Chapter 61
—Kienna—
Kienna noted the buzzing in her veins, a whisper of magic that wasn’t fully hers.
It was muted at the start, but the longer she stood near Vaerin, the stronger it pulsed, as if the air between them throbbed with static.
“Thank you for showing me this,” she said, taking a careful step closer.
“I can see you’ve always wanted to keep me safe. ”
“Yes.” King Vaerin turned fully to her, eyes steady. “You’re special, my child.”
She slipped her arms around his torso. His body stiffened, muscles locking like drawn wire all the way down his back.
How long had it been since anyone touched him?
His clothes were neat, pressed close to the form.
Beneath the fabric, at the small of his back, Kienna’s fingers brushed steel. A knife.
Vaerin’s scent hit her. It was sharp and electric, like the charging air before a storm broke, layered with sweetness. Almost disarming, like summer berries in bloom.
When the king eased, Kienna’s hand darted to his belt.
She ripped the knife free. Metal sang when it cleared the sheath, but before she could wield it, Vaerin shoved her hard.
She slammed into the Ash tree, bark biting her spine.
Air tore from her lungs. Before she could draw another breath, an invisible force clamped around her throat.
Vaerin stood motionless, arm outstretched, power spilling like crimson smoke from his fingers.
The red aura coiled through her, choking, curling into her lungs.
Kienna clawed at nothing, gasping as the world narrowed to his grip and the taste of blood at the back of her throat.
The forest dissolved in a violent rush of light.
They hit the ground in M’Ran, the ancient stones trembling beneath their boots.
King Vaerin’s hand closed around her neck.
They were real, crushing, and searing with power.
He hurled her aside like nothing. Kienna slammed into the moss-slick earth as steel rang out.
Connak’s blade came down in a lethal arc, only to be caught mid-swing by Vaerin’s effortless parry.
Kienna pushed herself up, vision swimming.
Broan and Danek were there, crashing in like a storm. And Baila was calling the forest to war. Vines erupted from the ground, lashing like whips and driving back the tide of Umbrin spilling into the clearing. Shadows writhed and shrieked where roots pierced through them.
Ruva growled, lunging through the air and ripping into another Umbrin. Focus, Little Flame. They all rally with you. Even Baila.
“Help them!” Baila barked, ripping a blade from her back scabbard and hurling it.
Kienna caught the hilt mid-spin. She rolled her eyes but didn’t waste her breath to release the curse biting at her tongue. For however long it took Baila to betray them again, she’d accept the help picking off the Dead Army. She turned to dive into the chaos.
Broan’s voice thundered over the clash. “DOWN!”
Shards of rock lifted from the earth, orbiting his massive frame before exploding forward like a hail of spears.
Vaerin didn’t even flinch. He flicked his wrist, and the stones shattered in the air, raining useless dust across the battlefield.
The corner of the king’s mouth curved into a slow, cold grin.
Kienna charged. Her blade cut the air in a silver arc only to freeze mid-swing as Vaerin’s hand locked around her wrist. “You cannot kill me, my child.” He said it softly, voice coiling through her like smoke. “Your bonds will not allow it.”
“Fuck you!” she snarled, wrenching against his iron grip.
Connak slid in low, his sword a flash of steel, aiming for Vaerin’s ribs when he lazily let Vaerin block him. Then he stepped back. What was he doing? Kienna grunted.
“To kill me,” Vaerin said, twisting Kienna’s arm until pain screamed up her bones, “would be to kill everything tethered to me. And you, my child, you are tethered to me.”
Stop, Ruva barked.
Kienna tried to pull herself out with all the force she could muster.
Her pulse roared in her ears. She didn’t care.
This was reason enough to die. Better than living under his shadow for another breath.
She lunged again, every thought burning away but the need to end him.
She’d go down for this, for the sake of everything he took from her.
Even if the Elvish played their own part, Vaerin tortured her.
He beat her down because she was special, then wrapped it up and called it love. Called it protection.
His presence made her sick.
“Then we’ll both go down.” Kienna channeled the heat of her blood into the blade she wielded and slashed a flame into the air.
