CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
A WARM, SOFT HEAT ENVELOPES me and I moan in contentment. I’m so comfortable that I feel like I could stay here forever.
“Wake, Lost One,” a warm, ancient voice murmurs. “We have much to talk about and not much time.”
“Five more minutes, Aemon,” I mutter, batting my hand in a direction.
Nero sighs. “Rav. Wake up before you embarrass yourself even more.”
A reluctant sigh leaves me as I crack one eye open, and I realize I’m in a snowdrop field. I sit up and search for the person talking to me but no one is here. My brows furrow—then I nearly come face to face with someone I thought I would never see again.
Her green eyes are bright and full of mischief. “Mel!” I cry, shifting to my knees and wrapping her in the tightest embrace. “Wait, if I’m here, does this mean I’m dead? My mates! Oh no, no no no no.”
“Breathe,” she laughs. “You’re not dead.
Barely clinging to life, and your males are losing their minds, but you’re fine.
But we do need to talk. They thought you might be more receptive if it was me greeting you first instead of them.
Their presence can be a bit overwhelming,” she rambles, looking nervous.
“I’m not dead? Is that why I could still hear Nero?” I glance around the familiar field again and it almost feels like my dreamscape with Aemon.
“Nero is fine, although anxious. You probably heard him on the outside. But Rav, the Fates have been watching you for a long time, and you need to make a choice. So you need to have an open mind. Okay?”
I pull back from hugging her and opt for holding her hands. “Mel… What’s going on?”
She smiles sadly and glances behind her, and a new figure walks toward us. The lighting is so bright I can barely see who it is until she’s right in front of us, looking exactly how I remember.
Her blonde hair shimmers with an ethereal, healthy glow, and her wide pink eyes glint with unshed tears as she helps pull me to my feet.
“Mother?” I whisper, knowing in my heart of hearts that she isn’t in the living world anymore but with Mel in the aether, or wherever we are. I don’t even know what’s happening and I have so many questions, but it’s as if my tongue is in knots.
“Maeven. My beautiful, magnificent daughter,” she whispers.
“Thankyou for bringing me home. It was never supposed to come to this. I’m so sorry for making you bear the burden of my errors.
The Fates gifted me this chance to say goodbye to you.
” She swipes a loose piece of hair behind my pointed ear.
“Your fathers would be so proud of the female you grew up to be. You’re everything we thought you would be and so much more.
” Tears stream freely down her face but her voice remains steady.
“I know you will make the right choice, and there’s so much more I wish I could tell you.
I wish I could stay, but our time is running out. ”
Mel laughs. “They can be a little impatient when it suits them.” Lightning strikes across the field and I jump, looking back at Mel.
She blows me a kiss. “Tell my brother to let go of his anger and that I love him, and maybe, if he’s good, I’ll see him again soon.
” Her musical laugh fills the field and fades as their bodies do.
“Ravina Maeven Pendroko.” The same warm, ancient voice from earlier calls, and I spin around. Three glowing figures stand before me, their presence feminine and soothing, and instinctively I know that these are the Fates.
I drop to my knees, bowing before them.
“You do not need to do that, Lost One. You are our daughter, and we have been watching you from the moment you were born. We knew that you would be the one,” they say, and I realize that the one voice is actually all three of them speaking in unison.
“The one? I’m sorry, but I have no idea what’s going on…”
“You must make a choice. One that we cannot make for you. You must sacrifice to save your kingdom. Once you do, a new era of fae will rise. Here is what you must do.” One of the Fate’s glowing hands stretches out and presses against my forehead, and I gasp.
The knowledge pouring into me feels like every time I’ve lost control of my body—discovering that shadowflame destroys wraiths, learning how to restore someone’s mind...
That they have been guiding me until this very moment—the moment where I need to decide how my Kingdom will look from here on out.
When they pull their hand away I gasp, falling to my hands and knees. And I know what I must do.
I WAKE WITH a start, sitting bolt upright in my bed. My armor has been removed and my skin has been washed clean.
“Ravina,” Killian gasps, rushing to his feet and quickly moving toward me. “Are you okay? How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay,” I croak and then cough. He passes me water which I sip on, enjoying the cooling sensation against my parched throat.
Encouraged by my strong movements, Killian stops holding back.
“You scared the shit out of us. You’ve been out for a day after that shit you pulled on the battlefield.
You almost died! Aemon had to shadow you to the damn witch to heal you because your wounds were so bad!
” He grips my face and his lips crush against mine.
“I suppose my parent’s armour I had refitted for us saved me,” I whisper more to myself before pushing on. “Where is everyone? Did we win?”
He sighs, picking me up gently and cradling me against his chest as he positions himself on the bed.
“Aemon and Talyn are handling the post-war chaos. Jesper is dealing with the brainwashed, and Ember and Roz are sending out correspondence to announce to the realm the outcome of the war.” He pauses. “We won, Little Warrior.”
Nero ruffles his feathers as he wakes on his perch. “Rav, I see you decided to rejoin the land of the living.” He sounds exhausted.
