Page 129 of The Beast King's Bride

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TALEN

The hydra’s many heads lunge at me, razor teeth snapping, and I roll out of the way. Rising back to my feet is a challenge, the world spinning, but I manage. I growl as I swing my sword at the closest head.

A gash appears in the scaly neck but my second swing goes wide. Black is seeping into my sight.

I’m bleeding too heavily. The wounds the dragon gave me in the throne room never had time to heal before new ones were cut into my chest. My magic is depleted. My power is gone.

Swinging my sword upward, I manage to cut another head before it snaps me in two. One of my guards, Kelen I think, hauls me away, using his spear to sting the monster’s neck, making it hiss and pull back.

“Sire,” he says, “we have to get you out of here, get you to safety—”

I yank myself free, staggering away from him. “You go,” I tell him. “My place is here.”

I’m dying, and so is my land. My world is falling apart, my kingdom shattering. The Decay has reached the palace, black racing up the walls, over the high ceilings, eating at the stone and marble. The gardens are already dead, the Decay now reaching for the stables.

Embar. I let him go free. To survive. I sent my Seneschal away. Sent everyone away who would go.

But the one I can’t stop thinking about…

Ash. I sent Ash away just in time. At least I know she’s safe. The ravens showed her to me in a garden, gathering apples in her apron, in a vegetable garden, on a bench. Showed her to me inside a small stone-built house, eating and drinking and laughing with a man.

I almost shattered the link right then and there, almost cut my visions of her through the birds, but I couldn’t bring myself to it. Couldn’t cut myself off of her completely, even if it was just to snatch a glimpse of her face, a word she says.

She’s happy. She has to be. It’s the only thing that keeps me going when I miss her as I have never missed anyone and anything before in my life. Happy in another world with another man, and I have to accept it because I sent her back, hurt her to make her go, and I’m not sure I can ever forgive myself for the pain I put in her eyes.

Then again, this is the last hour of my life. I know that the moment the moon rises, the moment my transformation begins, it will be my final.

If I last that long.

My few remaining guards are fighting hard, giving all they have to the battle with the monsters. As I swing my sword again and again, as the walls around us crumple, I just wish…

I wish I could see her one more time.

By the time we finish off the hydra, a dragon has found us. My guards are exhausted, and I have no idea where Jassin is, or if he’s all right. The servants have fled. We are the last Fae standing in the palace, but no matter how I urge my men to leave, they refuse.

The curse does not allow me to tell them how soon it will all be over but I think they have realized. Hard not to see how bleak the situation is, how close we are to losing our lives. I wonder… I wonder if the monsters will return to the shadows the moment I stop existing, if the Decay will retract.

Perhaps I should throw myself at the monsters, let them end me now. Save my men.

But they keep stepping in front of me, always grabbing me before I take that last desperate leap. They don’t know.

They don’t know, but I do, I know that it would be best for all of us if I let go and finished this, ending the fight at long last. The slashes across my chest, my middle, they are killing me anyhow. There are no healers. There is no one left.

We are the last stand against the Empress, against the curse.

And yet I cannot stop. The decision comes as we retreat, slashing at the dragon’s legs, as a roar behind us tells us that another monster has joined this dance.

I’ll go down swinging, even as my sword grows heavy in my hand, my legs unsteady.

Ash, I think. Ash…

I have to save my men, kill the monsters… A last spark of energy flickers in my chest. Maybe it’s what keeps me alive, I don’t know, maybe it’s the spark that animates every Fae in the world. I draw on it as another dragon cuts off our escape.

I pull the magic out of me and my sword clatters to the floor as I lift my hands and shape the power into a ball, a star full of thorns and blades.

“Get down,” I tell my guards, “get down on the floor now!”

As a testament to their loyalty, they drop down even as the dragons pounce on us.

“Eldereth,” I whisper, “take them.” And throw the magic into the air, the last of my magic, the last drop of my power. The room goes bright, blinding, and I find myself flying against one of the walls as it hits.

I cannot feel anything else after that. Only her face fills my mind, her smile, her scent, her voice.

Ash… my love.

At least I met her, held her, kissed her. Not everyone gets to know such happiness. I made what little time I had with her last an eternity, after all.

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