“She is an abomination!” Queen Lucelle’s voice cuts through the pandemonium like a blade, dripping with venom as she points one accusing finger directly at me. “A stain upon our noble bloodline! You dare present this mongrel half-breed as our future?”
My father’s voice booms across the chaos with royal authority that seems to shake the very foundations of the castle. “Lucelle, stand down immediately! This madness ends now!”
“She’s not one of us!” the queen shrieks back, her voice rising to inhuman octaves. “I will not allow this bastard child to desecrate the throne that belongs to pure fae blood!”
Queen Lucelle raises one hand with theatrical flourish, her eyes locking onto mine with a smile so sadistic it makes my blood freeze in my veins. The expression promises pain and death and worse things than either. With a sharp snap of her fingers that echoes like breaking bones, the shadow creatures surge forward in a coordinated attack.
I stand frozen in absolute shock, completely defenseless, reaching desperately for magic that simply doesn’t exist anymore. The familiar pathways in my mind that once carried power remain stubbornly empty, leaving me nothing but mortal flesh and bone against creatures of pure terror. The feeling of helplessness that washes over me is worse than drowning.I thought maybe, just maybe, when I needed my abilities most desperately, they would be there waiting. There’s nothing though, nothing at all.
Locke draws both his blades in a single fluid motion that’s beautiful in its lethality, already moving to intercept the nearest creatures before they can reach me. His movements are those of someone born to warfare, each strike precise and devastating. I lose sight of him almost immediately as he disappears into the growing melee, cutting through shadows like some ancient war god returned to earth.
Sam’s voice bellows from somewhere in the chaos, raw with desperation and fury. “Esme!”
I can’t move. Can’t breathe. Panic takes hold of my chest like iron bands, squeezing tighter and tighter until dark spots dance at the edges of my vision. This is how I’m going to die, uselessly, helplessly, while the people I love fight and bleed to protect me.
The shadow creatures pour into the hall like a flood of liquid smoke, attacking anyone within reach with savage hunger. They claw at exposed skin with talons that seem to drain light itself, and I watch in horror as they begin literally sucking the souls from their victims, leaving behind empty husks that collapse like broken dolls. Fae magic explodes around me in brilliant bursts of fire, lightning, and ice as the guards and more powerful courtiers fight back, but for every creature destroyed, two more seem to take their place.
One guard’s chest is ripped open directly in front of me, his blood spraying across my face and the front of my crimson gown in warm, sticky droplets. The metallic taste fills my mouth and I gag, stumbling backward as his lifeless eyes stare accusingly at nothing. Another courtier is dragged screaming across the marble floor, her fingernails leaving bloody scratches in the stone as she tries desperately to find purchase, only to be tornapart as multiple shadows fight over her body like dogs with a bone.
Blood begins to slick the pristine marble tiles, turning the once-beautiful floor into a treacherous river of gore that reflects the magical fire still crackling overhead. The elegant Great Hall has become a charnel house, and the screams of the dying echo off the walls like accusations.
A clawed appendage reaches for me from the melee, catching me completely off guard in my shocked paralysis. I stumble backward, my shoes slip on the fabric of my gown as the chaos below surges upward. I barely manage to duck beneath the creature’s grasping talons.
Hiking up the heavy skirts of my gown with desperate hands, I try to retreat, but the stampede of bodies pushes me instead. Shoved down the stairs, I lose my footing, tumbling into the heart of the battle. Terrified fae slam into me from all directions, their screams and pleas for help mixing with the horrible slurping sounds of creatures feeding on souls. The combination breaks something deep inside my chest.
All the fear, the rage, the grief I’ve been carrying, the constant pressure of trying to belong in a world that doesn’t want me, the feeling like I’m never enough for anyone, it all breaks me wide open like a dam finally giving way.
Heat builds in my chest, burning and insistent, but it’s not the familiar panic I’ve grown accustomed to. The panic fades, replaced by something else entirely. Something that feels like power, raw, overwhelming power unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. It’s not the gentle touch of water magic I once knew, or even the strange new abilities that have been developing since I became Tether to Micah. This is something ancient, like touching the heart of a star.
I gasp, clutching at my chest as Queen Lucelle cuts through the battle toward me with predatory intent, her red eyes fixed on me like a hunting cat focused on wounded prey. The fire in my ribs swells and coils, a molten pressure that builds like a storm about to break the sky apart.
My fingers begin to burn with internal heat as a shadow creature lunges directly for me, its hollow eyes promising nothing but death and consumption. My hands rise of their own accord, powered by instincts I don’t understand, as magic erupts from the very core of my being like a volcano finally finding release.
A blinding wave of golden light bursts from my body with a sound like reality tearing apart. It slams into the attacking creature with the force of a hurricane, sending it flying backwards so hard it crashes through one of the stained-glass windows in an explosion of colored fragments. The marble beneath my feet cracks in radiating patterns, and a wind howls through the chamber as every shadow creature within a few feet of me is flung away like leaves in a tornado.
The sudden silence that follows is more shocking than the chaos that preceded it. Every living being in the hall, friend and foe alike, freezes in place as the magical pressure I’ve released makes the air itself shimmer like heat waves. The sconces around the room flicker uncertainly, creating an eerie strobe effect that makes everything seem unreal.
The surviving shadow creatures hesitate for the first time since entering the hall, their hollow gazes fixed on me with what might actually be fear. Queen Lucelle stops her advance, her expression shifting from predatory confidence to outraged disbelief.
Even as she roars in fury, I can feel the power that flared to life inside me beginning to stutter and fail. Like a flame starved for oxygen, the magic that erupted from my core starts to drainaway, leaving only hollow emptiness in its wake. My limbs begin to shake uncontrollably, and the heat that filled me moments ago disappears so quickly it leaves me feeling like I’m freezing from the inside out.
My knees give out without warning, but strong, familiar arms wrap around me before I can hit the blood-stained marble. Sam’s scent surrounds me like a blanket, earth and pine and safety.
“I’ve got you,” he breathes against my hair, lifting me with effortless strength as my vision begins to gray at the edges.
Locke appears beside us as if summoned, covered in black ichor that I assume is shadow creature blood but very much alive. His jaw is set in grim lines as he assesses the ongoing threat. “We have to move. Now!”
My father’s voice cuts through the renewed chaos with royal authority that brooks no argument. “Get her out of here!”
Queen Lucelle’s shriek of fury follows us as her remaining beasts begin to regroup, but the king’s soldiers clash with them in a symphony of steel and magic that I can barely process through my growing exhaustion. The sound of battle fades as the magical drain pulls me toward unconsciousness.
Behind us, the world burns with magic and malice as darkness finally claims me completely.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SAM
Esme’s hand is still in mine, her slender fingers intertwined with my calloused ones like they’re the only thing anchoring her to this world. Her head rests against my chest, skin unnaturally ashen beneath those beautiful cinnamon freckles, breath coming in shallow, uneven pulls that make my heart clench with each one. I keep her close, like if I hold her tightly enough, I can stop the world from taking her again. Like my arms alone can shield her from every threat that’s already proven it can reach her even here, in what should have been the safest place in the realm.
