The Ruthless Fae King (Kings of Avalier Book 3)

I debated asking Birdie to fetch me a knife from the kitchen and then hiding it under my dress. But if Marcelle found it, my whole plan was shot. I’d be thrown in the dungeon to never see the light of day. My wind power was my best chance of defeating him. Even in daylight, I felt that against his sun magic I would win.

After dressing in my nightclothes I made my way to Marcelle’s room. Glancing at the bed where he’d so forcefully stripped me of my innocence, I swallowed hard and climbed in, facing the wall. The fire was crackling but there was frost on the walls and windows. It was getting colder. Lucien was still enacting his power from afar to show Marcelle that he was pissed.

It gave me comfort. Looking at the frost-covered window meant that even though Lucien couldn’t have me anymore, he was decreeing some sort of justice for what was taken from us. It had only been a few days but I wondered if my elf contact had taken Lucien’s father to the elvin treatment facility. I wondered if Lucien had contacted his friends, the dragon king and the elf king, to tell them of the news that the Nightfall queen was ingesting powers.

I wondered if Lucien’s staff had prepared the palace for a wedding and then wondered why I never showed.

I hoped word had reached him that I had been taken to wed Marcelle against my will. It would kill me if he believed otherwise. I thought of the note from Piper that I had burned and prayed to the Maker with the tiny shred of faith I had left that my mother and sister got out. The second I eventually killed Marcelle, I would need to get my family to safety so that his men did not retaliate. I had no idea if they would still accept me as their queen once Marcelle was dead.

The door opened behind me and I pinched my eyes shut, evening out my breathing. Footsteps approached the bed, and then there was the sound of someone laying shoes and possibly a belt on the floor.

The bed dipped and my breath hitched slightly. Suddenly Marcelle’s arms came around me and I mumbled something half intelligent, hoping to sound sleepy.

Don’t touch me! I wanted to scream. His arm rested over my stomach as he tucked in behind me, his body flush against my back, and I decided that I had to end this tonight. It was now or never. I couldn’t play wife to this monster and still respect myself in the morning. I would do a lot to survive, but my dignity had its limits.

Lying next to a man who’d robbed me of the chance to be with the one I actually loved, caused my mind to retreat to a dark place. I could feel my normally sunny outlook on life dying slowly as I imagined being stuck here forever.

No.

A plan formed in my mind as Marcelle’s breathing evened out. I couldn’t sleep if I tried, so I lay awake as the cool air filled the room and my cheeks stung from the icy air. Then I started to shake, chattering my teeth together for effect.

Marcelle roused behind me and sat up. He shivered as well; it was cold, just not as cold as I was making it out to be. Marcelle looked at the dying fire.

Standing from the bed, he walked over to the door and wrenched it open. “Stoke the fire,” he commanded a guard who was standing watch.

The guard entered and I kept my teeth chattering loudly. “Marcelle, please, let me push the cold back, at least for the palace. I’m freezing.”

Marcelle stared at me skeptically. “We just need more firewood,” he insisted.

Another guard rushed into the room. He was covered in a thin white frost from his hair to his toes. “My king. We’ve just had our first death, an old man, a farmer at the edge of our border. The freeze is starting there and heading this way.”

Panic washed over Marcelle’s face, and an equal measure of hope and dread filled me. Hope that Marcelle would free me and release these cuffs, and dread that Lucien had taken a life. I knew it would weigh on him and that he had little control over his power. He must be so mad at the courts for voting to separate the kingdom, and for Marcelle stealing me, that he’d finally lost control. Was his father there in the Winter palace saying awful things to him? I hoped to Hades not. It pained me not to be there to protect him.

I stood, throwing the covers off of me. “That’s enough, Marcelle! No more lives need be taken. I’m the only one powerful enough to fight Lucien’s frost.”

Marcelle looked conflicted.

“My lord, children are crying in their homes,” the guard begged. “You can hear them as you walk through town. Something must be done.”

Marcelle looked at my face and then the cuffs on my arms. After the longest ten seconds of my life, he peered back to his lead guard. “Bring me five of your most powerful men. I’m going to release Madelynn’s power and I want protection in case she makes good on her promise to remove the skin from my bones.”

Wow, he really wasn’t letting that die. I wished I’d never said it. The thought of having five skilled Sun Guards aimed at me had not been in the plan.

I’d trained with my mother and father at the same time, throwing wind in multiple directions, but never to more than two people.

