Everything you love will die.
A roar erupted from my throat as I went for Danu, my hands extended to reach for her throat as I ripped her power from the world. Just as the magic dimmed from her eyes, a searing, rending pain tore my chest wide open, my bond with Rowan fading away as if it had never been.
Chapter
Thirty-Four
MOIRA
Caelan fell first. Then Thorvin, Soren, Ben, and Ethan. They stood no chance against the unholy power tearing straight for them. Rowan, still fighting in the fray, only had a moment of confusion, followed by horrifying realization, when that same power came for him, tearing into his chest.
He was the last to fall, the spark that made him who he was fading as his life’s blood spilled onto the ground. I felt the moment their bond sundered, a ripping sensation tearing through my chest that left me breathless.
A keening, heartbreaking wail shattered the air, and as one, everyone stopped fighting, the loss too monumental, too horrific for anyone with even a small piece of heart left to comprehend.
I staggered to a stop, my hand over my heart as grief exploded within me. Six Lords, six rulers, one of those a mate to my best friend, had fallen, their lives snuffed out in an instant.
They were never a match for a goddess, not being taken completely by surprise as they were. Danu and Evie had been focused on each other. They had no reason to worry.
And so they’d pressed on.
Evie screamed and screamed and screamed. She scrambled to her feet and ran, tripping over broken bodies, fae and shifteralike, as she found Rowan on the battlefield. Dropping to her knees, she gripped him by the lapels and shook him.
“Rowan!”
His head lolled, the shell of his body empty.
“ROWAN!”
Nothing.
“No. No no no no no no.” Evie gagged and pressed Rowan to her chest, glowing with the earth’s power, but raising the dead was beyond her. It was beyond me and everyone else here. Death was a force few understood and even fewer tried to reckon with.
Tears spilled down my eyes as I sought Ethan out. He lay on his back, eyes wide and sightless, his chest a smoking, poisoned ruin. I crouched beside him and closed his eyes with my fingers, mourning the potential of what could have been, and rose to go to Evie.
She gently set her mate down and rose, a terrible expression on her face. My best friend turned to those fae, eyes glowing with the power of a furious goddess, and spoke.
“DIE.” She lifted her palm to the air and squeezed. Nothing happened for a moment until the first fae sucked in a shocked gasp, her face going dry and cavernous.
“TO DUST YOU WILL RETURN,” Evie boomed, her voice carrying like a bomb through the land.
Every single fae left on the battlefield collapsed into a pile of dust the earth opened to contain and recycle, their immortality gone in an instant, just as Danu had done to Evie’s mate.
A terrible vengeance and one Evie might mourn later. But right now, my friend was a terrible power to behold. Gone was the woman I shared pasta and wine with on the weekends. Gone was my best friend who lent her shoulder to cry on when I needed it.
Before me stood the fae queen hellbent on vengeance. She raised both hands into the air, palms up, and spoke once more.
“RETURN.”
Cernunnos, Cliona, and Neit sucked in shocked gasps as they blipped from existence.
I had a terrible feeling I knew what she’d done, that hybrid tree a conduit for her bridge power and one she’d planned to use for good until she had no choice.
There would be consequences for this day. For Evie and everyone else.
When the battlefield was quiet, the only sound the softshhhhof ash as it continued raining down, Evie sank to her knees and sobbed, cradling Rowan’s lifeless body in her arms.
I didn’t try to touch her or console her. Nothing I could say or do would make this any better. There was no comfort here today, nor would there be in the coming weeks.
