Amalia

When the last of the black color faded from the four smaller monoliths, the light from Absenthees became blinding. It stretched over the land until I was sure the spreading tendrils of it illuminated every crevice of the Abyss. Bowing my head, I turned it away from the structure.

The heat of Absenthees still didn’t burn me, but instinctively I pulled my hands away from it, as did the other Faulted. The power swelling within Absenthees crackled against my skin, and I knew it would not be contained.

Run!

No sooner had the impulse hit me than Caim turned toward me with his arms outstretched.

But it was too late.

Light flashed outward in a concussive blow that lifted me off my feet and flung me away as if I weighed no more than a speck of dirt. Caim’s spread wings filled my vision before I closed my eyes.

Though it threw me backward, the light was also comforting and empowering as it enveloped me like a mother with her child. The sense of rightness stealing through me was nearly as deep as when Magnus was inside me, claiming me.

This is what the Abyss is supposed to be.

A smile tugged at my lips before I hit the ground and skidded across it.

The rocky ground abraded my ass, but the smile didn’t leave my lips as warmth spread throughout the land. That warmth scrubbed away the lingering life force coating me until I felt clean.

I didn’t stop skidding until I crashed against one of the walls, the breath burst from my lungs, and my smile faded away.

I lay for a minute, taking stock of my body. My ass throbbed so bad, I didn’t think I’d sit for a week. My back and legs were swollen and probably covered in bruises. My chest was still sore from the kick Lust’s horse had given it, and the rocks against my back poked my shoulder blades through a hole in my dress. Blood trickled from a wound in my shoulder, but I was intact.

Magnus! My father! Where are they?

Cautiously, I cracked open one eye. When I discovered the light had died down enough not to sear my eyes from my head, I opened them both.

Magnus was rushing toward me; his face strained with tension, and his bloody horns turned outward. The happiness suffusing me at the sight of him gave me a rush of strength. Pushing myself up, I winced when my body protested the movement, but I rose onto wobbly legs.

Behind Magnus, I spotted Caim rising unsteadily to his feet as well as the Faulted and the jinn who hadn’t followed the horsemen. I searched for my father as I stretched my arms out to Magnus. Pulling me into his embrace, he lifted me off my feet and clutched me against his chest.

“Are you okay?” he demanded.

“I’m fine, are you?”

“Yes,” he said as he buried his face in my hair.

“My father?” I croaked, afraid of the answer.

When his arms tightened around me, I knew my father was gone before Magnus spoke. “I’m sorry.”

Tears burned my eyes, and my fingers dug into his shoulders as I clung to him. My father wouldn’t have survived the loss of my mother, but I’d wanted the chance to tell him how much I would always love him and how much they both meant to me.

“How?”

“Pride killed him, but your father killed Olgon before then.”

“Good.” It was a word I never thought I’d say about the death of my uncle, but after he stood by and watched Pride kill my mother without so much as a hint of remorse, he stopped being family to me. He would have killed Magnus and me; his inaction killed my mother.

I buried my face in Magnus’s shoulder while I battled my fury and sorrow. My fingers threaded through his hair as I sought comfort in his steady presence and his love for me. It took a few minutes, but eventually, I felt stable enough to part from him.

No matter how badly I yearned to hold onto him and give in to my emotions, I couldn’t. There was far too much to deal with before I could take the time to grieve.

“I’m okay,” I whispered and pulled my head from his shoulder. “You can put me down.”

I sensed his reluctance, but he set me on my feet and kept his arm locked around my waist as he stepped away. Once I could see behind him to the world beyond, shock shivered up my spine. A sense of unreality descended as I took in my new… no, not new… reawakened surroundings.

In the center of the crater, Absenthees had shed its black coating to become a solid white, crystalized stone. Four pieces of white rock branched out from it and formed bridges to the smaller monoliths. Those bridges had pierced the smaller structures and made it so they no longer rotated around Absenthees.

Unlike Absenthees, those smaller monoliths had each taken on a different hue. One was a pale orange, another a rose pink, the third the color of lavender, and the fourth was the color of the sky on a cloudless day. Power crackled as it flowed between all the monoliths, and I realized this was the way Absenthees should have always been. The jinn’s abuse of its abilities broke this connection between the structures, and when it broke, the land died.

