Page 64 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

Chapter

Twenty-Six

ELIAS

I felt it the moment Teddy left this realm. It was as if she’d died.

With my blood roaring through my veins, I ran toward her. Toward Nalari and the Guardian Everly had been gifted. While Adela stood to meet me, Nalari and Teddy lay on the ground.

My magic reached Teddy before I could, and I found her heart beating, her lungs breathing. But she wasn’t in this realm. Neither was Nalari.

“Where are they?” I roared at Adela.

“In another realm, fighting the Guardian of Death to bring back your friend ,” Adela replied, her tone impassive.

Terror slammed into me. I thrust my magic into the large gray dragon. She bared her teeth at me and growled.

“Bring them back,” I demanded.

“No.”

I yielded my sword, as did George and Everly. Ready to follow me, to fight, to kill.

I couldn’t lose Teddy. Couldn’t lose Nalari .

“Bring them back.”

From the snow-covered ground, Nalari shook her head and jumped to her feet, almost stepping on me as she looked around. Her roar made the ground tremble. Adela peered back at her, and I felt her surprise through the connection she kept open.

“Where’s Teddy?” I asked Nalari.

Her large head swished from side to side, searching.

“Nalari!” I shouted. “Where’s Teddy?”

Rather than answer me, Nalari slammed the side of her face against Adela, ripping through her side with her large claws. Adela flapped her massive wings, lunging for Nalari, and when she splayed Nalari on her back, Nalari breathed fire on the Elder.

“Nalari, where’s Teddy?” I asked again, fear snaking through my veins, cleaving my head and heart in half.

“You,” Nalari bellowed at the Elder.

Adela edged a claw into Nalari’s neck before she slowly backed off her. Nalari stood slowly, keeping a watchful eye on Adela as she shook her body.

“She’s in the astral realm,” Nalari said. “I was to fight alongside her to bring Brenton back for you, but the Guardian of Death evicted me.”

“She can’t fight the Guardian of Death,” I hissed. “She won’t ? —”

She wouldn’t make it. Wouldn’t survive it.

“This was her choice,” Nalari said quietly. “She wanted to do this for you. For Brenton. For your friends. I thought if I fought alongside her, we could win. I ? —”

“Bring her back,” I pleaded. “Or send me to her.”

I glared up at Adela, both begging her and hating her with the same breath .

“No!”

I whirled around to find Brenton standing, screaming, shaking.

“No,” he yelled again.

Surprised, Everly and George ran to him, but he scrambled past them, falling twice before he reached Teddy. He dropped to his knees in front of her and shook her limp shoulders.

“No,” he belted again.

I felt his dread in my bones. In the essence of my soul.

His eyes filled with that same terrible fear. He faced the Guardians, sword out and ready to wage war on them.

“Who sent her to that realm?” he demanded, panting hard while he gripped his stomach.

His magic swam from the tips of his fingers like gray smoke that he trailed over Nalari and Adela. Standing beside him, I called on my own magic and laced snow around Adela’s throat.

“Send me to her.” It wasn’t a request, but I would’ve fallen to my knees and begged if Adela asked me to.

George circled his magic around Adela. I knew Everly couldn’t do that against her own Guardian, no matter how incensed she was because of what her Guardian had caused.

“I can’t,” Adela snarled. “Elias, you are destined to be the strongest fae. The only one who can stop our demise against the mage who seeks out your mate. I cannot send you where you may die.”

“My mate could die because of you,” I growled.

“I am willing to sacrifice her life so that the rest of us may live.”

A sacrifice I would never be willing to make. I’d rather damn every realm to ash and have her sit on a throne made of cinders than lose her.

Brenton growled and his magic erupted with an angry flare of smoke that scalded my skin. His hazel eyes were an abyss of black and I could feel the terror and fury that built inside him.

“Bring her back.” His magic launched through Adela’s nostrils, stealing her of breath while also burning her wherever the tendrils touched. “I will burn you to the ground, dragon.”

Nalari’s magic joined the frenzy. Still Adela glared at me with the same loathing I felt for her.

