15. Chapter 15 #2
When the Seer gave me a nod, visible reassurance that I was on the right track, I felt a rush of confidence.
I pulled my hands outward and unleashed a slew of magic connected to the river beneath the castle.
The water in the river had already been pulsing with magic, and now it morphed into a glowing sheet of water.
It rose like a tsunami, ten, twenty feet above the riverbank in a shimmering curtain that would serve as a shield protecting the islanders with raw, ley line magic.
“Alessia,” Silas said sharply. “Don’t wear yourself thin so soon. You need to conserve your energy. The Darkest Lord will come for you, and when he does, you’re the only one who will be able to stop him.”
“I need to protect my people,” I said. “He won’t take another soul from my court. One is already too many.”
“I believe I’ve proven my point.” The Darkest Lord dropped his extended hand. “Come with me, Alessia, or you will lose someone very important to you next.”
This threw me for a loop, the confidence with which he delivered the last line. I glanced around, taking stock of everyone in my life. With alarm, I realized that one person was missing from the castle who should be here. Liza.
I turned and saw Millie standing in the doorway, her face white as a sheet.
I knew then that he’d taken her. Somehow, the Darkest Lord had captured Liza.
He was going to make me choose between my life and hers.
As if to prove his point, he peeled back a layer of his billowing robes, exposing Liza’s tiny figure.
She was tucked against his side, her hands bound behind her back.
“It’s you or her,” the Darkest Lord said. “Come with me, Alessia, and I’ll let Liza go free.”
“That’s stupid.” Liza’s teeth chattered, whether in fear or from her sheer proximity to evil, I wasn’t sure. “She’ll never go with you. It’s a death sentence for me either way.”
“She won’t let you die,” the Darkest Lord said. “A Fae Queen’s heart bleeds for those she loves.”
“You’re right,” came a growl from beside me. “Let Liza go and take me instead. She’s just a child. It’s my soul you’ve been wanting to collect for ages.”
I turned to face Silas, who had spoken with such resolve, beside me.
“No,” I whispered. “Silas, you can’t.”
The Darkest Lord finally turned his gaze on Silas.
He’d ignored him completely up until this point, but now that Silas had his focus, the Darkest Lord’s eyes locked on him with enough malice I could almost feel the scorching burn of his gaze secondhand.
The Darkest Lord’s glare flared with anger as pure and ancient as hatred itself.
The history between them had clearly not been forgotten by either party.
“Let her go,” Silas said again. “It’s me you want.”
“What the hell are you thinking?” Ranger X rasped from behind us. “Silas, you’re bonded to our queen. If he collects your soul, where do you think that leaves Alessia?”
I knew as well as anyone what Ranger X was insinuating. If Silas died, I’d be as good as dead too. Even if I didn’t physically keel over immediately, the pain of losing a fated mate would cripple me. I would be in no state to fight or maintain control of the court.
“It has to be me.” Silas pulled me close, pressed a rough kiss against my ear. “You know that as well as I do. It can’t be Liza, and it can’t be you.”
“No, Silas—”
He cut me off with a kiss. His hands in my hair. A goodbye and a promise, all in one. But when he stopped the kiss, it was the whisper in my ear that threw me for a loop. The urgency of it, the intensity with which he spoke.
“Nobody can steal the magic of a Fae Queen.” Silas’s words were barely audible above the winds whipping around, the elemental reaction to my agitation. “Remember that. Not even the Darkest Lord himself.”
“It’s a deal,” the Darkest Lord said to Silas. “But you must surrender to me now.”
Silas looked into my eyes then, gripping my hands so tightly I could feel the bones aching.
“Remember, Alessia, our bond can never be broken, no matter what happens.” Silas looked at me, an imploring flicker to his gaze. “ Never.”
It seemed like he was trying to tell me something, but I couldn't make sense of it. His eyes bored into mine. I got the sense he wasn’t speaking about our bond in a romantic way, but with a deeper meaning laced through it.
The way his gaze was serious and questioning, instead of calm and reassuring.
He wants me to understand something important. The question in his gaze asked me if I understood, and I helplessly had to let go of his hands as I shook my head.
No! I wanted to cry. I don’t understand!
As Silas descended the stairs of the balcony and moved to where the Darkest Lord was standing with Liza just beside the river, I felt more confused than ever. I could still taste Silas on my lips, but he already felt so far away.
