“But, Sister, how can it be?” The second Fury repeated her arguments. “The Fae no longer exist. We can’t smell it on her.”
“Silas has been protecting her this entire time.” Megaera turned a look of unfettered anger at Silas. “You’ve been protecting her with your essence. Youfool!”
Then Megaera waved a hand before her as if wielding a wand, but instead of glittering magic, she sent forth astream of black that hit Silas in the chest and made him finally, finally break his silence.
He cried out in pain, bent forward as his whole body seized, captive by the evil magic. He was dying. There was no way he could come back from a blow of this size. I could feel it in my soul.
We were bonded. I didn’t know how fated mates work, but I could feel the beginnings of a thin, tenuous link between us. That same link I’d accessed to pull him out of the gap in time in space when he’d been Ripped away from me. A link that meant if Silas died, a part of me would die with him.
I didn’t understand this link yet, or the attachment between us. I didn’t know how much of what we had between us was real, and what was fated to be. I only knew that I’d found my placeandmy person, only to have both torn away from me.
“Kill them all.” Megaera spoke with a terrifying swiftness.
There was no room for negotiation. No pause, no distraction, no hope. She flicked a hand, giving her sisters and their monstrous creatures free reign. There was nothing but malice in Megaera’s face as she glanced below us, the glimmer in her eyes a silent promise that as soon as our hearts stopped beating, she’d return to The Isle to finish the job there.
Her gruesome command echoed in the pit of my soul. I felt the second one of the sky serpents sank onyx fangs into Silas’s arm, even as he bellowed in pain, his head thrown back as they attacked. Atlas lay on the ground, forgotten, so far gone that even the sky serpents found little joy in feasting on him.
“No!” I pulled myself onto one knee and reached for the dagger strapped to my thigh. “You will not destroy my court or my mate. You have angered the wrong Fae.”
I took the dagger then, and I plunged it against the platform in the sky. Instantly, the marbled clouds cracked down the middle with a thundering boom that could certainly be heard from the island below.
In a mere second, we were falling—all of us. The Furies shrieked, calling for their sky serpents to catch them in mid-air. The creatures tangled around one another, losing precious seconds as they lunged for their masters.
I closed my eyes, my dagger already tucked back in its sheath. A blink later, and I was at Silas’s side. Another blink, and I had my other hand on Atlas’s withered form.
Silas blew his bindings to bits. With the Furies and their creatures distracted, he’d been able to shatter the ropes holding him hostage. His blood leaked into the air as we free fell.
I closed my eyes, and I listened to myself. I felt for those gaps in space and time, the ones I’d noticed when Silas had Phased me with him. I tugged on thin strandsof magic I could not see but could feel. The next thing I knew, all three of us crashed to a hard surface.
The abrupt landing knocked the wind out of me, but as I opened my eyes, I knew we were alive. All three of us. Maybe not for long, but for now.
“You Phased.” Silas’s voice held pride in its weak lilt. “You’re incredible, Alessia.”
“This is not the end, Silas.” I squeezed his hand. “If you die, I die. I’m not ready to die.”
“I had no idea the Furies themselves would be sent.” Apology laced Silas’s words. “I expected too much from you too soon. I’m so sorry I brought you into this. If I could take it all back, I would.”
“I wouldn’t.” Tears sparked in my eyes, dripped down my face which was wet with blood—from me or Silas, I didn’t know. “I wouldn’t give any of this up. Even if we die today.”
Silas closed his eyes, and I could feel him fading. He’d given everything to protect me, and it was my turn to give what I had left. If it wasn’t enough, then it wasn’t enough. But I wouldn’t know if I didn’t try.
I stood, realizing the three of us had landed on the Upper Bridge that linked the East and West sides of the island together. To the West sat The Forest and all its darkness, its cursed sections curling in blackness. To the right was sunlight and emptiness.
I heard a voice then, a small voice radiating from the East side of The Isle.
“They’re coming!” Millie shouted from the East side of the bridge, looking out of breath, like she’d sprinted here. “The Furies are coming for you.”
“How’d you—” I looked to Millie, then to Silas. “How’d you find us?”
“I tracked Silas,” she explained, her eyes widening at the condition of her employer as she climbed the bridge to meet us in the middle.
“Silas said there were only two options to defeat this curse,” I murmured from my crouch beside Silas. “The only remaining option is the return of a Fae Queen.”
“That’s impossible,” Millie said. “The Fae are wiped out.”
“Maybe it’s not as impossible as we thought.” I faced Millie. “What if I told you I’m Fae? I am, Millie, somehow, I am. I’ll explain the details later. What if I can access the former Queen’s ancient power to save her lands?”
Even as I said it, the hopelessness rolled off my tongue. I looked down the river that split The Isle in half and saw the Furies bearing down on us. Megaera in the front, her sisters slightly behind her in a V formation as their serpents rushed toward us. Their massive, pronged tails flicked up water behind them like a trailof death.
