30. Ryder
30
Ryder
T his was the calm before the storm. I could feel it in my bones, almost hear it if I tried. The hiss in the air and wind that seemed to whisper words from a far-off place. It’s as if the soul of my future self was telling me to prepare and listen.
The power of Nai was my wind, the air in my lungs. We didn’t have a home like most fae; we went wherever the wind took us. That was what my mother had told me, a human who was once so beautiful. She had rarely spoken about my father. He was a Wind Fae—something I’d learned over time as I’d honed my gift—nothing more. I often thought up stories about what had happened to him. I used to believe he’d followed the winds so far, he’d gotten lost. As I’d grown a little older, I’d recognized the anger hiding behind my mother’s eyes, and I’d assumed from then on out, he was just a piece of shit. I’d spent most of my life alone since she’d died, with nothing but my thoughts to accompany me until I got my guitar and horse. As my horse’s hooves echoed down the alleyways and streets, I thought about the way Vessa had looked when she’d watched me play. I wanted to spend more time outside my head…with her.
I continued north. The smell of freshly baked bread seeped out from the homes of those who were up before dawn. I knew every pebble and crack engraved in these roads and every distinct smell from certain homes whose inhabitants’ lives I’d never know. I knew this city more than I understood myself. I knew when the cobblestone streets turned to white granite, we were at the edges of Fang’s lavish lair.
Looking ahead, I saw his lawmen strapped and guarding the entrance.
I dismounted, rolling my head from side to side, and cracked my neck. The sound drew a few stares my way. I straightened my long, dark trench coat. With a tip of my hat, I flashed them a pearly smile and started up the path.
A grin curved my lips as I walked past them. As always, I was reminded of the monster I’d become—I knew by the end of this, one way or another, all those men would die. It wasn’t a hunch or whisper of the wind; it was a vow.
There was an eerie, quiet calm as I entered Fang’s palace.
Stonewashed pillars lined the foyer, branching off down the halls to different parts of the palace as the bottom of the stairs opened up to the space ahead, leading to a second floor—such a foolish way to squander nara coins. At the top step, I saw the crack on the marble railing, the bloodstain still visible from years ago, a memory forever etched in my mind: the night I’d bashed a man’s face in because it had been time for him to leave. Fang’s extravagant palace hid the stories I could never tell. I was just as heinous as him.
“You’re a little early, Ryder.” Fang’s voice echoed in the expanse of the grand room as I entered.
I strode in, pretending to be complacent within our roles. I did my job, he did his. Criminals finding common ground to mind our own fucking business. But little did he know that things had changed.
Cascading water filled the silence, a fountain Fang had installed years ago. Though it was off to the side, wedged between crystal-clear windows, it was always the focal point of parties.
“Early bird gets the worm,” I drawled, my voice a low echo as I sauntered in, seeing a few more pieces of armor adorning his wall.
Fang had bled me for the boy I’d been until it’d made me a man. He was the same monster he had been years ago. He sat on his throne with a setup that looked more like a raised patio with two long settees running parallel. Empty bottles littered the small table in the center, and the aroma of women’s perfume still clung to the air. His grip tensed around the cane made from the bones of fae. His slender, sweaty palms remained clasped around the skull of a large bird at the top. Every time I heard it drag across the stone floors, I remembered the day it had been made. Bile worked its way up my throat—even for someone like me, that memory was far too disturbing.
“Is that what you’re calling your cock these days?” he said, playing with the tip of his carefully crafted mustache that was more of an aristocratic statement. He looked a little thinner than the last time I’d seen him but still wore his signature, crimson, long-sleeve shirt tucked inside a black vest. His dark robe hid the rest of his lavish outfit, seemingly from the night before.
Those beady, dark eyes narrowed on me from beneath the brim of his hat, sending the small row of rings pierced into the edge to chime with every subtle motion. His grip tensed as I ascended the few steps to his dais. I took a seat on one of the settees, trying not to be disturbed by the scent of sex wafting in the air. The fucker was a wrinkle in time, constantly doused by the tonic of the Eternal stone. I instantly noticed the effects of mass consumption. I could surmise he hadn’t slept the night before, knowing his prize had set foot in Donia. He must have partied all night long to remedy his overactive mind.
“You look like shit, Fang. The Eternal must not be working well with you these days. Those bags under your eyes look like a sack of balls.”
“All the more reason why we need that Umbra Fae. There are rumors she has something to do with it. With the power of the Eternal stone waning, the tonics are becoming less effective, which means less nara coins coming in.”
