4. Finn

FOUR

Finn

I materialise on the edge of the forest. From here, the ancient oak trees stretch up towards the brightening sky like sentinels guarding old and precious secrets.

Behind me, the sky above Eldrion's castle is still dark. Here, it is pale blue, kissed with delicate white clouds.

How deceptive. How ironic.

Calling to me from deep inside the forest, I can feel the energy of the Leafborne and the Shadowkind. I sense them. It swells from beneath the canopy, and makes me wonder how no one found us while we were here.

I pass through the shield with ease, sighing with pleasure as I draw closer to the camp.

As I move, the shadows move with me. They did not do this for Eldrion. They did not bind themselves to his form and shift with him as he walked. For me, they do.

Because they were always meant to be mine.

Just like Alana was always meant to be mine.

I raise my arm and turn it over, examining the inky, smoke-like tattoos that now decorate my skin. As a beam of sunlight breaks through the canopy and illuminates my pale skin, I realise my veins too are becoming darker.

Like my soul, and my wings, and my destiny.

My feet are bare, my chest too. But I do not feel cold. I feel warm, as if a furnace is burning in my gut.

With each footstep, the foliage around me seems to darken, and shrivel, and wilt. It recoils from me the way Alana did.

But it will return, and so will she.

When I show her how powerful I am, and that being by my side is the sensible choice, she will crumble like ash in the wind.

Approaching the campsite, I notice the crackle of the fire and the scent of the smoke. My senses are heightened. I hear the movement of wings and feet, and the low chatter of voices.

I am drawing closer to the clearing when I hear a familiar voice. "Finn?"

I turn to see Raine, the pregnant Leafborne who hates me with a passion that almost rivals Eldrion's. She thinks she has hidden it, but I've always seen it there. In her eyes. Congealing like ink on water.

She immediately brings a hand to her stomach, assessing me.

I smile at her, and feel my eyes flashing red.

My wings quiver and slowly unfurl.

Raine steps backwards. She meets the trunk of a large oak tree and presses herself against it. She raises a hand, bringing green flashes of earth magic into her palm. "I always knew?—"

Before she can finish her pathetic attempt to wound me with her words or her woefully inadequate powers, I give a flick of my wrist and the shadows that live in the darkness behind the trees are unleashed.

They engulf her in seconds, and she falls to the ground.

She's still breathing, but barely.

She will be gone soon.

And the baby? I pause and try to decide whether I care.

I do not.

Before walking away, I crouch down and tilt my head so I can look into her wide, terrified eyes. "You should know," I whisper, lowering my lips to her ear, "that by the time the sun reaches its peak today, the Leafborne will be extinct. There will be only one of you remaining. And she was never really one of you. She was always better than your kind."

Raine's lips part and she coughs. "Alana," she splutters.

I stroke her hair from her face, then pinch her jaw between my thumb and forefinger. "Yes," I whisper soothingly. "Alana. She is the best of you, and the worst of you. And she will rule by my side."

Another cough. Blood this time, trickling from the corner of her mouth.

I frown and stand up, then I splay my arms and begin to inhale. I breathe the shadows deep into my lungs. I let them fill me up. I hold them inside me. And then I release a deep, earth-shattering roar and set them free.

They fly through the forest, weaving between the trees. Over and under and around. They block out the freckles of light that filter through the canopy. Everything darkens.

The air grows cold and heavy, a thick black fog rolling in at my bidding.

The first scream that pierces the air is the most delicious sound I have ever heard. I close my eyes and relish it. There is another, and another.

They start to run, but the shadows are herding them for me. Tying them in knots, confusing them, gathering them exactly where I need them.

I release a low, gut-trembling sigh.

Their fear feels so good. It feeds the darkness inside me, yet makes me hungry for more.

When I reach the campsite, I watch from the shadows as the Leafborne fae huddle together, their delicate wings trembling with fear.

My shadows have encircled them, pinned them together.

