Kellee
The bowels of Arcon groaned louder the deeper we descended. Wisps tossed their light around, casting crawling shadows along the walls. My vakaru senses itched. Those shadows could be alive. Just because I had unseelie in me didn’t mean I was immune to them. Hapters had proven that. Now, all those Hapters monsters were here. I’d have preferred Talen next to me than Eledan.
The king walked ahead, dark hair swishing without a care in the world, and here I was, following him into the darkness. This was not how I’d imagined events would go.
The deeper we went, the cooler the air became. It licked at my face and neck, and had my skin bristling. Even the air was alive down here, and I had no choice but to breathe its poison in. Fucking Faerie.
Winged dark fae clung to the ceiling and watched us pass beneath them. They looked like hairless bats, if bats were man-sized. I’d seen the monsters of Hapters. What we found down here wouldn’t get any prettier.
“Nightshade…” Hissing voices echoed at our passing. Not for me, but for Kesh. They sensed we were all connected, which was why none had decided to impale itself on my claws. Yet.
The green orb chamber had the same throbbing energy as Shinj’s two hearts. Life magic leaked outward, washing over my face, sticking to everything, and trying to smother me in Faerie. I wrinkled my nose, fighting off a sneeze. Shadow after shadow writhed over the dome walls. I’d seen them on Valand, when Talen had tried to subdue them. Those wraiths were my vakaru or their essence. The injustice had my teeth aching.
“Control yourself, Kellee.” Eledan smirked.
“I am,” I growled back, “or you’d have more holes in you.”
“Are you sure you can wrangle a vakaru army? It would be a terrible mistake to bring them back only to make the situation worse.”
The bastard’s smile was hanging out on his lips again. I knew how to wipe that smile off his face. “What’s with you and this key you told me about in a dream?”
Sure enough, he straightened and the smile vanished. Turning his back on me, he approached the huge green orb. Light flowed over and around him, not consuming him, just lapping at his edges.
“To do this,” he began, raising his voice against the skitter and scurry of claws marking the walls, “there will be a sacrifice.”
I wasn’t getting my answer about the key, then. “What kind of sacrifice?” I inched closer, absorbing the beat of magic.
“A death for a life.” He stared into the green.
“What?”
“Did you think their resurrection would be free?” He slid his attention to me, looking every part the bewitching fae well versed in luring innocents to their deaths. “The lifewell can rejuvenate, but to bring the dead back to life, new life must come from somewhere.”
“That’s not how it worked when you healed me here before.”
“You weren’t dead when I brought you here, just close to it.”
A death for a life? I couldn’t tell if he was full of karushit. He knew I wanted this and would do anything for it. “What life do you suggest?” The thought alone knotted my insides.
Eledan considered the question before looking back the way we’d come. “There are hundreds of dark fae here and more arriving. They seem like a reasonable trade to have your battle-hardened vakaru back, don’t you think?”
Kill the dark fae to bring the vakaru back?
I couldn’t do it.
I could not take a life in exchange for the lives of others. That was not my way.
“Hmm…” he mused. “So close to having your world back, yet so far.”
“You’re a real piece of work, Eledan. There’s no mystery why Mab didn’t care for you like she did Ober—”
I had the wall at my back and Eledan’s cool fingers around my throat before I could finish speaking his brother’s name. Unfortunately for him, I also had my claws lodged beneath his ribs, ready to thrust in and zip open his insides. His fingers squeezed, and the Mad Prince snarled in my face, his true fae colors showing.
“Go on.” I bared my teeth. “Push me. I’d like nothing more than to gut you right here.”
The words wormed their way through his rage. He blinked, caught himself, and withdrew, looking down at the tears in his shirt where my claws had dug in. I hadn’t cut him, but we both knew I could have.
“If you aren’t willing to make the sacrifice”—he tugged his shirt straight—“I will.”
“No, you won’t. If you want to redeem your brother’s fuckups, you won’t touch the dark fae. Leave them be. They’ve been through enough.”
“The vakaru are better fighters. We will need them against the Hunt and against those on Faerie who do not want to end this war.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I backed away. This was over. “I’m not condemning the dark fae just because they’re convenient for you.”
“Don’t your vakaru deserve the same?” Green light poured over his face, hollowing his cheeks.
“My vakaru are gone.” I had the wraiths, and with the dark fae, it would have to be enough. “If you make a move to sacrifice the dark fae, I’ll do everything in my power to stop you, key or not.”
He glimpsed my claws. “Then you had better hope Kesh can control the dark fae where Talen could not, because we will not get a second chance to stop the Hunt.”
“She will, and if you knew her like you think you do, you’d know it too.”
He took one long look at the lifewell. “I suppose I do.”
Kesh arrived at the command deck with Sirius and Sota in tow. She saw me at the window and tripped over her feet and her words. Whatever she’d been saying to Sota, it was forgotten as she came across the room in a flurry of her dark coat and hair. The slightest flicker of vulnerability about her had me wanting to meet her halfway. I stood firm, watched her climb the steps, and braced for whatever words she flung my way. Instead of attacking, she threw herself in my arms, the press of her soft and warm and achingly familiar. I breathed in her leather and metal smell, wishing we were alone.
“What happened?” she asked.
“There were complications. As with all things Eledan, the cost was too high.”
She lifted her head, and the fear in her eyes caught my breath.
She’d thought she’d lose me. I’d been so consumed by the thought of resurrecting the vakaru that I hadn’t seen her concern.
She fumbled with the star, trying to unclip it.
“Keep it.” She looked up with those fine, emotive eyes, equal parts fierce and vulnerable, and I couldn’t stand to see her pain a second longer. I crushed her close, folding her into my arms, not caring about our audience. “You’re never getting rid of me.”
Never is a lie.
Not for mortals.
By cyn, I wanted to take her away from here and run so far time couldn’t catch us, but she wouldn’t come.
“The wraiths are here,” I added, pushing aside selfish thoughts, “as are the dark fae. Eledan believes the last lifewell is on Faerie. He said the dark fae will travel there next.”
“When?” She pulled out of my arms, her barriers slamming down.
“When you say so.”
She nodded and absently looked toward Sirius and Sota. “We had some success. The Earthens won’t fire on us, as long as we don’t do anything to alarm them.”
I snorted. My being alive routinely alarmed them. “I never doubted you.”
“Then we should ready the ship to return to Faerie,” she said, firm in her conviction. “I need to see Eledan…”
Just like that, she was back in motion, her focus on the task ahead. I rarely felt the passage of time so keenly as when I was with her. Everything in me ached to pull her back, to capture her light and savor it before she burned out.
“Find Talen,” she said, already halfway to the door. “Ask him if the Excalibur will help us without him having to bond with the ship.” The next words she muttered almost too softly to hear. “I can’t lose him as well.”
After she’d left, Sirius and Sota lingered with me in the quiet, their thoughts likely along the same lines as mine. There wasn’t enough time left to love her how we wanted.