As I watched in fascination, trying to figure out if Maeve had a plan, a shadow moved at the base of the throne. A human arm reached up between the femurs, hauling his body up with surprising stealth. Corbin reached the next step and kept going, climbing up the back of the throne until he was so close to Daigh he could reach out and touch him.
“I don’t know what he’s doing,” Liah said. “He’s got no weapon.”
But he does.
I wanted to cheer as Corbin reached the top of the throne. Daigh still hadn’t noticed him, mesmerised as he was by Maeve, who was now trying to explain how the genome worked. Corbin hung off the back and pulled the knife from his side – the same knife Daigh had used to kill him. He swung around like a monkey, flying over the side of the throne. I expected him to plunge the blade into Daigh’s chest. Instead, he jammed it into the centre of the crown.
“Ooooh.” Daigh moaned. The blue aura of the crown flickered and died out. Corbin grabbed it off Daigh’s head as he lost his balance on the precarious bone steps. He toppled down, down, in a whirl of pale skin and black robes. Skulls shattered as his body bounced once, before sliding to a stop in front of Maeve.
Daigh’s hands flew to his head. When he found it bare, he roared with anguish. The sound was music to my ears. I surged forward, my only thought on reaching Maeve.
“It’s over, Father,” Maeve said, her hands still on her hips. “I didn’t have to defeat you with magic. I’ve already outwitted you with science. That crown was the source of any power you had. I’ve destroyed it, and with it, your future, as you tried to destroy mine.”
I reached her side and threw my arms around her. She jumped, but relaxed into my embrace as she realised it was me. “It figures you two would defeat our ultimate enemy with a boring lecture,” I grinned, my heart surging with pride and awe and love. Corbin stood over Daigh, his knife in his hand, ready to stab if he so much as fluttered an eyelash.
“Blake.” Maeve nuzzled her head into my neck. She felt so good in my arms. “I trust you’re our rescue party?”
I swept my arm back toward the others, who were crowding onto the bridge to embrace her in turn. “At your service. But how did you know the crown was how he was getting power?”
“Easy. When I got my DNA results back, I realised that our magic was scientifically observable. It was written into my DNA, which means it’s also written into Daigh’s. When he made the deal with the demon king and gave his magic, he altered his DNA. But DNA can only be altered in one of two ways – by random, spontaneous mutations, or by epigenetics, which is changes to the way DNA expresses itself, and not the actual code. Then I thought of Aline’s use of fae magic after she emergedfrom the painting, and how you were able to perform some kinds of fae magic even though you shouldn’t be able to, and it hit me.”
“What hit you?” This was already over my head, but she was squirming in my arms in her excitement to explain.
“That perhaps everything we think about magic is wrong. Perhaps epigenetics is what gives us our magical specialities. We only present with one speciality, because it’s better for working magic, but we contain the DNApotentialto perform any kind of magic. That would mean there had to be an environmental trigger to force the change. Yours was the trauma of growing up with Daigh, Aline’s was being trapped inside the painting. And Daigh’s was whatever bargain he struck with the demon.”
Daigh moaned. Corbin kicked him, and Maeve continued. “Andthenit occurred to me that a demon wouldn’t just allow Daigh’s power to go to waste. After all, they have shades come through here, and I remembered what you told me about the human sacrifices required to raise the Slaugh, and how the demons drew the energy of their blood, of their genetic material.” Corbin kicked the broken crown out of Daigh’s reach. “And I realised that what we’re standing in right here is the universe’s most sophisticated genetics lab, and that crown was the switch. I was going to kill him, but then I realised I didn’t have to. I could truly, finally strip him of power, and to him that would be worse than death.”
“Sever the crown from the king, and watch him fall.” I stood on Daigh’s wrist, grinding the heel of my boot into his hand until he whimpered. The sound was the purest music. “Maeve Moore, I am in awe. What are we going to do with?—”
A bowstring zinged. I whipped around. Daigh groaned, rolling onto his side. A green-tipped arrow stuck out of his abdomen, the shaft quivering.
I didn’t have to trace my eyes back to know who’d taken that shot. Liah stalked across the bridge, her cold eyes narrowed.Daigh groaned and tried to climb to his knees to crawl away. Liah shoved her boot in his back and pushed him down.
He curled over, his eyes meeting hers, swimming with pain. “Your new queen had demanded mercy for me, and you disobeyed her.”
“I’m not Liah’s queen,” Maeve said.
“I have hated you my entire life,” Liah growled. She drew back her bow and aimed her arrow at his forehead. “You took away the one thing in my life that was good. You took Blake and you twisted him into a pale imitation of you, and in doing so you twisted me. This death is only the death you gave me.”
“Liah, stop.” I laid my hand on her arm, above the stump of her ruined hand. Her skin was warm, strong, her muscles taut.I can’t believe I’m doing this.“He’s not worth it.”
Liah’s eyes flicked to mine. “After everything he’s done to you, you want him to live?”
I shrugged. “I want him to live as a shade, without power, without an outlet for his cruelty. He will suffer here in this halfway house of the dead far more than if he were to truly join it. Besides, why should we care about him? We’ve won.”
It was true. Hated for Daigh had burned inside me for many years. Liah was right, he had twisted me, but not nearly as much as that rage had done. Now that he had no power over me, now that I had found my family, I couldn’t bring myself to perform this one last act of cruelty. Daigh deserved death, that I would not dispute. But it would not be by my hand, or by Liah’s.
Now that I knew I had a home, and Maeve, and a real family, I didn’t need that hatred anymore. I let it go.
“Youmay have won, Blake. You stopped the Slaugh. You have your plan to resurrect your dead friends. You’ll have a bright and beautiful future as a human.” Liah’s lip trembled. “I have nothing.”
“That’s not true. I’ll show you. Let Daigh stay here with the demons. Let him be the one making deals at the crossroads. The Fae need a new leader, one who thinks of more than just himself. It should be you, Liah.”
She snorted.
“Blake’s right.” Maeve stepped beside Liah, her hand resting on Liah’s shoulder. “Did you know that we made Daigh an offer. If you would lead the fae, I would make you the same offer. We destroy the gateway to Tir Na Nog and invite the fae back to the earth. You will have dominion over all the wild places. We will return to you the forests and the glades and the oceans and the rivers. And you and Blake will worktogetherto preserve them, to protect the spirits of the trees from further attack. Would you accept this offer?”
Liah lowered the bow. “Yes. I will do it.”
