Kerrigan couldn’t even blink. She watched as Zina’s great power rippled from her in such a force. Then, Kerrigan felt around the shape of the magic to her spirit beyond it, and she dropped out of the physical.
Zina was hunched over, sobbing onto her father’s figure. The feelings she couldn’t process in reality couldn’t be contained here. She’d frozen the outside world, only to try to come to grips with what was in front of her.
Kerrigan came to her feet and put her hand on Zina’s back. She gasped and jumped away from Kerrigan.
“You don’t understand,” Zina cried.
“No, I can’t. I lost a parent before I could feel the sting of their absence. But I know what it is to be abandoned by someone you love. I know how it can fester and burrow deep until you feel like you can never touch that place within you. And I know it’s harder to move on, harder to see them as people who made choices, than it is to just be angry.”
Zina wiped her tears. “He lied to me about my mother. He lied, and now, he’s gone. I’ll never get those years back.”
“You’re right. What he did was wrong. There’s no excuse, but there’s a reason. He wanted to protect you. He might not have been the best father. In the end, he made the choice he thought would hurt you the least. He did that because he loved you.”
“I know,” Zina finally said, looking so small in that moment. “He wanted this fight. He wanted it.”
“Mei took this final battle from him. Maybe you should honor him by ending it.”
Zina nodded, tears forming rivulets down her cheeks, and then held her hand out. “Let’s end it then.”
They came back into reality together. Zina released her magic in a rush, and everyone collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. She held her head high above the lot of them and magically projected her voice.
“Your king is dead. Lay down your weapons and surrender, or you will find no mercy,” Zina said, her voice reaching far beyond the walls of the square to the soldiers out into the field.
The Fae before them shook with terror at her ferocious power and laid down their arms. They fell to their knees in surrender. Dishonorable for their people, but better than every single person dying.
She heard the clatter of weapons all through the city. And at the top of the tower, a white flag was hoisted over Lethbridge.
61
The Defeat
ARBOR
“They’re rounding us up,” Prescott said frantically. “We need to get out of here.”
Arbor pressed her fingers into her temples. “How are we supposed to do that?”
She wanted to shriek at him. They were finished. Everything she had worked for was gone. Fordham and Kerrigan had killed Wynter. She was buried under the rubble, and what was Arbor supposed to do with that? Queen Viviana had surrendered in a hurry after Samael had been killed, and there was no one else to take his place. He’d finally kicked the bucket, and she didn’t even have a person to put in his position. All her work for nothing. It wasn’t as if anyone would accept her as queen. Not with her bloodline. Not without Fordham or Wynter for her to puppet. Gods, she was really and truly screwed.
“I don’t know. You’re the genius,” he barked. Uncharacteristically Pres.
It set her teeth on edge. “We need to figure it out, or they’re going to kill us.”
“They don’t seem to be killing people.”
“I don’t care,” she snapped, grabbing a bag and stuffing enough valuables in it for them to get by. They’d barred the door long ago, but surely, this old city had a secret passageway. “Start looking for a way out.”
She pushed against the walls, and Pres went to the closet. They touched everything they could find. But if there was a way out, she didn’t know it. And she certainly didn’t find it before the door burst open and a man walked inside. He looked as self-important as all the rest.
“Come on out,” he said, sword aloft. “Every one of you needs to be accounted for.”
She opened her bag and showed him a diamond the size of his palm. “I’ll give you this if you leave this room and act like you never saw us.”
The man ignored the diamond and grabbed her arm. “Don’t care for your bribes. Just move along.”
“Pres,” she gasped.
“Unhand my sister.”
“You come along too,” he said, throwing Arbor bodily into the empty hallway.
Her shoulder collided with the opposite wall, and something crunched. She gasped in pain, her eyes watering.
She had never been a part of the military, much to her cousin’s chagrin. She knew battle magic but hadn’t used it in so long that it didn’t even come to her naturally. Prescott had more than her, and he tussled with the man before also being casually thrown out of the room.