Elle pulled me aside and turned me to face her. “Whatever the Queen said when you met with her seemed to pump you up. Just remember that, okay? We’ve got this.”
She was right. There was no more room to be weak, to hesitate. I needed to do as the Queen had said and be strong. I nodded curtly, spinning to face the men.
“We find Liam, we get as many crystals as we can, and we get out,” I told them. This was primarily a rescue mission, but while I was here, I intended to get these fucking crystals once and for all. They nodded. Two of them broke off and stuck with the car while the rest of us flooded into the woods.
Opening my seeker power, I felt for Liam, imagined his face, his eyes, his lips, the way he smelled, and I felt a tug at my navel. He was here just as I suspected.
Shouts rang out through the forest as we approached. I knew they probably had watchmen, but it was too late; I’d reached the perimeter of the dome, and nothing was keeping me from Liam.
With a grunt, I threw my hands in front of me and pushed the light up from deep within me and out through my fingertips. Buttery sunlight shot out of my palms like missiles, shattering the dome completely within seconds.
Whoa…
I hadn’t actually expected it to be that easy.
I didn’t wait for it to fully fall before I kicked off the ground and into the air. The fae inside were screaming, running around as the dome disintegrated around them into a fine powder.
I couldn’t feel the crystals, but I knew they were here, they were just cloaked like Liam said they would be. How else would the Winter King have been able to hold this dome up? Our royal power created the dome, but the crystal’s energy, it held it up. They had to be here too, but first I needed to make sure Liam was okay.
Zipping through the air, I realized this place was bigger than I thought, there were hundreds of silk tents, houses, and even a market. Fae flew haphazardly and ran in every direction, causing me to swerve to keep from hitting a woman and her child.
I suddenly felt bad for scaring everyone. They probably thought we were here to attack them, kill them even… Well, we were… but not them. The Winter King, yes. Chrys the witch and his Sons of Darkness, yeah. But not women and children, the innocent fae who’d been cast out by a previous vengeful Queen.
I stopped suddenly, floating in midair over the chaos. Jasper nearly smacked into me he was flying so closely behind me.
“What’s wrong?” Jasper’s eyes were wide.
This was my moment, the one the Queen told me about. “Can you project my voice? Magically?” I asked him.
He raised one eyebrow but nodded.
“I’m ready,” I told him, heart pounding in my chest. He placed his glowing palm over my throat, and I felt a warm trickle slide down it. I cleared my throat, and the sound reverberated throughout the space, but people were too panicked to stop. I needed to be louder. “I am the new Queen of Faerie!” I boomed. I may only be a temp Queen, but I had to own the title to get their trust.
Every. Single. Fae. Stopped.
My gulp was audible. “And I’m here to tell you that the war is over! You’re all invited back to Faerie for a fresh start.”
Mouths dropped open, eyebrows furrowed, but no one said anything for a few moments.
“How do we know you’re the Queen!? You’re a kid!” someone shouted.
“Faerie is ruined, eaten by the dark war!” another said. “Why would we go there when we can stay here?”
I clapped my hands together, and beams of sunlight shot out of them and up into the sky. The fae beneath me all ducked, covering their heads and shielding their eyes. I shot a beam of light at a nearby tree, and it grew in size, adding ten feet to its hulking mass as it crawled up in the air like magic.
Okay… wasn’t expecting that, was just trying to give them a little show.
I gulped as some of the fae fell to their knees but not enough, only a handful out of the hundred or so I was looking at.
“The Winter King has powers too!” someone yelled. “Why should we serve you?”
I frowned. “I don’t want anyone to serve me. I’m not your master! I’m your leader, yes, but I will not be a dictator.”
Cheers and applause went up throughout the space, and I grinned. “I’m here for the crystals, then I’m going back to Faerie, and you’re all invited. Come home where you belong. All I ask is for loyalty.”
A woman with blue hair started to weep and fell to her knees at the word home.
“I’m restoring Faerie!” I shouted as loud as possible. “It will be better than before it fell. Come home,” I pleaded one last time.
I started to lower myself to the ground, wanting to shake their hands and meet with some of them, when an icicle flew past my face.
My breath hitched as Jasper screamed a warning. Without thinking, I threw my palm up, and the icicle melted into a defenseless puddle at my feet.
The Winter King.
Liam.
I’d forgotten about Liam.
At the sight of his father, enraged before me, my main mission was brought to the front of my mind.
“Go! I’ll
