Chapter 60

Sixty

WESLEY

“ S end me back!” I demanded, heart sluggish, body aching with the slash of a thousand needles.

Tears slid down Sebastian’s cheeks. “He’s lost.”

“He isn’t! Send me back.”

“We barely got you out,” Sebastian said. “The darkness has overtaken everything. Autumn’s realm is overrun with sorrow and rage. Kiran and I have had to shut off our realms to keep him from spreading.”

“No,” I said. “That was Winter. She devoured everything.” My vision, having experienced it a hundred times, I’d always thought it was Winter’s curse, but Autumn and Winter’s magic slid adjacent to each other.

“He’s fighting Winter,” Xiao whispered. “Devouring her spell for fuel to spread his pain. She’s losing, but so is he.”

I reached for him. “Help me. What would you do if it were Ari?”

Xiao’s eyes filled with sadness. “I wouldn’t put you back there even if I could. He’ll consume you.”

No. I wouldn’t let them steal him from me. “Sebastian Volkov, put me back. He’s your apa , right? Don’t you want me to save him?” I glared at the Summer king.

“You don’t know that he can be saved!”

“How many times have you told me, when I promised to serve you, that you’d respect my choices?”

“To die? You want me to let you die?” Sebastian demanded.

“You don’t know that. He’s my mate. I’m meant to be with him. What would you do if it were Liam?”

“That’s not fair, Wesley.”

“Fair? When is life ever fair?” I snarled and shoved him away from me. Sebastian caught himself, but stepped away from the bed. “Mine has never been fair. Not when I was cast out for being witchborn. Not when I was given to Zephyr with the command to submit or die. Not when the Winter witch bound me at her feet to drain me.”

“Finn is mine. I don’t want to serve you or anyone anymore. I’m so tired of the constant pain. Why can’t I have the one thing that’s mine?”

“He’ll destroy you and not remember,” Sebastian whispered. “I don’t want you to die.”

“Why? Why does it matter? You don’t like me. No one does. I made sure of it, kept my heart locked away and stayed away from everyone.”

“To protect yourself,” Sebastian nodded. “I understand, but do you?”

“More than anyone ever will,” I said, with a tired sigh. “Finn… he’s sweet and strong, but no one should face that sort of darkness on their own. I’d rather stand by his side than cower, waiting for the beast to overwhelm all of us until there is no other choice left but to end him.” I glared at Sebastian. “I want to at least try to save him.”

“At the cost of your own life?”

I shrugged. “Fate is a bitch, bring it on.”

Xiao paced several feet away, wringing his hands, his gaze on the door as if wishing Ari were there. Ice crystals formed in his hair like elaborate snowflakes in giant detail. A stress response or was the old Winter witch finally losing?

“I can’t send you back,” Seb said. “I can’t breach his realm. Let me talk to Liam and see if he has any ideas to help.”

“Can Ari get me in?” I asked Xiao.

He flinched. “Ari shouldn’t touch Autumn’s realm right now. It might infect them with this darkness.”

Fuck. None of us needed the witchchild going mad.

“Let me talk to Liam,” Sebastian said. “Maybe we can find a way to get you in and provide a shield? I don’t want you to die if we can’t save apa .”

But I’d wanted that for years, until I met Finn and had his sweet smile directed at me, his arms around me, and his gentle kisses peppering my face. I watched Sebastian turn away from me, fists clenched, his grief over losing his adoptive father palpable. But I wasn’t ready to give up on Finn yet.

I grabbed the bottle off the side table. The potion Toby had given me to help reconnect with Finn—my last hope. I uncapped it, the potent scent of the alcohol wafting up like a final warning. Sebastian turned as I brought it to my lips.

“Don’t, Wesley,” Seb began.

But I tipped it back, drinking down the entire bottle at once. The liquid seared down my throat, setting my veins on fire. Too much, my senses screamed. The world tilted; the light dimmed as the darkness yanked me back to where I belonged. I felt like I was falling, a sudden drop out of myself in a gut-wrenching rush.

A voice whispered in the darkness, familiar and haunting. Finn calling my name. I let his power catch me, and floated for a brief moment in weightlessness. Then the drain began, my power leeching away. The suction of my magic and life force jolting from me happened so fast I screamed, though the sound was lost in the void of blackness around us. The chill in the air, cool, but not icy, I ached to see Finn one last time.

I wouldn’t fight him, or the end. If he was lost to me, then I hoped to join him in whatever beyond for a final taste of peace. The blackness rose like a viper to attack, and then, there was nothing.