“She tried to contain you, little umbra. To subdue your powers. To keep us apart. Your worthiness was never in question.”
I press my lips against her hairline in a soft, reassuring kiss, and she flinches slightly. The movement is infinitesimal, but it cuts through me like a blade of horrors through enemies’ flesh. I pull back, searching her gaze. The love is there, but so is doubt.
“So this between us,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper, “is just a predetermined love? Literally written in the stars? Fated, but not chosen?”
I freeze, like a mouse caught under a beast’s paw.
No. No. No.
How could she say that?
“Choice is the irrevocable truth of life,” Ereshkygall answers, her voice cutting through my stupor. “You chose to love each other the first time around. Only I know how many times you tried to kill each other before you chose love instead.” She chuckles, as if remembering a jest we’re not privy to. “You chose love in this lifetime as well because you wanted to. It was not merely a given; it was your own volition. The prophecy does not strip you of free will; it enhances it.” She closes her eyes, her voice taking an ominous edge as she recites.
“Fate bestows upon her soul the heavy burden
Of an entire realm’s redemption,or damnation.
Forever entwined with the Crimson One,
Their union, forged under the unholy stars,
Shall bring either dusk without end,
Or the realm’s first pacific reign.”
Aimee’s shoulders slump in relief, and I squeeze her closer to my frame, my fingers clutching her like the lifeline she is for my soul.
“I would choose you in every Akaoriforsaken lifetime, little umbra,” I say, chuckling. “I should probably stop saying that if I’m actually naming myself.”
“You don’t know that, Killian. That’s the point. And I prefer the realness of it,” she murmurs, rising on her tiptoes and pressing a chaste kiss to my lips. I have half a mind to deepen the kiss and ravish her as my fevered desire demands, but we have an audience of one and other pressing matters to attend to.
She takes a step back. Her shortened breath is the only sign that she’s battling the same ravenous craving for me.
“What about the Fae Gods? Were they never real?” she asks Ereshkygall.
“As real as flesh and bones can be. But Gods? Absolutely not.” The ancient vampiress turns her longing gaze at the circle of statues. “Fae and vampires, sure, but not one ounce of divinity in any of us. I don’t know where you got that idea from.”
“Another fucking manipulation at the hands of the Fae,” I say, grinding my teeth against each other. “It’s easier to manipulate the masses if you have them believing blindly in forces beyond their control. Despicable.”
“King Finvarra claimed he was touched by the deities. So did his successors. The whole Royal claim of their lineage is based upon their connection to the Fae Gods,” Aimee says, making me snarl in response.
“A fucking lie.”
“Finn became king? That despicable fraud,” Ereshkygall laughs, the sound devoid of any actual humor.
“You knew him?”
“He was a horrible peasant boy with murder in his veins. Vicious and power-hungry. Aeon’s biggest enemy, until his father. Sold whatever rotten scraps of a soul he had to Arwan in exchange for promises of wealth. I’m not surprised he took advantage of all our deaths to make himself king.”
This realm has been drowning in filth and deceit since the beginning. The powerful leeching unto the defenseless, thriving on chaos and despair. The cycle must end. We mustn’t defeat only Morweena. The Royal Fae family must perish as well, and with them the blight eating this world from the inside out.
“What now, Ereshkygall?” I ask with renewed resolve.
“Now we go to war.” She cracks her neck, a wicked smile painting her face. “I slept long enough. It’s time I joined the upside world, picked up a sword and avenged all of them. Avenge my Alek before I can join her.”
With a flick of her hand, the mountain groans, and a new gash cracks its way open into the granite wall behind her.
“We go to fucking war,” I say in unison with my little umbra, squeezing her fingers that still rest in mine.
