Page 46 of Faerie Fate (Fae Academy for Halflings #7)

Chapter Thirty-One

“ Y ou’ve got to be kidding,” I said out loud. “I’ve already been drawn into a damn war. Now there’s a dragon?”

I barely saw Poppy’s retreat, the slow slip of her arm unthreading through mine and her steps in the opposite direction.

“Fight the dragon, Tavi. Get to the chest. It’s the only way we’re going to make it out of this. If you defeat the dragon, you’ll have your answers, and your real power.”

Her whisper carried the weight of the world. Because if I died, Poppy did, too. Her body might not pass away for some time but her essence trapped inside of me would fade.

I eyed the dragon’s scaly head. The thing reared up, its neck arching. Its throat glowed red-orange in anticipation of roasting us both alive.

Gathering the last bits of my courage—and they were reluctant to be gathered, I confess—I stepped in front of Poppy. The dragon tracked my movements. When I moved, it moved.

Well, there was no sense in dragging this out, not when the pixies needed me at full strength. If I had to make it past this overgrown lizard, then hesitating did no good.

With a shout I ran forward, and flinched when the dragon reacted. Its tail whipped out, slashing across my cheek in a harsh blow, chastising, almost playful. My skin split and blood spurted.

I gasped and slapped my hand against the wound. The pain filtered through me but didn’t last long. If I had a sword?—

Hell no, who needed a sword when you had teeth and talons? In this vision, or wherever we were, I didn’t have to worry about Madam Muerte’s curse or any of the limitations of reality. There was no dragging exhaustion or stuttering when I drew on my powers.

So I urged my magic up from the depths of my abdomen and shifted my paws, striking at the dragon. I wasn’t close enough to make contact for the longest time.

Finally, I forced myself closer while watching out for that tail. I fought. I struck and kicked and bit empty air until my arms and legs didn’t belong to me anymore. I couldn’t feel them.

The dragon avoided my claws, avoided every blow. Its nails were sharper than mine, with curving tips honed to deadly precision.

“Tavi!”

Poppy’s screeched warning came just in time.. The dragon tried to take me out with a furious swipe of its tail. I leaped out of the way but ended up tripping over the bony length.

It happened in slow motion. I fell. The dragon stretched over me. I rolled out of the way before it crushed me. Its stomp shook the maze and I rolled with the bucking ground and absorbed the energy.

The rest of the world faded, outside of the dragon. Every move I pulled to get close to its chest failed. I thrust my claws at its breastplate, attempting to drive them right through the beast’s ribs, but it deftly avoided me.

I hadn’t managed a single strike yet.

The dragon recovered much faster than I did with our cat and mouse game. My offensive maneuvers didn’t work and more often than not left me scurrying away defensively. In my mind, I replayed tactics that had worked for me before.

Would any of them help me with this dragon?

This wasn’t going great. I was sloppy next to the grace of the dragon, unrefined and floundering rather than striking with precision.

I stabbed to the left of the dragon and it wound around the opposite way to nip at my leg.

A second of hesitation would have cost me half of my thigh.

It sneered and smoke curled from its nostrils.

Think, Tavi .

I spared a glance at Poppy who stared back at me like I was nothing but a fucking idiot. Whatever she knew that I didn’t, she wasn’t about to tell me.

I’d cut through packs of shifters before. I’d beaten several fae in my desperate attempt to make it out of the capital before my execution.

But my cognitive manipulation didn’t work on the dragon. I’d already tried and had to levy punch after punch with my fists when the command did literally nothing.

Whatever I did now, it had to be fast.

I dove for the chest, purposely feinting to the right first, but the dragon moved with me as if it knew. As if I knew. It didn’t take its eyes off of me or even blink.

Pain exploded through my side as the dragon hit its skull into my hip bone. My vision blurred and I hit the ground. Poppy’s warning yells were nothing but a distant roar in my head.

The dragon resumed its perch above the chest and waited, looking at me, its eyes glinting with amber fire.

I pushed up. Held a hand out to Poppy to let her know I was fine. And suddenly I had a flash of insight—or really more like a hunch.

The creature will go for my legs.

