by Elle Lincoln
And Casseus. I hope he fucking found Logan.
“Why don’t you go ahead and tell Bette your plans, Father.” She moves around him, her steps quiet but sure, her body holding a confidence she never held before.
“Kelsie.” Ryoden’s eyes dart to the castle.
We aren’t alone.
I sent the thought out to the guys, my eyes straying toward the castle. This whole glamour bullshit really fucks with me. I have no idea who is there or who isn’t. Something I didn’t consider before.
A military commander I am not. But then, why did Balor go for it?
Yer healing.
Patrick’s voice whispers in my mind. My hand prods the sensitive skin of my neck where Ryoden sliced me. It’s tender but healing.
How? I question Patrick.
Link to me.
Well, and there we have it. My marks paid off. Now, I just need to figure out what the hell Kelsie is doing with her father.
“Ryoden, where’s Mab?” I bet she’s in the castle.
He flutters his hands and shrugs.
Kelsie laughs, answering for him. “She’s in the castle, isn’t she father? I wouldn’t mind meeting my grandfather’s mistress.” Yet she never once takes her eyes from him.
“Kelsie, stop this!” I groan at hearing her mother’s voice. She just couldn’t stay hidden and out of sight, working her witchy magic, taking down glamour and shit.
With that eye roll, Kelsie looks like she feels the same damn way. “Mother.”
Ryoden also seems annoyed by the family reunion, and with a jerk of his chin, Ceth comes out wearing her slinky fabric, her nipples showing. She still makes me feel inadequate in my leather leggings and smoky cloak. But she is an evil fucking cunt and I’m marginally less evil, so I’ve got that going for me.
I think.
“Well, Father?” Kelsie brings us back to the present as Ceth and her mom talk in hushed tones. They look way too friendly for my liking. Immortals...
“Fine, I want Bette to bring the Fae to their deserved glory,” he mumbles, sighing like it’s no big deal.
“You enslave anyone you consider beneath you. Why the fuck would I even bother helping you?” I pinch the bridge of my nose.
“Your grandmother of course.”
My stomach drops out. There’s no way. I try to send a pulse of the Sluagh through the grounds, but the poison weakens me. I can’t dissolve. I try to shift, but it’s no fucking use.
“Kelsie, explain,” I grind out.
“Why? He just wants me dead.”
“Because you have too much power!” Ryoden yells.
“And you don’t?” Kelsie screams back at him.
“You are an abomination that needs to die.” His eyes turn ice-cold. Odd for a summer Fae.
“There it is, your insanity,” Kelsie muses. “That’s my future. It’s my future.” She holds up her hand where a pulse emits, knocking the knives from the hands of all who hold them.
Balor storms down the mountain. He could have broken loose at any moment and didn’t. Why?
A banshee wails, the sound piercing my ears as Fae storm out of the castle and woods all aiming for us.
“I will not fight them!” I scream to Balor.
He nods in approval. Mac slides up beside me and Patrick. “You’re almost healed, can you shift yet?”
“No. We’re stuck.” Frustration eats at me as hundreds of feet pound the ground. Kelsie steps back, watching, with her arms crossed and an impassive expression on her face.
Children fucking run out. Children. I turn to Ryoden. “Call them off.”
“No.”
I close my eyes as Balor, Mac, and Patrick fight off the Fae, disarming them and knocking them out. I hate this. I fucking hate it all.
My darkness rises with my adrenaline. She seeps, out seeking the source as my eyes bulge as a child runs toward me, tears in his fucking eyes. I will never kill another soul again. My darkness shoots out, spearing Ryoden. Without protection this time, his soul calls to me like a moth to a flame.
No light emits, no goodness. It’s a wasteland of sorrow. Of torture and pain. Branding hundreds who deserve freedom and peace. Love and hope. They all deserve so much more than this shit show. I dig away at his soul as his first scream pierces the air.
“No!” Kelsie’s roar follows.
