“Well. Looks like you made the right choice.” His smile was razor sharp andcruel.
“Norah, what the hell have you done?” That was Kael’s anguished cry, a sound that broke my heart in two. I couldn’t bear to look at him, to see those star-studded eyes doused with the pain of what I’ddone.
“I swear to god I’m going to kill him.” That was Liam, and he’d begun to stalk across the clearing, the veins in his neck rippling withfury.
“Ah ah,” Redmond said, and he dug the blade deeper into Bree’sneck.
“Liam, stop,” I said, eyes wild. “He’ll killher.”
Liam’s feet came to a sudden stop, though I could tell it took all his self-control to stay where he was. His entire body shook, and his fists were turning the color of blood. At the edge of the clearing, Kael had fallen to his knees. Rourke was staring right at Redmond, his arrow nocked and ready to be released. Finn was nowhere to be seen, a fact that unnerved me. If he tried to stop this...I didn’t doubt that Redmond would follow through on histhreat.
“Okay.” I held up my hands and shot Redmond a strained smile. “Look, here I am. Time to let Bree go. Time to let all of themgo.”
“Take her,” he shot over his shoulder at the other faesoldier.
The male jumped down from his horse, his golden cloak billowing behind him. In an instant, his arms were around me, pinning my wrists together behind my back. Irritation flickered through me at his rough handling, but I stayed still and steady. I didn’t want to give Redmond any reason to believe that I wasn’t going through with mypromise.
“Got her,” the fae male soldiersaid.
But Redmond still held his blade againstBree.
“Happy now?” I said to him. “You’ve got me. Let go ofBree.”
I was beginning to have a bad feeling about this. My enemy was a master of deception with a heart filled with cruel, cold rage. I’d made the ultimate sacrifice, but as those glittering eyes pierced my soul, I feared that none of us wouldsurvive.
His lips twisted into a strange smile. “Is that really the best idea? I mean, sheisa Redcap. Didn’t she kill yourguards?”
My heart began to beat wildly in my chest. “You said you would let her go if I came with you. An exchange. Me for her. That’s what yousaid.”
He lifted his shoulder in a shrug. “Perhaps that was a mistake. I can’t very well release a monster, especially not onto our changelings. What would our Queen think if she knew I’d allowed them to getattacked?”
I narrowed my eyes, and my breath began to expel through my nose in rapid bursts. My entire body shook, and I could barely think straight as the realization of what I’d done washed over me. Redmond had never intended on letting Bree go. He was going to kill her, right in front of me. And then he’d probably move on to menext.
“Let. Her. Go!” I squirmed against the fae soldier’s tight grip. He was strong, but a strange kind of power had begun to sing in my veins, one that made me feel almost invincible. I just needed a little moretime...
Another set of footsteps crunched through the dead leaves. A fae soldier came up behind us, and hehad—
He had Finn. An unconscious Finn who had a bruise the size of the sun on hisface.
“Found this one lurking around back there. What do you want me to do withhim?”
“We’ll kill him, too,” Redmond said. “It will be a good training lesson for the changelings here. Don’t rebel against the Courts, or else there will be seriousconsequences.”
I’d had enough. I couldn’t stand here trapped while Redmond threatened everyone I knew and loved. The power boiled inside of me, and a furious fire consumed mysoul.
“Let them go!” My voice was so loud that the ground beneath our feet began toshake.
And with those words, the strange, wild power of my soul spilled out into the forest clearing. A harsh and bitter wind whipped around me, and the intensity of my command made me fall to my knees. A sharp, splitting pain ripped my skull in two, but I gritted my teeth against the force ofit.
I wanted to free Bree. I wanted to free Finn. And I wanted these Autumn fae to godown.
Everything exploded into chaos. Bree vanished into thin air, followed quickly by Finn. The horses began to buck and kick, slamming their massive hooves into each of the fae in turn. Redmond screamed and stumbled back. His horse knocked him sideways where he fell to a heap on theground.
I had to glance away when their hooves began to pound into his body. The sound of crunching bones would haunt me to mygrave.
Squeezing my eyes as tight as I could, I dug my hands into the dirt and clung on to the earth. The wind that whipped around me had become a tornado of leaves and magic and pain, and I could no longer hear anything but the heavy roar of myblood.
Suddenly, the wind died. The leaves fluttered to the forest floor, and my heavy breathing was the only sound in theworld.
