I squeezed Kols’s hand,sensing his tension.
We both knew what Constantine’s words implied and how they might be perceived, but I felt the Earth Source shining down upon me. Which meant Sol could sense it, too.
His green-brown irises met mine over Claire’s head, his concern evident in his features. But one look and his lips curled at the edges.
He knew I was still me. Just a new and improved version.
An enhanced one.
More powerful.
But still an Earth Fae at heart.
I curtsied to my Elemental Fae Queen, showing my respect. “Queen Claire,” I greeted softly. A few months ago, I would have run up and begged her to take me home. But seeing her now, surrounded by her mates, I realized that they no longer represented my preferred haven.
The Midnight Fae Realm was my home now, my roots having grown deep into the soil of this world and claimed it as my own.
Because of my mates.
And the Dark Source.
These fae needed me more, too. They required my light and life to guide them into a phase of regrowth and prosperity.
Which required me to do something destructive first.
Something I never would have considered doing just weeks ago.
But I’d learned through my trials that sometimes we must destroy to pave the way for recreation. For life could not exist without death.
Constantine was a bad seed, his mentality so warped by wrongness that he could no longer see the light. Being a queen required tough choices, and this would be my burden to bear.
My final ascension trial.
Returning the bad seed to the earth, where it could eventually be reborn and blossom into something good.
Claire studied me, her blue irises intense and guarded as memories flashed through her eyes. I recognized the haunted gleam to her features because I often felt it myself when I thought about Elana. She’d destroyed nearly all the Spirit Fae with a plague that she later turned on the Earth Fae.
I’d felt that dark magic, had absorbed and dismantled it before it could reach the heart of my source. I hadn’t understood it at the time, my mind working on protective instinct alone, but now I knew that gift had come from Zakkai.
As his Quandary Blood mate, I’d been able to save my fellow Earth Fae by reconfiguring Elana’s spell and pushing it away from my kingdom.
Which meant I’d been an abomination all along, since the young age of seven.
Yet I lived in peace with my fellow Elemental Fae. And now I would share that peace with the Midnight Fae.
“I’m not a threat,” I told her softly. “It’s not how much power we have that matters; it’s how we use it.” And if anyone would understand that, it would be Claire. As an Elemental Fae with access to all five elements, she knew better than anyone what power could do to a fae.
“Being connected to two sources makes you beyond powerful,” Constantine seethed. “It makes you wicked and deceitful, and I’ll ensure everyone sees through this charade that you’ve created.” Inky wisps of energy seeped from his fingertips while he spoke, but no one else seemed to notice.
The Dark Source protested in my heart, telling me this wasn’t the way, begging me to fix it.
This was the magic he’d used to manipulate and control others, the wicked spell that had consumed two Elite Bloods and likely several others.
Tadmir’s obsidian gaze met mine, knowledge sprouting from his depths.
He can’t see it, but he can feel it,Zakkai explained. Just like me. Although, I can sense it more clearly through your mind.
It’s like black tendrils of smoke, I told him. Pouring out of him in waves.