We’d kill Morrigan, but we shouldn’t kill the things of Faerie.
“No more bloodshed,” I said while having Fergus put me down.
“I think you hit your head harder than you thought, Baby Fawn.” He gave me an incredulous look.
“Áine’s magic says not to.” Drawing the dagger from my hip, I let the light blind everything around me. If I didn’t have the light, I wouldn’t have been able to see much of anything. My first act was to save Bain because one had him pinned down in the darkness behind me.
Running to his aid, I refused to let him die after having my back while I was unconscious. Stabbing the side of the creature, he fell over with a whine but drifted into sleep instantly. Bain was baffled below the thing because it toppled right on top of him. Giving me a curt nod that it was okay to leave me, he was the first to pick up on why I wanted to do it this way.
Putting the creatures to sleep gave them a chance at being restored when we killed their master. I had to time to dwell later on Philip’s voice inside my head, but I knew better than to ignore it. I’d trust him, even with the veil of death between us, breaking our consistent communication. I must’ve been close to the land of the spirits if I felt him so near, but it also gave me hope that he was still around, even if I couldn’t see him.
Dashing around, I slit my dagger into the next two Cian and Cullen fought against. Now that Fergus was free from holding me, he moved like lightning to evade the charge of a wolf. When the thing pounced where he once stood, he didn’t hesitate to grab hold of it by the neck. With his arms around the fullness of its head, he anchored his legs into the ground to keep it from moving my direction. All his muscles pulled as he tried to leash the beast with his corded biceps. For being the one who didn’t like to fight, he knew how in a way that made my heart pitter-patter a little faster.
“Baby Fawn,” he reminded me I was standing in the middle of a massive fight. Once my body felt under my control again, I shook my head out of the wonder I was lost in. Making quick work toward him, I stabbed the thing in his hold.
With a quick yip, it went down with the rest of the ones I had snagged along the way. Our numbers weren’t failing now as we took enough down to even the odds. The alpha howled a command, making his team of betas turn back to flank him in a way that blocked our path. Their eyes flickered from red to green right before Bain got in front of me to shield me from their view. The alpha’s eyes scanned over the sleeping forms of his comrades in the darkness. My blade had made enough light for me to see, but I hastily tucked it in my shirt. If Bain was trying to hide me, it only felt right to secure my weapon.
“Let the lost princes pass, Bassein,” a female’s voice trickled in around us. An evil cackle followed it, telling us she thought we were no match for her.
She had no idea I stood in their ranks. I highly doubted she forgot me from targeting me on Earth, but I wouldn’t reveal myself until we had our battle against her. This was the very reason Bain was quick to hide me when their eyes shifted.
“I’ll be waiting for you,” she said again right before their eyes turned back to red. A long howl left their leader right before they departed into the thorns.
Once they were gone, I had so many questions, but Fergus was the one to silence me before I even opened my mouth. “There are more than just wolves who watch for her in here. It is best you put your hood up and keep your dagger close. Now that we have her permission to pass, the others won’t attack.”
I didn’t waste any time shielding myself from the creatures around us. Our feet moved quickly as I tried to pretend my headache was absent, but it wasn’t. We’d need to rest soon, but I knew we had to get out of the decayed lands before we’d be safe to do that.
It was Cian who picked up on me feeling unwell. Without saying anything, he dropped in a squat to let me saddle against his back. He carried me by holding my thighs as my feet crossed in front of him. My hands snaked around his neck to keep a safer grip. It was a position I had seen soldiers use when carrying some to safety through the forest, but I had never done it myself.
Our group carried on through the darkness without my light, but I knew they could all see from their dragons helping. It was nice to witness that our sacrifice for this was already paying off. I wasn’t sure how I felt about immortality, but I did know Morrigan’s death would bring me peace for eons to come. She’d never be able to gut a world by draining its core.
“You’re thinking too hard,” Cian murmured, sensing the spiral of my thoughts.
“Your world rests on our shoulders. Of course, I’m thinking to hard,” I admitted.
“It is now yours too,” Alasdair had to add.
Grieving the loss of mine hadn’t fully happened yet. In all honesty, I wondered if this was a dream while I waited for Philip to kiss me awake. I knew it wasn’t, but it was nice to think about instead of being some champion that would slay the woman who destroyed her world.
“Our home does not please you?” Fergus didn’t understand. He was the one who was intuitive with his own emotions, but he struggled understanding others outside of animals.
“Your home is lovely, Fergus. There will just be things I’ll miss from mine.” Shrugging over Cian’s shoulders, I saw a small light up ahead. We were nearing the end of this brutal trip. “I only woke up days ago, so it’s still fresh on my mind.”
“Oh, forgive me. My thoughts were too involved with our land’s enhancements giving you more to think about than what you might miss.” Fergus trudged forward as though he offended me. He just needed time to comprehend everything I lost.
“So you didn’t feel time passing?” Cian asked me again.
“When they woke me, I thought it was Philip coming to tell me that they had won the war. My eyes found his skull against my lips instead.” It was hard telling the brother of my soulmate the details, but he deserved to know. “I didn’t think more than a few hours had passed, let alone a century.”
“One hundred years does a lot to a person,” he agreed.
“Is that what changed you? Time?” I asked him. Cian wasn’t the same as when I first met him. Back then, he was still quiet, but he was kind.
He shook his head and cleared his throat. “It was hearing that my brother was going to stay in your world instead of coming home to ours.”
“What do you mean?” My brows furrowed without him seeing it.
“My mother had come for a visit, telling me I had to come with her to meet the woman Muir was going to merge with. She let me know he was in love and planned to rule a human kingdom. I didn’t like that, so I made plans to tell him to come home. He was the better of us to take over the court of light, we all knew it. But I never could do it.”