Chapter Sixteen #10
“Help me save him,” I demanded, “or you’re no better than the dead-inside animals you’re trying not to become!”
It took a beat, but two of the faces stopped glaring. They moved in our direction.
“Calli? Riordan?” Suddenly strong hands lifted him off my back.
I blinked at her. “Shadi?”
“Oh, Meya, look at him,” Shadi hissed, feathers ruffling. “Of course I’ll help. I used to be good at healing spells,” she said, carrying him outside the door and away from the fighting. “I’ll do what I can for him, while you”—her face hardened—“help them kill that beast.”
I just nodded.
Only when I saw her begin the healing spell, did I turn away, and ram my shoulder against the wall of bodies. “Down with Shadowsoul! Down with the faeriken!”
I shouted my nonsense, shoving through the crowd, and they parted way. Seeing a normal fae, hearing my chant—they let their sister-in-arms by, and chanted with me.
“Down with the faeriken! Down with Shadowsoul!”
I made it to the front, my soul coming alive to finally be near him. “Alisdair!”
Foalan’s barrier collapsed. No less than seven magical blasts sped through the air, hitting Bradach all at once. He plummeted to the floor, and Foalan reacted on instinct. Spinning, his hands shot toward his falling friend—the crystals sewn on his sleeves glowing.
The stampede surged up the dais, slamming into Foalan’s back and trampling him. Bradach crashed onto my throne, tipping it over on top of him.
He didn’t get up.
“No!” Aeris and I screamed.
The mob descended on Alisdair—kicking, punching, tearing, stabbing, and attacking with their stolen purple flowers.
My love disappeared under the mass of bodies.
“Stop it! You don’t know what you’re doing! This isn’t how to break the curse!”
“She’s right,” someone shouted. “This won’t break the curse.”
“Yes!” Hope soared as I fought harder, shoving through the crush and flying limbs. “Leave him be and I’ll—”
“We need his worthless rotting heart to save Elva!” shouted that voice. “I bet the beast will be more open to sharing its location when he’s short a few fingers!” A sword lofted high over the bobbing heads, and fell in a swift arc.
“Arrggh!” Alisdair roared, shredding my heart.
Boom!
The floor heaved, exploding us off our feet. The entire mob blew off Alisdair, taking me with them. I whipped through the air, screaming as the cold, hard stone rose up to meet me.
“Gotcha!” Hands seized me under the arms, yanking me up just in time. “Don’t worry, my lady. I’ve got it from here.”
Bright, iridescent wings fluttered on Aeris’s back, so beautiful and radiant, I couldn’t look at them for too long without being dazzled like the sun.
The curse hadn’t given her wings yet, so of course, the resourceful, unstoppable Aeris made her own.
She dropped me down beside Alisdair. He slumped against his throne—broken and bleeding. Gaping wounds covered his mangled, twisted beast form.
I fell on him, taking his face in my hands. “Alisdair? My love, can you hear me?”
“What are you doing, girl!”
I twisted around. Groaning and bruised, Alisdair’s would-be assassins staggered to their feet.
“Kill him before he rises! The blade is right there!”
“No!” shouted another voice. “We must torture him. Get him to tell us where the heart is, then we kill him.”
“The heart is here! It must be. This pit is a trove of stolen and looted treasure,” argued someone else. “After he’s dead, we’ll search until we find it. But we kill him now!”
I listened with half an ear. “Alisdair, please, wake up.” I patted his grizzled cheeks. “I finally figured it out, love. I know how to save you, but you have to wake up. Look at me, please!”
He stirred.
“Alisdair!”
A single, swollen eye peeled open. His red, bottomless orb swept my face... and he smiled. “Calli,” he rasped. “Thank you.”
“What? Why are you thanking me?”
“I wanted your face... to be the last thing I see.”
My chest squeezed. “It won’t be the last, and it won’t be today.”
“Calli, look out!”
A blur roared out of the corner of my eye. The brutal thud of bodies colliding forced me upright—standing between Alisdair and whoever dared to think they were going to take him from me.
Eadaoin tumbled head over heels with him. Landing hard on his back, Meallan got his feet between their bodies and propelled her off—throwing her clear into the heart of the mob.
“Stay back,” Meallan growled. He raised his one clawed hand, ever lethal even without its twin. “There is no discussion. There is no argument. I know exactly where Shadowsoul has hidden his heart. He needn’t be alive for one more second, so tonight, I finish this.”
“Yeah!” they sounded off. “Huzzah! Huzzah!”
The furry, scaled, clawed, winged, and beady-eyed Lyrican fae-beasts were a living mass—surging forward and back as one.
