Chapter 36
VALANCE
Kormac died in my arms, the soul bond breaking as a delicate flower stem.
Gone.
He was gone. Bleeding his last across my lap.
I shook him. “Heal yourself. Please. Why… Why isn’t he saving himself?”
“Because you now have his power, Your Majesty.” Brigid was on her knees again.
“He died for you, so you could have his magnificent healing power. That undying essence.” She cackled.
“King Valance is unstoppable. The world will kneel. The world will remember the Tuatha.” She slowly stood. “We all tremble before your might.”
“You… You made me kill him.” I stroked his blanched face, calling upon my new magic to help him. “If I have this power, why can’t I save him?”
“Because he is the gift giver. He does not belong here.”
“Of course, he does.”
“He is a strange one,” she said. “Not only written in the stars but from beyond them.”
“What?”
“I do not really know how or where he comes from. Only that he had the gift that he was destined to give. To die in duty. To be a hero.”
“You fucking scum,” I seethed. “You—”
Kormac’s body disintegrated in a puff of blue and green smoke, the vapors rising and trailing through the holes in the ceiling.
Gone.
“He’s gone. He’s really gone.”
“Yes.”
From the stars? Not from here? What was this nonsense?
My temples throbbed. “I will kill you, Brigid.”
“I am here to serve you, Your Majesty.”
I stood, summoning a sword of sliver to my hand as if the action were nothing. At ease with my new magic, already a second nature.
“You need me,” she protested, backing away. A stone figure almost tripped her. “Please.”
I liked to hear her beg. “I don’t need you anymore.”
“You need counsel, a guide. As I said before, Your Majesty, the arms of Winter are not wide. You must claim the lost power, build your trust, your army. Only then can you take your revenge. I can help you.”
“And then I take the world? Is that it? Claim revenge for you?”
“For you, for all of us.”
I’m not one of you. I am new.
I summoned a second sword to my other hand.
The darkling laughed, clapped her wrinkled hands in applause. “That’s it. Well, done, my king. You did that with such skill.”
“As easy as breathing,” I said.
“Wonderful. Now—”
I took her head in one swing of the blade in my right hand, drove the other into her guts.
“Silence, darkling.”
Her head rolled across the hall, coming to rest beside a standing stone figure, a portion of its torso gone. A soul trembling within, calling from the other side.
“The last queen,” I said.
The bond between the human and I was gone. Lost forever. A soul bond, a curse, and a blessing. Leading me to a man I came to… I came to care for. No matter the cause and effect, he’d left an impression. He’d burrowed inside me.
Now he was gone.
Now there was only one thing to do.
With his stolen power, I called to the soul reaching out from the other side within that statue.
Death. Kormac dead. Brigid, now dead. But me? I would never die. This power, this magic stolen from him… I would never die. Ever. Doomed to live forever. Blessed to take Faerie. There was nothing left for me now but vengeance. It was my everything, my destiny. My becoming.
The statue became flesh, a naked woman as pale as the snows. Black hair spilled to her shoulders in thick curls, her eyes as black as mine.
Tuatha eyes.
She drew a breath, unsteady on her feet.
I watched her as she absorbed her reality, the head of the darkling at her feet.
“Queen Orla,” I said. “Welcome back to life.”
“Brigid?” she croaked. “Is this… Is this her head?”
“Forget her. Forget everything from your days as queen.”
She looked at me, tilting her head. “You… You are… You are radiant. You are…”
“I am your king. I am…”
Laughter from the head of the darkling. “Your dark caress.”
“You live?” I questioned.
Her tongue lopped from her mouth, her lips moving no more.
Kill them all… the whispers proclaimed.
The darkness seeped into my soul. The dark caress of the Tuatha, a most deserved name. Mine because of Brigid’s actions, knowing Kormac would die. The work of a self-proclaimed trickster. One desperate for change.
Isn’t that what we all wanted? To change things for our own happiness?
He is dead.
I was not the old Tuatha. I was a new creature, something else. An undying nightmare with my own ideals. Rules were mine to weave now. The world would be shaped as I saw it. Its fate lay in my hands now.
The darkness claimed me, holding me in its grip. I yielded to it, let the last final traces of light die in my heart.
There will be no peace…
“My vengeance,” I said. “I will kill them all.”
The last queen, now steadier in her stature, bent the knee before me. “And I will serve you, Your Majesty.”
“Yes, you will. We will sweep the lands of Faerie and irradicate the rot, bring snow and ice to every corner. Take everything.”
Her head stayed bowed as she stood. “I await your command, Your Majesty.”
“You will not be alone.”
I called to the other statues, bringing men and women back from the dead until the hall filled with the naked flesh of Tuatha fae—all with midnight eyes. Gazing upon their new king, this new creature to lead them.
My army.
Drawing on my power again, I restored the hall. Stone mended, the snow receded. Glossy black and white tiles came back to life underfoot, the candelabra shining with lit candles.
The drapes fluttered, becoming vibrantly silver. Paintings of former monarchs came to life and faded, replaced by maps of Faerie for me to see from all angles of this hall.
I headed for the throne, naked bodies genuflecting as I passed. I mounted the steps, took to the throne as the roses and vines withered and died.
A pink rose was a memory of Prince Valance Rosestar. He no longer existed, gone to the past. New roses grew, silver-stemmed with black petals.
“Much better,” I said, taking in a lovely rose scent.
The hall continued to mend, to clean. The magic spread through the castle. Slowly. Inch by inch. Eventually, it would spread beyond, take to the lands.
Soon. Patience was key.
“Day by day, we will grow,” I addressed the subjects of my cursed court.
“You live again. I want you to regain your strength, train every day. Work hard. Never stop until the time comes to move beyond the borders of Winter and bring Faerie to its knees. First, we have much work to do. I must walk amongst the dark fae of these lands, call them to arms.”
“We are yours to command,” Queen Orla said.
My court. My army.
My destiny.