Put up your shield. His response was weak and delayed. He has more magic than we presumed. I’ve almost … got him.
I was through the smoke now, nearly at Kade’s side. My focus was on him, the worry bubbling in my gut again. He had sounded so strained. I had no idea what he was doing to kill the Dark Fae Lord but … he did seem to be in control. I slowed, erecting a shimmery bubble of magic across my skin, a technique I’d learned from Violet and Rowan. It was supposed to repel dark spells.
I had no idea if it would work against the strength of this particularly dark fae, but it was better than nothing. When I was about six feet from them, Kade lost his focus. It was no more than a split-second that his energy wavered, but it was enough for the fae lord to find strength to attack. Kade was thrown high into the air. He arced up, and then fell with a thud right at my feet.
I heard a bone snap, but as soon as Kade had fallen he was standing again. Somehow. The look on his face was beautiful and deadly. It was a Kade I didn’t really know, a warrior, a killer. But, when I searched deep in our bond, I sensed my mate under his lethal intentions.
The Dark Fae Lord picked up his hacked-off antler and held it in his hands. It was freely dripping that poisonous oil. Within seconds it had transformed into a long, pointed, wickedly sharp weapon. That dark stone — his staff was in his other hand — had given him some extraordinary gifts. From the story he told me, it sounded as if he had once been just an ordinary fae. He’d wanted to be more, and he had succeeded. But at what cost?
The dark fae lifted his head and sniffed, looking over his shoulder at Kian, who was now a mere five feet from him, fighting a killian. Kian and Dante had been pushed forward to the edge of this fight.
“Your kin? He smells of you,” the Dark Fae Lord murmured.
In a motion so fast I almost missed it happening, the fae dove toward Kian, antler-weapon raised. I threw my hands up, calling my magic forward.
“Kian!” Kade bellowed, sprinting toward his brother. He wasn’t going to make it in time, hampered by whatever bone his fall had broken. I shot my magic off in a quick blast, hoping to at least distract the Dark Fae Lord, but my aim was off. It hit a mere three inches from his feet, freezing the ground there.
Before Kade or I could do anything, the fae shoved his antler-weapon low into Kian’s back, slowly ripping it up into his chest, inflicting maximum damage. Somewhere deep in the woods I heard Shelley scream, a haunting wail that filled the air with pain and sorrow. Tears sprang to my eyes, the pain in my heart so sharp and aching that I held a hand to my chest to try and ease it.
Kade’s chest was heaving, bear roars echoing across the clearing. We both hobbled forward together — I had all but abandoned my stick now, choosing the pain for a faster gait. When I reached for Kade’s mind I slammed up against a wall of darkness. It was like a thick cloud, but with much more substance.
My mate was in a bad place I could not reach. The Fae Lord spun around, staff raised, but he was too slow. In his pleasure at killing, in his bloodlust, he had forgotten there was another bear brother, one he had just enraged. Kade let out a bear roar and swiped with a partially-shifted hand claw across the dark one’s face.
He was aiming to hurt, not kill. Kade was too far gone in his own pain and fury. All he wanted was revenge. A row of deep cuts sprang up across the fae lord’s face, black blood oozing out of them, and that injury was enough to distract the evil bastard. As he cried out, reaching for his face, Kade swiped again. This time I thought he was going for a kill, but instead he snatched up the Dark Fae Lord’s staff.
Maybe he wasn’t as far gone as I had thought.
He had skipped his chance to hurt the fae lord more, going for the weapon. Because he was the only one here who could handle the dark stone. My mate staked the staff into the ground, and then with one kick snapped it in half. The fae let out a weak cry, which turned into a high-pitched screech when Kade used his mighty strength to propel the top half, with the dark crystal on it, out into the burning lake. The second it hit the fire, thunder rolled across the sky and the Dark Fae Lord fell to his knees.
Chapter Thirteen
Arianna, the great winter.
I never expected fire could destroy the stone, or regular fire at least, as it did not destroy mecca, and the energy of this stone was similar. But I’d already noticed that there was something different about this dark lake of flames, this elven fire. Which hopefully meant the stone was gone. Forever. The defeated-looking fae was certainly acting like it was.
Kade, who was no longer limping, leaned down and snatched up the second dark staff, the one he had been training with. He returned with it in his grasp, face devoid of any emotion, almost as if he were a robot, and stared down at the fae still crumpled on the ground, oily blood seeping out of his face wounds.
A small, whimper-like noise escaped from me, and Kade turned in my direction. I almost screamed when I saw his eyes. Gone was that shimmery bronze that I loved, and in its place, pure darkness.
Oh shit.
When my mate turned back to his enemy, I lurched forward, halting myself. I didn’t know what to do. Should I be stopping Kade from touching any more darkness? Or would the death of the Dark Fae Lord return him to me?
Before I could make a decision, Kade swung the staff around so that the stone was facing the fae. He then lifted the weapon high, shifting into his half-bear form at the same time. I had no idea why, until he slammed the staff — dark crystal side down — into the fae’s chest. He must have needed the extra strength to make sure he could smash it all the way through, to make sure he killed the evil fae once and for all.
As the Dark Fae Lord fell backwards, Kade ripped the staff free, pulling out half or more of the fae’s chest. Everything in the clearing stilled, it seemed as if noise ceased, and then the fae grinned, blood stained teeth on display. “Darkness has … you …now,” he choked out, before coughing twice, and then with one last breath, he stilled.
The air charged with electricity, and then, in an instant, the thunder stopped and the sky shone a perfect, cloudless blue.
The Dark Fae Lord was dead.
I approached Kade slowly. “You need to throw the staff into the lake,” I told him. Already I could see the fire across that expanse was dying down. The evil was dispersing from this land, and when it was gone, so too would be the fire able to remove the crystal from this world. Or at least take it somewhere that was untouchable to any more fae.
Kade snarled in my direction, spinning, and running for his brother.
I was turning to follow him when a line of tall entities stepped into view. All breath choked out of me, and I stood dumfounded for a beat.