"I want this to end. I want to take you home and ravish you," he said with a snarl. They had changed during their shorter time in captivity, addressing something they had been studiously avoiding for millennia. They had been closer lately, more of a team. They went everywhere together and teased each other more often. I loved seeing them happy and getting along like lovers. They were quick to physical affection, well, Bastien was. Carwyn was still her standoffish self, unsure of affection and contact but willing to indulge him. Carwyn laughed, ignoring his statement and turning on her heel.
I'm happy for them, I said to Azael, using my mind.
I am as well, he replied. But now all I can think of is wanting to ravish you, he laughed roughly.
Once a hound, always a hound, I mused.
He grabbed me, pulling me in for a kiss then releasing me just as quick. My body had started to heat, sparks flying as his lips met mine. I shook it off, frowning at him. He knew exactly what he did, making me want him as much as he wanted me. He just raised an eyebrow, smirking that insufferable smirk and forging on.
"We're here," Alaric announced, pulling up to a set of caves. The main entrance was beautiful. Lush greenery covered the outside, and vines hung over the entrance. Upon walking inside, we found it consisted of a dark stone. A musty smell filled the space; I assumed there was water in this network of caves somewhere. The room was empty, aside from a large door near the back.
Alaric bit his lip. “It's not charmed, but it is locked."
Elias took several steps forward, putting his hands against the door and pushing hard. It creaked and bent slightly but stayed upright. He groaned with effort, sweat starting to slide down his temples as he pushed with all his might. But nothing further happened. I was not sure if his powers were not at full capacity or if the door was extraordinarily strong.
"Stand back," I stepped forward while everyone filtered behind me except Azael, who stood proudly at my side. Lifting my hands, I grounded my feet into the earth, letting the damp air fill my lungs. Then I felt for that ball of power inside me. I could feel it once again. Filling my center, a living thing. I reached for it, and suddenly light exploded from my palms and into the door. Promptly sending it into pieces.
"Well, that's one way," Alaric said dryly.
The edges of the door were still smoking as Bastien stepped forward.
"Hold on," he murmured, promptly turning invisible. I was taken aback, never having seen him display his power before.
Footsteps echoed as we all stood still. Letting Bastien check the chamber first. It was probably unnecessary as the door breaking would have alerted any inhabitants, but it was kind all the same.
We heard a yell that it was safe and filtered through two by two.
A glass coffin sat in the center of the room. As I approached, I could see a woman lying inside. Sinaia, finally, in the flesh.
She looked just as I had seen her in the dreamscapes. Pale skin, lithe figure, long dark hair, she was truly stunning.
"This, I can do," Elias said. He used his strength to pull at where the coffin was attached to the slab of wood beneath her, ripping it off the hinges and setting it aside. Alaric stood at the corner of the room, watching him studiously.
The faint scent of lemons filled the air as we looked at her prone body.
Lavinia stepped forward, holding a syringe with a sludge-colored substance inside. "This should do it," she said, looking down at Sinaia. "Only half of the syringe is needed. Anymore, and it could kill her."
I nodded, looking around. "Callisa. You were a healer; could you inject her?"
Callisa nodded once, kissing Lyra and moving towards where Sinaia rested. She stroked Sinaia's cool brow with a hand before taking the syringe from Lavinia and lining it up with her arm. One deep inhalation, two, lifted her arm slightly and drove the needle in on the third.
We all watched in weighted silence as the contents of the syringe were injected into her veins. Moments passed after a solemn-faced Callisa withdrew the needle from Sinaia when the pale body in front of us drew in a sharp breath. Her eyes opened slowly, a violet even more stunning in person. She wore a matching dress, with a soft-looking velvet fabric and lace appliques around the bodice.
"I'm so happy to see you," she breathed. She stood unsteadily, leaning on Elias for support and heading to Alaric. "Oh, my poor boy," she kissed his forehead.
Then she began to embrace each of us, firm, welcoming hugs.
"Oh, how touching. A reunion," a voice scoffed from the door.
