Chapter 44
KORMAC
Winter’s south coast formed in the distance, my body still singing with so many warm and pleasant sensations.
Declaring my feelings like that to Valance had changed things, as it would. Made me feel so different.
There was something special about us. I’d finally welcomed my once-sworn enemy into my heart.
Yes, that was very, very special indeed.
I held him to me as we made the last miles of our journey, never wanting to let him go. Whatever the future held, I’d be there with him. Every single step of the way. I just had to make sure there was a future waiting for us.
There were many, many bodies on the beach. Living bodies. Dots from this distance, but clearly an army.
Lord Cullen slowed down to speak. “I will find us somewhere else to land.”
A beam of silver light rushed across the waves, striking the giant within seconds. His body shimmered with silver magic, coming to a stop as he tried to turn east.
“Enchanted,” Valance said behind me.
Lord Cullen began to swim to shore.
Shit.
Did we dive into the freezing water and try for… for where? There was nowhere else. I could swim for it, sure, but not Valance. He’d soon succumb to the brutal water.
He can die now…
What to do. What to do. I had to figure something out to make sure our future happened.
But we reached the shore, Lord Cullen beaching himself halfway up the sand. We held on tight as he rocked, a series of heavy jolts trying to shake us off his back. Then he was still, breathing heavily, offering no words.
Where the snow-pattered sand met the thick snow of land, an army of dark fae gathered. Darkling and giants, humans and elves and other smaller creatures. They lined up behind Queen Dovelar, their new leader glistening with silver magic.
She smiled, opening her arms. “Welcome home.”
Fuck you… I didn’t speak, sliding off the giant’s back. I waited for Valance, catching him as he came down.
“I am impressed by your tenacity to survive, Valance,” she said. “If I cared enough, I would say I was proud.”
Valance walked up the beach toward her, as cold and closed off as the bitter wind.
“I’m beginning to think you being alive is far more interesting than you being dead,” she added.
I was beginning to think we should’ve risked traveling around Autumn, coming at Winter from the west. After all, it was the west we wanted for the jinn groves. But the Autumn armies were rich in my homeland and would also patrol the waters with ships.
Hellpiss to all of this.
I followed Valance.
“Yes, much more interesting,” the queen said.
How Valance tolerated her voice, let alone her abuse, for all those years was a testament to patience.
Queen Dovelar chuckled as Orla and Eoghan stepped out of the army, coming to flank her on either side.
Valance stopped then. “You even snared them?”
“But of course,” she replied. “Everything here is mine now. Winter, the dark caress, all of these bodies. Including you and that human. You are mine to do with as I wish, and I’m considering your futures as we speak.
Do I keep you close, teach you a lesson in how to wield power and take over a world?
Or do I kill you on this beach?” She folded her arms. “Give me a moment.”
Orla and Eoghan laughed, a ripple of laughter spreading through the congregation.
You had to give it to the former seelie queen—she moved quickly. Which only meant she had some serious enchantments pumping through her army. Good. That meant her magic would burn down quickly. I only hoped it would do so within the next two minutes.
The new Tuatha queen unfolded her arms. “I’ve made my decision.” She snapped her fingers. Orla and Eoghan stepped forward, drawing their swords.
I immediately drew mine. Valance followed.
“Try not to lose your temper, sweet grandchild,” Dovelar said. “I would hate for you to tear your beloved human limb from limb.”
“Fuck you!” I bit out.
She laughed. “Such big words for a tiny creature.”
Orla and Eoghan kept coming.
“Kill them,” Dovelar commanded. “Make it—”
Brigid flew over the heads of the army so quickly, I wasn’t sure it was her at first. When her teeth sank into the queen’s neck in one savage bite, I knew for sure it was her.
“You!” Dovelar wailed.
Orla and Eoghan charged, eating up the last meters of space between us. I jumped in front of Valance, meeting Orla’s downward strike. But Valance spun away from me, his steel clashing with a stab from Eoghan—a stab aimed at my side.
And so, we broke away into our own fights. Sword meeting sword, a dance of life and death. My brutal, heavy strikes—something else taught to me by Lasair—weren’t enough to throw Orla off. She barely sweated as she spun and parried with me while my brow dripped with sweat.
Don’t falter now!
Orla’s strength was incredible, her speed breathtaking. She reminded me of Valance’s liquid grace in a swordfight, only much deadlier. I kept up with her, using my skills to the edges of their limits. Keeping myself alive, never once gaining the advantage.
Occasionally, I caught sight of Valance fending off Eoghan but couldn’t spend enough time watching to get a sense of how he was faring.
Parrying a downward strike, my wrists aching from the fighting, I went to spin. But Orla kicked my legs out from under me. I went down, slamming into frozen sand. Before I could leap back up or defend myself, Orla’s blade broke through my chest, bursting through my back into the sand.
Cheers. A scream from Valance. My vision blurred, air sucked out of me in shock.
Orla pulled the sword out, bringing it back down again, straight into my heart.