But it was the middle of the night, which meant they could not take from the sun and use their power indefinitely. They could only use their reserves, whatever they’d stored up the previous day. If I could cause them to use their power on me, but somehow protect myself, then when they depleted I could attack.

But how to protect yourself from fire when your power was wind? Wind fed fire, making it rage even bigger.

I needed Lucien.

I swallowed the whimper that tried to form in my throat and came to the conclusion that I would definitely be able to kill Marcelle, but then I would be overpowered by his guard and finally succumb. I didn’t want to die, I wanted to live but I couldn’t let Marcelle poison the realm with the separation and his deal with the Nightfall queen. It wasn’t right. Taking him out would allow Lucien to take control again. My family and Piper would be safe.

There was a knock at the open door and Marcelle and I both glanced over to see Birdie. She appeared sleepy but held a thick cloak. “I overheard the guard. My lady should not be seen in her nightgown by anyone other than her husband.” Birdie looked to the king. “It’s not proper.”

Bless her, she thought I cared about propriety in a time like this. I was just elated that I was going to be let out of these evil power-sucking cuffs.

He waved her in, an annoyed look on his face.

As Birdie approached me, she shook out the cloak, opening it so that I could see the inside lining fully. My brow furrowed when I realized she’d written something in charcoal across the cream silk lining inside.

The winter king is here, it read.

My eyes nearly fell out of my head, and luckily Marcelle wasn’t looking at me in that moment, because I nearly fainted. Birdie hooked the cloak around my shoulders and buttoned it up around me, peering into my eyes to make sure I’d seen her message.

He’s here? Like in the palace? How did she know? Was he mad at me? So many questions ran through my mind but I couldn’t speak any of them.

“My queen, will your power work best outside among the fresh air?” Birdie asked, giving me a look.

She didn’t need to say anymore. Message received loud and clear. Lucien was outside the palace.

“Yes,” I said quickly. “A cracked window is not enough to push the frozen air from the entirety of Summer Court.”

Marcelle sighed, walking to his wardrobe and donning his own cloak. “Will this be quick?” he asked me.

I shrugged. “It depends on if the winter king fights me back.”

Marcelle appeared unnerved by that idea but nodded. When the lead guard came back, I looked closely at the five guards he’d brought with him and was surprised to see that three of them were women.

It wasn’t the fact that the women were powerful that surprised me, it was the fact that I might have to kill or injure one of them. In my mind, it was easier for me to kill a man. I didn’t know what that said about me, but killing another woman didn’t sit right with me.

I would try to knock them out, or blow them far away, but if it came down to it… I would do anything to be free of these cuffs and never go in them again.

I couldn’t believe I was even thinking about killing people. It had started with Marcelle, and now five other lives were about to be at my mercy.

Could I take the lives of these guards? I wondered as Marcelle led us out of the room and down the hallway.

I peered down at the cuffs on my wrists. The empty feeling inside of me was an ample reminder that I had no access to my magic, and I wasn’t sure it was a feeling I could live with.

Yes, I told myself. If threatened with going back in these chains, I would kill to be free.

As we reached the door to the outside, Marcelle turned to Birdie. “You’re no longer needed. Goodnight,” he told her, dismissing her.

She looked at me but betrayed nothing. She just dipped her chin once and then walked back down the hall to her room.

The winter king is here.

The words written on the inside of my cloak brought me trepidation and relief. Knowing that man’s temper, I knew that if Lucien thought I left with Marcelle willingly or plotted against him, I might also meet my death tonight.

The frigid air greeted us as the doors were opened. Marcelle growled in annoyance.

The Sun Guard fanned out behind me as I stepped out onto the front steps overlooking the town square. Every rooftop was coated in white and my breath was a puff of air before me. Snow fell from the sky in chunks and my skin stung as the pain of the freeze covered my body. It reminded me of that night all those years ago when I lost my grandmother. It was a bone-chilling cold that stung your very lungs as you inhaled. And yet this time my thoughts were not anger at the winter king, but compassion for him. To be afraid of your power, that it might unintentionally harm people, was something I’d never experienced.

I stopped in the open courtyard of the palace and held up my wrists as Marcelle looked me dead in the eyes. “I have an archer on the roof. If you harm me, he’ll put an arrow through your neck.” Then he leaned forward and planted an unwanted kiss on my lips.