I used my magic to throw her to the ground where I formed a spike made of ice that splintered into her side.

She roared, but Nalari and the others held her still.

My magic swirled over the snow where I formed another spike that I dug into her side.

Brenton’s magic followed mine, burning and tearing through her scales as he kept a hand to his stomach.

In all the years I’d known Brenton, never had I seen him so full of rage. So determined to harm and kill. It was all done for Teddy, which, while I was grateful for, I didn’t understand.

“See how strong you are,” Adela said with another roar. “Imagine how much stronger you’ll become if she dies.”

Nalari lunged for her, forcing Adela to the ground.

While Nalari pinned the Elder with a large foot, her deadly claws tore through Adela’s chest. A plume of white smoke flared from Nalari’s nostrils as she bent down and ripped through Adela’s throat.

Blood spilled from Nalari’s open mouth when she lifted her head to the night sky and roared.

Nalari leaned farther into the Elder, her claws ripping deeper into Adela’s chest. Adela lifted her head only to drop it with a heavy thud that made Everly hiss. Nalari was relentless, ready to flay the Elder open, something I’d never seen. She was fighting against one of her own.

“You tricked me. You used Elias’s mate, knowing Death would banish me from the realm. You should be destroyed for such ruthlessness,” Nalari growled.

“How you come to be the strongest is unimportant,” Adela said to me, her tone an unwavering command as she ignored Nalari . “Whether it’s by your mate accepting the bond or her death, fate will come to pass.”

Nalari snarled, baring her teeth before she reached Adela’s throat again.

“Don’t kill her,” Everly rushed out.

Nalari turned slowly toward Everly while the Elder blinked at her.

“We need her. She’s the only one who can bring Teddy back.” She stood before Adela, her hands splayed on her waist as she waited for our decision.

“Send me back,” Brenton told Adela. “If you can’t send Elias, then send me.”

Air whooshed from my lungs. I had barely registered that Brenton was here and alive before he offered to go back to the astral realm for Teddy. It didn’t make sense—how hard he fought for her and now his willingness to die for her.

“Send me,” George said. “It’s my fault you were shot.”

“Don’t be an arrogant ass,” Brenton retorted. “I’m the only one here who’s supposed to be dead. I’m the only one here who doesn’t have a mate.”

My heart stalled before it started pounding harder, faster while my body hummed to life. I spun toward Teddy, my knees buckling when she stirred. I stumbled to her, falling clumsily at her side when her eyes fluttered open.

“Sounds like I have some matchmaking to do,” Teddy said on a grunt as she tried to pull herself up to standing.

With trembling hands, I helped her up, holding on to her elbow to steady her.

When she smiled up at me, I reached for her face.

Kissing her everywhere—her cheeks, her lips, her hair.

She wrapped her arms around my middle and rested her head against my chest. My arms shook while I held her close to me.

“You crazy, foolish woman.” I continued peppering kisses everywhere.

She laughed, and that sound. . . I’d never tire of hearing it. Wanted to listen to that sweet melody for the rest of my life. Wanted to be the reason she laughed. Smiled.

“I’d rather you call me your mate,” she whispered against my chest.

My heart thundered in reply. Beat so hard against its cage I was surprised it didn’t break free.

My mate.

My legs trembled, and I dropped to my knees onto the cold ground. I hugged her waist and leaned my head against her stomach. She ran her fingers through my hair before she bent down to kiss the top of my head.

When I looked up at her, love shone bright in her eyes. So much love for me, and it took my breath away. My perfect little warrior. She’d defeated Death. How could she have fought and defeated Death?

She ran her fingers through my hair again. “I’m pretty sure Nalari will roast you if you don’t get up.” She quirked up her brows and glanced at Nalari before she bore all that attention back on me. “Royalty kneels before no one.”

All that pressure, all that fear and distress built and built until it released as a thunderous laugh.

“I kneel before you.” I squeezed her tighter, kissing her stomach.

Although my knees still shook, I pulled myself off the ground. Teddy immediately went into my arms but turned at the sound of Brenton’s sob. I wasn’t sure who hugged him first, me or Teddy, but we both held on to him until his shoulders stopped shaking.

