Chapter 24
Fallon
Declan leaped halfway across the room in a single bound and I held on tight, making myself as small a target as possible.
The man on the throne had caused all of us enough trouble for ten lifetimes, from trying to force our friend Ruby to marry him, to a mindless shifter army, to taking the Elven throne.
This time, he somehow recruited a bunch of monks to do his bidding.
What was it about this guy? The only word that ever came to mind was beige and yet he always seemed to wheedle his way in everywhere.
Declan dodged some magic fireballs lobbed in his direction, jaws slobbering, claws raking the floor.
Flashes of light highlighted the colorless robe Brad slouched in.
The hue encapsulated everything about the man.
Gone was his blonde hair. He was missing a few horse teeth and his cheekbones could sharpen my knife.
Still, he sat in this great hall with the bearing of a King.
The blaze in his eyes burned with the fires of unearned privilege.
I lashed out at the monk trying to lasso Declan with a wicked-looking rope.
Drawing through the air as I would to filet a fish, the man’s calf split open as it came against my magic.
Declan snapped and snarled, tearing off arms and legs of those in his path.
I had never seen him violent and I had a feeling the Followers of Virtue were paying for the Brothers of Zophiel’s sins.
As another round of attacks came against Dec, I realized the sacs overhead pulsed any time a monk cast a spell.
It was clear that’s where they were draining the monster’s magic.
I reached up to see if I could poke one with my knife and quickly flattened against Dec when a red snake-whip came for me.
Dec dodged and his furry butt ended up right in Brad’s face since the throne was so elevated above the rest of the hall.
“What is with you people?” Brad wheezed from his seat.
I slid down the giant wolf’s neck. “We missed you, Brad.” My sarcasm just dripped right off him.
Percy skidded to a stop between Declan and Brad, flapping his hands like a frightened chicken. His ruby ring glistened. For all they seemed to have a master plan, I didn’t see complex spells flying around other than what came from their overhead reservoirs.
I don’t think they have any magic, Dec.
His giant head surveyed the room. The portals?
Assessing Brad, I really looked at the throne he claimed. No, that they strapped him to. I rattled the bindings across his forearms with my magic and he shot me a murderous look.
“You won’t take this from me. I will be a God!”
We both snapped to the head monk, who held out his hands to Brad. “Of course you will be. We have this all in hand. Just relax into the chair… throne and all will be well.”
Brad has magic? I asked.
I’ve only seen a few mages fueled by pure belief. They seem to be sucking it right out of him though.
The throne pulsed with the same soft glow as the ceiling. Magic moved through luminous tubes, siphoning Brad’s will to the disgusting sacs just like they did in the first room we entered.
Can’t say the butt waffle doesn’t deserve it, I replied.
Oh, he deserves much worse. The anger in Declan’s voice raised every hair on my body.
With one swipe of a massive paw, Percy hit the stone wall. I raced there, pointing my kitchen knife at his throat.
“We’ll deal with you in a second,” I said.
Declan opened his jaws wide to encompass Brad’s whole body.
Boiling rage filled the hall and even I started to sweat.
The screams sounded endless as Declan ripped him right out of the straps and savaged Brad, stepping on his leg to pry off a hand in his jaws.
My sweet Declan shook him back and forth like a battle flag.
Brad’s bones snapped but he was still alive.
“You’re killing our best offering! His outsized ambition was powering half the spell.”
All his shouting sliced my knife into his neck. “Sorry to put a dent in your plans.”
The monks rallied, and Declan dropped Brad as they hooked a rope to his back leg. Declan danced back and twirled in a circle like he was trying to catch his own tail, except his tail was a trail of monks still hanging on to the rope, working to contain him.
Percy shouted into the room, galvanizing the rest of them. “We will see the Godds return. Our Virtue will make sure of it.”
Okay, wolf army, go. Dec, these guys have to be erased.
I pressed my kitchen knife deeper. “The Godds aren’t coming back if you want all of us to be alive.”
The monk’s annoyed expression told me I would never understand. “Who cares about you? We will be here to serve the Godds.”
Percy shoved me back, uncaring that he cut himself on my knife, to race to Brad’s side. “We can still salvage this.”
The monk gathered a barely breathing Brad into his arms, trying to smoosh him together again.
Declan plonked his ass right on top of the screaming monks and his gigantic tongue lolled out as he watched me with those bright blue eyes.
At least someone was enjoying this. I always left Brad and saving the day to Maggie and Evie.
I just wanted to be by my stove. But Percy’s ring started to glow and I wouldn’t let Dec take all the heat.
“Salvage this, you fart flap.”
I summoned all my magic, everything I had won from Anise.
I focused on every detail that I managed to bring life to a dish and picked apart the wolves and monsters from the monks.
Their texture, their flesh felt different to my power.
The chant of life thrummed through my body.
I could grow them, enhance them, bring them joy.
