Chapter 34
Chapter
Thirty-Four
MOIRA
Caelan fell first. Then Thorvin, Soren, Ben, and Ethan. They stood no chance against the unholy power tearing straight for them. Rowan, still fighting in the fray, only had a moment of confusion, followed by horrifying realization, when that same power came for him, tearing into his chest.
He was the last to fall, the spark that made him who he was fading as his life’s blood spilled onto the ground. I felt the moment their bond sundered, a ripping sensation tearing through my chest that left me breathless.
A keening, heartbreaking wail shattered the air, and as one, everyone stopped fighting, the loss too monumental, too horrific for anyone with even a small piece of heart left to comprehend.
I staggered to a stop, my hand over my heart as grief exploded within me. Six Lords, six rulers, one of those a mate to my best friend, had fallen, their lives snuffed out in an instant.
They were never a match for a goddess, not being taken completely by surprise as they were. Danu and Evie had been focused on each other. They had no reason to worry.
And so they’d pressed on.
Evie screamed and screamed and screamed. She scrambled to her feet and ran, tripping over broken bodies, fae and shifter alike, as she found Rowan on the battlefield. Dropping to her knees, she gripped him by the lapels and shook him.
“Rowan!”
His head lolled, the shell of his body empty.
“ROWAN!”
Nothing.
“No. No no no no no no.” Evie gagged and pressed Rowan to her chest, glowing with the earth’s power, but raising the dead was beyond her. It was beyond me and everyone else here. Death was a force few understood and even fewer tried to reckon with.
Tears spilled down my eyes as I sought Ethan out. He lay on his back, eyes wide and sightless, his chest a smoking, poisoned ruin. I crouched beside him and closed his eyes with my fingers, mourning the potential of what could have been, and rose to go to Evie.
She gently set her mate down and rose, a terrible expression on her face. My best friend turned to those fae, eyes glowing with the power of a furious goddess, and spoke.
“DIE.” She lifted her palm to the air and squeezed. Nothing happened for a moment until the first fae sucked in a shocked gasp, her face going dry and cavernous.
“TO DUST YOU WILL RETURN,” Evie boomed, her voice carrying like a bomb through the land.
Every single fae left on the battlefield collapsed into a pile of dust the earth opened to contain and recycle, their immortality gone in an instant, just as Danu had done to Evie’s mate.
A terrible vengeance and one Evie might mourn later. But right now, my friend was a terrible power to behold. Gone was the woman I shared pasta and wine with on the weekends. Gone was my best friend who lent her shoulder to cry on when I needed it.
Before me stood the fae queen hellbent on vengeance. She raised both hands into the air, palms up, and spoke once more.
“RETURN.”
Cernunnos, Cliona, and Neit sucked in shocked gasps as they blipped from existence.
I had a terrible feeling I knew what she’d done, that hybrid tree a conduit for her bridge power and one she’d planned to use for good until she had no choice.
There would be consequences for this day. For Evie and everyone else.
When the battlefield was quiet, the only sound the soft shhhh of ash as it continued raining down, Evie sank to her knees and sobbed, cradling Rowan’s lifeless body in her arms.
I didn’t try to touch her or console her. Nothing I could say or do would make this any better. There was no comfort here today, nor would there be in the coming weeks.
All I could do was be with her.
Pax came and sat down beside me, his eyes glowing with power. His face was stark and his eyes filled with grief. He’d felt that bond rip the same way I had through our bond with her.
Garrett and Simone were next. They simply sat down too, enclosing Evie in a half circle. Her face was turned away, her bun long gone and her hair obscuring her face as she rocked Rowan, murmuring something none of us could make out.
Evie lifted her hand once more and flicked her wrist. Every shifter who did not belong to us was gone in an instant. Dead or returned, there was no way to know, not with Evie’s current state of mind.
One by one, the shifters still standing from Rowan’s lands came and sat beside us, forming a circle of grief as their lady mourned the only one she’d ever love again.
I don’t know how long we sat there. The sun had long dipped behind the clouds, and still Evie rocked Rowan, holding him tight in her grip. She’d enclosed our circle in a cage of thorns, all but daring anyone to interfere.
A soft trickle of orange came up over the mountains, followed by a vivid shade of purple as Fee sailed overhead. The enormous phoenix encircled us, her crystalline gaze taking in everything.
Poe came next, his loud cry a screech shattering the quiet. He landed on Evie’s shoulder, one wing out over her neck, as if he was trying to hug her in the only way he knew how.
Fee kept circling, unable to find a spot to land inside our circle. The bird had always been wary of people, Poe and Evie’s influence no doubt. Instead, she soared over to where Caelan had fallen. She nudged him with her bright beak, but Caelan would never rise again.
A soft trilling noise came from her throat.
And as she began to glow, a terrible hope rose within me. I said nothing, did nothing, not until I was sure. In her grief, Evie was too distracted to notice Fee’s presence.
Fee’s glow began to take on an almost painful brightness. I nudged Pax and gestured for him to quietly rise. As the other shifters realized what was happening, everyone rose and moved away from Evie.
Caelan began to glow with a soft violet light. Fee moved to Ben, then Soren, Thorvin, then Ethan, encasing every Lord in her light. And when she came to Evie, her flight slightly off due to exhaustion, Fee nudged the Lady’s hands and encompassed them both in her magic.
I stood there staring in awe, tears falling down my cheeks at the miracle occurring. Fee leapt from the ground and let out a shattering, musical cry, her wings spread out several feet wide as she soared.
As she sang, magic hummed around us, until even Evie had to take notice. She lifted her tear-stained face up to the phoenix in the sky and watched, her lips parted with awe.
And as Fee revived every single Lord on that field, she gave her life force, every single drop of herself to save the Lady who had once saved her. Her magic began to dim, and as I watched, Fee turned, our eyes locking.
An ancient knowledge burned in the phoenix’s eyes as she sailed right toward me.
I took a step back but could not avoid the collision. Right before she hit me, Fee turned into a swirling ball of powerful magic and sailed right into my heart, her physical form gone as she died.
Staggering power sent me crashing to my knees, the spot Fee hit burning like fire. I cried out as everything within me reformed, magic sparkling like champagne through my blood, short circuiting all my senses.
And just as I crashed to the ground, I heard a soft murmur come from one of the Lords.
“Evie?”
The bond slowly re-knitted, restoring Rowan as the fae king.