by Leia Stone
I grabbed his left upper arm and then his right and pushed myself up so that I was hovering over him.
Then, I turned my head to look Liam’s mother right in the eyes. “Run!”
By the time I snapped my face back to the Winter King’s, I was ready to light him up. I pulsed sunlight into him with what felt like the force of a supernova, but something didn’t feel right. There was no release, it was meeting resistance.
He looked up at me and grinned. “I’m born of Summer and Winter. You really think some Spring magic can kill me?” He cocked his head to the side, and a trickle of fear wedged its way into my bones.
I remembered the moment that Indra had told me he was a product of the original Queen of Summer and King of Winter and how he was older than any fae she’d ever seen.
His hands snaked out and clamped around my arms as a bone-chilling cold took over, freezing my magic in place.
“No, but I can.” Liam’s voice came from somewhere above me, and then I was ripped away from the king, pulled backward and away from the kitchen as Liam and his father went head to head.
One quick look back told me that Cam was dragging me out of the house with a death grip on my upper arms. Liam tossed his father across the room and into a wall as we passed Mara’s lifeless body on the floor. Everything was happening too fast. I needed it to slow down. Just slow down.
“Mara!” I screamed as Cam tried to drag me away from the scene. The reality that I’d lost Mara was just now hitting me. I elbowed Cam in the ribs, forcing him to let me go, and dropped to the ground over Mara’s corpse. Liam and his father crashed into another wall, busting right through it and into the next room, but it was the red-headed fae who held my attention.
Placing two fingers at her pulse, I screamed in frustration as I felt nothing.
“No!” Sobs wracked my body now that it was real. No pulse meant dead. Mara was dead. It was too much, too much death in too little a time. Was she really dead when I walked in? Should I have tried to save her? But then, Liam’s mom might have died? I pushed light into her body, causing it to shake with the force of it, but nothing happened.
Liam groaned in pain, and a crashing sound rang throughout the house.
“Lily.” Jasper appeared before me. “We need to go. Without Mara, we have no way home. We need to run. I’ve gotten some cars—”
“Mara,” I sobbed, clutching her chest and starting to do CPR, but when I pushed down, it just made more blood pour from her open abdomen. “Jasper, help me save her.” I looked to the warlock. “You must have a spell. You said I could give life, right? I’m the Queen of Spring, I—”
“Lily, it’s not possible… not in the way you want.” He actually looked a bit devastated for me.
“But I could bring her back?” Hope bloomed in my chest as Liam and his father crashed through another wall, trashing Mara’s house. Ice was flying everywhere, but I couldn’t move to help him, not now that I was confronted with Mara’s corpse.
Jasper shook his head. “She’d be an animated ghost with no soul.”
I crumpled over her body, grief opening up inside my chest. I didn’t even say goodbye. I didn’t free her of her chains. I did nothing for this woman, and she did everything for me and my mother, for Faerie.
“We need to go! The king’s army is coming,” Cam ran into the house and shouted.
I was frozen, unable to leave her like this, but we had all the crystals. They were in Liam’s backpack right now, and if we could find a way back to Faerie, we could end this war forever. Restore our motherland.
“Jasper, can you carry her?” I swallowed hard as I stood.
He nodded, yanking a curtain down from the dining room and wrapping her body in it. I would give her a proper Faerie burial.
Reaching out, I ran my fingers down Bashur’s fur, knowing he tried to protect her. “You were a good boy.” I swallowed hard.
Urisk demon or not, he was a loyal friend to her. When I looked up, I noticed that Liam’s father had wrestled his son to the ground and was reaching for something behind his back. The grief and rage merged into one beast as I flew across the room and knocked his father down. Then I reached out with my hand, and light exploded from it. Every single window shattered, furniture cracked, and the whole house shook.
I heard the satisfying shout from his father and then a wail of pain, but I still couldn’t see. It was too bright.
