38. Thirty-Eight Maeve

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

THIRTY-EIGHT: MAEVE

" W hy did you do that?" I gaped at Aline in horror as she ascended the steps of the throne, the crown gleaming under the flickering firelight. It sat askance on her head, too large really to fit her properly.

"Because it's time the underworld stopped standing apart from the world, and pretending its problems didn't reverberate through these walls." Aline smiled down at me. "Do not be afraid, daughter. I will bring so much joy to these halls that humans will find joy in death as they never had before. The same kind of joy as you have given me in death, for you reunited me with my love, and I got to see what a remarkable woman my daughter has become."

Robert scurried over to kneel before her. "I will serve you forever."

"There will be no servants in my house." Aline reached up to the crown and wrenched free one of the horns. She placed it in Robert's hand. "This is yours. Take its power and do good with it."

To my surprise, she turned and kicked Daigh's outstretched hand, turning it over so his palm faced up. She dropped another, much tinier, piece into his fingers. His eyes widened in surprise.

"What are you doing?" I moved to wrench that piece of bone from Daigh's grasp, but Blake held me back.

"More than anyone I have ever met, you have embodied true chaos," Aline said to Daigh. "I can't pretend that I haven't hated the things you've done, especially to our daughter who you professed to love, but I cannot hate you. If you rule with me, you do so because you love me, and you obey me and the rest of my harem, do you understand? In return, I will give you a small kingdom where your chaos can have free reign."

Daigh's lips moved in a silent agreement. His fingers curled around the bone. Robert waved a hand, and a jet of water shot out, breaking off the shaft of the arrow wound and cleaning out the wound. Daigh crawled to his knees and came to kneel beside Robert, his forehead touching the ground.

"I will obey you and love you," he murmured. For the first time, I detected true emotion in his voice. Defeat, yes, but also affection. Was it truly possible that even a fae like Daigh was yet capable of love? "You have always been my queen."

"This is ludicrous." Liah reached for her bow. "We've only just deprived him of his power and that witch has given it back."

"He has no power without her now," Blake said. "I think that's as it should be. Do you agree, Maeve?"

"What do you think?" My mother stood and beckoned me to climb her throne. "I loved these two men once, and our love produced you. No matter how many evil things Daigh has done, I can't forget that. Together, I believe we will be just what the Underworld needs. I will have my very own harem. At least, if Isadora will join us?"

She tossed another piece of the crown across the room. It sailed through the air before it was ensnared in Isadora's talons.

"I accept," she said, sashaying toward the throne. I noticed that the first thing she did as she grasped that power in her hand was sculpt herself some new red pumps.

Aline grinned at me, her arms wide. "Like mother, like daughter." I grinned back, allowing her to embrace me.

She held me for a long time. I tried to imprint her body on my mind. She felt so familiar and yet completely foreign. I never knew her as a mother, but I knew now I could count her as a friend. Her lips pressed against my forehead, warm and still tingling with residual magic. "Keep a mirror with you always, so I can check in on you from time to time." She glared at Blake and Corbin. "Just don't put it in your bedroom. There are some things a mother doesn't need to know."

"Deal." Blake grinned.

"Uh, guys?" Corbin held up his hand. His forearm was still solid, but his fingers had faded into black tendrils. "I think it's time."

I knew the guys would find a way!

I hopped down from the dias and ran to Blake and Corbin. They caught me in their arms and the three of us huddled together, gasping and exclaiming as the black tendrils wrapped around us. Where they touched my skin, they tickled, and the tickled became an itch, and as the darkness wrapped around my torso and breasts and crept toward my chin, the itch became an all-consuming roar of pain – a thousand tiny needles all piercing me at once. I opened my mouth to scream, but the darkness filled it, stinging my tongue so that it puffed up and closed my airway.

With the last dim light of vision, I caught Aline waving at me. "Bye-bye!"

"The dove flies the nest," called Smithers, his voice muffled as the darkness stuffed my ears. "Fly little dove!"

