Prince of Air and Darkness (The Darkest Court)

Acres of ash.

I drop my glamour and place my hand on the dirt. There’s nothing here. No soul. No magick. Burned away like the harvest, cast to the wind and forgotten. There’s nothing I can work with, nothing I can shape to fix this.

Wrecked. This place and me and Finn.

Finn.

I fall apart. Feathers and wings and beaks and jet eyes flying over hill, over dale toward Mathers. Reaching out for any trace of him. Spreading myself through the air until I feel that prick of light, the energy coiled inside him.

Rage. Pain. Grief. Burning him alive.

Sue and Herman and Sebastian and Gumba jump when I collapse onto the grass of the field on the outskirts of the university grounds. So hard to pull myself back together, to knit the parts into a whole.

Words. So many words in so many voices. All there except his.

He stands apart from them, arms at his sides. Swollen, red eyes. Chest heaving. Staring as if he doesn’t recognize me.

I crawl toward him, staggering to my feet, ignoring the continual itch at the edge of my glamour, the blood leaking its way out of my shoulder.

I’m losing him.

I’m sorry I’m sorry I’msorryI’msorryImsorrysorrysorry Oh, Finn, so sorry—

He chuckles, but it’s not his normal laugh. This one’s fragile, bordered with too much pain. “Don’t you dare.”

Another step closer to him.

I should have been there.

“You lied.”

The ley line pulses with that statement and it burns along my skin, vicious and feral.

I did and it nearly killed me.

“You told me to trust that you would choose me over the Court. When I asked for your help, you were too busy torturing an innocent faerie to show. Did you even take the time to wash the blood off your hands before coming to find me?”

He throws another wave of magick forward. I wince when it slams into me. Stronger this time, forcing me to push my weight against it if I want to move closer to him.

The Gorgon’s voice rises and falls, laced with fear. Doesn’t matter.

“It was my home, Roark. We’re losing my home and it’s my fault because I couldn’t make it work alone. I did exactly what you said. I tried to control it, but it was wrong and I ruined everything.”

I know. Finn, I know. I saw the land. Felt it. I understand now how wrong I was. Too late, but I understand now.

Our—no, his—friends shout and I shield us to give us a moment of privacy. This is between him and me, whatever the cost.

“It was wrong. Just like we’re wrong.” The words are mechanical, as if he’s just understanding them for the first time.

“Please.” My lips crack around the word and my mouth fills with copper and regret. “I love you.”

The ley line explodes outward. Traces my nerves with hellfire until they glow under my skin. Heat spills down my cheeks. The drops are black. Blood, not tears.

I want this pain. To take it, as he knows I will. He’s trying to kill me right now because no man could feel this much and live and he’s giving it to me the same way he gave me the ley line.

His fury peels me apart, unmakes me, until only one thing remains, impossible to burn away: I love you.

I choke on air when the heat vanishes and my head rings with the new silence. I cough up blood and smell smoke as my clothes smolder.