Chapter 36
KADE
“ T his is not how this was supposed to go.”
Storm’s angry ranting flowed brashly as he beheaded another dark one. “Also, I’ve killed more than you,” he added. “Do your part.”
I grunted, snapping the neck of the dark one fighting me just as he brought his sword back to strike. “You have a way of exaggerating your numbers.”
Storm chuckled at my taunt and spun to look at me. “Are you feeling all right?”
“I miss Jax and Raya. They would never ask me in the middle of a battle about this,” I muttered, swinging my sword at the dark ones rushing toward me.
Storm slid his blade into the approaching attacker’s chest.
“That counts as mine,” I said.
“Your shadows are dimming,” Storm countered, lunging to the right at a battle cry from one of the few remaining dark ones around us. “You’re welcome for caring.”
I chuckled as Storm battled the next victim he’d selected to be added as the next tally mark on his death scroll.
Just to prove him wrong, I commanded my shadows to the dark one he fought and choked him, eliminating air from his lungs as he collapsed. Storm distracted me, after I erupted when Andras took Lana. His hands on her, her screams, it had been more than I could handle. And now, I’d destroy every last Fae in my way of finding her.
Storm jerked his head toward me with a scowl. “She doesn’t even have magic.”
“I know this wasn’t the plan,” I bit back. “But we needed a queen, and I got us a queen, didn’t I?”
A hot blaze of fire heated my right side, and my eyes widened at Storm. He shook his head, gesturing behind me.
Lana’s pet stood atop a fallen dark one, its tail bloody, but the fire burning from him eliminated the Fae beneath his small body.
His gaze flicked to me, and I raised my hands in defense. “Good boy.”
He sniffed, grey smoke emerging from his nose.
“She’ll be happy to know you’re alive and well,” I added.
Storm grunted, and down the hallway, the double doors to the throne room flew open. The king ran forward, followed too closely by Casimir, the dark ones appearing from every damned corner.
“What the hell?” Storm started to ask before the king bellowed down the hall.
“Kade, with me,” the king said. “You,” He pointed to Storm, “Lord Casimir West must not be permitted past you. Do whatever you need to do to stop him.”
A few guards fighting down the hallway finished slaying their own enemies. Storm whistled, garnering their attention as he called them over to help.
I obeyed the king, grabbing his arm as he directed me around the corner from Storm and the others.
He gestured to a door, opening it and standing just inside the threshold with me. The guards ran by but didn’t stop.
Though vibrant would have been a stretch for how the king appeared when we first arrived here at Ellevail, he had definitely seen better days now. I knew he was sick, his long Fae life slipping away from him against all odds. The king had just given it his all, escaping from Casimir and a group of dark ones. Whatever sickness riddled his body, it hadn’t fully taken him over yet.
“Listen to me, boy,” he said after a short pause to catch his breath. “I am dying. A fact many are well aware of, given the proclivity for gossip in this Court.”
I didn’t bother arguing with him. His hand gripped my shoulder, the pressure stronger than I thought him capable of in his current state.
“Casimir is a siphon. He is working with Andras, and they are coming now to take my powers and destroy me. If he succeeds, they will be unstoppable in their coup.”
I nodded. “Tell me where to take you, and I will. What do you need?”
I barely knew the king and didn’t need him for my plans. He wasn’t a part of the future that mattered. But I did know my Little Rebel adored her father. If I could spare her from seeing him die the way she had her healer, I would.
And fuck, I didn’t want to know why.
The king glanced behind me, searching the hall. Briefly, I thought of taking him with me. If I could get him and Lana to come with Storm and I, he’d be safe.
Safer than he was here.
“I need you to kill me.”
I stepped back from the king immediately. He was mad. Something in his sickness had seeped too far into his mind if he thought asking for death made sense as a solution.
“Your Majesty?” I asked cautiously.
“I am centuries your elder, Kade. I know right now my mind is my own. I need you to kill me, now, before Casimir has any chance of taking even a bit of my power. Before Andras can use me like a puppet to his whim.” He focused his stern gaze on me, unyielding.
Unflinchingly firm in this request.
“I can’t do it,” I answered. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty.”
He took a step toward me, and for once, I walked away from a fight. I wouldn’t go through with his request.
“You must. I’m dying, anyway, and if they are anywhere near me when I do, they’ll take my magic, and I will not be able to stop them. If we manage to hold the palace today, then they’ll find another time. This is the best chance we’ve got at stopping them. No guards around. No one to know where I am. It must be now.”
My lip curled in disgust. “You understand what you’re asking of me? I don’t kill for fun.”
