Chapter Twelve

What hides in the darkness?

Turned out that an oil-filled lake would burn faster and stronger than I had expected. The top layer of the ice was already starting to crack, as the flames behind us spread so fast that I could feel real heat licking my skin. This was no ordinary sort of fire. The elven flame mixed with dark magic was forming a magical fire show of epic proportions.

“Almost there, Ari,” Kade shouted, but not even his soothing husky tones were going to help when the ice was breaking under my feet. At any point, I was going to plunge into the oil, and then the creatures below — or the fire — would consume me.

I kept my eyes on Kade’s broad shoulders. He was not far in front of me, and I knew he was limiting his speed to stay with me. If I wasn’t so busy running for my life, I would be shouting at him to move it. He was so much heavier than me; he was about to crash through. He must have realized that, because when there was about twenty feet to the shore, he dived, his muscled legs propelling him onto the snowy bank. I knew I couldn’t make that distance, but I had no choice, it was jump or die. My wolf pushed further forward, assessing the situation, and in the last second she tried to force the change on me. We wouldn’t make it in my human form, but I was lighter, more nimble in my wolf.

I don’t have time, I told her. I could change in a minute or less, but I didn’t even have a spare second.

“Jump, Ari.” Kade was right on the edge of the lake, arms outstretched. He would come for me if I didn’t make it, but there was no point in both of us dying.

Heat snapped behind me, ice slushed and cracked under my boots, and I launched myself forward. Using every ounce of shifter strength I could gather, I fell about three feet short of the shore, but Kade’s long arms came in handy again as he snatched me out of the air and propelled us both backwards. I crashed on top of him as he hit the ground hard.

Screams and screeches filled the air, something I hadn’t been paying attention to when I was running for my life. The scent of burning flesh and leather was almost overwhelming, but I fought through the nausea, forcing myself to focus. The lake was completely ablaze, flames standing ten feet or more in the air. It was probably only burning on the surface, if it required oxygen like on Earth, but the screams told me that plenty of the creatures who lived in its depths were being ignited too.

A powerful, guttural yell echoed across the lands. The fury within it boomed out, shaking the ground. Kade and I clambered to our feet.

“Guess someone found out about his precious creatures,” I murmured, already scanning the darkness.

Kade stood to his full height, lifting the strap of the case holding the staff over his shoulders. Thankfully, he had not lost it in that mad dash. In a second, he had the lid open and the weapon in his hands. I fought down the urge to knock it out of his grasp, hating the eerie glint of its dark light. The cloying pressure of its energy — now that it was free from its spelled confines — swelled out and started trying to infiltrate into my power, brushing against me insidiously.

Swallowing hard, I pulled my eyes from the staff, focusing instead on the boxy castle, wanting to be prepared when the enraged Dark Fae Lord made his appearance.

I didn’t have to wait long.

He flashed in with a swirl of dark smoke, his long cloak billowing behind him, his staff, the twin of Kade’s, clutched tightly in his hand. Pure fury filled his face, making him look inhuman as he slammed the tip of his dark weapon into the ground. The horn Kade had sliced off was still missing, giving his face a lopsided look.

“You and I could have been great together, Arianna. Now you will join your mother, in death!” His shouts filled the air, and a giant crack split the ground where he had slammed the staff into the earth. It started small, but as it shot toward Kade and me, got wider and wider.

We sprinted away from the widening chasm in the ground, reorienting ourselves so we could approach the Dark Fae Lord from a different angle. As I ran, the ache in my leg started to increase, right where the ercho had clawed me. I pushed it from my mind. Nothing I could do about it now.

Any sign of the queen? Kade asked.

Nothing, I said, and then almost in the same instant I felt the icy shift of the wind. Wait … she’s here.

Her magic was familiar to me. It called to my own in a way I hated, but also accepted. I wasn’t going to freak out about it anymore. I couldn’t help who my family were, just who I was. I’ll go after the Dark Fae Lord, Kade said. The winter queen is yours. Stay safe, my love.

I love you, King Kade. Don’t you dare die.

Or turn evil.

I hid the last part from him, because I didn’t want him to know of my doubts. But it was a nagging fear I couldn’t erase. Kade was already focused on his target, the staff raised above his head as he ran, its dark energy seeming to increase the closer we got to the Dark Fae Lord and the other dark weapon.