Grabbing Liam, we walked backward, away from the light bomb and his father, who I hoped was freaking dying like the witch. Jasper had moved Mara’s body, but Bashur and the bloodstains were still there, causing guilt to gnaw at my chest. Should I try to bring him too? As if Liam could hear my thoughts, he grabbed my arm and yanked me backward and out of the house. Just as we turned the corner, the light I’d shot at the Winter King died down, and I noticed the collapsed figure on the floor move the tiniest bit.
Dammit.
“Let me finish him!” I tried to yank out of Liam’s grasp, but he held me firmly.
“Elle’s hurt!” Cam’s alarmed voice came from behind me, and that’s all it took for me to walk away from Mara’s house, from Bashur, from the king.
Spinning, I sprinted to a row of cars. Pick-up trucks, a few SUVs, and an Oldsmobile. Not sure where Jasper got all these or how, but I was grateful he did.
There were about twenty of Liam’s men, who must have been hiding in the forest because they were alive, to my relief, and piling in the cars.
I spun behind us to see the king’s army running and flying up the road, carrying guns, bows and arrows, and whatever else they had.
My gaze flicked to Elle being loaded into the back of the pick-up truck, her arm bleeding, gunshot wound from the looks of it.
Make everything slow down…
How had everything gone so wrong… so fast? But there really wasn’t any other way we could have done it. We’d brought in all the big guns and still suffered losses.
“I have the crystals. Let’s get back to Faerie.” Liam dragged me across the road to the back of the pick-up truck, limping as he walked and ducking low to avoid getting hit.
“We need some cover! If they shoot the tires, we are toast.” Trissa leapt into the back of the truck with Elle and Jasper. The backpack of the crystals lay at their feet, thank the gods.
My mind felt pulled in a hundred directions. How many men did we lose? Were the fae I had invited back to Faerie out there in the woods, needing help? Were they going to try to find me? Was Liam’s dad in the house, dying? How was Mara dead? What if—
“Lily!” Jasper shouted, and I ducked just as a bullet snapped past me.
Without a thought, I thrust my hands out, letting my wings pull me high up into the air, and shot a burst of bright light at the advancing horde. It pulsed from my palms like a laser, cutting them down in a heaping pile of wounded men. Where my light had touched them, they held onto bloody injuries. Tires squealed from the cars behind me, and I dropped into the back of the truck, my gaze fixed on the open car door that led to Mara’s place…
I wanted to incinerate the car to ash so that his father could possibly be stuck in Mara’s home forever, stuck in the in-between place, but… I didn’t have the energy. My legs were weak, my wings burned, and a headache slowly throbbed at my temple. I needed to save any energy I had for healing Elle and the other injured. So, instead of finishing the Winter King off, I just watched as we drove away, feeling the weight of what just happened finally consuming me.
“Mara,” I choked out as Liam pulled me into his arms.
But there was no time to grieve. Elle lay whimpering in the open bed of the truck, thin rivulets of blood trailing down her arm. Pulling out of Liam’s grasp, I wiped my eyes and went to work, sealing off my friend’s wound.
As I was finishing up, the back of the truck window opened. One of Liam’s men was driving, and his mother was in the passenger side. Thank the gods she was okay. I wasn’t sure what Liam would have done without her.
“Where
do we go, honey?” she called out to me, snapping me from my thoughts with the concern in her voice. Her eyes roamed over my face as if assessing my mental state.
I had no fucking clue. No more blue doors. The shell in Los Angeles was cracked. Pulling the folded map from my bag with a shaky hand and dried blood on my fingers, I handed her the map of all the blue doors and safe houses.
“Get us to a safe house,” I told her.
She nodded, splaying the map out on her lap as I lay back and rested my head on Liam’s lap. Everything felt so heavy, my limbs, my head, my heart.
“You okay?” Liam shouted over the wind.
“Tired.” My voice was groggy.
“She’ll need time to recoup,” Jasper said from where he was cramped next to Trissa. “She’s not used to losing this much power. She would do better in Faerie, but we need to have her recharge on the grass when we stop somewhere.”
I laughed, a deep warbled sound. Recharge on the grass like I was a battery? That was funny. Liam looked down at me, concern etched across his features as he smoothed my hair. “Rest now, Lily. I’ve got this,” he told me.
