I inhale deeply, savoring the faint scent of grass and blooming roses. Death clings to the air. I will blight it from this realm today.
Too many have fallen into the darkness's clutches, and I will be damned if Arden becomes the Void's latest victim. Her goodness can’t be slain.
I will give my last breath defending her.
Staring into the star-flecked surface, I bid a silent farewell to my crew. To Gree. He would understand my choice. All he ever wanted was for me to be happy.
Finally, I say goodbye to the man I was—the mask I've worn all this time. I feel it slip away as golden light floods the clearing.
My beast grins with all its teeth as I destroy the carefully constructed cage I've kept him in. A warm breeze kicks up, lifting my magic into the air.
I raise the fairy wish towards the weak rays of the sun.
"I wish to be strong enough to save Arden and her realm."
The orb shakes between my palms. A soft green glow emits from it. Arden's lovely face disappears into a torrent of racing stars. My heart pounds against my ribs as the fairy wish glows with intensity.
For a moment, there is only silence, then everything explodes.
The orb shatters into a barrage of flying stars. The clearing is awash in silver and gold. Raw, primal magic surrounds me and shreds at my flesh like a thousand knives. The last tendrils of my humanity burn away by fairy magic.
In the clearing, surrounded by death, I’m reborn in golden fire.
16
THE FAIRY QUEEN
The infernal palace looms ahead.
What was once a beacon of light and opulence has been rotted from the inside out. Oily, goo slides thickly down the sides of obsidian towers. The air is heavy with the stench of death. Sickly green mist clings to the mushy, black grass.
The Fairy Queen keeps to her wings to avoid the pools of boiling sludge on the ground.
Deadtreescreate a thick roof that blocks out the morning sun. The only light source comes from the torches of black flames illuminating the wide stone path. Her parents would use this road to arrive for official business in their royal carriage.
They perished here. Their souls are trapped forever in the Deadlands.
The Void feasts on their essence—of all those slain—to spread its rot. A cold wind picks up, slicing her to the bone. Only her anger and the memories of her night with Finn keep her warm.
Finn. Her heart squeezes painfully at the thought of him.
Surely he's awoken by now and found her gone. Discovered the note and the wish she left behind. With her heart in sharp pieces that slice into her ribs, she knows this was the right decision. He is surely already back in the human lands and far from this forsaken place.
Finn had given her more than anyone else had. Hope that she could defeat the Void—the magic to do so. More than that, he gave her himself. She had felt his heart pounding alongside hers. The strong, warm threads of his soul had braided with hers. Permanent and primal.
It was impossible but undeniable.
Those questions would do her no good at present. What he was or wasn't to her didn't matter. He was gone, and she was glad he was somewhere far from danger. Finn was life, and he was love, and he really saw her. Not as a Queen, but as Arden.
A female who wanted to belong to another.
She had closed herself off from love to honor her betrothed, but with Finn, she hadn't felt guilt over their night. Instead, she felt peace. A sense of rightness that calms her nerves as she approaches her impending death. Finn had made her feel alive and wanted.
A beautiful final gift before she perished in the darkness.
He will be with her always as she tucks the decadent memories of their night into her heart. If her soul is to be trapped in eternal gloom, they will provide her with light.
Finn will live, and that will bring her comfort. Too many have died in her name, in her parents' names. It was her time to make the ultimate sacrifice. One final stand against the evil polluting her realm to avenge as many as she could.
