24. Aflora
I screamed,my arms stretched impossibly wide as I refused to release any of my mates.
Constantine’s cruel laughter circled me in an invisible rope of sound, slithering across my skin and taunting my ears.
I hated him.
Hated this.
“I refuse to choose!” I yelled.
Which only made him laugh harder.
“Oh, Aflora. You act as though that’s an option.” His voice came from right in front of me, his body encased in shadows, leaving me in the perpetual dark with the ropes of magic tearing from my palms. “You must sacrifice one.”
“No.” I wouldn’t do it. I could never sacrifice any of my mates. I’d rather die. I’d rather lose. I’d rather not ascend. “Take it all back. Take the power. Take the source. Take it all back!”
His amusement blackened my soul, telling me there was no reasoning with him.
He’s insane. Mad. Completely lost to this idea of genocide.
I could feel his hatred whipping around me, his need to destroy all those he considered to be other. Abominations. Vile beings with too much power.
Except he was the one abusing the dark source now, forcing me into a wicked web of death and despair.
This isn’t the way, I thought. This isn’t how the dark source wishes for someone to ascend.
I could feel it weeping, begging the ruler—Constantine—to stop. To take it all back. To redirect the trial to something of growth and potential, to have me prove my worth in a more appropriate manner.
But Constantine ignored the plea, his mind made up.
This was the path he’d chosen, this cruel game of “sacrifice a mate.”
I shivered, my heart fracturing into a million pieces. I could feel Kols’s strand weakening, his ties to death too tender and fresh. The dark source was absorbing him, the lesser of all evils.
He’d almost died once.
It made logical sense to take him again and finish his path.
No, I thought, shooting energy down that strand and emboldening it with my earth source. I was a being of life and creation, and I used that gift to root Kols to me now.
Aflora?he whispered, his voice a beautiful caress to my mind.
Kols, I breathed, sending more vitality to him and renewing his strength.
What are you doing?
Holding on to you,I replied, strained as the source rippled around me in a demand for me to release a mate.
I cried out as it pulsed, stretching me wider, thinning the souls of those I loved most. No! I screamed, slamming the vines with another bout of inner strength, drawing my own version of vines around them to reduce their strain.
But to the detriment of my own soul.
It burned.
Ached.
Left me breathless in this mass of black magic.
You can let me go, Kols said, his voice soft and understanding. It’s okay, sweetheart. I’ve already been gifted with more time, a chance to say goodbye to you all. To love you, even in my short weeks left. It’s enough for me to dream of you for eternity while I rest, Aflora. It’s enough for me to have lived a full life.
No!I snapped. Stop telling me this. I wouldn’t let him go. I wouldn’t choose. I wouldn’t allow him to be the sacrifice Constantine demanded.
There had to be another way.
There had to be?—
“This is pathetic,” Constantine said. “And it’s exactly why a female can never rule. You’re thinking with emotion and not practicality. Kolstov is the obvious sacrifice as the closest to death. But rather than choose the weak link, you’re making them all suffer. What a pitiful queen you would be.”
I growled. “You know nothing of the queen I will be.”
Because he underestimated the powers of the bonds, the strength of mating, the bolstering of the heart. This Midnight Fae Elder only thought in terms of practical recourse, making decisions about life and death on a whim.
No ounce of remorse.
No concern for others.
Just a need to be in charge, to lead by his own example, and to never accept anyone outside his skewed view of superiority.
He was the reason abominations were shunned, the reason Lucifer had had to reopen the gates to the Hell Fae realm a thousand years ago, and why Zen had had to craft the paradigm to protect the exiled Midnight Fae.
That wasn’t the mark of a worthy king, but of a dictator who led the people by his own instincts alone. Never listening to his fellow fae for guidance or requesting their opinions. He merely told them what to do and expected them to bow.
He’d tricked the Quandary Bloods into his ascension, rewriting the power away from the Morte line to bolster his own, because he had a vision for his people.
A vision that cast out women.
