KARIS

“Finean!” the dark-haired fae yelled.

The fae I knew as Finean stepped into the room through a small mirror. He’d given me an Asper—a gift that I first bestowed upon him—and pretended it was protection, when it was really a leash. “You should have killed me in the Leancan lair,” I tutted.

“It wouldn’t have been a fair fight.”

“You never wanted a fair fight. When did you decide to use me to end Nemain?”

He lunged forward, a knife in his hand, but I batted the blade away effortlessly. It clattered across the floor, his eyes following its path. The wood of the handle was carved into the shape of an Asper, mouth wide, fangs exposed. It was no wonder Finean liked serpents, he was one; lying in wait until the right time to strike. He used me to get to Nemain, to end her, and now, he wanted to kill me so he would be the most powerful fae in all of Faery. He would make the fae of every court bow down to him, and I refused to let that happen.

“I hid you so you would be strong enough to take her out of this world,” he grunted, running across the room and taking up the knife again.

“So you could swoop in and claim it for yourself,” I spat.

He strode toward me and I closed my eyes. Iric and the dark-haired fae pounded on the barrier I made to protect them, screaming at me to open my eyes, but they didn’t understand. I was listening. Years of blindness left me able to hear the slightest of movements, of shifting fabric and arms slicing through the air. When Finean struck out at me again, I was able to anticipate his movements.

He stabbed and I jumped backward. He slashed and I sucked in my stomach to avoid him. He brought the knife down from above and I disappeared into shadow. “Open your eyes!” he roared.

“You were the one who blinded me. I’m merely showing you what you taught me. I’m exactly what you made me.”

He gritted his teeth, spinning in a circle to see where I would manifest again.

“You put me in the gutter, and now you’re surprised I fight like a rat.”

Finean roared, cutting through the dark tendrils I sent toward him, and then he shook his head and fastened his eyes on the shield around Iric and the dark-haired fae. He ran toward them, blade raised high, and embedded it into the top of the magic dome. But instead of disintegrating, it emitted a powerful shock, and the reverberating blast sent him careening to the floor. He groaned, still lying on his back as I checked on the two inside.

A flash of orange.

Loftin. His name is Loftin. How do I know him?

I couldn’t figure it out, but everything inside me wanted to keep him safe.

He pounded on the glass. “Behind you!”

A burning sensation rippled from my back to my chest, taking my breath away. I glanced down to see the tip of a blade sticking out of my flesh. Finean had stabbed me through where he thought my heart would be.

Iric’s face turned pale. His mouth gaped open and he screamed in horror. But it was the look on Loftin’s face that scared me.

* * *

LOFTIN

Her gasp filled the air, and suddenly, I fell forward as the dome disappeared with a pop. Finean left the knife in place, right where her heart should be. “Karis!” I screamed as she fell to her knees and looked at me.

She glared at Finean. “You’re dead,” she promised.

“No, you are,” he answered smugly, but then the smile fell from his face. He coughed and doubled over. “What did you do to me?” he choked.

“My biggest mistake was making you. Yours was thinking you could live without your creator.”

He fell to the floor, writhing and crying out in pain.

I got to her as she fell onto her side. “No, no, please no. Don’t do this. He couldn’t have hurt you, right? You’re fine. We just have to take this out.”

Alistair scrambled over to Finean. “He’s fading,” he cried out.

Fast, his bloody eyes warned as they flashed to me.

And so was Karis.

“The Unseelie will be obliterated, and the Aspers will disappear as soon as they bite into one of them,” she said calmly. “Faery will be safe now.”

Iric cradled her head in his lap.

“I’m fine.” She grinned up at me. “He missed.”

Her breaths were erratic, and then they became shallower and shallower. Something was wrong. Wincing, I pulled the blade from her chest. A strange, unfamiliar and fruity smell came from the metal. “Alistair? What is this scent? What did he do to her?”

Alistair left Finean prone on the ground and sniffed the blade, revulsion curling his lip. “It’s deadly. He coated the blade with juice from the fruit of a poisonous tree.”

* * *

Iric was beside himself. “Karis? Come on, K. You can’t leave me now.” Her eyes fluttered closed.

I couldn’t move. “What can help her, Alistair?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.” As Karis let out a long breath, Finean did the same at the exact moment. “His entire existence depended on hers,” Alistair divulged. “She created him.”

No. There was no way Karis created something like him.

“She created him,” Alistair explained, “for the same reason her mother wanted an heir. She was lonely. But that doesn’t matter. We have a larger problem.”

“What could be worse than this?” My voice broke as I brushed her hair back from her face.

“Her magic is fading. That means the walls around the human cities will fade, too,” he said ominously. “And if her magic fuels the Aspers, they won’t be able to rid Faery of the Unseelie.”

Iric shook his head. “The rest of my family is in there. Are they going to be okay? How long before the beasts are all gone?”

“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “Karis said they would all be turned to ash and that we’d be safe, but she didn’t tell us how long it would take.”

Alistair shook his head. “I’ll make sure the Unseelie are gone, but I can’t go near the human cities.”

“Find the Banshees she healed and dispatch them to the courts,” I instructed. “Someone has to know how to help her. There has to be a cure.” There had to be someone who knew. Alistair inclined his head and ran from the room.

Karis’s lashes fluttered. Her chest was almost still, but she was still breathing, shallow as it was.

Iric rocked back and forth. “She’s freezing. Is she dead?”

“No. She’s still alive, but…”

“But what?” Iric raised his head.

“The fruit of the poisonous tree is deadly to the fae.” But so was Brownie venom, and she’d healed herself from those wounds. She had to be able to heal herself from this.

He brushed his hand over her hair and I couldn’t help but tense, even though I knew he was only being brotherly. “I can’t believe she’s fae,” he marveled.

“She couldn’t, either,” I told him. “She had no idea.”

While we waited, I told him everything. At times, I could tell he wanted to throttle me, but in the end, Iric and I reached an understanding. Most of all, we understood Karis. He told me about their life, about how she was kind, no matter what people did to her. She was loving and brave, and despite being blinded, could see more than most people with perfect vision could.

Alistair returned later that day and found us with Karis. He confirmed the Unseelie were gone, as were the Aspers—just as Karis foretold. The protective domes around the human cities were gone, and the humans were scrambling to build walls made of wood and rubble—anything available. Those were pointless, of course, but Iric explained they’d try anyway. It would provide them with a small measure of reassurance that they were safe. Adapting to this sort of change would take generations, not days, weeks, or months.

Alistair sent Cillian to search the Court of Reflections for answers on how to help Karis, but so far hadn’t heard back from him.

She wasn’t slipping away. Her body wasn’t dying. She was sleeping deeply and soundly. At a loss for how to help her, Alistair brought a large slab of stone into the throne room of the Court of Ash, Iric covered it with blankets and furs, and I laid her upon it, folding her hands over her stomach. Iric covered her body so she wouldn’t get cold.

The beating of wings outside sent Alistair running to one of the windows. “Loftin, you should see this.”

We walked to the window and peered outside. Thousands of fae approached, some on foot and some on wings. “What is this?”

Alistair leaned against the wall. “They come to honor her. Some of them will try to heal her.”

“Then let them come. And let’s hope one of them can.”