Bright Wicked 3: Infernal Dark (A Fantasy Romance)

by Everly Frost

  Firelight flickers in Nadina’s eyes, sizzling down her chest and arms, but my starlight presses back against it. Two days ago, I told Serena that it isn’t my job to kill my people, but now I’m not sure who my people are. The fae… the Fell… the Lucidia…

  This close to the golden rose pinned to her chest, I can see that most of its petals have turned black. She has used up nearly all of the malice in the flower. She might only have one solid attack of firelight left.

  “We’re walking out of here,” I say to her. “If you value your life, you’ll let us leave.”

  She cranes her head upward, her speech venomous. “I will kill your family. I will kill everyone who loves you. I will kill—”

  My power glows across her face and her eyes turn instantly blank. Asleep. Her head drops to the floor, but I catch her before her skull splits on the hard surface. I have to believe that there is hope for her, the same way there was hope for Serena, who tried to kill Nathaniel because she believed she was doing the right thing.

  But with Nadina… I shake my head, uncertain, as I rise to my feet, leaving her where she lies.

  Nathaniel and Crispin wait at the bottom of the stairs for me. Nathaniel holds his halberd safely, blade down, on his other side. Crispin is the closest to me and I can just make out Evander’s serene face where he rests between them. He’s sleeping peacefully now.

  Crispin reaches out his hand for me, his previous disquiet hidden. When I first arrived, he looked at me as if he didn’t know me, but now he gives me a smile that softens his harsh features.

  He murmurs, “Here stands before me a woman who is as bright and courageous as she was always meant to be. You are you now, Aura.”

  Sudden tears burn at the back of my eyes. Crispin was never one for speeches. He’s been a steady but stoic presence in my life.

  I take his hand, needing to tell him how grateful I am that he raised me, that he took me in when nobody else would.

  A flash of dark light breaks across my vision.

  I spin back to Nadina in time to see her rise up and throw the liquid dagger she just plucked from her hip at Crispin’s heart.

  Chapter 20

  Desperate to stop the blade, my hands shoot out, blasting starlight across the space between Crispin and the dagger, but I’m already too late.

  “No!” My scream echoes around us as the blade thuds into his shoulder.

  The impact knocks Crispin back into Evander while Nathaniel tries to grab them both to stop them all from falling. I run toward them, grasping Crispin while Nathaniel catches Evander before he hits the floor.

  “Crispin!” I shout.

  My father’s eyes are open, his face filled with pain, but his gray eyes are also hard and fearless. Angrier than I’ve ever seen him.

  Nadina’s gleeful laugh reaches me from where she’s crouched on the floor behind us, her dagger arm still outstretched. The petals of her golden rose are now withered and black. The last flare of dark magic must have allowed her to wake up while giving her a burst of energy.

  “I warned you, Aura,” she says.

  I turn back to Crispin. We’re all tangled up now. Crispin is caught in my arms while leaning partly on Evander, who’s being held upright by Nathaniel.

  Crispin grips my arm. A stronger hold than I was expecting.

  My gaze shoots to the dagger.

  It’s lodged in the fleshy part of his shoulder. Not his heart.

  I sob with relief and begin to speak. I want to tell him that I can remove the dagger, cauterize the wound, that he’ll be okay. He has to be okay.

  “Hush.” He growls as he wipes his hand through the tears running down my cheeks. “You’ve protected me enough.”

  He lifts himself upright, putting me to the side as he maneuvers his way to his feet, the dagger still embedded in his shoulder.

  Nadina’s laughter fades as Crispin takes a determined step toward her, testing his balance before he takes another step until he’s moving at speed toward her, faster than she would ever expect.

  She screams. Pales. Begins to scoot backward. She tries to get to her feet, but Crispin reaches her, grabs her shoulders, and drags her upright.

  Her hands shoot up as if she’s about to draw on her power, but the flames don’t appear. She’s used up all of the stored magic. The flower is dead.

