Chapter 39
Iris
Six ropes flutter in the slight breeze from the gallows placed at the center of the town square.
The commander leads the convoy while his soldiers make a path through the throng of people who regard our wheeled cage with the same apathetic gazes as yesterday.
They seem as happy to be here as we are.
When I look up, the light that bounces off the king’s bejeweled crown stabs me in the eye.
About thirty knights guard the dais to the right of the gallows, where he’s sitting atop an ornate chair that could rival a throne.
In stark contrast to the fae people gathered in masses to watch the spectacle, the king is a stout, bearded man, his giant belly spilling over his belt.
What I assume is the queen and their children are occupying the other four chairs.
All of them have gold-spun hair and wear fine embroidered silks.
It’s sickening how healthy and well-fed they look.
The carriage jerks to a stop. If we don’t succeed, we’re fucked.
“Ready?” Kaiden whispers.
We all nod—even Thalia.
I square my shoulders and inhale a lungful of calming air.
Dismounting with feline ease, the commander strides toward us while one of the soldiers unlocks the fortified door. I didn’t realize last night that the douchebag would be personally escorting us.
I push Kaiden out of the way to get to the door. He gives me a what the fuck look because I’m deviating from the plan. I mumble under my breath, “He’s mine.”
Kaiden’s anger is palpable, but before he can say or do anything, I jump out. He follows, then Malik and Rhett, while Sam and Thalia stay behind. The commander glares at me over his hawkish nose. “Move!” he bellows as he reaches to grab my arm.
He doesn’t get far enough, though, because I snap out of the chains shackling my wrists.
The rush of energy hits me like a tidal wave—somehow a hundred times stronger than yesterday.
I swipe his sword from its holster in a fluid move.
“Surprise, motherfucker.” I smirk as I drive the blade straight through his throat.
“This is for Yana and for laying your dirty hands on my best friend.”
The planes of his face contort in equal parts shock and anger.
Disbelief follows. Blood sprays all over me when I pull out the blade.
He resembles a gaping fish as his mouth opens and closes before crumbling to the ground.
He falls face first while his dirty soul slips away, armor clattering against the pavement.
Silence engulfs the square.
Then, the crowd erupts into chaos.
Half of the knights guarding the dais sprint toward us.
What I’m not prepared for is the people to shove them back and start a riot, forming a protective wall between us.
However, the ten soldiers who were part of the convoy dismount in a frenzy and charge.
I whirl just in time to parry a sword coming at me strong enough that the force of the blow reverberates through my entire body.
The “Death to the tyrant king!” chants coming from the angry mob stifle the loud metallic clang.
It’s like they were sitting on a barrel full of gunpowder, and we were the spark that made it explode.
Ignoring the pulsing pain in my right hand, I tighten my grip on the hilt.
I might be dehydrated, malnourished, and powerless, but adrenaline and pure rage fuel my attack.
Years of training and muscle memory take over.
I shift effortlessly through low and high guards in a graceful dance.
Then I see it—the hesitation. It’s all I need to thrust my blade through his side where there’s a gap in the armor plates.
Blood gushes out as he shrieks. I put him to sleep with a blow to his temple.
I turn just as Kaiden kicks the asshole who punched me yesterday square in the chest, sending him sprawling backward. He disarms him with ease and snatches the sword from the air. Tracing a wide arc, Kaiden decapitates him in one clean move.
The furious crowd swallows the rest of the soldiers from the convoy. However, they start fighting back with magic. One of them is using water as a cannon and another is setting the civilians on fire.
Horns of distress resound over the plaza.
Even more soldiers are going to swarm this place, and it’s about to turn into a bloody massacre. We need to go.
Now.
Rhett has already taken his place at the carriage’s driver seat behind the horse, and Malik hops inside to join Sam and Thalia. I dash toward them at the same time as Kaiden, and I finally have hope that we’re going to get home in one piece.
In the next second, though, we’re all forced to our knees by a high-pitch sound I’ve never heard before.
It pierces my brain like an icepick. The ground beneath us shakes and cracks as if we’re experiencing a magnitude seven earthquake.