The king dodged but didn’t appear fazed. Kienna let the rage consume her. With all the speed she could find, she swung again. He deflected and kicked her out of his grasp. Kienna wouldn’t give up, even when a blast of power sent her sprawling.
Frustration clawed at her ribs. King Vaerin was playing another fucking game, and she was losing.
No more.
Kienna bared her teeth, summoning the magic deep within her. Shadows flickered at her fingertips as she pressed forward, swinging with every ounce of force she had.
As she did, Connak stepped in front of the king and deflected. The metal against his own reverberated deep in Kienna’s bones, sending her backward. The magic released and exploded through the blade with blistering heat, scorching the air.
Vaerin only smiled. Slowly, he clasped his hands together. “No, I didn’t think you’d be okay with the end of your life today.”
Kienna looked at Connak, heart pounding. She hissed. “What does he mean?”
Vaerin answered for him, stepping closer with the calm of a man who knew the battlefield was already his. “Your pretty little bonds…they’re life binding.” He stood among them now. “If any one of us dies, we all die. Even your loyal protectors.”
The world tilted. Kienna’s throat clenched.
She could barely hear over the hammering of her pulse.
It made sense now, pieces of the puzzle she never had.
Why Vaerin never killed Connak in River Storm.
Why he never let her die, no matter how defiant she’d been.
How she managed to feel something inside her after the Battle of Dove Port, willing her body to stay alive.
Why Connak and Tristian bled themselves dry keeping her breathing.
Rage roared through her, scorching the terror.
She let it consume her, a raw scream tearing free as flames erupted from her palm.
She hurled the fire at him, every secret and lie burning in her veins.
He barely twitched. His hand shot out, catching the inferno mid-flight.
The flames twisted like ribbons around his wrist. King Vaerin inhaled the power with a shudder of delight before flinging it back with crushing force.
Ruva whimpered and growled.
The impact ripped through Kienna’s chest. The world spun in a blur of light and stone before her body slammed into the ruined archway. Stone exploded on impact, and Danek went down with her in the storm of dust and rubble.
Kienna gasped for breath. The king’s magic buzzed in the air, looming over her as he shook his head. “Foolish. You always were. Be sure to remember that the river doesn’t care which way you swim, my child. Only how long you last.”
Kienna jerked her head as Danek pulled her up. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes,” she nodded, grateful for the reminder that he was there.
“We need a better plan.” She gripped her blade until her knuckles ached, stepping forward with Danek at her side.
There was no time to think anymore. All she knew was that Vaerin needed to fall.
If she couldn’t kill him, then fuck! She’d rip the power from his hands. But not alone. She needed Connak.
Please, she called out across the tether. We don’t have to kill him, but you can’t pull away.
I don’t know how to stop him otherwise, Connak said.
He was already circling toward the broken archways like a predator choosing his angle.
He didn’t look nearly as scared as Kienna felt.
None of them should have been. They didn’t pose any threat to each other aside from the overarching desire for control over Kienna’s magic.
That frightened her enough.
Broan shifted to her right, rolling his massive shoulders, fists curling like stone ready to strike.
Earth hummed beneath his boots. Behind him, Baila fell in line, vines whispering at her heels like restless serpents.
Kienna cut her a glance, fire licking her teeth.
She was ready to fight her, too, if she had to, but Danek’s hand clamped on her arm.
His eyes burned golden-green, like tempered steel, a silent reminder to stay focused.
Baila was not the enemy. With her in line, the power swirling in the air increased.
It was surreal but enough to give Kienna the confidence.
She could defeat King Vaerin. With all of them standing together, they could pull the power from his veins.
“Ah,” King Vaerin said, his voice dull and cold as a blade against her throat. “If only little Moira were here. Then we’d have a proper family reunion. All of my wayward children, standing against the only man who sheltered you.”
Stand with me, Kienna demanded to Connak, voice cracking like a whip across the space.
Ruva padded to Broan’s side, shoulders low, lips peeling back over her teeth. Connak exhaled once through his nose and stepped in, closing the space between Kienna and the king.
Kienna lifted her chin, fire threading her veins. “You stand alone,” she told Vaerin. “You will always stand alone.”
Danek’s hand found Kienna’s shoulder, slid down her arm, and laced with her fingers.
