A War of Three Kings (Dying Lands #2)

45. Aldrin

The entire room falls silent. Horror churns through me, and not at my own fate. Edmund stares at Titania, lips peeled back from his teeth in a snarl as his magic wells and grows within him.

Fire flashes in his narrowed eyes. True raging flames, not the parlor trick in Titania’s gaze.

He is going to kill her, rather than allow a fae to steal his family.

I throw out shields around the baby, Caitlin and Maeve. As I reach for Keira, I find she is moving, running, and her mind is completely blocked to me.

Keira throws herself at Titania’s feet. Titania pulls back a jeweled slipper as though worried she will sully it. Keira looks up at her with desperation. “I beg of you, take me instead of these women. I am a greater prize.”

“Keira! NO!” I reach for her, and she shoots me an apologetic glance over her shoulder. Before I can thread my arms around her waist and drag her behind me, Titania’s guards converge on me. They kick out my legs and twist back my arms, so I am forced to watch her on my knees.

I fight with animal ferocity, throwing my head back to catch one man in the groin and whipping out sharpened threads of air, but there are too many humans pressed around me for me to fight properly. Thick ropes of air attempt to bind me as I continuously destroy them.

Titania reaches down and grabs Keira’s chin, forcing her to look up. “And who are you?”

I rise to my feet with a guard hanging off my back, punching another in the face to get him out of my way. Someone stabs me in the side with a short blade, and I tear it out and use it on his throat. Beside me, Edmund is similarly attacked. Even Caitlin is pinned down by two women.

“I am the Lord Protector’s second daughter. The one he loves so much that he just went to war. And I am Aldrin’s mate. With me, you hold leverage over both men.” Keira’s voice is calm and confident as she barters her life away.

Pain explodes in my chest, far worse than the knife wound. Keira, no! I scream down the bond. I wail and sob. Don’t give up your freedom. Not for me. Don’t bargain yourself to her.

Keira shoots me another look. One of deep sorrow and immense love. She sends me a warm embrace of our souls. It is almost like a caress down my face.

I stagger forward, reaching for her, and more of Titania’s guards intercept me, leaping on my back and dragging me away.

“No!” I scream as her eyes flick between me and Keira. “No! Don’t you dare take her! Your grievance is with me, not her. Not the Lord Protector and his family. Leave them be and I will return to the Spring Court with you, to be humiliated however you please.”

“Oh, dear Aldrin, don’t you understand? Your life is already in my hands, and I just want to snuff out the inconvenience that is you. But a human mate? Human! That is just too hilarious.” Her tinkling laughter is at complete odds with my entire world falling apart.

I love you, Aldrin. Please forgive me, Keira says in my mind. I would give up everything for you to live. For my family to be safe.

I don’t want to live a life without you, I send back. Don’t do this.

My mate rises to her feet. “Why kill Aldrin when he cannot return to your realm without being destroyed by assassins? You could torture him for a lifetime by holding his mate where he can never reach me.”

Titania throws back her head and laughs. “Oh, I like the idea of that! What an oddity. A human mate. Tell me, Aldrin, what can a girl with no power even offer you? Surely not the bond of the mind or heart-feelings. And she will die all too soon, hardly seeing a hundred years!” She leans forward in her seat, eyes set on me, and her entire tone changes. “And I will make sure you won’t spend a single one of them with her.”

“You will do no such thing!” I roar. My magic rises within me as I snarl at her, a torrent of air whipping around us so forcefully it pulls at my clothes and picks up dishes and cutlery and candlesticks. The very stones of the floor are ripped up and swung into that cyclone. Cracks form in the walls and beneath our feet, and planks of wood are torn from the dais. All that debris is set aflame when Edmund’s magic joins my own.

Titania holds my gaze as she lifts a single finger, its long nail growing into a sharp claw. The hint of a smile curves her lips as she presses it to the baby’s face, then runs a long scratch down her cheek. Morgana screams immediately, but Titania doesn’t flinch. She raises an eyebrow at me, then holds the tip of the claw perpendicular to the infant’s neck.

I know her well enough to appreciate that she will follow through on the threat.

No! NO! Aldrin, please! Please stop!

The begging goes on and on until I realize it is Keira’s voice in my head.

Don’t let her hurt Morgana.

I drag my eyes away from Titania, down to Keira beating her hands on my chest, eyes wide and brimming with tears.

This is what you want? I ask her.

