Chapter 19

NINETEEN

COLLINS

Bash and I tiptoed our way through the forest. It’d once been a tall, proud forest with trees made of the thickest, most beautiful crystals, but since Tephine flew a path of destruction through Fae Realm, they were all messed up. Some were pinned over on their sides, others were broken into pieces, and even more were just ruined completely. In that short time, a sheet of ice had already gathered over the fallen trees. Sharp, jagged pieces of crystals stuck up from the ground around them. Snow used to fall in light flurries, but now it was an all-out blizzard. Icicles stuck to the ends of my hair.

I wrapped my arms around myself and pulled my coat in tighter. “Have I told you how much I hate cold?”

“Only a few hundred times.”

“Add this one to the list. Cold sucks. My wings have frostbite.”

Smoky air puffed from his lips as he chuckled. “I’m not sure they can get frostbite.”

“Oh, they can.” Annoyance filled my whole body. When we finally got the Stone back into place, I was going to make sure this world would never feel this kind of misery again.

When we reached a break in the forest, there in the middle of the meadow stood a lone tree untouched by Tephine’s destruction. The towering tree reminded me of a weeping willow. The trunk was made of a luminous moonstone, with azurite branches that dipped down to brush over the ground. It was frozen into a giant icicle, with the branches frozen to the ground in beautiful ice arches. Darkness loomed under the canopy of frozen blue tanzanite leaves.

“Is this where we’re supposed to be?” It was creepy and haunting.

Bash looked up at the tree and nodded. “This is where Helena liked to spend most of her time . . . Venus will be here.”

“Why would she be here?”

“She always wanted this place for herself. Now that Helena is dead, I have no doubt Venus promptly moved on it.”

“So, like, mourning her sister . . . not a thing?”

He walked up to the tree and pointed between the limbs to the trunk. There within the facets of the crystal trunk was a dark opening. I ducked under frozen limbs, and though it was still cold, I was out of the brunt of the storm. I shook the snow from my hair, but the icicles still made it heavy and soaking wet.

He shook his head. “Psychopaths feel nothing.”

I looked up at his beautiful face. “And yet you turned out so well.”

“We do the same as before? You get control of her stone and throw her off, and I’ll make sure she doesn’t live through it?” He paused outside the opening.

I bounced from one foot to the other. “Right. Got it.”

This was the fastest we’d ever moved on trying to take out one of his family members. After the mess of Megelle Island I was questioning my own judgement so I was trusting Bash’s here.

I leaned in closer to the opening. “How do we get down?”

“Usually by force.”

“What?”

“Come on.” He offered me his hand, and I took it without hesitation. He stepped into the tree trunk, and I followed. I dropped for a split-second before my wings fluttered to life and held me over a deep, dark crevice.

I looked below us into the abyss. “And we’re supposed to what ? Just go down?”

“When we drop about another foot, there will be a pull. Don’t fight it.”

Adrenaline flooded through my body. “What do you mean a pull ?”

“Just go with it.”

“I’m not really a go with it kind of girl lately.” I didn’t want to drop into darkness into nothing.

“This whole plan is go with it .” He dropped down, and I felt the tug on his hand.

I swallowed down my nerves and dropped in next to him. Instantly, I felt myself being pulled into the dark. It was like gravity times ten. I tightened my grip on Bash’s hand and followed his lead. I let my wings flutter lightly to allow for a soft descent. The farther down we got, the darker it got. When we hit complete darkness, little pricks of light shined on the walls like stars in the night. When I let my powers feel it out, we were surrounded by pure onyx mixed with glittering fool’s gold.

As we further descended, my ears popped and the pull became so strong my hair blew back from my face and my stomach went up into my throat. “Bash!”

“Almost there!” He yanked me forward until I crashed into him. He wrapped his arm around my waist, and I pressed my hand to his chest.

A faint light appeared at the bottom of the tunnel. It grew wider and wider until we were upon it. Bash held me off the ground. His feet hit the ground with a loud crack. He held me for a second longer, then let me land next to him. When I looked down, I saw the thick cave floor had cracked under his impact. “Holy shit.”

“I’m fine.” He began walking forward, and I moved with him.

This cave was beautiful and wild. Crystals of all different shapes and sizes lined the walls and created a path that led deeper into the cave. Drops of water rained down from the roots above our heads. Each of the crystals took turns glowing the way the forest had before Tephine’s path of destruction. The sound of scurrying animals echoed off the walls, yet I couldn’t see any in view. Just hearing them gave me the hope that somehow they would survive this endless winter—at least until Tephine was dealt with.

The cave opened into a wider area. At the center of it was a small fire that seemed to rise naturally from the ground. Rose quartz crystals surrounded the room, and on the other side of the wall sat a small throne as pink as the rest of the room. There sat Venus wrapped in her thick white fur coat. It was freezing out, yet she wore a short skirt with a slit in the side and a matching halter top that hung low on her chest, revealing her stone.

“Oh, little brother.” She looked bored as ever while she wrapped a strand of her pink hair around her finger.

“Venus.” He held as still as a statue.

“Come to kill me?” She threw her head back and laughed.

He pressed his fingers to his rings. His sword appeared in one hand, his dagger in the other. “Regrettably.”