I stiffened, my eyes going wide as they flicked to the rooftop to see an archer crouching with a bow aimed right at me.

Pure unbridled rage consumed me in that moment. Marcelle reached out, pressing his magic into the cuffs. Because he was the one who had closed them over my arms, only he could open them. There was a click and then he stepped away from me as they fell to the floor. The five Sun Guards fanned around me and I inhaled, pulling the wind into me.

Tears blurred my vision as I felt the well of my power open. I didn’t realize until that very moment how much accessing my power completed me, how much it defined who I was.

One of the male Sun Guards stood right in front of me, hands held high as if ready to ignite my head into flames at any wrong turn.

“Move, unless you want to be blown into Spring Court,” I growled, and he looked to Marcelle, who was at my back.

The guard must have gotten the permission he needed from the king, because he moved.

My mind was racing with all the possibilities. How could I take out Marcelle and avoid the archer until it was done? I knew I had to make it look like I was clearing the town of the freeze first so that they would relax.

With a simple exhale, I pushed at the air around me. It was everywhere, in my hair, under the eaves of the patio, inside my lungs. The fog that had rolled in and settled onto the ground moved as a giant gust of wind picked up and rolled through town at my bidding. The snow flurries moved with it, and the clouds, making way for warmer air. My hair lifted and was tossed around as a brilliant idea came to me.

“Marcelle!” I called over the wind.

He stepped forward, at my side.

“Have your guards channel their power into fire. I will push warm air through the town to melt the frost.”

I didn’t see his face, I was too focused on the task at hand, but he must have liked it because he barked for them to do it.

Now if only I could get them to deplete their power before I took out Marcelle. I might actually be able to make it out of this situation alive.

I could blow the archer off the roof to the ground below, but not without Marcelle seeing. My mind raced as the guards lit up their power one by one, calling fire into their palms.

I sent my wind weaving in and out of their hands lightly, collecting the heat and distributing it through the town. The windows and rooftops began to melt of their frost, and the temperature raised dramatically. The snow covering the ground turned to puddles, and a stream began to trickle in the draining ditches on the side of the road. It stopped snowing.

“It’s working!” Marcelle sounded excited.

I felt no resistance to what I was doing, which told me that if the winter king was here, he was not fighting me. The freezing air and frosty mist were fleeing town easily.

A little too easily.

He’s helping me.

Wherever Lucien was, he was… withdrawing his power to make it look like I was causing the temperature to rise so quickly.

Marcelle leaned into my side then, his lips brushing against my cheek. “You were worth every piece of gold,” he purred.

And that’s when I snapped. The caged, murderous animal inside of me that he’d created broke free.

I’d never tested the full capabilities of my power. I knew I could strip a tree of its bark in seconds, or an apple of its skin. I could toss a thousand-pound boulder from a mountain or snap a tree in half. I’d had to fight off my mother and father simultaneously in training as they attacked me from both sides. But I had no idea just how powerful I was until the moment Marcelle tested my patience and found it lacking.

Wind exploded out of me as if I were made of it. In that moment, it was like I no longer existed. I’d become wind and I was everywhere at once. My magic caressed everything in a twenty-foot radius, sensing where it was, and then exploded. The guards surrounding me went flying ten feet into the air, at the same time that Marcelle’s body flew into the stone wall of the castle and then held there.

Because I was the wind and the wind was everywhere, I felt the moment the archer released the arrow. It hurtled through the air and I ripped it to splinters.

“Be reasonable!” Marcelle screamed as I stalked towards him, building the wind with me and creating a funnel in the courtyard. The wooden beams holding up the veranda creaked and the mortar between the stones crushed to sand. My feet lifted off the ground and I had to focus just to keep from flying away.

Reasonable? That bastard wanted me to reason with him after everything he’d put me through? It didn’t even deserve a response. It deserved death.

I threw the wind funnel right into his pinned body and his screams of agony tore into the chilly night. For the first few seconds, hearing him in pain brought me joy, but then bits of his skin began to separate from his body and his screams turned to moans and pleas for mercy and my heart softened.

This was torture. This wasn’t me. A clean quick kill was more humane. I could live with that.

My rage dissipated slightly. I pulled the wind back, but kept him suspended in midair, his arms and legs out like a star as his back rested against the cool gray stone. He was bleeding from a few spots on his face and arms. In his hands he held flickering flames as if he meant to attack me but didn’t have the strength.

