by Zoe Parker
As the smoke clears, I look down at the still body of the king. With Life’s help I was twice as strong as Light and managed to do more than simply reset him. I knocked him back to creation. He’s been reduced to the essence of a ray of sunlight. Watching the body twitch as Light’s Magiks seek an escape, is fitting considering what he’s done. One last twitch and the Light starts to seep out of the body into the air, but I’m ready for it. It gathers in a cloud above the body and before it can stream up into the sky, I snag it with my shadows. Drinking him down into the heart of darkness.
Light is no more.
21
The fiends gave me their all, literally. Every single one of them connected to me and fought as long as they could alongside me. For a while we held our own, hacking our way through Schoth after Schoth, but some of them could fend us off. Attacking us back, the fiends blocked as much of the damage as they could but now, they’re drained and I’m having a hard time communicating with them. I really hope that none of them died. I can’t bear anyone else dying for me.
Forcing my head to turn to the side, I watch Phobe run at Light with a new power in his eyes. When they clash an explosion rocks the entire field. Everyone near it is thrown back and my ears ring from the force of it. Eager to see him, but too weak to move, my eyes strain to see him in the fog of dirt and smoke. After what feels like an eternity of trying in vain, my eyes become heavy and no matter how much, I fight they start to close.
Death is calling me once again.
Memories boil to the surface, pulling me down into their depths. My mom’s smiling face as she reaches for me. My dad who’s fighting his own war—blowing raspberries on my cheeks and sneaking me chocolates. Alagard, teasing me with a sword he says I’m too big to carry. Jameson, talking about his plants and potions and another of him hiding a dirty magazine behind his back, as I walk by his open bedroom door.
Ruthie smiling at me that first time. Little Knox… gods, little Knox. He’ll be safe, the humans took him back to the Sidhe, there they can help him after what happened. Michael with his pink cheeks and quick mind. The gorgon babies finding loving parents. So many people have come and gone through my life and now I’m seeing them all. Face after face whizzes through my mind as I try to slow it down and hold onto them.
My father’s voice cries out my name, full of anguish and anger. He can’t get to me but he’s trying so hard. I love my daddy, and I’m thankful that I got to see him before… before it’s all over.
Whatever god is listening, keep the rest of them as safe as possible. I won’t be here to watch them.
22
Running to her, I kneel at her side and get a sick sense of déjà vu as I pull her onto my knees. The darkness inside of her that once fought so hard to help her live, is now smothered underneath the cursed Magiks of the collar that still remains despite Light’s demise. The spell on it wasn’t created by him and he had no power over it.
“Do something Darkness! Please… do not let my daughter perish when I’ve only just found her!” Sergean yells, kneeling beside us in the bloody mud. His voice is full of grief, he knows she’s at the cusp of her final breaths.
Life’s words float through my mind. A memory from us both. Half a brain can survive… The epiphany hits me almost as hard as tasting her the first time. Cradling her face in my hands, I turn her head to look into her eyes. They open and widen in surprise.
“Not that I’m… bitching about seeing you… but how?”
“Life gave himself to me,” I answer.
“That… sounds kinky,” she teases. Swallowing, her eyes dim even more. “Did we win?”
“Oh, yeah,” I reassure her.
“Awesome. Can you… make sure they’re not… assholes?” she asks and I smile despite the situation. Leave it to her to worry about them even as she lay dying. But I have other plans.
She sees her dad, who has silent tears tracking down his cheeks and says, “Hey daddy, I was just thinking about you… did you ever get that… hooker?” Sergean chokes on a laugh that sounds suspiciously like a sob. I look at him and he nods.
Leaning down he kisses her forehead and whispers something in her ear and then once again he’s gone. Pulled back to his realm by the rules that hold his as much prisoner as the stone ever did me. We might have to fix that one day soon, with Life gone—things can change.
Focusing completely on Iza I ask, “Are you ready to fly with me away from all of this?” Her eyebrow goes up and I kiss her bloody mouth.
Her breathing labors as she takes gasping breaths in between every few words. “I’d love to but there’s this… whole ‘dead’ thing in the… way.” As if I’d let death take her from me. I kiss her again and pull her closer to me. My shadows caress her and slip inside of her soul.