It is the only way . Do not fear for me, Aldrin. I will not be this woman’s prisoner. I will not be powerless in her court. I will be a spy in her midst, conveniently placed and underestimated enough to sow discord among our enemy.

Something dies within me.

I never wanted this for her.

It is because I am staring into Keira’s eyes that I don’t see the attack coming.

A fae guard slams the pommel of his sword straight into my temple. The weaves of my magic unravel and the missiles flying through the tempest clatter to the ground. I stagger to the side and crash to the floor, the world fading in and out of blackness while pain sears through me. Distantly, I register Caitlin crying and Edmund yelling.

Multiple guards hold me on the floor, some sitting on my back, while Torin grabs my face and forces me to look up. “Watch how my mother outwits you. See how she takes everything from you.”

“I will make a bargain with you,” Keira tells Titania with desperation. “I will travel with you to the Spring Court as your hostage, and no one here can stop it. As long as you are in power, I will remain there until you release me, without trying to escape you or attack you. You will promise no harm will come to my family by your hand or those of the people you control. While I am in your custody, you will not harm me, and I’ll be treated as an honored guest, with the same privileges, care and respect as any noble in your court. You will, by all effects, act as my patron. And you will not kill or torture Aldrin in the human realm.”

A slow smile forms on Titania’s black lips. “You are a clever one, little mouse, but not as clever as you seem to think. I agree to that bargain.” She leans forward on her throne. As she takes Keira’s arm, she digs her nails in deep, drawing blood. “Just a bit of fun before I can no longer make you bleed.”

Keira gasps, and the shock of that bite of pain flashes within my soul as well. I want to rip the world apart. A blind fury rages through me, refusing to see reason, not caring about logic or calculating the risks of my actions.

I need to tear Titania’s head from her shoulders.

My magic explodes from me. Shards of sharpened air rip through the bodies holding me down and throw them from me in a bloody arc, their forms flipping away.

I get to my feet and take a single step toward Keira to stop the madness of this bargain, but she shakes arms with Titania before I can reach her. Magic seals the agreement in golden streams of light that wrap around them, then burst into a thousand stars that slowly wink out.

All my hope for a better future dies within me as my heart splits in two. Absolute terror grips icy talons into my soul. I cannot control what happens to Keira in my realm. I cannot swoop in and extract her, because Titania must die or be displaced from power before Keira can leave her grasp. Perhaps that was part of Keira’s design, to force my hand.

The urge to weep shudders through me. I don’t want my fiancée, my dear heart, my mate, to be in the viper’s nest of my enemy, taking the full force of Titania’s resentment for me. I need her safe in my arms every night.

I take another step. My fingers clench with all the violence I intend to release, and my magic reaches boiling point, ready to be unleashed, but it hits a wall.

I reach for my power again. There is a barrier around it, and no matter how I thrash at it, I cannot reach a single drop of magic.

The next step feels like I am walking through water with a strong current pushing against me. I reach for my sword, opting for brute force, but every muscle in my body locks up and I freeze halfway there. My arms twitch but cannot move. All I can do is stare at Keira, still at my enemy’s feet, while I am rendered helpless. I cannot even take another step.

That gods-damned golden light of the bargain swirls like a storm around me, ensuring I don’t prevent Keira from holding up her end of it by stopping her from leaving here with Titania.

Maeve sobs at Edmund’s side, screaming at him to do something while she slams her hands into his chest, but he is just as frozen as I am, with his hand on the hilt of his sword and fire burning in his eyes. All his soldiers and mine are caught the same.

Caitlin’s hand encircles Keira’s wrist, a statue cradling her baby in one arm, and my mate has to force her fingers from her. Everyone with intent to stop Keira freezes, encased in gold light, her mother joining us the moment she takes her attention off her husband and tries to charge at her daughter, caught mid-stride.

It takes a long time for me to hear Keira’s voice over the screaming inside my head. Aldrin, I’m so sorry. It had to be this way. Please understand.

A tear rolls down my face, followed by another, and I can’t even wipe them away. I will come for you, Keira. And when I do, I will kill her.

Titania doesn’t waste any time drawing her people out of the castle. She doesn’t even look at me or gloat, but maybe the bargain won’t let her. As bodies of fae soldiers funnel around the living statues of Keira’s people, only one approaches me.

Torin peers into my face, a cruel smile on his lips. He slaps my cheek hard. “Not so scary now, are you, Aldrin?” he laughs, then walks away, whistling.

