I think of the very first lightning bolt that broke through the Guild’s protective enchantments. It happened in the library. Was that because Amon was able to deactivate the spells protecting that area?
And that isn’t all. The explosion that supposedly originated in Uri’s lab happened the night we rescued Amon and brought him back here. What was it he said about the sword when we returned yesterday? I was so concerned after the explosion that it had been destroyed. I thought it might have been kept down there with all the other spare weapons. And the spare weapons are kept on the same level as the lab. My nails dig into my palms. It wasn’t Uri who caused the explosion, it was Amon. He was hoping to get rid of the only weapon that could destroy Draven.
And now he’s taken Tilly.
“Dammit all,” I mutter.
The floor shudders beneath my feet. I look around, realizing I’m the only one left in this corridor. Everyone else has disappeared while I’ve been lost in my thoughts. Another tremor rumbles through the floor, stronger this time. The sound of something cracking reaches my ears. I spin around. A faerie is standing at the far end of the corridor. A faerie in dark blue. As he takes a step forward, the floor quakes beneath his foot. What? Is this some magic trick I don’t know about? He didn’t even slam his foot down hard.
I reach into the air and flick my hand. The whip appears, curling around air with a loud snap. I pull my arm back, then throw it forward. The faerie jumps. The whip wraps around his ankle. I tug hard before he can land, but it’s like the whip is connected to a boulder. I lose my grasp on it. The faerie hits the tiles with the force of a cannon ball. They smash apart, pieces flying everywhere as the ground trembles so violently I lose my footing. Flipping flip. How heavy is this guy? I scramble up and run in the opposite direction. I don’t know where I’m going or what I’m doing; I just need a moment to think.
I leap down a stairway three steps at a time, landing right in the middle of the action on the next level. Dammit, should have gone up the stairs. A blue-clad figure runs at me. I jump and somersault over his head, then jab a knife into his shoulder before taking off. I dodge and dive between the rest of the fighters until I reach the end of the corridor. I turn into another corridor and run like the wind is chasing me.
Someone steps out a doorway halfway down, blocking my way. He throws his hands out, spreading water across the tiles. Thanks, dude, that actually helps. I pump my arms and legs faster, then drop onto my knees and shoot across the water, slashing at the faerie with a knife as I slide past. I slam into the wall at the end of the corridor, jump up, and aim for another stairway.
I run up and up, keeping a shield bubble around me as I go. Finally, a corridor with no one in it. I hurry along the corridor, spinning around as I check for people in blue. Okay, think. Where would Amon take Tilly? My shield fizzles away as I reach over my shoulder for the sword. If I search once more, maybe I’ll find her this time.
Something strikes my back and throws me onto the floor. The sword clatters away from me. I roll over and see sparks ricochet from my arm and vanish into the air. “Nice jacket you’ve got there,” a spikey-haired woman says as she stalks toward me. “It seems to repel magic. I’m betting your skin won’t do the same thing, though.”
I reach into the air with both hands, grab two knives, and fling them at her. They spin through the air as I jump to my feet. She dodges one but the other catches her shoulder. She clutches it with a grimace, then swivels and kicks at me. I jump back and knock her outstretched leg to the side. Instead of falling, she spins in the air and lands on both feet.
A figure melts away from the wall behind her and throws an arm around her neck. He squeezes tight, but she jabs back with her hand. I catch the glint of a blade before it sinks into his stomach. He stumbles back with a groan, and I realize I recognize him. Jamon’s father, Asim.
“No!” I shout.
I push my hands out at her, sending a ripple of power that I hope will knock her down. She laughs and drops to the floor the moment the power leaves my hands. It shoots over her, and she leaps to her feet again. I put up a shield and try to run past her—I can only think of Asim now—but she blocks my way. She dances back and forth, waiting for me to attack. So I do. Blast of magic, punch, jab, spin and duck down, slash with a knife. But every move I make, she’s already there, countering me. As if she knows what I’m going to do before I do it.
