It was going to have to be me and the Queen. Together, we could do this, and then Faerie would finally be safe. Chrysanthemum was dead. Indra was dead. Our last foe needed to fall for any of us to find lasting peace. I found them about twenty yards away. The Queen had slammed him into a tree, and it broke in half. He was draped on his back over the split stump while the Queen stood over him menacingly.
I dropped to the ground beside her, and we both shot bursts of light at him. He pulled up a shield of ice in protection, but we burned through it quickly, causing him to scream in pain as he lay pinned against the broken tree stump.
I noticed that my light was brighter than hers, and I wondered if it was possible to give her the power back that I’d borrowed without having to go back to the tree. As if she read my mind, she held out her hand. “Lily.”
I grasped it and then felt a surge of electricity run through my body. The light pulsed and then ripped through his wings, cutting them off like they were made of paper.
Holy shit.
His wings fell to the ground like a tortured butterfly as the king wailed in pain, trying but failing to protect himself. He had no sword, no army, and no wings. His powers were no match for us together.
“Daddy!” A small voice cried out behind us, and we both froze.
The Queen turned slowly, looking over her shoulder for a split second, and I followed her gaze.
Cain, standing in the woods with a tear-streaked face, was watching us… torture his father.
“I never would have hurt him,” the king whimpered, looking at Cain. His chest rattled as he breathed painfully. “I never would have hurt my children. That was all Chrys.”
Fuck.
My heart pinched at his declaration, and the Queen looked at me, holding him in place with a band of light that wrapped around his ankles, searing the skin there.
“Don’t kill him!” Cain screamed, and then Cam came out of nowhere and dragged him away.
Tears lined my eyes at the sight.
“He has young children?” The Queen looked at me, a little shaken. Psycho, world-dominating murderers didn’t have small children, right? Wrong.
I just nodded.
“Lily, you’re still acting Queen,” she said, “What is your command? Sentence him to death or imprison him for a thousand years?”
Oh gods.
She was going to put this on me? I mean obviously, I was the one who had been awake and knew what was going on this whole time but…
I didn’t realize imprisonment for a thousand years was possible.
My heart went out to Liam and his brothers then, and I thought of the pain he would feel if his father died. Even though Cam said he didn’t care anymore and Liam said he didn’t care… I think a small part of him did. If it was my mother or father, even if they were evil but there was a chance they could change their ways, I would want mercy.
“Imprisonment,” I declared, and she nodded.
Still holding my hand, she wove her finger in the air, and more bands of light slid around him until he was hogtied, and then she lifted him up into the air by an unseen force.
Holy crap, she was more powerful than I had ever thought.
The earth rumbled and then started to open like a cavern. It split in two, a deep depression growing as she slowly lined the cave-like impression with… iron. She was pulling iron from the earth and lining the hard-packed dirt walls with bars of it.
I expected the king to protest, but he didn’t. When I looked over at him, I saw that it was because he had a sunlight band right over his mouth, gagging him.
Over the next few minutes, the Queen pulled on my power and created a cell in the middle of the forest, deep into the earth, and then she lowered the king inside. Once he was in, she layered the top with bars of iron, only leaving tiny gaps for sunlight or water to get through. Then, she made a small six-inch hatch for food to be dropped down or a tiny bucket. When she was done, she stood over the iron grates as ivy vines curled over it and crawled toward her feet.
“Let’s see if a thousand years in here can change your ways,” she declared, and the sunlight bands fell away from him.
“No!!! Please!” he screamed, but it was no use. We were already walking away, hand in hand, my mom-aunt and me.
When we were far enough away that we no longer heard him, the Queen stopped and turned to me.
“You did well, Lily.” She looked down at me. “What do you say we restore our land?”
I nodded, tears in my eyes at the emotional roller coaster of it all. Now that the Winter King was indisposed, his men were surrendering, dropping to their knees, and coming out of the trees with their hands up.
I spotted Liam with Elle and Trissa, herding a dozen of the Winter King’s men into a circle.
The Queen took my hand and held it high up in the sky. “I declare Faerie for every magical creature. It’s time we put aside our differences and you all come home.”
With that, she dropped to her knees, and I followed her lead. We placed our interlaced fingers over the ground, and then she took a deep breath. “Ready?”
I was beyond ready. To see Faerie restored was my mother’s one dream, and to be able to have a hand in helping make that come true was everything to me.
A surge of heat and light and warmth pulsed through me, and then a shockwave of energy shot out from our palms and blew outward, into everything.
Holy mother.
This was powerful, so much power, and she knew just what to do
