by Alexia Purdy
I hoped it worked. This was definitely his last chance. I only wished we could learn the source of his withering sickness. It wasn’t self-induced, but it was lethal. Just another small detail which troubled me greatly. Maybe in time, Iana could solve it for us.
“Trey?” Aluse tapped her brother’s shoulder, but when he didn’t respond, she tipped his head back, tilted the vial, and dumped the blood down his throat.
Nothing happened. It didn’t look like he had even swallowed the life-giving blood.
“What if it doesn’t work?” Shade asked. Always one to be skeptical. I loved that she was never too confident in faery magic. It was the downfall of many.
“It will,” Zena responded. “Give it some time.” She blinked, her unseeing eyes focusing on nothing. The girl seemed changed by this entire ordeal, and the more time she spent with her brother, the stranger she got. It was almost as if she’d lost her personality along with her sight.
A few moments passed, and Trey gave a tiny cough. Then he began a violent coughing fit, sending blood and saliva spraying from his mouth and leaving him looking much like a vampire lost in the throes of feeding. Everyone stepped away except for Aluse, who held him down while her clothes were spattered with droplets of blood. The spray didn’t go far, for it started spinning around and around in a mini cyclone around Trey, shoving Aluse away as it wrapped around his body, lifting him up out of his wheelchair and causing his frail, thin wings to spread painfully out to their full span.
His mouth widened in a silent scream as his eyes peeled open and he stared out into the room like he’d seen a ghost. Then the most miraculous thing happened. His wings began to regrow their shiny obsidian feathers; his hair grew back, filling in the bald patches; and his sallow features filled out as though fat had been injected into his cheeks.
Then, as quickly as the blood had lifted him up, it spiraled down his throat and disappeared. He dropped into the arms of Aluse and Dylan, the two who’d been closest to him, and his head lolled to the side, as though he’d drifted off to sleep.
“Trey! Trey, wake up!” Aluse desperately tried to revive him, shaking him and listening for his heartbeat at his chest. I’d never seen her more afraid than she was now. We all held our breaths and prayed that the magic had worked.
“Is he alive?”
Someone had voiced my thoughts, but I failed to notice who’d said it. All of us were left stunned, staring down at the black-winged warrior and hoping what Zena had said would prove true.
But she had said something else: that no magic could harm him now. If the blood of the four could cure anything, who or what would come for it? All four of them were in grave danger if word got out that they could save anyone from any kind of magical death, including withering.
My eyes landed on Shade, and my heart began to ache in fear for her, Zena, Xyon, and my mother. This was all so good and yet so very bad.
“Aluse?” Trey’s weak voice came out hoarse as he blinked up at her.
Aluse was in tears. She hadn’t been ready to lose her baby brother. “Trey? How do you feel? Is it better? Did it work?”
He blinked up at the faces eyeing him with great anticipation and worry. Instead of freaking out, a smile widened on his lips. “I feel… exhilarated! Like I’ve just flown around the world!”
We let out a collective sigh as Aluse helped her brother to his feet. He curiously looked around the room. “Where are we, Aluse?”
“The Teleen Caverns. Come, you need to lie down. You need to be thoroughly examined, and we have much to speak of.” Aluse and her brother left the rest of standing in silence, amazed at how well and how quickly the blood had worked. It was beyond belief, beyond anything we could have ever hoped for.
Zena’s voice cut through the silence. “The hunters will come for us now. The four of us… we must all hide. Our blood must never come together again, or there will be a great price to pay.”
Xyon’s voice had joined his sister’s halfway through, harmonizing with hers and making the words sound even more ominous.
“What do you mean? Shade asked. “What hunters? Who is sending them?”
“Kilara.” Zena turned toward Shade and lifted a finger, pointing accusingly at my beloved. “You have sentenced us all to death.”
Shade’s eyes widened as she shook her head. “I am not Kilara. She’s my ancestor. I don’t even know where she is. She fled and has been in hiding ever since she tried to kill us at the Withering Palace, when Aveta died.”
Zena did not drop her hand. Xyon took up where she had left off. “She must pass the crown to you. You must take her place, or all of Faerie dies with her. Her corruption runs deep, tainting her veins and killing her from within. She will seek the cure to her ailment. She must not die before transferring power to you, and if she gains the cure before giving you the crown of the Ancients, she will never relinquish it. If that happens, there will be only one way to save Faerie: you must kill her yourself and claim her crown.”
Shade shook her head, her cheeks burning red as her fingers curled into tight fists. “This is crazy. How do you know this?”
“We are the Nephilim, the last of our kind. We know more than the thoughts of men allow.”
Shade continued to shake, and Dylan scooped her into his arms, comforting her. My heart felt like it had been squeezed.
“Just let her try. We’ll be waiting for her.” Dylan slipped his hand into one of hers, and I reached out and took her other one, feeling her fingers relax into mine.
“We’ll all be waiting,” I said. “She’ll have another thing coming if she thinks she can mess with us.”
“I’m in.” Benton slammed a fist into his other hand, cracking his knuckles and flexing his neck as he rolled his shoulders. “I’m ready to pummel Ancient Faeries any day. Bring it.”
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Acknowledgments
Alexia Purdy
This goes out to all my awesome readers again. I can’t do this without you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you. Every word, every story…it’s for you!
About the Author
Alexia Purdy
Alexia is a USA Today Bestselling author who currently lives in Las Vegas and loves spending every free moment writing or hanging out with her four rambunctious kids. Writing is the ultimate getaway for her since she's always lost in her head. She is best known for her award-winning Reign of Blood series, and A Dark Faerie Tale Series.
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More books by Alexia Purdy:
The ArcKnight Chronicles:
Ardent
MarkTier
Enmity
Sovereign
Reign of Blood Series
Reign of Blood
Disarming (Reign of Blood #2)
Elijah (The Miel Chronicles):
A Reign of Blood Companion Story
Amplified (Reign of Blood #3)
A Dark Faerie Tale Series
The Withering Palace (A Dark Faerie Tale #0.1)
Evangeline (A Dark Faerie Tale #0.5)
Ever Shade (A Dark Faerie Tale #1)
Ever Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #2)
Ever Winter (A Dark Faerie Tale #3)
The Cursed (A Dark Faerie Tale #3.5)
Ever Wrath (A Dark Faerie Tale #4)
Wit
hout Armor (A Dark Faerie Tale #4.5)
History of Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #5)
Ever Dead (A Dark Faerie Tale #6)
Legends of Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #7)
Other Stories
The Fall of Sky
Keep Breathing
Breathe Me
Short Stories
The Faery Hunt
Never Say Such Things
Spinning Scars
Poetic Collections
Whispers of Dreams
Five Fathoms
Anthologies
Soul Games
Faery Worlds
Faery Realms
Faery Tales
Lacing Shadows
Destiny’s Dark Fantasy
Once Upon a Curse