40. Taryn

FORTY

TARYN

Edevane is a godsdamned monster.

He used the spear and his powers—no, my powers—to annihilate a path through Ildathach on his way to the palace, slaughtering innocent fae as he went.

Racing through the blood-soaked streets, bile creeps up my throat and saliva pools in my mouth with the need to vomit. But I force it down and keep going, vowing to come back after we annihilate him .

My heart pounds a frantic rhythm against my ribs. Fear claws at my insides, sharp and relentless. For centuries, my mother and I were estranged, the chasm between us filled with bitterness and unspoken words.

Now, with every passing minute, the possibility of her being taken from me just like Devlyn and my father terrifies me.

As we pass the city’s far border, the acrid scent of smoke and the metallic tang of blood assault my senses. The once-pristine palace grounds are battle-stained and littered with the Néit left behind in case any of the Light Warriors got past us. They never stood a chance against Edevane.

My magic thrums beneath my skin, wild and potent, fear threatening to unravel my control. I push harder, driven by the desperate hope that we can save her.

Rushing through the entrance to the gardens, we skid to a halt in the center of the courtyard. Finn is on my right, Dmitri on my left, and the wolves are bracketing us on the ends, all of us breathing hard from traveling so far and so fast. But each of our gazes is glued to the horrific scene before us.

Edevane stands proudly, the golden legendary Spear of Assal gleaming in his hand, as though he’s posing for an honorary monument in his likeness.

And next to him, on her knees, is my mother, her beautiful wings shredded like they were sliced through, again and again, by a dozen arrows. Or a single flying spear.

Aine’s eyes meet mine with a fierceness that belies her vulnerable position. Her face is tear-stained, but she holds her head high, her regal presence and inner strength never extinguished.

“You bastard,” I seethe, my magic flowing into my hands.

“Glad you could make it, Your Highnesses,” he says to me and Finn, the smug smirk ever-present on his face. “We’ve been waiting for you, haven’t we, Aine? I felt it was only fair to let you witness your epic failure, since you’ve worked so hard to prevent this very moment.”

Finn takes a careful step forward. “Enough of this insanity, Edevane! If being back in Faerie is what you want, let her go and negotiate for ruling over your own region again.”

The Light King laughs like he just heard a charming joke at a dinner party. “That might have worked for my father, but I have much bigger aspirations than the Day Court, and it’s time I get what I’m due.”

Without warning he says, “ Ibar ,” and tosses the spear straight at us, but at the halfway mark, it turns around in a wide arc, doubling back…and skewers Aine’s chest as if she was made of paper.

My world stops, narrowing to the sight of my mother crumpling to the ground. I can’t move, I can’t breathe. I’m paralyzed as the past and present collide in a cruel twist of fate, this a gruesome echo of my father’s death mere weeks ago.

Then everything crashes over me at once, my emotions shocking me back to life.

“ Noooooo! ” I lunge for her, but Finn and Dmitri grab my arms and hold firm.

“You cannot help her now, moy sever . I am sorry.”

Helplessness threatens to drown me in a suffocating wave. My magic is utterly useless in this moment. The newly mended bond between us has been torn away, leaving nothing but raw, agonizing loss in its place. My heart shatters as tears stream unchecked, streaking through the dried blood spattered on my face.

“I’m so fucking sorry, Taryn.” Finn dips his head, resting it near my temple to speak softly in my ear. “I need you to get somewhere safe. Once he figures out Aine isn’t who he wants, he’ll come for you. We’ll hold him off for as long as we can. You know how to hide your identity. Get the hell out of Faerie and start somewhere fresh.”

I snap my shocked gaze to his. “You want me to run ?”

Golden-honey eyes I fell in love with, long before I saw them in person, plead with me. “We can’t win against that spear. Please, solnyshko , it’s the only way. I need you to live.”

Anger and frustration and fear mix into a volatile cocktail that boils in my veins. “Forget it,” I hiss. “I will not leave you all here to die.”

“What the fuck ?!”

Edevane’s outburst snags our attention. His face is red, and he’s staring down at his body like it’s failed him somehow.

“I don’t feel any fucking different. I knew something had to be off with that bitch’s powers, but nothing ? She’s the One True Ruler, she has to have the Power.” He cuts his diatribe short and looks up at me. “Unless it was given to someone else.”

