City of Fae

The numbness stole feeling from every muscle. It didn’t tingle anymore, just left me adrift, somewhere between awake and asleep, conscious and unconscious. Those moments and places between. I was there, present, but elsewhere.

“Please, Reign,” I whispered against his bloodied lips. “Let it be enough.” When he’d taken my draíocht seconds after we’d first met, he’d done so without my permission, and learned things about me nobody but the queen knew. I’d thought, at the time, that I should have been the one to walk away on that platform. But he knew me for what I was, seen the truth of me from the very beginning. He should have walked away from me. He hadn’t. Instead, he’d watched, learned, and taught me how to be me. And I’d never forget that. This time, I gave my draíocht freely, almost pushed it into him. It had healed him before, it would heal him again. It had to.

An electric current pulsed between us. I’d mistaken it for the beat of my heart, but as it grew, I slowly, carefully, came back to myself. His fingers teased through my hair. I leaned into his touch, seeking it out, and then realized he had to be awake to touch me like that. Eyelids weighted with lead, I dragged them open and found Reign peering up at me. No, down at me. I lay on my back, cocooned in confusion. How … ? He said something, but I couldn’t hear him. How could he be so far away when he was right there in front of me?

“Alina.” Tears brimmed his beautiful eyes. “You gave too much. You gave it all, American Girl.” His smile quivered before he turned his face away and squeezed his eyes closed. Slowly, painfully, he pulled his gaze back to me. “Don’t you know, constructs aren’t heroes.” He moved in close, close enough to kiss. “I wish … I wish we’d had more time.” He trembled, I could feel the shivers in his touch. I watched, fascinated, as those butterfly eyes bled a violent red. A savage grimace pulled on his lips. He fought, but he wasn’t lost to the hound, not quite yet. “I’d have shown you the world,” he said. “I would have let you love me.”

“I don’t think I’m made for love.” So tired … I would just rest a little while. I needed to rest.

He bit back emotion and shook his head. His bloodied hair fell in front of his bright eyes. “You saved me.” A twitch shocked through him. He doubled over, muscles straining, and met my gaze one last time. “Thank you, Alina.”

I wanted to thank him for making me whole, for showing me a world outside my design, but the words detached and drifted away before I could speak them. He fell back, stumbled to his feet, and staggered out of sight. Wait … I wanted him back. Don’t go. I didn’t want to be here, alone. Why was I so cold? Nothing worked right. My thoughts fell quiet, and my body refused to move. I had to get to the queen. I still had a dagger. People continued to die. Eyelids shuttering, I forced them open and urged my lungs to fill and expel, breathe in, breath out … That was important. I had to stay awake. Was I dying? To hell with that. I wasn’t going out without seeing this through. No way was I bowing out before the show was over.

The queen’s shadow fell over me. The lights from above burned her silhouette into my vision. “Alina …” Spiders dripped from her body. Thousands of them rippled around me. Countless legs tickled my exposed flesh.

The queen rocked on her legs, and reached a limb toward me, probing tentatively. “Oh, sweet thing, this would not have happened had you obeyed me.”

I willed my fingers to close around the dagger.

“I cannot make you again,” she said.

The horror of her came sharply into focus. Spiders swarmed over her body, feeding on the blood painted across her torso and face. The dagger still jutted from her underbelly. White blood oozed around it. But it wouldn’t be enough to kill her.

“You failed.” I breathed the words, not managing a whisper, but she heard.

“Failed?” She laughed. “No. This is just the beginning. These people are mine. Once I am done feeding, the fae will come when I call. They will serve, and we will turn this miserable city into our own Faerie. It will be glorious.”

“You failed …”

She made an odd rattling sound in the back of her throat and reached down to scoop me up into her embrace. I could barely hold my head up as she cradled me close. “There is little life remaining in your shell. Not enough to warrant feeding, but I will take you back. You are mine, after all.” She peeled her lips back, revealing her crescent fangs, intent on biting me, swallowing whatever remained of her draíocht in my veins.

“You failed … to kill Reign.”