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Faust summoned his rapier and brandished it like he had a chance in hell. His brazen behavior distracted me just long enough for him to pull the walls of his castle between us. I’d forgotten that we were in his domain, and he could bend it to his will as if it were made of water.
A wall would not stop me, though. Tal’s magic removed the laws of physics and sent me leaping into the air, vaulting over the wall that Faust tried to put between us.
As I came down, I summoned my blade to my hand and drove it into Faust’s heart. His eyes were filled with disbelief. He glanced down with perplexed brows knit together.
9
CERRI
The walls blocked my view, but I could tell from the rising dust swirling in the wind that Faust had been defeated once and for all. An awful howl split the air as Faust’s being faded from existence. I braced myself for the domain to crumble or for the Sluagh to attack, but nothing happened.
Not at first.
The walls parted, going back to the way they’d been before Faust pulled them over himself for cover. Rhoan stepped out, naked and sprayed with blood, both his red blood and Faust’s black ooze. He stopped and knelt to clean his blade on the grass. I watched the wind tousle his hair.
Even though I’d brought his beast back to life with the power of my hopes and potions, he still bore the dark oil-slick rainbow of color in his hair. When he looked up, I could see it in his beast’s eyes, too. The beast pulled back and turned his irises a soft shade of lavender once more.
Rhoan smiled. He dispelled his sword and rushed towards me. He caught me in his arms and spun me in the air, making my head light and my laugh giddy. I knew I should have kept my eye on the Sluagh, but I paid them no mind as I pressed my forehead to Rhoan’s.
My heart wept with absolute joy to have him back. I could have kissed every inch of him were there time.
Tal cleared his throat. I stole another heartbeat with my forehead pressed to Rhoan’s before we both pulled back. Tal gestured to the Sluagh around us.
Each and every one of them had dropped to one knee, their blades piercing the ground in surrender. No, this wasn’t surrender. They bowed their heads in reverence.
A chill raced up my spine. Rhoan loosened his hold on me so that I slid down the front of his body and landed back on my feet. The moment my soles touched the earth, I could feel the change.
The trees around us no longer bore the red leaves of my arcana. Instead, they’d turned the same dark oil-slick color as Rhoan’s hair. My breath hitched. A nervous intuition slithered through my mind. I knew what’d happened here, but I couldn’t quite process it yet. I didn’t want to.
Now that my lover had become the new King of Nightmares.
I shuddered and squeezed Rhoan’s shoulders.
“Well, this is not how I expected my day to go,” Rhoan said with a nervous laugh.
“I don’t like this.” Tal sneered at the motionless Sluagh.
He yelped when a spectral beast pressed its head against his thigh and purred. It seemed the Sluagh waited for a command, but the beasts waited for no one. They gathered around Tal and rubbed along his legs as if they enjoyed making him uncomfortable.
“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” Rhoan scratched the back of his head.
I glanced at the Sluagh warriors around us. “Maybe we should take this inside?”
Tal sneered. A beast butted against his torso and nearly knocked him on his ass. “And discover all of the torture devices Faust kept in his castle? I think I should save myself the trouble and burn it all to the ground.”
Rhoan shook his head. He extended a hand towards me and led me through the circle of Sluagh warriors. Even as we passed them, I could see the changes in their being. They weren’t as gruesome anymore. The old wounds and skeletal parts had healed over, becoming whole and unmarred.
Each and every one of them turned an appreciative eye towards Rhoan as we stepped away. The tight hand around my heart loosened. Not a single one of the Sluagh armywantedto work for Faust. And now that they were free of the horrible pookah man, they had so much more to look forward to.
We didn’t knock on the giant front doors. There was no reason to. Still, I noticed the bars binding the wooden planks together were in the shape of feathers now. Somehow, I doubted they’d been there when Faust had been the ruler of this domain. Even the hinges on the doors bore a design similar to the tattoos crisscrossing Rhoan’s body.
Tal called out for us to stop, but his words fell on deaf ears. We weren’t going to step into the den of blood and madness that Tal thought waited beyond these doors. The domain had changed ownership, and it’d changed to reflect Rhoan now.
The inner foyer was small but cozy with high ceilings and tapestries lining the walls. A threadbare rug was somehow still plush under our feet. Between the historical tapestries, busts of the beasts hung on the walls. This was a beastman’s den, and I could feel it in every inch of the castle.
“I almost like it better here than back at the Seelie castle,” I said.
Tal gawked at the new interior. He leveled a very concerned gaze at Rhoan. “What in the seven dimensions did you do?”
