Chapter 16
THE FAIRY QUEEN
The infernal palace looms ahead.
What was once a beacon of light and opulence has been rotted from the inside out. Oily, goo slides thickly down the sides of obsidian towers. The air is heavy with the stench of death. Sickly green mist clings to the mushy, black grass.
The Fairy Queen keeps to her wings to avoid the pools of boiling sludge on the ground.
Deadtrees create a thick roof that blocks out the morning sun. The only light source comes from the torches of black flames illuminating the wide stone path. Her parents would use this road to arrive for official business in their royal carriage.
They perished here. Their souls are trapped forever in the Deadlands.
The Void feasts on their essence—of all those slain—to spread its rot. A cold wind picks up, slicing her to the bone. Only her anger and the memories of her night with Finn keep her warm.
Finn. Her heart squeezes painfully at the thought of him.
Surely he's awoken by now and found her gone. Discovered the note and the wish she left behind. With her heart in sharp pieces that slice into her ribs, she knows this was the right decision. He is surely already back in the human lands and far from this forsaken place.
Finn had given her more than anyone else had. Hope that she could defeat the Void—the magic to do so. More than that, he gave her himself. She had felt his heart pounding alongside hers. The strong, warm threads of his soul had braided with hers. Permanent and primal.
It was impossible but undeniable.
Those questions would do her no good at present. What he was or wasn't to her didn't matter. He was gone, and she was glad he was somewhere far from danger. Finn was life, and he was love, and he really saw her. Not as a Queen, but as Arden.
A female who wanted to belong to another.
She had closed herself off from love to honor her betrothed, but with Finn, she hadn't felt guilt over their night. Instead, she felt peace. A sense of rightness that calms her nerves as she approaches her impending death. Finn had made her feel alive and wanted.
A beautiful final gift before she perished in the darkness.
He will be with her always as she tucks the decadent memories of their night into her heart. If her soul is to be trapped in eternal gloom, they will provide her with light.
Finn will live, and that will bring her comfort. Too many have died in her name, in her parents' names. It was her time to make the ultimate sacrifice. One final stand against the evil polluting her realm to avenge as many as she could.
If she cannot stop the Void with Finn's magic, no other fairy will be able to. She would happily die for her kingdom. Death didn't scare her. The memories of those already lost renewed her resolve as she hovered outside the dark palace steps.
Glancing up at the dark leaves overtaking the sky, she beseeches the Spirits for luck. Begs them for mercy if she is to fail and allow her soul the impossible chance of reuniting with Finn’s in the Afterworld.
If she cannot avenge those lost, then allow her to free their souls as her final act.
She dares not hope her prayers are heard. The Void has proven stronger than the Spirits time and time again.
A loud crash echoes in the rancid air. Slick doors pull apart and oily goo slides to the obsidian steps with a hiss. The puddles writhe and wriggle, seeking the figure that emerges behind them.
It had been disgusting to look at before.
Somehow it was even harder to stomach being alone.
Dagger-sharp teeth grinned at her from between slick black lips.
Claws protrude from steaming piles of thick goo.
Eyes like rubies glint from within the mess.
Its oppressive power washes over, sending her to the ground.
Sludge licks up her legs and stains her dress. Glaring at the Void, her wings beat rapidly.
"Where is the human?" it purrs.
"Gone," The Fairy Queen hisses. "Your business is with me."
Oil spills between its fangs.
"You have your mother's fire. Let's see if it's snuffed out just as quickly."
Anger causes her magic to collect. Gold and green pool at her palms as the Void lashes out with a tendril of death magic. It whips through the air as she narrowly eludes it.
The ground burns with brown flames from the lashing. Arden fires her magic at the Void.
Finn's flames cut through its writhing flesh, severing hunks that burn away.
The Void glares at her. Surprise kindles in its red eyes. With a snarl, it attacks again. The scent of burning flesh chokes her as she thwarts another onslaught of its magic. The Void travels down the palace steps and joins her on the ground.
