Page 70 of Straw and Gold
With all the breath I had left in my lungs, I screamed in perfect Céaduah, “His name is Morelliór and he is mine! You will not take him from me!”
“Morella.” He pulled me to him, turning me with a stream of tears down his cheeks. Cupping my face, he kissed me, whispering over and over, “You did it. You did it, you did it, you fucking did it.”
I pushed him back and slapped him across the cheek. “I almost didn’t, you absolute ass! How could you?—”
A figure loomed at the tree line, walking slowly with golden curls I knew.
“Alista?” I breathed, stepping in front of Killian.
As she took a few more steps toward us, other figures came into view. The three guards I’d met when I arrived at the castle. One of the maids and a stable boy—several more I recognized but could not name.
Each Changelingfae neared, disappearing entirely when they touched Alista until all were gone but her. And then she changed, transforming into the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
Her hair remained in golden ringlets that flowed down her back like a shimmering, woven river. Her skin darkened further to a deep brown like night itself could never compare. An aura of gold graced over her shimmering gown and eyes, blinding as the sun.
“Céad,” I whispered, attempting to shove Killian again as he grabbed my waist, pulling me behind him.
“Our bargain is over, Goddess of the Changelingfae,” he began. “She has discovered my true name and my power has returned. You cannot harm me.”
I skirted out of his grasp, blocking him with my body and wings as Céad continued forward as if all the time in the world was meant for her. “You cannot take him from me!” I shouted.
A grin, broken through madness, swept over her face as she withdrew a dagger from her hip and plunged it straight through my chest.
CHAPTER 34
Killian
Somewhere,a man screamed. Somewhere, a man fell, catching his love in his arms as blood trickled from her body. So much blood.
That man could not be me.
I’d done this before, I could not do it again.
Not with her.
Anyone but her.
The Changlingfae Goddess known as Céad, knelt, sweeping the hair from Morella’s face as she tilted her head—that same maddening smile I’d seen before gracing her face.
“Save her,” I seethed in Céaduah, gripping tightly to my lover’s skin as her breath sputtered and blood dripped from her lips.
“I needed an heir, Morelliór,” she cooed in her language—in that same singsong voice that had haunted me for years.
I watched in fear as Céad’s aura pulsed, fading in and out as Morella’s eyes dimmed. “SAVE HER!” I bellowed, reaching for the Goddess and meeting only a wisp of air.
Her form faded more, bits of her skin floating away in the shifting breeze.
She couldn’t go.
She couldn’t just leave.
She’d harmed the child of another Goddess and that fate was the final death.
But she couldn’t just take Morella from me now. I gritted my teeth in panic, pulling Morella to my chest, sobs wracking my body.
“You need not beg me to save your lover this time, Morelliór,” she called, half of her body leaving in golden flecks of dust. “She accepts the power to save herself. You have found one worthy.”
I shook my head, my chest heaving with rocking cries, unable to save my love, even with my power fully returned.
