They were all barely standing. Even Ellie’s storm had faded, despite her continued onslaught. He didn’t know whether his friend was oblivious to her sister’s death or simply refused to accept any more loss.
It wasn’t as though they had much longer, anyway.
Talon formed another wall with the help of Aiden and their warriors, but it was weaker than the last. The sheet of glass cracked easily against the Dark Fae’s brute strength.
Talon didn’t possess the energy to repair it.
Raevina’s flames flickered in her hands, even as she snarled at the creatures breaking through.
Talon cursed. Just before Arianna’s arrival, Aiden had told him he had a youngling on the way. The male had waited until mid-battle, when he thought he was dying. Talon had used runes to heal the fatal injury. He’d promised the male theywouldn’t fall without a fight. Talon wondered if that was who Aiden was fighting for now as he pushed his exhausted body beyond its limits. It was certainly who Talon would fight for if he were ever given such a blessing.
Talon smiled sadly to himself. Perhaps in another life, his younglings would grow up beside Aiden’s, challenging one another in every way. Perhaps Arianna would have a few as well. All females who were far more stubborn than even Ellie. It would have made her happy. Perhaps even healed Rion’s heart a little more.
His jaw clenched. He’d wanted so much from this life.
The wall cracked, a line that stretched from the bottom, climbing, climbing, climbing.
His magic fizzled in his veins.
Raevina’s flames spluttered out.
Talon gripped the hilt of his sword and braced himself, waiting for that wall to shatter, and their entire world to come shattering down with it.
Chapter Fifty-One
Rion
Rion stared at the female before him.
He hadn’t imagined the world brightening around him. His entire surroundings had shifted. He wasn’t on the battlefield anymore. He was in some sort of afterworld, as if he were in the sky, only there was no ground to sit upon, just a white floor that shifted like mist. More cloud-like than solid.
Rion glanced down at Arianna’s bloody, still form before looking back at the female.
Was she here to take Arianna? To lead her into the afterlife?
His heart beat just a little faster. “Who are you?” he repeated.
“You know who I am.” That familiar voice again.
“You were in Ashling. In my head.”
“Actually,” she glanced down at Arianna, “I was in her heart, but she has no further need of me.” A lump formed in Rion’s throat. No. He didn’t want to face it. Accept it.
“Laoirse,” he said the name without much meaning, and though despair threatened to drown him, Rion still forced himself to ask. “Can you—” his voice cut off, the lump in his throat too large. “I don’t care what happens to me, but—” Gods, he just wanted Arianna safe. Away from pain and grief and darkness.
“We are here to help, Rion of Alastríona.”
He dared to look up again. “We?”
Laoirse gestured behind her, to another figure outlined in white. “Only one of us succeeded in our task. The first of us. I—well, I did not experience things as they should have been.But this,” she gestured to Arianna. “This is what should have happened from the beginning.”
Anger coiled through him like a viper. “What,” he snarled, “is that supposed to mean?”
“It means she was always meant to fall.”
Rage and grief boiled over, but Rion wouldn’t release Arianna. “She is not your sacrifice.”
Laoirse gave him a small smile, but it wasn’t sad. “Sacrifice? My dear, she is no sacrifice, but sometimes greatness must burn before it can rise from the ashes.”