There she stood. In all her glory, the sun goddess, wearing redolent gold robes with a red shadow painted on her lids, bright against her dark skin.
I gaped, looking from Sinaia to back to Theia.
She answered our unasked question. "I was going to move you, my dear sister, to hide you from their clutches. But I happened to find all of you as well? What a treat!" She clapped her hands, giddy with anticipation, her dangling golden earrings swinging with the motion.
I looked frantically from my friends to the threat in front of us. "No matter what happens... I have found my family in you, and I am so incredibly grateful to have known you." I felt empowered by their nods, their smiles, their reciprocations. I felt like all I had been lately was tears and sadness, indecision and fear. But no more.
I was ready to fight.
We filtered out of the smaller room, keeping Sinaia behind us as she remained weaker.
Kaelen and Bram immediately took on two soldiers each, while Asrian and Emrys took the next two. Iridin looked livid, and headed straight for Nerys, who kicked out at him, trying to keep him at a distance. Sinaia stood nearby in confusion and despair, wringing her hands.
I shot a bolt at Iridin who dodged it while a soldier approached me for close combat. I withdrew my dagger, spinning away from his lunge and leaning back when his sword almost pierced me. I used my dagger to slice into his thigh, dodging left and striking out at the hand that held his sword, smirking as it fell to the ground. I quickly stabbed his stomach, letting him fall to the earth and saturate the stone with his blood. I looked to see Alaric and Elias working together to take on three guards while Carwyn and Bastien did the same with four. Corsin tried to guard Eleste while she struck out at a man grabbing her hair, but she sliced open the throat of the man in front of her and the man in front of him in swift movements. I engaged two more guards with my dagger, slicing left and right, blocking hits, and using my legs to aim kicks at anything I could reach. I finally struck them down when I was able to stab one in the shoulder and the other in a thigh artery. I quickly ended their suffering.
Near me, Iridin had disappeared, Nerys was up against a wall breathing heavily, while Callisa struck down a guard nearby. Lyra was taunting her former friends, and Azael stood behind me, blocking soldiers from getting to me as I took aim for another bolt. He was sadistic in his movements, laughing as he slaughtered one guard after another. I could see the madness in him then, the insanity that hid behind his pale eyes. He unleashed himself, moving like a wraith and slitting throats left and right, one body after another. He was beautiful, he was devastating, he was ethereal. I had never quite seen his madness, never really understood. Covered in blood and laughing maniacally, I realized that the man I loved had a seed of a monster inside him, and I did not care one bit. Let him take his revenge. He looked at me, faltering for a moment as he took in my expression, as he looked down at himself drenched in blood. I quickly moved forward, grabbing his face in mine and kissing him hard, hoping it told him all he needed to know. I did not care about the blood smeared between us. The guard managed to get a blow in on my left side. Azael looked down at me, smiling affectionately with a gleam in his eyes as he stabbed his knife through the stomach of the man creeping up at him, then whirling around to take out the guard currently trading strikes with me.
My hero, I sent him dryly. He laughed loudly, continuing his work of painting the cave red.
I shot a bolt at one guard, taking him down as he
aimed a crossbow at Callisa and tried again for Sinaia, but missed when she artfully dodged it. I couldn't use too many; I needed to get closer before I burned out and would be unable to hit her at all. I taunted her.
"We are going to take you down, and once we do, we will destroy the weapon you created then kill you."
Theia began cackling. "Weapon I created? My dear, I am the weapon." She withdrew an ornamental sword and began slicing.
"I absorbed every dryad, every individual with essence, every immortal I took. Their powers belong to me. I am the ultimate weapon." She hissed, driving her sword near my abdomen. I slammed it away with the edge of my dagger, using a move Elias taught me to fake right, and lunged low and left, swiping her hip.
She looked at the tear in her dress and turned angry eyes onto me.
"Enough playing," she smiled coldly. "Time to bring out what I've been saving, yes?"
I realized then, dead or alive, she could use that power to destroy us. If we killed her, she would implode. If she lived, she murdered even more innocents. I glanced at the syringe in Lavinia’s pocket, but it was gone. Sinaia approached from the side, striding up to Theia like she didn't have a care in the world.