It’s like he knew the weight of everything that was resting on my shoulders because it rested on his too. He may not be temp Queen of Faerie, but those were his men back there, the ones who lay bleeding and dead on the ground. He must be devastated, guilt-ridden. I wanted to tell him that I had this, that I would take care of everything, but I could no longer lift my eyelids. They snapped shut as the blackness took me.
Chapter 12
“How long will she sleep? Are you sure this is normal?” Liam’s frantic voice brought me out of my deep sleep.
“She’s breathing. There is nothing to worry about,” Jasper assured him, but I heard the uncertainty in his tone.
My eyelids snapped open, and I groaned. My back hurt, and rolling over, I saw why. I’d been laid on the hard ground, right on the grass.
“Are you okay?” Liam dropped to his knees before me. His eyes roamed over my body as if searching for an injury. Other than being stabbed in the leg, I was fine.
Everything hit me then like waking from a nightmare.
“Elle? Mara?” I sat up quickly, frantically searching the space.
Please let my memory be distorted. Please don’t let Mara really be—
“Lily, Mara’s gone, but Elle is okay. She’s resting inside with my mom.” Liam stroked my forehead.
Mara’s gone.
Two words. Two very fucking painful words.
Silent tears trailed down my face, and I pushed them away quickly. Why hadn’t I brought Kira? Why hadn’t I brought healing water? I’d thought Kira was best used watching over the Queen, and the healing water didn’t even register in my mind because I’d been so focused on saving Liam.
Shittiest temp Queen ever. Shittiest everything. I wanted to lie here on the hard ground for a month and just not feel anything. I was so sick of feeling, so sick of the burdens I had to carry to lead everyone.
But there was no one else. Not right now. So I stuffed down my grief and took in a deep breath.
“Where are we? Were we followed?” I asked Liam and Jasper, looking around at sprawling green rolling hills. If I weren’t so depressed, I would remark on their beauty.
“A safe house in Wyoming. Not followed, and Jasper has been magically blocking us from the Winter King, but we don’t know how long that will last.”
I nodded then looked at Jasper. “Thank you.”
He waved me off. “It’s my job.”
Reaching out, I grasped his hand and squeezed it. “It’s above and beyond your job. I’m adding ten more acres to your land plot.”
A smile curled at his lips, but then he quickly wiped it away and released my hand. “Feeling better?” he asked.
I nodded. “Physically, yes.” My leg still had a healing knife wound, but someone had wrapped it, so it was manageable. Whatever healing I’d done on it before had stopped the bleeding, and that’s all that mattered.
Liam rubbed his chin and then looked at Jasper. “Do you mind giving us a moment?”
Jasper stood, giving us both a curt nod, and strode away to the house. A small log cabin with a wrap-around porch. The more I looked around, the more peaceful this place felt.
“Lily.” Liam stroked a finger across the top of my hand. “We need to talk about something… unpleasant.”
My gaze flicked up to his as my heart jackknifed in my chest. All of his men, he lost over twenty men. Fresh tears sprung in my eyes. “I’m so sorry. Your guys… they… oh gods, I’m so sorry Liam.”
He reached out and pulled me to his chest, crushing me against him. His hold was almost too hard, and that felt good. It felt good to remember I was in this world, being held so tightly it hurt. “It’s not your fault. They knew what they signed up for.” He released me, and his throat was rough. “That’s not what we need to talk about.”
I frowned. “What is it?”
With a big sigh, Liam pointed to the truck. “You’ve been asleep for about twelve hours. Mara’s… body is starting to decompose.”
Oh gods…
“I know you wanted to bring her back to Faerie, but… there is no freezer here and…”
I put one hand over my mouth to cover a sob and another in front of his face, indicating he stop talking.
Mara. She lived her whole life a slave to the blue doors and only left her house upon her death… I wanted her to have a proper Faerie sendoff, but this place was beautiful, the wide-open land; it was freeing, not confined by the walls of a home any longer.
“Is there a shovel?” I asked with grit in my voice.