I stepped closer to him, holding his gaze with mine as I measured his breathing and the air intake in his lungs.

“Marcelle, you—”

The words hadn’t finished leaving my mouth when a cold gust of wind hit my back and then over a dozen razor sharp icicles slammed into Marcelle’s body. His neck, his chest, arms, legs and stomach were pierced simultaneously. He was pinned like a butterfly to a board. He barely uttered a wail when blood dribbled from his mouth and his head slumped forward, the sound dying in his throat.

He was dead.

I knew in that moment that Lucien Thorne was behind me, but I didn’t have the courage to turn around and face him yet.

“Madelynn.” Lucien’s voice was a whisper, full of heartache and pain.

Tears threatened to obscure my vision and so I blinked them back rapidly, breathing in and out deeply.

I just stood there, frozen in shock and grief and shame. I knew that Lucien had just killed Marcelle so that I didn’t have to, and now I was free.

“Sugar plum,” Lucien tried.

It should have brought a smile to my lips, the fact that he was still showing some affection towards me, that he wasn’t mad. But I didn’t think he knew, he must not know the extent of it…

I turned finally, facing the winter king. He looked more handsome than I remembered, but my gaze went immediately to the giant black dragon standing behind him.

It was the dragon king.

Holy fae, he flew here with the dragon king? So that’s how he got past the armies of three courts. He flew.

Shaking myself from my stupor, I lifted my head high as my bottom lip trembled and I caught Lucien’s steely gaze. “Lucien, Marcelle and I were married in a carriage with a witness, and later…” My voice broke. “…that marriage was consummated against my will. It was all legal. So I’m sorry to inform you that I am no longer pure.”

Anger flashed across Lucien’s face and a blast of cold air slapped at my skin, causing the tears to fall to my cheeks and freeze there. Blades of ice shot from his palms and slammed into Marcelle’s body behind me. I spun and noticed his crotch area was now pierced through with four ice shards.

As I suspected, he didn’t know the extent of it.

Turning back to face Lucien, I closed my eyes, unable to see him like this, and then I heard him shuffle forward. His hands cupped my chin and then his lips were on mine. I gasped in shock and opened my eyes.

Pulling back from me, Lucien met my gaze. “Madelynn Windstrong, everything about you is pure. Your smile, your heart, your good intentions.”

I was at a loss for words… “But the decrees state that a royal must be pure—”

“Do you think I’m pure?” he asked honestly, and I blushed. The men were never really held accountable for that as there was no way to check. “I never wanted you for your purity, Madelynn, and tomorrow I’m going to change that decree.”

That got a sliver of a smile out of me. “But I’m… married.” My mind couldn’t grasp what Lucien was saying, how he was acting.

Lucien pointed to Marcelle’s dead body nailed to the wall with icicles. “Technically you’re a widow now.”

A sob escaped my throat. “Lucien, what are you saying? You still want me?”

I couldn’t allow myself to hope. Lucien looked at me like I’d gone mad. “I didn’t just convince my old friend here to fly me across the realm, while I froze everything in sight, so that we could be friends, Madelynn.”

Laughter pealed out of me, then I rushed forward into his arms, peppering his face and collarbone with kisses. He wrapped his arms around me and just held me as I finally felt safe for the first time in days. I pulled back to look at him. “You’re a good man, Lucien Thorne.”

“Shh.” He glanced over his shoulder as if checking to make sure no one was there. “I have a reputation to uphold.”

The small flicker of hope that I had held since Marcelle dragged me from my home roared to life. “I love you.” I leaned in and kissed him again, my lips hungrily searching for his, not caring that it wasn’t proper and that technically I should be a grieving widow who stayed single for a full year.

Forget the rules.

I was going to live for me and my happiness from now on.

Lucien eagerly returned my kiss and then pulled back and looked at the dragon king. “We should get going. The Nightfall queen has started a war on my border and she has an entire army of warriors with fae powers she stole from us.”

I felt my eyes widen. “And you came for me? Are you crazy?”

He gave me a halfcocked smile. “A little bit.”

So the stolen powers, she’d given them to her people! It didn’t make sense, she hated magic. Or maybe she just hated that she didn’t have any, and now that she did, she wanted to be the only one with it.

“What will happen to Summer Court? And Spring and Fall?” I asked, thinking of my parents and sister, and Birdie and all of the innocent people here.

