Chapter 26
MAX
“So, you can read it?” Reid asks, looking over the pages. To him, they’re blank, just some pieces of hand-snow parchment. To Baris and I, we see the cramped handwriting, the measurements and little notes written in the margins.
“Yes.” My father turns the page, scanning something.
Reid glances over his shoulder. “And it doesn’t burn you.”
Baris sighs exasperated. “We established Aoife is my sister. She protected her book with blood magic. We share blood—therefore I can read it. As can Maximillia.”
“And Mal can’t,” Reid points out.
“I’m not of her blood, Reid.”
“I can read it,” Layla says, coming close. Her lips twist and she sighs. “And it is very messy.”
“Wait, you can too?” Reid runs a hand through his dark locks, perplexed.
“How can you read it?” I ask.
Layla looks to my father and he turns his head, listening to the god in his ear. “She’s a half-goddess,” he explains plainly. “It comes with with territory.”
Once he met Layla, Baris seemed to understand who she was with very little awe. Being the mouthpiece for a God in Neevea and a Fairy, I guess he’s used to weird things happening.
“Of course.” I roll my eyes. “How silly of me to not catch that.” It’s bitter, but I have a good reason. I just killed someone without thought and I still have to get my mate away from Aoife. Oh, and a world to save. Completely reasonable.
Mal has yet to speak about what happened. Only a few words to everyone when we departed and that was it.
I can feel his pain. Does he hate me? Wish for his brother? I never meant to kill him—it was as if the heart was ready to go the minute it was touched. I’ve never experienced it before.
“Half-gods have abilities none of us do.” Baris glances to Reid, who backs away to the hearth. Since we’ve been gone, my father has crafted a few more chairs for us to sit. A bubbling stew of rabbit hangs in the fireplace. “As do Fairies.”
Layla hums. “Royal Fairies more so.”
“Indeed.”
“Fantastic.” Fee throws a small ember between her hands as if playing a game. “Can you see what she did to Kaden?”
“It’s hard to understand.” Baris shows the pages to Layla and she nods. “She seems to have mixed a few spells. A love spell alone would not put Kaden under her control, nor would it break the bond between Max and him. That goes beyond mortals—that is a gift from the Gods.”
“Bless Dey,” Layla murmurs.
Fucking Dey.
“But I do not know what she mixed this with.” He taps the book. “Effy did this once before. To Kyrin.”
“What did she do?” I plant my fists on my hips. “Maybe we can trace it.”
Baris nods. “It’s worth a shot.” Giving me the book, he takes a stick and draws into the ashes. “A Noire Rose can be used in dark spells. But can also be used in love spells.”
A rose blooms from the ash and he then draws lines. “Love spells are banned. You are stealing someone’s free will. The Noire Rose in these spells is potent, but it cannot break a mating bond. Especially between two Heartbonds.”
A jolt runs through me. There it is again. Are we truly Heartbonds?
“Kyrin and Beatrice were said to be of both. I believe that’s how he was able to hold back his curse for so long. It’s how Kaden was able to come back with you.”
“And of Oslo?” Fee asks, arms crossed. “He never mated. But he fought it back.”
“Oslo was a man of great strength.” Baris stands, the drawing bare to all of us.
“I knew him well. I told the royals of a son who would break the world for love.” His kind eyes look at me and I shift, uncomfortable.
“Oslo never lost control, not because of the mating bond, but because he loved all of you. He kept a tight hold on the curse, so he may protect you from Zelos.”
Fee looks away, wiping her cheek angrily.
Layla comes to my shoulder, and points to a small corner. It’s hard to read, almost jotted down in a hurry. “Turn the page.”
On the back side, there seems to be more notes, but Layla sees something we don’t. “She’s hidden something.”
“She has?” I tilt the book, catching the fire to see better. A shimmer reflects the light and I gasp. “It’s spelled. Can you read it?”
Nodding, Layla has me lay the book out so she can scan the pages.
“She’s remarkable,” Reid mumbles. Fee and I both share a surprised look. I think that’s the first time Reid has ever said that about a woman.
Later.
“It’s an attachment spell,” she declares. “That combined with the love spell will possess the recipient. Like a bond.” She looks up, biting her lip. “But it can be fatal.”
“Fatal?” I rush forward, but still can’t see the writing. “Fatal, how?”
Layla wrings her hands together. “If it goes too long, he will wither away.”
Fenrir knew he was dying. That’s why he asked for mercy. She must have tried it on him first, to see if it would work on Kaden.
Mal catches my eye. He understands too. It doesn’t alleviate the guilt.
“She couldn’t bond with him, so she forced a magical one on him.” Fee shakes her head, sneering. “Can we kill her now?”
Layla shrugs. “I’m not sure. If we kill her without breaking the bond first, we may kill the king.”
“And Max too,” Baris reminds us. “That’s not an option.”