Heat steadied in her palm as she realized she had him—his love, his promise to stand with her, to fight with her forever.
He laced his own power through her, steadying the part of her magic Vaerin controlled. It brought her comfort.
He could ground her.
He could save her from the king.
Broan planted himself to her left with Ruva bristling at his knee. Baila came up behind them, raising her blade. Connak fell in near the right with a tired, measured look, then nodded once. Around them, steel lifted. For a breath, they were a single line.
They were hers.
A blast of red exploded between them. Kienna gasped as Broan and Connak were flung to the sides, crashing hard into the stone around them.
Without warning, a gust of energy ripped through the air.
As the torrent erupted, Vaerin’s form flickered violently before he grabbed hold of Baila with his power.
In a single, swift motion, he threw her forward, and as he did, Baila’s blade plunged into Danek’s chest.
The cracking of bone froze Kienna’s blood.
She ran for Danek as Baila blew backward.
Kienna’s scream shattered the air. “No! No, no, no!” She grabbed for Danek as his body crumbled to the ground.
She pressed her hands to the wound, but the warmth of his blood seeped through her fingers.
Crimson stained his tunic. His breathing was shallow.
No matter. They had a healer.
Kienna stood, gripping for her blade again. Through the growl between her teeth, she looked at Connak. “Heal him.”
Then she turned to the king and stepped in his direction. Amusement danced in his eyes.
Connak motioned forward, then stopped. “I can’t get through.”
“What do you—” Realization dawned on Kienna. She pushed her hand forward and found she couldn’t get through an impenetrable barrier. “No!” She slapped her hand against it again as if that would tear it down. She threw flames into it, only searing the air around them.
Ruva whimpered desperately, gnawing at the barrier between them.
Kienna turned back to Danek, his blood spilling against the stone. A sob tore free as she dropped to her knees and crawled to him, hands shaking as they pressed uselessly against the wound. King Vaerin had done this on purpose. He wanted to break her.
A frantic part of her wondered if she could force her fire into something else, draw it out of herself, out of the air, burn the damage away, or seal him shut, but the thought curdled as soon as it formed.
Vaerin would twist it. He always did. Whatever she tried would only kill Danek faster.
Without Connak, there was nothing left to reach for.
She had to watch him die.
“Please,” she begged, her voice breaking. “Heal yourself.”
“It’s okay,” he rasped through the spurt of blood forming around his lips. His hand shook as it found her chin, thumb brushing her skin like he was memorizing her. “Hey,” he whispered as Kienna’s eyes snapped shut. “Look at me, please.”
She forced her eyes open as her chin trembled, daring to look at the tragedy unfolding in front of her. Every instinct screamed to look away, but she couldn’t abandon him—not now.
Danek forced a smile. “I may…never see sunlight in fields filled with…laughter.” He grimaced, swallowing hard to hold his mind steady. “At least I got to see you smile. I always knew this was how I’d love you.”
Tears flooded her eyes, blurring him until she couldn’t tell where his face ended and the world began. She couldn’t stop them. “You were meant to tell our story, Danek.”
“I love you, Kienna.” He coughed, a wet, broken sound, and his gaze fluttered between her eyes as though he were afraid to miss even one last detail. “This…was enough…for me.”
His eyes flickered, light dimming and returning in uneven pulses. The gold bled slowly out of the green, the warmth draining until his gaze went distant, unmoored—no longer quite there.
“Danek?” Kienna struck his cheek lightly, desperate, already knowing. “Danek?” Her breath hitched, broke loose from her chest, and flooded into the air. “Please!” Tears fell onto him, darkening his blood-soaked clothes. “I love you. You can’t leave me!”
Baila rose to her feet, her own hands trembling. “Kienna, I swear—I didn’t mean—”
Kienna’s magic flared without restraint.
A pulse of raw energy burst from her, sending Baila flying into the barrier.
The air screamed. The stone beneath them shuddered, collapsing her in a single, suffocating wave.
Kienna folded over Danek’s chest. She whimpered as she pressed her ear to him, searching for something—anything.
There was no heartbeat.
“You lose,” Vaerin’s voice echoed through the ruin, cold and satisfied. His form flickered, smoke unraveling into nothing.
The King of River Storm was gone.