“What about your sweet little candle business? ‘The flame that burns thrice as long,’” I mocked, reaching for the unopened bottle of whiskey that had somehow managed to survive the night.
“Always with the jokes,” Fang said, leaning forward with a scowl. “My reign will not be known for fucking candles .”
I ignored the splash of spit that flung onto my pants. Getting under his skin was far too satisfying. “I like candles, and so does every other woman when she bathes,” I drawled, flashing a smirk before I took a swig of liquor.
“Which is why we need that Umbra bitch . Sergil cannot wait to get his hands on her.”
My grip tightened around the bottle as my jaw tensed. I saw how Fang looked at me as I thought about the way Sergil had eyed Vessa. No doubt she would be an experiment to him.
“When your cock was buried inside her, did you find out how she’s connected?”
I laughed, imagining punching through his face as I focused on the way it intensified his stare. Deploying facetiousness, a wicked grin curved my mouth as I said, “Why? Who wants to know?”
On my next breath, he lunged for me, but I would always be too quick for him. I parried his attack, moving out of reach. The clumsy fuck landed with his face buried right where my ass had sat. I grabbed him by the back of his robe and tossed him to the side, sending the table and other settee off the dais.
“I won’t mince my words, Fang.” I gritted my teeth. “The deal is off, and I just came to say farewell.”
The animosity finally hit the air. I saw the betrayal flare in his eyes, and in a blazing heap, he gripped me by the coat as we engaged in a tussle that flung us down the steps.
His strikes were hard as they’d always been, packing a punch just to show his role, but today, I was here to prove a fucking point.
“You fucking traitor. After all I’ve done for you.” He growled before I introduced my fist to his jaw and his head whipped to the side, sending blood splattering across the floor.
I growled, pulling him off his feet, and slammed his body against a pillar. The stone cracked on impact, deepening the fissure as it vined up to the ceiling. I swung too wide, and he caught my fist in his hand and punched me in the gut with the other. I lurched forward as he swerved a heavy uppercut into my jaw. He grabbed me by the coat and threw me against the same pillar.
I spit to the side, welcoming the bit of pain with a blood-coated grin, knowing I’d keep fighting for her until he took his last breath.
“Come on, Fang.” I seethed. “Show me who you really are.” A darkness hung around us as I pulled on the tail of an angry bull. I wanted to see him become the very thing he despised. “You can use glamor all you want, but I know who you have always been.”
I was looking into a mirror, an eye for an eye, soul for a soul. He had taken mine long ago, so it was only fair I took what remained of his. He was a Water Fae. I knew the power of Ari mocked him every day while he hid in his city surrounded by twin rivers with an ocean for a backside. It was a reminder of everyone he’d killed. I’d heard them on the nights I’d stood in the palace. Ripples in the water had floated on a gust of wind and into my room. Maybe subconsciously, the fountain reminded him of a power he refused to touch.
“The power of Ari calls you like a siren,” I said—words of a distant language unbeknownst to me; maybe the cries of the fallen.
“You might have a way with words around women, but they will not work with me. Your desultory plans have always been your demise, Ryder. Unlike you, I’m always a step ahead.”
My brow arched.
“I received a little tip from someone about where you were, and I decided to do a wellness check. You know, in case you had a change of heart,” Fang said.
Silence hung in the air. My jaw clenched as panic threatened to spill over, but I quickly reined it in, eyes darkening.
“Judging by the look on your face, I see I was correct. By the way, where is your little Umbra half-light now?”
A growl tore through me as I sent his body flying, the force so strong, his body broke the next pillar.
He was unearthing a demon I hadn’t felt in quite some time—a darkness that would ravage this city until she was safe in my arms. Just then, a calamity of gunshots and cries wrung out outside the palace. As I diverted my stare toward the entryway of the grand room, Fang was at my back.
There was no time to form my next thoughts; they exploded in a white haze as he used his power of Ari , summoning a blow against my temple and knocking me to the ground. I landed on my side. Without a doubt, I knew the clamor of destruction outside was Vessa, but when I reached through the bond, I felt the sharp, jagged edges of the dark; one that might as well have said fuck you . I cursed under my breath and slowly rose to my feet, licking the blood off my bottom lip before I spat.
I grinned, seeing Fang in his true form. His fae ears took shape in a shade of blue that mirrored the azure sea surrounding the city. His hands, ones I had spent far too many years sparring with, reminded me of their crashing waves.
“There you are,” I whispered. Water swirled in crystal orbs around his fists. “I admit, blue doesn’t suit you.” I pulled a dagger from its sheath and stalked his way. “But maybe red will.”
