Chapter 38

THIRTY-EIGHT

COLLINS

My head pounded, yet I couldn’t stop now. The world almost moved in slow-motion, but the fight raged on. This was my realm and these were my people. I’d be damned if I didn’t fight to the bitter end. Bart charged toward Tephine, and I stood up on his back. When he got close enough, he stopped short, almost throwing me forward. I leapt off his back and dove for her. My daggers slipped from my hands and skidded across out of sight. I wrapped my arms around her and tackled her to the ground. We rolled around fighting for the upper hand. I got on top of her and straddled her hips. I threw my fist out, knocking her across the jaw.

She smiled up at me with blood-covered teeth. When I hauled my fist back to hit her again, she twisted to the side and shoved me toward a huge leaf that closed around me, wrapping me up like a mummy. I squirmed, trying to fight its hold, but the leaf was thick, almost meaty. She crawled to her feet and opened her hand. The stem of the leaf slammed into her hand, and she fluttered her wings.

Ellie fired lightning and fire at her, but Tephine flew into the air and swooped around, dodging the attempts. The Nephilim followed after us, but Tephine’s huge vines shot up like a wall between them and us. I could slash through the leaves with any of my powers but this high up I would only plummet to the ground and die. She flew higher and I knew exactly where she was taking me. When we landed on the center floating island high above everything else, I summoned my crystal daggers and cut my way free of her hold on me.

This high up the temperature plummeted. The island that’d once been so beautiful was now an ice cube. Here the snow fell more steadily, and the air was a damp kind of cold. The earth crunched under my feet as we circled each other, taking slow steps. The waterfall was frozen solid. There was nothing left up here. The wind whipped around us, and my white-knuckled fingers hurt holding my daggers.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You think just because you did a little magic I’m going to go down so easily?”

“One could only hope you’d die quickly.” I kept my eyes on her trying to gauge her moves.

She chuckled and shook her head. “I’m immortal and powerful. Death will not come for me.”

“I plan on introducing you two very soon.” I held my daggers up. I could feel the crystals frozen deep beneath my feet. They wanted out and they wanted to help.

“I am eternal. Look around. All this can end if you just give me the stone. Your friends will die here. They will grow with exhaustion, and when they do, my army will overtake them. Numbers don’t lie. And I have the numbers.” She motioned to the battle below.

Even now I could see them all struggling to hold off Tephine’s whipping vines and she’d barely been in the battle. She did have the numbers, it was true. But we had something more: we had the power on our side, the desire, and the realm.

“Suck my dick.” In this exact moment, that was the only answer that’d work. “That means no.”

“Give. Me. The. Stone.” Her eyes flared and magic poured from her. The ground rumbled around us.

“Getting hard of hearing in your old age? I said no.” My magic flowed from my body. I was ready to fight her off. I was ready to kill her.

The ground below us erupted and giant stalks shot straight up and around the island. Giant leaves carried warriors from the army below up to us. They leapt off the stalk and crashed to the ground. One after another their hulking bodies filled the island, and Tephine’s smirk grew. They were huge, at least two feet taller than me, with limbs the size of my whole body. Their weapons were roughly wrought of metal and wood, almost like oversized Viking weapons. They held axes, swords, and jagged daggers. They weren’t an army of civilians. This was an army of trained killers.

Their features were sharp and brutal as they eyed me.

Tephine spread her arms wide and spun around. “You can make this all go away.”

I held my daggers up ready to fight. “You can fuck right off.”

She flicked her wrist and the army charged forward, ready to attack. I ran at the one closest to me and ducked under his swinging axe. I slid across the ground and right through his legs. I jabbed my dagger up and shoved it into his thigh, guessing where his artery was. He was so much bigger but when my dagger slid into that meaty thigh and blood spurted out, I knew I’d struck home. He dropped to the ground behind me, but I didn’t have time to look.

I jumped to my feet and threw my arms up. Crystals shot from the ground like arrows in all different directions. They were sharp-looking javelins that sliced through the skin like a hot knife cutting through butter. More of them dropped to the ground, and I ran as fast as I could, dodging their arms and swinging weapons. The only advantage I had was I was much smaller and faster. I might not have had my wings, but I was still fae.

