Chapter 50 Flames & Forgiveness
Chapter fifty
Flames any end, at anyone’s hand, even my own.
But I knew I could not give up now. Not when I had come this far, and not when I was this close.
I held my shield of magyk and pushed back, forcing the foul disease to retreat.
Oberon and Titania’s power acted as a steadying bulwark at my back, and together, we fought.
Titania’s fire meshed with my own, burning through the Arden’s veins and cauterizing the Rot wherever we found it, while Oberon’s shadows became a balm, clearing any shred of darkness we left behind.
The more of it we burned away, the harder it fought, overwhelming me with memories and feelings I knew would haunt me the rest of my days.
I did not let go, did not allow myself to stop until my magyk started to falter, to weaken, and I collapsed sideways onto the forest floor.
But two pairs of hands were there to pull me back up, comforting me and brushing hair from my face.
“Marina! Can you hear me?” The man’s voice was calm, with an undercurrent of worry, and I opened my eyes to see Oberon.
“You did everything you could,” I told him, unsure where the words came from.
His face fell and he pulled me into a crushing embrace.
Weak and exhausted, but strangely satisfied, I shifted my eyes to Titania, kneeling beside us, one hand on my back and one covering her own mouth.
Tear tracks decorated her cheeks, and I saw dirt on her fingertips, matching my own.
“You were screaming,” she whispered. “What did you see?”
I squeezed my eyes closed and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter right now. The Rot?”
“We cannot say how much, but it has retreated,” Oberon murmured as he released me.
“Hippolyta and Simeon have gone up to scout the forest.” Just as he pointed to the sky, a shadow passed over us.
It was not Hippolyta, nor Simeon in his owl form, that landed in the center of the grove, however.
It was Devil, his face strained with panic.
“Mayhem,” he breathed, rushing forward and dropping to his knees in front of me. Oberon and Titania stood back, allowing us to hold each other for nearly a full minute. His comforting scent and warmth brought me an immeasurable, almost medicinal, relief that I never wanted to let go of.
His body shook as he murmured into my hair. “Gods above, I thought I’d lost you. I could feel it…here.” He tapped his chest.
“I’m alright,” I assured him. “Or I will be. How is the Hollow?”
He grinned. “The Rot is banished. Gone. I knew you would do it.”
“Not entirely,” said Hippolyta, landing behind us and tucking her own wings.
“It is still there, at the very edge of the forest, but it has changed. Gray and frozen, instead of a living darkness. We can see no signs of spread, but Simeon has gone to place sentries along its border.” I shifted forward to sit on my knees and looked at Oberon, whose mouth was set in a hard line.
“Marina needs time to recover before we try again,” he said, but I shook my head.
“No,” I said slowly. “My healing gift…it always leaves behind scars. If the Rot was made up of anger and sorrow and grief, those things will never completely fade. Maybe it will no longer threaten the Arden from within, but the scar will always be there as a reminder of what we’ve lost.”
Oberon put his arms around Titania again and placed a tender kiss on the side of her head.
“A reminder of what we lost,” he repeated, then they both looked down at Devil and I, sitting beside each other in the grass.
“Before the Arden is thrown into inevitable celebration, Marina, I think…you owe us an explanation.”
Devil stood and moved in front of me. “She owes you nothing. Without her, the Arden would be lost, and so would you.”
“A point I will not refute,” Oberon said patiently, “but her new power is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and I only wish to help.
To do that, I must know where it came from.
” Shakily, I took Devil’s hand and pulled myself up so we could face Oberon and Titania.
I had no idea how they would react to our blood bond, but was fully prepared to tell them to go fuck themselves.
“I think we can both see now where it came from,” Titania said before I could speak, “and this is absolutely beyond the pale, Puck.”
I bristled and took a step forward, maintaining my grip on Devil. “He has done nothing wrong! While the two of you squabbled and allowed the Rot to close in, he has kept me safe, and shown me what I am capable of, and—”
“And tricked you into a blood bond?” Oberon interjected, raising an eyebrow.
I faltered and glanced up at Devil, whose jaw was set, a muscle twitching at the corner.
“Gods, I should have gotten rid of you when I had the chance, imp,” Titania scoffed. “Deranged, unfit for life, and somehow a liar to boot. Outrageous!”
“Enough!” I cried, anger welling back up inside me.
“He did not trick me! I agreed to the blood bond, and look what it has done. His Lightweaving helped free you from the Rot, and this is how you treat him? The bond was a small price to pay for that, and one I am not unhappy about.” My heart hammered inexplicably, and I thought I might be sick.
I wanted to run, to fly, to pull myself away.
The Unseelie monster of guilt from my dream flashed before my eyes again, but I shook it off.
Oberon’s dark eyes fixed on Devil, and shadows began to swirl furiously at his feet as he took a step closer to us.
Something in his expression, and how still Devil was, sent a chill down my spine.
But it was the faerie king’s words, spoken in a deadly-soft tone, that stopped the breath in my chest.
“You lied to her…didn’t you?”