Page 10 of To Wake a Kingdom

“Kianna! Hide!” I screamed through the halls. “She’s coming! Hide!” She had been sleeping when I’d left her.

Why did I leave her?

“Kianna!” I kept screaming, hoping she was awake and would disappear.

I turned a corner and crashed into a wall of green tulle and silk.

“Mare is in the castle.” Panting heavily, I pitched my voice low, hands wrapped around Kianna’s shoulders. “Your spell… It’s preventing her from taking me, and she’s coming to kill you to break it once and for all.”

“Oh.” Kianna’s mouth formed a circle, her eyes spreading into rings of fear.

“Come on. You need to hide.”

Hands clasped, we ran for the throne room. She could hide in the kitchen. We tumbled into the large chamber and both skidded to a stop.

Mare stood in the center of the room, a hand on her hip, waiting as if time moved only for her.

“Aren’t you two adorable? Thinking you can run from me?” Her golden gaze swept over Kianna. “It’s such a delight to see you after all these years, sister. Where are the rest of the nattering hens? I shall have to pay them a visit before I leave.”

As I held my father’s sword in front of me, Kianna clutched my arm, trembling like a wind-blown leaf skittering across stone. “Mare, stop this. Killing me isn’t a guarantee the curse will break. You know that.”

“True.” Mare tapped her chin with a slender clawed finger, the metal filigree beautiful despite its clear and intended purpose. I imagined her using them to shred through my organs, relishing each slice as if carving up a perfectly seasoned roast for dinner. “But it doesn’t hurt to try, does it?”

She was so fast; I didn’t have time to react. With a flick of her wrist, the sword was wrenched from my hand and hurled across the room. As Mare rushed past me, she pinned Kianna against the wall, her shimmering wings spread like a dragonfly fossilized in amber.

Kianna whimpered as Mare raised a metal-tipped hand to her face.

I ran at them, wrapping my arms around Mare’s tiny waist, and attempted to pull her off. Mare whipped out a hand and sent me flying across the room. I landed on my back, the breath hammering from my lungs. My shoulder and ribs smoldered from the scrape of stone on my skin. Teeth bared, I launched myself up and hurtled toward the two Fae.

Mare had Kianna’s throat gripped in her fist, and it must have finally occurred to Kianna that she could defend herself because, a moment later, it was Mare who went flying. But she flipped in the air, her wings beating as she righted herself and hovered several feet from the ground—an angel of death, delivering judgment from the heavens.

Delicate as a dandelion seed, she drifted to the floor, hands on her hips, and sighed with the weariness of an exasperated mother. “I’m not going to hurt you, Thorne.” She tossed me an irritated look. “I just need to deal with this little problem, and then we can live together, happily ever after. As it was always meant to be.”

“I am not going anywhere with you.” Feet planted, I steeled myself for her next attack.

“This would be so much easier if you’d accept your fate. There is no running from this.”

As she raced toward me, I rushed in her direction, too. That caught her by surprise. It was only for a moment, but it was enough to knock her over. My shoulder made bruising contact with enough force that she went skidding along the floor, crashing into the wall.

Kianna and I both ran for her. I leaped on Mare, wrapping my hands around her throat, and she let out a scream so loud, so piercing, and so soul-jarring that it shocked me into letting go.

Mare kept screaming as I stumbled back, the walls rattling and blood pounding in my ears as she lurched to her feet. A long gash had appeared, traveling from her shoulder to a spot above her heart. It was a gruesome and gaping thing. She clutched at it, blood gushing through her fingers as her scream finally died.

Blood dripped down the front of her dress, soaking into the midnight fabric. “You cannot escape me, you filthy brat.” Her dark eyes glittered with an incandescent rage so visceral it shifted the air in the room. “You aremine. You will always bemine.”

In a puff of black vapor, she vanished, and I stared at the spot where she had stood, my heart galloping and my breath shuddering.

“You got rid of her,” I said to a shaking Kianna. “Sit down.” She eased to the floor, my arms wrapping around her. Mare’s words cycled over and over in my head.

You are mine. You will always be mine.

She truly believed that. Believed it with every tick of her starving heart.

Kianna had saved us this time, but Mare would try again.

I leaned against the wall, pulling my knee up and tipping my head back, eyes drifting to the ceiling. Kianna didn’t let go of my hand as the shaking in her limbs ebbed. Neither of us knew what to say.

Eventually, I broke our silence. “So, this is it, then. We either break this curse, or Mare is going to kill you and then take me.”

---