Chapter 31 Frelina
Frelina
Her vision was blurry from tears, but it wasn’t the water that had her hands twitching to rub her eyes. She’d seen Raine train before—had seen him fight rebels on that island—but whatever he was now doing made her realize why so many Fae only whispered his name with a mixture of awe and fear.
She’d seen him struggle to get into the minds of the Oakgards’ Fae around them, had felt those thorns prickling him when he tried to find a weak spot, but Raine appeared to have settled for a different solution.
As soon as he managed to get himself free from the ropes, she realized several of the other Vastala Fae and humans around him had done the same, but as they threw themselves at the Oakgards’ Fae with a fury that left no room for fear, Frelina saw their eyes were glossy.
The humans’ and Fae’s movements were too coordinated—too perfect—and their strikes mirrored every single one of Raine’s as he slammed two Oakgards’ Fae’s heads together so hard the crushing of their skulls echoed through Frelina’s bones.
Raine was commanding them all.
A one-male army of perfect soldiers who were now backing the Oakgards’ Fae into a corner in the back of the ship.
Maybe it made her a bad person, but she couldn’t help but admire the red-haired Fae who stalked in front, blood dripping from his mouth and coloring his sharp teeth red as he growled so loudly it felt as if the entire ship shook.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Raine snarled, his voice almost unrecognizable with its viciousness.
“You come to our lands. You kill our people. You hurt my female. No.” Raine shook his head as the two Fae leaders halted a step before the five soldiers still alive behind them, their hands locked tightly as they stared at Raine under their hoods. “That’s not how this is going down.”
“You could have joined us.” The echo of voices of Fae and humans speaking at the same time—the eeriness of the voices Raine controlled—made a shiver trace over her shoulders, but Frelina forced herself to reach out with a foot, dragging a sharp stone toward her chair.
“We could have lived peacefully together. Like we once did. But alas…”
Frelina moved both her feet, trying to grip the stone to lift it, when the cold that crept over her skin continued down her back, then over her legs, as Raine spoke again.
“Take off your hoods,” he ordered. “I want to look you in the eyes when I kill you.”
Frelina stopped her movement as the Fae did what Raine ordered, the male leader revealing brown hair so dark it was almost the color of Kerym’s raven strands, and raging green eyes that didn’t move from his mate’s face as she removed her hood as well.
Frelina caught the Oakgards’ female’s dark eyes as she rested a hand on the railing, the other lazily dragging through long red hair that was nothing like Raine’s flame-colored mane, but much darker, shinier, the shade almost reminding Frelina of spilled blood.
Frelina’s eyes darted to where Frecco lay unmoving, and she swallowed before shifting her gaze back to the defiant female with… brown eyes, Frelina decided, even if they almost looked the color Merrick’s would have been if he didn’t have those silver swirls.
The fucking female grinned at her, lifting her chin another inch.
A sharp noise left Frelina, one that had Raine stiffen before he shot her a look over her shoulder. She frowned when his eyes widened, his lips forming what she expected to be a curse, before something cracked behind her.
She couldn’t turn her head, but as Raine started sprinting toward her, she caught the female’s gaze once more, and the Oakgards’ leader threw her head back and cackled before she dropped her eyes to the hand she had wrapped around the wood and shouted, “I hope you can swim.”
A surge started deep in Frelina’s gut, flipping her stomach as her chair began falling backward, and the stone she’d kept between her feet bounced against the deck as she dropped it.
She’d been right by the portside railing, and Frelina expected it to catch her, but her chair just kept tipping backward until the legs of it slammed into the deck of the ship, the backrest tumbling over the side, starting a spinning descent.
There was no railing anymore. Somehow, the female had broken it all the way from over where she’d been standing—somehow she’d pulled magic from the wood in the chair to tip it.
That fucking b—
Those were the last thoughts Frelina had before water sloshed in her ears. She hadn’t had time to draw a breath before her chair crashed into the sea, her legs and arms useless as the strong currents slammed her around in the waves until she had no idea anymore what was up and what was down.
Frelina swore to herself as white froth and bubbles blocked her vision, and she squinted, cursing again when something dark broke through the roaring water.
Something very dark. Something that the currents pushed her toward, all the while pulling her deeper down. Something that she’d be crushed against if she didn’t do something. Now.
Frelina screamed, making more bubbles form ahead, as if they could do anything against the towering black rock.
Wiggling, she tried whatever she could to get out of the restraints, but the ropes were impossibly tight, the water making them even more restrictive, and tears spurted in her eyes when the little air she’d had ran out with her cry.
She didn’t know what would hurt most.
Choking or being slammed against the stone until she broke like Frecco had on that ship.
Neither seemed like a particularly good option.
Gods, she fucking hated the sea. She’d always hated it. The darkness. The impulsivity of the waves. The creatures hiding in it. Now she’d die by the ocean’s hand.
