Forever

by Chanda Hahn

  Adrith took off at a canter through what was left of the swamps. Mina’s hair whipped around her face, and she tried to not let the darkness that was hopelessness envelope her. She had to have faith, even in the most difficult trials.

  “I may not have been able to save you, but I will try to save your home,” Mina whispered in promise to the air. Not a single tear fell from her eye. She doubted she had any left to shed.

  When they came to the expansive bridge, Adrith pulled up short. The lake was still there, but barely. The palace was in full view, since the veil of magic that hid it was gone. Even from this distance, they could see a large group of Fae gathered on the other side of the bridge.

  Basal sniffed the air and stomped his hooves in displeasure. “Reeks of gnome. Lots of them.”

  Prase shook her head in distaste, her white and brown hair flowing. “They’re just thieves and scavengers. Coming to steal what’s not rightfully theirs.”

  “Let them,” Mina answered. “Things don’t matter if we can’t keep the world from dying.”

  “The girl is right,” Adrith spoke. “We must restore the conduit of power.”

  “And does anyone know how to do that?” Ever asked.

  “I do,” Ferah spoke up. The elf walked up to them, her red hair falling in dirty clumps past her shoulders, her face streaked with tears. She turned to Mina, her shoulders slumped. “This is all my fault. This is what I saw, this is what was foretold. The death of our world. It’s why I tried to kill the prince all those years ago. Now I’ve failed twice over.”

  Mina glared at Ferah but felt a twinge of sympathy. “Yes, this is your fault, but you don’t carry the blame alone. That is too much a burden for any one of us. Now that you’re here, you can prove yourself. Help us save the Fae world.”

  Ferah cupped her hands over her face and brushed fresh tears away. She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. Then she turned and looked at Mina with a gleam of determination. “If only I had seen it then. I would never have stood in your way.”

  A great rumbling began, and the centaurs shuffled in place as the ground quaked and shifted. In the middle of the lake, a fissure opened, and water rushed into the rift. The great stone bridge before them began to crumble, small stones falling into the remaining water.

  “We must hurry.” Ferah ran across the bridge before the earthquake finished.

  Adrith yelled for Mina to hold on as the centaurs took off running toward the bridge. If they didn’t hurry, they wouldn’t make it across.

  Mina’s heart pounded in her chest as more stones fell away. Adrith was the first to cross, followed by the other centaurs. Prase’s rear hooves just scraped the last stone before it dropped.

  Mina turned and saw that Captain Plaith’s horse had misjudged the distance. A cry ripped from her throat as the horse’s hooves barely scraped the stone. Another rumble ripped through the plane, and more of the bridge fell away.

  One second, the horse and captain were there.

  The next they were gone over the ledge and lost to the deep chasm.

  Chapter 34

  Mina stared at the edge of the bridge they’d barely made it across, until Ferah cried out in warning, “Go, go, go!”

  The stones underneath her feet were cracking, and Basal neighed in fright. They couldn’t afford to stop. Nix grabbed Ferah’s hand and pulled her onto the mount with him, and the centaurs ran as if their lives depended on it, which they did.

  They raced to outrun the ever-growing chasm that threatened to swallow them all.

  Then it stopped. The middle of the lake was gone. Just an empty hole ending a few hundred feet from the end of the bridge.

  They hurried on.

  When they arrived at the doors of the palace, they were greeted by multiple Fae, old and young alike—all terrified. Some yelled, trying to assert their dominance over the group of frightened Fae. Mina and the others slid down from the centaurs and tried to hear what was going on.

  “Settle down, settle down,” a tall, broad shouldered gnome commanded. “We can solve this problem peacefully.”

  “Where are the Fates?” an angry dwarf yelled.

  “Why are they not saving us?” an elderly elf asked.

  The gnome leader seemed to be losing his patience. “They can’t save our home anymore. A terrible accident has befallen them.”

  “We’re doomed,” the same elf cried out.

