by Elena Lawson
No. It wasn’t his fault. But the Kade I knew wouldn’t be reasoned with. Not right now. His skin was still hot to the touch, and his chest heaved with each powerful flap of his wings. Now wasn’t the time for words.
We had one purpose—one goal: Get Liana home. Nothing else mattered.
We’d cleared more than half the distance back to the Night Court in record time. The long ridge that marked the border between the Wastes and home was within sight.
The chill started in my toes. Then it spread into my fingertips. Up my legs and arms. I looked to where Finn was, just ahead of us. His wings faltered, and I saw his shoulders tighten. No, it was still too far to the palace. Another hour. We’d never make it. He stopped, “She isn’t breathing!” he cried and sped to the ground.
Kade dropped after his brother, and I jumped from his grasp before his feet settled on the earth.
Finn set her down on a bed of leaves and I fell to my knees at her side, “Liana,” I said brushing the cold skin of her cheek, “Wake up.”
She was so still. So, so still. “Wake up!” I demanded, louder, catching my breath. The cold feeling spreading, coating my lungs.
I felt her heart stop.
The life went out of her like a soft summers breeze. And it was torture. Raw and unfiltered. The bond between us was cleaved in two with the swing of a mighty axe across my chest. My hands clawed at the earth, trying and failing to find some release from it. It was final. And it left me shaking against a phantom chill, empty and alone.
The queen is dead.
My Liana—gone.
I couldn’t tell how long we sat there. It could have been an eternity. I couldn’t stop thinking it. The words repeated in my head without end…
I failed you.
I love you.
I will follow you.
I failed you.
I love you.
I will follow you into the dark.
When I was able to draw breath, I stood. Tiernan paced between the trees. Finn wretched onto the damp earth. His armor coated in thick ice as though it could protect him from the horror at his knees.
Kade sat alone. Couldn’t stop looking at his hands as though they belonged to someone else. As if he wanted to cut them from his arms. “What have I done?” he whispered.
I cleared the block in my throat, “Take me back,” I said, my voice sounding foreign to my own ears.
“Take. Me. Back.” I said again when not a single one of my guards moved to follow my order.
Kade nodded from where he sat and clenched his hands into fists. His yellow eyes glowed, “We finish this. Tonight.”
“We owe her that much,” Finn added
Tiernan stopped his pacing, and gave a tight-lipped nod, his eyes burning with bloodlust.
Then it was done. They’d go back. And they’d kill the Mad King. And if he had awoken, I was sure I wasn’t the only one who understood they would never see another day. This once, I wouldn’t ask my men to stand down. They had just as much right as I did to avenge her.
Odd. If I looked at her the right way, I could almost pretend she was sleeping. As I’d watched her do for months before then. The moonlight caressing the soft and yet sharp planes of her face. Making her hair almost shimmer.
If I returned, I wouldn’t bring her back to the palace to be buried in a tomb under the earth. I’d bury her at the top of a mountain where she could look down over the earth and up to the stars.
A breeze lifted her hair and yet the surrounding air was still. Finn noticed it too. Where her hand rested at her side in the leaves, there was a warm reddish glow. It was the stone on her finger. The ring Morgana had told her never to take off.
We four leaned in, trying to figure out what it meant.
Her back arched violently. Her bones cracked. I kneeled beside her, not believing what I was seeing. It wasn’t possible. I watched her chest expand with air. Could’ve cried as the wound in her abdomen closed. The flesh knitting itself back together.
“The fifth stone,” it was Finn who said it, his voice an incredulous whisper, “It was a philosophers stone.”
All at once the color returned to her face. The glowing gem seemed to almost vibrate. Pulsing with red and orange light before it shattered like glass into a million tiny pieces, scattering to the earth like sand.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Liana
I stood in the woods, looking up at a sky on the verge of breaking with dawn. I wasn’t sure how I’d got there. Or what I was doing all alone. It wasn’t the isle, that much I could tell. But—
A whimpering sob behind me and I spun, looking for an attacker. My heart froze solid in my chest. I was there, laying in the molting leaves on the earth. Pale—blood splattered over my skin as though it were canvas. And around me were males. One with wings sat with his head between his knees, staring at his own hands as though they held the answers to life.
Another winged one cried softly at my side. And yet another paced through the trees, his body shaking. And the last one knelt in absolute silence and stillness, staring at my corpse with something like acceptance, and maybe longing—as though he was in a nightmare, but would soon wake.
This is a strange dream.
And then it all came rushing back. I broke the surface of my memories, and with my first breath, it was all clear. My hand flew to cover my mouth. This wasn’t a dream at all. It was real. I had died.
I am dead.
But that wasn’t why I sobbed. They were alive. All of them were alive. “I’m sorry,” I whispered to them, “I wish I could’ve stayed. I tried.” And I did. I had tried so hard to heal my broken body and stay conscious. But the darkness had pulled, and it was peaceful. Welcoming.
