Chapter 31
VALANCE
I dreamed of happy days, of laughter and friendship. Maeve and Boyd and I linking arms, striding through the Summer Palace gardens, taking the steps down to the beach and the gentle waves of Summer Ocean. A beautiful, hot day perfect for swimming.
We loved to swim, a special ritual we always tried to fulfill whenever we had the time.
One day, as we bobbed in the warm salty water, watching the setting sun, Maeve wondered how far away the human realm to the east of here might be.
“Why do you even care?” Boyd responded.
“Aren’t you curious?” she said, glancing between us.
“No,” we both said together, splashing each other as we laughed.
“I’m being serious!” Maeve cried.
“Why?” I questioned. “I’d imagine it’s a dirty place.”
“Dirty?”
“Yes. Full of fleas and diseases. You know what some of the human quarters in the cities are like.”
“I suppose. But don’t you ever wonder?”
Boyd snorted, diving underwater.
“I wonder about a lot of things,” I answered. “Never about the human realm.”
“Oh.”
“Where did this come from?” I asked.
Boyd resurfaced.
“I’m not sure. Strange curiosity?”
“More like morbid curiosity,” Boyd countered.
Maeve rolled her eyes, then splashed him in the face.
The conversation ended there, a series of splash fights and chasing each other along the beach followed until the moon took to the sky. A carefree time in my sixteenth year, a time firmly away from the brutality of curses, loss, and so much power.
Power…
I’d lied to Maeve that day. I had been curious about the land beyond Faerie, as I’d always been curious about humans.
How short and delicate their lives were.
How vulnerable. Their fleeting existences always seemed so tragic, so cruel.
For those humans who didn’t align themselves to the unseelie court, I always offered kind words, my respect.
They served us well, provided us with wonderful healing potions.
Human.
Kormac.
Yes. Kormac. The human who changed everything. The human who’d piqued my sexual interest, then simply my interest. A man I wanted to know, to see… to see again.
Not human.
Angelus.
Kormac.
Fire.
Iron fire.
“Kormac!” I managed to yell as I exploded from unconsciousness into darkness and smoke.
I choked on the overwhelming cloud, its thickness attacking my lungs, stinging my eyes and throat.
Kormac…
I heard nothing, only muffled sound and a fading ringing in my ears. But I knew I was trapped beneath debris, on my knees and naked in the dark, unable to stand.
Kormac.
Iron fire.
Lord Florent had retaliated.
Anger flared, igniting my magic. I commanded the debris release me as black leather armor magically wrapped itself around me. Rocks and stones moved, sliding away, rising upward. Before long, a sunny haze broke through the darkness—the sky smothered in toxic smoke.
Debris continued to move, revealing more of the landscape to me. I coughed, calling upon the wind to blow away the smoke. As it cleared, I hurried up a series of rocks in the formation of stairs, pausing at the top.
A sea of death and fire on snow spread out before me.
Bodies burned in iron flames, blood ran through the white as rivers of red for as far as I could see.
The city of Snowdell burned, the encampments destroyed.
My stronghold was a complete ruin, Winter Keep nothing but piles of rocks, no sign of life.
I cleared more smoke and searched for Kormac in the chaos.
“Find him,” I told my magic.
It dove through rubble, searching, searching. Finding fading life, the struggles of the injured desperate to be free. The fear, the death, the horror. Iron fire had destroyed so much so quickly.
I’ll make it right. But first…
“There!” I cried.
I commanded him to be free, buried under so much rock. The ruins gave way for him to rise from the depths as a smoldering skeleton, nothing about him resembling Kormac.
“By Danu!” I gasped, bringing him to me.
He drifted through the air, dead and empty of himself.
Had he returned beyond the stars? They would never let him be free again.
From above, Aeveen roared. She had survived! I saw her fly, release another booming roar.
Kormac came to rest at my feet. I fell beside him, laying a hand on his hot bones.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I’m so, so sorry.”
Magic began to bathe him in a beautiful silver light tinged with blue and green. His stolen power working through him, returning his skin to healing bones.
His azure eyes opened. So lovely, so wide. Next, his hair, the brown tresses winding down his cheeks like happy snakes. Inch by inch, he became himself again. The hairs of his chest, the muscles, every inch I’d kissed or touched or feasted upon with eyes and hands hungry for him.
Back to me.
“Kormac…” I breathed.
He sucked in air, his back arching, eyes a flutter of blinks.
“I’m here,” I said, lifting his head to rest on my lap. “You’re alive. You’re alive.”
