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“I am the dark.”

My power blasts out of me, rippling through the room and destroying everything in its path. It vaporizes the Fauna King and the walls of the palace. It blows apart furniture, shatters windows, rips off roofs. Across the palace grounds, any Fauna fae caught in the web of my darkness now burst like overripe fruit as my darkness devours them.

My magic encounters another ward, and it flays the spell wide open, allowing my shadows to rush in. In an instant I become aware of an entire subterranean prison located beneath the palace and the hundreds of women held captive within it. My darkness does its work, shredding through prison guard after prison guard.

The whole thing is over in a matter of seconds.

I bow my head as my power sweeps back into me. The only ones to survive the ordeal are Callie and the captive women. Everyone else has disintegrated into magic and dust.

I lift my head, my gaze finding that of my bloody mate. “The King of Fauna is no more.”

Chapter 25

The Future is Now

Present

The hour islate, but here in the Night Kingdom, it makes no difference. The sky is just as dark as it always is, and the stars twinkle just as brightly as they always do.

I lay in my royal chambers, my mate at my side.

I stare down at Callie, her dark hair fanned out around her, her eyes closed and her lips parted in sleep. A soft sigh escapes her.

It’s almost unbearable, caring this much for someone else. I have half a mind to wake Callie up, just so I can slide into her and feel her around me.

I settle for tracing one rounded earlobe.

Never have I been so thankful to see my mate safe in my bed.

… not true …

… you’re always thanking the bloody night that she’s in your bed …

My lips quirk, before the expression dissolves away into something more somber.

Almost lost her.

Even now I can acutely remember the sight of her in the Flora Queen’s sacred oak forest, her essence slipping further and further away from me as she bled out from a knife wound inflicted by the Thief of Souls. For several horrible seconds, I had to grapple with the possibility that my mate was gone.

If I hadn’t fed her the lilac wine …

Even now a small shudder works through me.Unendurable. And to think of how many centuries I have left to live. It’s impossible to imagine spending them alone.

My thumb brushes her lower lip, causing her to murmur in her sleep.

Now I won’t have to.

I’ve taken her, I’ve claimed her, and now I get to keep her. She’s tasted lilac wine, and the elixir has both given her everlasting life and made two magics that were once incompatible, compatible. The cord that binds us pulls on my heartstrings even now, and through it I can hear the dark, alluring notes of Callie’s power, her siren calling to me.

A noise on the balcony has me out of bed in an instant. I slip on a shirt and pants and head to the doors that lead out, my wings flaring behind me. Wings that, not so long ago, my undead father had broken. They’ve healed, but the memory hasn’t.

I step onto the balcony, which is completely deserted—just as it should be—and I lean against the railing.

Galleghar Nyx, the Shadow King, is still out there. What a fool I’d been all those years ago to not question why his body had been impervious to the elements. I’d been so filled with hate for him that I let it cloud my judgment.

And now I’m just beginning to pay the price.

I stand outside a few minutes longer, taking in the pale buildings that spread out around me.