I made the decision the moment she told me that she didn’t want to be the Shepherd anymore. Now, I tell her. “Licar will be king, Auryn his queen. You’re free, Iza,” I whisper against her mouth. Internally, I’m looking for all traces of her that makes her Feyrie.
“That’s… good. They don’t need monsters,” she coughs wetly, “like you and I… anymore. They need healing and guidance. All… we’re good for is… death.” She’s right and she’s wrong, but it doesn’t matter anymore. “Shame we don’t get… that happy ending the… movies talk about.” She sounds so lost saying it that I want to give it to her even more. We may not get the happy ending her books and movies portray, because we will always have to fight, but that doesn't mean we can’t try.
“Let’s start with a happy for now,” I whisper.
She smiles again. “Hey… I can dig that. Especially, if there’s… sex and cheeseburgers involved.”
“Anything.” I push more shadows into her and finally find all the darkness inside of her, it welcomes me like a long lost lover.
“Phobe… what are you doing?”
“Possibly killing you,” I reply honestly. She shrugs and gives me one of those smiles that has everything that makes up her dear, little, wicked heart.
“I don’t mind… dying in your arms. You’ll never be able to shake… enough of the guilt to get… another girlfriend.” I laugh, I can’t help it. This is Iza I’m holding in my arms.
My smile fades. “Until I met you I was alone. Always alone. I didn’t even realize how much so until you smiled at me for the first time. I’m not going back to that, Iza. Instead,” I swallow the darkness inside of her, “I’m going to make you like I am.”
“You can do that?”
“I hope.”
“That’s a word… you don’t say… often.” She coughs again and I hold her tighter against me. “I don’t know whether to be nervous or… happy you said it.”
“You won’t be connected to your Feyrie anymore.” Not that I care about her connection with them, but she needs to understand this change.
“Psh, they don’t need me anymore… and I… don’t need them.” I raise an eyebrow at that statement, she doesn’t sound upset by the prospect.
Standing, I pull her with me to her feet and like ripping a bandaid off I pull every single cell of the darkness out of her and shove my essence back in its place. Her mouth opens in a scream as she they spread out into every atom of her being.
We stand there for hours as I pour everything I can spare into her. As each ragged cry leaves her, until she’s hoarse from it, I hold her tight to me. As the sun sets her cries lessen and then stop altogether. Her eyes snap open as the collar unlatches and falls from her neck. The battered skin where it laid beneath it, heals immediately. When she looks at me, with wide swirling black eyes, I can see the stars of eternity in them.
Elation fills me. It worked.
“Does this mean I get to eat people?” I chuckle because she sounds so excited about the prospect. I pull her into a hug and hold her tight as my wings unfurl and we rise into the dusky sky.
Sensing she’s still waiting for an answer, I say, “Yes, your powers will need to be fed.” She looks below us at
the crowd of Feyrie forming and then looks at me and frowns.
“Do you want to say goodbye?” I ask.
“Yes.” She frowns and her own wings unfurl and after a second of confusion, she gives them a few experimental flaps. She really does learn fast—at everything but swimming. I release her and she hovers there, getting her bearings, before gliding clumsily towards the ground to float a few feet above their heads.
“Licar, Auryn, you will watch over them now. I have other things to do.”
“But we need you—“ Auryn starts to say.
Iza cuts her off and says, “Na, the war is over. They need someone like you to put them back together and guide them. This world is now your home and the humans here know you exist.” She smiles sadly. “Give our fallen their due.” Iza beats her wings a few times and rises clumsily into the air. Midway to me, she stops again and turns to look at the Feyrie.
Pointing a finger at them she warns, “But if you ever turn into power hungry assholes, you’ll see me again.” Then she roars and her new—now, true—face is shown in all its glory. Their deep silence erupts into cheers. With it echoing behind her she crookedly flies to where I’m hovering, watching her.
Coming even with me she says, “You know, there’s a few people I need to visit—here and in that place we met.” I kiss her and as I do the universe is laid out before me. A portal opens above us and the darkness welcomes us home.
Epilogue
“Oh, yeah. Phobe, I have something to tell you.” Her voice echoes in the darkness of the portals we’re traveling.
“What?” I ask dreading her answer. I can no longer force my way into her mind, in the eyes of creation—we’re equals.
“Well, now that I know the fiends are okay, I discovered that a few of them are pregnant, and I promised I’d help them deliver their adorable little babies.” That is not what I expected her to say.
