She waffled and she probably always would for their entire immortal lives together. Hell, she couldn’t even promise tomorrow she wouldn’t bolt because her mind told her he would leave. But she had to at least try. For him.
“Okay, so let’s get in touch with Aster.” Morgan closed her eyes, cleared her mind, and reached out for the faerie who had created the portal into the Mountain King’s realm.
It took a while for her to contact the faerie. But when she finally did, their connection snapped into place so quickly it almost gave her whiplash.
“Witch?” the faerie screamed through her mind. “Where are you? Everyone said you brought the Mountain King to the human realm!”
“I did,” Morgan replied. “But now he went back to his realm, and I need to follow him there.”
There was a long pause. Almost as though Aster had put her on hold until she could move to another room.
When the faerie returned, her words blasted through their connection far too loud once again. “Listen to me, witch, we only have a little time. I’m part of the Spring Court, or was, still am. Not sure how to explain it. Anyway. The Mountain King is still in the human realm.”
Morgan shook her head in denial. “No. He said he was going back where he belonged.”
“Yes, he belongs on the throne, you nitwit. Haven’t you been watching the news?”
The news? Why would Morgan watch the news?
Foreboding turned her stomach acidic. She turned to look out the glass windows that provided her a view of the entire city. There, far below, a scene unfolded in destruction and horror.
A taxi cab sat on its side, cut in two as three people helped the driver out of the front seat. The giant root knotted around it was ancient, one from deep in the earth’s belly which never should have risen again. Far in the distance, she could see the park had spilled out into the human world. Plants grew wild on windowsills and concrete buildings puffed dust where they had already begun to crumble.
Sirens screamed through the night. Fire trucks approached the park, glimmering with unnatural green light.
What must the humans think? Would they blame this on aliens or would they find out too much about the hidden magical community?
“Oh no,” she whispered.
“Oh no is right. You brought him here, witch. Fix it!” The faerie hissed the words and ended their connection with a painful severing.
She was right. Morgan was to blame for all this mess. She’d been the one to convince Liam she’d felt something for him. Having sex with him in the cottage hadn’t been the smartest of plans. And while she hadn’t known he would follow her into the human realm, some piece of her must have realized he would.
She’d goaded him just a few hours ago. Forced him to choose a side and feel as though he were alone.
She knew how that felt. People did foolish things when they were alone and angry.
“Damn it.” She spat the words at her own reflection before turning and running to the elevator.
Pounding her fist on the call button, she hit it again and again. “Come on,” she muttered. “Go faster.”
It felt like forever passed until the elevator dinged. Morgan ran into the compact space and frantically hit the buttons that would bring her down to the bottom floor.
She had to get to the park. She had to run through the crowds and whatever cops might stand in her way, because she couldn’t let him go through with this.
Morgan couldn’t even entertain the thought she might be too late. She wasn’t. She would get there in time and talk some sense into this foolish man who refused to listen. He might not understand that humans were important, but he’d never been here before.
The elevator dinged again, and Morgan ran full tilt toward the glass doors. The footman out front was already holding it open for people who ran inside screaming. Morgan darted past all of them with a shouted, “Sorry!”
“Ma’am, it’s not safe to go that way!” the footman shouted after her. “Stay inside!”
She didn’t have time to explain it was safe for her. The magic wouldn’t touch her, of that she was certain. Even if he took the throne of Earthen King, he would never hurt her.
At least, she hoped he wouldn’t.
Morgan ran past the shattered taxi and the man who sat on the edge of the sidewalk. His hands were bleeding, and there was a horrible cut on his forehead pouring blood onto the concrete. But two paramedics were tending him, each increasingly more and more concerned as he told his story.
The humans couldn’t process such strange things happening in the middle of a city. They were supposed to be safe in this concrete jungle. A pang of guilt made her chest ache. She had been the one to cause this. She could have stopped Liam.
He’d even admitted taking his life was the easiest way to fix the situation she was in. That maybe the world would be better if he was dead.
He’d known.
He’d known, so why had he allowed this to happen? How could he do this when he knew what the stakes were?
She ran through the crowd fleeing from the park. She darted across the streets devoid of cars or any kind of vehicle. Only when she reached the park, did she find more humans.
Hundreds of them. Police officers and firemen who stood before the ever spreading greenery and conversed with each other on what to do.
Even before her eyes, she could see the moss rolling across the ground. Grass grew atop it, making it even thicker and stronger.
“What are we supposed to do to stop that?” a fireman said, his uniform wrinkled as if he had taken it out of the wash too soon. “I got some pesticide back home but I don’t have enough to stop all this.”
The police officer next to him scratched his head. “Never seen anything like this before.”
Of course they hadn’t. And pesticide would only make this even more angry. They shouldn’t even try attacking the greenery, or they would regret it. The moss would grow up and over their beings, and they wouldn’t be able to stop it.