My cloak billows out around me as the Sluagh draw in close, protecting me. If she nears me then they will destroy her. My heart aches at the fact. One she knows as she yells in frustration, pacing just beyond my circle.
I dig deeper, chipping away at the sins, finding the ones I want. The brands.
The earth rumbles as Aeden shows up. He stands just beyond my circle, watching us and Kelsie.
Further and further until I find the fucking link I want. There. I pull the threads, one by fucking one, until I hold thousands of them in my hands. Yet I cannot transfer them to me. We are too different, our species similar and yet apart.
“Transfer to Balor.” I barely hear Aeden’s voice past the rush of wind Kelsie creates. His body teeters, struggling to stand.
I try, but Balor is too different.
My eyes land on Kelsie. Her eyes crazed. My choices are limited. In which evil hands do I place these innocent lives’ into? I scream. My voice caught in the whirling mess. My hair snaps against my face. My body trembles in anger.
It just isn’t fucking fair. Magic and power. Its ugly nature contorts people toward insanity. Their lives wrecked by choices made while riding a magical high.
But the choice is stolen from me. The threads snap. Yanked from my hands. My eyes widen as a knife pierces Ryoden’s chest. His eyes wide and confused.
I release the Sluagh.
He falls to his knees, his face turning to catch sight of his murderer. Kelsie. Her head is thrown back as his magic pours into her, strengthening her.
“Aeden, do something!” He grasps Kelsie around the waist, magic pouring from him, until everything stops. The wind dies. Rocks fall to the earth. The valley becomes lost to a vacuum, eating all the sound.
Kelsie’s face contorts into a silent scream as Aeden falls to his knees. I watch him. With a flutter, he opens his eyes, looking at me. He nods once before the earth opens, stealing him from view.
“You had him bind me.” Kelsie’s voice is nothing but pain.
“You tried to use my guys to do your bidding. You kidnapped Logan!” I yell at her, my voice raw.
“He’s alive, isn’t he?”
“That isn’t the point and you fucking know that.” I take a step toward her.
“Don’t fucking touch me.” Her eyes blaze. “You have no idea what you’ve done.” The venom in her tone tears at my heart.
“You could have come to me.”
“I did! I set your house on fire!”
I blink away my surprise. “You killed your grandfather, didn’t you?”
“They all wanted to kill me. All of them. You’ve left Mab alive.” I swear I see shadows lurk in her eyes.
“You could have asked for my help. Not burnt down my house.”
“That was me asking.” Her voice sounds defeated as she tries to convince me. “I’m going to die now. That blood will be on your hands.” She stumbles to her feet.
“Kelsie, stop.” How is it she is making me feel bad about this? She is the one who started this fucked up journey.
“No.” She limps away toward the tree line and waves her hands over a bush. There, one of those fucking portals opens.
“How?”
“I needed a backup plan in case everything went sideways.” Her baby blue eyes meet mine.
“Kelsie, let us work through this.”
“You killed me.” Her body stumbles and falls through the portal, closing and taking her with it.
Numb. No words describe the feeling coursing through me. No words will ever describe that heart-wrenching feeling. A warm palm lands on my shoulder, moving slowly up my neck to tilt my head. My eyes, unseeing,
feel him more than see him.
“Balor.” My voice chokes, scratchy and raw with emotion. “I didn’t...”
“Our choices are few in the precious moments we have to make them. The only one at fault here is Kelsie.” I turn to him, my eyes adjusting to see his face, which is strained with beads of sweat cascading down his cheek. His words spring forth from that innate knowledge buried deep inside of him.
“I didn’t...” I repeat.
“You didn’t kill ‘er.” Patrick stumbles over to us, blood pooling down his leg.
“Patrick!” The sight of his blood snaps me back to reality.
“Just a flesh wound.” He flutters his hands around, dismissing my concern.
Mac comes to his side, a ball of water in his hands that he promptly throws at Patrick’s leg. “There.”
I watch in fascination as the blood slows and Patrick lifts his leg to a healing wound. “I could have used that earlier,” I point out.