  Mina and the group came along the outskirts of the Fae. Ferah motioned for Mina to follow her, so Nix and Ever said they’d stay and see what they could learn. Mina followed Ferah along the side path and around the palace until they arrived at the hedge maze.

  “This wouldn’t have happened if I had just stepped out of the way,” she berated herself.

  With the plants dead, it was easy to cross through the broken and dying bushes or step over them, until they came to the tower. The tower glass had been repaired, and something compelled Mina to hurry. She didn’t need more prompting. She ran up the steps of the tower and came into the round observatory room.

  “What now?” Mina asked as she stepped in and turned in a circle. A flood of memories rushed back to her as the former assassin joined her.

  Ferah faced her. “I don’t know. I only know that I was supposed to bring you here. All of the Fates have been chosen in this room. It’s why the test ended here. Except…”

  “Except what?” Mina asked, sensing her hesitation.

  “I don’t know. I feel like I’ve let you down. I don’t know what else there is to do. I should leave you.” Ferah looked around the tower once more and started back down the stairs.

  Mina walked over to the large windows and saw how fast the Fae world was dying. So much had happened up here. The memories were equally sweet and painful. How she longed for the prince to be standing here with her.

  The ground began to rumble again, and the tower swayed.

  Mina tried to make sense of all this. She still felt like she was missing something. Captain Plaith said the Fates were a conduit of magic for the land, and with their deaths, the magic was gone.

  “Again, you get in my way!” Annalora shrieked from behind Mina. The tower leaned, shifting with the quakes. Annalora stood in the stairwell, bracing the wall for support as the round of tremors passed. “How are you here? You should be dead! I’ve sacrificed too much for you to still be here.”

  “I guess I’m not so easy to kill.”

  Annalora placed a strange instrument—the bone whistle!—to her lips and blew. Mina instantly recognized that sound. She’d heard it the day her mother died.

  Suddenly, the Death Reaper stood before her.

  But not the same one.

  This one wore a long black leather jacket. His head was bowed, and his dark hair fell loosely around his face, disguising him, but when he lifted his pale, white eyes and met her gaze, she wanted to cry.

  Teague.

  He had taken the place of the Death Reaper. In his hand, he held a black dagger.

  “It’s always come down to this,” Annalora said. “We’ve waited centuries for the gnomes to have a chance to rule. We’re the forgotten ones, the race that everyone overlooks. We’re strong in our own right. Our armies have proven it. And our poison is the most deadly in the world. It’s pure hate. It was perfect… until you came along. There could only be one of us in the end.”

  Annalora’s laugh echoed through the tower. “I win.” She pointed her finger and spoke a command.

  Teague shifted into a black griffin with white eyes and lunged for Mina.

  She didn’t run, didn’t move, but simply closed her eyes and opened her soul to him. There was a moment of shock as he passed through her. She expected the reaping of her soul to hurt, but instead, she opened her eyes to see that they were surrounded by darkness. Teague stood with his arms wrapped around her, his breathing ragged as he looked into her eyes.

  “What happened?”

  “I’ve taken you to the In Between. A place of purgatory for
souls.”

  “So I’m dead?”

  “No, you are very much alive,” he whispered. “And I plan on keeping it that way.”

  “Teague, what happened to you?”

  “A new omen has been chosen. I’ve become Death, a Reaper who will forever collect souls and bring them to the In Between.”

  “But how?”

  “You saw that nothing can stop Death, except one who is dead or close to death. The omen brought my soul here, to the In Between. As soon as I stepped over, I challenged the Death Reaper and killed him, taking his place. It was the only way. I had to fight to get back to you. I won’t abandon you again…ever.”

  “So you’re here to take my soul?” Mina asked hesitantly.

  “I’m here to collect a soul, but not yours,” Teague spoke softly, touching his forehead to hers. “You have the other half of mine.”

  She inhaled in disbelief, but deep down, she knew it was the truth. How else could she have sensed such trouble on the Fae plane and the closing of the gates? Jared’s side was still with her.

