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Except … he had.

He’d made an example of his subjects once a week, like clockwork. Deceived the world, kept them under rule of a false threat for centuries. Killed people, including his own wives, to keep that power. Made me kill people. Threatened and hurt Cali.

And suddenly, any concern I had for his suffering evaporated.

“How could you side with this traitor?” he bit out, his breath struggling to leave his lungs. “When all this time we treated you as our son.”

Son? How could that ever be anything other than offensive, when he treated his own blood daughter like the dirt beneath his feet?

I ignored his manipulation and, for what I hoped would be the last time, I went to the place inside myself where I knew I would show no mercy.

“Long live Queen Elizabeth,” was my only reply, and the stark shock of realization was the last expression on his face before I finished the job.

My target dropped to the floor, and I felt … nothing. No memories of warm feelings, no regret. I watched him, just to be sure, until his muscles ceased their twitching, until I felt my magic settle from having nothing left to dampen. And then a sudden spark, almost like a leaping fire, made me step back. Poor Cali shrieked, but there was nothing to defend her from as the king’s body burned away into nothing but embers and ash.

I stared at the soot floating in the air in front of me, strangely haunting and ethereal in the rare beams of sunlight coming in through the window. All that remained of the king. There was no way he could be anything but dead. And yet a man who had lived for centuries, who could kill with the snap of his fingers, who had been known as a god … how could he truly be dead?

“The demon took its payment,” Cali said, her voice trembling.

It was a wonder I’d heard her. I nodded, and finally, I looked at her. She held my earplugs, as if she’d just removed them.

Taking her in—fierce gaze, torn dress, and all—my decade of pain felt distant. Finally, Cali was truly safe. And that was the only thought that mattered to me, now. I rushed to her, took her face in my hands, trying not to scare her with the desperation of my kiss. She leaned against my chest, love and understanding radiating from her touch.

“Beric,” she said, when I finally let her go. “Are you all right?”

I took my earplugs from her and threw them into the still blazing hearth. “I am now.”

A flash outside the window, like lightning without a storm, made us look up. We rushed to the window, and I swear I could see movement on the horizon. The Dark shifted like clouds on the wind, but it was impossible to see where it was going, until finally, I could see it spiraling downward.

Cali gripped my shirt tightly—maybe she said something, but I didn’t hear it.

The Dark was being sucked down, like smoke through a flue. Down it went, slowly clearing the sky as it left, from darkness to an overcast gray split by sunshine.

We watched until every inch of darkness had disappeared.

And all at once, two hundred years of strife was ended.

CHAPTER46CALLIOPE

By the time we left the king’s room, the guards Anise had insisted on had abandoned their posts for windows or the outdoors to marvel at the missing abyss in the distance. All the better, for Beric and I were given no trouble in making it to the queen’s office.

Ann lay on a chaise, arm across her eyes in dramatic fashion. The desk was beginning to pile up with paperwork already, as if she hadn’t even tried to touch it. She didn’t know what was required of the queen any more than I had known what was required of the king’s knight. She was no more qualified for this position than she was deserving of it, and I was more than happy to break the news that her time in the role was over.

She jolted upright as soon as she heard us enter. I hid a smirk—she had a massive purple bruise right in the middle of her forehead from that metal bar. As soon as she saw me, her jaw dropped, but seeing Beric sent her scampering behind the desk to hide.

“The king is dead,” I said, getting to the point. “And the queen would like to see you.”

Anise started to speak a few times, faltering until, finally, “What’s going on?”

“Of course you would pretend to misunderstand me at a time like this. But then, I suppose you expected me to still be rotting in the dungeons.”

“I was going to let you out eventually,” she argued. As stubborn and selfish as ever, even when it made no sense.

“The king is dead,” I repeated. “The power to rule has now been passed to his heir. So, are you going to come with us the easy way or the hard way?”

She went to sit down, and I whistled, my magic blocking her, forcing her to remain standing. She glared at me, and I could have laughed.

“Walk,” I said, pointing to the door, “or Beric will drag you, and we both know he’s been dying to do some variation of that since you met.”