Page 60 of King

The ground around the fissure crumbles, leaving behind a gaping, black hole. Vaegon and I continue directing our magic down into the abyss while the queen steps closer and unleashes another massive blow.

The vines wither and break apart. The binding shadows around Folas dissolve into swirling wisps before disappearing back into the ground. He lies still, free, but remaining at his mother’s side like a youngling waiting to be comforted after a fall.

The queen collapses beside him and pulls him into her arms. She cradles him like she cares for him, but she doesn’t give a shit about Folas. She only cares about what she lost. Folas is an ass, but I’m starting to see that he has a good reason to be.

If only I could forget about this darkness and incinerate her where she kneels. But we have to destroy the biggest threat first.

“Bursts seem to work better!” Vaegon yells, and he’s right. The direct hits have done more damage than us pouring our magic into the abyss. We pull back together and gather our power.

“Now!” I shout, and we send a lethal blast down into the chasm.

A hiss shoots up out of the hole. Some of the oppressive darkness in the air begins to lift, and all the remaining vines andshadows dissipate into nothing.

“Again!” I yell, and we send forth another barrage of our magic down into the darkness.

I flick my eyes over to the queen, who has forgotten about us while helping Folas to his feet. Even if the darkness is as close to death as it seems, we still have her to deal with. I growl in frustration as we send another blast into the depths.

No wisps escape this time, and the vines have given up. The ground beneath us cries out, but I can still faintly sense its energy. One more solid hit should be enough to end this. But before we can send one, the queen traps us in her icy cage again.

I strain against it, but she’s too powerful. My magic boils inside, hot enough to give me some space, but it’s not enough to fight her.

That’s it. She used us then bound us again before we could touch her. She could easily finish off the darkness on her own. She just needed us to get Folas free. We traded our freedom, and the freedom of the entire realm, for his.

I wish I could warn Lucas and Anders to run, but my chest is squeezed too tightly to speak. All I can do is close my eyes so I won’t have to witness what she might do to them if they attempt to save us.

The queen lets out a ragged shriek, and I jerk them back open. I look over to see her clutching Folas’s tunic with a vice-like grip. Her movements are jerky and unnatural as she stumbles backward toward the void. Folas struggles against her bony fingers, but he’s weak. The queen easily pulls him along with her.

“There!” Vaegon grunts, pointing into the deeper forest.

A figure stands silently between two trees with his hand outstretched. In the dim light, I can just make out the glint of his yellow hair tied up in a distinctive knot. It’s Phen, the telekinetic.

I left him with his family, hoping to shield them from the pain of losing him. But here he stands. I don’t know how he knew tocome, but I’m so damn thankful he’s here.

The queen is oblivious to him. She probably assumes the thing in the dark pit is behind what’s happening to her. Even if she could move, she wouldn’t know where to direct her anger. The dirt crumbles at her feet as she teeters on the edge. The only thing keeping her from falling in is Folas, fighting back against the pull of Phen’s magic.

Vaegon strikes beneath her feet to force her into the pit. But she’s still clinging desperately onto Folas. As much as I loathe the little bastard, I don’t think he deserves to die. Especially not alongside his heartless mother.

I slice through her wrists with a blue bolt of my magic, severing her hands from her body. Her fingers release Folas, and her hands fall to the ground at his feet. He stumbles backward and falls onto his ass, then scrambles away to safety.

The queen screams, flailing her arms wildly as she falls backward into the abyss. She can no longer use her hands to attack, but she’s not defenseless. She has to die.

I rush to the edge of the crater and send her down in a shroud of blazing fire. I gather all my hatred and fury and pour it into the flames. They dim slightly as she pushes against them with her mental attack, but my will is too strong.

My magic rains down on her as she plummets. Flames wrap around her face, blistering and cracking her skin. Her eyes seem to widen in shock as the burning flesh peels away from the gaping sockets. Her lips curl back in a grotesque semblance of a grin as her face sizzles away from her skull.

Her mental push crumbles as her body turns to ash. I withdraw my power and watch her descend, enveloped in a raging blue inferno. As she sinks deeper into the darkness, the flames flicker out, and her hoarse cries fade into silence.

She’s gone. There’s no coming back from that. All that remains is what’s left of the darkness she’s been swallowed by.

Vaegon joins me, and we drive strike after strike of our magic down its depths until the ground stops quaking and the sun streams through the trees like it should.

In the natural light, the scene loses the eerie feeling, but it remains profoundly sad. More trees are charred or split, many toppled from the magic that had been unleashed. The ground is full of wide cracks, gaping like open wounds. The evil that had infected the soil has been removed, but chunks of Faerie are just... gone. Nothing can grow here in this state.

I remind myself how much worse it would be if no one had intervened and put a stop to the spread of death. Still, the damage to this once beautiful forest weighs heavily on my heart. It will take a lot of work to truly heal this place.

I look around in disbelief that it’s really over. I want to thank Phen and ask how he knew to come here. I want to celebrate with Vaegon and his brothers, and with the mixed fae and Kahras. I want to check in with the kelpie and shifter soldiers and see the nobles lying dead at their feet. But above all, I want to let my mate know that I survived, our son is safe, and she’ll never have to worry about anything ever again.

Chapter 21

---