"Sister," Sinaia said softly.
"Sister," Theia mocked acidicly. Her dead guards lay around us, their blood in arcs across the floor and our faces, like a macabre painting. We stood still, and quiet, hopeful and yet devastated.
"Please, don't do this. You can keep the territory; we can go our separate ways."
"Always so soft, my sister," Theia said to us as she circled Sinaia. "Always so weak." She spat.
"Please, Theia. I care for them. Let them live. We will spare you; we can live again. Remember when we were children, we would pick daisies in the sun and lilies in the moonlight? We’d braid each other's hair; you always did love the crown braid the best."
Theia's face crumpled. "I have come too far, sinned too much."
Sinaia, encouraged, laid a reassuring hand on her sister's shoulder.
"You haven't, I promise. I will keep you safe. We can spend the days together, making up for all the time we missed." She continued eagerly.
A tear streaked down Theia's face. "I was so jealous of you, for the immortals, the love, the adoration."
"You didn't have to be, darling Theia. What's mine is yours." Everyone was still, watching them interact.
“You promise?” Theia looked so hopeful, so heartbroken. I saw her as she really was then, a scared child looking for attention, for love. Desperate for either.
Sinaia took a cautious step forward, holding her arm out to Theia, who cautiously accepted it. Sinaia pulled her into a firm hug, holding her tightly; they embraced for several moments, sighing in each other's presence. Until I saw the tears streaking down Sinaia’s face, the tension in her eyes, the sag in her posture.
"Sinaia?" I asked hesitantly.
"I never stopped loving you," she whispered to Theia.
Theia smirked, pulling her dagger from Sinaia's body with a hideous squelching sound and wiping the blood on Sinaia's dress.
"Pitiful," she stated. "Weak, like I said."
My jaw dropped, and fury filled my body. I hit Theia with one moon bolt, two, then three. The power jolted through my body, every nerve ending exploding as the power fled from my body in huge amounts of force. I jerked backward as each bolt finished, fueled by my anger and hatred. Theia fell back, and Sinaia dropped to her feet near her prone body.
I ran to her side, "come on, we need to give her the serum."
"Leave, Aeryn."
"No," I said incredulously. "I'm not leaving."
The others, having checked Theia's mortal warriors for death, gathered around Sinaia and me. Tears were now streaking down Sinaia’s face, her normal pale color mottled with emotion.
"Please, leave. Please save yourselves." She held the syringe up and plunged it into the sun goddess’s body.
"Daughter of mine," she said as she stroked my face, the tears falling and hitting the sun goddess beneath her. "My soul called out for companions, and yours answered. I was honored to be served, adored, loved by you." She said to everyone. Eleste was crying, as was Callisa. Everyone else had tears filling their eyes. I felt numb. The woman I thought of as my mother, who I just got to see finally, who I had been dreaming of a life with, was giving up. Having her at our home, walking in a real garden, giggling over the art in the palace, and learning about the world.
I felt robbed.
“Know that I will love you always, know that you gave my life meaning, and know this is not the end, dear ones,” she said with tears running down her face, with a hitch in her voice. She turned her attention back onto Theia’s body and the needle sticking out of her arm, her hair curtaining her grief from us.
"Let's go, Aeryn," Azael said sadly. He had not seen her for millennia, but I had seen her so recently, felt so raw because of it.
"Wait," I tugged at him as Sinaia put her thumb near the plunger.
"Go! She's waking. Elias, cover the entryway to the cave,” Azael commanded.
