21. Carter
21
Carter
H itting the ground on my back hurt, knocking all the air out of my lungs, and when I finally got my muscles to work again, I gasped and scrambled to my feet. I gaped at the sight in front of me, my mind almost unable to understand it.
Diana and Alberich hovered thirty feet in the air, their magic twisting together like the clouds in a hurricane, creating a force field around them that stretched as far as I could see in either direction. Dark tendrils swirled with the queen’s pale counterparts, engulfing the ruins and the ground between them. A loud roaring sound whipped through the atmosphere, blowing the trees against each other, the crisp Faerie air hitting me in the face. If I couldn’t see this, I’d swear a helicopter had landed right in front of me. But no, this was two pissed-off royal fairies taking it out on each other on their most hallowed ground.
The rest of the fairies had been blasted as far away as us, and now they pushed to their feet, their eyes as black as the others. But they weren’t going for the circle of chaos, no. They were turning on each other. Clangs of metal from crashing swords echoed over the wind, and I moved out of the way of two fairies who had tackled another to the ground.
He’d entranced them all. He’d put them under some spell that made them fight among themselves.
The bastard!
We were the only ones left standing, the only ones in our right mind. I didn’t know why he wasn’t able to manipulate us the way he’d done to the others. If he tried, it didn’t work. Perhaps the queen was protecting us. Or perhaps it was our magic shielding the effects of his. I thought back to Siobhan’s insistence that it had to be us, that we would be the ones to end it. Now I understood what she meant.
But Ivy and Lex were on the other side of the whirlwind, and we’d either have to go around it or through it to get to them. I found Miri on the ground near me, scrambling on her hands and knees like she was looking for something. I kneeled next to her, grabbing her shoulders to try to pull her to her feet.
“No!” She shoved me away. “Help me find it!”
“Find what?” I held her face up to mine, cupping her chin so I could wipe the blood off her cheek. She must have hit her head when she fell, but it wasn’t too serious. “Miri, we have to get to Ivy and Lex.”
She said something back to me, but I couldn’t hear it over the sounds of soldiers and royalty tearing each other apart. Miri kept searching, her features draped in alternating shadows and bright lights, making me feel like I was in some fucked-up rave.
“Miri!” I shouted again.
She found whatever she’d been trying to get and sagged in relief before pushing to her feet and showing me the bag containing the ruby dust.
“Come on, Romeo.” She leaned in closer to my ear so I would hear what she said next. “Just like Lex said. We can do it.” Miri glanced back at the swirling nightmare of magic in the distance, Lex and Ivy on the other side of the shield…on the other side of the veil. Ivy’s features contorted into confusion while Lex talked at her with his hands, probably also trying to figure out how to get through.
The screams of the battling fairies around me grew louder, drawing my attention. Some of them tried to enter the force field, and the strength of it ripped them to pieces. Another one ran for it straight on and disintegrated the moment he crossed through. A few of the enthralled soldiers on the ground got caught up in it, exploding into dust.
When the rest of the bystanders realized they couldn’t get inside or go around it, the front line backed up, but the storm grew bigger. They pushed into the human realm to keep from getting caught in it, others retreating farther into Faerie. The longer we waited, the more overwhelming their combined power became, and if we did nothing, it would eventually take over. How much damage could it do?
“We have to get to the other side,” I said, tugging Miri over to the edge of the spiraling magic, the crackling energy nearly sending me back into the crowd with the rest of the fairies, but I squeezed her hand tighter and focused on Lex and Ivy.
“We can’t get in.” Miri stopped and winced, looking at the fairies that were still risking their lives to join the fight. “We have to throw it at him from here.”
I couldn’t explain how I knew this was the right thing to do, only that luck had been on my side this far, and it wouldn’t abandon me now. I remembered that green mist last night, the one created out of our love for each other, the one that grew exponentially with each confession of adoration.
If they’re like us, we’re like them.
I visualized that emerald energy like a shield, like I could wrap it around my body, around the bodies of my lovers. It would protect us, it would give us strength. That was why it was still within us, why we still glowed with it. It flowed out of the center of my chest, coating my skin like armor before cascading to Miri behind me.
“Don’t let go, okay?” I shouted at her.
She nodded, but I had no idea if she heard me. The thunderous boom of crashing energy might have blocked it out.
I pushed my other hand into the explosive mist, now twirling more violently around the two royals locked in its embrace. When I didn’t lose an arm or disappear completely, I pushed in farther and the strength of the forest-green magic held, allowing me to take a step.
Then another. And another. The weight of their fight bore down on me from either side, suffocating in its intensity, like I’d suddenly been dragged thousands of miles below sea level. The pressure ached, pulsing and throbbing against my skin while I walked. It took eons to get through to the other side, and even then, the roaring did not stop. My hand clamped around Miri’s, yanking her into the eye of the cyclone so hard, she tripped on the edge and stumbled into me. I caught her, my knees locking in place as I glanced around.
From inside, the sight was even more mesmerizing. Each royal’s power had hit the other and launched skyward, arching over the middle to create a dome. Gale-force winds ripped around me, chapping my cheeks and making my eyes water, but I gave myself one heartbeat to admire its raw primal beauty. I had never seen such magnificence, and despite the dire circumstances, I believed I never would again.
