Chapter 14
“Indra.” I placed my hands steadily at my sides so as not to spook her. “Let her go.”
My breathing was erratic as I gazed upon the former Summer elder who held a blade to the Queen’s throat. Kira lay in a crumpled pile in the corner of the room, but I stared at the steady rise and fall of her chest in relief that it was still moving. She was, hopefully, just knocked unconscious.
Indra looked up at me with venom in her eyes. Her Summer fae illusion was gone. She now held her dark witch appearance with pride. “You ruined everything for me!” she hissed, drawing the blade closer into the Queen’s neck. I held my breath as a small trickle of blood slid down her pale skin.
Indra was so focused on me that she didn’t see the Queen’s feet jerk, moving once.
She’s waking…
I had to keep Indra occupied until the Queen could wake up.
“I got all the crystals,” I told Indra. “You can have your job back, and I’ll step down, and—”
Indra pulled the blade from the Queen’s neck and pointed it at me. “Everyone loves you! They will never let me lead so long as they know a royal lives.”
There was so much hatred in her eyes. I didn’t understand it, but she had taken the blade away from the Queen’s neck, so now was my time to act. I raised my arms to blast her with light when an unseen force slammed into me, throwing me against the wall. My back hit the plaster so hard that the breath was knocked out of me as the force held me there.
“You have no idea how powerful I am, child.” She stalked toward me, wearing a slow half-cocked grin on her lips. She’d left the Queen’s side, for which I was grateful, but now she somehow had me pinned against the wall. It made me wonder about the extent of her powers and how she kept them hidden this whole time...
“I’m one of the oldest witches alive,” she preened, looking happy with herself. Movement to my right caused my heart to leap in my chest.
The Queen was waking up.
I just needed to take care of Indra, and then everything would be done. The Queen could figure out what to do with the Winter King, and everything else would be her problem.
“Did you ever feel remorse?” I tried to bait her into conversation while I attempted to tug my hand from its magical force field.
Nothing. Not even a budge. Pulling the light up into my body, I prepared for the fight of my life.
Indra laughed. “Feel bad? For what? Bringing Faerie into the safest twenty-year reign ever recorded? No wars, no deaths, no sick little halflings polluting our genes. No, I do not.”
I growled. Call my boyfriend a sick little halfling again, bitch. “No deaths? My mother died, hunting crystals for your version of Faerie that didn’t allow the halflings in it.”
She sneered, “And it won’t. After I kill you, I will dispose of them again and close every portal in this realm.”
Panic seized me at her words. Liam, his brothers. With a scream, light exploded from my body, from every pore, and she was thrown backward into the wall with a screech. The invisible hold over me left, and I suddenly fell to the ground.
No more talking. No more soft blows and avoiding killing her. Faerie, Liam, the Queen, no one would be safe so long as she lived.
I tore across the room before she could get up, shooting light from my palms. One blast hit her while another was blocked by a sickly green glow. She was making some kind of shield countermeasure. Taking in a deep breath, I prepared to hit her with everything I had. But just before I could, she burst forward, throwing me backward with a violent wind. The second my head cracked into the wall, I knew I was done for.
Everything went black.
***
I came to with Indra standing over me, a knife in her hand. I must have only been out a moment, but I still felt weak and shaky. I tried to pull for my sunlight power, but a headache sliced through my skull; I’d hit my head… hard, and I’d need a minute to regather my composure. Two blackouts in two days were too many. I wasn’t going to be able to fight her off. That realization killed me before her knife ever could.
“I never should have let you live. Although you’ve been useful, you’re—" She froze with her mouth open, and I frowned, wondering what happened when, as I watched, blood began dribbling from her lip and onto the floor. That’s when my gaze went to her chest and the sharp icicle that protruded from it. Indra crumpled to the ground, and Liam stood behind her, eyes assessing every inch of me. “Are you okay?” he asked.
I nodded but winced because it hurt. It felt like my brain was sloshing around in my head. Indra started to move, mumbling, and Liam pulled out the blade from his waist belt. “I’ve had just about enough of you.” He came down hard on her neck, severing her head from her body.
“Lily.” A weak croak came from the corner of the room.
Kira.
I tried to fully stand up, but dizziness washed over me. Liam grasped my arms, propping me up to face Kira. She was okay. Blood dripped down her forehead into her hair, but she was okay. She was pointing at the Queen’s bed. I followed her gaze to see the Queen staring at Liam, then me, then Indra, and finally Kira.
She wiggled her fingers but clearly couldn’t move her neck or the rest of