I slap my palms over my ears, but that does nothing to muffle the horrible noise that could only be described as nails on a chalkboard intensified by a millionfold. My eardrums bleed.
Forcing my neck to turn, I look back toward the source: the king. He’s standing on the dais with an open mouth like he’s screaming. A few fae start convulsing right in front of me while foaming at the mouth. This is how we die.
No! I can’t let that happen.
That’s when something prickles at the nape of my neck. The weird sensation continues to flow through me until it saturates every cell, picking up strength by the second. Without preamble, it ruptures. Explodes from my very nucleus outward like an atomic bomb.
The world turns black.
I am no longer Iris. I am no more than an absence of light seeking the poisoned core that resides inside the king’s chest.
My shadows form a claw that tears through skin, muscle, and bone. I yank the fetid ball of energy and snuff out its remaining light. I have no need for something so rotten. The vibrations stop.
But there are so many other souls here. Ripe for the taking. It would be so easy to reach over and—
“Iris! Snap out of it!” Someone pounds desperately at the fortified door of my mind. No. Not someone—him. The one we love, our home.
In the next blink, I’m pushed back in the driver’s seat of my mind. For a moment, I think I’ve blacked out because I see nothing, no light. But then I realize it’s me—I’m the epicenter of the darkness. The inky blanket that enveloped the square is emanating from my body.
Then, the dais bursts into deep scarlet flames, illuminating the king’s cadaver.
Someone screams bloody murder over the ringing in my ears.
Akin to a cord pulled too tight, the shadows snap before retreating.
I double over and start heaving from the influx of overwhelming power blistering me from the inside out as it all flows back into me.
Holy fuck.
I killed the king.
I ripped his soul right out of his body.
That must be what I did to Erik—I rotted him by snatching his soul. But it still doesn’t explain the state of those demons at Adrianna’s apartment because demons are soulless.
I’m pulled to my feet by Kaiden, whose irises are a deep crimson over an obsidian background. His lips move. My discombobulated mind can’t comprehend a single word, though. I grit my teeth and push through the debilitating pain as we run toward the barred carriage, then jump inside.
The soldiers elbowing through the masses in a frenzy to get to the burning dais don’t pay us any more attention.
Rhett grabs hold of the reins, spurring the horse into a gallop.
We fly over cobblestones at warp speed as Malik murmurs something under his breath.
He’s surely using magic to make the horse run faster.
The carriage whines and trembles as if it’s going to snap in two.
“Was that you, Iris?” Sam asks, eyebrows raised to her hairline as she holds on to the metal bars for dear life with one hand, the other wrapped around a stoic-faced Thalia. “Your eyes—they’re violet again.”
I can’t respond. I hit my knees as the nausea and violent heaves come back with a vengeance. Nothing but bile comes out. Blood is coursing down my nose in rivulets while the sensation of being stabbed directly in the brain by a fiery dagger completely overtakes me. Everything spins.
“Why is she bleeding?” She inhales sharply before shrieking, “The barrier!”
“Malik!” Kaiden bellows.
“I’m here,” he says and I feel his hands at my temples. I sway as if I’m on a ship navigating treacherous waters but a strong arm banded across my middle is keeping me steady.
“The cracks have widened,” Malik says. “I can only put a Band-Aid over them and hope for the best.”
“Do it.”
After a few moments that feel like lifetimes, the world comes back into focus and the fog of black magic retreats.
“Welcome back, angel,” Kaiden murmurs as he places a soft kiss on my forehead.
I almost melt into it, then I remember he spoke to me in my mind, back in the square.
No, that’s crazy. It was only a hallucination, right?
It had to be. Surely it was my conscience trying to reach me in any way possible.
“Was I out long?” I croak.
“Only a minute or two,” he answers, then shouts to Rhett, “How much time do we have left until the portal opens?”
Rhett takes out his compass. “Less than ten minutes.”
The gargantuan castle looms over us in all its garish glory. We’re so close. As we take a sharp left turn, soldiers on top of horses start pouring from the other end of the street. They rush at us—swords at the ready.
