Holy shit. The amount of power I contained actually scared me then. I didn’t feel remorse for them, but I felt fear of what I’d just done.
Suddenly, a weakness overwhelmed me, becoming too much, and I fell forward. Black dots danced at the edges of my vision. Bile rose in my throat as I surveyed the scene.
I did this.
All of it. Even if I didn’t personally kill Liam’s men, they were dead because I’d led them here without enough support.
So much death because of me.
I heaved on the ground, gagging as the realization of what I’d just done hit me. I was a monster… A murderer. I just wanted this to be done. I just wanted the war over. I only ever wanted to go home, to have a home to go to, and to share with everyone.
“Lily!” Elle’s voice cut through the space as Liam and Cam ran out to grab each of my arms.
I think I passed out for a second when they pulled me up; there was dirt on my face so I must have…
Time was weird, and I felt so sick, so weak that Cam and Liam had to drag me across the ground. Liam had stopped somewhere and taken a backpack, which looked heavy with the weight of the crystals. I wondered if he’d stolen it from one of the dead fae trying to flee.
“We need to get her out of here,” Liam said to Cam, and then Elle swooped in, and we were airborne. Liam and Elle were flying with an arm hooked under each of my armpits. My wings flapped a few times, but it was useless. I was too weak. Cam ran underneath us, blindingly fast.
“It’s going to be okay,” Elle whispered beside me. Knowing she had my back gave me a small measure of hope.
I didn’t realize I was crying until Liam reached out and brushed a tear off my cheek. He lost half his men, and he was wiping away my tears? I was such an asshole. A murdering asshole.
When we landed on the dirt road that led to the car, I felt a bit of my strength return. My legs were a bit steadier, and my wings didn’t feel so heavy.
Liam and Elle let me go, and I stood strong on my feet as Cam burst through the trees behind us. “I can walk.” My voice shook with the grief I was repressing as we all picked up speed and power-walked to the car, which stood still against the beautiful Montana landscape. The two guards were nowhere to be seen, but I’d hoped it was because they were inside, that the other half of Liam’s men had retreated inside to the safety of Mara’s house and they were all waiting for us.
I just couldn’t take any alternative.
The back car door stood open, and when I rounded the corner, peeking inside, my stomach dropped at the sight of blood. Large fat droplets stained the laundry room of Mara’s house as I tore inside, screaming her name.
When I turned the corner and came out into the open kitchen, a sob ripped from my throat.
I’d found the Winter King at last. He stood over Mara and Bashur’s dead bodies piled in a bloody heap at his feet like discarded waste. Liam’s mother whimpered as the Winter King dragged a finger across her neckline, holding her close to his chest while he caressed her in a fucking creepy way that added to my desire to murder him.
Looking down at Mara, I… blocked it all out. I somehow compartmentalized the fact that she looked dead. The odd angle of her neck, the way her stomach was opened up and icicles littered the floor. Her cuffs… oh gods her cuffs had popped off and lay open on the floor. I blocked it all out and flew into a rage so blinding that I feared I would kill Liam’s mother on accident.
This was it. This was the moment I was going to end him, slowly if I had it my way. I leapt from the ground and plowed into the both of them like a linebacker. Knocking Liam’s mother out of the way, I landed on top of the Winter King, my chin clipping his chest. Reaching out, I grasped whatever I could hold, relishing the moment that I was about to liquefy this mother fucker!
I grabbed his left upper arm and then his right and pushed myself up so that I was hovering over him.
Then, I turned my head to look Liam’s mother right in the eyes. “Run!”
By the time I snapped my face back to the Winter King’s, I was ready to light him up. I pulsed sunlight into him with what felt like the force of a supernova, but something didn’t feel right. There was no release, it was meeting resistance.
He looked up at me and grinned. “I’m born of Summer and Winter. You really think some Spring magic can kill me?” He cocked his head to the side, and a trickle of fear wedged its way into my bones.
I remembered the moment that Indra had told me he was a product of the original Queen of Summer and King of Winter and how he was older than any fae she’d ever seen.
His hands snaked out and clamped around my arms as a bone-chilling cold took over, freezing my magic in place.
“No, but I can.” Liam’s voice came from somewhere above me, and then I was ripped away from the king, pulled backward and away from the kitchen as Liam and his father went head to head.
One quick look back told me that Cam was dragging me out of the house with a death grip on my upper arms. Liam