When I isolated his heartbeat in my chest, that colorful little gem I carried with me, I felt nothing but confidence and assuredness radiating from him.
Why is he so confident? If Silas wanted me to swoop in and save the day thanks to some secret code he’d whispered in my ear, I would gravely disappoint him.
I was at a complete and utter loss for what he wanted me to do.
When Silas reached the Darkest Lord’s side, Liza was already on the ground.
Liza looked up to Silas, gave his hand a squeeze, and then bolted toward the castle without looking back.
She scampered up to the second-floor balcony in her tattered dress and came to a stop, still breathing heavily, her eyes wide as she stared at the place she’d been moments before, where Silas was now surrendering himself to the Darkest Lord.
I felt numb and helpless as the Darkest Lord wrapped Silas's wrists behind his body with smoky ropes that moved like eels, as if their very threads were alive. I could tell from the wince on Silas’s face that it was painful, the magic cutting into him, leeching the good from his essence and filling him with darkness.
“Give me your magic, Alessia,” the Darkest Lord said, “and I will make this part painless for Silas.”
“Even if I wanted to give you my magic,” I said, “I wouldn’t know how.”
“Yes, you do. What do I keep telling you? We are not all that different.” The Darkest Lord studied me. “I know you contain the heartbeats in your chest. Transfer them to me, and I’ll let your precious islanders live.”
“My magic stems from the trust and loyalty and love of the people around me,” I said. “From my ancestors gifting me their experience and power. That is a Fae Queen’s magic. It’s not mine to own or to give away.”
“Then I can help you,” he said. “I will take the heartbeats; you just need to let me. Submit to me, and I will handle the rest.”
“Never.”
“Then I will start taking the spirits one by one,” he said. “As you already witnessed, it won’t take long. I’m giving you an opportunity to make this simpler. But if not…”
I felt sick as I remembered how quickly he’d snuffed out the life of the islander all the way across the river.
“If you give them to me, I will let them live in this court under my rule,” the Darkest Lord promised. “I will let them keep their heartbeats. If you do not, I will collect the souls of each and every member of your court one by one and I'll start with him .”
At this, the Darkest Lord tipped Silas's head back. That black-armored hand hovered over Silas’s chest, and I felt it at once: the rip as he began to tug the spirit from Silas’s body.
I vaguely remembered the sensation of having my soul separated from my body in the underworld, but it was vastly different having it happen in the realm of the living instead of the spirit world.
It was acutely more painful; I knew what was happening, I understood, and due to the intense bond between me and Silas, I could feel everything.
I could feel his soul being teased from his body like it was my own, as if someone had taken a knife and dragged it down my chest, cutting me in two.
“No!” The wail as I collapsed to my knees was primal, uncontrollable.
“Alessia, stop.” Hands shook my shoulders. Atlas’s face appeared in front of me. “What did Silas say to you before he left?”
I just shook my head, murmured something sluggish like, “Don’t know.. . ”
“My brother never says anything he doesn't mean.” Atlas shook me again, so hard my teeth rattled together. “What did he tell you?”
The pain of losing Silas was overwhelming, coming in waves now as the essence of my mate left him for the dark chamber where the Darkest Lord collected his souls.
“I don't know,” I managed. “It didn’t make sense.”
“Think about it,” Atlas demanded. “It could mean everything.”
“He…he told me our bond would never be broken.” I sounded like I was speaking around a mouthful of marbles. “But I know that. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“What else? He told you two things. I heard it. Alessia, focus.”
I felt like I was going to pass out from the overwhelming physical pain. I glanced over as Silas’s body grew limp in the Darkest Lord's arms. The sight made me sick, but it also gave me a burst of resolve to focus on Atlas’s words.
“Silas told me that our bond could never be broken…and that the Darkest Lord can’t steal the magic of a Fae Queen—that nobody can.”
“Stand up,” Atlas instructed. “You are our queen. You can defeat him, and you must. For my brother, for yourself, for your court.”
Atlas’s words shook something loose in me, something that registered on a primal level.
Something that prompted me to peel myself off my floor and stand at the balcony before my throne.
My hands gripped the railing, my knuckles feeling like they would shatter into bone fragments if I gripped it even the slightest bit harder.