Elias nodded, wiping his face once and jogging away. I followed behind him, tears blurring my vision, resisting the urge to wail with grief. My heart felt broken, cracked in two. I had dreamed so long of seeing her, of thanking her, of embracing her. I mourned her life, I mourned the life she should have lived, and most of all, I mourned what she would no longer get to do. I moved solely because of Azael's hand in mine. We reached the outside of the cave, everyone watching Elias move the boulders as quickly as possible. My eyes were aching, as was my heart, and I could feel the turmoil deep inside, swirling with my power. Once the last boulder was in place, I murmured, "thank you for your sacrifice." Just for the grass and the sky to hear, then we all began sprinting at once towards the trees. Seconds later, a huge blast shook the area, sending chunks of rock and splinters of trees flying. The shockwave rushed past us, creating a disturbance in the air. A large piece of rock hurtled towards Eleste. I quickly lifted my hands and shot a bolt at it, shattering it into thousands of pieces that rained down on her instead. Corsin nodded gratefully as Azael pulled me into his arms, sheltering me with his body. I wanted to fight, wanted to stand on my own two feet and face the aftermath, but I was so exhausted, and so very fatigued.
"It'll be alright, my love." He whispered, burying his face into my hair as I sobbed.
Epilogue
We took several weeks to mourn Sinaia, as much time as we could spare, then we got to work. We announced the deaths of the sun and moon goddesses, keeping the details under lock and key, and worked on getting the moon territory back from the current queen, Maritsa. She was all too happy to redraw the territory lines, wanting to quell the recent unrest, and people began migrating back to the moon kingdom almost immediately.
This generation had not lived in the moon kingdom before, but remembered the stories told by their grandparents, their great-grandparents. We worked to match citizens with the properties owned by their deceased relatives and welcomed all who were looking for a fresh start.
Iridin had abandoned Theia during the fight, but we found him coughing up dirt a mile away from the cave with a leg injury. He was then captured and imprisoned in the dungeon under the palace. We also locked away the rest of the deirach elixir, not wanting it to fall into the wrong hands. Azael and Elias destroyed adamanteis and felt better for it. Any remaining prisoners that were imprisoned there by Theia or any of her allies were transferred to legitimate prisons within the moon and sun kingdoms.
Cleaning efforts for the abandoned city were organized. Elias helped a great deal, moving heavy debris out of the way for crews, Callisa helped heal injuries once her powers finally resurfaced, and the rest of us did manual labor. We worked from sunup to sundown, moving detritus, fixing the cobblestone streets and pathways, repairing homes. Stores opened immediately, offering complimentary water and food for workers, traditional moon kingdom meals that had been frowned upon before.
The p
eople selected a new ruler based on the same voting system used by the sun kingdom. A man by the name of Tiordan was elected as the king. He seemed just and fair, but only time would tell. Maritsa had inquired if we would be taking over the moon kingdom’s ruling, but we declined, though we were given free rein to see the prisoners and visit the palace as needed. Ready to finally live our lives free and without scrutiny, it was time for change.
When the cleanup efforts were completed half a year later, everyone went their separate ways for a time. Eleste visited the tree of life with Corsin, Bastien and Carwyn found a home in the city center and began training citizens in the art of fighting and defense. Bram and Kaelen went back to live at the estate, Asrian and Emrys went back to their homes, as did Lavinia. Elias was traveling, seeing the world, while Alaric stuck close to Azael and me, staying in a home near ours, which we had found on the same street as Callisa and Lyra. We had asked him to stay with us, but he declined. Azael and I were tasked with neutralizing threats to the kingdom and began doling out mercenary jobs to whoever requested them. Nerys had taken the majority, being the only one other than Elias who did not seem to want to settle down but instead needed to keep moving.
I missed them, but we made plans to see each other every year, and that would be good enough for me, not even counting that I saw many of them every week.
We learned more about one another every day, Azael and I. I hung tapestries of art that made me happy; I made our house into a home. I gathered things I liked, and I brought them home to display on the shelves. Trinkets and toys and paintings, I collected all the things I could not have before, and I looked at them every day to remind myself of my luck.
Azael advised the king, assigned mercenary tasks, offered guidance and mentorship regarding the rule of the kingdom and how the old days were. He worked odd hours but preferred it that way. He helped me garden, and I would practice archery with him. We frequently performed activities that the other enjoyed. We soaked in each other's time and presence.
Daughter of Retribution (Crescent Queen Book 1) Page 19