  Her hands form into fists instead. One after the other, her punches land on Crispin’s face and chest, hard crunches that he ignores, absorbing her blows. He spent his life with Springtime fae, woodcutting, hauling timber, a life that toughens the heart as well as the skin.

  “This is for the boys you killed,” he says.

  Holding her one-handed, he wrenches the dagger from his shoulder. She thumps his hand where he holds her, kicks his legs, screams at him to let her go.

  He drives the dagger into her throat.

  Her eyes fly wide, but he shoves her away from himself, wrenching out the dagger. She lands on the white marble floor, facing away from us, finally becoming still.

  Crispin’s dagger arm drops to his side. He remains exactly where he stands, but his arms begins to shake.

  I’m still kneeling on the floor, reaching back instinctively for Nathaniel, finding his hand in mine.

  “Go,” he whispers. “I’ve got Evander.”

  Rising to my feet, I take quiet steps toward Crispin. The tremble in his body tells me that shock could set in soon. He has never killed before, and he’s losing blood from the wound in his shoulder.

  He barely looks at me when I draw level with him.

  “I never thought I’d see a day like this,” he says. “When I would kill a fae while a Fell helps me escape. Trapped by my own people, freed by my enemy. And you, Aura…” He finally turns his gaze to mine. “What bright truth burns in your heart now?”

  I can’t even begin to answer that question. I busy myself around him, reaching up to place my hands on either side of Crispin’s wounded shoulder. “I’m going to cauterize your wound now.”

  “No need,” he says. “I can heal myself.” Despite his assertion, he places his free hand over the top of mine where I pressed it across his wound. The healing power in his palm warms through me before it reaches his shoulder. I close my eyes for a moment, soaking it up, needing it to help with the pain inside my own chest.

  When he’s finished, Crispin places the dagger on the floor so he can grip my shoulders with both of his hands. “Am I going to lose you today, Aura?”

  I swallow my sadness, forcing myself to meet his eyes.

  “I can’t answer that,” I whisper. “But I want you to know that I’m glad you raised me. You are my father.”

  Tears swim in Crispin’s eyes, but I hurry on. “Come now. We don’t have much time left. Evander needs you.”

  Across the room, Evander is beginning to stir, sitting up slowly and then more quickly. He squints across at us. “Dad?”

  “I’m here, son.”

  Crispin hurries to Evander’s side, helping him stand while Nathaniel withdraws, remaining apart from them as they ascend the stairs.

  I clasp my hands together, my own shock starting to kick in before I move to Nathaniel’s side.

  I reach out and close my hand across the top of his where he grips his weapon. My smaller hand doesn’t reach much farther than across the backs of his fingers, but I press for a moment before I release him. “Thank you for helping my brother.”

  He gives me a quick nod before we follow Crispin and Evander in silence, meeting Serena in the Inner Sanctuary.

  She rushes forward, but Evander waves her away. “I’m fine. I want you to take Crispin, Talsa, and Mia back to the mountains, where they’ll be safe.”

  She nods, but Crispin scowls at his son. “Where will you be?”

  “I won’t let Aura fight alone. I will go to the border with her.”

  Crispin scowls at Evander for another moment. I read a heavy retort on his lips before he suddenly capitulates, exhaling softly. “Okay, then. We’ll do
what we have to do.”

  My father’s eyes meet mine for a moment before he turns away with Serena and they disappear through the far door.

  Evander spins to me. “Tell me what you need, Aura.”

  There’s nothing he can do. The sky beyond the Inner Sanctuary is clear, the moon high. We only have two hours until midnight, one of which will have to be spent flying to the border.

  Nathaniel and I have two hours left before we fight.

  One of us has only hours left to live.

  Before I can speak, Nathaniel steps toward Evander. “We need food. Whatever you can find. Please bring it back here and stand watch while we go upstairs to find new clothing. Aura needs her armor and a fleece to keep her warm. I won’t allow my wife to freeze before she fights me.”

  “Wife?” Evander jolts, his eyes widening.

  “Yes,” Nathaniel says, a challenge entering his eyes as he returns Evander’s shocked stare.