Her vision made more sense. If they touched the spreading moss, they would be entombed in earth forever. Their faces frozen in fear, mouths open and a scream forever stuck upon their lips.
She charged toward the park, intent on finding her wayward faerie. Once she got her hands on him, she would wrap them around his throat and shake him. How did he think this was the answer? Infect the world?
A police officer stepped in front of her with his hand outstretched. “Ma’am, I’m going to ask you to step aside. We’re currently assessing the situation, and no civilians are allowed within the park. Please return to your home.”
She didn’t have time for this. Morgan snapped forward and touched a finger to his forehead. “You never saw me.”
He flinched, but then a glassy eyed expression took the place of anger. “I never saw you.”
“Thank you officer,” she murmured as she slipped past him. “I hope I can save us all. And don’t let anyone touch that moss!”
The moss touched her foot and traveled up her leg. It clung to her like a child, trying to push her away from the park but not devouring her as she’d seen it do in her vision.
“Leave me alone,” she said. “I need to find him.”
The moss pushed back harder.
Her time was limited. She had to find the damned Mountain King and hit him upside the head. Then she needed to kiss him, tell him she thought she was in love with him, and...
Well, she didn’t have a plan beyond that. He just needed to know she was in love with him. And that she would stop at nothing to make sure he didn’t hurt himself or anyone else. If that meant killing him, then she’d go with him.
But first, she had to deal with this ridiculous moss and grass shoving at her like a person.
“Enough,” she growled. With a flex of her borrowed power, she pushed back at the growing things. They flinched at the touch of their master’s magic.
One blade of grass still hung onto her foot. Frowning, she zapped it with m
ore green magic.
“I’m here to help,” she told the plants. “I don’t want him to hurt any more than you do.”
At least, she hoped that was the case.
“Please don’t be sitting on that throne when I get there,” she whispered as she slogged through thick grass and tangled moss. “Please, wait for me, Liam.”
The trees had grown thicker. She’d once been to the city, though it was far from her home. This park had been her favorite place to visit because the trees were older than most parks. They told her stories of women who sat with their lovers having stuffy picnics where every word was a veiled promise.
They had always been kind to her. But now, they loomed as if they were trying to scare her. Trying to force her to leave before she found the man she loved.
Their trunks were ten times thicker. Squeezing between them became a feat of courage. She pressed her hand against a trunk and slid between the opening that grew smaller even as she blinked. “I just want to see him,” she begged. “Please let me see him.”
Their whispers weren’t kind anymore. They were hostile and cruel. They said she didn’t deserve to be here, not with the Mountain King. Witches weren’t allowed to hold space with faeries.
She slapped a branch that reached down and yanked her hair. “Let me through!”
A blast of green magic scared the rest of the plants off. They let her run through the forest until her lungs screamed for breath and her legs ached.
She reached the top of the hill where she knew he was. She didn’t know how, but she could feel him there.
He knelt before a throne made of the ancient tree at the center of the park. He was well and truly the Green Man. The mantle, the crown, every bit of him covered in flowers and moss.
His glowing green eyes looked up at the throne. He straightened and started toward the cursed seat.
Without thinking, Morgan threw herself from the brush and out into the open. Her scream echoed through the forest and silenced every hush of leaf and crack of branch. “Stop! Liam, stop!”
25
He didn’t even look back at her. Why wouldn’t Liam look at her?
Morgan reached for him, fingers spread wide, arm stretching until her shoulder ached. She tried to run down the hill, but couldn’t. Grass tangled around her legs, reaching up to her knees, grasping at her thighs. Vines spread from the trees and looped around her arms. The forest held her in place, forcing her to watch as the man she loved approached the throne.
There wasn’t time for her to worry. There wasn’t time for her to think.
All she could do was try one more time. Morgan felt her own magic bubbling up inside her. She was the forest. She was the plants. Everything in them was under her power, and she could take what she needed to get his attention.
A blast of witch magic pulsed from her body in a grand circle that burned the surrounding grass. The vines shrank away from her. Their pain filled screams made her ears bleed.
But it was her magic now. Not his magic, the kind she’d sucked from the elemental and that prevented her from moving. This magic running through her arms and into her fingertips was all Morgan’s.
She’d made the sacrifice. Now, it was her turn to cast a spell upon the forest.
Dropping into a crouch, she pressed her hands into the ground. “Earth quake and dirt part, stop the man who owns my heart.”
Black singed the grass in long veins, reaching out for Liam. The ground shook, quaking with the power of her magic and burning like a wildfire. The darkness reached him just as he lifted his foot for the last step to the throne.
Her magic caught him around the ankle, tugging his entire leg back to the earth and forcing him to take a knee before the throne once again. Breathing hard, she trembled as power drained from her.
The darkness held, but shook with the force of holding him in place. Her magic was no match for an elemental. She couldn’t stop the Green Man from taking the throne, but she could give herself time to reach his side.
