Aldronn

My bride sings a song of such beauty it almost stops my newly beating heart.

Angry drums beat down from overhead, but every eye in the room is glued to the low dome filling the center of the floor. Fissures crack across the white shell with sharp snaps, bleeding blinding white light.

I jerk upright, ignoring any lingering pain, and wrap my hands around May’s shoulders to pull her back to me. My eyes snap closed, my body curling protectively around my bride, my muscles locked tight, bracing for impact. But no shards of shell strike us.

Gasps and murmurs come from around the room—May’s sweet little sound the loudest to my ears—as the Moon Goddess flies free of her prison.

May did it! My amazing bride did it! She freed the goddess!

The Moon Goddess hangs in the air, a swirling ball of white energy shot through with light-blue lightning, looking exactly as she did when she summoned me to find my moon bound bride. Beautiful music fills the cavern as she spins faster and starts to expand.

Magic explodes outward in a wash of heat and light.

Starfall comes awake, instead of remaining in a healing coma for another day, as she normally would. My old friend shakes her head and snorts, rolling up onto her belly. Then her blue eyes are as captured by the goddess as the rest of us. I’m glad she won’t miss whatever comes next.

Rune falls to his knees, his amber eyes filled with awe.

Shadow stands stunned to silence for a change, no clever quips springing to his tongue.

Wranth holds Naomi close, both of them staring openmouthed at the goddess.

I realize I am as well, and force my jaw closed.

May is perfectly still in my arms, her hands clutching the forearm I have wrapped around her as if she’ll fly away if I let go.

Selena sits by her side, one hand still wrapped around my bride’s ankle. Awe fills her eyes.

The only one who looks more curious than impressed is the dragon. I half expect him to pull out quill and parchment and begin taking notes.

The Dark God pulses above us, his deep-blue lightning streaking toward the Moon Goddess. Her lightning leaps toward his, the two meeting in the middle and fusing together until a continuous stream of magical power pours back and forth between them.

“What’s going on?” I murmur in May’s ear.

“They’re yelling at each other.” She shakes her head. “It’s too loud and fast. I can’t make out a single word.”

The music from each of them gets louder, the high strings and bells of the goddess underscored by the bass thump of the god.

May gasps again. “It’s all one song!”

She’s right. The music each plays is half of a full piece. Brought together, there’s a completeness the disparate parts lacked.

The Moon Goddess swells as she floats toward the ceiling, and the Dark God grows at the same pace. Soon they fill all of the vast area over our heads until finally, they touch.

Magic blasts outward in an explosion of power that knocks everyone flat.

I blink rapidly, fighting to clear my vision as I reach for May, her sweet weight having landed on my chest.

“I’m fine.” She squeezes my hand. “I’m… oh.”

I follow her gaze up to where two fae fly near the ceiling.

The man looks a great deal like Severin, with milk-pale skin and inky-black hair. Shadows pour from him, making great black wings on his back.

The woman is something altogether different, with long silver hair and shining silver eyes. Ribbons of light pour from her, forming shimmering wings the color of the aurora.

At first her skin appears to be the pure black of the darkest night, but the longer I look, the more I realize I’m wrong—that’s far too simple a description. Her skin is the rich green of orcs, the blue of pixies, the white of unicorns, the purple and red and gold of dragons, the clear transparency of water nymphs, the yellow-green of kelpies, the pink of sprites, the light green of gnomes, the gray of ogres, and even black is in there—the black of pookas.

All the colors of the Wild Fae flicker and gyrate on her skin, a deep rainbow of hues racing across the black like colors swirling on a soap bubble.

“Who are they?” May breathes.

“They are Titania and Oberon,” Lukendevener says. “The missing first fae.”

“Your scholarship serves you well, dragon,” Titania says. Her voice is resonant and terribly beautiful, but she speaks so that all may understand instead of using the celestial tongue. “Titania is indeed one of my names. Yet perhaps it is too familiar, for all of my children forgot that I am, in fact, your goddess.”

May’s chin lifts. “I’m not your child.”

“You aren’t Wild Fae, it is true.” Titania turns her full attention on my bride. “Yet I still marked you as mine.”

May gasps, holding her necklace away from her body as the crystal glows.

“I sent the human witches tiny pieces of myself. With the doors of Faerie closed, they were cut off from magic, but it allowed me to find them when the time was right.”

“How clever you are, my dear,” Oberon says, his deep voice booming. “You freed yourself so quickly this time.”

“It is your turn to be punished, husband.” She flicks her fingers, and Severin leaps to standing. “What have you done to the elves?”

“They aren’t your Wild Fae,” the god says, sounding rather petulant, like a small child called out for something they know they did wrong. “I did what I had to.”

“They may not be Wild Fae, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care for them.”

Her hand waves, and Severin slumps to his knees, sucking in huge breaths.

“I have freed them of your chains,” she says. “I cannot undo the physical changes you have wrought in them, but they have their free will again.”

“Thank you, goddess.” Severin bows his head. “My people thank you.”

“Now come, husband of mine,” Titania says. “You have upset the balance for long enough. You have much to do to make amends.”

She flies closer, wrapping him in her arms. They start to fade from view, and Oberon’s voice whispers through the room as they disappear, “But it was only three-hundred years.”