I wasn’t going to regret shit. Venus terrified the hell out of me. I still remembered our first encounter and the lack of control I felt. Her power over desires made her the most dangerous of all. I pressed my finger to the ring Bash had given me and my sword appeared in my hand.

Her eyes narrowed on my weapon. “You better know how to use that, because I’ll show you no mercy.”

“As I won’t show you any.” I opened my other hand and my magic poured from it and flowed on the floor.

Bash walked to one side of the fire while I walked to the other. It made the room into a doughnut of sorts surrounded by rose quartz crystals that mirrored Venus’ own. Venus rose to her feet and let her fur coat slide down her shoulders and pool at her elbows.

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t go quietly.” She dropped her coat onto her throne and pulled a shining dagger from the top of her boot.“And if you hadn’t noticed, your tricks no longer work on me, baby brother. Mother has protected me.”

“I would expect nothing less.” Bash darted at her and swung his sword toward her neck. Venus arched her back and threw her arm up. Her blade crashed into his and their arms swung in rapid jabbing movements as they battled each other. The sound of the blades hitting each other echoed off the cave walls.

Venus dove toward him with her blade swinging down toward his neck. Bash threw his arms up and crossed his blades in front of his chest, stopping her from stabbing him. He shoved his arms up, pushing her back. I pushed my magic forward and let it wrap around her chest. I wanted to feel her stone, to know I could tap into it. The second I got close, it was like getting stabbed right in the stomach. I dropped my sword and it returned to its ring form on my thumb. I staggered back, trying to catch my breath. Venus leaned back and kicked Bash in the chest right over his stone. He soared across the room and crashed into the wall.

She turned toward me. “Whoops . . . did that hurt?”

“What the fuck?” I forced myself to stand up straight and face her.

Bash charged her once more, but she flipped over the fire and landed across from us. “Now imagine if you, say, surrounded yourself with stones that mirror your own . . . tapped into them and amplified your own powers . . . might be interesting.”

My eyes widened as I took in every single rose quartz crystal surrounding her. I felt her poison on each and every one. And all of them were tapped into her like a freaking battery.

“Son of a bitch,” Bash grumbled.

She spun her dagger in one hand and pulled another out from her boot.

Bash leapt over the fire and swung his dagger at her. The tip of his blade grazed her cheek and she stumbled back. He walked up to her and spun her around, holding the blade to her throat. She threw her leg up and kicked him in the face over her shoulder. The sound of his nose cracking filled the air and he stumbled back. I pressed my finger to the ring once more. My sword appeared in my hand. I leapt over the fire and let my wings take me closer to her.

She tilted her head to the side. “Aww, aren’t you cute. You don’t want to fight me.”

Her power permeated the air like a pungent perfume. I hesitated for barely a second, but it was enough to give her the room she needed. She cartwheeled toward me and landed a kick right to my chest. The air whooshed from my lungs, and I coughed in a breath. I swung out my sword just as Bash brought his sword back toward her too. She danced between the two of us, hitting our swings with her own counter strikes. We went back and forth.

I let my power seep from my hand and called upon the crystals above and below me . . . I felt surrounded. The cave was surrounded by thick rose quartz both above and below ground, and she’d poisoned them all. No, this couldn’t be. I wouldn’t let it be. I hopped back, and Venus threw one of her daggers. It stabbed through Bash's shoulder and lodged into the wall. Blood poured from his shoulder onto this coat.

Venus charged at me. she swung her other dagger and knocked mine from my hand, then she wrapped her hand around my throat and shoved me back into the wall. I threw my knee up and slammed it into her stomach. When she hunched over, I grabbed the back of her head and slammed it across my knee. I wrapped my hand in her hair and threw her face-first into one of the giant crystals. Her cheek split open and blood ran over the side of the crystal as she slid to the ground.

I held my hand out and felt for what I was looking for beyond the poisoned crystals, beyond the hard-packed ground, to the crystal of Venus’s blade. When I found it, I started to pull it forward. It freed Bash instantly, and the floor beneath our feet rocked. Venus fought her way to her feet among the earthquake of my powers.

“No . . . Noooo.” Her eyes widened as Bash pulled the knife from his shoulder and marched toward his sister. She scrambled back from him.

Two hands landed on the base of my wings where the wings met my back. “Thanks for coming so quickly,” Tephine purred in my ear. Her grip tightened on my wings, and I felt powerless to move. With one violent yank, she ripped the wings right from my body.

Pain like I’d never known shot through my body—so much pain I couldn’t even scream. My knees gave out and I hit the floor and fell to my face on the stone. Vomit rose in my throat as cold sweat covered my body. Black dots swarmed my vision, and I couldn’t move as my own blood coated my back and ran onto the floor. Only the sound of my own beating heart filled my ears. I lay there paralyzed and everything went into slow-motion. Tephine dropped my wings in front of me. She stepped over them and joined Venus to surround Bash. They each grabbed one of his arms as he fought to get to me. She grabbed a stone from the wall and smashed it across the back of his head. His eyes rolled back, and she dropped him right in front of me.

I wanted to reach out to him, to grab him and take him away from this place, from this moment. But my body felt cold, and the blackness crept in so fast I couldn’t fight it. The pain was too much to bear. Too much blood seeped from my body. On my next breath . . . I was gone.