It always required a ceremony, a ritual of magic and words, but somehow Claire had urged us all along, creating a divine mating unlike any I’d ever heard of existing.
Her access to the elements had grown. I could feel that now as she lurked on the edge of the earth source, her roots stroking the energy without anchoring.
Because she respected me as the Earth Fae Queen.
And this gift of intensifying my mating to Kols, Zeph, Shade, and Zakkai was her way of demonstrating that it was indeed not about how much power we possessed, but how we used it.
Thank you, I thought, conveying the message with my eyes.
She smiled slightly and curtsied, her head bowing in deference, just as I’d done when she’d arrived.
Two queens acknowledging the rule of the other.
Respecting boundaries.
And celebrating each other’s monarchy.
Which meant she knew I wasn’t Elana, that despite my abomination status, she trusted me in a way. And from the looks of her mates, they did, too.
Constantine growled then, drawing my focus back to him, his fury a sharp spike in the air as he tried one last time to issue an enchantment. But it was already too late for him. The roots were well dug into the soil below him, the smoky embers of his earlier spells solidifying to obsidian rock around him as the trunk of a new tree sprouted upward in a series of lethal vines.
His eyes widened. “Don’t just stand there!” His shout was directed at the still-kneeling Warrior Bloods. Or maybe at the other Elders and Councilmen. “Do something!”
“We are,” Tadmir replied flatly. “We’re watching and admiring our Midnight Fae Queen’s choice of punishment.” His black orbs sparkled at me, his lips curling in faint amusement. “Which I must say is quite fitting.”
Indeed, Zakkai agreed in my mind.You’re trapping him in a tree.
I’m creating a symbol of our future,I corrected.By… wrapping a tree around him.Which would trap him for eternity, but that wasn’t the point.
His hand squeezed mine, his entertainment palpable.
I ignored the urge to smile and focused on the life growing against the earth below. “Destruction is sometimes required to renew life. But it’s how we administer that destruction, and the lessons that are born with it, that matters most,” I told Constantine softly. “You’ll forever serve as a reminder of that, as your soul will reside within the tree of your own magical creation… for eternity.”
He opened his mouth to reply, his gold irises flaring with magic, but the trunk of the tree silenced him as the dark, tendril-like vines slid over his mouth and wrapped around the back of his head.
Blissful silence fell as the life continued to sprout upward, the trunk sturdy and wide and wrapped in all the dark sins of the man beneath. I’d taken his dark magic and made it corporeal, each pulsing vein a spell I’d retracted from the Midnight Fae of this realm.
Because now that I knew what enchantment he favored for his manipulation, I could sense them all over the kingdom.
I pulled them back through my connection to the dark source.
And wrapped the power around the base, watching as it curled higher and higher until the tree was several stories in the air, its branches dusted with burning flames that would always burn as a reminder to the Midnight Fae of how far we’d come.
“A show of rebirth,” I sighed, content with the design. “A tree of retribution, meant to inspire reformation.”
A show of light came from the forest, little dots flickering in the air as hundreds of Midnight Fae approached, their wands held like torches.
Zenaida led one side.
Laki led the other.
Midnight Fae of all types followed behind them, entering the clearing of the trees, filling up as much space as the ground would allow.
They lifted the wands toward the sky.
And bowed their heads.
“Our queen has ascended,” Zen proclaimed.