There’s silence for a few more seconds, and then May bursts into motion.

“ This time. Only three-hundred years,” May repeats their words, loud and aggrieved. “Was all of this—” She flaps her hand to take in the cavern. “—nothing more than a marital spat?”

“I think so,” Naomi says.

“Ay.” Selena gives her head a quick shake, not in disagreement but disbelief. “It sure looked like it.”

“Our entire existence in Alarria was due to a lover’s quarrel,” Lukendevener says, a stunned look on his face that morphs into a scowl. “I’ve spent decades of my life dedicated to understanding why we were here, and all along it was this ?” He storms out, his wings fluttering on his back in agitation.

“There goes a man who’s never been in love,” Shadow quips.

“Where is the Moon Goddess now?” Rune asks. “Is she still here with us?”

“Avalon.” Severin pushes to his feet. “If she’s going to make him put things right, they’re going to go to Avalon, where Oberon did his worst.”

I leap up when he leans over to pick up his sword, my own hand reaching for my moon steel blade.

“Calm down, orc.” The fae scowls.

“Don’t tell him to calm down.” May jabs a finger at him. “You tried to kill him.”

“That wasn’t me.” He sheathes his sword and holds up empty hands. “That was the Dark God.”

I exchange a glance with May, and she nods that he’s telling the truth.

“If you’re truly your own man now, get out there and stop your people.” I fling my hand toward the entrance to the tunnel.

Severin scowls harder, making his cheekbones stand out even more, and stalks out of the room, but not before tossing one last parting shot over his shoulder. “If I’d wanted you dead, orc, my sword would have pierced your heart fully instead of stopping halfway. You would have been dead before the unicorn could have saved you.”

“Don’t assume I couldn’t have!” Starfall yells after him as she climbs to her feet. “I’m rather wonderful, after all.”

I step forward and wrap my arms around her neck. “That you are, old friend.”

“Don’t make me do that again,” she grumps, then softens her words by nuzzling the side of my head.

May wraps her arms around Starfall from the other side and presses kisses to her neck in between words. “You are the most wonderful unicorn in the world.”

“All the worlds,” Starfall says.

“All the worlds,” my moon bound agrees.

The pixies swarm May, chittering high and fast with excitement until she laughs up at them. “You were wonderful! You saved the day!”

“Speaking of saving the day,” I say. “We need to go and check on the others.”

Wranth nods and joins me in leading everyone back down the tunnel.

We step out into brightness, all of us digging into our clothes for our shaded spectacles. Even before my eyes adjust, I can tell the battle’s over—it’s far too quiet to be otherwise.

Dravarr and the others stand around a group of dark fae, Severin in with them. “My king, they all stopped fighting several minutes ago. They say they’re on our side now, but…” The warlord breaks off with a scowl guaranteed to scare the piss from anyone daring to lie to him.

“It seems they were forced to fight us, but the compulsion is now broken,” I say. “What are our injuries?”

“Nothing Selena can’t heal.” He points over to the crater wall, where furs have been spread across the ground. Several orcs and a couple of unicorns wait there, cuts and bruises showing.

Selena pushes past us to head toward the injured, her tan face wearing a look of compassionate determination.

I turn back toward the crater. The carnival ride is still. Only a couple of sluagh flocks hang in the air, hovering over various guards who hold a trapped bird in a bag.

“Where are the other soul stealers?” There’d been far more than two.

“Once we trapped them, the dragons torched them out of the air,” Dravarr says. “Quite the timesaver.”

Even as he speaks, Bellavesaria flaps by, incinerating one of the flocks and freeing all of the soul stealer’s victims to finally find peace.

The bag the orc guard holds squirms and swells, the final bird turning into the soul stealer itself. In a coordinated fashion, she tosses the bag into the air, and Drakonisrevener finishes it off. They repeat the sequence for the last sluagh.

“Now, about these dark fae?” Dravarr gestures to Severin and the others.

“Just fae,” Severin says, looking around at his people. “We may not be the elves we once were. But we are also no longer under the thrall of the Dark God.”

“You still have your tattoos,” I point out.

Severin extends his bare arm, seemingly impervious to cold, and shadow tendrils emerge from his skin. “This must be what the goddess meant when she said she couldn’t reverse everything that was done to us.”

“So you’re shadow fae,” May says.

“Shadow fae,” Severin repeats, his sharp features settling into a smirk.

Several members of our party gasp, both men and women, human and orc. “Fuck, he’s gorgeous,” one of my guards mutters.

“We’ll be going now.” Still smirking, Severin turns toward the door crystal, ushering all of his people ahead of him. He waits for the last of them to step through before spinning to face us. “I don’t know what the future holds, but I owe you a debt for freeing my people. Only, when next I visit, try to make it somewhere with trees.” Then he disappears.

“Cocky asshole, isn’t he?” Shadow says, grinning. “I like him.”

“You would.” Rune elbows him in the ribs.

I pick May up, lifting her until our faces are level. “Everyone,” I call out. “Our victory today is thanks to my amazing moon bound bride. All cheer your queen! All cheer May!”

Tears of joy fill her eyes as everyone does as I command. She smiles and laughs as I kiss the salt from her lips.

My May. My love.

Mine.