Finn’s upper lip curls in a threatening snarl. “Or maybe you’re just not worthy enough to receive it.”

“Not a fan of that theory. Let’s test out a different one, shall we? Ibar .”

Edevane throws the Spear of Assal so fast none of us have time to react. The weapon is a blur of golden light slicing through the air, and yet everything suddenly moves in slow motion, allowing me to clock my final moments.

Dmitri and Finn shout my name, their voices full of rage and despair as they realize they’re helpless to stop what comes next. The twins howl in protest, their keening cries already mournful.

This is how Faerie is destroyed. Because I couldn’t stop a murderous tyrant with a god complex. I close my eyes, pushing the tears over the edges to fall down my face, and think of everyone I’ve failed.

Devlyn, Cathal, Moira, Barwyn, my father, my mother, Dmitri, the people of Faerie…

Finnian. My sire, my king of kings, my gentle giant, my fate. My everything . And I was too afraid to tell him I loved him. What a fool I was.

“Forgive me,” I whisper to all of them, but especially to him .

WHOOSH…

A sudden breeze brushes the left side of my face and lifts my curls before they settle again. Opening my eyes, I look down to see a single ringlet floating to the ground.

Finn gasps as he pulls me into his crushing embrace. “Thank fuck.”

“It missed?” Sure enough, the spear is still flying away from us.

“ Athibar !” Just like that, the spear curves around and returns to Edevane’s hand. He repeats his attempt to kill me. Again, it soars past me, seemingly adjusting its trajectory enough to barely miss. His frustration is evident as the weapon returns to him unsuccessful a second time, but he quickly schools his features.

“The good news is, I know you have the Power. The bad news is, apparently, a weapon of the gods won’t kill someone with gods-given magic,” he says, disappointed. “No matter. Guess I’ll have to do things the old-fashioned way.”

“He will not succeed.” Dmitri crosses his swords in front of him, the bloodlust in his eyes darkening as he looks at me and repeats the Blood Oath he swore to me on the day we met. “ Kogda ugodno, gde ugodno, chto ugodno .”

“Fuck no, he won’t,” Finn adds, his face a mask of steely resolve as he lifts his swords in kind.

Connor and Conall, growl low in their throats as they crouch, the fur on their heads matted with blood making them look more menacing than normal. They narrow their bright golden eyes on Edevane and suddenly take off, executing their own plan through their telepathic connection and ignoring my screams for them to pull back.

Sprinting toward the Light King, they angle to flank him from both sides, then simultaneously leap into the air, their massive bodies stretching long, their jaws open and ready to shred?—

The spear pierces through Connor’s body and sails right on through Conall’s a fraction of a second later. Both wolves collapse to the ground in furry heaps at Edevane’s feet, their soft whimpers fading to nothing as the grass beneath them floods in twin seas of red.

Sadness threatens to choke me. “Oh, gods, no .”

My mother is already gone, her still form and shredded wings an agonizing reminder of what happens when one is wounded by a weapon of the gods. There is no amount of healing or regenerating that can reverse the damage.

And now Connor and Conall—brave Dark shifters who put their lives on the line for me and an entire realm they never had the privilege of knowing—will share the same fate as my parents.

Unmitigated rage bubbles in my gut like lava. I’m going to fucking kill him.

I open the door to my magic as much as I dare and let the lightning flow through my veins. The rope armor on my torso and forearms seems to tighten as my powers ripple beneath the surface of my skin. Snapping my palms open, they ignite with violet fire as I release a torrent of flames at Edevane.

But he deflects the attack as easily as he did in the cavern, laughing as it hits one of the garden sculptures instead.

With a roar, Finn readies to lunge, and I know Dmitri will join him if I don’t do something. “ Stop! ” I shout at them, and push energy out with my hands for good measure, knocking them both on their asses. “You’ll only end up like the others! This is between me and him now.”

“Taryn.”

“ Sestra .”

Switching to Russian, I glare at the two most important people in my life. “ No! You will not needlessly sacrifice yourselves for my sake. Let me handle this.”

Edevane begins twirling the spear in his hand, a growing smirk on his face telling me the asshole understands Russian, because of course he does. “As a show of good faith, let me help you with that.”