When we pulled away, he gave us a watery smile and pulled Teddy’s beanie down to cover her eyes.

“Now I know which one of my friends would fight Death himself for me,” he teased. But whatever lightheartedness he aimed for melted away. “Don’t ever”—he shook his head—“ever?—”

“Actually.” Teddy smiled, and I felt a wave of magic spill from her fingertips.

I gaped down at her fingers, where a small swirl of peach magic twirled from her open palm.

“I have an open invitation to the astral realm and some cool new tricks,” she said.

I huffed out a relieved sigh. Only Teddy would fight the Guardian of Death and return with gifts. I kissed her temple and felt my shoulders relax when she nestled closer.

“He gave you magic?” Brenton asked.

“After I shot him in the face.” She raised her shirt to show the gun she kept at her waist. “Twice, not sure where the third shot hit.” She grinned.

“He. ..explained some things, helped me with some footwork and swordplay. He’s not to be feared, as death is part of life.

” She shrugged. “He even laughed at my jokes, which I think makes us besties.”

I huffed out another laugh.

“We have a lot to talk about,” she said, her voice going serious. “But I’d kill for a cup of coffee right now.”

If a cup of coffee was what my brave mate wanted, that was what she’d get. I bent space so that we were inside the coffee shop in town. There weren’t as many tables or chairs as there once was because of the riot from a week ago, but everything else had been fixed.

I brewed her the best cup I could make while she messaged her friends to meet us.

While we waited, we sat at a small circular table with me on one side of Teddy and Brenton on the other.

One of the overhead lights had gone out, so the space wasn’t too brightly lit.

I preferred it as it reminded me of the warm hue of our spheres of fae light back home.

Brenton was uncharacteristically quiet and seemed to track Teddy’s every movement, which made sense. It wasn’t every day someone fought Death to bring you back to life.

I owed her so much. She’d fought for my friend’s life. For Brenton, but also for me.

There had only ever been three times in our recorded history that someone had gone to the astral realm to fight Death.

One had been successful, while one had returned empty handed.

The last fae to fight Death had never returned.

Of those three, each had been aware they could die in their battle.

Each had been willing to sacrifice their own lives for that of another’s.

Teddy had done that. Had set her own life aside to save Brenton’s.

It made her a warrior, yes, but also a female who loved so fiercely, so openly, she’d risked herself for another.

She seemed different somehow. Happier. As if some burdens she’d carried were no longer weighing her down. When I told her, her eyes seemed to brighten.

“I learned something from Death, or Eiran, today,” she said.

“One day, I’m going to die. I don’t know when that’ll be, but until that day comes, I’m going to live life the way I want.

The life I want is with you, and yeah, that still terrifies me, but I’m more scared to die tomorrow without telling you I love you. ”

I stilled, everyone around us going silent.

“You love me?” I breathed out.

She kissed my chin. “I love you very, very much, Elias.”

My breath caught in my lungs.

She loved me.

“I didn’t want to,” she admitted, her voice low.

“I feared what I feel for you. I was scared of what you feel for me. It’s so much and so big, and I was scared because what if you went back to your world and left me?

What if you found someone else?” She rubbed the center of her chest. “I’d be empty, and I don’t want to feel that emptiness again.

I was angry when you told me everything about.

. .” She waved her hand without saying anything else, which was fine.

I knew what she meant. “You were willing to take on all the blame and made it easy to feel like I was right to be angry. And it was a lot easier to be angry with you than to be scared.” She gave me a sheepish, crooked smile.

I brushed her hair back, letting my fingers trail over her neck. “It’s only you, Teddy. It’s only ever been you. I look at you, and sometimes I wonder if love isn’t a big enough word for what I feel for you. You consume me, mo elma.”

She slipped off her chair to sit on my lap, where I wrapped my arms around her waist, my fingers grazing the soft skin beneath her sweater.

She dipped her head down, and with her arms sliding around my neck, she kissed me.

This time, it wasn’t just a simple touch of our lips but our souls dancing together.