Isalinda stepped out of the shadows then, gliding across the snow to stand at the side of her dark ally. The stunning white horse, which she had been riding last time I saw her, was there in the background. Her familiar? I’d never seen a horse as a familiar before; it was quite spectacular as it pawed the ground near the queen. I couldn’t hurt a magnificent beast like that, one who had no choice in the sort of fae it was bonded with. But if I killed the queen, and fae familiar bonds were the same as shifters’, the horse was going to die. Dammit. Why were there no easy choices in these situations? I had to save my people, but in doing so, some would be sacrificed.

The longer I was a queen, the more I was starting to understand the Red Queen and her actions. One thing was becoming very clear, the time for softness had passed. I needed to embrace my inner Red Queen if I was going to defeat Isalinda. There would be no polite conversation, no point in dragging out the inevitable. I wanted her dead and burning along with the entire lake as soon as possible.

Without a word, I gathered my magic, both fae and mecca, and sent a swirl of frosty ice right at her face. I wanted to throw her off by attacking first, but as I expected, she simply held up a hand and stopped my magic midair, using her own version of frozen magic. As our two spells collided, there was a shattering blast, and a long spiraling ice sculpture formed in that exact spot, before spreading across a ten foot radius.

The winter queen grinned, her lips still a creepy corpse-blue. “Good girl, you’ve been studying. This should be fun.”

Before I could even pivot my weight or think of a counter-spell, she threw magic at me that traveled faster than I could see. The energy slammed into my legs, wrapping around them, bringing the chill of ice with it as it crawled up my body, immobilizing me.

She frowned, tapping one long finger nail against her chin. “That was far too easy. I take back what I said. You’re actually quite pathetic. This is going to be over in a second.”

I didn’t struggle, sure in my ability to break her magic. But I wouldn’t until she moved closer, because no doubt she thought she had won and was going to come over and gloat before she killed me. The ice had reached my pelvis now and was still rising. And sure enough, she was striding toward me. I continued feigning defeat, letting her come closer and closer.

When she was inches from me, she peered down. “Your lineage failed you, child. You’re nothing but a—”

Blocking out her hatred, I reached for the energy that made me unique in this world. Fae and shifter. Dark and light. I let it surge from me in a strong, uninterrupted stream. Dark purple sparkles filled the air and the ice spell around me dissolved in an instant. I lunged forward, my wolf howling in my chest before my voice lifted and I added my own howls to the wolf’s.

I wrapped my hands around her throat, the magic pouring from me so strong that it pushed us forward. The winter queen’s head cracked hard against a nearby dried-out tree stump. She let out a low groan, but I didn’t remove my hands from her throat. Instead I squeezed harder.

Her face was turning a shade of purple; she struggled and clawed at me. But I had shifter and fae strength. I would not be defeated again.

I felt the weakness sliding through my center, my body starting to run out of reserves of energy. Adrenalin had hidden most of my pain and injuries, the strength of my power helping me focus, but suddenly the dull ache in my leg from the ercho gash was no longer just a mild throb. The pain began stabbing at me, and my arms trembled.

Something snapped in my leg and I keeled over, losing my grip on the queen. White hot agony ripped through my leg, and I realized my shin bone had just broken … on its own. I let out a blood-curdling scream as more pain took me over. Was this the ercho venom?

Was it actually eating my bones?

“Die!” The winter queen interrupted my anguish by unleashing a flurry of wind magic that picked me up like a tornado and whipped me into the air.

I couldn’t think straight, I couldn’t fight back.

I’d felt a lot of pain in my life as an heir, and then a queen, but nothing compared to having my bones splinter and shatter inside of me. As the wind swirled me higher into the air, I reached down and ran a hand along my shin, assessing the damage. Bile rose in my throat at the pain as I could feel at least two inches missing from my tibia bone, and that gap appeared to be growing. Just as I feared, the venom was eating my skeleton.

Finn… I couldn’t think properly with the pain and nausea from being inside of a spinning, frozen tornado.

Ari!

Dark Injury. Ercho. Eating my bones. Need … Violet. I was losing my grip on reality, seconds from unconsciousness.

The tornado stopped then, and I was falling. I used the last of my consciousness and energy to cushion my fall, landing in a thick bed of snow in a remote part of the woods. From this vantage point, flat on my back, snow and cold seeping into my clothes and body, I couldn’t see Isalinda anymore.