“Then how do we break the bond?”
The half-goddess goes back to the book, reading further. Zeke rushes through the entrance, grasping a small white paper in his gloved hand. Thankfully most were out patrolling when we were taken and Baris was able to round them up before they returned to the palace.
Zeke bows to me, then the siblings, handing me the note. “Correspondence from the Lords of the Shadowlands, Your Majesty.”
There isn’t much written and my stomach drops. “Godsdammit.”
“What?” Fee asks, moving to read over my shoulder. She curses softly.
“Griffin’s scouts have been found on the edge of our kingdom,” I tell the group. “Which means he’s set his eyes on the Black Palace.”
Kaden was right. Griffin used the In-Between as a way to gauge a resistance. He had a clue we were in the area and once we confirmed it, he turned his sights back to the Shadowlands.
“I’ve found it!” Layla smiles wide and it’s as if the moon has reached its peak. Then it falls and her light dims. “Oh no.”
“What?”
She glances to my father, then to me, concerned. “It says: ‘Only the most pure will know how to break the bond.’ I’m not sure what that means.”
My breaths come in short pants, unable to find relief. The back of my neck grows damp and my hands sweat.
The most pure. Purification. The purification ritual.
Only I know what needs to happen.
“Max?” Fee searches my face, worry clouding her gaze. “Max, what’s wrong?”
Swallowing, I can’t stop hyperventilating. I can’t breathe.
Baris blocks my vision, shadow casting me into darkness. “You saw something.” He lifts my chin, inhaling with me. I follow him, breathing when he does. “What did you see?”
I shake my head. I can’t say. Not here. Not in front of Fee and Reid.
How can I tell them I had to kill their brother, my husband, in order to conquer my fears and release them for the ritual to work? The idea of hurting Kaden makes me want to cry, rage and fall to the ground in pieces. I’d rather cut my own hand off than harm him.
Mal seems to understand the tension, wrapping an arm around Fee’s shoulders, and grabs the back of Reid’s collar, pulling them both outside. Zeke closes the warped door, not that it will stop anyone from hearing, but at least I won’t have to look at them.
“Maximillia,” Baris says softly. “Tell me.”
“She saw his death,” Layla murmurs. She looks to the tiny window, up into the night sky. Dawn is on the horizon and she exhales loudly. “Only death will end the bond.”
“It can’t be, can it?” I plead with my father. “Killing him would end both of us. If I’m to truly save the world, end the curse and the war, it can’t be that.”
He rubs his chin, age showing through his tired movements. “It is possible it might be a metaphor.” Baris sighs. “But that is unlikely. If the purification ritual showed how you would win, then it’s more likely that is the best choice.”
“I crushed his heart!” I shout, rage and grief rising with the bile in my throat.
“I killed my mate in order to finish the ritual. And he wasn’t even my mate—he was some deranged copy of him.
It wasn’t truly him—at least that’s what I thought when I ended him.
I comforted myself with the knowledge it was only in my head,” I cry out.
“Are you saying that this is what I must do?”
I can’t kill him. I cannot do this.
“If it’s to save the world?” Baris pulls me into a hug and a sob releases between my clenched lips. “It may be the only choice.”
“But then he’ll die.”
Layla comes over, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. “You must trust in the Gods. They will show you what to do.”
The Gods can burn for all I care. They can’t expect me to kill my mate. Not for the world. I won’t.
Instead, I’ll save him. I won’t kill him, I won’t crush his heart. I’ll save him like I did last time.
Pushing away, I throw open the door. Fee and Reid stand against the pond, the guards surrounding us. Every set of eyes falls to me.
They heard. They know what I have to do. They also heard my refusal.
“Maximillia, where are you going?”
“Back to the Veridian Palace. I’m going to figure out a way to save him and kill Aoife.”
Glancing back, my father stands, wings out. A collective gasp goes through our Dark Fae. Seeing my father in his true form is akin to seeing a God.
“You’re tired. You need to rest.”
“I need my mate,” I fire back. “I need him beside me. Not with that woman.”
“And what happens if your magic becomes uncontrollable?” he challenges. “You killed the heir without a thought. Because he moved when you least expected it.”
My eyes widen. “How do you know that?”
He taps his ear. I’ve never been more irritated with a tattling God as I am right now.
“Rest, little one.” He comes closer, hands outward. “There is no telling what will happen if you continue as you are.”
“Would you stop if it was my mother?” At his silence, I nod. “Exactly.”
Climbing on to an Coal stallion, I kick the horse into a hard gallop. I don’t wait for the soldiers, nor the rest of my party. Something tells me they would only stop me.
And right now, I don’t want to be stopped. I want my mate back. I want the bond in my chest to burn so brightly it sears me from the inside. I want to hear his laugh, feel his lips and rest my head against his chest.
I will not kill him to save the world. If I must choose, I choose Kaden. Always.