The fae lights were growing softer. She wouldn’t be conscious much longer. She had to fight this. Had to stop him from killing her.
As her vision blurred, Avery saw Savine push out a tangled web of vines that coiled around Jasper. He distracted Jasper enough to loosen his grip on them. Avery collapsed to the floor, choking as she tried topush air into her lungs. Her throat burned with the effort, but she knew she had to complete this task before Jasper overpowered her again.
“Avery! I need you. I can’t do this without you,” Savine said.
Her legs shook as she stood. Jasper’s weakened essence grasped at her. But she would not let him in. Savine passed his sword over. Its weight felt so similar to the weight of her axe back at home. Why hadn’t she taken up a sword sooner?
Avery looked this bitter, horrible fae male in the eyes. She wanted to see the fear. She wanted to see the look in his eyes when he realized he was going to die at the hands of a young human woman.
To know that she was taking out her soulmate’s tormentor and putting a kind and just man into power. A man who deserved to rule. She looked at Savine. His face was hard, nearly unreadable, as he looked into her eyes.
“You are our only hope, Avery,” he said.
Avery nodded. She’d take this life. She’d kill this man and do it in the name of love and justice. “This is for all those you have ever hurt, Jasper!” she screamed. Her voice was shrill as she lifted the blade above her head.
Pain exploded through her mind in agonizing waves. Through the shock of pain, Avery saw Savine convulse and fall to the ground.
In a shriek of horror, Avery collapsed to the cold stone floor. She clutched the sword to her body and tried to pull herself up, but it was like she was no longer in the throne room at Nephel. What flashed before her eyes pulled her away from this realm and back to Quartz Mountain.
Visions of her sister and the bear shot through her mind unchecked. Morgan, a rag doll in the bear’s maw. Avery couldn’t stop the desperate scream from tearing through. She turned her head to Savine, buthe was gone. All that remained was the terrifying final moments on Quartz Mountain.
Avery dropped the sword to the ground. The pain was pulsing through her body as she watched her sister die in front of her eyes over and over again. She let out a piercing scream and fell to the floor. “Morgan! Morgan!” she screamed again and again, as if she had any way of stopping Morgan’s death.
Faintly, so distantly, as if it were no longer real, Avery heard Jasper’s dark laughter mingled with Savine’s frantic shouts that the visions were not real. If it wasn’t real, then why couldn’t she let it go? Why wouldn’t it stop?
The suffocating choking returned, and Avery had nothing left in her to fight as she listened to Morgan’s screams.
Just as her vision blurred, and she prepared to lose consciousness, a familiar voice shouted, “Avery!”
A voice she only thought would visit her in her dreams.
Oblivion set in when she made out Morgan’s face there before hers. Her hair and clothes were dripping on Avery’s chilled body. Tears stained her sister’s cheeks. But they weren’t how Avery remembered them. Scars traced down Morgan’s face. Across her forehead, Avery saw the twin Goddess mark to hers. But what made Avery convinced that she was still seeing visions were the black shadows wrapped around Morgan, like dark guardians.
“Morgan... Is that you?” Avery rasped. She wasn’t sure the words made it out as her breathing continued to be strangled out of her.
As Avery’s vision blurred, she watched Morgan’s eyes move from Avery’s to the fae king.
Avery watched in shock as her sister pulled out a handgun from a holster on her hips. Her sister held the gun, pointed in Jasper’s direction.
The last thing Avery heard was the sound of a gunshot as the world collapsed into dark, writhing shadows.
Chapter sixty
Savine
Pain seared through Savine’s head as antlers twisted into shape, mingling with the crown of cedar boughs. He reached his hand to his head, feeling the crown of the true King of Latiah on him. His father was finally dead, and the civil war was over. But none of that mattered. He only needed to know that Avery was alright.
The pressure on Savine’s throat had vanished moments ago. His mind cleared from all the terrible visions of Avery being tortured in the same ways he’d been tortured throughout his past. As he stood on weakened legs, he saw a small, dark-haired woman leaning over Avery’s body. Shadows drew themselves tight around them.
The woman still held the small object that had shot an explosive sound at Jasper. To Avery’s side, Jasper was lying in a puddle of his own blood, ashen skin, and empty eyes stared up at the ornate ceiling of the Towers. His father was dead. It was over, and this shadow-wielding woman had killed the Latian King.
“Avery!” the woman screamed. Her wet hair fell in strands across Avery’s still body.
No. No, Avery couldn’t be gone. Savine rushed to Avery’s side. His own body shook as he regained control after his father’s essence had infiltrated his mind. He felt the faintest tug through their bond. She wasn’t dead. She couldn’t die. Not now, not after all he’d put his mate through to end Jasper.
“Let me have her,” Savine said, and the words came out like a stifled growl as he reached for Avery.
“Don’t fucking touch us!” the woman shouted, raising the small object at Savine. Her face was scarred and broken, thick pink scars twisted across her face with features so similar to Avery’s that it made him startle back. On her forehead were the five stars of Althea.Morgan.Inexplicably, this had to be Avery’s sister. Shadows danced and jumped around the space between them. Morgan had already called forth her magic, and Savine bet she didn’t even know it was her wielding those dark specters.
