I felt power crackle in my veins as anger built up inside of me. “So your solution was to collapse Faerie and kill billions!”
I roared as a stream of light burst from my palm, shooting him right in the face.
What the…?
He looked more shocked than I did, but we both recovered quickly. Whatever falling into the healing water had done … it had given me powers. Light powers. I didn’t have time to think on it now.
“An unfortunate side effect,” he sneered, and flicked his wrist upward, sending a shard of pointed ice right for my face.
My hand shot out instinctively and my shield lowered in panic, but a bright burst of sunlight shot from my palm and incinerated the shard, melting it midair.
Whoa.
The king grinned. “You are your mother’s daughter.”
What? My mom had … light powers … or whatever this was too?
Shaking off his comment, I took off flying, because I didn’t know what the hell to do. He zoomed after me and I peered across the lawn at the front porch, looking for Liam. Where was he? I made a figure-eight around the property, coming back to our meeting spot to find the two guards gone but no Liam. And the king was still hot on my tail, throwing ice shards left and right. For the first time, I wondered if Liam had done all this and used me to get two crystals for himself. The thought mentally unhinged me and made me wonder if I could even trust my own emotions. He was my soulmate … how could he—?
A wall of ice slammed into me from behind, pain lacing up my back, and I tumbled to the ground. I hit the packed dirt hard, landing on my hip and elbow.
With a cry, I rolled over and popped back up ready to fight, just as Liam came through the thicket of trees and his father landed before the both of us. When I saw Liam carrying two crystals, my heart leapt in my chest. He was true to his word. But my face fell as I looked closer, horror causing a chill to run up my spine.
Liam’s eyes were all black, as were his hands, and the inky substance was creeping up his arms slowly as he walked closer to us in a robotic manner.
The dark crystals had … tainted him.
I looked at the king, who stood ten feet from me; he was grinning. “You see, once I realized the Fae from Faerie, and my other enemies—” he gestured to Liam “—would never stop coming for the crystals, I devised a plan so that only people I approved of could touch them and glean power from them. Otherwise it poisons their soul.”
Something inside of me snapped. With a cry, I burst forward, hands out. Ungodly amounts of light shot from my palms. It was like my body contained sunlight and I could turn it on and off at will. The torpedo of sunlight blasted at the king and he was thrown backward a hundred feet into the yard, screaming and clutching his face as if I’d blinded him.
Good. I hope I hurt him bad.
I approached Liam slowly. “Liam, can you see me?” My voice shook.
His head snapped towards me, creepy and unlike any normal human movement. Those black eyes were so chilling; I wanted to look away. Liam looked down at his blackened hands holding the crystals.
I kept my voice firm. “Liam, drop them.”
His head snapped up to me again. “No,” he growled and tore after me with one hand raised. His movement was so sudden. I hadn’t expected him to attack me. I stumbled backward as he held the dark crystal up like a weapon, ready to bash my head in with it or something.
Tears burst from my eyes as I struggled to dodge him, my soulmate. The very real realization that he was possessed or something came over me.
My necklace, the one my mother had given me, pulsed at my throat, sending warmth through my chest.
Mom?
Just then, Liam knocked into me and I fell backward, landing hard on my ass. He straddled me, pinning my lower body with his thighs. Now that we were this close, I could feel the darkness from the crystal. It was heavy and made me sick to my stomach. Liam’s arm came up with the crystal, ready to crack it over my head, when my mother’s dying words about the necklace came back to me.
If ever you are in peril, use my essence to heal.I wasn’t in peril, but Liam was.
Reaching between us, I pulled my locket out and pried it open with my fingertips. My mother’s blue soul light burst from the locket and right into Liam’s face. He gasped in shock, breathing it into himself.
The crystals dropped from his hands to either side of my face. I flinched, and when I looked back up at him, Liam was looking down at me, his face a mask of horror and completely gone of any blackness. Thank the gods.
“Oh gods, Lily. I’m so sorry.” His hands shook as he caressed my face, running his thumb over my bottom lip and then cupping my chin. He seemed to realize he was pinning me down and rolled away. Stepping off me, he helped pull me up. His gaze fell to the necklace at my throat. “Everything went … dark. I wasn’t in control … you saved me.” He was breathless.
I nodded. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
