The four of us huddled together, bracing ourselves against a wall of heat. Power slid from my body, and with it the strength to remain standing. I collapsed on the sloping lawn, bringing the guys down with me. My eyes flew open, and the breath fled my lungs.
Fire leapt from Briarwood’s windows, tainting the night air with the scent of burning furniture. The night rang with exploding glass and cracking beams, and sparks rained down from the battlements like Fourth of July fireworks.
I tried to crawl toward the castle, but the wall of heat slammed into my body, knocking me back like it was an actual barrier. The whole castle glowed like a fairground ride.
Just like the Ferris Wheel that took my parents. Everything I love burns.
The boys wrapped me in their arms. Flynn tried to turn my face away, but I wasn’t going to hide while my castle burned. Flames tore through the Victorian stables, and I knew they would have reached the Great Hall, rendering that beautiful ancient room to ashes. The lintel above the ticketing office collapsed, bringing a wall of stone down with it. Each stone hitting the ground punched me in the gut.
Beside me, a body knelt in the grass. Aline placed her hands to her face and wept. I knew I should be able to summon the same tears. After all we’d fought for and all we’d achieved, a castle that had stood for centuries as a last bastion against the fae would fall tonight. But the same numbness that infected me after my parents’ deaths clung to me now. There was no emotion left inside me.
Corbin’s death had stolen the part of my soul capable of feeling.
Arthur appeared from the shadows, his face streaked with blood and filth, his eyes dark and unreadable. He collapsed on his knees, sliding Corbin’s body from his shoulder and laying it out reverently in front of him. I flung myself toward him, but Flynn grabbed my waist.
“Maeve, you don’t want to see.”
“Don’t tell me what I want,” I screamed, tearing away from Flynn and draping myself over the body. The last of my spirit magic hummed through my hands. I pressed my palms to Corbin’s cold, charred cheeks and pushed and pushed and prayed and prayed that it would somehow bring him back but there was nothing, no spark of life for me to cling to.
He’s gone.
“Corbin…Corbin!” A voice screeched. Corbin’s mother dropped down beside me. I slid back as she embraced her son’s body, tears flooding down her cheeks.
A warm hand fell on my shoulder. I looked up. Andrew’s eyes flashed at me with the same sad intensity I knew from his son. “Get back, Maeve,” he said. “This isn’t your fault. We’ll look after him now.”
“No,” I whispered. Hands grabbed me under the shoulders, dragging me away. “No,” I said again. I kicked out, but my limbs slowed, dragging through the air like they were underwater. I had nothing left to fight with.
I let them pull me away. The guys surrounded me, pressing their bodies against mine, trying to bring me back from the dark, numb place. But it was an illusion. We were all untethered now, all of us living with the horror of what we had made.
Sirens whirred as two fire engines careened up the winding drive. The first engine stopped at the gatehouse – too tall to fit under the arch. The firefighters leapt out and unrolled their hose up the drive. The second engine was smaller and managed to make it through. Glass shattered as one of the enormouswindows in the Great Hall blew out. Jane and Clara stood closer to the front of the house, directing the villagers to get back, to stay safe.
It didn’t matter. None of it mattered now that Corbin was gone.
Two police cars pulled up, sirens wailing. Detective Inspector Wallace got out of the passenger seat and stormed toward DS Judge.
“Thank god you got here,” DS Judge cried. “I’m trying to secure the scene and?—”
“You let this get out of control,” Detective Inspector Wallace yelled, pointing to the squad car behind him. “Get in that car and turn over your badge immediately. I don’t want to see you on this scene.”
DS Judge’s face whitened. She slunk off to the car. The villagers huddled together, their eyes haunted.
“Everyone stay back.” DI Wallace waved his arms in an invisible line we weren’t allowed to cross. “No one leave this area. You’ll all be held for questioning. Where are the castle tenants?”
“We’re here,” Flynn called out.
“Not all of us.” Arthur barrelled up to the DI with fire in his eyes. “They killed our friend.”
Wallace bellowed as the topiary behind him spontaneously burst into flames.
The firefighters spread out, shouting orders at each other as they unrolled their hoses and went to work putting out the blaze. My boys gathered around me, pressing their bodies against mine. I buried my face into Rowan’s chest, watching flames leap through the Great Hall windows through a curtain of his locs. Like some great Viking funeral, Briarwood’s legends burned to ash, her legacy trailing rising into heaven on a trail of smoke.
Everything good in the world burned along with it.
CHAPTER FOUR
FOUR: MAEVE
“...damage isn’t as bad as we feared. The Victorian addition is toast, but we managed to save the eastern wing of the house and most of the Norman keep. It looks as though structurally it won’t need much work, but smoke and water damage will have destroyed some of the interiors.”
