster?”

  He shot me another glance, his brow furrowed. And I knew I couldn’t hide it. Not from him. I was afraid. My hands were shaking, and the phantom wound I had taken before was throbbing, an icy cold pulse right below my ribs. But I was also furious, shaking with anger and hate for this Monster. This thing that dared make me, Puck, feel real terror for the first time in eons, who had twisted my world around and turned me into something I loathed. The Robin Goodfellow everyone had despised for his cruelty and vicious pranks. Who held grudges, played with human emotions, and crafted elaborate schemes of revenge. The faery who was contemplating becoming an enemy to his best friend once more.

  So, yeah, I wasn’t feeling very jolly at the moment. I felt less like making jokes and more like carving this bastard’s ugly head from its neck. Though I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, even with the Ice Prince and the Iron Queen at my side.

  “What is this thing?” Meghan whispered, as the silhouette of the creature grew even larger, huge antlers framing the moon. “The amount of negative glamour it’s putting out...is frightening.”

  “Yeah,” I growled. “Whatever you do, don’t let those tentacles touch you. It’s not fun, and you might end up...a little different than before. I found that out the hard way.” I spared a glance at the direction Nyx and Coaleater had fled but couldn’t see either of them among the forest of statues.

  Ash raised his sword, letting the icy blue light wash over us all. For just a moment, in the chilly glow of the blade, the prince’s face was pale. “Then let’s kill it quickly, before it does any more damage,” he said, and plunged the blade down, sinking it into the earth.

  With a rush of glamour, ice spread out from the tip of the sword, coating the ground in a frigid wave. It covered the stones, the walls, the twisted statues scattered throughout the courtyard. The writhing carpet of tentacles froze as they were encased in ice, then shattered into thousands of tiny shards, creating a crystalline blizzard in their wake.

  That was our cue. I sprang forward with a snarl, daggers in both hands, racing across the frozen ground toward the Monster. Ash was right beside me, throwing out a flurry of frozen knives that spun through the air right at the creature’s ugly face.

  The Monster lowered its head, and the dozens of tendrils on its back and shoulders flailed, striking the darts from the air. By that time, though, Ash and I were right beneath it, darting to the left and right as it lashed out, curved talons slammin
g into the flagstones and shattering them with a roar.

  Fear suffocated me. This close to the Monster, it was hard to breathe without gasping in terror. I shoved down the dread and latched on to the rage that came bubbling to the surface, anger toward the Monster, toward Ash, toward Oberon, Titania, and the entire Nevernever. I channeled that rage into a knifepoint and with a snarl of my own, slammed my daggers deep into the Monster’s side. At the same time, I felt the chill from Ash’s sword as the ice blade came slashing down, hitting the creature from the other side and probably severing something vital.

  Beneath my dagger hilts, the creature’s dark, leathery hide rippled like shadow, almost insubstantial. The Monster itself barely made a sound. No howl of pain, no roars of anger or agony; my blow didn’t even seem to register. I yanked my blades free, and a spray of darkness followed, writhing and thrashing as it solidified into a long black tendril, grabbing at me as I danced away.

  Despair and anger rose up, even as I shoved them back. Same thing as before; I couldn’t hurt the bastard, and even worse, my strikes seemed to be making it stronger. On the Monster’s other side, I saw Ash dodge a vicious swipe and lash out with his blade, cutting deep into the hairy arm. It should’ve severed the limb completely, or at the very least opened a huge gash in the flesh. I’d seen him do it before, on things that were just as big. But there was nothing. No blood, no reaction from the creature; only those wisps of darkness that turned into more of those damned tentacles.

  The Monster lashed out with its other arm, and Ash rolled away, just barely avoiding the claws that raked deep gouges in the stone. I darted in while it was distracted with Ash, leaped off a thigh, and drove my weapons into the base of its spine as hard as I could, putting all my anger and hate for this thing into the blow.

  It jerked up with a snarl, blank white eyes rolling back to glare at me, giving Ash just enough time to slide beneath it and jam the full length of his sword into its chest, far enough that the very tip erupted through the skin of its back.

  Panting, we circled around to its front, watching as it spun to follow us with that horrible, surprising grace. Its movements were slow and smooth, not hampered in the slightest. Though three feet of superchilled metal right through their rib cage would’ve killed most monsters, all we had done to this one was annoy it.

  Ash shook his head with a frustrated noise. “This isn’t working, Goodfellow.”

  “Oh, you think, ice-boy?” I curled a lip at him. “What was your first inkling?”

  He glanced at me, and his eyes narrowed, anger sparking to life within. My gut twisted as I recognized that glare. The same look I’d faced when Ash had been out to kill me.

  And then, the skies flashed, and a bolt of lightning streaked down to hit the Monster in the skull. It roared, the first sound of pain I’d heard from it tonight, and it staggered back, baleful white eyes snapping to the figure behind us.

  Meghan stood a few paces away, sword drawn and shining beside her, one arm outstretched toward the Monster. She blazed with power, her blue eyes hard as she stared at the creature, and for just a moment, my heart swelled with hope.

  Then the Monster threw back its head and roared, and the ground at our feet erupted. I scrambled back as dark tendrils rose into the air, writhing and lashing out at everything. They spread over the whole courtyard, until no part of the ground was left uncovered.

  I dodged a pair of tentacles, leaped through another, then felt one snake around my waist, burning with cold as it pulled me down. Images flooded my head again, unwanted and unwelcome, and rage flared. Snarling, I freed my arm and sliced through the coils around my waist, seeing Meghan and Ash also entangled in the darkness. The ones surrounding Ash had frozen solid, but more were rising to take their place, and a couple had managed to coil around the prince’s legs and sword arm. With a flash of glamour, they stiffened and iced over, and the prince tore himself free with sharp crinkling sounds.

