Page 33 of Torpid Dagger


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Weeping my sorrows into the chest of Alasdair, I broke our kiss to hide myself against him. He slowed his thrusts to move my hair back as he lifted more to see me. “Never hide from me, Princess. I want all of you.”

In the steam of our hidden lovemaking, I let him have all of me in a way he understood me. Both of us soon left our tears behind, grateful the other was there to catch our tears. Finishing together, I clawed his back in the rapture he provided, letting him have the rawest version of me.

“Mine,” I breathed against his lips as he climaxed inside of my trembling core.

“Forever,” he agreed, joining my own release. The day was starting that might lead to our end, but our promise would follow us into death.

I wanted my mates, and I wanted to figure out a life in the futures they all saw. But it was hard when I didn’t have goals outside of Morrigan’s death.

23

Fergus

Our walk was ending abruptly because we had come to the edge of the oasis. All of us paused on the last section of grass to take in the darkness all around it. The sound of the waterfall could still be heard in the small distance from where we stopped for camp, but I knew with our trek ahead that we wouldn’t have that peaceful background noise for long. Morrigan’s magic made all the creatures whine and wail in pain, so I placed my hand on the ground to remember what the growing grass of life felt like.

Closing my eyes, I felt the liveliness for myself and my magic. There were no words for everything I was going to lose the second I crossed into the black territory. With Morrigan controlling so much around this little oasis, I was proud of its power to stay true. Fighting the drain of our core couldn’t have been easy, but I knew it did it for this very moment, knowing we’d need its sanctuary to make it. Morrigan didn’t care that our world was alive on its own. She didn’t care that she stripped the lives of thousands to make herself more powerful.

“Fergus, are you ready?” Looking up, I found Briar watching me as though she was nervous for me. Our mate was beginning to understand everything we had lost, so she knew how to give us proper time to mourn it.

“You guys go on ahead,” I told them all. “I’ll catch up in just a minute.” My brothers all knew why so they were more than willing to leave me be for a few extra minutes.

Calling forth my power, I grew a prickle bush with sharp thorns next to me in a matter of seconds. I had a tree hand me it’s thickest vines as they snaked their way across the ground toward me, traveling up my hand on the ground. The lines moved up to cover my arms in a way that coiled like bracelets. A spare vine also plucked the prickle bush from the ground and crawled up to sit against my chest, hanging around my neck like a necklace.

Morrigan’s lands might not have had what I could use from her ruining it, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t take my own supplies in with me. Alasdair filled his canteen for the same reason.

Still keeping my hand on the ground, I let all the vines nestle into place. Morrigan knew we were coming because she saw us through the wolves, so I had no doubt she’d be waiting for us with an army of her own.

Inhaling slowly, I did something that I wasn’t even sure would work. I sent rapid pulses of my magic into the ground to send an earthquake in every direction. The animals who hadn’t been affected by Morrigan would understand what I was asking as I placed the beacon on repeat in the oasis. People from my realm would also know what this was, so I had to pray that they would bring the others with them. My people learned of this in our history books when we were young. It was the final call from their king, telling his people it was time to go to battle.

The majority of our people had issues with us leading because we hadn’t gone through the trials, but I had to hope they’d put that behind them for this. It wasn’t just me that worried our primal forms wouldn’t be enough. If we were truly going to stop Morrigan, it would take almost every last remaining fae to do so.

The others wouldn’t feel what I had done in the black territory with me waiting for them to be out of reach because I knew they wouldn’t approve from the lack of help we already saw. If this journey had taught me anything, it was that some people could surprise me. Cian was living proof of that as he marched into battle with us. Hell, Cullen and Briar had tricked the dark prince, but I did not know what words passed between him and Briar that changed his tune so quickly. The prince of darkness was the only one who could rival Morrigan with a similar power, so having him fight with us would make all the difference already. With my war cry sent, I stood from the greenery and marched into the black.

The others weren't too far ahead of me as they made their way to the mountain that we’d have to hike up. Morrigan’s home could be seen from here, and we’d be on her doorstep within an hour

“New look?” Alasdair smirked at me. He knew what I was doing, but they hadn’t seen it before because we had never not had land everywhere. Dipping my chin to him, he patted my back and stayed behind me in order not to be scraped by the prickle bush. I had the ground make the thorns on the bush sharper and harder for them not to break against our enemies. This was it, and not a single one of us had the hesitation to turn back. We knew what was on the line, willing to give our lives for it.

No one spoke as the looming despair of our future hung in the balance. We were all too scared and afraid to know what might happen and voicing it wouldn’t help anything. My eyes kept drawing back to where the oasis was just to see if we had any help coming yet. A king’s cry was one that was supposed to be taken seriously, but I was not their king yet. Our people had treated us like such, so I wasn’t sure if they’d come to our aid.

Morrigan’s castle sat on a flat at the very top of the mountain. The closer we got, I could see the black monsters from their oozing shadow forms.

The creatures all braced themselves to take us on because they knew we were coming for their queen. I wondered if the old version them was still inside of all that suffering, or if we’d be able to get them back. The second they noticed us, they were ready to pounce, hunching down to attack. All the others pulled their blades and readied for the fight, but I got in front of them to go first.

Keeping my heart rate down, there was absolution in my stance, organized for whatever outcome would happen today. Eighty years of suffering and losing people would be over once and for all one way or the other.

Just as we neared the very top, her wave of mutated creatures began to come at us. It was like a black avalanche prepared to fall down the mountain on top of us, but I was ready for it. The vines along my forearms moved to sit in my grasp just as I flung my arms forward for the vines to grow and clear our path. Belting out my wrath in a scream, Cullen didn’t hesitate to have the others follow him through the path I had just cleared. My vines were holding strong as much as they could, but I knew they would give at any moment. We all ran through the opening as I followed everyone else. We got about halfway before my vines failed from being sliced, bitten and shredded by claws and teeth.

With us gearing up to fight, I then used my prickle bush as my next weapon. Swinging it out like a hammer, I bashed in the heads of anyone who got near me. The animals might have scratched me a few times, but I knew the blood on my thorns promised me I did more damage to them. The scratches and tears did burn, but I was drunk off the thirst for vengeance.

24

Cian

Peril was the only word to describe this whole mess. Spinning my gaze around, the horror of this attack was more brutal than we anticipated. Morrigan didn’t want us to get to her, so she called every minion possible to stand against us in her place. They must’ve traveled around us through the night to get to her.

Briar fought valiantly with the rest of us as she tried to stab majority of the animals with her sleeping dagger. The rest of us had no other choice but to kill the ones that were charging us. Our brute strength knocked a couple of them out, but we were still in for a rude awakening.

Birds were used to come from above and attack us with the harpies. Their talons and claws kept striking us, aiming for our eyes. It didn’t help we were fighting the wolves and animals that had been turned against us on the ground.

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