The deadtrees aid in his attack. Heavy branches reach for her. Sentient wood binds itself around her ankles and wrists as she kicks with all her strength. Her wings beat rapidly to avoid being tangled. She blasts the darkness back with her and Finn's magic.
The trees scream as flames consume them.
"He gave you his magic," the Void growls. "It won't be enough."
"Fuck you!"
The truth of its words makes her teeth grind together.
They have not been battling long, and already she is overwhelmed. Finn's magic is dwindling, and hers is no match for the Void. Each summoned flame—every tendril of death avoided—drains her.
Sweat streams down her face as she dodges another lashing from the Void.
Her muscles burn. Her wings falter, sending her sliding into the ground. Steaming goo burns her skin as she screams. The writhing mass wraps around her foot, pulling her into the boiling liquid.
The Fairy Queen's flesh feels like it's being stripped from her body.
Pain makes her defenses lower. Her movements are sluggish as she fights to break free from its clutches. The Void laughs, launching a beam of its power towards her.
She is too slow to avoid it.
The dark magic pierces through her shoulder. Golden blood pours from her wound. Rot spreads through her veins. Her muscles weaken as its death magic siphons her powers. The Void wraps her in another tendril and drags her from the pool.
Glancing down at her leg, she recoils at the ruined flesh.
The Fairy Queen’s green skin is charred. The pale bones of her toes burn in the frigid air. Her stomach rolls as bile swims up her throat. The edges of her vision blur as the last dregs of her magic are drained. She cannot heal herself.
The stench of death is upon her, and she is powerless to fight it off.
The Void binds her wrists and wings. Searing pain floods up her leg as his oppressive magic wraps around her wounds.
Finn's magic had not been enough. She was a fool to think for a moment it would make a difference.
Despite her impending death, she was glad Finn was gone.
The Fairy Queen didn't want him to see this.
No doubt he'd already be dead, and the Void would've made her watch every brutal moment as it tore apart the most wonderful male she's ever known.
The Fairy Queen hopes her realm will understand she gave them everything she had, and in the end it hadn't been enough. If the Spirits can hear her, she wishes they will at least all be granted the mercy of a swift death.
"I'm going to enjoy this." The Void licks over its teeth. "The Fairy Queen is finally in my clutches. Your soul tastes sweeter than the others'. Purer. I'll take us back to Glimmerveil and make your subjects watch as I tear you apart."
Pain and freezing wind cut her to the bone, but she bucks against its power in one last feeble attempt to make a stand. The Void merely laughs.
Dragging her closer, it smiles cruelly. Rotten breath bathes her face. The stench makes her nose burn. Pale green steam wafts from its ruby tongue. Oil sprays onto her cheeks, searing her flesh.
"Or better yet, I'll keep you alive long enough to watch me rot them from the inside out. Then you will join them in death, Queen Arden."
The Fairy Queen whimpers.
Pain is everywhere. It hurts to move, to breathe. There is nothing she can do. All of the years she spent trying to save her realm only for it to end like this. She had not spared them. If anything, her final stand has enraged the Void enough to make them suffer worse.
She was a bad Queen. A weak one. One that—
A tendril of Finn's magic brushes against her. It rouses her from the pain long enough to see that the Void has twisted away from her. Her magic reaches for the golden light, allowing it to strengthen her enough to ease the pain in her leg.
With her head clearing, she tracks the Void's gaze. Its posture is rigid as it looks towards the obsidian stone path.
If it wasn't for the Void's snarl, she'd think she was hallucinating. Golden light spills into the clearing, burning away the bubbling pools that had harmed her. The petrified deadtrees explode into ash.
"Impossible," the Void hisses.
It was impossible, and yet, there he was.
Finn, as he was always meant to be. His human form has been cleared away, and a proud fairy male stands at the base of the stone steps.
He is taller and broader of shoulder. Heavy wings made of golden feathers beat at his back.
Hair the color of the sun sparkles in the dark. Tan skin glimmers like jewels. His musky scent is gone, and in its place is the rich smell of sun-drenched flower petals. Pure magic floats through the air, tangling with hers.
Strengthening it.