As predicted, at my next approach its head snaked out and teeth nipped inches from my shins.

I feinted left toward the chest. It will pivot and lash out with its tail .

This was a test. To see if I was right. To see if my realization that I already knew the dragon’s moves before it made them had merit.

As predicted, the dragon lashed out with its tail and I jumped over it as easily as a schoolyard jump rope.

The dragon wasn’t something outside of me. The dragon was me. It already knew what I’d do, where I’d move, because it was a part of me.

I was fighting against myself.

The instant I put it together, the dragon dropped into a crouch. Subdued except for those amber eyes watching me.

“Don’t dawdle. Kill it! Be done with it.”

Poppy’s merciless encouragement was wasted. This time, I had to trust myself rather than someone else. The answers came from me. I knew the way, didn’t I?

I didn’t actually want to kill the dragon. I didn’t have to. I only had to accept that it was me. All this time, I’d listened to others I’d considered smarter than me. Uncle Will. Barbara. Headmaster Leaves. King Tywin. Selene, the leader of the Claw & Fang. Anyone who wasn’t me.

When had I stopped trusting myself? Or maybe I never learned how to in the first place. Based on all the mistakes I’d made, it was no small wonder. The only thing I could be trusted to do was fuck things up.

I need the chest to be whole . I know what to do with myself now. I know how to move forward . It’s time for me to be me, fierce and free . Not who the world wants me to be, but who I want to be .

I lifted my palm to the dragon to touch the crest of bone on top of its head. It sniffed and growled, baring its fangs before I made contact.

This had better work .

I held my breath. Waiting. Watching.

Slowly, the dragon bowed to me, ducking down until the glowing tip of its skull touched the ground.

Relief made me dizzy.

It was all a metaphor. I knew it as I stepped forward for my magic. The dragon was the wildness of me, the part I was scared to approach so I’d shoved it down where I didn’t have to look at it.

I forced the terror away because it had no place in my life. Why would I be scared of parts of myself? It all boiled down to what I was willing to look at. What I was willing to accept, the good and the bad.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

The dragon stepped aside on my approach to give me access to the chest. Up close, it was nothing special. But inside? It held every hope my mother had for me and for our world. It held more responsibility than I’d ever had in my life, possibly more than I was willing to bear.

But I was here. I was ready. Whatever happened, it couldn’t be any worse than what I’d already survived.

Here goes nothing .

I carefully pried open the edges of the old chest and winced. Blinding light spilled out, searing. I closed my eyes against the glare and?—

I opened my eyes to the ritual room, back in my body. The glow remained but now it came from me. From the inside out as though I’d devoured a star. The relief was keen, sweet, without end. The aches and pains vanished and in their place, strength returned. Magic coursed through my body.

Poppy smiled, and this time the expression sent a thrill through me. Her relief and her excitement bolstered me.

“It worked, girl,” she said reverently. “It finally worked.”

I held a glowing hand up and studied the curving lines of power. It pulsed out of me, ready for use. I’d never felt this good in my life. The rough edges of the jagged pieces that never fit before finally did.

Whole. New.

Was this how I should have felt my entire life?

Was this what I’d been missing?

I’d gone from a half-life to a new existence.

“You’re not going to know how to use these powers until someone tutors you.”

The sudden grim sound of Poppy’s voice drew me out of my introspection.

“I have to do something about this battle, Poppy. The pixies are supposed to win. Something…something went wrong. I made the wrong choice somewhere.”

“Let it play out,” Poppy suggested urgently. “The wrong will right itself. Things will get better. Back on track.”

Get better? And I was just supposed to let people die, let fate course correct on its own, when I had the ability to do something about it?

“I’ve sat on the sidelines my entire life.” I surged to my feet. “I’ve been cautious and I’ve ducked my head down out of the need for survival. This is my fault.”

“Stay here where you’re safe, and once I’ve made sure of it, I’ll come get you. Tavi. Tavi! ”

Poppy screamed after me but I took off, faster than I’d been before. Like someone had flipped the volume up on my life and my abilities, all the way from nothing to something wonderful.

