Page 47 of His Dark Delights
“He took someone from me—someone very precious to me. I’d like to see her returned to my care,” Soren appealed through a clenched jaw, as if restraining the desire to hiss and howl like a deranged beast.
I watched him through the gap between their horses. As proud as ever, with a stern glare on his brow and weeks of dark beard growth stressing his severe jaw. A hint of red in his eyes twisted my heart. Eyes that appeared sleepless, maybe eyes that had run dry.
“Your care?” Lunaric laughed—loudly. A boisterous, mocking chuckle meant to entice or to enrage. Then he sobered up, tilting his head to the side. “I know very well what you do to the fae under your hospitality. My visit to your dungeon wasn’t so long ago that I’ve forgotten.”
“Oh, yes. We all know what the Butcher does to fae in his care. I haven’t forgotten the welcome my husband received in your court,” Ellaria ground out. “Why, in the name of the gods, would I give you one of mine?”
Soren snarled, snapping his head to the side. A muscle in his jaw feathered, and he seethed while tugging at the reins of his restless horse. After a heartbeat, he faced the Fae Queen again.
“One of yours? Was she a spy?”
“A spy?” It was Mother’s turn to laugh. “Gods, no. A true farm girl through and through. But I think you knew that, didn’t you? Deep down. You knew.”
“See, told you.” Another familiar voice chimed in. I remained shielded by my family but shifted enough to glimpse Rhydan at the king’s side. My heart leapt to see him there.
“Why have you come all this way for a fae girl? You claim she is precious, but fear she is a spy. A contradiction of intentions, Carnifex. Would a good ruler send her subjects to a self-proclaimed butcher? I don’t imagine so.”
“I’ve come for her because she’s mine, and I won’t leave until she’s in my possession once again,” Soren promised, with the weight of the world behind his words.
A deep shudder thumped through my heart.
I nudged my horse forward, earning a scowl from Lunaric and a disapproving glance from Mother. Head high, with a steadying breath filling my lungs, I met my fate face-to-face.
“I am not a possession, Your Grace. Last I recalled, you hated the fae and thought they all deserved death. Am I going to suffer that fate if I’m passed back into your hands?
” As I emerged from obscurity, his eyes bugged so widely that I thought they’d roll from his head.
His jaw hardened and his nostrils flared.
Each breath he drew in rose hard and fast, stunned at the sight of my metamorphosis.
For a moment, the world seemed to hold a breath, the air thick with unspoken words and the gravity of our connection.
“Lilly,” he whispered my name as reverently as a prayer, his voice a mixture of awe and disbelief. “What have they done to you?”
I faltered, the magnitude of his gaze a tangible force. “I am what I was always meant to be, Soren,” I replied, my voice steady despite the riot within. “A part of the fae world.”
He stepped forward, his brow furrowed with a mixture of indignation and bewilderment. “Regardless, you belong with me, Lilliana,” he insisted, the words a command wrapped in desperation. “This madness—it doesn’t have to be our end.”
The sight of him tugged at my heart, a reminder of the time we’d shared, the dreams we had dared to hope for. But the truth of my heritage, of my place within the fae, couldn’t be denied. Not even by a king.
“I am half-fae, Soren, and that is not something you can deny. Not something you can simply look past. Therefore, I cannot return with you,” I said, my voice firm even as it trembled. “Not while you wage war against my people. I am and always have been a part of the very world you seek to destroy.”
His face hardened; the burden of his perceived duty was evident in the harsh lines stressing his expression. “ The fae are a threat to my people, to my kingdom,” he countered. “I cannot turn a blind eye to that.”
“You are the threat, bastard!” Lunaric interjected, spitting the insult toward Soren. I saw the moment the word struck true.
“How dare you—” the king began.
“I’ll not listen to another moment of this drivel!” The Fairy Queen shouted. Lower, she said, “You had your chance to talk. The Butcher doesn’t listen. He’s mine now.”
“Wait, Mother, no—” my hand shot out too late.
The sound of war horns cleaved through the stillness, an ethereal call to arms that echoed through the Fae Wild. Armies of fae and humankind faced off, prickling and tensing for the impending combat.
The air crackled with savage anticipation, sweetened with the scent of magic and cut through with steel and iron. A vicious combination that set my senses alight. A power within me stirred, a living, breathing force that reacted to the threat of battle looming closer.
Soren’s gaze remained locked on mine, a silent plea that cut through the chaos. “Lilly,” he called out, his voice a whisper against the advancing storm. “Don’t do this. Don’t let them do this.”
The fae forces surged forward, a wave of otherworldly might that met the human soldiers with a clash of wills and weaponry. Two sides met in the middle, a convergence of whizzing, rippling magic and clanging, clashing weaponry. An eruption of gruesome brutality building toward a massacre.
The magic within me evolved into an unstoppable tide that begged for release.
With a breath, I reached deep, shoving my hands into that intangible force.
I seized and tugged and unleashed the power that long lay dormant within me; the earth responding to my call with an orchestra of life and growth.
Vines erupted from the ground, twisting and coiling with a will of their own, a testimony to the blood-bound connection of my heritage I shared with the land.
Colossal flowers burst forth, blooming in a riot of color, their petals unfurling with a beauty that belied their strength. The air was lively with the scent of blossoms and the hum of magic, an unexpected force that turned the tide of a would-be-battle into a brief skirmish.
I watched, my heart an active storm of desire and sorrow, as fae soldiers converged on Soren and Rhydan. The early stages of the battle blurred around me, raging into a clashing, thunderous bouts of fury that rumbled over the land.
Lunaric rose from his mount, taking to the sky. He whipped out his bow, shooting off arrows at enemy soldiers. He flew swiftly, cutting through the air in complicated maneuvers meant to avoid opposing fire.
Ellaria cut her eyes to me, noticing my wall of gargantuan vines and flowers erupting from the earth. She scanned the sea of crashing forces and snarled. Undeterred, she lifted her own hands, reinforcing my powers yet manipulating them.
“Mother—”
“Take him!” the queen commanded. A tide of fae knights descended on the front line of human soldiers. My mother’s flowers curved around Soren’s location, barricading him from the support of his army.
“Lilly!” Soren’s shout stabbed and twisted in my chest. I rode for him, seeking him out. Seconds before my fingers brushed against his, a fae soldier dropped from the sky. The clash of bodies knocked the king from his horse, and more fighters joined the fray.
“Grab the king and withdraw!” Ellaria lifted her sword high in the air. Writhing, twisting forces barreled over him, ripping us apart. He vanished under the violent sea of fae, seizing him at their leader’s command.
A scream ripped up from the depths of my stomach and scratched through my throat.
Lunaric swooped low and grabbed my horse’s reins, guiding me back to the sanctuary of the Fae Wild.
The victorious cheering and whooping of the fae followed my silent, shocked form as the last slithering vines of Mother’s blockade shielded the fae kingdom from the human knights trying to reach their captured king.