“Destroy. Her. Destroy.” Simultaneous whispers ordered me.
“I—” I choked on my own emotions, the harsh truth escaping from my unwilling lips. “I don’t think I can.”
“Then. We. Will. We. Will. We. Will.”
I gasped when more power pulsed through me and fed into the dark layers around my body. Suctioning off the inherent power inside me, I realized I was nothing but a conduit for their dark purpose.
I was no longer in control.
Seeing my power accelerate uncontrollably, Deirdre’s turquoise eyes flashed with fearful alarm before she screamed out her own rage, releasing the power she had built up around me.
Wind, fire, and earth rocketed in a winding stream of chaotic elements for a killing blow. I gasped when more power was sucked from me and added to the dark shadows encapsulating my body. Lassos of their black swirling smoke struck out rapidly at the earth, fire, and wind. Treating the attack like it was nothing more than an annoying insect to be batted away.
Extending their void and encroaching on the queen, I could hear their excited whispers in the darkness. Her power flickered for a split second and then completely sputtered out when the shadows enveloped her. The darkness peeled away from me and I stared in awe as witness to the shadow’s immense power.
Deirdre screamed out her fury when their tendrils latched onto her wrists and ankles, bending her backward so that her eyes were forced to look upon the plume of shadow looming above her, gathering like an executioner's ax, ready to fall.
Our eyes connected from across the room and I searched desperately for any redemption left of the fae I loved.
And I had loved her. Cherished her. For hundreds of years she had been my companion, my best friend, my lover. The one I worshiped in the middle of night and basked naked next to in the glory of the sunrise. We shared memories of tears and laughter, moments in front of the fire kissing and licking every inch of eachother's delicious skin, moments in a battle covered in blood, holding hands in reassurance that we would live to see each other one more day.
It was as if time stopped when her scared voice pleaded out to me over the roaring darkness, as if she could see every memory reflecting in my eyes. “Remi…”
“Stop!” I cried and ripped back the shadow power controlling me. Hissing they retracted, just seconds before they kissed the delicate skin of the Queen of Faerie.
Snapping back towards me they whispered in multiple hissing voices. “Mistake. Take. She will take more.”
Their cryptic words fell on deaf ears. “What in the goddess?” I whispered, staring in awe at the sunlit marbled throne room of the City of Light. We were back in Faerie.
“No!” Cried Deirdre, reaching out to the gateway that snapped shut and shattered before us in a collective array of shimmering dust.
“Sealed.” My shadows whispered in chorus. “Sealed forever.”
***
Deirdre spun towards me, fire lighting up her eyes. “You! You have doomed us forever!” She screamed at the same time fire spewed from her eyes and mouth.
“Shit.” I snarled and summoned the casted shadows from the sun. They were weakened by the light but were enough to defend me from the roaring torrent of her fire.
A crazed laugh bursted from Deirdre’s lips and her earth power joined in her attack. The walls shook around us and I ran, leaping away from the cracking marble beneath my feet and layering shadows between the cracks to prevent the total collapse of the room.
Sliding down a pitched floor, I attacked, firing off bolts of shadow that swallowed up her fire and forced Deirdre’s control on her earth elements to falter.
“Enough! You will bring this whole place down on both of us!” I cried out, pulling more split marble back together with the shadows.
“I will bring this whole place down on you and you alone! I will make sure you die here and every court will know that you are the cause of the extinction of all fae!”
Wind, earth, and fire assaultedme on all fronts, shooting out from Deirdre with such power that for any lesser fae it would have destroyed them instantly.
Decades of hardened training came to life and I danced against death’s deadly call. My feet sliding on the crumbled marble, my body flowing with the assault, my shadows tiptoeing closer and closer to the source of power being used against us.
Finally face to face, I stood my ground while she poured her full power down onto me. With my shadows shielding me on all fronts, I gazed through the waterfall of her power, holding her crazed desperate look.
“I will let our people decide your fate, my queen. Death by my hands would have been kinder. The courts will show no mercy for you.”
Deirdre screamed with rage. Raising my hands with tears pooling in my eyes, I summoned the iron bindings from the shadow void that would silence her power forever.
“Forgive me.” I whispered through gritted teeth, holding my shadow shields while the irons slowly circled around her wrists.
