Page 115 of A Kingdom of Lies

He looked down, forcing a smile as the world around us drained away. “Repeat that promise to me when we make it far from Lockinge, okay?”

I had no plans of leaving Lockinge, not yet. I had a promise to those fey beneath the castle to see through. However, I couldn’t admit it yet.

Reaching up onto my toes, body aching from tiredness and deliria, I pressed a feather-light kiss upon Duncan’s lips. I felt his own quiver in response, pressing out to greet mine for a small, brief moment. There was a tension between us, taut and harsh; I only hoped we had the space and time to deal with it soon.

“There will be plenty of time for that.” Seraphine pulled us apart, hands harsh and nails unforgiving. “Get in the boat, both of you.”

Her urgency and unruly panic had us both moving towards the shoreline. Kayne already waited within the small vessel, standing with legs wide as he steadied himself against the rocking. Seraphine’s fellow assassins held the boat as steady as possible like an anchor, some chest-deep.

“Come quickly,” Elinor spluttered, hand outstretched as her chestnut curls flew wildly around her face. For a moment, it was like seeing the vision of my mother that had haunted me all these years. Face obscured by floating hair, lullaby voice soft and gentle, even beneath the bellowing of winds that tore around us.

Seraphine waited for us to move. She took up the rear, looking back up towards the castle as though Aldrick would fly out from the windows in search of us at any given moment.

I reached for Elinor, taking her hand, and she led me ankle-deep into the water. We were only a few steps in when the dark night exploded with unwanted light. I clamped my eyes shut, almost losing my footing as the sudden light shocked me with its blinding brilliance.

“This ends tonight as it should have many years ago,” a voice called out over the crashing waves.

I stopped dead in my tracks, water lashing up my legs. Elinor’s grip on my hand weakened and fell, and I felt entirely alone and helpless as I turned to face the speaker.

King Doran Oakstorm stood upon the shore, outline glowing as though a star burned beneath his skin. His power stained the rocky shore and the castle far beyond him as he lit the scene like a beacon. The rippling of the portal he had stepped through faded behind him. At first it was hard to see his features until his glowing skin died down to a smattering of embers. Bloated belly, sunken, grotesque skin, short, awkward frame. For a man with such tremendous power, he looked as though it did not belong to him.

“Get in the boat!” Seraphine said, voice deep as the ocean that waited behind us.

“Quiet,Asp,” Doran spat, displeased. “I have come for the boy. This time I will not leave without seeing him dead.”

Fury erupted within me. All the pent-up emotions, all the regret and hesitation evaporating on the wind the moment I laid eyes upon him.

“You have come all this way for me?” I asked, wading back through the water towards Doran.

This was what I wanted. Army or not, I didn’t need them to take him down.

Even with my power cut off by the iron cuff, and the lack of weapons in my hands, I felt the urge to run at him, to destroy him with my bare hands. Seeing him conjured the faces of all those who had died. Mother. Father. The memory of Erix. All the innocent lives, human and fey, lost in the crossfire of his hate. And the gryvern, his children, warped and twisted into creatures. They didn’t choose to be born. Doran condemned them from the moment he spread his careless seed. For them all, I would kill him.

I had a hunger in that moment, one that was only quenched by death. Seeing Doran reminded me of my father and the way the light dulled from his eyes. How I carried his broken and lifeless body to his eternal resting place within the Icethorn Court. Seeing Doran reminded me of it all, the storm of feelings smashing into me all at once. Even with my power severed, the hate that fuelled me made me feel like the most powerful being in the world.

“And who is this?” Doran mused as Duncan stood between us. His frame was wide and strong, hands balled into fists of stone at his sides. “Ah yes, Erix told me of you. The human Hunter whose heart has been touch by his enemy. Poetic how your parents’ story has followed you like a cursed shadow. It would be a pleasure killing you, Hunter, to see Robin suffer and to know your kind could never do as you have to my family again–”

“Dearest husband, is that you?” Elinor called out, passing me with grace and ease. Her voice was a song, soft and welcoming. It was as though the water parted as she walked through the shallows with an ease that belonged only to those who demanded respect. Even nature bowed to Elinor.

Duncan took the moment of distraction to his advantage. Wrapping his arm around my chest, he turned his back on Doran and spoke. “This is no longer your fight, darling.”

Perhaps my hearing was damaged, or the reality of what was happening finally came through the pure undeniable wish to cause Doran pain. But it took me a long moment to grasp what Duncan said and what he meant by it.

Doran’s light faltered as his long-lost wife stepped free of the dark water. Her torn dress clung to her emaciated frame. The longest strands of her hair hung in clumps from where they had dragged through the water.

“It cannot be,” Doran said, voice breaking with each word. “A trick. A ghost.”

We all watched as the fey king trembled where he stood. Doran’s heavy body thudded to the ground, knees slamming into stone without him showing an inch of care. In a heartbeat the burning power of his light dwindled to nothing, and he was simply a broken man, watching the phantom of his beloved wife walk towards him.

The far-off screams of gryvern built in the distance. They grew ever closer. But the night-washed sky made it harder to make out their shapes, or how close they were.

“Time to go,” Seraphine spoke, appearing suddenly from the shadows. “I’ve got coin to collect, and for that all I care about is seeing you out of this place. Enough time has been wasted to distraction.” She snatched my arm and began pulling me towards the boat. Duncan did not hesitate to follow nor refuse to leave without Elinor.

“I can’t leave her,” I said, watching as Elinor reached up for the full cheek of her husband. Greedy, stout hands reached for hers with frantic urgency and I heard his small, broken voice speak with a furious desperation.

“My love,” Doran cried, his heartache amplified across the night sky. “I have found you.”

“Indeed,” Elinor replied, standing above Doran, back straight and unwavering. “All these years and I thought I would never see you again.”

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