Savage Beauty

by Casey L. Bond

  PHILLIP

  Luna saw the moment Malex’s eyes shifted to me. My skin began to crawl, but I had to do something. She needed help. The sudden power transfer had stunned her. She sat up with her mouth wide open, her breath heaving. Aura’s body was lying in the middle of her macabre garden, staring at the heavens. She’d saved Luna, surprising us all.

  But Malex wasn’t one for wasting time, and Luna was within striking distance.

  I ran for her. All I had was my body to defend her with, but I would do just that until he killed me, too.

  A strange glow began beneath Luna’s skin, pinkish-purple and dull at first, but it soon grew brilliant. She stood and stretched her arms out to look at them.

  “This is what being a full-blooded fae King feels like?” she asked, her voice echoing around us all.

  Malex let out a war cry and lunged for her, but she called on the earth and a great mound rose up from behind him and swallowed him whole. A few moments later he emerged, dirt speckling every part of him. “You’re going to regret that,” he seethed.

  “Let me help you, Father,” Luna said with a malicious smile.

  She raised her hands, calling the thunder. Clouds stacked quickly, building into a crescendo of lightning that struck from the sky. And then the rain began to fall in heavy sheets toward the earth.

  Luna wasn’t... Luna.

  She was cruelty embodied.

  Luna laughed while flames licked at her father’s flesh.

  She swirled the flames with air she created. He cried out in agony. She had to end him, but it was killing her to do it. The power thrumming beneath her skin was pure evil.

  This wasn’t Luna. This wasn’t the dark witch who turned out to have a heart of gold. This was something dark and dangerous.

  She heard me running toward her and turned to me and smiled, letting go of her magic for just a second. That was enough for Malex to run her through.

  A blade, thick and sharp, stuck out of her heart. Blood pooled in her mouth, coating her teeth as she gave a shaky smile and fell to her knees. “Run,” she coughed out. “Phillip, run,” she pleaded, her body folding until her face hit the ground.

  “Luna!” I shouted, unsure of what to do or whether it would hurt if I touched her.

  “Stupid human,” Malex snarled, spitting at the ground beside me. He put his boot on Luna’s back, pulled his sword free, and with it, he took her last breath.

  Tears pricked my eyes.

  “You bastard!” I launched myself at him, but there was an invisible shield around them both; impenetrable, no matter how I beat upon the surface.

  “You’re wrong,” Malex snarled. “They were the bastards. Thieves. But I’ll take it all back now.”

  His hand hovered over Luna’s back as the moon moved. It no longer blocked the sun and light, though muted, burst over the land once more. In that moment, I saw Malex for what he was–a monster, a father who cared nothing for the children he’d created. A pathetic excuse for a fae, who lied and deceived his own flesh and blood before tearing them to ribbons and then ending them with his own mortal hands.

  He was bathed in dirt. His clothes were charred. And the scents of burnt fabric and sweat weren’t the only ones in the air. Malex was desperate.

  I needed a weapon. Luna wore all types of blades, I just needed to grab one. I eased closer. Step by step, I made my way toward him.

  He closed his eyes, pushing harder on Luna’s back, trying to gather his power from her. Gritting his teeth, he shook her limp body and tried again, but nothing happened. No power flowed from her into him.

  “It’s not working,” I laughed.

  “Shut up,” he growled, trying again.

  Nothing was happening. Not like when Aura died and gave Luna her power. “Maybe all that power you’ve been seeking died with them.” Laughter bubbled up from me again. “Serves you right.”

  A look of rage on his face, he approached, the sword, still slick with Luna’s blood, raised over his head.

  Movement caught my eye, and when I looked, I saw Luna on her feet behind him, a vision of lovely death. She wrenched the sword away from him, catching Malex by surprise. I ducked as she spun in a full arc and sliced his head off, and then lightning fast, took off his arms. They landed on the ground beside his body and then it, too, fell to the earth with a dull thump.