They passed by in a blur as I moved. I jumped off one’s knee and landed on another’s shoulders. I grabbed on to his hair and jabbed my other dagger into his neck. He staggered around and I held the strands of his hair like they were the reins of a wild horse. I twisted his head to the side, and he fell onto three more of their warriors. I dropped down between them as the three of them circled me. My magic poured from me, and vines sprang up around me. I opened my hands and thorns extended out, stabbing the three and retracting just as quickly.

When they fell, more moved closer, and this time I forced the thorns to fly from the vine, impaling any in their path. I shot crystals from the ground and encased a line of soldiers. The crystals hardened around them. I glanced at Tephine. She was watching with wide eyes. I winked and opened my hand. The crystals fractured around them, slicing them to pieces.

She growled and threw her arms open wide. “You think this means anything! You’ll wear out, and my army is endless.”

Blue flames erupted all around me. They engulfed half of the warriors surrounding me. They burned so cold it was nearly hot. My eyes widened and I took a step back.

Tephine threw her head back and cackled. “Oh look! My backup has arrived.”

More?

I sucked in a deep breath, ready for whatever came next. The army crumbled to ice around me, their blood instantly frozen by the onslaught of the blue flames. Everyone froze in place staring at the massive amount of magic. I opened my hand and let power flow. Those flames ripped around me freezing everything in their path instantly, yet they never touched me.

She spun in a circle looking for something or someone. “You’re going to regret ever denying me once he arrives.”

“Who the fuck is he ?” Panic flooded my body. I didn’t think we could take one more unexpected visitor in this battle.

The flames grew higher, bathing everything in a blue light. A shadow flew behind them, and I held my breath ready for whomever or whatever came from the other side. My magic poured around me and I prayed it’d be enough. Bash shot through the flames and landed right next to me. Excitement flooded my body. I wanted to move closer to his side, but he was covered in those freezing blue flames. Tephine took a step back. Her eyes went wide and then she narrowed them.

“No.” She turned away from him and stomped her feet. Magic sizzled all around her like she couldn’t control it. “This isn’t possible.”

He pulled his flames back and they melted off his body. He kept one in the palm of his hand. He tossed it up and down like a baseball. “Hello, Mother.”

“ You !” She opened her hands and vines shot from behind her.

Bash barely moved, and his flames fired off, stopping the vines before they even came close to us. They froze and fell to the ground, dying at his feet. Bash smirked. “New power. What can I say? I rather like it.”

What the hell happened to him in the moments we were separated? He was eerily calm with all the confidence in the world. Being this close to him almost felt comforting, even when faced with Tephine.

“KILL HIM!” She turned to the army that stood there watching the two of us. She spun in a circle, her eyes wide with panic and fear. “KILL HIM! I command you.”

They didn’t move, then one by one they dropped their weapons and fell to one knee. It was like a domino effect: once one bent the knee the others followed. Bash stood there, his face unreadable as this army knelt to him. Silence filled the air. Even I had no idea what was happening right now, but I would take it.

She gasped and pressed her hand over the diamond in her chest. “No! This isn’t possible.”

Bash snickered. “Oh, I think it is.”

She shook her head. “How?”

“Thaddeus.” Bash said the name so simply.

Who the fuck is Thaddeus? What did I miss? I wanted to yell at him, but I would wait. He was clearly having a moment with his mother and this army that I didn’t know about. Yet he seemed so calm, so cool, in total control of himself. There was no tension in his body.

Tephine’s face paled and she froze. She staggered back and her eyes bounced around the unmoving army as though searching for something. “How do know that name?”

“We’ve met.” He arched his eyebrows at her. “Striking similarities, don’t you think?”

“You couldn’t have.” She shook her head and ran a quivering hand over her hair. Her eyes darted as panic began to set in.

His lip pulled up in a smirk. “Couldn’t I?”

