Page 129 of The Savage Queen

“If you and I are to be,” Lir said, his words rougher than Aisling expected, “then he cannot live, Aisling. You know it as well.”

“Then kill him,” Aisling cried. “And in so doing, you kill a piece of me as well.”

Lir flinched, as though it were Aisling with an axe to his throat. Eyes flecked with anguish and horror alike.

An eternity passed while the clouds whispered among them. While the silver lake reflected their exchange in mocking. It was always meant to end like this. A hero and a villain at odds. A hunter and a beast, battling for survival. Yet, Aisling needed both. Couldn’t live without the other.

“You must end this, Aisling,” Dagfin said, straining beneath Lir’s axe. “You must choose. Here and now, pick your destiny.”

Aisling’s chest hitched. Her ears rang. Her vision blurred. Either from loss of blood or the converging of her fate, spinning, weaving, braiding before her eyes and waiting for the last word of the spell to be spoken and sealed.

Aisling shook her head, her body going numb the longer she stared at both Dagfin and Lir, awaiting her decision.

Aisling looked into Dagfin’s eyes. The Ashild staring back and warming her soul with summery, salt waters. With stars they’d watched shoot across the sky as children, making secret promises to one another they’d never been given the chance to keep. Stolen, ripped, torn from their hands at hers and Lir’s union.

“I love you, Dagfin,” Aisling said, her voice broken.

Dagfin froze and Lir’s expression shuttered. The words, brittle, true, and pure. “But, I choose Lir.”

Aisling forced herself to witness the agony in Dagfin’s expression. The image of a soul ripping in two. Lir didn’t move, didn’t react, still as a windless wood. The realm holding its breath as her words seeped into the fabric of fate, magic taking root and fizzing in the air till all smelled of forge fires, of forgotten prophecies, and vows made from the heart.

At last, Lir released his hold.

The fae king uncurled from his position and let go of Dagfin.

Dagfin stood, panting, eyes ringed with red, having used the last of his Ocras.

Aisling exhaled, relieved enough to weep until no tears were left. Instead, she picked up her feet, fighting through the pain to embrace Dagfin.

She wrapped her arms around him, tangling her fingers in his jacket.

He held her, salty tears wetting the crown of her head as he did his best to avoid her neccakaid injury, still soaking her dress through.

“I can’t lose you,” was all he said. As though she hadn’t chosen Lir instead. “Tell me you’ll be alright.”

Aisling nodded her head. “I’m always alright. Even now.”

Indeed, the pain came in waves, always worst after she’d desperately clawed for herdraiochtto no avail. But Aisling could ignore it, for they’d reached Lofgren’s Rise. They’d made it, all together. Reached what she’d longed for ever since she’d heard its name spoken. Trodden through the feywilds, survived despite the cold, been freed from Fionn’s keep, endured the druids, struck fear in Danu, navigated through Iod.

Everything was right here. After all this time.

They’d done it.

“Aisling,” the Roktan prince said but it wasn’t out of relief. It was spoken in warning. Dagfin shoved Aisling to the side so hard, she slapped against the floor. And when she rose, she at once wished she never had.

A gaping wound ran from one side of Dagfin’s body to the other. Lir’s axe bloodied on the floor behind theFaerak.

Dagfin reached for Aisling, collapsing into her arms as she dove for him. Struggling to process. To understand. It’d all happened so fast. He was alive, he was standing, he was pushingAisling and now the light in his eyes was fading, Aisling was covered in both her own and his blood. A hole in his chest.

“No, no, no, no,” Aisling said, out loud or in her mind she couldn’t tell. Only that it echoed again and again, her heart imploding inside.

“No.”

“Ash,” Dagfin said, his stormy blue eyes dimming.

“No.”

“It’s alright,” he repeated, lifting his hand to cup her cheek. Still warm, calloused, the touch of home. “We’ll find each other again. Follow Odhran’s constellation.”

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