“Then what does that make me?” A voice of nightmares speaks behind me, and I feel like I can’t move, I can’t breathe. The man from my nightmares, that voice, just spoke. Part of me still wishes he wasn’t real, and I don’t dare look back as I hear his footsteps. I suck in a breath as a hand grabs the back of my neck and pulls my head back.
The Seelie Fae King himself looms over me, a sneer on his lips and clear joy of getting what he wants in his eyes.
The Seelie Fae King has been the one trying to kill me in my dreams?
“Why the fuck have you been messing with me?” I demand, and he roughly lets my neck go, no doubt leaving bruises with how hard he held me. The king walks around to stop in front of me. I cry out when he suddenly slams a knife into my stomach. I scream, hearing Seb’s shout in the distance, and the pain makes me nearly fall. The king somehow holds me upright with magic, even as my knees give out, and the pain disappears into nothing more than a numb feeling. As my blood drips onto the floor in the middle of us and I start to feel dizzy, the fae king whispers a word.
“Lāsts.”
Suddenly my skin lights up with dozens of runes, the glowing symbols are wrapped around my arms and every part of skin I can see. The runes are all the same, the same symbol again and again, and they glow purple. They are beautiful and enchanting. The whole room is silent.
I’ve seen it before.
On my mother’s necklace.
Expecting to die, I move my eyes from my body to see Seb is gone, and the queen is on her throne, a curious look in her eyes. She doesn’t know what the runes are either.
“All those dreams. Did you ever wonder why I was killing you?” he asks, and then he pulls the knife out of my stomach. I scream, the pain making the room dot in and out of focus. God, I hate being stabbed. Turns out it’s not as fun to be on the receiving end of a knife in your gut. Who knew?
“You never k-killed me,” I manage to get out. “B-bad luck, I woke up.”
His laugh fills the room. “You died first underneath me with my hands around your throat, and then so many times after that. It was all my own little test to see if you had the cursed rune. See, the one that holds the rune can never die.”
“W-what?” I croak out, shock ringing through me. I can’t die? I died all those times, and I never knew?
The fae king roughly grabs my chin. “You are what your mother stole from me, my promised immortal bride, and I shall have you back. Sleep, Daesyn, my beloved. We are going home.”
I scream as his magic smacks into me, destroying my protective magic like it was nothing and smothering me within seconds. The last thing I see is the fae king’s eyes, so empty of compassion before I’m out cold.
In the darkness, I hear a song, one I thought I could not remember, and it’s my mother’s voice who sings it to me.
“The girl who was promised
Stole a rune that can only demolish.
In her haste, she spoke a single curse.
A trade will be made
For a child held with a blade.
This is a song of disaster and the four who will follow.
A man from Hell, a fallen god, a fire alpha, and a dark prince.
When the curse is done,
One world will be gone.
The cursed rune is a song all fae sing,
Because the destruction it promises will beloved.
In the night, the Unseelie will rise,
and in blood...they will take what was ruined in lies.”
Epilogue
Torfinn
With a flick of my hand, the fifty or more reaper guards in front of Daesyn’s apartment fly out of the way, and I use my magic to portal directly into her room. The apartment has been turned over, and the sinking feeling in my gut gets worse.
I knew something was wrong.
I hear a small cry from under a broken cabinet door, and I lean down, picking up the door to see Mossy. The monkey is in quite the predicament. A piece of sharp wood is stuck in his leg, and blood is pouring from the wound. Not that I like the little fucker, but I know he means a lot to Daesyn. I growl and lean down, picking him up and putting him into my cloak pocket to deal with later. He won’t die from that injury; he is fae, and all fae can self-heal to an extent. I close my eyes and portal myself to the throne room, where I’m sure the queen must have Daesyn.
When I get there, only the queen, two of her Cherished Five, and Ryker are around. Ryker is being held down by the two men. Anger fills me as I storm down the middle of the throne room and each of them look to me. I click my fingers, and the two Cherished Five disappear into dust.
The queen screams as Ryker stands up, and I step over a pile of dust to stop in front of the heartless woman.
“Where is Daesyn and Poppy?” I demand.
She stands up, shadows smothering her. “How dare you come in here and kill two of my people!”
I coldly watch her. “Where is she?”