I sensed their eagerness to storm upon the dais and finish Alisdair off, but they halted before their leader, trusting him to finish this like they trusted him to get them this far.
Fishing out one of my vials, I threw it at Meallan. It shattered at his feet, splashing on his foot and pant leg.
He arched a brow. “What is wrong with you? Get out of the way, girl!”
“No.” Breathing hard, I took my stance. The dagger Alisdair gifted me clutched in one hand, and a vial in another. “You’re not touching him, Meallan. You can whip up as many mobs and spell-addle as many kitchen maids as you like, but you’ll never win. You’ll never be king.
“To the end of your days, you’ll always be the cowardly little pup who was too shit-down-his-legs scared to face Alisdair when he’s not on his back.”
His eyes flashed, lips peeling back in a snarl. “Who are you?”
“You know who the fuck I am, bitch.” I threw another vial, ripping out a furious growl when it broke on his chest. “I’m the queen of Wind and Wild.”
If I expected a gasp, or shout, or any reaction whatsoever... I didn’t get it.
“Enough of this,” he drawled. “Move aside.”
He flicked his wrist and I went flying, crashing into Aeris. I flailed—just managing to untangle myself and sit up as Meallan conjured a bronze blade ringed with purple flowers, and plunged it in Alisdair’s gut.
“No! Stop it!” Frantically I emptied my pockets, flinging vial after vial at him—bellowing my throat ragged. “Get away from him!”
One of the vials shattered over his eye, slicing his brow apart. He jerked, driving the sword deeper. “Fuck it to Meya, someone kill that bitch already!”
Half the cheering, celebrating mob came to life and surged toward me.
They tripped over themselves coming to an abrupt standstill.
Pure, unadulterated fear filled my heart, and theirs. Turning away from me, they faced the throne room entrance... and screamed.
“My lady!” Aeris seized and hauled me back, getting me out of the way as half the Lyricans trampled, stomped, and shoved each other running for the village entrance. Over their heads, five—seven—thirteen—twenty Taken stalked into the room.
“Wait— No!” Meallan cried. He sniffed himself and his eyes bugged. “NO!”
“That’s right,” I sang, smirking more wickedly than my husband ever could.
“Linseed, rosehip, and suet, wolf bitch. Just for you. You really shouldn’t have given me that tip.
” I laughed in his bulging, stricken eyes.
“Or you should’ve been as smart as your other wolf friends, and run when you saw me coming.
” I threw another vial at him, making Meallan roar to blow my eardrums out.
“At least I won’t have to tell you twice. ”
He ran.
Streaking past me, Meallan shot out of the village entrance, leading a snarling, charging horde of Taken like a dangled apple before a horse.
His howls faded in the distance.
“Should I go after him?” Aeris gritted. “Make sure they kill him.”
A groan sounded to my right.
“Someone else needs you more.”
“Bradach,” she cried, abandoning her queen, her duty, and her games—and racing to his side. But Aeris wasn’t nearly as fast as me.
I fell next to Alisdair, and grabbed my dagger.
“Alisdair? Alisdair, can you hear me? Don’t you give up on me!
” His eyes fluttered at my shout, but I could feel it.
He didn’t have much time. “Alisdair, come on, please. Don’t you want to know how I figured it out?
” I cried desperately, tears clogging my throat.
“It was something Gisela said when she saw my bracelet. She called it a charm, but it’s not.
It’s a jewel. A black stone. My sister had no reason to reduce a glittering, expensive jewel to a little trinket.
.. unless it looked like something different to her. ”
I brought my hilt down, smashing it on the jewel. Alisdair grunted.
“That’s right, love,” I said, seizing on any semblance of conversation. I had to keep him talking.
I had to give him reason to hold on.
“I almost figured it out that night when Meallan tried to kill us in the woods. He said he had to stop you destroying the cursed heart, so that you could love me back.” Bang! Bang! Bang! “If he said that’s how you break the curse, then that’s exactly how you don’t fucking do it.
“He’s under the beast curse. He can’t speak about it, and he definitely can’t speak about how to end it, so where did he get that from? Where did we all get that from? For centuries, this lie has spread through the kingdoms—fed by guesses that became rumor that became truth.”
“Cal...li...”
“I’m here, Alisdair. I’m here, and I finally understand.” I sensed them approach. Felt the weight of dozens of curious eyes, but no one rushed us or attacked.
They were listening.
“That day, when you faced Constance on a burning battlefield, you didn’t create the beast curse,” I gritted, lips twisting. “She did.