It explained Wingallock’s long absence. He’d never even made it to Lorcan’s side. Had her familiar gotten lost? Her heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t be dead. No matter how broken and tired she was, Reyna could still feel her familiar as if his very soul was threaded together with hers. He was alive. And he had not been harmed.
But he had never made it to Lorcan’s side.
“Fuck.” Reyna’s heavy boots churned through the soot. With ragged breaths, she raced beneath the shadow of the looming wall and did not slow even as she reached the entrance to Findius. Set amidst the black stone, two small iron gates hung wide on their hinges, tunnelling into darkness. A single fae, clad in shadowsteel armor, was sprawled across the ground just beyond it. His head had been cleaved right off his body. She didn’t spot it anywhere nearby.
The wood king had let his intentions be known. He had gone into this city as an enemy. As a conquerer. He did not intend to rule with peace.
Tears burned her eyes as she rushed through the tunnel. Her heart was in her throat, struggling to beat. How long had it been since the king had come through here? Was she too late? Had he already reached the castle?
When she ran out the other end of the tunnel, she found herself in a courtyard, empty save for two gaunt shadow fae huddling together beneath a stone statue. They shivered, despite the cloying heat, as if their frail forms were breaking down. Cold had seeped into their very bones.
Heart pounding, she rushed past them. She wished she could offer them hope, but she did not think she had any left to pass around. Dread coiled around her heart, its venomous fangs ready to strike. She rushed up the winding stairs, flew through the castle past a startled druid, and flung herself past the guards outside the throne room doors. They did not make a move to stop her.
Her pounding feet was the only sound in the lofted throne room. Everyone else was silent and still, including the crowned king who knelt on the stone dais. His midnight hair curled around a face that was bowed before Ulaid Molt, who stood in the center of the room. Shadows writhed around his body, obscuring most of him from view. Reyna’s heart nearly bolted out of her chest.
There he was. She itched to run to him. Instead, she pulled her dagger from her waistband.
“Lorcan,” she whispered.
Her voice echoed through the throne room. His body stiffened, but he did not glance up to meet her gaze. Instead, he kept his eyes locked on the sword that lay before him on the dais. Hissurrenderedsword.
“We surrender,” he said, his voice sounding strangely thick in his throat.
“Of course you do.” The wood king laughed. “You had no other choice.”
“Lorcan, don’t.” This time she spoke so loud, her voice was a boom throughout the hall. “I know you must not have received my letter, but—”
But what? If she told him that Thane would be on his way by Beltane, the wood king would now know it, too. And if she told him that she had planned to kill Molt, then…well, she had failed.
For now. She twisted her hands around the dagger’s hilt. This was it. Her final chance. Drawing upon every strength she could find within herself, she raised her blade and charged.
Molt stepped toward the dais. He raised his own sword, ignoring Reyna’s approach. She saw what would happen a second too late. Screaming, she pounded her feet against the floor, desperate to reach the king in time.
He sliced his sword through Lorcan’s neck. Bones crunched; blood arced through the air. Her lover’s severed head rolled down the stairs and landed at her feet.
20
Reyna
An inhuman scream poured from Reyna’s mouth. The world shook beneath her feet as she crumpled to the floor, her legs giving out on her. Her entire soul ripped wide, shattering into a million pieces. Horror choked her until she couldn’t breathe.
She stared at his head. His eyes were wide and unseeing. His mouth gaped wide, the one that had once kissed her skin with so much love and passion.
Her entire body heaved as she clawed at the ground.Lorcan, Lorcan, Lorcan. Her mind repeated his name, echoing in her head so loud that it drowned out everything else. Hot tears splashed onto her cheeks, blurring her vision so that his face was nothing more than a featureless blob that she could not recognize as him anymore.
He was gone.
Lorcan was dead.
No. A knife stabbed her heart. Hecouldn’tbe gone. This couldn’t be happening. She had fought so hard to get here, to save him, to wrap her arms around him and beg him to forgive everything she had ever done. Her plot toward Thane. Her deal with Seelie. Her failure at killing the wood king.
Another piece of her soul cracked, shattering completely. A new horror twisted her gut, and she bent over, desperate to rid herself of the burning nausea building in her throat.
My deal with Seelie.
Reyna had done this to him. She’d made that deal, knowing that they could not be together, and then she’d forced herself back to his side.
And so Seelie had taken him from the world to prevent them from coming together once again.