  Just as a massive claw snatched him up, lifted him into the air, and slammed him into the stones with a sickening crack.

  My heart stopped beating. The Monster gave a howl of fury and triumph as it pounded Ash into the ground again, then lifted him up with a roar, jaws gaping to bite off the prince’s head.

  “NO!” Meghan raised her hand, and a pulse of electricity rippled through the ground, centered on her.

  The writhing carpet of tentacles jerked, snapping wildly, then vanished into coils of darkness on the wind. With a yell, the queen flung out her other arm, lightning streaking from her fingers to slam into the Monster’s chest. The creature snarled, dropped a bloody Ash to the stones, and went stumbling back a few steps, shielding its face.

  With lightning sizzling around her, the queen strode forward, grabbing Ash as he struggled to his feet. The Ice Prince’s long coat was tattered, blood streaming down one side of his face, but he still turned and gestured weakly at the Monster, and ice spears sprang up from the ground, surrounding them both in a protective ring of frozen crystal.

  “Ash.” Meghan’s voice was breathless, her normal calm shattered. She sounded terrified now, kneeling on the flagstones with her Ice Prince, clutching his shoulders. Her fear echoed over the wind, carried on the wisps of darkness till fading around us. “Talk to me. We have to get you out of here.”

  “I’m fine,” Ash gritted out. He didn’t sound fine; he was obviously hurt, and the tightness of his voice showed how bad it was. Like Nyx, the stoic Ice Prince never let on how badly he was wounded. His free hand came up, covering Meghan’s, as he met her gaze. “I’m fine, Meghan,” he rasped again. “I can still fight.”

  Above them, the Monster reared onto its hind legs and roared, dark tendrils flailing, and more rose from the ground, surrounding the pair in the circle of ice. Meghan gestured toward it, and the skies flashed as another lightning bolt slammed into its skull, but this time it didn’t even flinch.

  Watching them, I had a sudden, strangely calming realization. We were going to die here. The prophecy, fragmented and incomplete as it was, already said this Monster was unkillable. That no one could stop it. If even the Iron Queen’s magic couldn’t give this Monster pause, there was nothing we could do.

  I was going to lose them both.

  A hollow pit opened inside me. A world without Meghan and Ash? I couldn’t imagine it. What would I do if they were suddenly gone? If I could never again tease Meghan or get under ice-boy’s skin? If we never fought side by side together, explored new and hidden places in Faery, or saved the Nevernever one more time? And suddenly, all that resentment and jealousy I’d been carrying around seemed petty in comparison. Why had I been so angry? Why had this Monster been able to bring out the absolute worst side of Robin Goodfellow?

  Nyx’s voice came back to me, soft and damning. This desire for revenge against the prince consort—is it because you’re still in love with the Iron Queen, or is it simply because you lost?

  I hadn’t replied, not truthfully, because deep down, I already knew the answer. It was the reason Nyx had become so intriguing, the reason the Lady’s assassin was constantly on my mind and in my thoughts. Because...I had moved on. I didn’t love Meghan that way anymore, not romantically.

  But if I had moved on, then the reason for my anger and resentment was because I had lost to Ash. Because I had been too proud, stubborn, or defiant to admit that, after everything, after all the fighting, grief, and hell we put each other through, he was the one who had come out on top. He had won his soul, gotten the girl. And worst of all, he’d been able to forgive us both and put all that anger and hate behind him.

  My throat closed at the realization. Ash had forgiven me for Ariella, and he had forgiven himself for all those bad years between us, but I had never done the same. This feeling of bitterness and rage... I had carried it around for years, never airing it, burying it under laughter and sarcasm, letting it fester without even knowing it was there. The Monster had
n’t changed me into something I wasn’t, it just brought all those feelings to the surface again.

  And now, I would never have the chance to set things right.

  What? No, screw that!

  Deep inside, a tiny spark of defiance flared, a bit of Puck surging to life. Give up now? Was I really going to sit here and watch my best friends get stomped into paste by some random big nasty? I’d never surrendered without a fight before. And even if the prophecy was true, even if this thing was unkillable, was I going to let that stop me? Or I was I going to look it in the eye and laugh in its ugly face?

  The Nevernever could be crumbling under our feet, echoed a voice in my head, Grimalkin’s, a memory from not so very long ago, and you would make a joke about it.

  Well, duh. It would be my last chance to. If I’m going to stare Death in the face, I’m gonna do it laughing at him.

  Oh yeah. That was who I was. In all this chaos, I had somehow forgotten.

  I took a deep breath. Welp, no time like the present to make up for it. Especially since we were probably all going to die. Bending down, I picked up my daggers, twirling them in my hands as I rose. Gazing at the Monster, at the creature who was very likely going to kill me, I grinned.

  Ash had struggled to his feet, and now he and Meghan stood side by side, facing the Monster who towered over them, silhouetted against the moon. Surrounded by a shrinking island in a sea of black, the Ice Prince brandished his sword, and the Iron Queen raised a hand, lightning snapping at her fingertips.

  The Monster roared, rearing onto its hind legs, talons spread and horrible jaws gaping, to tear them apart once and for all.

  With a cry and the flapping of wings, a flock of screaming ravens flew right into its face. Shrieking and cawing, they swirled around its head, tearing at tentacles, pecking at eyes and skin and everything they could reach. The Monster bellowed and staggered back, swiping madly at the screaming cloud of birds, ripping them from the air. A few ravens fell, exploding into puffs of black feathers as they hit the ground, but the rest continued to shriek and flap around its head.