  I spin to Nathaniel, cutting off their conversation. My fingers curl around his arm, sensing the undeniable tension in his body. “You don’t have armor. I won’t fight in mine if you don’t have yours—”

  “Aura.” Nathaniel grips my hand. “Cyrian has come to the border. He doesn’t want me to lose. He will have brought every weapon he can to ensure I win, including my father’s armor. Dark stars, he would probably give me his own armor if he thought it would help.”

  I search Nathaniel’s eyes, wondering about the likelihood of his theory. Cyrian may hate Nathaniel, but his future rests in Nathaniel’s hands and the outcome of this battle. I have to consider that Nathaniel could be right. I can always change out of my armor if he isn’t.

  “Very well,” I murmur.

  Turning back to Evander, I find him disappearing through the far door. “I’ll be back with food,” he calls. “As fast as I can.”

  Nathaniel doesn’t wait for Evander to return. He sets off immediately to the staircase on the far right-hand side of the Inner Sanctuary. I follow him up into the Queen’s Tower where my bedroom is situated. On our way, we pass the guard’s barracks on the lower two levels—both empty now—and ascend onto the upper floor.

  He continues along the wide, decorated corridor, passing the opulent bedroom where he stayed on our first day before he pauses outside my room.

  I forgot how stark my bedroom looks—so small with nothing more than the bed, closet, chest of drawers, and a mirror, all of it gray. I expected it to be destroyed, for Imatra to have raged through it, shredding my clothing and ripping apart my furniture, but it appears untouched. The only difference is that the poisonous violet rose she gave me rests on top of the chest of drawers. I left it in Nathaniel’s room, but I guess she wouldn’t want it there in case someone touched it.

  “It feels so empty,” I murmur as I set foot inside my room, venturing toward the open window to look out across the sparkling lights of the city.

  Nathaniel closes the door behind me, his hand resting on the door handle, his shoulders hunching before he leans his halberd against the back of the door. He surprises me when he unhooks the mirror from the wall and brings it to me.

  “You should see what you look like now,” he says, stepping back and maintaining his distance once I take the mirror from him.

  The mirror tilts away from me so that it reflects the light of the moon across my window ledge. It will only take a small movement for me to look into it, but my appearance won’t change anything. I don’t need to see myself to know what Nathaniel thinks of me. He thought I was beautiful when my hair was dull white, my eyes pale, my lips colorless, when I considered myself nothing more than a shield to protect my queen or a weapon for her to wield. When every other fae and human I met thought—and sometimes expressed very publicly—that I was ugly, Nathaniel saw more.

  I’m not sure how to tell him that his opinion matters more to me than what anyone else thinks.

  I turn the mirror over and place it face down on the bed. Then I turn and cross the distance to him to slide my arms around his chest, ignoring the bite of his weapon harness. I bend my head to rest my ear against his heart as the handles of his daggers press into my chest. He tenses before he relaxes within the circle of my arms.

  I’ve kept him at arm’s length for the last few hours, but I can’t continue to push him away without one last touch, no matter how painful it is to expose my sadness right now. No matter how much I want to scream at the passing minutes.

  His hands tangle in my hair. He presses a kiss to the top of my head before he draws away from me, turns quietly to my closet, and opens the cupboard doors.

  Multiple suits of armor hang inside it, all indigo.

  He pulls one out and hands it to me. I take it before I lean around him, reaching down to retrieve the pelt I rolled up and left at the bottom of my closet on our first day. It’s the pelt he was wearing when I first met him, charcoal-gray fur drawn together at the top by a golden chain. The coat of an alpha wolf.

  Nathaniel accepts it but doesn’t put it on.

  We stand looking at each other for a moment, the silent seconds ticking past.

  I close my eyes, taking every inhale like it’s my last as I strip off my human clothing. Somehow, I’ve never felt so naked as the beige training suit falls to the floor, followed by my underwear. It feels like I’m removing everything that happened since I met Nathaniel and erasing all of it.