They think they chose this to protect themselves but the shadows drove them to it.

On the opposite side of the camp, the Shadowkind do the same.

They do not know that no harm will come to them today.

I emerge from the darkness and move towards the fire. Although it is still daylight beyond the forest, here it might as well be the middle of the night.

The Leafborne try to huddle closer, move farther away.

One or two throw their magic towards me, but the shadows simply swallow it.

When I left here, I was pathetic. Small, weak, unable to fight.

Now, I am bigger than them, more powerful than them. And I am the fight.

As they blink at me from their huddle of bodies, I savour their terror, letting it wash over me like a dark elixir.

With only a thought, I send long tendrils of inky blackness snaking towards the Leafborne. The shadows creep in from the edges of the clearing, cutting off every escape route, every path to safety.

The fae scream, their voices high and thin with terror as they separate and try to flee. But there is nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. My shadows are everywhere.

One of them, a young male with gossamer wings the colour of spring leaves, steps forward, his hands raised in a futile attempt at defence. He summons his own magic, a glimmering shield of emerald light that pulses and shimmers in the darkness.

But it's no use. My shadows simply flow around his magic, engulfing him in a writhing mass of darkness. He screams, his voice choked into a gurgling cry as my magic tears at his flesh, ripping and shredding until there is nothing left but a broken, lifeless husk on the floor.

Power is thrumming through my veins, intoxicating and addictive.

"Run, little Leafbornes," I purr. "Run, and let the shadows feast upon your fear."

The fae scatter, their screams ringing out through the forest as my shadows pursue them, relentless and inexorable. They tear through the forest, fleeing from me in blind panic.

But there is no escape, and there is no refuge from the darkness that has come to claim them. One by one, they fall, their light extinguished forever as my shadows consume them whole.

And it feels . . . so hellishly good.

With every heart that stops beating, my power seems to surge.

With every scream, and vibration of fear, my wings grow stronger.

With every death, I live louder.

I turn to face the Shadowkind. They have been spared, and they are huddled together, their eyes wide.

I can feel their uncertainty, their confusion, but also their curiosity. They know something momentous is happening, something that will change the course of their lives forever.

I step forward, my wings unfurling behind me like a cloak of purest, darkest night. The shadows dance around me, caressing my skin, whispering their dark secrets in my ears. I feel their power, and the intoxicating rush of knowing I hold the fate of an entire kingdom in my hands.

"Shadowkind," I say, my voice echoing through the clearing like a thunderclap. "Your new destiny is upon you. As the first of our kind to believe in me, and follow me into the forest when we fled from Eldrion's cruelty, you will be the first to reap the benefits of my transformation."

I spot Yarrow. He is the only one who looks intrigued rather than afraid.

"The time has come for you to take your rightful place in this world." I focus my gaze on him; my oldest friend. "The time has come to rise up and undo the wrongs that were done to us for so many centuries."

I can see the hesitation in their eyes, the fear that holds them back. But I know that deep down, they yearn for this, for the chance to be something. To be what they were always meant to be. I just need to unlock it for them.

"I'm going to offer you a choice," I continue, my gaze sweeping over them. "Join me, and be a part of the new world order that I will create. A world where Shadowkind are no longer the outcasts, the pariahs, but the rulers and the conquerors. Where we embrace the power that has been dormant inside us for centuries."

I pause, allowing my words to settle in the air around us.

"And if we don't join you?" a meek voice drifts up from one of the younger fae at the front of the crowd. "What if we just want to get away from here and live a peaceful life?"

A few of the others murmur in agreement.

I cannot have that.

"Well, then you can refuse, of course." I stop speaking, allowing the silence that swells between the trees to be broken only by the distant screams of the dying Leafborne. I lower my wings, allowing them a full view of the carnage that lies behind me.

I allow my shadows to curl upwards, dancing around my limbs.

My eyes flash red.

I fix them on the one who spoke up.

"Who will be the first to join me?"