A heavy silence falls over us as they leave. My heart shatters the moment I feel Keira disappear through the portal and into another world so far away from me, I wouldn’t see its star if I looked up into the humans’ night sky.

Chaos erupts the moment the spell is broken.

I fall to my knees, clutching my face in my hands as devastation rolls through me in earth-shattering waves. My entire body shakes as I grapple with this new reality.

People scream and wail around me.

Caitlin, Maeve and Edmund huddle together in an embrace, both women sobbing on Edmund’s shoulders while he stares into space with desolation in his blank eyes. Morgana cries, but her little voice is lost among so many others.

Drake charges into the room with Klara and Hawthorne on his heels, and skids to a stop as he takes in the devastation, the color completely draining from his face.

It all seems surreal compared to the battle that rages within me.

A hard body wraps around me, pressing me into a chest with a thick arm. “We will get her back.” Cyprien’s voice is rough. “I promise you. We will throw everything we have at getting her back.”

I wrap my arms around his middle, and I don’t stop the tears from flowing. “We just got her back.”

I fall apart completely, then pull myself together, mobilizing my warriors. We march for those same portals at a fast pace. Cyprien argues with me the entire way there, but I can no longer hear him. It is like the creatures of the darkest realm possess me.

In the end, he follows my orders and leads what is left of our forces in the human realm through a portal that will take him to Lord Cedar. They will regroup and muster support.

I have a very different mission.

One I must do alone.

I step through the portal’s mists that lead me into the clearing at the edge of Spring—where I first met Keira, because I am a sentimental bastard. They will find me anywhere. I sit on the massive tree stump where I stood, cutting down rotting spriggan and dripping with their blood, the first time I laid eyes upon her.

It doesn’t take long for the sun to dip behind the horizon, its last rays bleeding across the sky, red as all the blood I will shed to get her back.

As the silvery light of dusk sets in, I am, very suddenly, no longer alone.

I stand and raise my hands in the air as a dozen figures in deep indigo robes creep in from the edges of the forest and surround me.

Assassins of Belladonna.

Their faces are hidden by deep hoods and fabric masks that cover their mouths and noses, but I get glimpses of gray skin, black eyes and scales. The assassins’ steps are mere whispers despite the panels of black-and-blue armor across their bodies. They hold their swords, glowing and sparking with white light, at the ready.

“I demand to take the Trials of the Belladonna Assassins.” My voice echoes across the stillness. “I demand my right of free passage to join your number.”

They halt in unison, then sheathe their swords while their dark cloaks billow behind them on a phantom breeze.

One steps ahead of the rest. “As is your right, it shall be done,” he lisps, a forked black tongue darting out of his mouth.

With a click of his fingers, a tempest roars up around us, the fast winds pulling at me. An inky darkness churns out of it like thick black clouds speeding in for a storm.

Demons from the darkest depths pour out, surrounding me. Some on all fours with silvery skin, black claws and fangs. Others with leathery wings or branching horns or scales. Most are far taller and larger than I.

Four horsemen ride out of the gloom, their mounts frothing at the mouths. Their equines are immense beasts, the bone of their legs, ribs and skulls visible through their shaggy black hair, ethereal red light shining behind their eyes. The warriors wear polished metal armor with snarling, demonic skulls for helmets and the ribcages of their conquered enemies for ornamentation over their breastplates.

The Wild Hunt, summoned here for me, like the darkest nightmares of my childhood have turned into reality.

They circle around me, too fast for me to hold my focus on a single foe. Deep down, I knew the Belladonna Assassins were creatures of the darkest realm, but the confirmation that they are minions of the vicious Shadow Court is a shock all the same.

We of the seasonal courts avoid them at all costs. Usually.

I spread my arms out wide. “All this, just for me? Should I be flattered?”

“We have had our eye on you for some time, Aldrin,” one says, but its voice reverberates and repeats, overlapping itself, and I can’t pinpoint which one of them spoke. I am so fucking tired of games.

The horsemen slow and converge on me, each reaching a heavy gauntlet in my direction, decorated with the finger and arm bones of someone else’s skeleton.

“Come. It is time for your trials.”

I am swallowed in blackness so thick I cannot see my own hands.

Very few take the trials and live, but I will be in that minority. I won’t stop there. I will challenge and kill their leader, taking ownership of their order. Then Titania will know the full might of my fury as I set the Assassins of Belladonna against all my enemies. Her false court will bleed for what was taken from me.

I will get Keira back.

I step through the nightmares and shadows to which I have sold my soul, and into my destiny on the other side.

The End