“You healed just fine,” Mac says with a wince.
“What was in that blade?” I lean down, picking up one left on the ground, but Patrick slaps it out of my hand.
“My guess, he roasted one of the forgotten into the metal,” he growls. “We need to collect those. Hide them somewhere.” Patrick walks off, picking up the knives as he goes.
“I’ll help,” Mac states before heading off.
“Do we know how the others made out?” My gut churns at not knowing what is going on with Casseus and Logan.
“Not yet.” Balor turns to the castle. “But there’s one issue we need to deal with now.”
I follow his eyes toward the castle. “What happens here?”
“It’s Kelsie’s birthright. She’s the Summer Queen. She holds the reins to all of these people.” Balor begins to walk toward the gate.
“What do we do?”
“What’s done is done. There is nothing more for us here. They will survive.”
All around us, Fae stand, dropping the weapons they held. Their cries echo across the valley. Some look unsure as they rush for their homes, while others are relieved and celebrating. I hope their happiness is well placed.
“Do you believe Kelsie will reign?” My gut is torn on that answer.
“I have no idea how she is going to survive, to be honest.” He glances down at me shrugging unapologetically.
“Us?” Because I can’t worry about Kelsie anymore. I can’t allow her words, no matter how deep they cut, to have any weight on my future. She made her choices. I can’t be held responsible for them and I won’t allow it.
“Hold that thought.” Balor opens a door to the castle. Inside, the quiet overwhelms the senses. “Ceth! Mab! I know you are in here.”
“Come to gloat?” Ceth stands by a window, staring out.
“No.”
“You didn’t use your eye.” She sips from a wine glass, her eyes puffy. I assume she’s pissed things didn’t go her way.
“There are battles that don’t require such destruction.” He crosses his arms, staring her down. “You don’t belong here.”
“Where would you have me go?” She sloshes wine from her glass in anger.
“These people need to rebuild without fear. You instill fear.”
“I didn’t always, you know.”
“I know,” he replies softly. “Find your future and embrace it.”
She points at me. “Like you have with others?”
The smile that spreads across his face is full of happiness and love. “Yeah, I have.”
“You can’t reign here either.” She throws back the wine before heading to the door.
“I don’t intend to, now where is Mab?”
“Gone! Said she had somewhere to be.” She snorts, mumbling under her breath about cowards before slamming the door shut.
“That doesn’t sound good,” I muse.
“No. It doesn’t.” He sweeps me up in his arms. “As for us? I intend to have forever.”
Chapter 25
Casseus
At Long Last
I glide under Ember, riding her gusts as her heavy wings flap. My mind shuts out all emotion and connection with the others as I emulate the mercenary I was all those years ago. My mind is laser focused.
Ember’s body slows as she glides down toward the coast. The scent of the sea assaults my senses, reminding me of Mac. I shut it away, unable to think about that just yet. She leads me toward a small lighthouse. Dead in this world, her beacon of light shattered without electricity.
I shift as I land, keeping low before turning to Ember. “Hide.” Her body shimmers, disappearing from view. “Eat anyone who nears.”
Her answering chortle is full of smoke, grinding like gears.
Wind whips around my face as I near the door. I’m not sure how desperate Kelsie had been, so I don’t know what I’m walking into. It could be a trap she led Ember to, yet it doesn’t make any sense. How would she know? She wouldn’t.
I test the door, twisting the rusted metal, salt having damaged the handle beyond repair. I push through, keeping low as the door squeaks open, echoing into the hollow space inside.
Outside, clouds rumble, announcing a storm with hard, crashing waves that spray the side of the lighthouse. Mist filters in, dampening the area and spreading mold.
No sound reaches me, and I begin to wonder if Ember was wrong.
Cracked brick tinkles down to the flow with each spray of mist. The spiral staircase winds upward with a rusted railing and chipped paint. Once, long ago, this place shown with the splendor of her time. But now, she is nothing more than a haunted, dilapidated building with nothing left to give the world.
