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For Jens.
For Vali.
For our parents who did not get to raise their littles.
Now, for Dagny. For Luca. Two souls who’d wanted nothing more than to live simply until old age dragged them to the Otherworld. Souls who deserved to watch their son become a man.
They were gone. Because ofhim.
I trembled in wretched anger and raised my palms. Heat pulsed through my fingertips. The ring burned. All around me, shadows thickened.
Silent and frightening, Kase stepped to my side. He took my hand without a word, and the bond we shared, both as Alvers and our vows sent a shocking rush of power through my blood. Dark power. A kind that could corrupt and consume should I let it.
For a moment, I did.
Billows of darkness with a few sharp flashes of light swirled around us like a wild storm. The sea fae in the waves halted. Rows of enemies, at long last, looked upon our shores with a bit of trepidation.
They only fueled Kase’s mesmer.
His vicious, white grin split over his features once two haggard looking fae stepped onto the rocky banks.
“Are you afraid, sea fae?” Kase’s rough rasp sent my pulse racing.
Most seemed too stunned to move, others took steps back toward deeper waters. Some dove beneath the surface.
“You should be,” Kase went on, a mad look to the glossy black of his eyes. “Did you not realize you’ve stepped into a realm of nightmares?”
His movement spurred my own. A unified attack, bonded through our hearts and souls, we flung our arms out wide.
A furious gust of shadows ripped through the soft bellies of our invaders like dark daggers. Rows and rows of fae fell as splinters of his mesmer lodged deep in the ribs, the eyes, through the throats, even a few through their open mouths as they screamed, the dark points splitting holes out the backs of their skulls.
Brilliant light from my mesmer collided with the crowns of their heads, ripping through the most basic of thoughts. Breath, survival, a will to live. They were peeled back from their consciousness until the fae could not think to stand any longer.
Fifty paces on either side of the shore, sea fae toppled over. Those rising from the depths of the Howl drew to a halt, watching with a bit of horror as their people stumbled and fell. Dead before they knew what was coming.
Silence fell over the sea for mere breaths before the fae of the sea retreated. They shouted calls for escape. They plunged their horridly beautiful features, or scales, their wretched eyes, into the depths of the Howl.
I stumbled against Kase, and he against me. Such a rush of mesmer robbed us both of our strength, but more than that… the grief was debilitating.
Kase fell to his knees. At his back, the Kryv gathered in a wretched silence as they looked on to where Luca and Dagny had fallen near the shore, arms still linked together. Raum hung his head, hiding his eyes. Lynx clapped a hand on his shoulder.
Ash pressed a hand to his broad chest. One of the youngest of the Kryv had grown taller than most of the others. Ash let tears fall, unashamed, over his stubbled cheeks.
Kase cleared his throat. He wiped one corner of his eye with the back of his hand and rose from the slap of the sea.
“Help me take them back to Felstad. Where we were first truly free.” His voice croaked. “Von Grym will know his parents died as warriors. He needs to know they . . . they dine with their gods tonight.”
I slipped my hand into his. Kase tended to ignore the existence of gods, but he knew Von would want to believe his mother and father were greeted by those who’d passed before. Kase would want the boy to cling to that faith now.
True, Kase did not believe in the gods, but I’d sent countless prayers to the skies that we’d have a bit of respite from the attacks, a few clock tolls even, to light funeral pyres for Dag and Luca.
It seemed, for now, those prayers were heard.
The pyres ignited the still-scorched stones of Felstad in dancing shades of gold and red. Von stood in the front, chin trembling, tears lining his eyes. A boy. A mere boy of fourteen and he’d now face the world alone.
No. Not alone. He’d always have us.
I rested my head on Kase’s shoulder, watching as Jonas slunk next to Von and slipped his hand in the boy’s left palm. Sander gently took the right. The two princes held to Von, a boy who’d befriended them, even young as they were. He whittled with them. Went swimming in the rivers. Visited the Falkyn Nest to cause havoc much like . . . much like Kase and Luca had done as boys.