He sweeps his hand out in front of him and suddenly Dmitri and Finn drop their swords and spread their arms out to the sides as though they’ve been shackled by an unseen force. No amount of struggling gives them freedom of their arms or legs. They’re stuck.

“There, now they can’t interrupt us.”

“Fine by me,” I say, acting as casual as possible while I focus on the four discarded swords. They disappear, then reappear in front of Edevane, hurtling toward his heart like it’s the bullseye on a dartboard.

But just like with the earlier stream of fire, he only needs the span of a heartbeat to see the threat and react. Just before they reach him, he teleports himself a foot to the left, their iron points drilling uselessly into the wooden door behind him.

His face contorts in anger. “I grow tired of these games, Princess. I want what I came for. Bequeath the One True Power to me, and we can be done with all this.”

“You expect me to just give it to you?” I scoff. “Over my dead body.”

“How about over your brother’s?”

In the time I can blink, the spear has left his hand, run Dmitri through, and returned to Edevane, my brother’s blood still dripping from its tip.

“ Moy sever …” he rasps, his knees hitting the ground.

“No-no-no-no-no!” I rush over and catch him as he falls forward and position him with his head in my lap. He tries dragging in a breath and coughs, blood spurting from his mouth as the mortal wound worsens by the second. “Come on, Dmitri, you can’t do this. I need you .”

My brother, my protector, lies dying because of that monster, and it’s all I can do to stop myself from falling apart. Dmitri’s blood-soaked hand grips one of mine, the red color draining from his irises to reveal his usual icy blues as he stares up at me. “ Moy sestra…navsegda. ”

My sister…for always.

Then the light dims in his eyes and his chest no longer moves. I choke back a sob, outrage and despair warring within me as I gently lay my brother’s head on the ground and rise on shaky legs.

“You know what comes next,” Edevane sneers, twirling the spear again with a sickeningly casual air. “Bequeath the Power to me now or watch him die.”

I run over to Finn and stand between him and Edevane, but I’m too slight in comparison to be able to protect him from anything, much less a magical spear that will find a way to hit its mark.

He’s still held in place as though his wrists and ankles are shackled to an invisible wall. Placing my hands on his solid chest, I feel for the beat of his heart, remembering all the times it lulled me to sleep while his arms were wrapped around me.

Panic squeezes the air from my lungs, the unbearable decision I now face crushing me under its weight. Losing Finn will shatter me but giving Edevane the Power means dooming all of Faerie to his tyranny. I know the choice I should make, but I can’t do it. I can’t sentence Finn to death.

“Taryn, no,” Finn’s voice breaks through my turmoil, firm and resolute. “You can’t.”

“He’ll kill you,” I whisper, my voice trembling with fear and anguish.

“Loving you was worth everything, solnyshko .” Finn’s gaze locks onto mine with a fierce resolve, his devotion to me shining in the sunlit honey of his eyes. “If I burn, I burn, remember?”

Tears blur my vision as his words sink in, the depth of his love both a comfort and a dagger to my heart. He nods to me in encouragement, and I return it, letting him know I understand what I have to do. But I refuse to let him leave this world without hearing the words I should have said to him long before now.

“Finn, I?—”

“ Ibar .”

Finn’s body jerks as the spear slices through his right side and exits out his left, easily hitting its target despite my proximity.

The scream that tears from my throat is primal and raw. It’s a sound born of pain and fury that stirs the storm of emotions deep inside me.

I collapse to my knees, clutching Finn’s lifeless body, his blood soaking into the lavender ropes he lovingly tied on my body before the battle. The words I never got to say linger on my lips, a bitter reminder of what’s been taken from me. My hands tremble as I cradle his head.

“I love you, Finn. I love you so much,” I whisper through my tears, the confession breaking free too late. “Until we meet again.”

Pulling myself together, I lock away all the pain from his loss to be unpacked later, along with the losses of everyone else I cared about.

I kiss him one final time, then use my fingertips to shutter his lids over his golden eyes. I don’t want him to see what I do next, even in death. I know it will be terrifying and beautiful, but it’s not how he knew me, and I want to keep it that way.

As I stand and face my enemy, grief and savage wrath infest my heart, weaving their slithering roots through the useless muscle. The door that keeps my devastating magic contained trembles under the pressure of my emotions.

