Page 11 of The Iron Sword

Meghan shook her head, but took my hand and drew me across the room with her. “Humor me, then,” she ordered, sinking gracefully onto the bed. “At least lie down and pretend to rest. I know you’re not going to be able to sleep, but keep me company for a while? I’ll get too wrapped up in my own thoughts otherwise.”

I climbed atop the mattress with her and sat back against the headboard, facing the door. Meghan curled up against me and closed her eyes, and I listened to her breathing as she relaxed.

“I’m afraid, Ash,” she murmured into the silence. Her voice was barely a whisper in the empty room. “This whole situation with Keirran, with the Forgotten, with this new monster...it feels different. Something is out there. What I discovered beneath the roots of the Mother Tree...” She shivered and pressed closer. “I can’t even explain how massive it was. It was almost like encountering a sleeping god. It was ancient. Older than the courts. Possibly older than the Nevernever itself. And it’s starting to wake up.”

She shivered violently. Shifting on the bed, I put my arms around her and held her close, and she fisted a hand against my shirt. Her fear was suddenly palpable, which made my adrenaline spike and my senses sharpen. I wanted to protect her from all threats, to destroy that fear so thoroughly it could never return to shadow her, but there was nothing here to fight.

Instead, I stroked her hair and kept my breaths slow and even, trying to ease some of her worry, to take it onto myself. “We’ve faced threats to Faery before,” I told her softly. “There have been wars where the entire Nevernever has been in danger. How many prophecies have we already been a part of? We’ve fought the Iron King, Machina, the Lady, the Forgotten, even Keirran himself. Faery is still here, and so are we.”

“I know,” Meghan whispered. “And I know this might be dramatic, but it feels like—like this could be the big one, Ash. Evenfall. Dusk settling over the world. The twilight of all living things.”

Evenfall.

A cold resolve settled through me. “Whatever this threat is,” I said, “whatever it plans for the Nevernever, we will fight it, like we’ve always done. You, me, Goodfellow, Grimalkin, and everyone we’ve allied with along the way. And if it really is the end of the Faery, we’ll face it together.”

Though I would not let that happen. No matter what I had to fight, I would protect my home, my family, and my queen with everything I had. I would destroy all that threatened them, and if that meant leaving mountains of bodies behind, so be it. I had been an Unseelie prince. I was the son of Mab, queen of the Winter Court. Despite having a soul, death was still a part of me.

Meghan didn’t reply, and after a few minutes, her breaths grew slow and even as she drifted into sleep.

In the silence, the Unseelie side rose up again, turning my thoughts ominous and violent. Meghan slept on, but her breath coiled into the air before her, and frost spread slowly over the walls and ceiling, until we were surrounded in glittering ice.

“Father.”

I turned, my steps muffled by the heavy layer of snow on the ground. Around me, the world was cloaked in white; flakes fell so heavily from the sky it was difficult to see more than a few feet ahead. I couldn’t discern the owner of the voice, but I knew he was here.

“Where are you, Keirran?”

Silence throbbed in my ears. The snowfall eased, and my son materialized from the white, standing across from me. He wore a white cloak, his pale hair and steel sword blending into the surroundings. Icy blue eyes regarded me without expression over the snow.

Then he smiled, and it chilled my insides. I had seen that smile when he had stood with the Lady in the last war; that cold, vicious smile of a killer. I drew in a breath, and smelled coppery blood drenching the frosty air. The snow around us was suddenly streaked with crimson. I glanced down and saw Puck staring up at me, green eyes wide and unseeing, the entire front of his shirt red and glistening.

“It’s too late.” Keirran’s voice held an edge of cruel laughter. I glared up at him, and he raised his arms, both of them soaked with crimson. Blood covered him, spattered across his face and streaked through his hair.

“You can’t save me,” Keirran said. He started forward, making no sound as he stepped over bodies and frozen corpses, his sword glimmering red at his side. “You’ve already failed once. You couldn’t protect me from the Lady, and now I’m going to destroy everything we both love, because you made me what I am. An Unseelie monster, just like you.”

The snow swirled around us, and in the shadows behind Keirran, something moved. A head, rising to an impossible height, the skull crowned with antlers, eyes glowing a blank, soulless white in the gloom. It watched impassively, and I saw thin, nearly invisible tendrils of shadow writhing around it. I glanced at Keirran again, and saw the wisps of darkness attached to him, trailing back to the Monster like a puppet on a string.

Rage flared. I drew my sword, and Keirran lunged at me, sweeping his blade down at my head. I knocked it aside, and the clang of two blades echoed into the night and reverberated over the trees.

“Keirran.” I backed away, and my son followed me, teeth bared in an ugly grin. “Stop this,” I told him, raising my sword to parry another blow. “This isn’t what you want.”

“Wrong.” Keirran slashed viciously at my face; I jerked my head back to avoid the edge that would’ve split open my skull. “I have always been like this,” he snarled at me. “Because you have the same darkness inside. You’ve always struggled with your Unseelie nature. What makes you think I don’t have that same bloodlust within me? I am you!”

I dodged another stab, circling around him. For a moment, his back was unguarded, but I didn’t take advantage of the opening. Keirran spun, eyes glittering, the scowl on his face revealing he knew I wasn’t fighting him fully. “You can’t save me,” he said again. “You can’t save anyone. Evenfall is coming, and no matter how hard you fight, nothing you do will prevent it. In the end, you’re going to lose us all.”

He lunged at me, and the rage soared. Knocking aside the blade, I stepped close and drove my weapon through his center, the point exploding out his back. Keirran jerked, stiffening against me, as his skin turned blue and iced over. I yanked my blade free and the frozen statue of my son shattered, raining to the ground with almost delicate chiming sounds, as the Unseelie within howled with glee.

5

THE MESSENGER

Ijerked awake, my heart slamming against my ribs. An unfamiliar room, Leanansidhe’s guest quarters, greeted me as I opened my eyes. I hadn’t meant to sleep, but I guess I must’ve dozed off after all. Annoyance with myself flickered. If Razor Dan and his crew had decided to sneak in here, I did not want to be caught sleeping and unaware by a sadistic redcap motley.

Beside me, Meghan stirred and sleepily opened her eyes. “Ash?” she murmured. “Are you all right?”

I nodded, shoving the nightmare with the soulless Keirran to a distant part of my mind. His words, and the look on his face, made my blood run cold, but I would not lose hope. “I’m fine,” I said quietly.

Her hand slid up my chest, leaving tingles where it passed. “Your heart is pounding.”

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