Crap, maybe she does. Zell collected people who could read minds and hear thoughts. Perhaps she’s one of them.
“Trying to get past me, sweetie? You should give up now.” She gives me a triumphant smirk. “I think you know it’s not going to happen.”
She knows I’ve figured her out. But that doesn’t mean I’ve lost. If I don’t want her to know what I’m about to do, then it’s clear that I can’t know either.
So I let myself go, kicking, punching, spinning, and ducking purely by instinct. No plan, just fighting by the seat of my pants. This is the Violet who graduated top of her class. The Violet people whispered horrible things about but were too scared to challenge. The Violet who kicked butt at every challenge the Guild ever threw at her. And while I recognize now that that Violet was way too obsessed with being the best, I’m eternally grateful she worked her ass off.
Dodge, kick, spin around, elbow in the face. She stumbles backward, grabbing her nose, and I take my chance. I gather up all the power I can access in a single second and throw it at her. It leaves my hands as a giant purple flame—and strikes her at the same moment someone whacks her over the head with a broken piece of banister.
She collapses to the ground, clothes burned and eyebrows singed. Jamon is standing behind her. “You messed with the wrong people, sweetie,” I growl as I jump over her. I hurry to Asim’s side along with Jamon.
“Dad!” He crouches down, his eyes on the blade protruding from his father’s stomach. “What do I . . . Tell me what to—”
“Go,” Asim gasps, waving toward the noise of battle. “Fight for . . . us. I’ll . . . be fine.”
Ignoring Asim’s words, Jamon wraps both arms around his father and holds him tight. “We’re never going to win this, Vi,” he whispers. “There are way too many of them. And they’re not . . . normal. They can do things other faeries can’t. They’re ripping through us.”
I hear screams, the clash of weapons, the zing of sparks, and running footsteps squeaking on tiles. The air is hazy with smoke. But I refuse to let this be the end. “We are going to win this,” I tell him fiercely. “This is not the end for us.”
I get to my feet, fetch the sword, and head away from the noise and chaos. I know how this has to go now. I have no other choice. In fact, I think some part of me has known since I woke up with the memory of my last meeting with Nate fresh in my mind.
I find another quiet corridor—making certain it’s empty this time—and stop in front of the wall. I sling the sword over my back, reach into my boot, and pull out my stylus. I rest my hand against the wood paneled wall for a moment, then write the familiar words to open a doorway.
I’m leaving. And this isn’t me being a coward. This isn’t me being selfish. This is me facing what I’ve done and trying to make it better. Because even though Ryn said I shouldn’t blame myself, that all of this would have happened somehow anyway—even if I hadn’t saved Nate’s life or broken his heart—the simple fact is that it did happen this way. And I am responsible. And if anyone stands a chance of fixing this, it’s me.
I press my lips together, take a deep breath, and step into the darkness. I don’t know how this is going to go. I don’t exactly have a plan. All I know is that this started with Nate and me, and it has to end with Nate and me.
I picture the cold beauty of the Unseelie Court. The frozen fountains and the shards of ice. When the darkness of the paths clears, I’m surprised for a moment that it’s still night here. But, of course, I have no idea where the Unseelie Court really is. Clearly it’s far away from Fireglass Vale, where the rising sun is
witnessing pointless bloodshed.
I walk forward, my eyes trained on the dark shape of a palace rising above the trees ahead. Light flickers from the tallest tower, but other than that, the Unseelie Palace is shrouded in darkness. Ice crunches beneath my boots as I continue forward, my footsteps far more confident than my thoughts.
After about a minute, I hear a noise behind me. I stop walking and raise my hands. I don’t want to get myself shot before making it through the front doors. Rapid footsteps move across the ice before a figure comes into view in front of me. He holds a sword in one hand and a throwing star in the other. From his glance over my shoulder, I know there’s at least one more person behind me.
“What do we have here?” he says. “Another guardian, huh?” I guess my sleeve slipped down a little. The Unseelie guard smirks at me. “You here to hand yourself over?”