  Before the dust settled I was on my feet, rushing to her. “How are you alive?” I started to kiss her lips, but she raised her hair off her neck to reveal Malex’s mark. I gladly erased it from her skin, running my hands over her arms and back as I searched for wounds, but there were none beneath the shredded tunic. “How is this possible?” I asked, shocked.

  “You act like you’re happy to see me, Prince,” she smirked.

  “I am. I’m not sure what I just witnessed, though.”

  “We need to make sure he’s dead,” she said, her tone serious.

  Malex, and all his pieces, stayed on the ground. Nothing moved. Not even a finger twitched as she extended her hand and lit him on fire. She burned his flesh to ash and brittle bone, and then blew the remnants of him away on a powerful wind.

  “Luna,” I said, looking at her, clutching her upper arms so she turned her feline eyes on me.

  “How did you survive it? I saw him pierce your heart. He ran you through.”

  “I know it upset you. I saw your face when it happened. I thought the smile might reassure you, but it must have been creepy with all the blood in my mouth.” She looked over at her sister’s body. “Malex forgot two important things. The first was that when my sister sent her power into me, it gave me all the powers of a full-blooded fae—including immortality. And even if that hadn’t been the case, I had a failsafe of sorts. A back-up plan.”

  “What back-up plan?” I gaped at her in awe.

  “Ember,” she said simply, shrugging. “Our lives have been bound since I claimed her. And cats... have nine lives.” She laughed, a tinkling, musical sound. “Well, eight now. He took one from her with his poison.”

  Nine lives? I thought that was a myth. “Will he stay dead?”

  “I’m not sure. I planned to cut him apart and scatter the pieces so he’d never find them again, but burning him felt right.”

  I blinked rapidly.

  “Don’t look at me like that. We couldn’t risk him springing up again, now could we?”

  “No,” I said, grabbing her bloodied and mud-smeared face and planting a kiss on her lips. “We couldn’t risk that.” Hesitant, I asked, “Are you okay? I saw you after Aura gave you her power. You looked... terrifying.”

  “I am.”

  “Fine, or terrifying?” I asked.

  She smiled in the mischievous way she always did and winked. “Both.”

  Then she looked toward Aura’s prone body, and it was like everything hit her at once in a deep tide of exhausted grief.

  LUNA

  I crouched beside my sister. The moon’s strength was fading, but I didn’t feel tired at all. I felt the sun’s bolstering strength supporting me. With Aura’s power now rushing through my body, combined with my own, I was the daughter of the sun and moon. I wondered if I would ever need to sleep again.

  Brushing her hair back, I spoke to her. “Why did you do it? You hated me.”

  “But she didn’t,” Phillip said. “I think she was afraid of you; afraid of what you’d do to get revenge for William. But she didn’t hate you. That much was clear.”

  “She certainly didn’t love me.”

  “Maybe she did, the only way she knew how.”

  Maybe he was right and she did. She told me once that the only reason she killed all those people was to protect me and preserve us. She felt strongly that she had the right to do it, even if she ended up being wrong about that.

  I never imagined that she would cede her power to me. She was the one who was supposed to be Queen, the one to have all the power and control the comings and goings of Virosa, keeping it alive. That would fall on me now, if
I wanted to stay here.

  I held her hand in mine. It was cold. I expected her to squeeze it and pull me down to the ground as a joke, wallowing me into the mud the way we did as children. But Aura’s eyes were fixed sightlessly on the sky.

  Closing her lids, I pulled Malex’s knife from her chest, the one that was meant for me. I was the one who was supposed to be dead. Not her. I’d fought with her so long, living tethered to her since birth, that I suddenly felt lost; adrift on a sea with no way to paddle or steer my vessel, and no stars to guide me even if I could.

  Placing my hand on her wound, I tried to seal it and give her powers back to her, hoping to bring her back from the tight grip of death. But that was still one power the fae didn’t have. Not even fae Kings, or Queens.

  Aura was truly gone.

