“Come on, Dilan!” Artur yelled at him again from the field below, where he played kickball with a group of other boys. “Hurry, or we’ll lose!”
“Coming!” Dilan yelled, his heart filled with joy as he raced down the hill.
Chapter 66
Serina
The Dain woman’s blood was wonderfully filling, particularly after Serina had drained herself casting the spell that had dispelled the shrikes. She paused now, drawing back and savoring the moment, knowing that the last of Stron’s line was ending. Although her victory was complete, Serina still felt as if she had missed… something, some nagging detail. The Dain woman had been weak, barely able to move when she had caught her, but the only injuries Serina could see were oozing punctures on her—
Vertigo swept through Serina, causing the chamber to tilt and spin. Her fingers suddenly clumsy, she dropped the Dain woman and staggered back, feeling as if she were drunk. “What… what’s happening to me?”
She looked about in astonishment, now paying attention to the spiderwebs for the first time. Her gaze snapped to the Dain woman, still somehow alive and fumbling before a… a nell spider carcass! Wedged behind rubble and wrapped in webs, it had escaped her notice before. But… She inhaled in ice-cold realization. “You were poisoned.”
Now I’m poisoned!
She heard a sucking noise as the Dain woman suddenly pulled something free of the carcass, then she lifted Sight-Bringer into the air, its broken blade dripping with blue spider blood. Attuned to the occult, Serina felt the sword’s magic flow through the woman, giving her strength. Her rage flared, and she darted at the woman, but instead she fell to her knees. “Kill you… thousand times, Dain bitch,” she snarled as she pulled herself along the stone floor. “I’ll—”
The final death of Dilan Reese ripped through her, tearing apart their psychic connection, as if someone had just ripped an unborn babe from her womb. She screamed in pain and loss, her anguished howl reverberating within the enclosed space. When she could finally speak again, her lips were numb and thick from the poison. “Strip… skin from… bones, niece of Stron.”
But the other woman now knelt before the jewel case, holding Sight-Bringer with two hands, its jagged knifelike point over her still-beating heart. Terror swept through Serina for the first time since she had become a blood fiend in the monastery on Echo Island when she had sealed her bargain with Ator, the Dark Shark, ritually slaughtering not only the kingdom’s foul, bleating monks, but also the sons of the Fenyir chieftains sent to learn the monks’ ways. She held out a trembling hand in a desperate attempt to forestall the woman. “Wait, niece of Stron.”
The woman glared over her shoulder at her with hard brown eyes. “My name is Danika Dain, and your family’s line will end before mine.” She plunged the broken sword into Serina’s heart.
“No!” Serina screamed in agony, her chest a burning brand of fire where her heart should have been. Her outstretched arm turned to dust and fell apart. Her last sight was of bright-green flames shooting up around her heart and Sight-Bringer, as a triumphant Danika Dain fell away. Then blackness consumed her, and in a single horrific epiphany, she understood the full price of the bargain she had made so long ago. Her soul—stained with Ator’s dark kiss as the first blood fiend—was banned from Nifalgen and the afterlife. Because she had given herself willingly to her dark master, she’d never be reborn as a black fish, never find peace. Then, whipping past her, she felt the euphoric release of hundreds of souls, all those damned by her magic. Their cries of joy flayed her as they escaped. Chief among them were the yarls Taios Oak-Heart and Vengir Flat-Nose, laughing as they swam to Nifalgen to embrace their eternity.
Chapter 67
Danika
Danika fell to her side as green fire consumed Serina’s heart. Sight-Bringer remained upright in the case, the occult flames blackening its white handle. Without the sword’s magic, her fatigue rushed back on her, forcing her eyes to close. She lay there in darkness now, barely breathing, so… cold. She had done it: Serina Greywynne, the Blood Queen, was dead. Then strong fingers gently took her hand, held it in the darkness. She shuddered in joy at the touch of that calloused hand she knew so intimately. “Said… you were… leaving.”
Brice Awde pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her and holding her as he had so many times before. His lips pressed against hers in a perfect kiss. “I couldn’t cross the Golden Veil,” he breathed into her mouth, “not without you.”
She snorted softly, smiling despite the cold. “Knew… it.”
He held her in silence for a time, her heartbeat slowing. “I did it, Brice,” she whispered, no longer certain if she had actually spoken aloud. “Me.”
“I’m so proud of you. You did your duty.”
“Yes… What… now?”
“Now you keep your promise and come with me.”
“Yes.”
His love was a bonfire, banishing the chill of death as they slipped away together.
Epilogue
Owen
Owen stood atop Iron Beard’s towering steering platform, leaning over the gunwale, staring morosely at the island. Emptiness consumed him, an aching hole gouged out of his soul. The Dains were gone, their line ended. Danika’s safety had been his responsibility, even if she had released him from his oath.
And he had failed her.
