“Why is he doing this?” I ask, trying to wrap my mind around the change.
Nevis stops and looks up at me. She’s so small but also incredibly strong. In the heart and mind, if not physically. “He loves her.”
“Morgan?”
“No, Anand, his true love from the days before. She’s his mate.”
Those are words I understand. Feelings I can comprehend. I nod and move toward the pipe to follow the others to the battle above. We’ve all done foolish things for love, I’m doing my own now.
32
Morgan
“I told you to kill him.”
The Morrigan’s words cut into my mind like a razor. I don’t need to look away from Bunny lying flat on the altar to know she has a smile on her face.
“You think I didn’t know you were going to him? That you’d forgiven him? Your weakness brought us to this moment, Nemain.”
I finally look at her. I’m not the only one; Anita, the audience, Casteel, and even the priest is clinging to her every word.
“What are you talking about?”
“You think I don’t want you at your peak strength before we bond? That I don’t want your raw power? You’re both alive because I need it that way.” She glances at Bunny and sneers. “Or did.”
The power she speaks of crackles in my fingers; if the Morrigan feels it, she doesn’t care. She nods at the priest. “Kill him and begin the ceremony.”
He walks to the altar and pulls out a sharpened blade on a small shelf beneath. Three goblets sit beneath Bunny’s head, a slanted piece of wood falling toward each one. The goblets are to be filled with blood. Bunny’s blood.
Although I feel my guardians in this world, they are not here. My eyes connect with Bunny’s. There isn’t an ounce of fear in his eyes. He’s always known it would come to this. Sacrifice is his role. His destiny.
Not if I can fucking help it.
The Morrigan, too caught up in her dramatics, turns her back to watch the priest work. I do what I came here to do. Channeling my lessons and training, I go for the weakest point, lunging for Anita and gripping her by her stupid, perfect hair.
“Ahh! Morgan!” she shrikes. I close a hand around her throat and the sound becomes more guttural. The Morrigan spins, anger twisting her lips. She doesn’t even have time to speak before I whisper in Anita’s ear and wrench her neck to the side, severing her spine in one snap.
Her body drops to the ground with a thud.
My strength surprises me. Clinton and Dylan taught me that move, but I’d never had the power to pull it off. But just then I knew I possessed it. I used it, and just as quickly I tear the slinky white dress at the collar down
to my feet and step out of the shell of insanity in my fighting suit.
“I don’t need her,” the Morrigan says. She flicks out her hand and whatever light—whatever energy Anita possessed--lifts from her body in a swirl and slams into the Queen. She licks her lips in pleasure. “She was rendered weak during the original split. She was nothing but a pawn and her duty is fulfilled. But you…you’re magnificent, Nemain. So much rage. So much anger. Don’t pretend you don’t feel the dark power surging in you. I can taste it from here.”
“But I don’t. That’s what you don’t understand, Your Highness,” I take a step forward. Casteel and his men haven’t made the slightest move. On her call or his, I do not know. “The Darkness is gone. Banished by the love of that man right there.” I point to Bunny. His eyebrow lifts at the word love. “You can kill him but you can’t take away what he’s given me. What we have together.”
A commotion rises at the edge of the field. I smile.
“What we all have together,” I amend. I pull my sword from my back, the one that works well in my world but is a force in this one. The jewels sparkle on the hilt. “Say goodbye to tyranny!” I shout to all of the Otherside.
And we begin to fight.
33
Bunny
Chaos explodes when Morgan raises her sword. Casteel’s men scatter to the edges of the field. The priest drops his knife and runs. Two queens face one another mere feet away.