CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE（Untitled）Grace

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Grace

God, he's glorious .

I should probably be horrified to watch Branikk's sword cut into the sluagh over and over. I'm sure etiquette people would sniff their snooty noses and tell me it's not "lady like."

Fuck that noise.

"You will never touch her again," Branikk snarls, his sword punching forward.

The sluagh tries to break apart, over and over, but it does no good. Its creepy face crawls, feathers pushing constantly to the surface. Its red eyes glare as it snaps its red shark teeth at Branikk, who doesn't even flinch.

"She is precious," Branikk says, striking again. "She's a gift to this world and to me."

Oh . My tummy goes all fluttery, my lips quivering. To hear him say that about me…

"You will never ever touch her, hurt her." Branikk's sword flashes forward. "She is mine ."

The sluagh shrieks with the next strike, and it sounds like pain.

Good. It deserves it.

Branikk has to gather more of the net in his left fist to keep the evil fae contained. Each strike makes it shrink just a little bit, and the effect gets more pronounced the more times the blade hits. Over and over he stabs it until it becomes a thin, skeletal thing.

The feathers stop moving under its skin, leaving it a flat gray. The red eyes turn solid white. When it opens its mouth, all of its red teeth are gone, leaving only gray gums. Its flowing robe turns into tattered cloth.

I step forward. "What is it?"

At the sound of my voice, the thing zeros in on me, and its mouth opens wide as it strains forward.

I shiver. The damned thing's still trying to eat my soul, still hella creepy.

"This is the true sluagh." Branikk presses the tip of his sword to its chest. "The soul stealer without a single victim left in its vile clutches. This is the fae I can kill."

I place my hand on his sword arm, and he looks over at me, startled and unsure. Does he think I'm going to stop him? Hell, no.

"Do it," I say. "Don't let it hurt anyone ever again."

Branikk's eyes go hard as he turns back to the soul stealer. "This is for her."

The sword punches forward, and the sluagh freezes, mouth still open wide. Then the face crumbles to dust, followed by the rest of the body. The malicious presence that's haunted me since my first moments in Alarria finally fades, blown away on the wind.

A shadow I didn't even realize I carried dissipates, leaving everything a little brighter, a little more hopeful.

Branikk did this for me. I throw my arms around him. "I l—"

"Incoming!" Aurora's loud whinny cuts through the clearing.

Mist leaps to snatch a bird from the air.

But then there are five more, all screeching and diving for us.

"The soul stealers have realized freeing the trapped birds is their best hope," Branikk yells, pulling from my arms to slice a diving bird. "Protect Aurora."

Ashley tosses me one of the butterfly net things, and I scoop a bird out of the air and trigger the mechanism to close the trapdoor. But I can get only one, and there are dozens.

I get hit two more times, already starting to feel a little dizzy. I guess by this point, I'm way more susceptible to sluagh attacks, which means Branikk must be even more so, because he fought them before he even met me.

My vision tunnels until all I can see is Branikk's face, his mouth opening wide on a shouted, "No!"

Birds flock over him, preparing to dive.

No! I won't let them hurt him!

We need something up in the sky, like a big net or something to keep the birds away.

Warmth flares on my chest, and a calliope blares out a bad instrumental cover of a Beatle's song. Startled sluagh shrieks fill the air, but I'm grinning. I know that sound.

A gourd hits the ground in front of me, exploding in a cloud of orange filled with red sparkles like someone put fireworks in this one. Magic tingles over me, and I fall backward.

Then arms grip me, arms I know, carrying me out of the cloud.

My vision goes darker, but not before I see Branikk's face, the sky behind his head filled with the spinning seats of the Whirling Swings ride now sitting in the middle of the clearing.

I grin. My magic did its wacky carnival thing again, and the spinning swings are exactly what we need. The cloud of active soul stealers wheel above it, unable to dive into the clearing.

I did it.

I saved the man I love.

Then everything goes black, Branikk's face the last thing I see.