The Void binds her wrists and wings. Searing pain floods up her leg as his oppressive magic wraps around her wounds.
Finn's magic had not been enough. She was a fool to think for a moment it would make a difference. Despite her impending death, she was glad Finn was gone. The Fairy Queen didn't want him to see this. No doubt he'd already be dead, and the Void would've made her watch every brutal moment as it tore apart the most wonderful male she's ever known.
The Fairy Queen hopes her realm will understand she gave them everything she had, and in the end it hadn't been enough. If the Spirits can hear her, she wishes they will at least all be granted the mercy of a swift death.
"I'm going to enjoy this." The Void licks over its teeth. "The Fairy Queen is finally in my clutches. Your soul tastes sweeter than the others'. Purer. I'll take us back to Glimmerveil and make your subjects watch as I tear you apart."
Pain and freezing wind cut her to the bone, but she bucks against its power in one last feeble attempt to make a stand. The Void merely laughs.
Dragging her closer, it smiles cruelly. Rotten breath bathes her face. The stench makes her nose burn. Pale green steam wafts from its ruby tongue. Oil sprays onto her cheeks, searing her flesh.
"Or better yet, I'll keep you alive long enough to watch me rot them from the inside out. Then you will join them in death, Queen Arden."
The Fairy Queen whimpers.
Pain is everywhere. It hurts to move, to breathe. There is nothing she can do. All of the years she spent trying to save her realm only for it to end like this. She had not spared them. If anything, her final stand has enraged the Void enough to make them suffer worse.
She was a bad Queen. A weak one. One that?—
A tendril of Finn's magic brushes against her. It rouses her from the pain long enough to see that the Void has twisted away from her. Her magic reaches for the golden light, allowing it to strengthen her enough to ease the pain in her leg.
With her head clearing, she tracks the Void's gaze. Its posture is rigid as it looks towards the obsidian stone path.
If it wasn't for the Void's snarl, she'd think she was hallucinating. Golden light spills into the clearing, burning away the bubbling pools that had harmed her. The petrifieddeadtreesexplode into ash.
"Impossible," the Void hisses.
Itwasimpossible, and yet, there he was.
Finn, as he was always meant to be. His human form has been cleared away, and a proud fairy male stands at the base of the stone steps.
He is taller and broader of shoulder. Heavy wings made of golden feathers beat at his back.
Hair the color of the sun sparkles in the dark. Tan skin glimmers like jewels. His musky scent is gone, and in its place is the rich smell of sun-drenched flower petals. Pure magic floats through the air, tangling with hers.
Strengthening it.
The power she had taken from him before had only been a drop. With his facade removed, he is the strongest fairy she has ever come across. His coloring, the wings, and his power are familiar to her. How had she not sensed it before?
The realization steals her breath.
Sapphire eyes sparkle up at her. They dip to her injured foot. His full lips curl in a primal snarl.
The Fairy Queen's heart lifts. Finn is here. He didn't leave. He chose to come here, to risk his own life to save her.
Oh, how she lov?—
"I killed you as a babe," the Void spits.
Its words freeze the blood in her veins.
With Finn's magic tangling with hers, the pain in her leg dissipates as the flesh rapidly heals. Black goo seeps from her wounds as the infection burns away.
With a clear mind, the old adage her kind held onto as a fleeting tendril of hope becomes startlingly clear. Shock makes her heart race.
They had misinterpreted it all this time.
It was not the sun that had to return to spare them but rather theson. A son of Goldren. The slain prince. Finn.
