85. Dayton
85
Dayton
I ’ve never made a bargain before. Crazy, I know. All fae make bargains. But I never wanted to be held to anything.
But now, I know I’ll do anything to hold on to this.
Magic laces my words, and they sparkle like champagne in my mouth as I kneel down before the High Prince of Autumn.
It’s easy to make a bargain, I realize. You just speak from the heart.
“Farron, son of Autumn, I pledge my magic to you. May it always be at your disposal. May you take my power and make it yours; may I be a vessel and conduit; may you siphon my magic and let it flow through you. Through every season and every storm, may I belong to you.” Emotion claws up my throat, and I fight to keep sight of him through my blurring vision. “In return, vow to me you will never forget this moment. Who we are now. When you loved me. And when I fucking loved you.”
Farron’s face breaks in emotion, and he pulls me up, wrapping his arms around me. A turquoise light shimmers around us; the bargain magic hovering, waiting for the agreement.
Farron nods. “It’s a bargain, Day. Through every storm and every season.”
The space between us shivers and sighs. A string of gold made light bursts from Farron’s helm, and a sprig of silver from my blade does the same. They twine together, becoming corporeal, before wrapping around one of my wrists and one of Farron’s.
“Take it, Farron,” I say through gritted teeth. “Take my magic and save your people.”
He cries out, and golden light mixes with the turquoise shimmer. A strange sensation ebbs through me; not a siphoning, but a gentle trickle. I feel Farron’s touch within me, his own magic coaxing mine out in a gentle sway.
Farron doesn’t let go of me as he whispers the spell. The incantation laces itself through the wind, a sigh upon the breeze. Autumn soldiers and Kryodian Riders slash at empty air as their enemies turn to dust and settle back into the earth.
The battlefield is silent.
The glow lessens, and my muscles go slack. Farron catches me before I hit the earth.
“Did it work, Fare?” I whisper, already knowing the answer.
“It worked,” Kel says, putting a hand on both mine and Farron’s shoulders. “Congratulations. You’ve just saved your realm.”
T he battlefield is in clean up mode. Perth is chained in silver and watched over by Keldarion and Ezryn.
The other soldiers are helping the wounded or collecting the dead. As is the nature of war, bodies litter the ground. But there would surely be many more if it wasn’t for Rosalina’s bravery and Farron’s courage.
Farron was radiant, power ebbing out of him in glowing waves. The ram crown of the High Prince glistens in the afternoon light. His eyes still glow with a radiance that reminds me of his wolf.
I stretch my fingers. He drained me of all magic. I know a visit to Castletree will restore my reserves, but with this bargain, it’ll forever be at his beck and call.
A bargain I don’t and will never regret.
Autumn is the death of life. Farron always used to tell me that. But now that magic, his magic, brought the natural cycle of the Enchanted Vale back in order.
My heart has never been so full of love for him.
And Rosalina, his mate. She stands beside him, looking like a true Autumn princess, dark hair framing her beautiful face. A painful yearning throbs in my chest when I look at them.
My heart stutters as I focus back on the battlefield. Padraig, Billigan, and Dominic kneel before a body covered in Padraig’s golden cloak.
Princess Niamh. I try to push away the sorrow threatening to overtake me. She’d always been like a second mother to me, had comforted me when I lost my own mother… And now we’ve lost her as well.
With a sudden stark realization, it hits me hard that among the five of us—Rosie, Kel, Ez, Fare and I—there is not a single mother left.
I turn to Rosalina now, stance strong, but there’s worry etched across her face. “What’s on your mind, Blossom?”
Her eyes flick back and forth. “I’m concerned,” she says. “I thought I saw a figure with a crown like Perth’s earlier. Day, he looked like—”
A hacking laugh sounds. Perth Quellos sneers over at us.
“Be silent, you foul creature.” Ezryn delivers a swift kick to the chains around his ankles, but Perth keeps laughing.
Rosalina and I slowly approach, and I place a protective grip around her waist. Perth inclines his head, as if offering a secret.
The five of us exchange wary glances. What can he do? He’s in chains.
“You’ve,” Perth gives a croaking wheeze, “lost.”
A sense of foreboding seeps into my bones, dread that I can’t quite explain.
“You’re the one bound for Winter’s dungeon,” Kel growls.
Perth throws his head back, that laugh turning into a sick cough. “I knew there may be a chance I’d fail. How could I not assume that the betraying prince might pull more traitorous tricks? So, I devised my greatest experiment yet.”
Kel grabs him up by his robes. “Enough riddles.”