A lone table sits off to the right along the curved wall. There, a key sits upon a piece of paper. My body straightens as I walk over. The key is nothing special, just a piece of bronze. Yet it’s the paper that sends a chill creeping up my spine. My hand reaches out, lifting the damp edges that sit just beyond the reach of the spray, yet still succumbs to humidity.
Inside, the words are blurred, but still easy to read.
Casseus,
Logan and Landon are locked in the storm cellar just a short walk up the path. Forgive the silver. There are creatures among the coast that would have attacked if they knew they were there. You’ll pass through a ward, but don’t worry, it won’t zap you. Once that key turns in the lock, you will no longer be shielded from those who live along the coast.
This place is special. You’ll find a white house if you fly north a few miles. Take caution, those who live there are unsavory. But hidden inside is a treasure you’ve been seeking for quite some time.
I know you all believe I’ve lost my mind, and a part of me has. Bette needs to believe I hate her. Yet she will always be the best part of me. She may not know it, but her shenanigans gave me life. Now, I’m caught in a storm of power that I can no longer control. By now Aeden has bound my powers and that’s for the best. One day, I’ll come back and talk with Bette, but she cannot find me. Her control is already forming, and she will be an incredible leader as she walks side by side with those she protects. The lessons of the past are needed to allow us to move forward. A necessary evil, if you will.
Those who died at her hands were placed there by me. With either her death or theirs, I will always choose her.
I’m not going to ask for forgiveness when I return, because each step was for a reason. You may not like that reason, but it’s mine.
Your future is beautiful, embrace it. I’ll be around.
K
I let the letter flutter to the ground, unsure how to handle the words written upon the pages. As it touches the floor, flames shoot out, leaving nothing but ash that the spray dampens and extinguishes.
I leave the lighthouse behind, seeing the path that spirals through trees to a storm cellar, just as described in her letter. The bronze key cuts into my skin as I try to make sense of everything. Did Kelsie set everything up, playing us like a chessboard? Her goal, to what? Get us to mov
e forward and take over the territory?
The realization burns my mind as I lift the cellar door. Every fucking thing that occurred over the past week has been nothing but a setup. Leading us toward awareness of our strengths, our weaknesses, and a future that we now know we want.
Together. Leading immortals and mortals alike to a new future. A future that wouldn’t have been possible with Ryoden and his father enslaving everyone he felt was beneath him. As for Mab? She was a complication I don’t think anyone expected. Nor Ceth. But perhaps they have moved past their poisoned thoughts. If not, then we will be there to police every creature hellbent on a power trip. Even if it means one of us.
I step into the damp cellar, spiderwebs pulling at the strands of my hair. No, not spiderwebs, the ward. Just beyond, a witch globe sits, lighting a cell made of silver bars. Inside, Logan and Landon sleep separated by bars. The key slide quietly into both locks. Neither wake. Either they exhausted themselves trying to escape or they were catching up.
“Goooooood morning!” I shout, startling the wolves to shoot straight up and growl at me.
“Cas?” Logan rubs the grit from his sleepy eyes.
“The one and only, thank fucking God.” I cross my arms with a smile on my face. “Napping, boys?”
The two stand side by side, alike in so many ways, but the dimple in Landon’s cheek is all playboy while the genuine brown of Logan’s eyes is definitely not.
“I have got to pee.” Landon carefully moves past the bars so he doesn’t touch them. Then up and out.
“I’m not much better, man.” Logan leaves the cell with a sigh and a shudder. “Fucking silver.”
“I thought that shit was a myth?”
“Dampens our magic. I need to get the hell out of here.” Logan takes the stairs two at a time.
The witch orb goes out as though it was set for the exact amount of time Kelsie knew we would need it. Once again, I’m left with the feeling that each of us were used. Heading out into the sunlight, I find Ember greeting Logan with a dragon snuggle while Landon looks on in horror.
“Afraid of dragons?” I joke, scratching Ember under the chin, inciting a purr.
“Everyone should be terrified of dragons.”