“Val-Valance?” a raspy voice drifted from those incredible lips.
“Yes. I’m here.”
“What… Gods….”
“Try not to worry for now.” He might be alive and healing, but the magic had a lot more work to do.
Though iron wasn’t deadly to humans like it was to fae, toxins still polluted his blood.
This particular iron wasn’t some ordinary metal.
It was designed to destroy. In fact, vestiges of it still tingled across my skin.
While my magic worked through him, it failed to hurt him. Eventually, the iron would diminish, and he would be himself again.
“I have to get you to shelter,” I said.
Danu, the air stank of destruction.
I picked him up, his weight nothing to me now, where once his bulk would have been far too heavy for me to carry.
“Valance…” he struggled.
I conjured clothing for him—thick furs to keep him warm.
“Don’t talk. Rest.” I gave him more magic.
How many more would need this same treatment? It would take considerable effort to fight the iron, to heal a vast number of dead. Judging by the scale of destruction everywhere, I would not be marching my army anytime soon.
While iron fire spread in every direction, the living tried to save each other. I spotted giants lending a hand, other survivors trying their best to help.
No building, from what I could see, stood anymore. Nowhere safe to take Kormac.
I made my way down an incline of debris, trying to think of a direction, some type of plan. Make him a shack here? No. I wanted him further away.
Brigid appeared.
“Your Majesty!” She floated closer. She seemed unhurt, dark smudges from the smoke and ash on her left cheek. “Are you okay?”
“I need shelter for Kormac.”
“Is he—”
“He’s fine. But, as you can see, he’s cold and struggling.” I explained the iron poison to her. “Are you affected?”
“No, My King.”
“Do you feel well?”
“Yes. I managed to avoid the blast. I wasn’t in the keep, anywhere near the city or the encampments.”
“Then where were you?” Sneaking? Plotting against me?
“I was north of here, wandering the snow plains,” she answered. “I like to wander, to feel the cold air on my face. It helps me think.” She looked behind me. “I wish there was something I could do.”
Wish…
“Have you seen Orla and Eoghan?” I asked.
“No. I’m sorry, Your Majesty.”
“They must be dead. I have…” I swallowed, anger bubbling. “I have much work to do. But first, I must take care of Kormac.”
It came steady and quickly, my inner rage. The dark caress, vicious voices whispering my next course of action.
Not now.
I have to heal the…
I have to…
I have to…
Take your revenge.
Yes. I wanted vengeance. For me, for Winter, for this sick man in my arms.
Just look at him. So hurt, so weak. Just look at what the enemy had done here.
With each step, my fury consumed me. It needed to rage, to respond to this attack. Healing my warriors would have to wait while I retaliated.
“Consequences,” I muttered.
“Sorry, Your Majesty?” Brigid asked from my right.
“What did you say?” I asked, her voice taking me by surprise—as if I’d forgotten she was there.
“I was wondering what you’d said, My King.”
“I see.”
“I’m thinking there might be time for a new strategy after such…” Her voice drifted away, nothing but a soft hum I didn’t care for. But she was right, a different strategy was certainly in order.
But Kormac first.
I called to Aeveen as I carried my lover clear of the destruction. She flew down to meet me, purring in her unique dragon way, offering her back.
“Your Majesty?” Brigid said.
“I have to find him somewhere. You’ve wandered these lands. Talk to me.”
“There might be somewhere, but it is at least twenty miles east of here.”
“Tell me,” I demanded.
A building collapsed somewhere in the city, the sound throwing further fuel on my rage.
“There is an old castle once belonging to Orla’s lover.”
The former monarch had no official consort during her time in power. She preferred the freedom to enjoy men as she saw fit, committing her life to no single Tuatha fae.
“Pierce was her favorite lover,” the floating head continued. “Orla cared for him so much. She built a special place just for him, just for them. It is still habitable, though full of dust, I would assume.”
“Then we go there,” I said. “Thank you, Brigid. Will you wait here, see if you can find Orla and Eoghan?”
“Of course, My King.”
“Tell them to head for the castle should they be alive. If they are dead, then no matter for the time being.”
“I will, Your Majesty.”
“Thank you.” I sent Kormac up to Aeveen’s back with an enchantment, climbing after him.
“Be safe, Valance!” Brigid called over the boom of the beating dragon wings.
From above, the destruction looked so much worse. A stain upon Winter, a wound that would take all of me and more to heal.
Curse you, Florent.
Curse you into death and beyond.