“It’s alright,” she said from behind me and I turned, knowing the voice in an instant, “Come,” Morgana said, and I rushed to her open arms. She embraced me as a mother would a daughter. A feeling I had never known. I cried harder. She hushed me, rocking gently back and forth.
And then I remembered. I pulled back from Morgana. If I was dead, then, “Where’s Aisling? Is she here, too?”
She shook her head, her long dark hair floating around her as though we were under water. “Do not worry, my child. You will see her again soon.”
I turned to behold my males. My warriors. My kings. Swallowed back the selfish thought that I would never touch them again. Never see them smile. “I’m sorry I failed you.” I hung my head.
She cupped my chin in her strong, soft hand. Lifted my gaze to hers, and I watched the color of her iris’ shift, just like mine, “It was a heavy burden to bare. You did well. I am proud. But no, Liana, you haven’t failed me—not yet.”
I didn’t understand. How could I still do what she asked of me?
It all made sense then. Why she Graced me with her power. Why now those Graces needed to be wielded. It was to destroy her father once and for all. But those Graces had died with me.
“You never took it off. My ring,” she said, and I looked to where it still adorned the finger of my lifeless body.
“You can go back if you wanted to. That ring will revive you. Or you can come with me and be at peace. I wasn’t offered a choice when the Graces fell to me, and so I will not force the duty upon you.”
Looking at the faces of my warriors—I knew, and I think Morgana did too. I didn’t need to be asked. It was my duty to protect my court, if given the choice, I would have gone back for that reason alone. But for them, I would set the world on fire. I would do anything.
I couldn’t go back, not yet. I still had so many questions for her. “Morgana,” I started, but then Alaric stood.
“Take me back,” he said, and the meaning of his words sunk into my skin like poison.
He wouldn’t.
“Take. Me. Back,” he said again.
“We finish this, tonight,” said Kade, his eyes glowing.
“We owe her that much,” Finn added.
And Tiernan nodded his ascent, and I thought I�
�d never seen so much anger—so much pain in someone’s eyes before.
“No,” I said, “They can’t. They’ll die.” I watched in a panic, wanting to stop them, but knowing on this side—the side of those who’d died, I could do nothing.
“They know,” Morgana said, “And yet they’ll go. It is what my own males would have done to avenge me, too.”
I barely heard her, I needed to get back. Now.
“Morgana please, how do I get back?”
She smiled calmly, “Goodbye, my child.” And then she pushed me hard in the chest and I fell back, and I kept falling.
My eyes opened to a deep blue sky painted with streaks of red and gold. I choked on the air in my lungs, trying to remember how to breathe.
In and out—yes, that’s the way.
My males rushed to my side, leaning in over me, but not touching me as though they were afraid I was a phantom returned from the grave to torment them—or else afraid that perhaps I would shatter under the pressure of their touch. The only one who didn’t move was Kade. He stood a few paces away. A statue carved of hard, tan stone—and seeing a statue cry was just as rare. But it happened.
I swallowed the foul tasting layer of decay in mouth, “Idiots.” I couldn’t help it. The word sprang from my lips. “The only place you’re all going is home.”
Alaric crushed my body against his, and the breath I’d fought to take was knocked from my lungs. But I didn’t mind—not at all. The others wrapped their arms around me and Alaric, forming a barrier of warmth around us. I reached for Kade over their lightly shaking bodies, and his lips pressed into a hard line, but he came, caressed my face, and kissed me on the forehead before tucking all of us into his wide arms—covering us with the shade of his great black wings.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Liana
They hadn’t left my side since we returned to the palace. Not as I bathed, or as I’d dressed. I marveled at the smooth skin of my stomach once I had washed away the mess of dried blood. It was incredible. A miracle. Everyone knew the story of the Alchemists, how the greatest of them had defied the laws of life and death by creating a philosopher’s stone.
The man had died, gone insane, shortly after he’d created it. As far as we knew, the precious manmade stones were still used in Emeris, though they were rare and reserved only for use by royalty.
My body was tired and aching, but my mind had never been more alert. Perhaps it was an effect of the stone. I supposed, though the very thought of the Alchemists repulsed me for what they’d done to the families of my court when they slaughtered our Draconian shifters—I had to thank them. At least for this one thing. Without their knowledge, I’d still be dead.
I’d healed Tiernan’s shoulder, and Alaric’s burnt hand, hushing them when they protested I should be resting. My Graces seemed easier to wield, and I thought they finally fit. As though my body had accepted them, instead of fighting against them. After being bound and suffocated inside me at the weight of the bindstone, my Graces were all too eager to bend to my will.
There was so much to do. So much to prepare for. I’d told them of the Mad King’s forces. They didn’t know where said forces could gather, there wasn’t a large enough place to hide an entire army in the Wastes. But they would send more scouts, and they would find out. Perhaps the scouts they had already sent to investigate the disappearing Fae could find something.
So, they knew as well as I did how much there was to be done. But I was glad they were of the same mind as me to take this one night for ourselves.
