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As the dust settles, something new looms between the two bound kings—a third.
Chapter 42
Irubatmywatering eyes, trying to blink away the dirt and dust causing them to sting and burn. I wasn’t imagining things. The figure standing between the two kings is dressed like a druid knight in the video game Matt used to play when we were younger. The colors of the forest are painted across him, a giant golden tree on his breastplate. No crown adorns his long, golden-brown hair, but it doesn’t take a genius to know who just stopped this duel. Who could but another fae king?
The vines twist tighter around their captives. A groan of pain from Sigurd has me shoving to my feet, my own cuts and bruises forgotten.
“Sigurd!” I call.
He stops squirming against the vines and snaps his head in my direction. “Wren.” His eyes glow that eerie blue, which I know means strong emotion. “You’re hurt.”
“I’m fine.” I probably look much worse than I am after braving the literal storm, but my injuries are nothing on his, which I know must be punishing.
The newcomer king doesn’t stop me or bind me with vines as I approach Sigurd, but I can feel his steady gaze on me nonetheless.
“Brave, foolish woman,” Sigurd says, but his eyes hold so much more, a deep longing that sends tingling warmth throughout my limbs, pushing away my aches and pains.
“I could say the same of you.” Tentatively, I touch the vines that separate us. I can’t quite reach Sigurd through their bulk, and the thorns protruding along their length dissuade me from climbing them or trying to push through. A new horror catches my attention within the twisting mass as I spy a thorn digging into Sigurd’s side, blood running down its surface. My eyes go wide. My hand flies to cover my mouth.
Without thinking, I turn on the Forest king. “Free him! He’s hurt, and your thorns are doing more harm.”
“Wren.” My name is full of pain when Sigurd speaks, and it nearly breaks my heart.
But I don’t heed his warning, don’t back down. Instead, I stare at the king, unflinching.
“You’re the human they stole,” he replies, as if this is some casual conversation and he’s not bleeding out two other kings as we speak. Not to mention that his people hold not just the Unseelie but the Court of Air at bay. I didn’t see weapons drawn on the Court of Air, but the threat is the same: Don’t move. Don’t interfere.
“Yes.” My brows pinch as I stiffen my spine. “You interrupted the duel. It’s invalid, and I’m free anyway. Now let Sigurd go. Let us leave this place.”
“You fought for this human woman?” The Forest king looks past me to Sigurd.
“For Wren,” Sigurd says. “Yes. I love her, Riven. I will always fight for her.”
He loves me.I sway on my feet, bracing myself on a vine and nearly earning a nasty cut from a thorn.
As much as the comment caught me by surprise, it does just as much to the Forest king—to Riven. His eyes glow emerald green. His gaze goes far away, even as he blinks rapidly at the revelation.
“And you? What did you fight for?” Riven asks the Unseelie king.
“The cauldron.” Kallan groans, still fighting the vines. “The cauldron for the girl.”
The ground below us trembles, and I edge back farther against the vines. Only minutes ago, he opened up the earth. The chasm lingers not far away. Would he do the same again?
Riven raises his hand. The forest fae respond, as do the Unseelie who cry out in alarm. The ground stills immediately.
“None of that,” Riven says. He narrows his piercing gaze at Kallan. “I don’t like Unseelie who capture humans.”
The half laugh that slips from the Unseelie king is a thing of nightmares, twisting and vicious all at once. “How ironic, given the shameful way you used my people for your twisted game.”
“Your people?” Riven asks.
“He’s the Unseelie king,” Sigurd replies, voice laced with pain.
Riven goes utterly still, his eyes flaring with a bright green glow.
“The magic has settled, even after so long,” Riven says, almost to himself. With a little shake, the look of shock is gone, and he spears the Unseelie king with his attention and snarls, “It was no game.”
“Tell that to my dead brethren.”
