I felt my body growing weak as I sent every ounce of energy I had, every bit of my magic and power, down the line and into Silas’s body, infusing him with the power of a thousand Fae Queens. I could feel myself weakening, draining, as I funneled magic as energy through the bond with my mate.
When I was too weak to stand, Atlas caught me as my body slumped from the railing. He lowered me to the floor,whispering encouragement in my ear—encouragement I was too tired to process. I couldn’t understand his words.
I couldn’t understand anything except that I had nothing left anymoreexceptthe bond that existed between me and Silas. On death’s door, his face was the last thing I saw. Even if I didn’t survive, I was confident my sacrifice would be worth it to save the life of the man I loved and the island I called home.
A small hand gripped mine then. Not Atlas’s. It took me a moment to recognize Liza’s hand wrapped warmly around mine, and at her touch, I also noted the faint hum of a melody swirling around me. A melody that stirred something within me.
Words joined the notes a second later, the very same lyrics that my mother had sung to me moments before her death. When uttered centuries ago, those words had protected me in the face of certain death.
My mother had given her life for mine. She’d sung me this lullaby, just before she’d tucked me into a spell that had kept me safe for some distant future—thisfuture.
The melody buzzed through my body as the notes plinked around me like raindrops. Each beat crystal clear and fragile, the words echoing around the base of my skull, so engrained in me that I didn’t need conscious thought to process them.
That was when I realized something: the lullaby wasn’tjusta soothing song. It wasn’t just a few raindrops of notes, plinking down around me, wrapping me in a mother’s comfort.
The lullaby wasthe spell.
The lullaby was the very spell—the exact words—my mother had used to give her life for mine. I understood this with a resounding clarity now, the sort of clarity that came with knowing Silas was my mate and this court was my home. An undeniable truth that seemed so obvious in retrospect, even though it’d taken me my whole lifetime to realize.
Taking a deep breath, I squeezed Liza’s hand back, knowing what I had to do. I focused on the bond between me and Silas as I murmured the words of the lullaby—this time not thinking of it as a mere source of comfort, but as a powerful protective spell aimed at the man I loved.
Rest now, Silas, the night is kind,
The moon keeps watch and the winds unwind.
No shadow lingers, no fear shall stay,
My love will guard you till break of day.
Rest now, Silas, the night is kind,
Forever safe in this heart of mine.
And when I murmured the final stanza, the words slightly altered to fit the circumstances, I felt it. The last of my magic transferred down the bond to Silas, leaving me bereft of all power as I entrusted it to him. The ley lines flickered out as the last dredges of Fae Queen magic transferred from me to him. The curtain of protective water crashed back into the river, no longer stabilized by my hand.
I felt empty as unconsciousness flickered in my periphery like a swarm of bees. My suspicions had been right: a Fae Queen’s power could not be taken, but it could be willingly offered to save another’s life. And I had given everything to Silas in hopes it would spare him.
The buzzing grew until it was a deafening drone. I faded in and out of consciousness, knowing that I wasn’t meant to survive without my powers as a Fae Queen. If this didn’t work, both Silas and I would perish. Forever.
The shrill, guttural screech from the Darkest Lord drew me back from the edge of unconsciousness. I felt a rush of power sliding back down the bond between me and Silas. Not enough magic for me to do much, but enough to pull me back from the cusp of death.
I opened my eyes, leaned against Atlas as I pulled myself to a sitting position. And I watched as the Darkest Lord tried to siphon the magic of a Fae Queen from Silas. It was clear the Darkest Lord had thought my pain, my unconsciousness, was simply due to the shock of losing my mate.
He glanced down, his glowing eyes wide—horrifying pools of lava. His hand, which had been siphoning Silas’s spirit, now glowed with a burning red light. In completely surrendering my magic to Silas, I’d transferred enough of my powers to protect him.
The Darkest Lordcould nottake the magic of the Fae Queen, as Silas had promised. The Darkest Lord must have known that because he hadn’t tried; he was taking everything else from me, in hopes I’d voluntarily surrender my powers to him. He needed me to forfeit the heartbeats of my islanders since he couldn’t steal them.
“You tricked me,” the Darkest Lord snarled. “You transferred your power to him.”
It was too late for the Darkest Lord; he’d gone too far to recover. He’d taken so much of Silas that when I’d offered my magic to him, it had flooded the Darkest Lord with my essence too. With the light and love and empathy of a Fae Queen. A mind and body as evil as his could not handle it. He collapsed to the ground as he dropped Silas’s lifeless body.
I pulled myself to my feet. My crown was glowing now, warm against my head as my power returned to me. It flowed back down the bond between me and Silas like a teeter-totter swinging in my direction.
As I stood, I raised my hands to deal the final blow to the Darkest Lord. To banish him from this plane, from the underworld, this life.
As I called upon the magic of my Fae Queen ancestors, I was in for one last shock. This time, as I pleaded for help from mysisters, I realized I didn’t need to ask for assistance. Because I had full and complete access to the pool of Fae Queen magic—it was there at my fingertips, waiting to be wielded by me and me alone.
No longer did it feel like a fight to access the power my ancestors had promised. That creaky, rusty faucet I’d fought so hard to tap into was now open and abundant, a well of sparkling, ancient magic that was completely and utterly accessible at a moment’s notice.