“You will do this.” He raised his voice slightly. His piercing eyes revealed the knowledge that his impending death lay before him. “For Illiana, you’ll do this. You think I don’t know when someone is hopelessly in love?” He scoffed. “I’m married to my mate. Trust me when I say, I know true love.”
“She’s not my mate,” I said, shutting down thoughts of how much my shadows reacted to her. The feel of her. This wasn’t the time. Mates didn’t exist anymore. I would know. My knowledge of what truly happened with the dark ones far exceeded what anyone here could possibly fathom.
It was how I knew what he said couldn’t be true.
Mates were part of the original sacrifice.
So how was the king convinced his queen was his mate?
“There haven’t been mates in millennia,” I retorted.
The king smiled, holding a hand over his heart. “I would have shouted it from the rooftops of every city in Brookmere that my Queen was mine if I could have. There’s Fate magic at work here, boy. Until this moment, I’ve never been able to speak the words out loud. There are still mates. The queen is mine. She is my mate.” The king’s eyes turned glassy with tears as he squeezed my arm.
Perhaps love would be enough to get this ridiculous notion from his mind. He couldn’t possibly have to die right now. Not by my hands.
“And you’d leave her?” It was low, but I grasped at whatever I could to change his mind. I couldn’t kill him and think Lana would ever come with me.
And I needed her to come with me. It was the whole reason Storm and I were here.
For her. For a queen.
“I’d protect her with my life, gladly knowing that when her time comes, we’ll be together with those who’ve gone before us,” he said. “Time runs thin. You must do this, Kade Blackthorn, and you must do it now.”
“No.” I turned, heading toward the doors. “Find someone else. It will not be me. I will guard you here, but I will not kill you.”
Swords and shouts drew closer.
“He will come for her.” The king barely whispered, but it echoed through my body like an explosion. I looked over my shoulder at the man, at his lips pressed in a grim line.
“He will use my power to bend her to his will. He will not do so kindly. He will take her and try to break her.”
“No,” I growled. “He will not get anywhere near her. Not with any power. Never again. He. Will. Not .”
The king walked slowly now, moving just as I’d spotted him staggering across the pavilion. His hunched shoulders betrayed him as he shuffled forward, falling as I grabbed onto him. “I don’t have long. There is a letter in my pocket. Give it to her once you ensure my life is gone. You must make sure I’m dead and gone, with no chance of being revived, before you leave.”
I reached where he’d indicated and pulled out a parchment sealed with his golden royal crest.
“She loves you,” I said. “She will not do well losing you.”
But my words lacked conviction, even if they were true. He’d succeeded in hitting me where it counted. The thought of Andras getting anywhere near Lana caused the battle inside of me against the king’s wishes to falter.
If what the king said rang true, what lengths would I go to in order to protect her? To keep her from falling into Andras’s hands ever again?
Could I murder the king of Brookmere to save her? To save the kingdom itself, if the king were right?
It was her right to rule this land as Queen. If I accomplished what I needed to, she may stand a chance, but if Andras and Casimir obtained the king’s powers? There would be no stopping them. Even I knew the king held more magic than anyone here.
“She’s my heart,” the king answered, nodding like he knew I was right there, giving into him. “Let her in, and she’ll be yours as well.”
Little did he know just how deep Lana had buried into my heart already. Or perhaps his wisdom as a king, with the love of his mate by his side, allowed him to see what I was too stubborn to admit. Lana held more of my heart than anyone ever before.
The king handed me an amethyst-hilted dagger. “Quickly now, son.”
I flinched at the words, unable to stand the caring nature with which he said them. He willingly gave his life not just for his family, but for his kingdom, going so far as convincing me to kill him.
“I’ll help you. I just don’t have the force to drive it in, in my state. Please.” He brought the dagger to his chest and wrapped my hand around his, holding the dagger in place against the exact spot that would take his life.
I shook my head. “I’m sorry you feel it has to be this way.”
“Protect her.”
I made sure to look him in the eyes when I responded. “I vow it. As you’ve given your life, I shall give mine if that’s what it takes.”
I gripped the blade, hiding the tremor that shook my hand. With a final nod from the king, I plunged the dagger into his chest, and he sharply exhaled.
He staggered to his knees, an expression of relief calming his features, even though I knew the pain he must feel.
I held his body in my arms, careful to treat every second of his last moments with the dignity and respect he deserved. As he collapsed in my arms, I stared down at him. Stared down at this man who had given everything for his kingdom. I knelt, still holding his body and the dagger as blood soaked onto my hands.
The sounds of battle drew closer outside the doors, raging around us, only broken by a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking scream.