Page 91 of The Crown of the Last Fae Queen
A crease formed between his brows.
She didn’t want to give herself false hope. She didn’t want to imagine a future with Blár, only to have it lost. If he loved her, if he wanted her as much as she wanted him, then there would be too much on the line for her. Too much to save. Too much to live for her. Too much to fight for.
And it would devastate her if she lost all of that.
So she didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t want to hear the words and cry for what could have been, because she was slowly coming to the realization that she needed to free her mother.
It went against everything Blár and the humans stood for, but she couldn’t let her mother, Aesileif, rot away like that. Forever locked away from the world. Forever worried about Vidar, about Kolfinna, about her people.
She deserved to be free. She deserved to be here with her husband. She deserved so much more.
It didn’t mean that Kolfinna stood for the fae cause—at least, not completely—but it also didn’t mean she stood for thehumans, either. At least not anymore. Because these visions had shown her the truth that she had been trying to deny for so long. The humans would kill her entire race if they could. People like Hilda—people like Harald—would never allow coexistence. She had been foolish to think that it was possible. History had shown that the humans had never been kind to the fae, but she had been blinded by her own love toward the humans in her life.
She needed to find a middle ground.
And she needed to find itfast.
27
TWENTY-SEVEN – BLÁR
Something wasdifferent about Kolfinna when they began searching for the black door again. They had left the forest behind, since the edges of it were blackened and it would likely become a void of darkness if they continued walking, and now they were back in the crumbling city.
Blár could tell almost immediately. Kolfinna’s lips were dragged down at the corners, there was tension around her mouth and eyes, and her shoulders were slightly hunched. As if she was trying to bear the weight of the whole world on her shoulders. Fury ran down to his bones at the sight of her like that; at the fact that she couldn’t trust him enough to talk to him, to let him in. But he tamped down his own feelings and kept a neutral mask.
She hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him that she was the heir, and she hadn’t trusted him to tell him of her worries back then. And now, again, it seemed like she was doing the same.
He wouldn’t force her to talk, but a part of him withered knowing that she didn’t think he was worthy enough to be told the truth. To be told what she was worrying about, because he knew she was wrestling with something heavy.
“Kolfinna …” His words were nearly drowned out when a sudden blast sounded in the distance. They both whirled. He searched the horizon, dread building within him at the shadows lurking in the distance. He instinctively reached for his mana, waiting for the cold to slice through his being, for frost to run down his veins and freeze whatever he wanted it to—but nothing happened, and he drowned in the empty loss of his magic.
Cursing under his breath, he snatched her hand. “We need to find that door.”
She nodded quickly, and they both ran. His gaze roved over the storefronts, the houses, the blood-drenched cobbled streets. The door … Where was the door?
He hated how the fae were always playing these blasted tricks. Find this, or that, or death would come knocking. It was the same in the Eventyrslot ruins, where they were stripped of their magic and forced to play games to the death.
A hissing came from behind them and he didn’t dare turn around. They turned a corner, only for shadows to slam the buildings nearby, waves of darkness frothing against the streets. It was behind them and in front of them, several dozens of feet away. Blár tugged Kolfinna’s hand toward an alleyway, and they continued their sprint, the dark magic following behind them densely.
Kolfinna’s breathing came in ragged breaths, her pink eyes wide and wild as she kept glancing over her shoulder. The color drained from her face faster.
If only he could use his magic.
If only he could blast the darkness away. Make it freeze in its tracks. Shatter it into a million pieces.
They came out of the other end of the alleyway, only for darkness to be waiting there, too. A blind panic overcame him and Kolfinna pulled him along the street, but it was too late. It was everywhere, and it slammed into them both. Immediately,Blár wrapped her in his arms and covered her with his body as much as he could. It rolled over them and they crashed to the floor. A deep, deep coldness wrenched into his being and he couldn’t even scream. Like a maelstrom, it hit them at all directions.
“Blár!” Kolfinna screamed.
He held onto her more tightly, but a force came between them and as hard as he tried to keep her in his arms, she was ripped away from him. His hands stretched out, searching for her, but only a void of black met him.
A blind panic came over him. He couldn’t lose her. Hecouldn’t.
He reached into his mana and yanked at his magic, forcing it to come to the surface, but it was like sticking his hand in a canyon and attempting to touch the bottom. Nothing came to him, even as he tried again, and again.
Slowly, the darkness consumed him.
All at once,Blár’s eyes snapped open. He was no longer writhing in the darkness. No, he was instead …home.