“Are you fucking serious?” Only Iza would think flesh eating demons are adorable.
“What? I’ve heard those forlorn bustards of yours getting it on with them ever since you came back from the dead. Their enthusiasm gives me a fucking headache.”
“Iza.”
“Well, it’s best to get these things out in the open.” She looks around her and makes a face. “I don’t want to live in this place either. This whole floating around in the dark thing makes me feel like a turd in the toilet bowl.” She pauses and I hide a smile. “I need a soft bed too, I’ve gotten used to them.” She’s come a long way from someone who lived in a cell and slept on a filthy floor.
“You don’t need to sleep,” I remind her.
“Yeah, but there are plenty of other things we can do on it.” My smile slips free this time. “And showering, I love showering. And now I can walk around naked without anyone getting all weird about it.” She stops and swings around to grab my arms. “Wait! Does this mean I have to give up real food?” she demands.
By the look on her face, she’s acting like she’s being told she’s going to die again. I sigh. “No, but you don’t need it to survive anymore.”
She continues on, “I need TV! The last season of Supernatural will be on soon and I can’t live without seeing it.”
“Iza,” I say patiently.
“You and I both know that it's better for me—and everyone else—if I have things to keep me occupied, because when I’m bored, I accidentally break things.” I won’t tell her that I like it when she breaks things, sometimes even when it's me. I’ll let her discover it herself.
“You can have whatever you desire.” Those words might very well come back to haunt me one day.
“Good. This means we can live in the hotel in Vegas. I can go play the machines and see more of that shadow where they’re naked on a trapeze,” she says in an animated voice.
“Beg pardon?” I don’t know whether to laugh or be a little bothered she wants to see nude people.
“They paint their bodies with glitter that shines like unicorn poop in those disco lights all along the stage.” She starts flying again, reassured her life will have things in it that bring her comfort—including me. “Do you think I can be good enough to be one of those trapeze people? I hear rich old men pay big bucks to eat sushi off them.” Sure, if she wants me to kill them. “Na, never mind, I’d end up killing one of them for touching me in the wrong spot.” And that is a perfect example of one of the many reasons I love her.
If anyone ever tries to take her away from me again, I’ll do worse than kill them. I’ll cover them in glitter and put them on a damn trapeze, then kill them.
“Are you thinking about killing people?” I grunt, she caught me there. She swings around again and wraps her arms around my neck. “You’re so hot,” she teases and kisses me. When she pulls away and smiles, it’s all teeth and dark promises. “Can we have sex in this place?”
Laughing, I pull her legs around my waist. “We can try.”
Her laughter makes me realize that it’s possible for monsters like us to find happiness, especially in moments like this. It won’t always be the case, we are what we are, but I’m holding my soul in my arms and that’s good enough for me.
I plan to keep ahold of her from now until eternity.
THE END
Acknowledgments
This concludes the Facets of Feyrie Series. The true end of a series is always a sad thing. The world you immerse yourself in, is gone. Part of me is sad, but another part is satisfied that I did it as much justice as I could. I let them live through words and made them into something that some people can dream about one day. I hope that you enjoyed this series and traveled and cried and raged along with Iza and Phobe. This journey started twenty-years ago and ended with what I’d consider a bang. And a sort of Happy Ending. So I might have fibbed about no happy endings, yeah?
Thanks for coming with me.
About Zoe Parker
Zoe is the type of person that thinks that writing about herself in third person is giggle worthy. She also laughs at those T-REX costumes that flap about when you run. Zoe has a hard time writing about normal things and has a soft spot for the antihero and the monster in the closet. For all we know they're lonely and trying to make friends. They're just doing it badly. She also likes pickles and peanut butter, yuck.
Www.zoeparkerbooks.com
https://www.facebook.com/ZoeParkerAuthor
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ZoesSavagesquad
Also by Zoe Parker
Facets of Feyrie Series - Urban Fantasy
Elusion, Book One
Ascension, Book Two
Deception, Book Three
Obliteration, Book Four
A (RH), multiple-mayhem series, The Fate Caller Series:
Cadence of Ciar, Book One
Rhythm of Rime, Book Two
Unsylum Series
Up with the Crows - Book One
As the Crow Flies - Book Two