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I almost laugh. "You can't tell meno."
"Ann, this isn't our fight. What's more, there's nothing you can do against enemies like that." I know he doesn't mean to sound like he finds me weak and useless, but that's exactly how it comes across.
Irritation blossoms inside of me. "I saved your sister. I protected her from the light fae who wanted her dead. I risked my life for others. Just because you... weren't around, that doesn't mean it didn't happen." He's about to interrupt, but I hear the roar of a creature so large I can only imagine what it could be in the distance. Where the battle is taking place. My pulse picks up, and I try to push aside the images of what my shadow beasts might be facing right now while I’m wasting time arguing. "I'm going back. Because whether you believe it or not, I can help."
"I'm alive," he tells me, his voice tense. "You and I can finally have the life we always imagined."
His words are like a knife shoved straight into my chest, because if it was only just him and I, he'd be right, but now something has changed.I'vechanged. "I need to go."
Rayne puts his arms out like the barricade of his arms is enough to discourage me. It isn’t. Nothing is going to stop me from getting to the men who need me. And yet, Rayne only remembers me as the young light fae who followed him around, curious about the world. He doesn't know who I've become now.
But he's about to find out.
"Move."
"No," he says, his tone leaving no room for argument.
The sounds of evening — chirps of crickets, leaves fluttering, the whistle of dragonflies moving around us — aren’t enough to overpower the sounds of battle, to suppress my urgency. Fires rage in the forest, somewhere far up ahead, but I can see the light, even from here. The shadow beasts are burning grave trolls, or maybe some new creature that burns has escaped the Void. I don't know which, and I don't care.
I have a purpose, a need, a force driving me, even if I don’t understand it or how I know it.
I darting one way, but Rayne is suddenly there, his huge frame dwarfing my own. "Stop this nonsense. These men took you. All you have to do is use this distraction to leave with me. To return to the Royal Fae Academy and our lives. We'll finish our classes. We'll get married. It'll be like none of this ever happened."
That's not how the world works."Okay."
His hands drop, and he gives me a tentative smile. "One day you'll see this was the right choice."
Yes, it is.
I race around Rayne, only seeing the shock in his eyes for a moment before I'm leaving him far behind. The battle, the click and clack punctuated by the grunting of men fighting and the groans of men in pain, calls to me. I swear the forest flies by me, almost like when the shadow beasts had carried me on their backs and stolen me. It's like in just a short time I changed from the girl at the academy to a woman of the woods, and I like the change.
Behind me, I hear Rayne shouting my name, but I just keep going, closer and closer to the battle, the flames, the sounds of pain. My heart is racing. Sweat is running down my back. When I reach the battle, I know things are going to be bad. I know there are better people than me to be running into battle, but I will do whatever is in my power to protect the three men who have taken root in my heart.
My mind moves, not to saving the world, not to the battle, but tothem. Dusk and Phantom, tall and dark with long tangled hair, and Onyx, sweet, silent Onyx, with his blonde hair and huge body. All three of them are big, strong, and powerful. And all three of them have a softness inside of them that is so unexpected, and so perfect. My heart aches at just the thought of them. The thought of them getting hurt.
And then, I hear a voice and slow, slipping behind a tree. Hugging it, I peer out at the battle. In front of me... a massive dragon made of smoke and ash rises up behind a king.The Shadow King. The man wears a black cloak and stands tall and proud, but not regal. No, he holds himself like a man who doesn't deserve the title of king. A man who cares for power more than his people. A man who oozes a darkness that drips deep into his soul. And yet, the sight is terrifying. Some of his beasts, shadowy wolves with red eyes, fight against our men, who stand as humans, fighting with swords and shields. And yet, my gaze slides across them all and to where the king stares.
Atmymen.
Phantom is injured. Blood rolls down one of his arms, but he stands tall in front of his brothers, as if his body alone can protect them from this twisted king. Dusk lies on the ground behind him, covered in blood, with Onyx cradling him on the ground. I have no idea how bad Dusk’s injury is, but I know if he isn’t standing, he can’t stand. Which is worrying.
My breathing comes in and out faster and faster as the king’s deep voice rolls over the crowd. “Rule with me. We’ll end this ridiculous human occupation, and the earth will be ours. You, me, your brother, even the little deaf boy.” The shadow king’s voice is as clear in my head as if I am standing behind him. “There’s a place for all of you. “
Destroy the earth? Insult and hurt my men? Not on my watch.
"No," Phantom says, his voice louder and stronger than the shadow king's. "Leave this world. Release your hold on our people and allow me to take my place as king."
Silence stretches for a painful moment before the king speaks again. "You can't possibly think I'd agree to that," he says, and I can hear the mockery in his voice.
"I didn't, but I wanted to give you one last chance." And, somehow, even with the odds against him, I almost believe Phantom. Almost believe that he thinks he’s about to win this battle and is giving the king a chance to bow out.
But then, the king laughs and gestures to the smoke dragon. The nightmarish creature rises up onto its back legs and roars into the air, shaking the ground with the sound. Flames grow in its belly, bigger and brighter. The scent of smoke fills the clearing, so strong I’m almost choking on it. And I know that if that dragon releases its flame, my men will die.
But you can stop it.
Rayne showed you that you can do more than what they said the light fae can do. That you have the power of the dark fae too, within you, so what else can you do if you try?
The words are foreign in my mind, spoken as if by someone else, and yet, I believe them.