Alaric sighed from beside me. We were all of us laying on my bed over top of the rumpled sheets and covers. Pillows strewn about. I was in the center, and every one of them had a part of themselves touching me. Alaric wound his fingers through my hair. Finn laid his head on my chest, listening to the strong beat below. Tiernan held my feet in his lap, caressing the smooth skin on my ankles. And Kade laid opposite me, the length of him pressed against the length of me.
I was whole, content. Peaceful.
“I have to tell you something,” Alaric said, and I looked up to meet his gaze.
“Hmmm?”
He cleared his throat, and I smiled. I had thought I’d never hear his nervous tick again. It no longer annoyed me—it was almost endearing. Kind of adorable.
“I bound myself to you,” he said in a rush, “I did it while you slept and I’m sorry.”
“You what?”
“It was how we found you,” Tiernan said, rubbing soothing circles into my calves.
Finn propped his head up on an elbow, facing me, but his eyes remained downcast, “It was my idea. I suggested we all do it—I mean, bind ourselves to you. But with your permission, of course.” He cast a cheeky look at Alaric, “And we had planned to ask you if you would bind yourself to us as well… and… and consummate the bonds to strengthen their power.”
I knew little of the Immortal Bond. But I knew the basics and understood the reasons why they would want that. Especially them. My guardians. They would always know where I was, and if I was safe. They could always find me.
But it went both ways. I would know the same things about all of them. I could always find them. Keep them safe. And the thought of consummating a bond with all four of them made my toes curl in the most delicious way.
I beamed at Finn, “It’s a brilliant idea.” I watched as stoic shock crossed each of their faces. They had expected me to be angry, I could tell, but I was far from it. I was downright giddy at the thought. All of us together in the most intimidate and permanent way we could be. It was everything I wanted. And the fact that they wanted it too made it even sweeter. “Why didn’t you think of this before?”
Finn laughed, smiling from ear to ear, but then his smile faded, and he shrugged, “Because it’s permanent, Liana.”
Alaric twisted my hair around his fingers and I met his steely gaze, “You could change your mind and do what your court expects of you: To choose one mate, make him King Consort, and produce an heir.”
I shook my head at him. Always so sensible. Alaric was wise beyond his many years, and I had thought him stubborn, a bit of a brute. But I could see it now, he was patient, and would always put the needs of others before his own. And he would accept my decisions whether or not he liked them.
I stared incredulously at all of them, but my sights rested on Kade. The guilt in his eyes was palpable. I sat up and reached out to him, forcing him to look me in the eyes.
I spoke to them all, but it was Kade who needed most to hear it, “I will never change my mind. You are mine,” I told him, as he’d once told me, “And I am yours. All of yours.”
The Mad King never got the philosophers stone. He didn’t get to make the wielder of the Blessed Blade unkillable as he’d obviously intended. But with or without my Graces and the stone, I knew he would follow through with his plans to attack before the first snows fell.
The time for secrets had passed. I’d have to tell my court the truth, ready or not.
Though the bastard Ricon lived, so did I. And together with my males, we had time to prepare for the battle to come.
Seduced by Power
Book 3
Chapter One
Liana
Even though it never left the council chamber wall, the edges of the map were yellowed. The canvas-like paper near petrified. I traced the thin line of ink separating the Wastes from the Night Court. That’s all it was. A line. And somewhere on the other side, the Mad King was readying his forces to take back the throne.
He wasn’t in the ruined palace at Mt. Noctis anymore. We’d checked. And though I’d protested, Kade and Finn had been combing through every inch of the Wastes searching for Ricon’s army.
But there was nothing.
Absolutely no trace of this supposed great force Valin had alluded to. And though we still had doubts it even existed, it was time for my court to know the truth. Even without an army, so long as he lived, the Mad Kind would always be a threat.
Tiernan came to stand next to me, considering the top of the map where the Wastes sprawled to the north. Finn looked over his shoulder from the window, but he made no move to join us.
He’d been staring out into the cool autumn evening in brooding silence since we’d gotten to the council chamber. The Draconian looked like a damned gargoyle standing there like that—with his great black wings, corded crossed arms, and dangerous, pensive stare. He seemed to be the most unsettled by it all though I thought it was mostly because he couldn’t figure out how to solve the problem. Finn always had the answer, but this time, he didn’t.
“It seems so close when you look at it on a map, doesn’t it?” Tiernan said, his voice low and brows furrowed.
“The Wastes?”
He shook his head, and the gold in his hair lit like fire in the dying light. “No, the Day Court. But yes—that too.”
I wondered if Tiernan missed his home. The vast majority of places on the old map were foreign to me. I knew their names but hadn’t the faintest idea what they looked like. I knew the Day Court to be a bright sort of place. The days seemed longer there, the forests were evergreen. It was a place where the earth had never known the cold touch of snow. I knew those things because I’d been told them, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t yearn to see them for myself.
“Do you ever wish to go back?” I asked him, trying to read his drawn expression.
Tiernan inhaled deeply, smirking, “Well,” he began, biting his lower lip, “I’ll admit I miss the food…. and the wine was a far sight better than what the Night Court has to offer—”