The electricity that coiled down my spine faltered my next step.
I knew the moment she entered the room and felt the darkness she brought with her. Before I could turn my head, she unfurled her power, then clamped it around my neck. I felt the fevered chill of betrayal against my skin; I felt her in my next breath.
Fang’s laughter bellowed at the threat of a woman who had every right to end me. My dagger clamored against the ground as I tried breaking from her grip.
She spun me on my knees until I was face-to-face with her. I remembered when she’d said she was the devil, and for the first time, I felt it.
Moonlight-silver eyes stared back, an emptiness in them as the ground shook beneath my legs. The wall behind her cracked, splitting in a thousand fissures up the wall. Pieces of rubble fell from the ceiling and crumbled to the ground.
She did not move.
She did not blink.
She only tilted her head as she bore a daggered stare, as if she were trying to piece together who I had been before all of this.
End’s Wrath stood in the foyer as Fang’s lawmen flanked him. From beyond, the garden encircling Fang’s palace caught my eye. The Umbra Fae had torn down every wall that had stood in their path. A gale of wind stirred, unearthing everything in his way. I saw End’s Wrath for the legend he was, the monster from the stories. He was a man carved out of stone, who had lost so much. A man who would end it all for her. The cries that ruptured through the lawmen’s throats was proof. He carved a calamity of destruction as a searing reminder of how far he would go. He tore through their minds and fears. I felt it in their screams as a chill swept down my back. His force was a gravitational draw to him, until their flesh was stolen from their bodies, becoming nothing but a mist of blood and chunks of meat in his wake amidst the rubble.
Light broke through, and she was nothing but a shadow cast in its rays.
They were the Umbra.
The woman who was staring down at me wasn’t Vessa.
She was death.
The moment she’d brought me to my knees, I’d known I only had seconds to act before she’d snap my neck. I wanted to escape the way she was looking at me, and in the same thought, if these were my final moments, at least I’d had a chance to look at her once more.
From the corner of my eye, I saw one of Fang’s rogue survivors rush her. She did not move as he closed the distance. Not until he was at arm’s length did she punch her fist through his chest and pull out a beating heart. Shadow curled around her hands, a darkness that bled into the air, bending to her whim. It was wicked and cruel, and gods-damn, I was a bastard for still finding it a turn-on.
The man’s body collapsed, leaving behind a vessel and a heart thrumming in her grip. She observed it for a moment before she slowly turned to me.
“Where could I begin that doesn’t end with me taking your life?” she finally said, a swell of anger brimming her eyes. Again, she did not blink; a silver glare remained.
“Vessa…” I deeply exhaled the moment she released her shadowed hold. “Let me explain.”
She squeezed the pulsing heart in her palm until it burst into a mist of blood, spraying the both of us.
“Imperfect souls can live a thousand lives. I cannot live another if you’re not in mine,” I said, damning myself for… fucking hells …for everything I’d done wrong.
Within the edges of my mind, I used the power against her hold, pushing to my feet against her shadows that bound me to the ground. She wanted me at arm’s length while I wanted her by my side. I hated this feeling. I remembered moving inside her, how easy it had been to rein in her power and wield it with mine. Though I remained a few feet from her, the temptation to test that newly-formed thread only grew in desperation.
I swallowed when I saw that her end of the bond still had starlight. In the blink of an eye, the inky swells of her darkness solidified into an onyx lasso. It slithered around her waist, and like cracking a whip, I thrust her body against mine.
I caught her in a hard crash, landing in a bruising kiss, as I couldn’t stand the way she was looking at me. Both our powers fell away as we became just two beings in the middle of a crumbling palace. At first, her body tensed against my lips, but they soon softened, and she ran her hands along my neck.
“I’m sorry, Desert Rose. Please forgive me. I couldn’t do it, not after knowing who you were.” Fuck, who was I kidding? I leaned my forehead against hers. “Not after knowing what you meant to me.” We both shared the same air, exhaling deeply. “I couldn’t…” I rasped, shaking my head as I caressed the back of her neck. She pulled away, staring into my silver-lined gaze full of regret. A flame of betrayal flickered on the edges of her eyes, but the silver moonlight drifted away. Like a break in the clouds, I saw her lavender stare, honey-magic like the stars. The anger still held within as she heaved.
She pushed up onto her toes to kiss me. The rogue tear that slipped down her face felt like guilt whipping against already open wounds. Her lips moved against mine as if for the very last time.
The grin on her face was almost as haunting as her next words. “Your knife or mine.”