“Lies.” She sucked in a shaky breath and her magic spilled out of her, forcing flowers of every color to spring around her feet.

Bash pulled a perfect peridot stone from his pocket and held it up for her to see. “No, Mother, you’re the only one full of lies.”

Her legs wobbled and she staggered toward the edge of the island, her eyes fixated on the castle, and when I followed her gaze I saw the same thing. The rifts were closed. I wanted to jump and celebrate, but there was so much of this army to still take down. But there was no more army pouring through. Even as we stood watching, Ellie, Stellan, Sandra, Jada, the twins, and the villagers were ripping the army apart below us.

“Traitor,” she whispered. Then she threw her head back and screamed. “TRAITOR!”

“Sucks when the person you thought would have had your back doesn’t have it. Doesn’t it, Mother?” His voice was so confident.

She whipped around, her eyes filled with unshed tears. Her breath came in hard pants. Her hands curled into fists at her sides. “Bastard! How dare he abandon me. I will rain down hell on him.”

"Somehow I doubt that.” He sighed. “It’s over, Mother. He’s left you here to rot.”

“How dare he choose you over me.” Pretty flowers sprang up over her hair. Flowers she wouldn’t be caught dead ever using. She pulled them out, throwing them to the ground and stomping on them.

“Why would he choose me, Mother?”

She froze with fists full of flowers in her hands. Her face was drawn and suddenly she looked so defeated.

“I should’ve killed you when you were in my womb.” She pulled at her hair. “I should’ve never given him the bastard son he wanted. You’re of the same cloth.”

“Are we then? And all this time I’ve always thought that Bregan was my real father.”

She gave a humorless chuckle. “As if that man could produce anything other than females. He was weak. Pathetic. I never wanted anything to do with him!”

“But you did with Thaddeus?”

She hissed in our direction and her breath hitched. “No longer. I wish him the death he deserves along with the bastard son that I gave him . . . you!”

I reached out to him. “Bash.”

“It’s not shocking, Collins. I never belong with them.” He didn’t take his eyes off his mother. “I was never like them. Now I know why.”

My mouth dropped open. “This Thaddeus is your father?”

“Yes!” Tephine screamed at the top of her lungs. Her hands balled into fists at her sides and plants exploded out of her in all different directions. The veins in her neck bulged from her yells. “I should’ve shoved a twig up there and been done with you before you drew breath.”

His real father? Holy shit . This whole time I’d always thought Bash was Bregan’s son. I had no idea who Thaddeus was or how he came into play now, but something told me this was his army and now he’d abandoned both the army and Tephine here to die.

She rounded on Bash. “Damn you both to hell. I curse the day you were born.”

“Tell me something new, Mother.” Bash rolled his eyes.

She unleashed a scream and power flowed from her. The island began to rock and the sound of cracking filled the air.

Bash turned to me. “Collins, now.”

I threw my magic out and covered Tephine’s arms and legs in moldavite. She tried to shake it off but only fell backwards. She jerked her shoulders and torso. Still, her power began to build. Bash darted forward and stood over her.

“I really hope this hurts.” He held his hand up and those blue flames danced in his palm.

She squirmed and I threw more stones across her shoulders and neck. “Get the stone.”

“On it.” He shoved his hand down, and when those flames touched the skin around the diamond in her chest, another scream ripped from her throat.

“I’ll kill you. I swear I will.”

The skin around the diamond froze, then turned black, and ice forked across her chest as though the skin around her diamond was frozen to the point of being dead. Bash slammed his fist onto the diamond and the skin around it cracked.

“Collins.”

I opened my hand and called for it and the thing flew right into my palm. It was dark and twisted inside. There was no pureness left in the stone. Tephine had corrupted it completely from the inside out. My heart almost hurt for how much this stone just wanted to be destroyed. Tephine growled at the two of us and her body started to rock. Power surged and bright magic spilled from her chest. The cracking sound grew louder, and the island quaked even more.

“Bash.” I took a step back from Tephine.

Power exploded from her chest and spread through the island. Bash dove for me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “IT’S GOING DOWN!”