Now I had the potential to fix what I’d broken and I wasn’t going to struggle the entire time. I might actually be able to make a difference and save the pixies. Wouldn’t it be better for Elfwaite to have a happy childhood, with her family, in the home where she’d been born?

I stopped those thoughts before they had a chance to grow. Mike didn’t want us to change the past and I understood why. This wasn’t a change. It was a return.

I pumped my arms and took the steps up to the ground floor three at a time.

Many of the doors I passed were closed and a swift tug on several showed them locked, too. The pixies had barricaded themselves in the interior of the palace. But there were many more still fighting.

The huge front doors of EverRose were still wide open, but now more fae spilled into the interior like a wave of blight.

The pixies who remained did their best to hold the fae near those doors.

Stones flew through the air, boulders brought up through the floor to force the warriors to retreat.

The marble tile buckled and caved, opening up into sinkholes to surprise the fae.

The earth swallowed up several unlucky ones.

The morsana-fueled weapons were the only reason why the pixies with their earth magic stood a chance, why they’d held their ground to this point.

I took in the devastation with a clinical eye and my heart rate smoothed out to an even tempo. Until the details stood out. Until I saw firsthand the carnage. Dead pixies, dead fae, the morsana fields burning outside those open doors…

It threatened to bring me to my knees. None of this was necessary. The fire creeping steadily towards the palace wasn’t necessary. So much damage and pain and for what?

Why did this war happen?

And why was Dorian Jade running a rebellion in modern-day Faerie?

Tears pricked my eyes and trailed along my cheeks, feeling like acid.

Why was this realm so fucking mired in corruption and tragedy? Faerie deserved peace. Was it never going to be possible?

I ran.

The power made it impossible to worry too much about my own safety. I punched, kicked, and cracked a smile as sweat slicked along my skin. It didn’t matter what happened to my body. Every hit glanced off of me despite everything.

Did Poppy feel this way every day? Or was her magic as dampened as mine had been because of those silver cuffs? The idea trickled away and gave me a cleaner outlook. Parry, cut, and down. The fae in front of me fell, one after another.

I wasn’t going to leave this palace until I knew we’d gotten what we came for, a win for the pixies.

Ahead, Elfhame struggled against a big fae in armor, the insignia marking him as someone important. She sent earth magic toward him and it hit the soldier dead in the chest. Instead of falling, he threw a wave of power back at her, as though he’d absorbed whatever she’d given and increased it.

Elfhame fluttered out of the way at the last second then groaned and gripped her belly.

My throat tightened. I raced forward to help her and jumped over a body in my path. “Hold on, Elfhame! I’m coming!”

If she died, then so did Elfwaite. It wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. Elfhame might be able to hold her own under normal circumstances but I wondered if the pregnancy slowed her reflexes. Made her more vulnerable.

The fae was a good fighter. Like the dragon, he almost seemed to anticipate her attacks before she made them. He avoided every hit from her weapon, and when I got close enough, I saw it.

The thing he held in his hand.

My stomach dropped and I bottomed out, skidding to a stop and crashing into one of the ornate columns in the foyer with a gasp.

It wasn’t possible.

The fae held the Augundae Imperium, the size of a Rubik’s cube made of an amalgam of metals, in his palm. No wonder Elfhame wasn’t making any progress against him. The artifact was designed to siphon power from anyone and store it for the wielder to use.

No . He’d kill her for sure.

Poppy was right—I had no idea what to do, or how to use this new power.

It was as wild as the dragon and equally unpredictable.

It flowed through me with a life of its own, a new presence inside my veins.

This wasn’t like the innate shifter powers I’d grown up accepting, or the soft Fae magic I’d learned to use at school.

The witch magic was raw and unbridled energy that wanted to leap right out of me. Hard to handle, hard to lash down and force it to obey. My veins were fired with so much energy it felt like sparklers running through my blood.

Maddening. Intoxicating.

It needed an outlet. I had to do something with it before it ate me up and left nothing behind, not even bones.

Without skill, without thought, I just…let it out. My chest released and my arms flung out to the sides as an incredible amount of energy exploded from me. It erupted like the tidal wave in my vision and mowed through the entire foyer and beyond.

And left nothing behind.