I open up my arms and he flies to me, and I cradle him against me as I take in all the information Killian gave me. “I need to speak to Aemon.”
He searches my face and nods. “I’ll take you, because Fates know that if I tell you to stay here and rest you’ll just shadow there the moment I turn my back,” he grumbles.
“Let’s get you dressed. I don’t need others seeing my mate in a sleeping gown.
” His eyes darken as his calloused hand runs along my scarred legs.
“You know me so well,” I laugh.
It doesn’t take long before I’m presentable and standing in Aemon’s office.
It used to belong to my fathers but it feels refreshed after he has taken it over.
His eyes widen as he sees me. “Little Dream,” he whispers, blinking to me because it’s quicker than walking the ten feet.
He wraps me in a hug and looks over at Killian. “Did you tell her?” he whispers.
“No. She demanded to come see you before I could get to that.”
Their grief and worry clouds the bond and I know what they’re going to say. “I know my mother passed. It’s okay, I saw her… and Mel actually. But that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Aemon pulls back and frowns. “How did you— You saw them? We should get the others here.”
Thankfully we don’t have to wait long because Aemon blinks out of the office and then back in with Talyn and Jesper who both shower me with kisses.
Once they are done checking me over and making sure I’m not going to keel over, I quickly summarize the events that took place while I was out, as weird as they sound but I know it wasn’t just a dream, and the Fates are right.
I do have a choice to make, and I know exactly what it is I’m going to do because it’s the right choice.
The more detail about the choice I give my mates, the wider their eyes get.
Which I don’t blame them for because it’s absolutely insane.
“No, absolutely not.” Killian snaps.
Jesper shakes his head. “I’m with big, tall and burly over there. No.”
Talyn sighs, running his hand through his hair. “There has to be another way.”
My gaze turns toward Aemon and he pulls out the three chunks of Soul Stone from the safe.
I immediately feel their effect. I gulp, trying to swallow the nervous lump out of my throat.
“The Fates clearly want her to do this. We need to trust them,” he whispers.
“We need to trust our mate to know what she can handle.”
“The Fates are the reason this all happened in the first place!” Killian yells.
“They have the power to stop this and they let us suffer, watching as our friends and family die. Who’s to say they won’t let my mate suffer the same consequences?
” His fist makes contact with the brick and dust plumes around it.
His chest heaves with anger and fear. I move toward him and wrap my arms around his form. “I think this is how it has to be. I’ll be okay.”
Tears pool down his face. “You don’t know that.”
“I know that nothing can tear us apart. We’re bonded in this life and every life. And if this is what I need to do to save my realm from the last effects of that fucking Stone, then it’s what I’m going to do.”
“We can get another Galallaus fae to do it,” Talyn suggests.
I shake my head. “I won’t let them bear this burden. I’ll be okay. I may not be the same, but we will figure that out together. I promise.”
My mates are silent, and tension is nearly boiling over through the bond as I make my way to the Stone. Nero, who has been silent on my shoulder, nuzzles my cheek and nips my ear. “I’ll be right here the whole time, Rav.”
I grab the largest piece of the stone—the one I threw at Vasari after snatching it from Craven—staring at it as I sit at the desk, my legs far too exhausted to hold me for much longer.
Then I grab the piece Aemon retrieved from the witch.
As I place the pieces against each other they vibrate slightly before melding together.
Finally I grab the piece that has been with me since the day my life changed and do the same.
The stone hums, the sound haunting and beautiful, finally complete after years split and hidden across the realm.
“Ravina,” Jesper whispers, his eyes wide with fear. “This could kill you…”
I smile up at him weakly. “I need to do this for our citizens. Heavy lies the crown and all that.” I sniffle, my throat clogging with emotion.
“I can’t bear to watch,” Killian groans. “But I can’t leave you to do this alone.”
Talyn kneels beside me. “I’m right here, princess. Save our Kingdom, because no matter what happens, I will follow you anywhere. Even into the void if I have to.”
Aemon clears his throat, his voice steady although deeper, laced with emotion. “We may not have the magick to do this. But we do this together. You know I’m with you until the very end.”
I wipe the tears from my face and clear my throat, giving each of my males one last look before I chicken out and close my eyes. I feel the pulse of the stone in my hand before opening the channel of magick that it’s begging for.
To save Talyn and Aemon’s father I gave it a small fraction of my magick in exchange for its use, but with the damage Craven has caused, brainwashing so many fae and creatures to do his bidding, it will take so much more.
Everything. But I have no other choice. If the Fates haven’t tricked me then all might be okay with the realm after.
The center of my pool of magick opens up and I pour it into the stone, casting my intent as strongly as I can.
Pulses of ancient magick explode from the stone in turn, so intense that my head falls back and my mouth opens into a silent scream, but I keep going.
I have to keep going. My bonds shatter, one by one, but I can hardly feel my grief as the room begins to fade around me.
And with the last drop of my magick given to the stone, my chest explodes with insurmountable pain and then I fade into the abyss.