Now the reawakened land was thriving with life once more. The rocks around us were multi-hued pastels. The leaves on the trees lining the tops of the walls were mostly orange, but a few had sprouted green leaves, and one large tree had leaves that matched the colors of the smaller monoliths.

The tree’s multi-hued flowers were the size of my hand as they stretched toward a sky that reflected the color of the rocks. Those numerous colors swirled throughout the sky, and like Earth, a few puffy white clouds floated across it. The ruins remained mostly piles of rubble, but the rest of the land was coming alive again.

In Magnus’s arms, I’d finally found the place where I belonged, but in this land, I’d found the place where I fit.

“It’s magnificent,” I breathed as the other jinn and Caim wandered around with their mouths open.

A melodious call broke the hush of the land. Another answered the first call and then another. From between one of the cracks in the walls, a small yellow head emerged. The creature’s round, black eyes took in its surroundings before it crept out from its hiding spot with more than a dozen of its species following it.

Waddling like ducks, the creatures were the size of a squirrel as they craned their heads back and forth on their short necks to inspect us and the land. Exceptionally cute with their fluffy yellow feathers, orange beaks, and plump bodies, they emitted curiosity and excitement as they squawked, stomped their webbed feet, and bobbed their heads up and down.

When their yellow wings unfurled to reveal the multi-colored feathers underneath, I realized they were the same creatures as some of the skeletons we’d come across. They must have been in hiding, or perhaps hibernating since the Abyss became a wasteland.

With another sweet song, the first one spread its wings and took to the sky with the others following it. From all around the Abyss, more filled the sky until their lovely song echoed throughout the land.

I gasped when, from behind the multi-hued flowers on the large tree, small creatures crept forth and rose into the air. Tinier than the birdlike animals, these creatures were of such various colors that it was impossible to name them all.

“They’re butterflies!” I gasped as more of them rose from other areas of the Abyss. Or at least they were similar to Earth’s butterflies, but these were larger and possessed more color variations.

“They are,” Magnus murmured.

“What else is going to come alive again in here?” I wondered.

“I suspect many things.”

“And all of them will be wondrous.”

Magnus drew me closer against his side and nodded to where the others were starting to cluster near the base of Absenthees. “We should join them.”

“Yes.”

“You did this,” he said as we walked over to the monolith. “You brought life to this place again.”

“We all did this,” I replied. “And we are all going to protect it.” I focused on Rislen when we stopped before her. “The fae didn’t fight for this land before, and they lost it. For thousands of years, our loyalties kept the jinn bound to each other, but those who left here with the horsemen have chosen them over us. The horsemen slaughtered my parents; they will destroy Earth, the humans, and anything else in their path. They would destroy this place again, and so would the jinn who left here with them.”

I waved my hand at the marvel the Abyss had become as I pinned the non-Faulted jinn with a remorseless stare. “The Abyss will never again be used to hurt others. If you have a problem with that, then leave now and don’t come back, or there will be a battle. I will not allow anyone to destroy this place again.”

“And neither will we,” Nalki said. “We would have left with the others if that was the side we chose, but we stayed because—” His voice trailed off as he looked at Absenthees. “—because this feels right.”

“Yes,” the rest of them murmured.

I pondered if these jinn had a little more fae in them too. Not enough to be Faulted, but enough to feel that this was the true way of this land more than the others did.

“We will also fight for this place,” Nalki stated, and I realized he’d risen to take over Olgon’s role as leader of the remaining non-Faulted jinn.

“You might have to fight the other jinn,” I pressed, knowing neither the Faulted or non-Faulted would be eager to do such a thing. “Especially if they come back here with the horsemen. I will destroy anyone who tries to ruin the Abyss again.”

“We will protect this place.” Rislen’s gaze drifted to Absenthees before rising to the creatures soaring through the sky. “It must be protected.”

All the others followed her gaze, and their faces shone with awe, but more than that, I sensed their growing protective feelings toward the Abyss.

“We will protect it,” Nalki vowed.

“All of you?” I asked.

“All of us,” some of them murmured while others nodded.

I didn’t question if they were lying or not, the truth of their conviction and loyalty to the Abyss radiated from them.