Lucien gave me a look teeming with a mixture of rage and hurt. “Hazeville made their bed, they can lie in it! Forget them. They’re on their own.” He spun to walk us to the dragon king and I pulled on his arm.

When he turned to face me, his gaze softened slightly.

“Darling,” I cooed, and he steeled himself as if knowing I was about to ask something. “The people were just scared, and Marcelle may have forced them or forged some of the votes, we don’t know.”

Lucien shook his head. “It was not forged. The reason I had to fly here is because when I tried to come on horseback, I was fought. Fall, Spring, and Summer Guards all turned on me.”

I frowned, knowing he was right, but thinking of Birdie and her father who were against the separation. An idea came to me then. “If the Nightfall queen sees that the fae are united again and Marcelle is dead, she might back off, which will buy you time to go and see King Moon.” Axil Moon was the reclusive wolf king that I’d never met nor barely heard about, but I knew he was integral to Lucien’s plan to join all the races against Zaphira.

The winter king sighed, looking dejected. “She has Summer and Fall power. Enough of it that she fought me off last night when I tried.”

Shock settled over me which turned to anger. “She has wind power?”

“A lot of it, from multiple Fall fae I assume.”

That thief! How many of our missing fae had really just been science experiments to her? Had she been taking them for months? I felt sick thinking about it.

The wind picked up behind me as I tried to calm my rage. “Marcelle is dead, which makes me the queen of Hazeville. I was coronated. I will gather my people and meet you at Winter Court. We will fight with you as one and then you and I will marry to solidify the merging of the fae back to Thorngate.”

Lucien swallowed hard, his eyes glowing silver in the moonlight. “All I got from that was that you still wanted to marry me.”

Laughter bubbled up from my chest as I reached out and raked my hands through his hair. “Of course I still want to marry you. But we have to put our people first and push back the Nightfall queen.”

Lucien growled as if he didn’t agree with putting the people first.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a troop of Sun Guards approaching.

Rushing forward, I kissed Lucien chastely and then pushed him towards the dragon king. “I will see you on the battlefield.”

He frowned, not moving. “No, I won’t leave you again.”

I looked back at Marcelle’s corpse. “I can take care of myself. I promise.”

Surely he saw me fight off everyone. I’d only needed help with Marcelle because I didn’t want to torture him. I’d gone soft, but I had intended to kill him.

Lucien hadn’t left, and now the guards had reached us, pulling out bows and swords and igniting sun in their palms. Other Summer Court citizens were stepping out of their homes to see what the commotion was all about. When their gaze fell upon Marcelle’s body they gasped and covered their mouths in shock. They stared from Marcelle’s dead body to the winter king.

I threw a gust of wind at the guards and their swords and bows clattered to the ground. “Stand down!” I shouted. “Marcelle was lawfully executed for treason. I am your queen and leader now, and if you have a problem with that, then you may flee to Cinder Mountain,” I told them harshly. We didn’t have time for an uprising.

The dragon king chuffed from where he stood off to our left and I winced. “Sorry,” I mumbled to him. Cinder Mountain was in his lands, but it was well known that’s where everyone went when they weren’t happy with their lot in life.

The guards looked around at each other, and then again at Marcelle skewered on the wall.

“The Nightfall queen is attacking Winter Court right now,” I told them. “We must unite against her or she will pick us off one by one!”

Not one guard moved. They all just glared with absolute hatred at Lucien. And he was glaring right back at them.

“Bow to your queen!” Lucien growled, advancing on them. “Or I’ll freeze you all and be done with this entire charade.”

The guards and people who surrounded us hesitated, stepping back a few paces and away from him, but then scrambled to their knees as a slap of cold air rushed at them. One by one, they kneeled.

Okay, I would have liked to have earned their loyalty, but fear worked too.

“Marcelle stole my betrothed against her will!” Lucien bellowed so that the amassing crowd could hear. “He tried to rob me of my future and he split our great land, which made us look weak. Now the Nightfall queen attacks, and if it were up to me I would leave you all to fend for yourselves.”

We needed to work on his speech writing skills.

“But it’s up to me, as your reigning queen…” I stepped up beside Lucien, hoping to calm his intense energy. “…and so I decree that if you travel with me to the Winter Court and fight as one, I will make sure you are well guarded against the war that is sure to come upon us. I will protect you as I would protect my own family.”

The people looked nervously among themselves but remained silent, frozen in fear. No one wanted war, I understood that, but war had come to us.

