When the Golden Son returns, will the Darkness recede.
Finn was no ordinary changeling. She should've known it from the first brush of his magic. A primal, dormant part of her had recognized him.
It was why she felt no guilt over their night together. Why she felt as though she knew him from the moment they met. She had given herself to him, trusted him, because he was hers. Just as she was his.
The Spirits had heard her prayers after all.
His deadly glare pulls away from her healing wounds. Finn levels a withering stare at the Void. Fire licks up his palms and flows up his bare arms. Each impressive muscle is more pronounced.
Clad only in cloth pants that cling to his thick legs, the Fairy Queen silently vows to trace every single one of his muscles and commit every devastating inch of him to memory. If they manage to survive.
His rage is palpable. The flames around him strengthen. They burn through the ground like a wildfire.
"I remember it all," Finn says, his voice deeper than before. “My parents thrust me through a portal the night you struck them down. I floated, frozen in time, lost between realms for centuries before finally landing in the human world. My magic concealed me for protection. All those years it burrowed inside of me, waiting until the moment it could be unleashed.”
The Fairy Queen's mouth goes dry. Flames spread over the ground and scorches the obsidian towers. The Void drops her to the ground as it slinks towards Finn. She grits her teeth against the pain.
Baring its fangs and claws, Finn grins at the figure. Confident to the very end. His muscles coil, ready to attack.
“I’ve been suppressing my magic for nearly three centuries.” Fire erupts around him. "And I'm going to use every last drop of it fucking killing you."
The Void lashes out with its dark power, but Finn is faster. Magic suppressed for that long will turn feral. It's a wonder Finn is able to control it. It indicates just how strong he is.
Finn erupts into golden fire. Flames spread quickly across the ground, burning away all traces of the Void's rot. The goo writhes and shrieks as it burns alive. His flames travel up the steps and surround the Fairy Queen.
They sever her bindings and encase her in their light. Touching one, it curls around her palm. The fire nuzzles against her legs and arms, as featherlight as Finn's fingers the previous night. They don't harm her because they are Finn.
The Void isn't as lucky.
Finn overpowers the darkness. Each whip of dark power is met by a wall of flames. The Void and Finn battle across the burning ground.
Fire surrounds the Void, eating away at its sickening flesh as it screams.
The obsidian towers fall one by one. Thedeadtreesatop them splinter and die. With the oily thicket of leaves cleared away, the sun burns through the clearing, eradicating the final stand of the Deadlands.
The pale-stone ruins of the Sun Palace beam in the sun.
The Fairy Queen's breath catches as the darkness recedes. Delicate orbs float to the sky. All those souls lost have been freed. Moisture burns her eyes as they travel higher. Her parents are amongst them, Finn's too. Finally at peace.
Restlessness settles inside her. The flames feel like a thousand caresses as her injuries mend. Finn's magic threads through hers, deepening her well to heights she had not felt before. This is the strongest she has ever been.
A golden thread weaves around her heart. Following the single, unbreakable string, she finds Finn's heart on the other end. Golden light engulfs everything around her.
His heart and soul brush against hers, and she yields to it. To the bond that strengthens with every matching beat of their hearts.
17
FINN
My magic burns away the darkness.
Golden fire is everywhere, consuming all the rot and decay. Instead of dwindling under the Void's oppressive magic, the fire strengthens. It steals power from the creature’s death magic and uses it as kindling to rage hotter.
The inferno burns through the meadow and beyond. I can feel my fire stretch through every hidden corner of the fairy realm and scourge the blight from the land.
Centuries of oppressed power just waiting to be released. There was no worthy cause other than burning it all to save Arden.
My blood still boils at the condition I found her in.
