35. Eldrion

THIRTY-FIVE

“Do not leave with him.” I grab Alana’s elbow and pull her towards me. “You know I have been telling you the truth, Alana. This is where you belong.”

She meets my eyes. A few short minutes ago, I thought I had got through to her. But the confusion is back.

She grips the sides of her head and storms away from me.

“I can’t think,” she says, shaking her arms out at her sides as if it will remove the tension that is swirling through her body. “I need to think.”

Footsteps sound on the staircase. They are drawing closer.

“I won’t stop you.” I stand back and lower my arms to my sides. “If you choose to go, I won’t stop you or fight you.”

She frowns at me and shakes her head. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I am trying to prove that you can trust me.”

A laugh bursts from her lips, but it is not the happy laugh that I coaxed from her when we were fucking. It is an exasperated laugh. “I cannot even trust my own mind,” she says. “I just fucked the man who killed my best friend. I came here to end you, and instead I –”

“Doesn’t that tell you something?” I stride towards her, anger flaring in my eyes.

“It tells me I need this to be over,” she says, scraping her fingers through her hair.

The footsteps have reached the door, now. Finn bursts onto the roof. He looks different. More self-assured now. And I know in an instant that his concern for Alana is an act.

How does she not see it? I turn to warn her, but she is already rushing towards him. He pulls her into his arms, then stands in front of her, motioning for her to leave.

Briony is with him and . . . “Garratt?”

The elf meets my gaze and shrugs. “Apologies, my lord,” he says. “I’m sure you understand. Business is business.”

He glances at his girlfriend, then shakes his head. “In fact, this is none of my business at all.” He backs slowly away towards the door, but a burst of anger erupts inside me and I send a wave of power to slam it shut. “No one leaves!”

Alana turns her green eyes on me. “What happened to you can leave if you want to,” she says, squaring up to me.

“I changed my mind.” I glance at Finn. There is no way I’m letting him take her.

“Alana, don’t.” He makes a weak show of trying to hold her back, but ultimately does not stop her as she strides towards me, purple magic glistening in her palms.

“I need him gone,” she cries, pulling her arm back and hurling a ball of violet light in my direction. I deflect it with ease.

“I don’t want to fight you, Alana. But you have to see what he’s doing. He’s manipulating you.”

“Says you!” she yells, throwing another ball of light.

“Alana, don’t trust him,” Finn calls. “Remember what he is and what his people have done. Remember all the things I showed you.”

“What has he showed you?” I square my shoulders. We are circling each other now. How she thinks she can take me on, I do not know. She is not strong enough.

She flicks her wrist and, just like that, a dozen tiny icicles form in the air. She sends them hurtling towards me.

“You should have done that last night,” I shout as I bat them away with a shield of shadow. “Before you decided to fuck me instead.”

Alana stops dead. Her breath hitches. She glances back at Finn, and I use the moment to send a vortex of shadow towards her.

I do not want to hurt her. I just need to stop her from leaving, and make her see that I...

She ducks beneath the shadows, then summons some of her own. Except, these are purple and more like smoke.

“I might not be able to kill you,” she says. “But I have no problem taking your powers from you.”

She closes her eyes and tilts her head to the side. Her smoke draws closer, it creeps along the floor until it touches my toes. It is warm, and comforting. Not as I expected it to be.

I wait for a moment, transfixed, watching it wind slowly up my legs.

I try to kick it off, but it’s no use.

This time, I do not hold back. My eyes roll back and become darker. My wings flare out to my sides, and I roar as I bring power and fury out of the shadows into the light.

Everyone else on the roof scrambles backwards. It is just Alana and me now. Circling each other like wild animals.

As her purple smoke winds its way up my body, I feel a strange sensation – a tugging, a draining. With a jolt, I realise what’s happening. Alana is trying to take my magic.

I fight back, summoning every ounce of strength I possess. The shadows around me thicken, darkening to an inky black. They pulse with malevolent energy, straining against Alana’s hold. I have not unleashed them like this before, but it is a power I always knew I had inside me.

I have never needed to use it. Until now.

But it’s not enough. Her smoke keeps creeping, keeps pulling. I can feel my magic slipping away, drawn inexorably into her the way I am.

It is as if it needs to be inside her.

As I watch, visions of our bodies, entwined and naked, flash in front of my eyes.

I want her like that now. What if this all ended and we went back to that?

Desperate, I gather my shadows into a massive, roiling cloud. “Don’t make me hurt you, Alana.” I plead with her, meeting her eyes.

A few short hours ago, I saw flickers of warmth in her gaze. Even beneath the hate and the fury, I saw a part of her that wanted me. Really wanted me.

There was a place deep inside her that wanted to trust me.

But that place is unreachable, and if I don’t act now, I will lose everything I am.

With a roar of fury and fear, I hurl my magic towards her, putting every last bit of my power behind it.

The cloud rushes forward, a tsunami of darkness. Alana’s eyes widen, her concentration breaking. She throws up her hands, a shield of purple light forming before her.

But before the shadows reach her, a figure leaps in front of her.

Finn, his wings spread wide. He opens his arms, and takes the attack. The shadows hit his chest with a force that sends him flying. He hits the wall, and crumples to the floor like a ragdoll.

I cannot stop it now.

The shadows engulf him. For a moment, he is lost from view, swallowed by the darkness.

Alana screams his name.

I stare in shock, the shadows thinning. It could have been her. If I’d hit her...

I am shaking. I stumble backwards.

And then, as the darkness clears, I see him. Finn is lying motionless on the ground, his wings bent at an unnatural angle.

Alana rushes to his side, dropping to her knees beside him. She gathers him into her arms, cradling his head against her chest. Tears stream down her face as she calls his name, begging him to wake up.

But he doesn’t move.

The jester is dead.