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She was covered in ribbons of red, her dress torn and dragging in the dirt, her hair a tangled mess. She should have been a whimpering victim, but that look, that feeling of her magic that was screaming from every inch of her was anything but. It was that strength that was sending the feeling of light over me, although not as strong as the night before. It was almost as though something was missing.
The closer she moved, the more her magic buzzed against mine and I knew exactly what had changed. The feeling of that dark Fae that was so intertwined with hers the night before was not with her.
The hooked-nose guard pulled at her as I turned to that blood stained carriage, to the other guards that were holding the door closed. That feeling of darkness was still there, trapped inside, accompanied by a strong pull of Fae that I recognized at once.
A pull so strong there was no denying what it was, and where I had felt it.
Vaelar.
He was there.
He was in that carriage.
I was moving before I could stop myself, the pull dragging me forward. I didn’t even turn as Lyani yelled after me. The sound mixed with the princess hissing something low, another door creaking amid the scattered carriages. It was all a blur of noise in the back of my mind as I rushed forward, my blood and magic boiling as one underneath my skin.
Vaelar may not be the enemy according to Ryndle, but I couldn’t deny that pull, that needed to end him and stop him before he became a monster. He had been the one to kill Lily. If I ended him now there was still a chance I could still save her.
The carriage rocked as whoever was inside of it tried to get out, the guards that surrounded the door laughing at the grunts and groans from the other side of the door.
“Keep trying, half breed. You can’t stop this! You can’t stop what is coming!” One of the men yelled, the others laughing before another one added in a low hiss, “You’re going to love what she has planned for you.”
I didn’t need to see them to know who they were, the sudden need to spill their blood would have been enough.
Snakes. They were all snakes.
The guards all wore the indigo and gold of the Ramal, but it wasn’t their uniforms I was looking at, it was their swords. It was the snakehead pommel that each of them held. It was the faint outline of a single word that was carved into their necks, so faint that I was sure no one would notice unless they knew where to look. Odd, if it took Fae hair to write the words you would think it would be more visible.
This was barely there, more like a dotted line showing me where to slice their heads from their bodies. My hands ached in need of grabbing my blades, my mind running through the steps to take the snakes down and reach my target. It would take less than three swipes of my blade to cover the ground with blood.
I could not fight them last night, but there was nothing stopping me today. Kill the snakes, and take down the head of them all. Vaelar. Dalyah.
This was all going to end today. What a perfect day for a wedding.
A wedding covered in blood.
Gripping my blades, I turned, ready to unsheathe the long weapons from behind my cloak. But then, the strong violent burn of the Fae King’s magic shifted.
I could still feel that buzz of Fae magic, feel the angry throb of whatever darkness was still held in the carriage, but the King… he wasn’t in there.
It wasn’t Vaelar in that carriage. Still Fae. Similar. But not him.
I turned back to the wide opening where all of the royals were entering the temple, that powerful throbbing having darted deep inside the back entrance of the temple as Elara was dragged through the wide white gate, and then again to the wide main doors of the Temple high above the gathered crowds where that buzzing was suddenly screaming.
“Vaelar,” I hissed his name like a threat as I turned, running right to the wide stairs that curled around the billowing stone cloud that was the Temple.
The whole thing looked ridiculous, with its rounded dome walls carved with swirling lines of birds and flowers, the pillars of stone wrapped with intricate lines and glass the color of the sky. The massive building was more like a dress hastily removed by a needy male than like the clouds I had always been told it was supposed to look like.
I would have laughed at the monstrosity if I wasn’t so focused on the buzzing pull of the Fae that was screaming at me, the sensation growing louder as I sprinted up white marble steps that curved around the towering pillar of white stone in a spiral.
I was careful to keep my blades hidden from the line of priestesses that were surely there to welcome wedding guests or worshipers, and not assassins.
I was an inky stain against a white world as I reached the high front doors, the towering panels built of white wood and blue glass. The high arched entrance towered over me and the large curved landing that I stood on, the veranda overlooking the Forest of Ok and all of those skeletal red trees that somehow made the billowing white of the Temple more like a ghost that was overlooking the dead.
Two of the white robed priestesses were already opening the massive doors as I approached. They didn’t look up from underneath those large hoods as they bowed to me for some cursed reason.
The wooden carvings of two women before the forest were only just visible on the interior of the doors before that angry pull took over me again, my skin aching as though it was already covered in his blood. The elaborate entrance hall doors opened slowly, brilliant light flooding in and catching against the carvings of snakes and lilies that covered each of the pillars that stood in a circle. Serpents slithered over the petals of the lilies on each large column, they twisted through the marble tiles of the floor, all of them writhing toward a large dais in the center, the dome of stone and glass above it sending spots of color over everything.
And the Fae who stood there.