"This won't be the last we see of each other, dear daughter," Daigh coughed out, his rough voice turning into a dull ring as the darkness consumed me utterly.

My eyes fluttered open.

I lay on my back on rock-hard earth. Orange fire streaked the horizon. My throat burned. Fear leapt into my chest. The world's been irradiated. Daigh's vision came true ? —

"Maeve." Warm arms wrapped around me, tugging me into a sitting position. A dark curtain fell across my face, obscuring the burning sky. Hot kisses trailed along my neck as a familiar smell of herbs and flour filled my nose.

Rowan.

"Why is the sky on fire?" I choked out, every word tearing at my raw throat.

"It's not on fire," Rowan stroked my cheek. "It's sunrise, Maeve. It's the first day of a new world."

My breath caught in my throat as the brilliance of the cosmos streaked across the sky. Atmospheric molecules scattered the cool blue light, leaving us with the majestic stripes of red and orange. I drank in its beauty, more touched because it was a sunrise I'd never thought I'd see.

"I did it," I sighed into Rowan's shoulder. "I scienced my way out of hell."

Rowan's rich, hearty laugh filled me with a joy so deep and rich it seemed impossible it could belong to one person. My palms itched with magic, and I sent some out into him, giving him back some of the warmth and light he'd given me.

"Oh, Einstein, it's you, it's you." Flynn planted a million slobbery kisses on my face, his eyes dancing with delight. I ran my fingers through his wavy red hair, relishing that cheeky smile I'd missed so much.

Flynn's head flopped to the side, and I glimpse a wide forehead, deep-set eyes as still as glaciers, and a thick, wild beard. Arthur.

"You're alive," I breathed, my heart welling with love.

In reply, Arthur crushed his lips to mine, his kiss leaving me gasping. There was no better way to be brought back to the world of the living.

I broke the kiss, laughing as I wiped a strand of blonde hair from his eyes. He gazed at me with awe, like he couldn't breathe without me. My Viking warrior. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I almost lost you.

"Don't cry," he said gruffly, and a single tear leaked from his eye and spilt down his cheek, catching on the end of a beard hair like a tiny snowflake. "You'll set off the whole bloody lot of us."

"Come here, big guy." Blake threw his arms around Arthur's shoulders and planted a wet kiss on his cheek. Arthur stiffened for a moment, then he put Blake's head into a pretend headlock and rubbed his fist on his head, mussing up Blake's perfect hair.

"Hey!" Blake yelped, scrambling to escape Arthur's hold.

We fell over each other, crying and laughing and hugging and kissing, relishing the warmth of living skin. Rowan and Corbin locked lips in a kiss that seared with passion. Only when Corbin pulled back did his parents manage to elbow their way into the fray to envelop him in a fierce hug. His mother whispered a long string of words into his ears that made his whole face light up with happiness. It was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen.

"I knew you'd kick some demon arse, big sister." Kelly and Jane squashed me between them. I kissed them both.

"Nice use of arse, little sister," I teased her.

"I know," she beamed. "I've been practising."

Kelly and I gazed at each other, a million unsaid things flickering through our eyes. I forgive you , and I love you being the two that mattered most. I knew that one day when I was ready, I would tell her that I saw our parents in the Slaugh, and that it was her words that stopped me from using my magic for murder. I won't have any more secrets.

We fell in the grass together, laughing and talking over each other as we watched the sun pierce the sky. Flynn had his phone out and he was trying to convince the guy at the local curry house to deliver a big order of food right to the field. Blake and Arthur got into an argument about Sherlock Holmes and Arthur put Blake in another headlock. I laughed until my sides ached and my tears dried into sticky trails down my cheeks.

Love swelled in my chest as I observed my big, messy, perfect family. My five broken boys who had faced their demons to save the world and to unite us again. The people who had believed in us, even when we didn't believe in ourselves. My sister, who had lost so much and yet kept on smiling. And behind them all, the blackened walls of Briarwood, broken too, but still fighting, still working their magic on us all.