I feel the One True Power pulsing, begging to be unleashed. And for the first time, I’m more than happy to let it out.

My vision blurs with violet sparks. As the energy builds, the wind whips around me, causing my curls to lift and dance like the slithering snakes on Medusa’s head. Streaks of violet light snap in the air as I raise my arms out to my sides, welcoming the growing power coursing through me.

The rope armor begins to smolder, and with a roar, I burn it away, no longer interested in containing the forces within me. The sensation is overwhelming, a surge of raw magic that pushes at the confines of my body, ready to explode like a fucking supernova.

Edevane’s smug expression falters as he senses the shift in me, the sheer magnitude of what I’m capable of. Good. I want him afraid. I want him to feel as helpless as I did.

Images of my loved ones flash before my eyes—my parents, Dmitri, Conall, Connor, and Finn—all struck down by Edevane’s hand and a weapon of the gods that delivers death to near-immortals with a staggering finality.

Nothing short of reversing time itself can bring them back.

The thought embeds itself in my mind, desperation grasping at impossible straws. Even if something like that was possible, someone with no control could never pull it off. I’m letting the Power slip its leash knowing full well everything around me for a square mile will be decimated. But that includes Edevane, and I’m good with that.

Believe in your fire, Taryn, and you can do anything.

The words my father said to me the night we watched the Scorched Sky suddenly come back to me, as though he’s speaking to me from Mag Mell.

Remember to believe in your fire.

His last words to me as he passed away.

Athair ’s voice continues to echo in my mind, the phrases repeating again and again.

Believe in your fire, Taryn, and you can do anything.

Remember…

…you can do anything.

…anything.

It’s then that I have a mind-altering epiphany.

The only one who’s never believed in me…is me .

I take a deep breath and exhale. It’s time to let go of my fear. It’s time to let go of my self-imposed limitations. It’s time…to reverse time.

The world around me slows, then grinds to a halt in a surreal stillness.

Roaring from the immense effort, I summon every ounce of my magic to bend to my will, directing the events that unfolded within the past ten minutes to undo themselves.

Things begin to rewind, slowly at first, then quicker. Shock registers on Edevane’s face as the spear is ripped from his hand, reversing its deadly path through Finn’s now upright body and flying back to him.

He struggles to hold onto it, but he’s no longer the one in control. It flies out of his grip again. Dmitri rises, his wound healing as if by magic as soon as the spear has gone through him backwards. Again, and Conall and Connor repeat their attack on Edevane in reverse until they’re back in place on either side of us.

And, finally, I watch with relief as my mother’s eyes open. She lifts back up to a kneeling position like she was when we arrived, but I hold on a little longer, my muscles vibrating as I approach my limits. Once she’s standing and the damage to her wings has been undone, I stop the backward motion and hit pause, locking time temporarily, which is much easier to hold.

Now it’s just me and him . Exactly how I wanted it.

The scene is reset.

Except, this time, the Spear of Assal is in my hand.

Edevane blusters, his face reddening again as he looks from my hand, to his, to everyone he killed standing hale and hearty, if momentarily statuesque. He glares at me accusingly as though I’ve performed a magic trick that he can’t make sense of, denying its possibility out of pure stubbornness.

The One True Power is a blazing river that flows freely through my veins now. It no longer feels like an unnatural stowaway that needs to be contained. I’m at peace with it, ready to use it for the good of Faerie and her people.

After I use it for this one bad thing first. “Hey, Edevane, guess what time it is.”

“You bi ?—”

“Time to kill a king.”

I snap my fingers and flames of neon violet instantly engulf the Light King, giving him no warning or time to counter.

He screams as he’s consumed by the inferno of the Dragon’s Breath, the magic he used to trap me and Finn with the intention of drowning us.

Then I whisper the command and throw Lugh’s legendary weapon, adding insult to the already fatal injury as it buries itself in Edevane’s chest.

I don’t bother calling it back to me. Instead, I let it suffer the same fate, so that neither can hurt anyone ever again.

I wait the few minutes until there’s nothing left but ashes scattering in the wind. Then I release time to march forward once again.

As the world snaps back to the moment before it all went wrong, I watch as those I love blink back to life, confusion and relief mingling on their faces. Finn, Dmitri, Conall, Connor, and my mother all look around, their eyes widening as they realize the horrors of the past few minutes have been erased.