The sea would decide which way, she realized, when something hard brushed her foot as the chair shifted in the violent waves—a shorter piece of rock scraping up her leg and ripping her trousers apart, sending swirls of blood around her from the wound she couldn’t yet feel.
Frelina pinched her eyelids shut when the stone loomed closer, not wishing to see how it would break her apart, and her lungs began twitching, the need to pull air in trying to force her to draw a breath.
She’d almost lost the battle against pulling water down her throat when a hand—one she’d recognize anywhere—gripped her arm, and her tear-filled eyes flew open to Raine’s wild hazel ones.
She wanted to send a thank-you into his mind, but Raine’s hissed Save your energy had her think better of it, and as he used his blade to cut her free—so cautiously, deliriousness set in—she couldn’t do anything other than keep her eyes on his.
Her chest shook violently when he finally got her loose, and he snarled again Don’t you fucking dare as her mouth opened to draw a breath.
More tears flooded her eyes as she fought the need for air, and as she started shaking her head, he pressed a hand over her opening lips, tucked her back against his body, and started kicking.
The world around her was a blur as Raine pushed them to what she hoped was the surface, and when they finally broke through into the biting air and Raine dropped his hand from her face, she sucked in so much of the salty breeze that it stung her throat.
But Frelina didn’t care as she continued filling her lungs, savoring the harsh breaths wafting over her from the male swimming behind her with one arm wrapped around her chest as he dragged them to the cliff.
It wasn’t until they were out of the water, safely at the bottom of one of the dark cliffs that those Fae had conjured from the depths of the sea, that she realized.
“The ship!” she cried, her voice as rough as the rocks littering the wet cliff they sat upon.
Raine didn’t say anything as he pulled her to him, winding an arm over her shoulders as they both stared at the ship growing smaller and smaller, following their friends who’d raced toward Vastala.
A burning started behind Frelina’s eyes as she watched the Ellow flag sway in the wind—the broken heart that was Loche’s crest, seemingly mirroring the one beating half-heartedly inside her body.
There was no way she and Raine would be able to catch up.
There was no way Havlands’ soldiers would be kept alive.
Frecco.
Frelina quelched a sob at the image of her friend’s broken body, the planks beneath him coated with dark blood.
He’d died for her. And now? She couldn’t even give him a proper goodbye. There would be no hero’s send-off. There would be no final words. There would be no touch to ensure his soul remained ever living in her heart.
He knew. Raine shifted her, pulling her wet body across his lap so he could look into her eyes. He knew he’d die, and he did it anyway. He was a good male. Don’t ruin his memory with guilt—he wouldn’t want that.
Frelina opened her mouth on a silent scream as she shook her head.
It was so fucking unfair. All of this! So many useless deaths.
She couldn’t stand it.
Sunshine. Raine spoke softly into her mind.
Every soldier had a choice. Every man and woman and race is doing this for Havlands.
Sure, it’s fucking awful, but if we’re going to take those fuckers down—and we will, they won’t get away with this, I can promise you that much—there will be losses.
Ones that will hurt for years and years.
But Frecco? He died for something he believed in so much that there was no fear in him.
His last memory? Happy. And it was all because of you.
The truth of his words snaked its way into her chest while settling in her mind, and Frelina stared into Raine’s eyes so long she was certain he’d look away.
Avert his gaze, mumble something, and push her off. Distance himself.
But there… there was something different. The change she’d already noted a few days ago still shone bright, and the Fae didn’t look away at all. Instead, he brought his hands to her cheeks, keeping her steady. Keeping her eyes on his, like he—
You left them for me? It felt as if she didn’t even dare blink.
I did. Raine’s thumbs started caressing her skin.
You were going to kill those Fae leaders for me?
I would have.
Frelina took a trembling breath.
You love me?
Raine pressed his lips against hers.
I do.
Even… even if you might lose me too?
Her bottom lip started trembling, and Raine’s jaw hardened for a moment before he spoke out loud. His voice had never sounded so assured or so clear before.
“I need you to hear me, Frelina. I am a fucking idiot. But this idiot loves you so much. I think I have ever since that Lakes of Mirrors place. I love your vulnerability. I love that you want to live and feel and experience everything. You brought me back to life. You made me feel again, even when I fought it with everything in me. I will not change my mind. I will never push you away again. I… I don’t know what will happen now, but I promise I will love you with every last breath I take in this realm, and when I move on to the next… I’ll love you there too.”
Raine searched her eyes, reading the question she didn’t want to ask but that she couldn’t keep locked down.
“I’ll always love her, and I know she knows that.
” A smile brightened Raine’s features, the midday sun behind him making his hair glitter.
“I… I never thought I could love another again, not like that at least, but I realized love… it’s a choice.
You can choose to let it break you, or… you can choose to let it heal you.
I choose to love you, Frelina. I choose to live with you. I choose you.”
Frelina wound her arms around his neck and leaned her forehead against his, hearing his heart thump across the roaring waters beneath them.
“I choose you too,” she whispered.