  I was rid of her at last, and in the end, didn’t want to be. Fate could be cruel in its punishment of those who sought revenge.

  “I need to bury her,” I finally said.

  “I can do it,” Phillip offered.

  I shook my head and stood up, lifting Aura’s limp body into my arms. I carried her toward the stone fence that I’d blasted apart upon arriving and sat her down to use my power, extending my hands and making a hole appear in the earth. Phillip climbed down into it and I gently placed her in his arms. He lowered her to the bottom and climbed back up into the sunshine.

  “Peace be with you, sister. Well, not Peace, your bird. I guess I’ll have to take care of her now.”

  As if I’d conjured the poor animal, she appeared on the branch of a nearby tree, cooing for her mistress.

  “Thank you for what you did, Aura.”

  Silently, I thanked her for being… her. Terrible and misguided, ruthless and beautiful. Without this path we traveled, I wouldn’t have found Phillip.

  My chest felt tight and heavy, and despite all we did to tear each other apart, seeing her broken and dead was more than I could handle. I urged the dirt to cover her up. “I’ll have a stone engraved as soon as I can,” I said, my voice thick.

  Phillip hugged me tightly, turning my face into his chest and murmuring soothing words to tell me it would be okay. But it didn’t feel okay. My sister was gone. I was now responsible for her familiar, which meant that I had to keep Ember from eating her now that she was just a simple bird, unbound from my sister.

  And Phillip? He would be leaving soon. Nothing was keeping him here. Aura had healed him and Malex was nothing but dust and bone. Phillip was finally safe and could go home and be everything his people needed him to be. Somehow, the human Prince had come out of this whole ordeal relatively unscathed.

  “You could use a hot bath,” he offered, walking with me toward the castle.

  I smiled through my tears. “What offends you more, the sweat, dirt, or blood?”

  He swallowed. “Your blood, definitely. I thought he was going to kill you. I’ve never been more afraid in my entire life.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because you mean everything to me, Luna.”

  “You almost got yourself killed,” I scowled.

  “Almost doesn’t count,” he said with a smile. “Plus,” he added, “you did get yourself killed.”

  “Only for a moment,” I defended. I didn’t tell him that before I died, I saw the look on his face, heard him shout for me, and then run to catch me. I felt his love. He made me want to live. He made me want to fight. All this time I had been seeking revenge on Aura, when I should have known the friendly serpent was already coiled around my leg, ready to strike.

  All I could think of when his warm hands fell on my skin, and he cried out for me not to leave him, was that I needed to protect him. I needed to come back to him.

  Even if I had no magic, if I had no familiar, my soul would have clawed and scraped to hold on for him, to not cross into the cool comfort death offered. I would hurt and burn for him for an eternity in this place if it meant he was safe.

  We walked back to the palace in silence, surveying the damage. Aura’s morbid garden was in tatters. There were gouges and scars on the marble façade of the palace exterior. Part of Aura’s balcony had crumbled. Blood was still dripping from its ledge onto the ground, where the earth was soaked and splattered crimson. What was left of the yard was charred or muddied.

  It was over.

  Aura was dead.

  Our father was dead.

  Phillip was safe.

  I felt alone and empty. And afraid.

  chapter twenty-seven

  LUNA

  Bathing was easy now. I could fill the copper tubs with my water magic and run a scorching finger around the sides until the water steamed. I sank into its warmth, washing the mud, sweat, blood, and tears from my skin, skin that didn’t even feel like mine. My scars had already healed. It was unbroken and flawless, and the sensations were too much. The pads of my fingertips were sensitive, tasting everything they touched.

  My hearing was even more acute. I could hear Phillip’s blood whooshing through his veins from two rooms away, even as he washed his body and the water sloshed in its tub. I heard goosebumps forming on his skin. It was too much.

  And I wasn’t tired. Not at all.

  Pieces was perched on the branch of a small tree potted in the corner. She danced up and down the piece of wood, still distraught. I wondered if I could make her forget it all, forget my sister and their relationship, and send her out into the woods to live as she had before Aura took her.