“We need to get them,” Miri said, our combined attention going to Ivy and Lex, who were still trying to get through the force field. We couldn’t do this without them. We were stronger when we were together. We needed them to finish this. Their emerald shield did not radiate as powerfully as it did with me and Miri. I needed to help them. I needed to reach through the magic and tug them both inside with us.
“This way!” I pulled her over to our spouses, too focused on getting to them to realize Miri was scrambling for the ruby dust and chanting something too low for me to hear.
Ivy’s fingertips were so close to the middle, so close to breaking the barrier. I dug deep for more of the power we’d generated between us, feeding the extension of it through my arm into my hand. I pushed against the fairy magic, knowing only I could do it, only I could rip it apart.
The pressure ached like a thousand splinters sliding into my skin, piercing my bones, but I kept going. We needed Lex and Ivy. I needed them.
“Ivy!” Her name came from the depths of my soul, as if by calling it out, I could will myself to get to them faster.
“Carter!” Her cry rattled through me, urging me on. I thought of all the times I’d called her Weeds, all the times I’d taken her and kissed her like our lives depended on it. I thought of my night with Lex in London, and the tiny moments in college when we’d stared at each other from across the room and wanted. Memories of California flashed through me, when Miri and I had shared our heartbreak and spilled our secrets like we’d found our twin flame in each other. The details of every time the four of us had loved and lost and loved again came barreling to the forefront, and all that we’d survived hit me next. I used that raw emotion brewing in my chest to shove the rest of the way to Ivy, finally wrapping my fingers around her wrist.
Once I had her, the vibrancy of their shared connection flowed through me, energizing what I’d just conjured, amplifying it to such an extreme that I yanked them through the wall with hardly any effort.
“We have to stop them,” Ivy said telepathically. “ Where’s the ruby dust?”
“Miri’s got it.” Lex held up his free hand to shield his eyes from the queen’s bright fury. “ Where’d she go?”
“Miri!” I shouted, realizing the connection with her had been broken. While I worked to get to our spouses, she’d disentangled her hand from mine, the emerald energy thinning as it stretched between us. The ruby dust had fallen to sparkling nothing at my feet and Miri now hovered in the air just like the king and queen, a dark sword made out of the king’s mist spearing through her chest.
“You thought you could use my magic against me?” Alberich’s voice amplified the pounding of my heart, my brain struggling to rationalize what I was seeing. “Little Thistle, I am so disappointed in you.”
The sword withdrew, and Miri dropped to the ground like a limp fish. My chest clenched so hard, I thought I might throw up. Falling to my knees, I ignored the blood dripping from her mouth and nose, wiping it off so that I could see if she was okay.
“Miri!” I pulled her into my arms, ignoring Ivy’s screams and Lex’s panicked questions as they kneeled on either side of me. The fairy storm went on, loud and chaotic, drowning out all other sounds in my mind, all except the agony of watching my best friend, my lover, my spouse…my Juliet…get mortally wounded in front of me. “It’s okay,” I murmured, staring down into her wide, scared eyes while she sputtered to talk.
“Miri, no,” Ivy said, gripping her hands. “No, no, no.”
“You stupid woman.” Lex growled, putting his hands on Miri’s chest, trying to staunch the wound, but it was no use. “Why did you do that?”
Miri coughed and tried to say something, but the words died on her lips as she took one final breath and let it out on a wet sigh.
“I love you,” I said, leaning down to press my lips to hers. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
When I glanced up, Ivy held her hands to her tear-stained cheeks, her eyes wide with horror. Lex’s face had gone pale and his hands were covered up to the elbows in Miri’s blood. I, too, had crimson all over my chest and arms and down the front of my pants.
I couldn’t believe it. How had this happened? There wasn’t supposed to be a sacrifice. I knew it in my bones. My luck told me so. It had never steered me wrong before, and I didn’t believe it would now. This shouldn’t have happened…This couldn’t be real…
Unless…
I glanced up at the two royals, still duking it out four stories above us. The king had proven himself capable of fucking with people’s minds, making them think things that weren’t true, making them live inside their heads while he did whatever he wanted. Look at what he’d done to the battle maidens, to the Fianna.
What if this was all in my head? What if this was a dream or a fake vision planted there by the worst creature to ever walk either realm?
I pushed to my feet and wiped the tears from my face, apathetic to the smears of Miri’s lifeblood that I left there. Walking to the place just under the king, I stared up at his vile, rotten form and willed that emerald energy back to me.
“Carter!” Ivy shouted, trying to run after me, but it was already too late.
I stuck my hand into the barrier again, grabbing at the dark mist with my own emerald energy, using our love and the power it gave us to bring him down.
Enough of this, now!
ENOUGH!
I bellowed the word in my head as I pushed our magic into the shield, screaming as it ripped from me in a devastating and all-consuming fury. Every molecule in my body burst into flames, and I wanted to pull my hand back to make it end, but no.
It wasn’t real. None of this was real.
Once upon a time, I had made a promise to Miri that I would be the one to help her distinguish reality from her dreams. Now, I couldn’t tell myself, and she was gone. I’d been forced to watch her die, and if I didn’t do this, if I stopped now, I’d have to watch all of them die.
A sledgehammer hit me in the back, amplifying the anguish in my chest, radiating through to the other side.
I looked down to find a bright sword sticking out of my heart, matching the one that had been shoved inside Miri, obsidian and gleaming with my blood.
As I took a step back and turned to face Ivy, warm metallic liquid coughing up the back of my throat, I learned the horrifying truth.
This was very real…and we were going to lose.