I must have blacked out for a few seconds, only coming to when Finn’s voice blasted in my head. Ari! Violet says the mecca powder can do almost anything.

I didn’t waste energy on a reply. Gathering together every ounce of discipline and strength, I forced my hand to move, forced it to retrieve the vial. I popped the cap off just as I caught sight of the winter queen stalking towards me, ready to finish me off.

What had Rowan said? The mecca powder needed only direction and it could do anything?

Heal me, please, I begged of the small powerful glass of purple dust as my magic wrapped around the vial. I tipped my head back, taking a mouthful of the powder onto my tongue.

I had no idea if I should have made a paste of it and put it right on the wound, but from my current position I really couldn’t do much except swallow it.

A low chuckle caught my attention, cold and hard, and filled with a malicious kind of enjoyment. The winter queen was looking down on me, her delight clear in her turned-up lips and shiny eyes. I chucked the empty vial to the side, hoping the stuff worked quickly. Otherwise, I could see my death on Isalinda’s face, and I wasn’t ready to go out yet. I still had too much to do.

A warm tingle spread out through my tongue. I let the powder sit there for a few moments, not swallowing or spitting it out for fear of something going wrong. A little energy filtered into my veins, just enough so that I could roll over to get away from the queen.

Another few moments and the sharp stabbing pains decreased enough that I could struggle to stand, using my one good leg and a shriveled tree for balance. Isalinda watched me, not attacking, enjoying my pain.

Finally she had to brag: “You really thought you could waltz in here and defeat me, Arianna?” Her voice was low, laced with all the fury one would expect of a winter storm. I could see small flurries stirring up behind her.

I searched deep for something to defend myself with, but I was still half dead, spent of energy, and fighting the ercho venom. The purple mecca was working slowly, no doubt struggling against the poison.

Arianna, friend of trees…

If I hadn’t been so out of it, I would have jumped as the tree spoke in my head.

Exhaustion made it easy for me to control my reaction, keeping my eyes half lidded and calm. The powder had completely dissolved on my tongue now, and a cool tingle was working its way into my leg.

“Kill or be killed. You left me no choice,” I told her, trying to keep her talking.

Can you help me? I asked the poor skeleton of a tree. I hadn’t thought to use the trees here, assuming they were tainted by the darkness of this land. They all looked dead. Almost like that inverted tree on the cover of the dark book with its sliver of stone. Maybe that’s what it had represented. Death. To everything living.

I was distracted by the winter queen’s broad grin. It was a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, her face awash in shadows.

“Oh, Arianna, can I just say that you took longer than we thought to come to us. I figured once we sent those stupid wolves to you with fae blades, you’d assume we were planning on assassinating you, and then you’d storm right over here to stop us. You were slow. I should have anticipated that, but eventually you did as we wanted. You played right into our hands.”

I stared up at her in disbelief. She had been waiting for us to come across?

She kept smirking at me, and I was starting to feel like an idiot, then she tilted her head in a certain way and her familiar profile reminded me of something. The tilt of her chin. Almond shape of her eyes. They were like mine. And Luc…

“Where’s your son?” The words croaked out of me as fear locked me in its grip.

This entire time we had been focused on the fae lord and the winter queen, all the while forgetting about my menace of a father. “You never planned on letting the Dark Fae Lord rule Earth, did you?”

This time her smile did reach her eyes and she stepped closer. “Of course not. I only needed him because he said he could find me the second dark staff. I almost killed him when he lost it to you shifters.” Her lips curled in disgust. “But he assured me you would fall for the other part of our plan. You’d come and find us here, and he would be able to retrieve the staff, which is rightfully mine.”

“Where is Luca?” I repeated with more force.

“In New York, marching on your people.”

Everything inside of me clenched, and on instinct I reached for my bond to the thousands of wolf and bear shifters I ruled. The essence of my people so strong that I could almost scent shifter on the breeze. As their energy filled me, a power like no other strengthened my body. It was as I had always said, as I had always believed: a queen was only as strong as her people. And I would use my love for them to destroy the winter queen—a monarch who did not value the ones she should.

I lashed out with so much magic it blew both of us back a few feet.

