Chapter 60

Chapter 60

I t wasn't the look of fear in Alice's eyes that broke Fey's heart. It was the resignation.

Alice had fought, fought with all her power and skill. Fought and failed. Now, she knelt there, defeated, and resigned to her inevitable death.

She had given it all and it wasn't enough.

Fey snarled and stepped forward toward the dais. She was still losing blood at an alarming rate, and any minute now she might lose consciousness. But for now, she was standing. For now, she could still fight.

She didn't make it another step. The Queen barely flicked her fingers, loosening her grip on Alice's skull to do so, and Fey went flying backward, struck by a gust of Air, and hit the ground, rolling painfully over and over, until she finally came to a stop.

They had known the Queen was strong. Had known the other Factions feared her.

But this? No wonder they feared her so much. No wonder they'd never tried to overthrow her.

"Run," Alice said. "Leave me, Fey, I knew the risks— go. "

"You should listen to her," Edelin said, watching Fey come to her feet slowly, painfully.

"No," Fey groaned through gritted teeth.

She made it two steps this time, and the blast of Air that hit her almost blew her out the door and into the hallway.

"What are you hoping to accomplish with this?" the Queen asked loudly, her voice echoing across the long room. She sounded both bored and genuinely curious.

Fey coughed, trying to rise again. It was a wet, horrid cough, and Fey realized with faint surprise, looking down at the red droplets on the ground beneath her, that she was coughing blood. Blood, and specks of ash.

It took her much longer to stand this time.

"Justice," Fey heard herself say, in a voice that didn't quite sound like her own. But, then again, she felt a million miles from her body now. Her legs shook underneath her, but she pushed herself forward, forcing herself closer to the dais step by painful step. Closer to her sister.

"Justice?" the Queen asked, amused. "Where is the justice in killing my consort?" She flicked her gaze over to Dameon's body, grotesquely blue against the pale marble floor. "Where is the justice in getting yourself killed tonight?"

Fey shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "He killed my sister. He killed Willow."

She sent a wave of Fire toward the Queen, but it hit a wall of Air she had summoned there and burst into nothing.

"Whatever he did, he did for the good of the realm," the Queen said softly, as though speaking to a child. Unfazed by Fey's approach. "Whatever he did, he did to protect his Queen."

"You're no true Queen," Fey heard herself saying. "You have no right to that throne. Not after what you've taken from us."

Another flick of those powerful fingers, and the ground beneath Fey twisted and bent. She fell forward, onto her hands and knees, and the stone flowed up her arms and legs like water, then solidified, trapping her.

"I have every right to this throne," Queen Edelin snarled, her words filled with fury. "Did you really think you were more powerful than I am? Did you really think two Witches would be enough to take me down? A Witch with command over only Fire?"

Fey called Earth, struggling to free herself, but the Queen's power was too strong, and even with her body healing itself she was growing weaker by the second. The stone crawled further up her arms, up to her shoulders. It reached her neck and wrapped around her throat, pulling her head back so she was forced to look at the Queen where she stood on the dais next to her throne.

Forced to look at her sister Alice, helpless and beaten, where she knelt.

"I hold the very powers of a Goddess in my veins," the Queen continued, and the room seemed to fill with her power as she spoke.

Eyes meeting Fey's, Alice called Fire in one last desperate attempt at freedom. Flames erupted from her hands and coursed up her arms like a snake, heading for the Queen's hands.

They never got there. The Fire died, inches from Edelin's skin, the flames evaporating under the control of someone much stronger.

"Neither of you are strong enough to challenge me," she told them, staring at Fey. "And now you'll learn what happens when you try to kill a god."

In a single motion, the Queen wrenched Alice's head back and raised the knife.

Fey screamed as the blade came down in a flash of silver. Screamed at the spray of blood that followed.