“Yes, actually. Draven’s expecting me.”
“You—What?”
“And he’ll be very disappointed if you don’t take me to him right now.”
The twisted smile returns to his face. “Well, if that’s what the lady wants, that’s what the lady will get.” He nods his head. A figure appears on either side of me, gripping my wrists before I have a chance to move. Something cold snaps around my right wrist, and I suppress the almost overwhelming urge to shriek out loud in frustration. I’m now magic-less. Again. Stupid metal bands.
The guards jerk me forward. The one I spoke to moves behind me. I feel the point of his sword between my shoulders as I walk. The path widens as we reach the circular space in front of the Unseelie Palace’s entrance. A round pond sits in the middle, frozen and glittering. At its center is a formation of silver fish, icicles spurting from their mouths. They seem to be suspended in midair with nothing to hold them up.
I’m dragged past the silent fish fountain and around to the side of the palace. I guess they don’t take trespassers through the front door. Branches lean over us like crooked fingers as we walk between the trees. I don’t know if it’s my imagination or if some of them lean down to touch me as I pass by. Either way, it’s exceptionally creepy.
We come to a side door, and the first thing I notice is the strip of metal running around the doorway. The same metal that’s wrapped around my wrist. Has Draven put it on every door? What about the windows? Is he really that desperate to keep interfering magic like mine from getting into his palace?
The faerie behind me steps forward and raps the hilt of his sword against the door. Moments later, the door opens to reveal another guard. I’m shoved into his arms. “Take her to Draven. Apparently he’s expecting her.”
He drags me up to a tower. I know because the winding staircase seems to go on forever and ever. At the top of the stairs, before I can get a good look at what’s up here, he tries to take the sword from me.
“Sorry, but that’s not happening,” I tell him.
“Excuse me? Do you really think I’m going to let you into Lord Draven’s presence with—”
“Leave it,” a familiar voice commands. “She can’t use it on me.”
With a final glare in my direction, the guard heads back down the stairs. I take a deep breath before turning. The round, stone room is bare except for an ice-white glow-bug sitting in each narrow window and several elaborate tapestries hanging on the wall. I can’t imagine them being Nate’s style; they must have been here before he arrived. A shadow moves in the rafters above, but I can’t see enough to figure out what creature is lurking up there. Across the room from me is a wide stairway leading out onto a balcony. That’s where I see him standing, facing me, his hands behind his back.
Nate. Lord Draven.
Light flickers behind him, casting his front in shadow. He takes a few lazy steps down. When he reaches the bottom step, I can finally see him properly. His hair is longer, brushing his shoulders now, and his skin is paler than before. The disturbing green light I saw in his eyes last time we met is still there, but it’s brighter now. No trace of the soft brown that once captivated me.
“Violet,” he says. “You’re just in time to watch the real fun this evening.”
I can’t figure out if I’m shaking because I’m cold or scared or just plain shocked that I’m standing in front of the guy who ruined our world. “And what would that be?” I manage to ask.
He gestures behind him. “Why don’t you come and see?”
No thank you. But I find myself walking forward anyway. Not because he’s forcing me to, but because the reason I’m here is to talk to him, and I need to do it face-to-face.
“So,” I say as I slowly place one foot in front of the other. “How’s the Unseelie Court working out for you? I bet the Queen wasn’t too pleased about sharing.”
“No. Which is why she received the same fate as her son.”
My stomach twists as I remember Zell’s headless body hanging inside the Rose Hall at Creepy Hollow.
“It was for the best,” Nate continues. “After all, there is no Seelie and Unseelie anymore. There is only the fae realm and the human realm. And even then, I plan for those two realms not to be so separate one day.”
Seriously? That sounds a lot like what Tharros wanted to do . . .
I stop a few paces away from Nate. My eyes flick over his shoulder. I see a great white cloud hanging in front of the balcony. And . . . are those moving images in the cloud?