  “Are you ready?” Teague asked, pulling away and holding out his hand to her.

  She recognized the dagger he held and paused.

  When he saw her hesitation, he quickly sheathed the dagger. “The weapon that kills the soul becomes the Reaper’s weapon.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she said again, her heart aching at what she had done.

  “Don’t be,” Teague assured her. “You were the only one strong enough to do it. I’ve caused a lot of death over the years. I needed to be stopped, and this is truly a fitting punishment for me.” He patted the hilt of the knife and smiled crookedly at her. “I’m just thankful you killed me with a bladed weapon instead of a rock.” He chuckled, and she wanted to punch him in the arm.

  In the darkness around her, she could hear the sounds of howling and gnashing of teeth. “What is that?” she asked fearfully.

  “The lost souls. We can’t stay here long, because you still have your soul, and there are those who hunger for it. They’ll take it by force.”

  “It reminds me of the place in my dream, when I tried to save you and went into the mirror and found you in a dark prison.”

  Teague didn’t miss a beat. “It is that place. You came here in your dream—to the In Between—and it remembers you. I have to take you out of here, but I wanted time to speak to you alone.”

  The sound of the shadows moving and the cold made her skin prickle. “Is my mom here?”

  “Yes, I promise I’ll find her and get her to the other side, but there’s something you must understand, Mina.” His voice sounded so earnest, she felt the bubble of worry start to overtake her.

  “What?”

  “Annalora’s planned this all along. She has the bone whistle, the one item that can control me. I still have to take a soul, and I’ll try and delay the reaping. But Mina, I can’t touch her if she holds that whistle. When we go back, you have to get it from her and destroy it. Then we’ll both be free of her. Can you do that?” He lifted his hand a second time to caress her face.

  She swallowed and grabbed it, feeling the coldness of his skin against her warm cheek. “Yes, I can.”

  He nodded. “Good. Because if she commands me again, I’ll have no choice but to take your soul. I’d promise to help you to the other side and not leave you in the In Between, but I’d rather not even have to go that far.”

  Mina didn’t say anything else as black smoke surrounded them, and then they were back in the tower.

  Annalora stood proud, full of herself, and oblivious, at the tower window chanting in a Fae language. Mina assumed she was celebrating. But as Mina moved toward her, Annalora turned, and her eyes went wide at seeing Mina still alive.

  Mina lunged for the hand that held the whistle.

  Annalora screeched and clawed at Mina’s throat, but Mina pulled back her fist and punched the gnome girl in the face. Her head snapped back, and she dropped the whistle to the ground. Mina dove for it.

  Annalora grabbed Mina’s foot and dragged her along the floor and away from the bone whistle. Mina rolled over, summoned power, and shoved a blast of power into Annalora’s chest, knocking her into a chair. She turned back over and watched as the whistle rolled to a stop at the top of the stairs.

  In front of Ferah, who had stealthily returned.

  Ferah bent down and picked up the whistle.

  Annalora began to beg and cajole. “Ferah, give me the whistle, and I can make all of this go away. I just need to get rid of her.”

  The elf-girl stood up, still looking battle-weary and terrified. “I should never have told you of the prophecy which foretold the dark prince’s reign and the end of our world.”

  “Grow up,” Annalora snapped. “You and the Godmothers would never have been able to stop the prophecy. This is the end. Can’t you see that?”

  Mina got up from the floor and glanced around the room. She caught a reflection in the glass—Teague pacing in the corner of the room, unable to strike because the whistle was still in play. It seemed that none of the others could see him.

  “You killed the Fates,” Ferah cried out. Her hand holding the whistle shook in fury.

  “Something you should have done long ago.” Annalora tried to play it off as no big deal. “Now we can start fresh, build the Fae world anew. Just give me the whistle, and I’ll end her. You can be head of the Royal Guard. I’ll give you anything you want.” She’d continued to walk and talk until she was only a foot from the elf.

