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I slid my sword back into its scabbard and took a deep breath, steeling myself for what was to come. Then I offered him my hand. “Fine. It’s a deal.”
He stared at my hand then at my face, his expression bordering between serious and euphoric. “Just like that?”
“It’s not like I can sleep on it. So yes. Just like that.”
“You understand what you’re giving up?”
“Not a lot of wiggle room for interpretation on this one. I lose my power, then I spill all my nice clean human blood on your sword. You take my power and my life, plus you get a new toy out of the bargain. That about sum it up?”
“In brute terms, yes.”
“It’s a deal.”
Cocking his head to one side, he seemed to be drinking in my appearance. It was the way I’d looked at people when I thought I might never see them again. But it was also the way I’d seen people stare at beautiful paintings in a gallery, trying to understand the detail hidden within.
“What a marvelous creature you are, Ms. McQueen. I believe I’m doing the right thing with you.” He nodded, mostly to himself, and smiled again. “Don’t forget, while you may be giving up everything, not even I can rob you of the spark that ignites you.”
Whatever that meant. Dead was dead. Some inner spark of personality wasn’t going to make me any less gone at the end of the night.
I wouldn’t tell Desmond and Holden.
They might appreciate the gesture behind what I was doing, and put in the same position I suspected either of them would make the same choice I was, but I also knew they wouldn’t take the decision well. They’d try to talk me out of it, and when their pleas failed, they’d try to stop me by force. I wasn’t going to be talked down. Telling them wouldn’t soften the blow, it wouldn’t make things any easier on them in the long run, so I would wait. When the time came…I could figure things out then.
It wasn’t like I’d be around for long after.
Aubrey grasped my hand, and a shock like a punch rocked through me. My breath was stolen, and as I struggled to get air, the world was once again transformed to bright light, only now it was a soft pink hue like the color of dawn when it’s just hinting at its arrival, before the sun was up.
I blinked at the sudden appearance of so much light and was now both blind and breathless.
Though I couldn’t see Aubrey, his grip was still firm on my hand, and I heard him say, “The thing you must remember about power is that it is so much greater than any one individual can contain. Yours was already strong, and now you will truly be a force to be reckoned with. Don’t expect to control the power. All you can hope is not to let it control you.”
He released my hand, and the light fell back in on itself like a miniature big bang in reverse. There was a silent pop of air pressure releasing in my ears, and then I was standing on the castle steps alone, and everything was as it had been. The world was in motion, and the abrupt return of sound made it all boom like a thunderous roar.
I covered my ears, still stunned by the shift from one reality to the next. My stomach swam with queasy nausea, and I fought the urge to vomit. Going into a fae time freeze was evidently a lot easier than coming out of one. Apparently cramming twenty minutes of banter and life experience into the span of a second really took a toll on my body.
I made a mental note to keep freezing time as a last-ditch effort when it came to using Aubrey’s power.
The door leading up to the first observation deck was wide open, so I assumed Parker’s men had gotten through and were somewhere between here and the top floor. Pulling my sword out again, ignoring my future fate with it, I charged ahead, taking the stairs two at a time.
Voices on the first observation level told me a few of the men at least had branched off, but the echo of shouting above drew my attention onward. There was nowhere for Desmond and Holden to go for escape if the other men had reached them. They’d need my help before the other lackeys had to be dealt with.
I bounded up the remaining steps and skidded to a halt in the open doorway where three men were blocking my access to the stone balcony. They were speaking hoarsely to my boys, but sound still had a tinny ring to it, so I couldn’t quite make out what they were discussing.
It didn’t matter. Parker’s men wouldn’t let Holden and Desmond leave here alive.
I was prepared to bury my sword into the back of the nearest man when a thought popped into my head. Burn them.
I wasn’t sure how Aubrey’s magic worked. He hadn’t exactly left me with an instruction manual, meaning this would be a trial-and-error method of adjusting to my newfound abilities. I lifted my hand and thought, Burn.
There was no magical bolt of energy from my fingers, but the air around my hand shimmered briefly. A moment after I thought the word, the three men were engulfed, burned up from the inside out. The white flames consumed them so quickly I was left slack-jawed behind them, staring at my hand in disbelief.
As their ashes fluttered to the stone, Desmond and Holden were both standing on the edge of the platform, and neither of them seemed to believe what they were seeing. Desmond glanced over his shoulder to the water, where they must have seen me land only a second earlier.
“What…?” Holden followed Desmond’s gaze, then looked back at me in quiet disbelief. I couldn’t blame him. I would have thought something was amiss too.
“Come on. Let’s go.” I waved them towards me while the white-and-black ashes of their former enemies swirled around our feet.
“How did you—?” Desmond began, but I cut him off.
