As he tried to push back to his heels, he noticed the damage to the apartment around them. The walls had hundreds of webs and cracks, structural beams visible through holes. The ceiling’s trusses had been wrought bare by his power. Furniture within range of his blast bore scorch marks and destruction. But when he tried to tally the bodies of the fallen Fae, in his foggy head all he counted was six.
Six dead Fae with shriveling skin and clumps of cloth when there had been so many more.
“Bloody hell.” Clinging to the last thread of consciousness, he forced himself to his feet. Every inch of him trembled with exertion, but he pushed through everything. Despite the numbness, he sensed the air change.
“Thad—”
“Illusions. They’re coming,” Thaddeus hissed, swiping an arm across his mouth.
He shook his head, the haze, as Cael cast the front door a hesitant glance. ’Twas a smart strategy, he gave Grison credit. But he’d not be taken down so easily. Not when Rori was in danger.
The air hummed with electricity. Cael grabbed Cassy’s arm at the same time Thaddeus took hold of Rori and his brother.
Fae materialized, circling them, their attacks launching from their hands before they had completed their appearance.
Drawing upon every last ounce of power and strength, Thaddeus sifted them from the apartment ruins.
His knees buckled the instant his feet touched vibrant green grass. Cael kept him upright, barely. He struggled with each crushing breath, each second he remained conscious.The sift siphoned the last of his energy, and the world began to close in around him.
“How dare the likes of you tread upon my land and come to the stairs of my home.”
The caustic rumble of a fury-fed voice reverberated in his head. He wiped his eyes, drawing blood across his face, and stumbled forward, away from Cael and Rori.
Lifting his chin, steeling himself for any further punishment or attack, he met the liquid rainbow gaze he’d last seen upon these same lands at a time when he wished ill upon this very person.
“You are not welcome here. Not after you lent a hand in destroying all that has since been restored.” Shaye lifted a hand, power hissing between his fingers. “I should do Dagda the favor of executing you for your role in the destruction Daeanna wrought after you delivered that potion in her exile, the harm she brought to my wife, and your hand in stabbing the King of Realms in the back, rendering him indisposed for her to create havoc.”
“I deserve…death. Aye, ’tis my fate. My sentence shall come. But I’m here…with no ill intent or malice, for I’ve learned…my wrongs, which cannot be undone.”
The ground came up beneath his knees, jolting the little feeling he had left in his body. All had gone numb with pain and there was no fighting it. Darkness conquered all but a speck of his vision. Blood seeped from the corners of his mouth, his nostrils, his ears, his scars. He would die at the feet of a man who had been his closest friend ages ago. A man who’d become his enemy.
Goddess, he could only hope…hope…
“Le…do…thoil…” Each word took the strength of a hundred men to form on his tongue. Each word stole his breath, his life, a little more.
He toppled forward, the last of his strength fleeing his body, as he begged, “Protect…Rori.”
PART II
21
Death.
Fate.
This new place was lush and glorious, vibrant and alive. The air smelled clean and carried a fragrant sweetness. The swoosh and trickle of water lent its own tune to the otherwise heavy silence that had come down over her the moment the dark-haired Fae with rainbow eyes appeared at the foot of the grand sweeping stairs leading up to an enormous castle. The hiss and hum of magic had made the silence unbearable while commanding the attention of anyone withinhisproximity.
These had been the few details Rori took in right before the tension-riddled world around them shattered and all hell broke loose.
Fae popped up around the immense creature who stood over Thaddeus as he collapsed. Rori vaguely recalled a stark panic consuming her, lunging toward Thaddeus only to have another man hold her back by her arms until he teleported her to a huge bedroom suite. Another man and a woman arrived an instant later.
Rori couldn’t remember the last time she put up such afight to escape. Nothing besides Thaddeus—the blood pouring from too many wounds and orifices across his body, the vision of her strong, fearless Faery man collapsing, his skin turning a sickly shade of gray—could infiltrate her thoughts. The pain from her healing stab wound barely registered until one of the three Fae brought it to another’s attention.
That was when the woman with an angelic serenity about her and stunning lavender eyes pressed two fingers to her forehead, and the world had disappeared.
Now, as Rori stared up at the rich blue gauze of the bed’s canopy, she replayed everything in her mind to the best of her ability. The events had all been so blurred beneath her blanket of terror and panic. She wanted answers. Clarity. She needed someone to tell her she misunderstood what she had heard, because the cryptic dialogue between Thaddeus and that dark Fae didn’t sit well with her. Despite the uptick of anxiety—her heart picking up pace and her stomach churning with nausea—her muscles simply wouldn’t move her faster than a slug.
“Thaddeus?” The rasp to her voice brought a crease to her brows. She groaned as she managed to get her elbows beneath her back and lift her body off the mattress a bit. The room around her pulsed in time with her heart, fading and clearing until the filmy gray around the edges of her vision subsided. Surprisingly, she felt no pain in her flank, where she’d taken the blow to protect Thaddeus. “Cassy? Cael?”
