Page 13

A purely sadistic smile spread across her face and she slowly circled me.

I turned with her, following the way she stalked me with analytical precision.

The shift of her weight, the limited movement the dress caused her, her hands where she weaved deadly elemental power from.

“ Did you know that the shadow fae are fertile?” She laughed at the shocked look on my face.

“Yes. These humans…for all their insipid savage ways do at least have some intelligence within them. They have discovered that your females are fertile with one tiny caveat.”

She paused when the shadows crept along the floor, under her slippered feet, and towards me. Darkening as they gathered.

Her smile widened and she responded to the darkness with miniature tornados that stirred the sleek silver hair around her as they took form.

Their size made them look innocent enough…

until they were shoved down the throat of her enemies or used to rip the very flesh off their face, piece by piece—all of which I had seen her do.

“Your females can only be bred with only one lucky male…one male that I have you to thank for discovering.”

Memories of someone else roaring flashed before me and then was gone. I shook away the sense of foreboding that seemed to cling like the blood soaked shirt I still wore under my armor. “Who?”

Deirdre clicked her tongue. “For all that you do see…sometimes you really are blind, Remi darling.” She tutted and then swirled her finger through one of her tornados.

Tiny embers of fire sparked within them showcasing her mastery of the elements.

“It does not matter who anymore. The human scientists tell me that harvesting your eggs was successful and will now allow a new generation of fae to be born. Except that simply wasn’t enough for me.

Why stop with one shadow fae when I can have them all? ”

She smirked when the blood drained from my face. Inside my heart stuttered to a halt.

“What have you done?” I whispered.

“Saving our people, Remi darling. Consider your vow to the throne of Faerie now fulfilled my love. The blood of your shadow fae a small price to pay for the many who will graciously live on.”

“You were wrong, my love.” I spat. The endearment now bitter on my tongue.

I let go of the metal table and rose to my full height.

“I am not broken but you soon will be.” My shadows had been cut off from me for three long torturous months, but now they exploded back into existence, and shot straight towards the Queen of Faerie… the betrayer of my heart.

***

Deirdre reacted quickly, shielding herself with a gust of air and sending the shadows into a splatter of glittering black dust. For a brief moment, we watched the deadly display rain down on us before our eyes locked over the remaining dust, a small trickle of fear flashing in my lover's eyes.

“Whatever is the matter, De, my love.” I mocked. “You look worried.” This time it was me who stalked her slowly, the shadows trailing lazily behind me.

“Worried?” She started laughing and more mini tornados grew around her, their speed intensifying. “It is you who should be worried, you are now worthless to everyone. Not even your body is of use to me anymore.”

I sneered. “You don’t have the power to defeat me or the shadow fae.”

She chuckled. “You have no idea what kind of power I can wield.”

She flung her tornados at me in succession, one after another.

Defensively my shadows whipped out against her torrent of power absorbing the air greedily and countering.

A wall of searing fire rose, burning the attacking shadows in a sizzling blaze, and sending back cannonballs of molten hot earth.

Twirling, I manipulated the dormant shadows of the room to swallow up the molten earth, leaving behind nothing but a smoke filled hiss.

Seeing her attack so easily dismantled, she glowered at the shadows rising around me.

“Disgusting shadows. I am thankful that the humans can manipulate any future offspring to repress your shadow fae genes. They call it genetic engineering. Isn’t that fascinating?

” Laughing at my horrified expression she threw another small tornado in my direction and I batted it away with a snap of shadow.

Toying. She was toying with me.

Snarling, the room filled with darkness, swallowing her remaining tornados in its wake.

Glowing turquoise eyes narrowed in the dark before a vicious stream of fire lit up the room and roared straight towards me.

Dodging it, the shadows snapped around it with a whining hiss, returning the light to the room once more, while they puddled at my feet.

She grinned. “Your shadows still fear my light…how sad for you, Remi darling.” Wielding both air and fire she thrusted more of her power outward, circling it around the room and forcing it to funnel closer and closer to me.

The shadows shrunk, clawing up my legs, and then layering me in their darkness. Completely blocking the light of my armor.

“We. Fear. Nothing.”