Reaching into the ground with her magic again, Morgan pulled from the life around her. The screaming of plants would haunt her dreams for decades. She would not stop, though. They were as much a part of her as breathing, but he was more important now.
She flew across the park toward the tree. Toward him. Toward the man who should have trusted her, and should have known she wouldn’t drag him away from his purpose.
His glowing green gaze found hers. He stared at her as though she were a demon come to claim his soul. As though she would stop him from fulfilling a destiny that had been written into the very fabric of time.
And in a way, she supposed she was.
Morgan paused five feet from him. The twilight of her magic spread, soaking in the debt of the dead plants she’d killed to save their king.
Tears filled her eyes. “Liam,” she whispered.
“You may call me the Mountain King,” he growled.
“No, I don’t want to talk to you. I want to talk with Liam.”
He shook his head. The crown of branches rattled. “We are one and the same now, witch.”
It was worse than she’d thought. He’d given in to the elemental and now, what could she do?
Her legs shook, weak with emotion until they gave out. She fell onto her knees before him but still reached out her hands for Liam to take. He had to be in there somewhere.
He didn’t take her hands.
“You don’t have to do this,” she whispered. “I know the magic is overwhelming and that you lose control. But you don’t have to do this alone.”
“I am never alone. The forest breathes life into me and I it.”
The trees swayed above them. Their branches cracked with agreement. The Mountain King, the Earthen King, the Lord of the Spring Court would never be alone as long as their roots stretched into the ground.
Through the din of the forest chanting, she leaned closer and whispered, “I know how lonely it is to be lost in the forest, desperate for someone to just hold your hand. Liam, if you’re still in there, I need you to listen to me.”
He tugged his leg out of the darkness. Her magic strained, pulling at her very soul to contain him.
Morgan gasped in pain. Her sharp inhalation made him pause, although she didn’t know if it was in fear of hurting her or merely because he was surprised.
The Mountain King stared down at her with a question in his eyes. “You’re using your own magic to stop me.”
“I couldn’t defeat you with your magic,” she replied.
“Once my magic is in you, it’s yours. You can do whatever you want with it. That’s the price I pay for you to flourish.” His brows furrowed, wrinkling between his eyes. “Why won’t you just use it?”
“It’s not a fair price.” Morgan placed her palms against the ground and channeled more energy until her entire body shook like a leaf.
The elemental watched her with shock and discomfort. “Stop doing that.”
She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. Liam would not move any closer to that throne, no matter how much of herself she had to give. Morgan shook her head to clear her mind. Her thoughts were suddenly foggy, unfocused as she gave more and more of herself.
“You will kill yourself witch. You can’t keep casting the spell.”
If she died to save the city, the entire human realm, then she would do so. For the first time in her life, Morgan wanted to do something worthwhile. She flexed her fingers in the dirt. Her soul stretched thin, like an elastic band held far too taut. It might snap if she kept going. But maybe that was okay.
Hands reached for hers, holding them between warm fingers. She looked up, hoping beyond hope that Liam would stare back at her.
But it was still those glowing green eyes. The eyes filled with power and so much confusion it made her chest ache.
“You can’t stop me,” he murmured. His grip tightened around her hands, not painful but comforting. “You cannot stop what will happen. The world will be a better place. Liam ensure
d the witches would remain alive, as the last remnants of humanity.”
“We aren’t human.” Her vision turned foggy, but she had a feeling her power wasn’t holding the elemental anymore. How had he gotten so close to her? He was supposed to be five feet away. “And this world needs humans in it.”
“The world would be a better place without them.”
“No, it wouldn’t. I’ve tried to explain it to you, but you won’t listen.”
The elemental’s green magic pressed against her mind. She didn’t think he was trying to see into her soul or understand her reasoning. Instead, she was certain he would try to control her. To force her to stop when all she needed to do was continue forward.
Morgan slammed down the doors of her mind, locking them tight and throwing more magic into that then she did the ground.
“You cannot win,” the elemental said. He stood up with the creaking sound of wind in tree branches. “Though your fight is remarkable.”
He was leaving. He was walking toward the throne again, and she would lose him for real this time. But she was so tired. So...
Morgan fell onto her side in the blackened dirt. Her shoulder crunched against a stone, the pain blinding for a moment but awakening her just in time to see his foot touch the bottom step of the throne.
She remembered all the best things about the humans. How they helped each other even when they didn’t think the other person deserved help. How people would buy an extra coffee to bring to the homeless man outside. She’d even seen them pick up trash from the beach, protest against beached whales, and grow herb gardens in their kitchen because they didn’t understand their need to be closer to something wild.
She’d hated them, but had it been jealousy? Had she just wanted what they had?
He took another step up to the throne.
Visions of Liam flashed through her memories. His smile when she first attacked him and he realized she’d be a challenge. The grin on his face as he watched the green faeries dance atop the table. The soft way he touched her hair when he said she deserved better than him. The tender touch of his fingers against her heart every time they made love.
King of the Mountains Page 19