“If my army fell,” Perth smiles emptily, “I wanted to make sure you and your precious mate fell with me.”
I straighten, pulling Rosalina tighter. The air seems to thicken, like a great weight pressing down upon us. The hairs on the nape of my neck stand on end.
“A mortal creature that was already filled with hate and vengeance for the High Prince of Winter,” Perth rattles, “was the perfect apprentice for my teachings. He will bring honor to the Green Flame and earn his own retribution by doing so!”
Then I hear it: a series of harsh bangs and the rush of wind. An unearthly chill shudders through me.
To the eastern flank, a hailstorm of deadly icicles bursts upon a platoon of Autumn Guard and Kryodian Riders. Each shard of ice strikes with deadly accuracy, impaling the soldiers. Screams of agony and pleas for mercy cut through the wind.
Ezryn snatches the chains around Perth’s wrists and yanks hard. “How are you conjuring this wickedness?”
But Rosalina answers, her voice a panicked cry. “It’s not him! Farron, look out!”
Farron blinks rapidly, standing alone now on the crest of a small hill, scroll in hand. “What’s happening—”
But he doesn’t finish his words. Dark ice crawls up his legs, over his torso, and quickly devours him—like it did to Koop and Flicker.
Farron! My heart constricts. We’ll get him out, we’ll get him out.
A cloaked figure emerges from behind Farron, a deep green crystal crown glowing on his head. “Ah, the first monster that tried to end me. It will be so easy to shatter him this way.”
That voice. I fucking know that voice.
He throws off his cloak, and I see the twisted features of Lucas. But he’s changed, now one of those wraiths. His skull appears fractured, frozen back together by frost. A sickly greenish-blue glow courses over his frozen body. Huge icy mounds grow over his shoulders and arms, and jagged spikes stick out of his chest. What sort of monster has Perth turned him into? And he has one of those crowns…
It’s as if I can sense Ezryn and Kel’s thoughts as my own. He will die. Again .
Keldarion drops Perth in a heap, draws his blade, and storms toward Lucas. “One death wasn’t enough for you?”
“Wait, Kel don’t—” Rosalina yells.
But he doesn’t listen. Kel leaps, sword raised. It connects with Lucas’s neck. There’s a shimmering clang, like steel meeting stone. Keldarion pauses, blue eyes wide as ice skitters from Lucas’s neck onto the sword. It crawls up the blade, then onto Kel’s hands, over his arms. He tries to pull away, but he can’t break free. He casts one horrified look at us before the ice encases him.
Rosalina lets out a terrible cry.
This monster just took down the most powerful fae in the Enchanted Vale. And he didn’t even swing a sword.
Ezryn lets out a furious growl, then nods his helm at me. “Take her and run. I’ll destroy the crown.”
I stumble back almost instinctively at his command. The battle is in chaos as soldiers are swept away by the hailstorm or flee from the deadly ice shards.
“We can’t leave them,” Rosalina shrieks.
I feel her desperation. Fare, Kel, Ez—I can’t abandon them.
Ezryn charges, but he’s sheathed his sword, not willing to touch Lucas like Kel did. A powerful blast of fire erupts from his palms. It wavers around his body, then falls away.
“Fire isn’t enough. The crown must be destroyed first!” Rosalina calls.
But it’s too late. Lucas throws his hand out, fingers extending into terrifying icy claws. They rake down Ezryn’s chest plate. An icy shell devours Ezryn before he can scream.
Lucas turns, that crystal blazing a sickening bright green. Rosalina clutches her wrist. Ezryn may have healed the skin, but the scar remains, visible or not. “It’s time to shatter your prince,” he says.
I stand in front of Farron’s frozen body, drawing my double blades. “You will not touch him.”
“If you want to be near him so much,” Lucas growls, “then be with him in death.”
A line of ice, quick and slithery, weaves across the ground then strikes at my legs. I don’t even have time to yell before it starts to crawl up my body.
The last thought I have is to swing out my arm, pushing Rosalina away. “Run! Run, Rosie.”
She backs away, looking down at her wrists covered in thorns. “Come on, come on, come on.”
Nothing happens.
The ice reaches my torso, a cold cutting deep within me.
Rosalina looks from us to the battlefield, but she doesn’t move.
“Run!” I yell again.
Lucas steps forward. “Oh, she’s not going anywhere.”
A great wall of ice grows, closing us in. Trapping her.
Frost creeps up my neck, and I gasp for a final breath.
I wasn’t strong enough to save her.