The giant black dragon king flapped his wings anxiously.

“We have to go,” Lucien said to me. “Come with me. If the other courts join us, then fine, but if not, I say let them live out their own mistakes later. I no longer care to protect them. They’re ungrateful for the comfort and peace my reign brought to our lands.”

Ouch. He didn’t whisper that. As I was just deciding what to do, Birdie came out of nowhere. She jumped out from behind me and screamed, “Look out!” The warning had barely left her lips when an arrow lodged in my stomach. A burning pain like I’d never experienced before flared to life in my gut. It all happened so fast, it took me too long to register that I’d been gouged through with an arrow. My mouth popped open in shock, and then everything happened at once.

An agonizing scream thundered from Lucien’s chest and icicles flung from his hands, piercing the archer atop the roof that had attacked me. The archer’s body fell like a sack of flour to the ground.

Dead.

The people and surrounding guards gasped and began to back up in fear, whispers starting among them.

“No one move or I’ll freeze you all!” Lucien bellowed and they stopped. “You ungrateful, vile people. How dare you try to kill her!” The sky let loose with a thunderous clap as clouds rolled in. His voice sounded on the verge of panic. The temperature plunged as clumps of snow fell from the sky.

Birdie ran to my side and caught me as I fell. It was weird. I knew that I might die from this and these might be my only moments left, and yet the only thing I could think about was the line of succession for Summer Court. We were still a split nation, and with Marcelle gone, and now me injured… “Birdie, you need to bring Prince Mateo back from wherever Marcelle sent him. He is in charge until I get back…”

The unsaid words passed between us as well. He is in charge if I die. She nodded, tears lining her eyes. Even in death, I was ever the perfect royal. My mother would be proud.

Lucien was there then, ripping me from Birdie’s arms and tucking me to his chest. He grunted as he ran across the courtyard to where the dragon king waited. I peered over his shoulder to see every single soldier and townsperson on one knee, holding still for fear that Lucien would in fact freeze them to death. Lucien’s eyes scanned the crowd as if ready at any moment to turn them into ice blocks.

I clung to him as he stepped into the basket that was tied to a saddle of sorts atop the dragon king.

“Are we seriously about to fly?” I muttered, trying to ignore the wetness and pain in my stomach.

Lucien kept his hand pressed to my wound, the arrow still stuck inside of me poking out between his fingers. “Yes, and it’s rather fun in other circumstances.”

With that, the dragon king’s wings snapped out and he kicked off the ground, taking flight. A yelp of surprise ripped from my throat and then I coughed, wincing at a fresh wave of pain. I’d never felt pain quite like this. It was sharp and hot, and yet deep and throbbing as well.

“Shhh…” Lucien cradled me to his body, holding me so tightly that it hurt and felt good at the same time.

I looked up into his eyes and knew from the absolute terror marring his features that my wound was bad. A sudden sharp coldness pierced my stomach and I gasped, nearly passing out.

“I’m sorry, I had to freeze the wound. There’s too much bleeding.” He sounded like he was on the verge of losing it, and I felt bad for putting him through this. After losing his mom, and having a horrible father, I wanted to try to be a good thing in his life.

Blackness danced at the edges of my vision and I blinked rapidly to chase it away. I had no idea where he was flying me off to, what the point was.

“Lucien?” I whispered.

“Yes, sugar plum?” He leaned his forehead against mine.

Reaching up, I cradled his face and met his gaze head-on. I needed him to know something in case I went to be with the Maker. “I would have chosen you. Even if I had my pick of any man in the realm, I would choose you,” I told him. Arranged marriages didn’t give you the best confidence that you were wanted. I needed him to know that he was my choice, regardless of my father’s input or our royal lineage and the rules set before us.

A whimper lodged in his throat and then everything became too cold. I couldn’t tell if it was Lucien making it that way, or my soul finally going to be with my ancestors.

“Stay with me!” Lucien shook my shoulders and my eyelids snapped open. I fell asleep? When? I shivered, my teeth chattering as snow fell from the sky in clumps and thunder clapped around us.

“I’m sorry, my love. I have to keep you cold or you’ll bleed to death,” Lucien said, and then we made our descent.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” I told him through chattering teeth. “I don’t feel any… th… ing.”

He looked panicked at that, and the blackness at the edges of my vision grew wider until it encompassed everything. Suddenly I was drowning in blackness. My heavy body felt like it had fallen away and I was finally free.