Once again, his gaze fell upon the grassy bluff overlooking the beach. They had buried Danika there next to a single pine tree, Sight-Bringer’s blackened hilt atop her chest as befitted a dead knight. After all, if the sword belonged to anyone, it belonged with her—the true hero of the Dain family. The jewel case and blood gems remained in the tower, untouched, forever tainted by Serina’s evil. They could remain there until the world moved on and Torin Island sank beneath the waters.
He felt Fioni watching him from behind, her hand resting upon the steering tiller as what was left of Fen Wolf’s crew, helped by a dozen of Galas’s men, rowed the drake-ship toward the Mouth of the Gods and the Feral Sea.
Kora and the others had found Iron Beard abandoned. Later, when Galas’s men straggled out of the forest, they easily took them prisoner. When Owen and Fioni had finally made their way back to the beach as well, Fioni had accepted their surrender and ordered them freed, insisting they were still Waveborn, and with Galas dead, it was time to forgive. Owen didn’t particularly trust them, but they had no real choice. Even with their help, sailing Iron Beard with so few hands would be a challenge.
Fioni, however, had insisted she’d get them all home.
Home.
Ekkie’s happy grunt dispelled some of his melancholy. She lay near Fioni’s feet, and Owen found himself smiling despite his heartache. After Fioni and he had made it back to the ship, they had returned to the city, searching the temple and the ruins for more survivors, but the only one they had found was Ekkie, whining beneath a pile of corpses. Perhaps the poison had saved her life, fooling the monsters into thinking she was already dead. Owen didn’t know, but it was a blessing just the same—something he desperately needed at this moment. The corpses of all the others, both Fioni and Galas’s crew, they burned. No doubt, the souls of their friends were already swimming to Nifalgen.
“Owen,” said Fioni hesitatingly, her voice filled with sorrow. “There was nothing you could do. You do know this, no?”
“I promised I’d bring her home,” he said, pain shuddering through him.
“Oh, Owen,” she said, leaving the tiller to hold him from behind, her arms around his waist, her face buried in his neck. “Some promises can’t be kept.”
His shoulders trembled, but he nodded. “She did it, destroyed the greatest evil the kingdom has ever faced—and no one will ever know.”
“We know,” she whispered into the back of his neck. “And we will never forget.” She kissed his cheek.
He stared once more at the bluff, with its single lonely tree.
“What now, Owen?” she asked, a slight tr
emor in her voice. “I promised I’d bring you to King’s Hold, bring you home.”
Turning toward her, he cupped her chin and turned her face toward his, staring into her beautiful green eyes. “I am home, Fioni Ice-Bound,” he said, knowing it for truth the moment he gave voice to it.
Fioni kissed him hard, crushing him in her happiness. Ekkie jumped to her feet and barked happily, jumping up against them. Owen winced. “My ribs, woman. Be careful!”
“Don’t be such a guppy,” she said happily.
He smiled, holding her as they approached the Mouth of the Gods.
THE END
<<<>>>
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BLACK MONASTERY
An outlaw Viking clashes with a demon that flays and wears the skins of its victims…
Viking warband leader Asgrim has been banned from his homeland. His only hope of redemption is to raise a princely blood debt. When he learns of a great treasure hidden away on a Frankish Island, he thinks fate has given him one more chance. But Asgrim has been tricked. Deep beneath the stones of the mysterious Black Monastery, an unearthly evil has been set free. Asgrim must team with a suspected Frankish witch to stop a demonic force before it's unleashed upon the world.
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STARLIGHT (BOOK 1 OF THE DARK ELF WAR)
A secret power. The revival of magic. An ancient evil stirs.
Twenty-year-old university dropout Cassie Rogan has returned to her small British Columbia home. Tortured by an accident that killed her parents, she drifts, failing life at every turn. When an impossibly localized lightning storm hits the surrounding forest, Cassie discovers her supernatural side. After centuries of atrophy, the forces of magic are flowing back into our world, and Cassie can wield arcane powers. Her life seems destined to turn around, until the downside of magic brings everything to a screeching halt. Horrifying mythical beasts now prowl the northern wilderness—including the Basilisk—an enormous eight-legged lizard that can turn its prey to stone. Recruited by a secretive agency, Cassie must quickly master her powers to protect mankind. As she develops her skills, a dark power secretly watches from the shadows. The Fae Seelie (a.k.a. the Dark Elves)—humanity's ancient enemy—have returned to settle the score.
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William Stacey is a former Canadian army intelligence officer who served his country for more than thirty years with operational tours in Bosnia and Afghanistan. He is a husband, father, and avid reader, with a love for the macabre. Black Monastery, an Amazon 2014 Breakthrough Novel Award Quarter-Finalist, was his first novel.
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The Vampire Queen Saga: Books 1-3: (The Vampire Queen Saga Boxset) Page 85