The queen recovered quickly, throwing magic at me in one blue stream of ice. I blocked, and we traded blow for blow in a flurry of ice and wind. I had to hop to stay on my one good foot, but the power of my shifters and their bond to their queen was giving me a fighting chance. Any time I came close to a tree, I leaned against it for support. It was a comfort, like I had an ally right at my side. Isalinda narrowed her eyes on me more than once and I knew she was trying to figure out where my sudden strength was coming from.

If she hadn’t been so selfish and evil, she would have known. It was there all along for her to utilize, but as a true narcissist, she thought of no one but herself.

Neither of us gave an inch, and I was afraid we would be locked in this battle forever. Our powers were just too evenly matched, especially while I was injured.

The tree next to Isalinda moved. What in the…? It actually moved.

Roots ripped out of the ground, throwing dirt and bark everywhere as the queen lurched to a halt, her jaw unhinging as she stared unblinkingly at the mobile tree.

I wanted to stare too. It was probably one of the most incredible, unbelievable things I had ever seen. Animation had overtaken the tree; it had arm-like branches, leg-like roots, and it was walking.

Focus. I forced myself to look away. This was my one chance.

Building up a large ball of magic, I hopped forward, and keeping nothing inside, thrust it at the queen, directing it to encase her. This was the spell she had first used on me in her castle grounds. It felt right, poetic even, to use her own spell against her. Even though she was the winter queen, I could use the ice against her.

She froze in place, literally, too spent to break through my frost. From her toes to her neck, encased in my spell, only her head remained exposed. Kneeling down, I fashioned a sword from the ice, a long, lethal, shimmery blue number. Sometimes my winter magic was beyond incredible. I couldn’t believe I’d ever been afraid of it.

Holding my weapon, I hobbled toward the queen, relieved that some strength seemed to be returning in my leg. The pain was a dull throb now. She tracked my movements, her eyes filled with a tumultuous fury. Even when vulnerable, she couldn’t turn off her bitch face.

“Your reign is over,” I declared. She opened her mouth, but before she got the chance to cast a spell, or speak at all, I swung my ice sword, and in one clean blow took her head off.

It was a more humane death than she deserved, considering the way she tortured people, had cut up a little girl, but I was done playing games. I wanted to prove I was not like her in any way. She would have drawn out my death, hurt me as much as she could.

Her head went one way, her body another, falling to the ground and shattering the ice, her blood gushing into the air before settling to paint the snow in a macabre artwork. Red mist settled across the white signaling the end of a monarch. A tree, the one that had walked and distracted her, shot out a branch and pierced the winter queen’s abdomen, lifting her high up into the air. Another branch pierced through her skull, lifting it as well.

It then carried both to the burning lake, and flung her body out into its flaming depths.

She cared not for nature. Neglected her trees.

I realized another tree had uprooted and was standing at my side, its branch brushing my arm.

As I expected, her inability to put her land and people first had come back to bite her.

Thank you, I said. I will always treat trees and nature with the respect they deserve. You have a friend and ally in me.

It extended its branch arm toward me, and as I reached out to grab it, thinking it was like a handshake, a perfectly polished walking stick broke off. I smiled, sheathing my ice sword just in case I needed it again.

Placing one end of the stick on the ground, I leaned into it as I hurried forward, using my bad leg more fully than I had up to this point. My leg didn’t collapse into mush, which was a great sign, but it still hurt like all hell. Pain shot up to my kneecap and I sucked in a breath.

Okay, it definitely needed more time to heal.

I eased some of my weight off it, putting more onto the stick as I headed toward Kade. Through the trees, I was catching glimpses of the darkness, and as I hobbled closer I saw that Kade had the Dark Fae Lord pinned against a tree. Now both of his antlers were hacked off — one lying in a puddle of black oil.

The back of Kade’s thigh had a wide four-inch gash that didn’t seem to be healing, but he was standing strong, so either it wasn’t laced with dark poison or my mate had developed some sort of immunity after last time.

Just behind them was an advancing line of a half-dozen killians, no doubt trying to come to their master’s aid. At this stage, they were being held off by Dante and Kian—who must have crossed the long way around the lake—the pair swinging their swords with precision, taking off heads left and right. Satisfied they were okay, I focused on the more pressing problem.

