56. Vexxion
56
VEXXION
T he king released me from the wall, exposing me to view.
Only a few fae ladies yelped to see me slump to the floor in their midst. The rest gazed raptly at Brenna while the king started to drain her.
I rose to my feet and staggered down the aisle, teetering when I reached the open area between the crowd and the dais.
Madrood stalked toward me but turned, his attention falling on Brenna, who continued to scream.
Ivenrail paused, and his head tilted, before he pivoted to glare at me, his thumb still locked to Brenna’s forehead. “What did you do?” He flitted and landed right in front of me, latching onto my arms. Hauling me to my feet, he shook me.
I drew power and sent it at him, but other than a flinch, he didn’t respond. I wanted to keep blasting him, but it would be a waste. Collared, I couldn’t cause him significant harm .
I’d lied. So many lies. It was all I could do to keep track of them myself.
Ivenrail used magic to cut me in the back of the legs, and I plunged to my knees.
“Vexxion,” my fury cried. She left Brenna and leaped off the platform. She raced over to me, wedging her body between me and the king.
With a flick of his finger, he flung her to the side. She hit hard, and a groan ripped up my throat. I channeled all my power into a barrage, whipping wind through the room, sending lightning and rain down on the guests. I did all I could to keep the king’s attention away from where Tempest was slowly rising to her feet. To keep him from noticing the flick of my hand that sent the final collar at Brenna. It wrapped around her throat and killed the other.
Still pinned in the chair by the vines, she gasped, crying as she stared around the room with wide eyes.
A snarl tore up Tempest’s throat as she stalked toward us.
Don’t, I said to her. Please. Don’t. Not yet. Soon.
Would she listen?
With a snap of my power, I blocked her from my mind before she could reply.
“Where is my brother, Camus?” Ivenrail snarled. “What did you do with him?”
“I’m afraid . . . he has been detained.”
“Damn you!”
Tempest faltered, her gaze flinging to the high advisor and Kerune still standing beside Ivenrail’s throne. They grinned, savoring what they knew was coming .
The king was not going to release his controller after the wedding. He was going to kill me now.
I stiffened my spine and struggled to my feet.
“How dare you touch him?” Another blast of Ivenrail’s power to the back of my legs sent me down onto my knees again, the skin splitting from the impact. I bit back my howl and looked him in the eye, dragging up a sneer.
“Is that all you have?” I drawled.
His hand snapped out, his thumb hitting my forehead hard enough to fling my head backward.
Pinning my head with his other hand, he drained.
And drained.
And drained.
He sucked in more power than he ever had before. I sensed he wouldn’t stop this time. After all, with Kerune as his new enforcer and in charge of the dregs, he no longer had need of a controller, now did he?
To my right, my fury twitched, drawing my eye.
She was love personified. Her beauty eclipsed the moon. Her smile outshone the stars. In her eyes, I found endless skies. In her voice, a gentle stream's murmur. I longed to savor the joy I felt when I was with her until I drew my last breath.
I imprinted her image in my mind because I feared when this was over, I’d no longer remember.
Vexxion, no, she wailed, breaking through the walls surrounding my mind. Please. I need you.
Wait. Wait. My second word came out weaker, and I despised myself for sounding this way when I’d done all I could to remain strong .
If she attacked him without the weapon, he’d kill her. I had to hold on until he let go and was distracted long enough for her to reach me.
Would she still feel love for me when this was over?
I struggled to hold onto the last bit that made me the man she loved, but with Ivenrail’s thumb still grinding against my forehead, his mind sucking away the last of my power, I feared I couldn’t hold on.
He drained me.
More. So much more.
When he’d burned me in his dungeons, I’d screamed. I was a boy back then, a child who’d been forced to watch his mother be tortured. She’d died before giving Ivenrail what he wanted: access to the Court of Lydel. In that, she stole his chance to cement his rule over all of faerie. He stole our magical core, but she held just enough back to keep him from claiming it all. That was why I was able to slowly siphon it back. A sacrifice made by a woman who loved her son above all others, who loved him despite who his father was.
Moments before she died, she spirited the dagger into the room. I’d kept it hidden all this time.
It was time to show Ivenrail I was as strong as my mother.
“I give you nothing,” I cried out, my voice wrenching through the room.
He jerked his thumb away from my forehead and shook his head. “You give whatever I ask for.” Pivoting, he stalked back up onto the platform, approaching Brenna. She gaped up at him with tears in her eyes and screams jerking up her throat.
His thumb thrust against her forehead again, and she shuddered, her screams coming to a halt as if he’d made the vines tighten around her body again, some encircling her neck to cut off her air.
Fuck, how I tried to remain upright. My gaze sought Tempest’s and the fear and hope there made everything inside me wrench sideways.
She still believed in me.
If only she knew.
Now. I toppled onto my side, landing on the hard marble floor. Even with this, I didn’t whimper. I didn’t groan. I held everything inside just like my mother had so long ago.
With Ivenrail occupied trying to drain Brenna, and the high advisor and Kerune urging him on, Tempest rushed over, dropping to her knees beside me.
I scrambled to drag together enough power for what I needed to do, magicking my family blade into her hands. Magic hid it from everyone, even us, though she and I could feel it and it could deliver the final blow.
“Do it,” I growled. “My mother . . . infused this blade with her blood. Before she died. I did . . . too. Today.”
My last task this morning. Only our combined blood could generate the magic needed to hide it.
No. Vexxion, no.
“Do it. You’re . . . ready. Brenna’s . . . safe. I . . . removed her collar.” I found the strength to reach up and stroke her face one last time. “I love you. Have from . . . moment I met you. Always. Always. ”
“You planned this all along.” The bitterness in her words stabbed through me. “You knew what would happen. You knew, and you didn’t tell me.”
“Face your . . . destiny.”
I can’t murder you, she said, her very heart coming through in her words. If I kill him, you’ll die.
How did she know?
I went to the king’s room, she said . I touched your finger. I saw, Vexxion. I saw! If I kill him, you’ll die, and I can’t do that.
Do it. Please. End this for us both.
Don’t you see? I love you. I can’t go on without you.
Fury. My Fury. I love you.
Everything was slipping away. Clouds rushed in, enveloping my mind. The king had taken too much.
I couldn’t keep myself in this world much longer. The ether called, eager to drag me away.
All I wanted was to look at my fury one last time.
One last glance.
One last touch.
And then—