“Take a look,” Nate says, stepping aside and holding his arm out toward the balcony. I look, but I don’t move another inch. “I miss television,” he tells me. “Being entertained by moving images on a screen. So I created my own screen. Now I can watch the battle without having to be there.”
That’s what the moving images are? I look closer and see Fireglass Vale filled with fighting fae of all types. All across the valley, bright colors dart and spin, and sparkling weapons slash and fly. Fires erupt, only to be quenched moments later by a patch of rain or a miniature blizzard. Screaming, running, fighting, falling. It’s a silent nightmare.
“I’ve been watching your valley for a while,” Nate continues. He laughs quietly. “They thought they were watching me, but everything they’ve seen is exactly what I wanted them to see.”
Of course it was. Nate always likes to be at least one step ahead, doesn’t he? “I’m sure it helped having someone on the inside,” I say, unable to keep the bitterness from my voice.
“Yes.” Nate turns away from his ‘screen’ and focuses on me once more. “I was lucky Amon transferred his loyalty to me after I killed his former master.”
“Hmm.” I tilt my head to the side. “Makes you wonder how easily he’d turn on you if someone else offered him a better deal.”
“No, it doesn’t. There is no better deal than what I offered him, and he knows it.”
Right. Sadly, that’s true, so I don’t argue. I place my shaking hands on my hips and start chewing the inside of my lip. I came here to say something, and I need to say it.
“Nice sword you’ve got there,” Nate says before I can get my words out.
I reach back and touch the hilt. “I assume Amon told you about this too.”
“He did.”
I watch him. He watches me. I break first. “What did you do with Tilly?”
“Contrary to what you’re probably thinking, I didn’t kill her. I’m actually not the killing machine everyone seems to think I am. Sure, if someone insists on fighting me, I have no choice but to kill him or her, but otherwise, I value life. Magical life, especially. So, no. Tilly isn’t dead. But I’ve made sure she’s on my side now.”
“You marked her.”
“Of course. I marked someone else for you too. Someone you once told me you’d never love, not even if the continuation of your kind depended on it. Someone I’ll let you say goodbye to before the night is up.”
Ryn. Leaden fear attaches itself to my heart and drags it down. “What are you going to do to him?”
Nate watches me closely. “Is that why you came here, Violet? Did yo
u think you could rescue him?”
I shake my head. Tears form behind my eyes. “I came for an entirely different reason.”
Nate crosses his arms. “Well, get on with it then. Our time is almost up.”
This is it. The moment that should have happened so many months ago. The moment that could have prevented everything. But the words are stuck in my throat; I want to make sure I mean them before I say them.
I look past the glowing eyes that hate me and remember the guy who kissed me and made me laugh. The guy who asked the most ridiculous questions about my magic. The guy who got caught up in a world he wasn’t prepared for and never should have entered. The guy who had no idea how to save both his family and the girl he loved, so he ended up betraying them both. For the first time, I think I can imagine his pain. I imagine him risking his life to get away from Zell to come and find me, only to hear me say I never wanted to see him again. I imagine his broken heart, his loneliness, his despair. I imagine him having to watch his parents die.
My eyes ache as tears drip down my cheeks. “I forgive you, Nate,” I whisper.
His face twists into an ugly expression. “I don’t want your forgiveness.”
More tears. A deeper ache. “Nate does. The real Nate. The one buried beneath this evil exterior. He’s the one who came to apologize for betraying me. He’s the one I turned my back on, and I want to tell him I’m sorry.”
“That Nate doesn’t exist anymore. You made sure of that, Violet. I barely remember him.”
I step closer to him, staring into the green glow of his eyes and hoping desperately that I can somehow reach him. “Nate. I’m sorry. With all my heart, I’m sorry.”
He stares at me for so long I begin to wonder if I’m getting through to him. Then he says, “Is that it? That’s all you’ve got to say?” He shakes his head. “Did you really think that would be enough to save everyone? To make me stop all this? You show up here with your pathetic offering of forgiveness and hope that everything can go back to the way it was? I’m disappointed, Vi. I expected you to put up a good fight.”