The ground we stood upon shook, and the billions of crystals littering the surface shook with it. There were many crystals that I had not seen before, and I had to assume that since they’d never been brought to the surface by the queen before, their power was beyond what Faerie could handle. Guess I was about to test that theory.
“Len!” Shadow called.
My voice boomed as the power filled me. “I have to find her. I will follow her into the sphere, and if she’s not there, into the next life. With this power, I can bring her back.”
The others shouted and raced toward me, but it was too late. The gems and crystals completely covered me, their power fusing to my essence and turning me into what was, without a doubt, one of the strongest beings in the entire multiverse of worlds.
A god of gods.
A force that could not be stopped.
As the power swelled within me, I rose into the air. The knowledge that I was stepping beyond what I could control was swept away in the strength that coursed through me.
Not just strength, but knowledge.
My new power told me that if I wanted to move between worlds, or even between planes of existence, then I could use the golden sphere. That was the portal… the conduit. This was also the only entity that could handle my current power load, so there was a chance to go after Samantha without destroying my friends and millions of other innocents.
Soaring forward, more crystals swirled around me, connecting to my form, until my skin was completely hidden from sight. Only my eyes remained visible; this sight allowed me to follow my path.
When I touched the golden strand connected to the sphere, power slammed against me, attempting to destroy my form. The crystals protected me, but I wasn’t sure for how long.
“Len!” Shadow called after me once more. “Find your mate and return to us. That’s a fucking order.”
He understood that Samantha was my true mate and she needed me. There was no existence here without her. I might have survived thousands of years alone, but now that I knew what it felt like to have a soul connection, I could never go back to that loneliness.
Where my mate went, I would also go.
The gold closed around me, burning into my soul, and since this was not the place a physical form should trespass, the pain was beyond anything I’d experienced in my long life.
Except for losing Sam.
There was no pain comparable to that, and I accepted this burn, even as it felt like my skin was being charred from muscles and bones. The light around me grew brighter as my essence finally entered the cord, and I barreled along a tunnel. The golden light was broken in places by dark intersecting beams of what looked like sludge, and it was clear that Faerie’s Origin was tainted.
Whatever had happened to the Great Queen continued to impact Faerie, and eventually it would be our destruction. As frustrating as it was, Fredrick severing the line awoke us to the reasons for our weakness.
Not that it would save his life. He’d hurt my mate, and I would destroy him for it.
As soon as I got Samantha back.
And figured out why the Great Queen went to such lengths to ensure her offspring were removed from Faerie, casting a glamour across them and the rest of Faerie, until almost no one remembered her existence.
All because of that tainted power… Which made no sense because she’d condemned us all to die in doing so. The truth was out there, and once I found my mate, nothing in the worlds would stop me from uncovering the rest of the story.
Great Queen be damned.
45
SAMANTHA
After some time drifting in a meditative state, my thoughts returned to Len and Tabitha. In spite of my death, I hadn’t distanced myself from them. I never could, even if I were forced into the deathly plane. How could one let go of two fae so fundamental to their being? To their all.
It was fucking unfair.
Why did I have to be sacrificed on the mantle of another world I didn’t even remember? Why did the Great Queen choose to have offspring, spell us, and then abandon us into the worlds?
I kind of wished she were here right now so I could yell at her a little.
As if thoughts could become reality here, there was a burst of power, and before me stood a ghostly image, almost like a projection of a person, hovering before me.
