Page 25 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody (Elven Fantasy Romance #3)

Chapter 24 Svenn

B lood, I want more of it, the black serpent demands. Destroy everything.

This vile curse had latched itself to me the moment I touched the dark dagger. It tries to burrow itself into my skin.

Death and defeat for them all.

Half of my thoughts are not my own right now. My mind becomes as sharp as a sword, honed and primed for violence.

I know exactly what I have shifted into. One of my favorite killing forms, something made out of the worst of horrors.

Wendy.

Power roils in my veins, beating through me in an endless surge. I fail to reel it back in, no matter how hard I try. The only way to contain it is to channel my wrath into demolishing the enemies.

Her enemies.

Leave none alive.

The call of chaos is far too strong to ignore. This thing is like a sickness in my blood. I continue my rampage as one of the Fallen from Hel, ripping souls out of bodies, smashing anything in my path.

“Svenn!”

My gaze strays away from the dying orc in my hand at the soft voice.

“Svenn!”

That’s not my name. But it’s a sweet calling from someone precious to me.

“Svenn!”

Something moves through the sea of pitch-black darkness. A beacon of light, brighter than any stars in the sky.

“I’m sorry.”

A sharp pain smashes into my chest. Heat courses through my body, igniting every cell to wake up. I blink my eyes to find Rhianelle with a dagger buried deep into my chest.

I don’t know how she does it, but she’s here. Somehow the girl manages to climb on my twisted form to reach me. Her blade is inches away from my beating heart. A little dove trying to dance with death.

“Svenn,” she says again. Her hand trembles as if she doesn’t have the will to plunge the dagger deeper.

“Rhianelle…” My voice dies in my throat when I see what is behind her.

Through Wendy’s sight, nothing is hidden. I finally see the Rhunhraefn’s true form. All this time, I thought the curse could not take over Rhianelle because it has weakened…

I was fucking wrong from the start. The Rhunhraefn, like all evil beings, has fermented and grown a thousand times more powerful over the years. Its foul form is bigger than the entire fortress, reaching to the sky and tainting the heavens, like a goddamn dragon.

If containing the Rhunhraefn is not enough, another cursed dagger is trying to claw itself into her, the twin to the serpent attached to me. The new curse twirls on her arm like one of her delicate decorations.

I stare into Rhianelle’s glazed eyes.

“Come out,” she commands, but the order is not directed at me. The black serpent twirls from my arm to my shoulder to greet her.

Lilith and the Rhunhraefn were not the ones who attacked me last night. It was this damned fiend.

The white snake on Rhianelle’s arm slithers to settle beside her twin. They both bow their head in reverence in front of her.

“You’ve been very bad,” the girl scolds the two creatures.

We didn’t mean to. We just want blood, the white serpent reasons.

They forge us to destroy the elves. It is our destiny to bring chaos and ruins, the black snake echoes its partner’s sentiment.

Rhianelle sighs, focusing her eyes on them. “I understand. Let go of your anger. You’ve taken many lives today.”

Not as many as I was promised, the black serpent argues stubbornly.

I took even less than him, because you wouldn’t let me, the white serpent protests.

“Both of you stop,” she snaps, a sharp edge coating her voice. Her face is wholly calm as she stares at them. “You have a choice to make. Go to sleep for another hundreds of years or you can be released from your oath.”

The vile creatures exchange a glance at each other.

A small smile tugs Rhianelle’s lips the serpents choose the latter.

“Then be free of this hatred now.” She lowers her head and plants a soft kiss on each of their heads.

Light swathes their skin until they slowly dissolve into the air like mist. My eyes sting from the glow, from awe.

Shadows dance from the corner of my eyes. The remains of Lilith’s power trying one last time to keep its footnote on this world.Curses feed on fear, envy, avarice, wrath, hatred, and most of all, pain. The battleground is a feast filled with those emotions.

Time slows to a stretch as dark tendrils of the Rhunhraefn’s wicked power strikes Rhianelle from behind her back. It’s the same evil force that has brought down Bas, Vlad, Han, Ruth, and me to our knees countless times.

No, no… please gods, devil, universe, save her.

Save my Nel.

“Rhianelle!” I roar out.

The girl swivels her head to the hate-fueled shadow at the last second. She stares at it with eyes more radiant than the stars.

The curse’s vile form pauses like a standing cobra—no, it does not pause.

Nel has stopped it.

She glares at the Rhunhraefn and seeds of light burst from the shadows. They dance around the darkness like vines, crushing it to her will. The fortitude in her expression is terrifying.

“Touch him again and you’ll burn,” she warns the Rhunhraefn with eyes of silver flames. There is nothing elven or mortal in her essence as she uses the blinding radiance to seal the curse.

I understand now that it was this otherworldly light that saved me from the dagger’s curse last night in the tent. Even in her sleep, when she was most vulnerable, Rhianelle was still trying to help me.

I exhale slowly, battling the wave of sorrow that constricts my throat.

My knees cave in at the glorious sight. Her strength humbles me.

Now it’s time for her to face the final monster.

Me.

The dagger in my chest is inches away from my beating heart. I wait for her to end me.

Instead of finishing me, Rhianelle withdraws her blade.

What?

I howl my pain into the chasm, willing my body to shift back into a mortal form.

Rhianelle softly lands her feet on the ground as Wendy’s form gradually shrinks. I keep both knees on the ground, gazing up at the divine being in front of me. I’m ready for this goddess to punish me for everything that I have done.

Except I’m no longer staring at the icy gaze of a cold deity. My mate is staring back at me.

My soft Nel.

Every nerve in me becomes numb and paralyzed at the heartbreak in her eyes. I can’t speak. I can’t blink. I can’t breathe.

A terrible silence follows the wake of my madness until I hear someone say, “Take him away.”

Despite the order, not one elf dares to approach me. Eventually, Eyepatch and Tall One move to my side.

The last thing I see before I am dragged away is that fractured look on her face.