Rhett sends a blast of air, stopping their momentum while Malik kicks the door open and jumps. He shifts mid-air. A majestic nine-foot panther lands into a nimble crouch in his place.
Sam’s jaw is on the floor. “Holy Hecate!”
Malik jumps over the carriage to meet them.
He roars. The horses throw off their riders and scatter.
More than half of the soldiers take their lead, and the remaining ones form a wall, but they shake so violently that they resemble leaves in the wind.
Whatever spell Malik cast still affects our horse, which remains oblivious to its surroundings. He only forges forward.
It seems Mother Draia has finally approved of our business here in Faerie.
Sam lifts her hands. Leafy vines shoot from the ground, parting the soldiers like Moses did the Red Sea while immobilizing their bodies and pinning them flat to the houses on each side. Malik continues to run in front of the carriage in panther form.
The iron gates of the castle come into view.
Archers shoot at us from their outposts, but Kaiden turns the arrows to mere ashes before they can reach us.
Rhett blows the gate open with a tornado, so we zip through the courtyard as Sam puts up hedge walls between us and the incoming soldiers.
When we reach the stairs, Kaiden helps me down, then does the same for Thalia and Sam.
“You trust me?” He crouches before Thalia, locking their gazes.
She nibbles on her lower lip before nodding.
“Good, we’re getting you out of here, kiddo. I know this is scary, but I promise you I will do everything in my power to keep you safe.”
I never even considered having kids until this moment. But seeing how gentle Kaiden is with Thalia has me yearning for a future I know is out of the realm of possibility for me—us.
I take a fraction of a second to mourn that unattainable future, then shove it down alongside all my shattered hopes. He picks up Thalia and we all dash toward the stairs as Rhett joins us from the front of the carriage. Malik is already waiting in front of the gargantuan door.
Sam flicks her wrist to open it. A human woman holding a broom pales at the sight of us spilling over the threshold.
“Where is the entrance to the towers?” I ask.
She points a trembling hand to her right before scurrying away. Our hurried footsteps echo loudly against the ornate plastered walls. The corridor goes on and on and on. Sam is panting; she’s doing everything she can to keep up, but she’s running behind.
“Malik!” I shout. He slows down. “Can you give Sam a ride?”
He offers what resembles a human nod, then stops and bends his knees.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?!? I’m not doing that!” Sam spews, throwing daggers at me with her eyes.
“It’s either that or I give you a piggyback ride,” I snap.
“Three minutes,” Rhett cuts in.
She sucks on her teeth. Snaps her eyes closed.
Opens them. “Fine.” She hops onto Malik’s back and circles her arms around his neck.
She lets out a surprised squeak as Malik bolts.
A wooden door greets us at the end of the corridor.
Rhett kicks it open before we ascend the spiraling stairs of the tower.
Heavy footfalls resound behind us, and Sam puts up another green wall at our back.
Despite having my enhanced strength and speed back, I’m about to hack out my lungs from the effort when we finally reach the top of the tower. I welcome the powerful gust of wind that cools my overheated cheeks and makes the strands of hair that escaped my braid flail about.
Malik lowers his body for Sam to jump off before shifting back. We all bend over the stone banister to look at the ring of fire that punched through the cloud right below us. The soldiers still using their swords to hack through the hedge walls Sam erected earlier resemble ants from this height.
“I’m going last and I will use air to push you toward the portal like we discussed, okay?” Rhett says.
There’s a collective murmur of approval.
Malik is the first to jump. He makes it through without a hitch.
Kaiden passes Thalia to me so he can climb over to the other side of the banister. His eyes lock with mine as he takes her back, and the softness in his gaze pulls at my heartstrings. Is he having the same thoughts I did earlier?
“Ready?” he asks her.
Her “yes” is nothing more than a whisper.
I hold my breath as I watch them dive, but they make it as easily as Malik.
Rhett looks at the compass again. “You need to hurry. The portal is going to close soon.”
I help Sam over the rail.
Hand in hand, we leap.
Air rushes around me as gravity pulls us down. Then the world whirls.