“Taryn…” Finn’s gaze locks onto mine. I’ve never been so glad to see those golden pools as I am in this moment. We crash together, my arms wrapping around his neck as his band around my waist and lift me against him. “How?” he asks, his voice a mixture of awe and disbelief.

“I finally believed in myself,” I whisper, my voice trembling with the enormity of what I’ve just accomplished.

“I’m so fucking in awe of you, you know that?” Setting me down, he gives me a brief kiss, then glances past me. “I think your brother might punch me if I don’t let him talk to you. Go on, little sun, then hurry back,” he says with a grin.

I spin around and launch myself at Dmitri. “Thank Brigid, you’re okay.”

“No, moy sever , thank you . I did not like leaving you,” he says, his voice thick with emotion.

Stepping out of his embrace, I give him a watery smile. “Me either. What do you say we never go through that again, okay?”

He sniffs and pulls his shoulders back, composing himself. “I say it is a good plan.”

A cold nose on my arm brings me around to face Connor and Conall. “Man, am I glad to see you guys are okay. Mission’s over. Aren’t you going to shift back?”

They both sit on their haunches, their gigantic heads still level with my chest. Finn steps in at my side. “They’ll be too weak to shift from all the exertion of the battle and then running as far as they did. Once they rest and get something to eat, they’ll be good as new. Right, furballs?”

Twin sets of golden eyes narrow at their friend as they bare their teeth and growl. “Don’t listen to him, he’s just jealous,” I say. I start to reach out my hands but stop. “Is it insulting to pet you? I’m not sure what the— Oh!”

Both wolves stand and rub the tops of their heads against my palms. Laughing, I get into it and start scratching them behind the ears, ignoring the gross reason their fur is matted and darker than normal. They nuzzle against me, their silent gratitude palpable.

“All right, that’s enough. Go jump in a lake, both of you,” Finn says, pulling me away from them. “No, seriously. Either you go wash off in a lake or we give you baths, your choice.”

I don’t know if wolves have the ability to look offended, but Connor and Conall manage to pull it off. Then they take off in a lope, presumably to take care of their own bathing needs.

“Taryn.”

The regal tone snap my back straight, as though I’m an adolescent all over again. Turning, I face my mother as she approaches, so gracefully she appears to float even without using her wings. She stops in front of me and pauses, a well of emotions between us that neither of us know how to breach.

“Mother,” I say, my voice unsteady.

Finally, she takes the final step to close the gap and folds me into her embrace. I’m frozen briefly, stunned by the rare show of affection from the female who was more often my queen than a doting mother.

But then the shock wears off, and I wrap my arms around her, leaning into her embrace and this moment for as long as they last.

The weight of centuries of unspoken words and unresolved feelings begins to lift. There’s a hint of reverence in her words as she speaks to me in Faerish. “You saved us. You saved Faerie. I have never been prouder. Thank you, daughter.”

She pulls back, her hands dropping to clasp in her usual pose, but the emotion in her gaze remains and mirrors my own—a mixture of pride, love, and a shared understanding of the burden I now carry.

The magnitude of possessing the One True Power no longer frightens me, but as my gaze returns to the ashes of Edevane and the spear scattering in the wind, the weight of responsibility that comes with it settles heavily on my shoulders.

I don’t regret what I did—that bastard deserved every moment of his fiery end—but I don’t want to use the Power as a weapon. I want to use it as a tool to help faekind.

Finn wraps his arms around me, pulling me close.

“I love you so much,” I say, finally able to voice the words. “I should have said it sooner, but I love you, Finn. You’re my everything, too.”

“I knew how you felt even without the words, love. And now that it’s officially after …” He tilts my chin up to meet his gaze, his eyes soft and filled with unspoken promises. “Can I finally ask you to marry me?”

I laugh, my happiness causing a fresh wave of moisture to gather on my lash lines. “Damn all this crying lately.”

He smiles wide, his twin dimples creasing beneath the short beard on his cheeks. “Is that a yes, solnyshko ? Will you be my mate?”

“Yes, sire,” I say, grinning at the way his pupils blow out at the use of his Dom title. “I will absolutely be your mate.”