She fell to her knees, sobbing. Pain shook her body. Her heart felt cleaved in two. Nothing would ever be the same after this. They’d lost the army. They’d lost Teutas. They’d lost the war with the Wood Court before it had even begun. The shadow fae would never be a part of Tir Na Nog ever again. Tarrah knew this truth deep within her gut. It had all been a lie.
“Come, child,” Nollaig said, gently wrapping her arms around Tarrah and lifting her from the ground. Tarrah’s arms and legs dangled limply, her head lolling against Nollaig’s chest. The hooded fae carried her away from the Ruin. Tarrah let her. She no longer had the strength to fight.
“It’s all right,” Nollaig murmured. “I’ve got you.”
Unseelie had lied to her.
28
Reyna
The Ruin whipped through the night with the ferocity of a dragon’s fiery breath. The ash had already begun to rain down, big black flakes that sizzled when they hit the dirt. Across the camp, Teutas stumbled forward and shattered into the wind. Tarrah watched on, screaming and falling to her knees.
Reyna pressed her lips together as she glared at Lorcan. “Go with Tarrah and Nollaig. Or go into the caverns. I don’t care which, just stay out of the path of the Ruin.”
She knew he wouldn’t listen. He was being just as stubborn as she was. All she could do was try to draw the Ruin to herself, away from Lorcan and the rest of the camp.
With one last deep breath, she wrapped her hand around her mother’s ice glass ring, where it hung around her neck on a chain, and whispered to the sky, “Please help me, Dagda. Please don’t let him die.”
She rushed into the storm. Wind bashed her face, twisting her long, loose strands into knots. Gritting her teeth against the force of it, she continued to press on, putting distance between her and Lorcan. Ash tumbled down upon her. It fell onto her skin, dozens of black flakes at once. For a moment, she paused and stared down at her arms, fearful that she had been wrong. Perhaps it had been a fluke when she’d stepped inside the storm at Feurach Fortress. Perhaps she wasn’t immune to the Ruin at all, and she would die in these strange, dark lands, along with thousands more.
She gripped her mother’s ring tighter, the cold ice blazing against her palm. She’d always wanted to be buried in ice. If she died here now, her ashes would scatter into the wind. Even in death, she would never return to her kingdom.
“Reyna,” Lorcan growled at her side. “What in the name of the Dagda are you doing?”
She whipped her head toward him, her heart in her throat. Fear twisted in her gut like a venomous snake, and it had already sunk its teeth into her blood. Tears filled her eyes at once. “I told you to run, to get out of here!”
“And I told you I’m not leaving your side!” He held up his bare arm where several flecks of Ruin had dropped onto his skin.
Reyna gasped and stumbled back as more ash hit his face. She watched in horror, bracing herself for the inevitable. She knew what would happen next. She had seen it a hundred times by now. It would start small. A sizzle where it hit him. And then the darkness would start to spread throughout every part of him. In the end, there would be nothing left.
Lorcan would burn away, leaving nothing behind but a pile of ash.
She cried out in rage, ripping her hand away from the necklace and launching herself on top of him. She threw him to the ground with a strength she didn’t know he had. She spread herself on top of him, shielding his body from the Ruin. Even though it was no use. Even though he’d already been hit. Great sobs shook her body, but still she remained.
“Reyna,” he said in a muffled voice. “I’m fine. It hasn’t hurt me.”
“What?” Reyna leapt off of him. He pushed up from the ground, brushing the flakes off his armor. What was left of it. The Ruin hadn’t harmed an inch of his skin, but it had burned through the leather. “How is this possible?”
“I don’t know, but we need to do your thing and draw this storm away.” His voice cracked. “So many have already died, Reyna. Regardless of how I feel about my father, I don’t want to see all these warriors gone forever.”
Reyna nodded at once. She understood how he felt, and she did not wish to see them die either. Having known Nollaig, and Segonax, and even Tarrah, she had realized that not every shadow fae was the terrible monster she’d thought they were.
That the entire continent thought they were.
There was good and there was bad, but she had seen quite a lot of good. Most of the fae in the camp would be ordinary warriors, just doing the bidding of their king. A king they had to serve, regardless of what they might think. It wasn’t as though they had a choice.
High King Bolg Rothach did not allowchoicein his great court.
Reyna and Lorcan raced through the storm. The swirling darkness pecked at their skin, but it could do nothing more than melt when it hit them. When they reached the edge of the camp, they kept their feet moving forward. They would draw the Ruin down the hillside and toward the Forest of Thorns, giving the warriors in the camp a chance to escape.
They reached the tree line just as a powerful blast of wind knocked Reyna off her feet. The ground rose up to meet her, and she slammed onto her shoulder, wincing at the flash of pain and the crack of a bone breaking. Shaking her head, she climbed to her feet, only to feel Lorcan’s strong hand press firmly against her back.
“You all right?” Lorcan whispered as they watched the storm inch across the horizon. Their plan had worked. The Ruin had left the camp behind, and now it was coming straight for them.
“It threw me off my feet,” she said, wincing. “It wants me dead. And I think it’s realized the ash isn’t doing much.”
“So, it’s going to try another way.” Lorcan swore.
