Chapter 25 #3
Brexley, Ember, Eli, and I stood on the dark field, our boots sinking in the red-soaked dirt.
The smell of magic, death, and fear scorched the air.
The sky crackled with colors, the torn barrier barely there, fully showing the queen’s castle behind.
Screams and sounds of metal clanking surrounded us.
The grass was littered with dead bodies.
Instantly I knew where we were. The memories I tried to shove away popped back with utter clarity and horror, burning up my throat.
It was the night the wall dropped.
The night I died.
The night the Legend was born.
My hands rolled into balls with the vividness of being back here, reliving the unbearable pain of being tortured and burned alive. I could almost feel my death happening somewhere on this field—the last breaths I took as a simple half-breed fae before they snapped my neck.
Before my Sotét démonom drew me from the gutters of hell and brought a legend to life.
“Crap on ashbark.” Ember’s voice tugged me from my thoughts, reminding me I was in the here and now.
“The book brought us back to the fae war,” Brexley told her.
“I know how a fae book works.” Ember stared out at the field, emotion flicking in her eyes.
“I just never imagined how real it would feel. Like I’m actually here again .
. .” Tears filled her eyes, her hand wrapping around Eli’s.
I had no doubt they had lost people they knew in this war. Everyone did.
Everyone here besides Kovacs had fully lived this. We had bled, killed, died, and sacrificed everything on this battlefield to save Earth. Lost friends, family, and comrades. We couldn’t save Earth from the barrier falling, which killed thousands of humans, but we did stop Aneira from taking over.
It had everything to do with the Dae next to me.
A scream came from our right, twisting all our heads to it. A woman with dark hair, her belly protruding, gripped onto another woman, who looked similar to her, lowering herself to the ground.
Eabha.
She was plump with life, and she looked so much more like Brexley than I thought.
The skin and bones necromancer I knew was a shadow of the vibrant, beautiful woman here.
Her face flinched in pain as she breathed, the baby coming.
I now recognized her sister, Morgan, standing before her defensively, fighting with a gray-haired man.
“Shit, that’s Tad,” I muttered in shock at seeing him healthy, his back straight and tall.
Sparks from the barrier rained down when Eabha cried out, her hands on her belly, her legs parting as the baby crowned.
A crack of light broke across my vision. In that blink, the book relocated us. Suddenly, the four of us were inside, the walls of a castle surrounding us, but I could see the war taking place below through a window.
A gasp came from Ember, her hand covering her mouth as we all stared at her earlier self next to the future queen of the Unified Nations, who stood over Aneira, and a dead body laying off to the side.
“Fuck,” Eli muttered, his gaze going to the lifeless form.
His. The dead body was Eli’s.
I blinked, turning to him. I could see him staring at himself. An eerie feeling came over me, understanding both of us had died that night.
Both of us should still be dead.
The man who was brought back to life and the man who should be dead.
Both of us with the women who, in some way or another, brought us back from the dead. The strange connection tying the four of us together seemed to wind around us.
A wet cough snapped me back to the figure on the floor. Aneira lay on the ground, stirring awake, blood leaking from her mouth. Grabbing for a sword, she started to rise, coming for the other Ember.
The future queen swiped up an ancient-looking sword, the blade bursting with a blue glow the moment she touched it. She swung it down on Aneira with a cry, cutting through her neck. Aneira’s head dropped to the wood, rolling under the throne.
Magic plunged through the room, slamming through me like a freight train.
I could hear both the young and current Ember scream as the book ripped us from that room, taking us back to Eabha.
The barrier collapsed just as Eabha gave birth, muttering out a curse.
The baby let out a wail as magic plunged into the infant, soaking into it and the substance still coating it.
Lightning struck the earth. Magic burned through my veins.
Simultaneously, Eli and I gasped for air, coming back to life, the women we loved over us.
“Sotét démonom.”
Once again, we were tumbling, spinning, before the book spit us out, dropping us painfully back into the present.
My ass hit the floor, Kovacs’s frame falling on me, her head slamming into my chest, puffing a groan from my lungs.
“Szent fasz.” She grabbed for her head with a curse. “Your chest is harder than a stone floor.”
“Not the only thing hard,” I muttered, feeling her tight body covering mine. I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to slow the spinning in my head.
“I see the potential for pairs diving. That was a solid 3 or 4.” Tiny feet padded over my shoulder, opening my lids with a different type of groan.
Opie wore a skirt of strung potato peels, the top of a carrot sprouting from his head, and dill threaded in a layered necklace.
Bitzy wore a butter wrapper for a tube top and carrot sprouts on her head.
All items that went into the stew we ate.
The leafy sprout on his head danced around as Opie peered down at Brexley and me, hands on his hips. Bitzy was on his back, already flipping us off.
Chirp!
“I agree. Form still needs improvement, but the synchronization was on point.”
Chirp!
“Well, that is harsh. I said I see potential.”
Chirp! Chirp!
Grunting, I brushed them off my shoulder, rolling Kovacs and me back up slowly.
“That was rude!”
Chirpchirpchirpchirp! Chhhiirrp! Chirp-chirp!
“Wow, is that even possible to do to oneself? His love plunger would reach, though. It’s certainly long enough.”
Kovacs let out a groan.
“You guys okay?” Ash leaned over us, helping Brexley to her feet.
“Yeah.” She nodded but held on to Ash as I rose, making sure she was stable.
Ash peered at me. “It took you this time?”
I dipped my chin, feeling a gaze burn in our direction from the other side of the table.
Ember’s two different colored eyes bored into Brexley; her mouth parted in utter bewilderment.
“That’s how you have them . . .” She struggled to finish her sentence, her head shaking, her focus hopping from the fae book that just kicked us out, to me, then landing on Kovacs.
“Your aunt wasn’t ready to go out so easily.
” Tad closed the book, patting the cover as if he was saying thank you, and looked up at Ember.
“Even in death, she wanted her power to survive. Her magic and the barrier’s magic, which is your family line, went into Brexley that night. It’s how you two have similar magic.”
“It’s not just similar. I think it is mine.” Ember glanced at Eli, sharing a look. “Aneira held my magic the night she died.”
Tad tipped his head, his brows furrowing. “What do you mean, she held your magic?”
“She was always jealous of my mom, her power of fire and lightning. Of me, when she learned I was even more powerful. Before the war, Aneira ripped my power from me, using it to destroy cities around the world to get the Unseelie king to bow to her. So, when Kennedy killed her, my powers came back to me, but . . .”
Brexley’s head jerked back into me. I pressed my frame into hers. The need to protect her, guard her against the world, was instinctual. Though the woman was stronger than anyone I had ever met.
“Is that possible?” Brexley whispered.
Ember’s mouth pinched.
“Magic isn’t a solid thing.” Tad exhaled, a reaction flickering over Esmeralda’s features. “It doesn’t transfer cleanly. It will leave residue, or some will decide to stay in the new host. When Aneira died, most of Ember’s magic was returned, but some clearly was not . . .”
Like how mine was with Caden now.
“Meaning—” Brexley dipped her chin, her muscles tensing against me. “What was left of your magic went with Aneira . . . into me. I actually took some of your powers that night.”
She swallowed.
“A Dae’s magic.”