Light whispers, barely audible over Deirdre’s converging powers, seemed to speak directly in my ear.

“Did you just speak to me?” I whispered back to the shadows with awe, not once had I ever heard a sound from them before.

“Destroy. Her. Destroy.” Simultaneous whispers ordered me.

“I—” I choked on my own emotions, the harsh truth escaping from my unwilling lips. “I don’t think I can.”

“Then. We. Will. We. Will. We. Will.”

I gasped when more power pulsed through me and fed into the dark layers around my body. Suctioning off the inherent power inside me, I realized I was nothing but a conduit for their dark purpose.

I was no longer in control.

Seeing my power accelerate uncontrollably, Deirdre’s turquoise eyes flashed with fearful alarm before she screamed out her own rage, releasing the power she had built up around me.

Wind, fire, and earth rocketed in a winding stream of chaotic elements for a killing blow.

I gasped when more power was sucked from me and added to the dark shadows encapsulating my body.

Lassos of their black swirling smoke struck out rapidly at the earth, fire, and wind.

Treating the attack like it was nothing more than an annoying insect to be batted away.

Extending their void and encroaching on the queen, I could hear their excited whispers in the darkness.

Her power flickered for a split second and then completely sputtered out when the shadows enveloped her.

The darkness peeled away from me and I stared in awe as witness to the shadow’s immense power.

Deirdre screamed out her fury when their tendrils latched onto her wrists and ankles, bending her backward so that her eyes were forced to look upon the plume of shadow looming above her, gathering like an executioner's ax, ready to fall.

Our eyes connected from across the room and I searched desperately for any redemption left of the fae I loved.

And I had loved her. Cherished her. For hundreds of years she had been my companion, my best friend, my lover.

The one I worshiped in the middle of night and basked naked next to in the glory of the sunrise.

We shared memories of tears and laughter, moments in front of the fire kissing and licking every inch of each other's delicious skin, moments in a battle covered in blood, holding hands in reassurance that we would live to see each other one more day.

It was as if time stopped when her scared voice pleaded out to me over the roaring darkness, as if she could see every memory reflecting in my eyes. “Remi…”

“Stop!” I cried and ripped back the shadow power controlling me. Hissing they retracted, just seconds before they kissed the delicate skin of the Queen of Faerie.

Snapping back towards me they whispered in multiple hissing voices. “Mistake. Take. She will take more.”

Their cryptic words fell on deaf ears. “What in the goddess?” I whispered, staring in awe at the sunlit marbled throne room of the City of Light. We were back in Faerie.

“No!” Cried Deirdre, reaching out to the gateway that snapped shut and shattered before us in a collective array of shimmering dust.

“Sealed.” My shadows whispered in chorus. “Sealed forever.”

***

Deirdre spun towards me, fire lighting up her eyes. “You! You have doomed us forever!” She screamed at the same time fire spewed from her eyes and mouth.

“Shit.” I snarled and summoned the casted shadows from the sun. They were weakened by the light but were enough to defend me from the roaring torrent of her fire.

A crazed laugh bursted from Deirdre’s lips and her earth power joined in her attack. The walls shook around us and I ran, leaping away from the cracking marble beneath my feet and layering shadows between the cracks to prevent the total collapse of the room.

Sliding down a pitched floor, I attacked, firing off bolts of shadow that swallowed up her fire and forced Deirdre’s control on her earth elements to falter.

“Enough! You will bring this whole place down on both of us!” I cried out, pulling more split marble back together with the shadows.

“I will bring this whole place down on you and you alone! I will make sure you die here and every court will know that you are the cause of the extinction of all fae!”

Wind, earth, and fire assaulted me on all fronts, shooting out from Deirdre with such power that for any lesser fae it would have destroyed them instantly.

Decades of hardened training came to life and I danced against death’s deadly call. My feet sliding on the crumbled marble, my body flowing with the assault, my shadows tiptoeing closer and closer to the source of power being used against us.

Finally face to face, I stood my ground while she poured her full power down onto me. With my shadows shielding me on all fronts, I gazed through the waterfall of her power, holding her crazed desperate look.