AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shouts of disbelief came next.
And before my eyes, the king and queen of the Solis continent both burned in flames so hot that not even my mother could withstand her own power.
My parents’ screams filled my ears until the fire melted their features. Before my eyes, their bodies turned into piles of ash.
And then I heard nothing at all.
CHAPTER 28 - ILARA
“Norivun?” I said quietly just as the bargain’s mark, the king’s crown, flared on my mate’s inner wrist, then disappeared from existence.
I swallowed the knot in my throat. My mate’s bargain with Lord Crimsonale was complete, which meant the king was truly dead.
I cradled Norivun’s head. “My love, I’m going to heal you. I’m going to rid you of the poison inside you.”
The crown prince lay on the ground, his face a mask of shock. Soot coated his cheeks. My brilliant white angel wings spread around him, holding him. Protecting him.
Fatigue barreled through me. I was so tired, soverytired after the battle in the yard, but I couldn’t stop now.
Haxil, Sandus, Nish, and Ryder stood around us,forming a cage of muscle and taut wings even though all of them were bloodied, injured, and barely standing. Ryder had a cut so deep in his abdomen that his face was entirely white.
I would heal him next, then the other three before I turned my affinities to the injured castle guard. I would heal as many as I could until my magic ran dry and unconsciousness claimed me.
The prince reached for me but then pulled back. Along the bond, disbelief and wariness consumed him.
“Is it you? Is this real?”
“Yes, it’s me, my darling.” I called upon my angel affinity until light blazed from my palms as the soothing dark followed. I dipped my magic into his body, seeking the powerful hallucinogen that coursed through his bloodstream.
Heat blazed from me, followed by the dousing cold. Concentrating, I focused on what Matron Olsander had helped me recognize during the queen’s healing session.The queen.An intense burst of pain filled me.No, I can’t think of her now.
I closed my eyes and unleashed my angel magic, letting it naturally seek out the ailment.
It spread like wildfire, blazing out of me. It incinerated every drop of the poison in Norivun’s blood, seeking it out, burning through the potent drug until Norivun’s blood ran clean, and the hallucinogen had been whisked away.
Gasping, I pulled my affinity back into my body.Exhaustion hit me so hard, but I breathed deeply and allowed myself a moment of rest. But only a moment.
There was so much yet to do. So much.
Around us, bodies lay on the ground. Injured soldiers. Dead fae. Shocked guards.
Charred earth lay in a razed crater where Norivun’s dragon fire had been unleashed. And a gaping hole in the castle’s wall stood before us, containing the obliterated remains of the king and queen.
A lump formed in my throat just as the crown prince’s gaze sharpened, his eyes no longer coated in a glassy fog.
His head whipped around, and then he bolted upright. When he beheld the destroyed castle wall, he paled.
“Norivun, I’m so sorry.” My arms closed around him as the first hint of clearness billowed toward me on the bond, no longer warped in the ugly, cleaving edges of a poisoned mind.
The prince’s attention swung toward the ash, to where his mother had killed his father in order to protect her children, using her own fire to kill them both.
“No...” He shook his head. “She didn’t...” His body grew stiff, and he pushed to a stand. “It was a hallucination.” He shook his head again. “That wasn’t real. She didn’t kill him and herself. Please tell me she didn’t.”
“Nori.” I stood too, stepping closer to him. Tears made my throat thick. I cupped his cheeks, then presseda kiss tenderly to his chin as he continued to gaze at where his parents’ ashes remained. “I’m sorry, but she did. It was real. She’s gone, my love. She killed the king and herself in the process. And I think she did it all to save us, to save you from having to kill the king. If she did it, you couldn’t be accused of anything. But that meant she could also face the supernatural courts. I think she chose death instead of possible imprisonment.”
Nuwin’s cry rose in the distance, and then the younger prince moved as fast as the wind on a gust of his air until he was at our sides. His face turned ashen. “She locked me in a ring of fire, so I couldn’t intervene, and none of the soldiers could get to me.” Anguish twisted his features. “Oh fuck, Nori. Oh fuck!” He fell to the ground, hands twisting through his hair. His sobs followed.
Each of the prince’s guards hung their heads, and one by one they brought a fist to their chest before bowing. “All hail the queen!”