Cast out those he believed were stronger.
Cast out those with the ability to stop him.
Then he’d forced the ascension onto me as some sort of trick of fate, to paint me as a monster to his people. When, in fact, he was the evildoer in this scenario, the villain who craved a worthy opponent.
And he’d chosen me.
The dark source had accepted me.
My mates had claimed me.
“I won’t choose,” I said again, my voice stronger now. “They’re my mates. My heart. My soul. Without them, I’m not worthy enough to be queen. They’re my rocks, my foundation, my roots. I won’t destroy them. I won’t release them. I won’t sacrifice those who make me who I am, because otherwise I’ll lose myself.”
“Then they’ll all die,” Constantine whispered, his words cruel. He kissed me with his power once more, the pulsing walls yanking on me with a vengeance, the dark source bellowing in agony at being forced to abuse the one it had chosen to ascend.
I screamed with it, my soul in tatters, my mates yelling inside my mind and heart to stop this madness, to embrace the choice.
They all told me to pick them, to sever them, to live, to survive.
But this world wouldn’t work without all four of them together.
My mates represented four branches of Midnight Fae kind, their bloodlines invaluable, their power insurmountable.
Yet I felt them all dwindling, their energy waning, their lights blinking in and out as the trial raged around me, Constantine demanding my sacrifice.
I couldn’t just forfeit or walk away.
He’d ensured that I either picked one mate… or I lost them all.
Either way, I’d lose my heart in the process.
Aflora!Kols called to me again. Please, sweetheart. Listen to me. I can’t let you do this. Pick me. Sacrifice me. I can’t live in a world where Shade and Zeph are gone. They’re dying, love. They’re… we’re all… I’m ready… I swear to you that I’m ready, that I can do this. Just let me go, sweetheart. I’ll be with you always. You know that. I’ll be part of the source for?—
Don’t you dare listen to him, Zeph interrupted. I can feel his energy waning, Aflora. Don’t listen to him. Don’t let Kols do this!
Aflora,Shade whispered. Just take me… I’ve already lived seven lives with you. Eight including this one. It’s enough… it’s enough for me to know… that you’ve chosen this path, that you’re?—
Zakkai’s growl infiltrated my mind as I released a pained gasp, the darkness roaring around me. I’m trying, but I can’t… I can’t hold on much longer… Aflora… Aflora, you have to…
No!I shouted to them all. I won’t choose!
This wicked game had to end.
I wouldn’t sacrifice them.
I couldn’t.
And I told them that with a blast of power that left me breathless… yet bolstered their strands. Similar to what I’d done to Kols, my vines thriving around him, solidifying my grip.
I did it again.
They all pulsed back to life, their voices clearing more in my head.
Aflora,Zakkai warned.
I ignored him, shoving more vitality and power into their cords as the darkness around me began to shiver and retreat.
When I stopped, it crept forward again, yanking on my mates and weakening their bonds.
But when I pulsed outward once more… it stilled.
Constantine’s presence seemed to pause around me, his confusion a tangible brush to my senses.
And I smiled.
“I will not choose,” I said for a third time.
Then I released all my power and vitality into my mates, blasting them with every ounce of my strength and life, giving them my entire heart… and soul.
They shouted in my mind, demanding I stop.
But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
This was my sacrifice.
Wind whipped around me, the dark source accepting my path.
My veins began to throb, the energy spilling from me through four strands, invigorating my mates as my own soul began to weep.
They begged me to stop.
Kols demanded I listen.
Zakkai’s power wrapped around me as he tried to control my efforts, but I snapped his spell with one of my own, my heart breaking a little in the process at his resounding agony. I love you, I breathed to him.
I love you all, I said, whispering through their minds with my final words as I fell to my knees on an exhausted wheeze.
I was wrong before. Constantine wanted me to choose. I refused. Until now.
“I choose to sacrifice myself.”
My palms met the black floor.
And I unleashed every last drop of my being into their vines, their cries of pain at my loss… following me down… down… down…