Instead, I flipped that hotcake, pointing my intent toward the rest of the beings underground–the monks, fat on the magic they had been stealing from the rest of us.
I didn’t enjoy taking life, not even from a chicken, but these monks had proved to be nothing but untrustworthy.
The Godds seemed like distant legends, but those legends were bloody chaos.
They could not rule the Harrowlands again.
I caught that same woman who brought cookies inching her way toward Declan’s heaving flank. Insanity took over, because I would be Goddsdamned if anyone was going to touch my wolf before I figured out what to do with him.
Yanking all the life from the monks, like I was pulling out offal. I fed it into the sacs above us until they burst in a wash of magic. Bodies slumped to the floor. Every monk present stared upward. Lifeless. Percy let out a final fart in the hall.
I laughed at the addictive rush of power. I scared myself for a second contemplating how I could do it again. Thank the Godds Anise had given me control over this and Declan prowling toward me cleared my mind.
The foundations of the underground hall shook, dirt raining down on us. I turned to Declan to tell him we should get out of here while we were still able when Ned barked his fool head off.
“Calm down, Ned. We did it.” I trotted over to him. “Sit boy. Sit.”
Of course, he did no such thing. He strained toward the golden, glittery slice of air that suddenly had a very pissed-off princess, in a full ball gown, barreling out of it.
With unerring accuracy, she raced over to Brad and apparently failed to notice the state of him because she stuck a blade right through his heart.
“Take that, you motherfucker!” The force of her anger pushed the sword out of his back and into dead Percy.
Working it out of two bodies, she pulled on it frantically, presumably to stab him again.
Putting a foot on Brad’s limp corpse, she heaved as the King of the Fae himself popped out of the still-open passage.
Trailing golden dust behind him, the normally unbothered Fae looked like a harried mother hen.
I had only ever seen him neat and collected when he stood witness at Maggie’s wedding and then at her coronation.
“Dolly!” The one word suffused with so much meaning, I was surprised the princess could ignore him.
Severin wrapped around her, taking her hands off the sword. “You got him,” he murmured into her golden hair.
I surveyed the wreckage of the underground lair, emotions a jumble. We won. Wolves filtered into the main hall. Briggs helped a limping Anise. Declan and I met with her between us, brushing hands, then arms as we hugged her. I would never have forgiven myself if something had happened to her.
“I’m fine. I’m fine.” She held us closer.
She was fine. Just like I was fine. The tremors made of everything that happened shook both of us. Our victory tasted like ash in my mouth. There was no hiding from the truth that came next.
“Are you okay?” She grabbed my cheeks and tears threatened.
“I just killed a bunch of people,” I said.
Anise sighed. “And you did an excellent job at it.”
I didn’t know how her praise made it better, but it did. I wanted to bury myself at the bottom of a wolf pile and cry about it. Declan put a hand on my shoulder but I avoided his embrace. I suddenly needed to leave right this moment before I would never leave these people again.
Declan had been breathtaking as King. It would be so easy to just submit and be his Queen, if I didn’t already sense a flare of the Fever for pushing my magic so hard.
This could be the worst yet and I didn’t want him to see it.
If I had to experience his pity through the bond I couldn’t deny, I might die.
The princess and the King were walking toward another glittering portal. Or more like he was half dragging her uncooperative ass.
“Can I catch a ride with you? Just drop me back at Evie’s.”
Declan cried, “Honey!”
I was a coward when all he had given me was acceptance. Surely, I could at least say goodbye like a normal human.
My hand met Declan’s, while I ignored the way it battled back some of the pain, just like it had the night of Evie’s state dinner.
We had come so far together, but I would only hold him back from becoming the King he needed to be.
“They’re already going that way and I won’t waste any more of your time. ”
His grip turned to iron. “Let me at least get you another cloak. Your nightgowns. Your knives!” Declan’s voice cracked and I broke with it.
Like Declan called it, the Old Magic provided his list at his feet. I put on the pack he had stuffed and stood there as he adjusted the straps. I could feel ice stealing over me. Physically, emotionally.
“You don’t have to fuss.” I tried not to choke on the words.
“Just let me, Honey. One last time.” He didn’t look me in the eye. He didn’t fight for me. But that had never been Declan’s way. He would dash himself against the rocks of Fate before he would stand in my path.
Severin cleared his throat, all harsh planes and haughty grandeur. “If you’re ready.” He bent over his princess, whispering, “Where am I taking her?”
“Maggie’s sister,” the princess sniffled.
I didn’t know Dolly well, but she and Maggie had grown inseparable. Just another way our small trio had broken apart. I wasn’t sure I was ready to face them again either, but with Declan’s heart in his eyes, here was definitely the more heartbreaking option.
“I would be a terrible Queen,” I reminded him.
Declan nodded with his head down. I was just making this worse by delaying. I squeezed his hand one last time.
Severin stood in the waiting portal, holding his hand out to me.
I didn’t let myself think. I gathered my confidence and stepped into the dark.