  Maybe I would try, but not yet. Not today.

  Phillip slept in my old bedroom. We still hadn’t talked about what would come next. He was exhausted. Even though the sun had set hours ago I wasn’t sleepy, and wasn’t sure if I would be when it rose. So many things would change now. I wanted this, I reminded myself.

  I called to Ember through our connection. Scampering through the destroyed garden of torn petals and sharp thorns, my familiar came to me. She put her soft paws on my leg and I picked her up, stroking her fur. I knew I had let her down. Because I trusted someone more than I trusted her instincts, she was hurt. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you,” I whispered. “You knew all along that Malex was a beast, didn’t you?” I whispered.

  She rubbed her head against my palm, instantly forgiving me. I just wondered if it would be possible to one day forgive myself for all the damage that had been done. Ember left me and curled up against Phillip. That night, I watched them sleep from a chair in the corner, where I could keep an eye out. Just in case I hadn’t really ended Malex.

  I saw him burn and then scattered the ashes of his form across the land, but fae were supposed to be immortal. What if we hadn’t really taken all of his powers, and he still had that gift? I cringed to think that I’d be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life—which, now that I thought about it, wouldn’t end. Would it?

  Glancing at Phillip, my heart broke again as the realization set in. He was mortal. I would have to watch him age and eventually, I would have to watch him die. I knew I would outlive him, but by how long? Eternity didn’t have an ending. If I was immortal, the time that parted us would stretch into infinity.

  Would that be worse than watching him give his heart to another woman? I wasn’t sure yet, but one day I would find out.

  The morning sun shone on my face as I sat in a chair by the window. “You’re still awake,” Phillip mumbled. Even his voice was tired. He hadn’t been part of the battle, but the adrenaline alone had taken its toll.

  “Your ribs are hurting,” I said. “I’ll go to the cottage. None of my ingredients are here.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I’ll try to make sure it works faster. I’m sure you’ll want to get home,” I said quietly.

  He swallowed, sheepish. “I need to let my family know I’m alive, and that William is dead.”

  He didn’t say he would come back to me, and I knew he wouldn’t want to. I had nothing to offer him. He didn’t need my protection now. He was free, and I was nothing more than a c
age; a witch that everyone feared, a monster—especially now that I had so much power thrumming beneath my skin and pounding through my veins.

  “There should be more clothes for you somewhere in this place. They won’t be as fine as yours, but they’ll be clean,” I offered.

  He nodded and sat up. “I’ll find them.”

  “Sit still before you puncture a lung. I’ll find something for you and then we’ll go.”

  I eased the broom down in front of my cottage and Ember leapt down from Phillip’s arms. Pieces, who’d flown with us, landed on one of my window sills.

  “Are you going to stay here or go back to the palace?” he asked, clutching his side.

  “I’m not sure yet.”

  “Take your time. You don’t have to decide today, this week, or this year if you don’t want to.”

  I tried to smile. “I have all the time in the world now.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know this would happen to you when she died.” His words tore into me.

  “I didn’t either.” And now I was bound to a fate I didn’t know was possible, and didn’t want. Living alone forever would be an even worse fate than being tethered to my twin and suffering from the intolerable seasonal slumbers.

  “You’re strong, you know. It’ll be okay in time.”

  I nodded, even though I didn’t share his assessment. “I know. Let’s go inside. I need my spell book.”

  This time, he came into the spell room with me and watched as I made the concoction that would heal him. When I finished, he drank the liquid down without questioning me or thinking twice about it. He knew I would never hurt him. As he drank, his eyes begged me for something. Understanding, maybe?

  I understood why he had to leave, but it didn’t mean I had to like it, or that it wasn’t crushing me. I felt like parts of me were breaking apart and falling away, scattering to the wind like the ashes of my father did. Not for the first time, I wished it had been me that Malex killed first.

  “Let’s get you home,” I said finally.

  He pursed his lips and nodded. “Will you drop me in the forest?”