  Ferah shook her head. “No, this world will not be built on your darkness.” She turned to look at Mina. “I see light when I look at you. I’ll follow you till the end.”

  She reached out to hand the whistle to Mina, but Annalora grabbed one of Ferah’s own daggers from her bandolier and stabbed the girl.

  Ferah’s eyes fluttered in disbelief. The whistle fell from her limp fingers followed by a trickle of blood. It dropped and bounced on the floor.

  “No!” Mina let the fury she had been holding back burst forth.

  The room erupted into a ball of light, and Annalora backed up, her arms in front of her face. Mina turned her anger on Annalora and did as Teague had done centuries ago. She blasted the girl through the glass tower window.

  Annalora screamed, and then silence followed.

  Ferah lay on the ground, unable to speak. She held up her hand, and Mina rushed to her side and grasped it between her own.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said in a pained whisper, “for betraying you over and over. Even in the Godmother’s Guild, I tried to drown you. I never had enough faith. I’m sorry.” She let out one last breath, and her head fell to the side.

  “Teague,” Mina screamed, but he didn’t appear. She searched the floor in a blur of tears and picked up the bone whistle. She snapped it in two and threw it across the floor. Within seconds, he appeared by her side.

  “Do something!” she begged.

  “I can’t, my love,” Teague soothed. “Her soul has already passed to the In Between. I can meet her there and help her pass over and not be lost, but that is all.”

  Mina rocked back onto her heels and wiped at her eyes. Another earthquake erupted, and the jagged shards of remaining glass rained down beside them in colored pieces.

  Teague helped her up. He led her to the empty windows, and they watched as the two yellow suns began to turn dark.

  “What are we going to do?”

  He reached for her hand, and she looked up into his white eyes. “We save our world.”

  “How?”

  “When the worlds were first created, there was darkness. From that darkness, light came forth. There’s a balance of light and dark. My mother the moon, my father the sun. I think it’s safe to say that I’m darkness. And you, Mina, are light. I asked you once before if you would stay with me and rule by my side. I need you. I can’t exist without you. So I ask again, will you stay with me?”

  Mina turned and looked at their hands clasped
together and over at the world that was crumbling and dying around them. She wouldn’t let the circumstances pressure her into doing the wrong thing. She glanced into his eyes and still saw white. It didn’t scare her. On him, it looked majestic and not deathly. Maybe because his eyes conveyed so much love.

  In fact, there was so much love, so much honor, that she wasn’t searching for them to change to blue or gray. The color didn’t matter anymore. The soul did. The prince, as he stood before her, was both Teague and Jared, and she had a part of his soul.

  Teague also possessed a bit of hers.

  “Yes,” she answered. “I’ll stay.” She felt a thrill as he smiled and bent to kiss her.

  His lips claimed hers in a passionate kiss, and he whispered, “I’ve waited forever for you. Now I’m yours. Love me, rule with me. I’ll love and protect you for eternity.” The corner of his mouth lifted up in a smile as he reached up to caress her cheek.

  “Eternity sounds perfect.” Mina rose up on tiptoes to wrap her hands around his neck, and he laid a trail of kisses down her face until he kissed her mouth again.

  “Then open your soul to me like you did before.” He gently pulled away, and they turned to look out the tower across the land.

  It was easy to do, to close her eyes and think of the love she had for him. She felt Teague do the same, and their minds touched.

  He whispered, “Open your eyes.”

  She did, and she saw hundreds of lights rise up out of the land, and more come from the palace and flow to her. She didn’t flinch or run away but felt the Fae magic flow through her and Teague, magnified like a prism. She and Teague began to glow together, and the Fae magic drew closer to them, uniting their souls.

  Then, it shot out of them, across the sky, and into the Fae world.

  She was a magnet—the conduit—for all the Fae power in the land. It flowed to them and through them. Mina understood now what the Fae lights were. There never had been anyone else in the palace. It was the magic that kept her company. She could see it, and it responded to her, just like when she was younger. It had always been attracted to her. It always seemed to come willingly to her.