The power she had taken from him before had only been a drop. With his facade removed, he is the strongest fairy she has ever come across. His coloring, the wings, and his power are familiar to her. How had she not sensed it before?
The realization steals her breath.
Sapphire eyes sparkle up at her. They dip to her injured foot. His full lips curl in a primal snarl.
The Fairy Queen's heart lifts. Finn is here. He didn't leave. He chose to come here, to risk his own life to save her.
Oh, how she lov—
"I killed you as a babe," the Void spits.
Its words freeze the blood in her veins.
With Finn's magic tangling with hers, the pain in her leg dissipates as the flesh rapidly heals. Black goo seeps from her wounds as the infection burns away.
With a clear mind, the old adage her kind held onto as a fleeting tendril of hope becomes startlingly clear. Shock makes her heart race.
They had misinterpreted it all this time.
It was not the sun that had to return to spare them but rather the son. A son of Goldren. The slain prince. Finn.
When the Golden Son returns, will the Darkness recede.
Finn was no ordinary changeling. She should've known it from the first brush of his magic. A primal, dormant part of her had recognized him.
It was why she felt no guilt over their night together. Why she felt as though she knew him from the moment they met. She had given herself to him, trusted him, because he was hers. Just as she was his.
The Spirits had heard her prayers after all.
His deadly glare pulls away from her healing wounds. Finn levels a withering stare at the Void. Fire licks up his palms and flows up his bare arms. Each impressive muscle is more pronounced.
Clad only in cloth pants that cling to his thick legs, the Fairy Queen silently vows to trace every single one of his muscles and commit every devastating inch of him to memory. If they manage to survive.
His rage is palpable. The flames around him strengthen. They burn through the ground like a wildfire.
"I remember it all," Finn says, his voice deeper than before.
“My parents thrust me through a portal the night you struck them down. I floated, frozen in time, lost between realms for centuries before finally landing in the human world. My magic concealed me for protection. All those years it burrowed inside of me, waiting until the moment it could be unleashed.”
The Fairy Queen's mouth goes dry. Flames spread over the ground and scorches the obsidian towers. The Void drops her to the ground as it slinks towards Finn. She grits her teeth against the pain.
Baring its fangs and claws, Finn grins at the figure. Confident to the very end. His muscles coil, ready to attack.
“I’ve been suppressing my magic for nearly three centuries.” Fire erupts around him. "And I'm going to use every last drop of it fucking killing you."
The Void lashes out with its dark power, but Finn is faster. Magic suppressed for that long will turn feral. It's a wonder Finn is able to control it. It indicates just how strong he is.
Finn erupts into golden fire. Flames spread quickly across the ground, burning away all traces of the Void's rot. The goo writhes and shrieks as it burns alive. His flames travel up the steps and surround the Fairy Queen.
They sever her bindings and encase her in their light. Touching one, it curls around her palm. The fire nuzzles against her legs and arms, as featherlight as Finn's fingers the previous night. They don't harm her because they are Finn.
The Void isn't as lucky.
Finn overpowers the darkness. Each whip of dark power is met by a wall of flames. The Void and Finn battle across the burning ground.
Fire surrounds the Void, eating away at its sickening flesh as it screams.
The obsidian towers fall one by one. The deadtrees atop them splinter and die. With the oily thicket of leaves cleared away, the sun burns through the clearing, eradicating the final stand of the Deadlands.
The pale-stone ruins of the Sun Palace beam in the sun.
The Fairy Queen's breath catches as the darkness recedes. Delicate orbs float to the sky. All those souls lost have been freed. Moisture burns her eyes as they travel higher. Her parents are amongst them, Finn's too. Finally at peace.
Restlessness settles inside her. The flames feel like a thousand caresses as her injuries mend. Finn's magic threads through hers, deepening her well to heights she had not felt before. This is the strongest she has ever been.
A golden thread weaves around her heart. Following the single, unbreakable string, she finds Finn's heart on the other end. Golden light engulfs everything around her.
His heart and soul brush against hers, and she yields to it. To the bond that strengthens with every matching beat of their hearts.