He nodded. “We found two in the garage.”
Standing up, I winced at the throbbing in my leg.
“I’ll bury her here,” I told him and started to limp to the garage.
Liam trailed after me. “I’ll dig the grave with Cam. Lily, you should rest—”
“I alone will bury Mara!” I snapped and then felt guilty when I saw the hurt cross his face. Reaching out, I grasped his face, raking my fingers lightly down his jaw. “Liam, I need to do this.”
He must have seen something in my eyes because he nodded. “Okay.”
Leaning in, I placed a quick kiss on his lips, and he followed me to the open garage.
Cam and a few others were standing around, talking in low voices. I simply walked up, grabbed the one shovel, and then walked away, hearing footsteps at my back.
I thought it was Liam, but when I turned around, I saw every single one of Liam’s men had followed me. My throat tightened with emotion, and I kept walking. About fifty paces from the front porch was a beautiful giant Douglas fir. They carried Mara’s body and laid her, wrapped in a blood-soaked cloth, at my feet.
Tears brimmed in my eyes as they stood, heads bowed, hands at their backs in reverence.
I needed them to know that I would do this for their fallen brothers if I had the chance.
“I’m so sorry about your friends. If I could lay them to rest here with her, I would.” My voice cracked, and they nodded, one by one.
With a final look at Mara’s body, I started to dig. Digging a grave is many things but two things especially.
It was exhausting. Every muscle in my body protested as I dug small shovel full after small shovel full of dirt.
It was depressing. Knowing that in a little while I would lower Mara’s body in here and cover her in four feet of dirt cut into my chest with agony.
Liam, Cam, and his men stood around me and waited as I dug that hole. When I fell back, crying because it was too hard, and I was too tired, and it hurt too much, they waited. They gave me water, they offered to dig, and they waited. Finally, when I’d dug it deep enough that animals and the elements wouldn’t uncover her, I fell onto my butt, panting, looking up at the boys from where I sat inside the tomb.
The amount of respect I saw in each one of their eyes nearly knocked me over further and had fresh tears springing to the su
rface. Liam helped pull me out of the deep depression in the earth just in time for me to see Jasper, Elle, and Liam’s mother walking out across the yard to the base of the tree that shaded Mara’s fresh grave.
Without a word, Elle walked up to me and hugged me. She kept one bandaged arm tucked into her chest, and I was so glad she was okay.
“Mara,” I whimpered into her ear.
“I know,” she cried into my neck. We held each other for a few moments before pulling away.
I wiped my eyes then looked to Liam and Cam. “Can you lower her in? I can’t feel my arms.”
I wasn’t making a joke. I literally had no strength left.
They nodded and started to gather the cloth wrapped around her and lowered Mara’s body into the grave. It was stiff with rigor mortis and unbending, a sight which made chills break out onto my arms.
Elle and I watched as they set Mara into the deep cavity I’d carved into the earth. I wanted to tell a story, an amazing story that would show everyone here what she meant to me, but I couldn’t speak. My words were trapped in my stomach, a heavy weight of grief sitting on them.
That’s when Elle started to sing. Her voice was strong yet light and full of crisp high notes. She sang a song of mourning, a more traditional one from our childhood, and it brought fresh tears to my eyes.
My shaky voice joined in, and then Trissa’s and, to our surprise, Jasper’s. No one else present knew the song, but they listened on in reverent silence. Once they lowered Mara’s body inside, Liam handed me the shovel. I was confused for a second because I’d just dug the hole. Why did I need it again? Then it hit me. I have to bury her. Throw dirt over my mother’s closest friend and one of the strongest women I knew. We don’t bury in Faerie, so this was new to me. Everyone was watching me, and although I wanted to fly away crying and not have to deal with this, I needed to remain strong for my people. I didn’t want to lose the respect Liam’s men had in their eyes for me. So, even though my arms felt like Jell-O, I shoved the tip of the shovel into the brown dirt and scooped a heaping pile into the metal.
“You’re free now,” I said to the wind that whipped past us in the meadow. “Finally free.”