I limped closer to Kade quickly, one hand on my walking stick and the other on my sword. Whatever the ice magic had done, my weapon remained strong and cold beneath my touch. A breeze blew a wave of smoke from the lake through me, and I coughed a few times as the acridness invaded my nose and lungs.

I’ve killed the queen. I’m coming to help, I sent to Kade, because at the moment I couldn’t see him through the blackness.

I wasn’t sure what state physically or mentally he was in, I hadn’t been able to focus on him during my fight. But I needed him to know that I was here now. I had his back.

Put up your shield. His response was weak and delayed. He has more magic than we presumed. I’ve almost … got him.

I was through the smoke now, nearly at Kade’s side. My focus was on him, the worry bubbling in my gut again. He had sounded so strained. I had no idea what he was doing to kill the Dark Fae Lord but … he did seem to be in control. I slowed, erecting a shimmery bubble of magic across my skin, a technique I’d learned from Violet and Rowan. It was supposed to repel dark spells.

I had no idea if it would work against the strength of this particularly dark fae, but it was better than nothing. When I was about six feet from them, Kade lost his focus. It was no more than a split-second that his energy wavered, but it was enough for the fae lord to find strength to attack. Kade was thrown high into the air. He arced up, and then fell with a thud right at my feet.

I heard a bone snap, but as soon as Kade had fallen he was standing again. Somehow. The look on his face was beautiful and deadly. It was a Kade I didn’t really know, a warrior, a killer. But, when I searched deep in our bond, I sensed my mate under his lethal intentions.

The Dark Fae Lord picked up his hacked-off antler and held it in his hands. It was freely dripping that poisonous oil. Within seconds it had transformed into a long, pointed, wickedly sharp weapon. That dark stone — his staff was in his other hand — had given him some extraordinary gifts. From the story he told me, it sounded as if he had once been just an ordinary fae. He’d wanted to be more, and he had succeeded. But at what cost?

The dark fae lifted his head and sniffed, looking over his shoulder at Kian, who was now a mere five feet from him, fighting a killian. Kian and Dante had been pushed forward to the edge of this fight.

“Your kin? He smells of you,” the Dark Fae Lord murmured.

In a motion so fast I almost missed it happening, the fae dove toward Kian, antler-weapon raised. I threw my hands up, calling my magic forward.

“Kian!” Kade bellowed, sprinting toward his brother. He wasn’t going to make it in time, hampered by whatever bone his fall had broken. I shot my magic off in a quick blast, hoping to at least distract the Dark Fae Lord, but my aim was off. It hit a mere three inches from his feet, freezing the ground there.

Before Kade or I could do anything, the fae shoved his antler-weapon low into Kian’s back, slowly ripping it up into his chest, inflicting maximum damage. Somewhere deep in the woods I heard Shelley scream, a haunting wail that filled the air with pain and sorrow. Tears sprang to my eyes, the pain in my heart so sharp and aching that I held a hand to my chest to try and ease it.

Kade’s chest was heaving, bear roars echoing across the clearing. We both hobbled forward together — I had all but abandoned my stick now, choosing the pain for a faster gait. When I reached for Kade’s mind I slammed up against a wall of darkness. It was like a thick cloud, but with much more substance.

My mate was in a bad place I could not reach. The Fae Lord spun around, staff raised, but he was too slow. In his pleasure at killing, in his bloodlust, he had forgotten there was another bear brother, one he had just enraged. Kade let out a bear roar and swiped with a partially-shifted hand claw across the dark one’s face.

He was aiming to hurt, not kill. Kade was too far gone in his own pain and fury. All he wanted was revenge. A row of deep cuts sprang up across the fae lord’s face, black blood oozing out of them, and that injury was enough to distract the evil bastard. As he cried out, reaching for his face, Kade swiped again. This time I thought he was going for a kill, but instead he snatched up the Dark Fae Lord’s staff.

Maybe he wasn’t as far gone as I had thought.

He had skipped his chance to hurt the fae lord more, going for the weapon. Because he was the only one here who could handle the dark stone. My mate staked the staff into the ground, and then with one kick snapped it in half. The fae let out a weak cry, which turned into a high-pitched screech when Kade used his mighty strength to propel the top half, with the dark crystal on it, out into the burning lake. The second it hit the fire, thunder rolled across the sky and the Dark Fae Lord fell to his knees.