  Reaching for clean undergarments, I carry them with me to the bathroom. Nathaniel places the pelt on my bed before I can leave his sight. He shifts to stand in the bathroom doorway, staring up at the ceiling while I use the facilities and wash up. After pulling on my clean underwear, I swap places with him, and I fixate on the floor as he also uses the bathroom and washes up.

  When he returns to my side, I set about pulling on my armor and my boots. The clothing fits perfectly, designed for me. I finish doing up the final clasp, inhaling the scents of my room and my clothing. Remembering my life as the Queen’s champion.

  Suddenly, the act of getting dressed feels final. The hug I gave Nathaniel and the kiss he dropped on my head were the last acts of affection between us.

  He pulls my snowy-white fleece from my closet—the one I wore to my fight with Calida—and hands it to me. It settles around my shoulders, lighter than the pelt I wore in Fell.

  “You’re Imatra’s warrior now,” Nathaniel says as he pulls on his pelt. He draws his broad shoulders back, allowing the fur to settle across his body. Strands of his hair fall across one side of his face, brushing his cheeks and the growth that shadows his jaw. His full lips draw into a merciless line, the same determination filling his expression that did the moment I first set eyes on him.

  I incline my head, as if we’re meeting for the first time. “I’m not your wife anymore.”

  He nods. “My wife is in my heart. She’s safe there.”

  “My husband is in my memories,” I say, taking a step away from him. “For as long as I live.”

  I step toward the door, the air suddenly choking in my throat as I beat back the finality of our descent down the staircase.

  Chapter 21

  When we reach the Inner Sanctuary, Evander waits with a plate full of food. Nathaniel and I take what we need and separate from each other, moving to stand as far away as we can.

  Evander casts concerned glances at each of us before his expression settles into resignation. He doesn’t know the extent of the bond Nathaniel and I formed, but he will understand that we need to distance ourselves from each other now.

  He approaches me quietly. “Aura, bringing you food seems trivial. What else can I do to help you?”

  He hasn’t asked me the painful question that Crispin did—whether I plan on being alive after dawn—and I’m glad.

  I can’t tell my brother the truth.

  I glance across at Nathaniel, the way he studies the horizon beyond us, the glittering city, and the stars above it. I wonder for a moment if he is searching for my people in the ether, the dancing Lucid
ia who have no reason to fear or care about what happens to the fae or the Fell.

  “Nathaniel can’t ride Treble with me anymore,” I say. “I can’t let him closer to me than he has to be. Will one of the other thunderbirds accept him as a rider?”

  Evander tips his head in thought. “Thunderbirds choose their riders, Aura, you know that.” He presses his hand to my shoulder. “But he can ride with me.”

  “Thank you.” I finish my food before I take a step toward the open side of the Sanctuary, checking that Nathaniel is also finished eating before I step outside and compel him to follow me. He immediately steps forward, his dark gaze flashing to me.

  He knows where I’m going.

  I can’t retrieve my heart, but I want to see it, knowing for the first time what it really is. Crossing the platform, I descend the wide marble staircase, counting the fifty steps it takes to reach the Spinning Lake at the bottom of it.

  I stop at the edge, suddenly unable to step onto the frozen surface. I close my eyes, needing a moment—just one moment to try to breathe and calm the flickers inside my chest.

  The city is quiet in the distance. A heavy calm rests over it. Bright moonlight shines across the Lake while the whisper willows at its side swish quietly in the breeze.

  Evander stops beside me, a quiet presence. “Imatra ordered everyone to stay inside their homes tonight,” he says. “Some fae are afraid, but most believe you won’t fail them.”

  “I will do what’s right for the fae,” I say.

  Evander gives me a thoughtful look, because my answer was ambiguous. “What do you believe is right for us, Aura?”

  “Nathaniel is your only chance for peace,” I say, meeting Evander’s eyes.

  I sense Nathaniel approach behind us, but if he heard me, he doesn’t show it. Unlike me, he doesn’t stop at the edge of the Lake, proceeding straight out onto it, an immense figure, his halberd swinging gently at his side and his pelt kicking against the back of his boots.