Page 194 of Curse of Darkness
Blood wells across his chest, a bellow of utter pain breaking from his lips.
And then Edain appears out of the shadows, both daggers whirling.
He buries one in the Horned One’s vulnerable armpit, but the bastard barely flinches. Pure iron is a weapon against the fae, but this is a god.
The Horned One backhands him out of the way, and Edain twists through the air like a cat, landing flat on his face right in front of us.
Our eyes meet.
I see his gaze slide to Thiago’s desperate grip on me, but then the Horned One roars and lightning crashes down, hammering at the Hallow’s stone floors. Little pockmarks mar the slate.
Edain pushes himself to his feet, flinging his dagger at the ancient god.
“Get Andraste out of here!” he screams to the goblin king.
And then he attacks.
They’re not going to make it.
Nothing can stop him.
He’s a god, drinking at the power of the lands, invulnerable to mortal weapons.
And even as my sister forges another sword of flame, attacking the Horned One from the left in order to give Edain enough room to break away, I know it doesn’t matter.
They’re all dead.
It’s just a matter of time.
“Vi, come on,” Thiago snarls at me. “Fight. Push against it!”
I look at him; the face I know so well. The warrior prince who saw in me a glimpse of hope. The wicked charmer who stole my heart. The husband who spent thirteen years winning me again and again, because he knew our love was worth every second of pain.
He’s been there at my side from the beginning. He believed in me when I barely dared believe in myself.
And he’s fought for me.
They all have.
Andraste. Thalia. Eris. Finn. Baylor. Lysander.
Amaya.
But this time it’s my turn to fight.
“From darkness will she rise; And only Darkness will stop her from falling.”
I finally understand it all now.
I am a child of darkness, but he saved me.
He stopped me from falling all those years ago.
But now….
“You have to let me go,” I tell him, mind racing with everything the Mother of Night whispered to me. “It’s the only chance. You have to let me fall.”
“Vi,” he growls. “Never.”
