ANOTHER LAST STAND
It’s here.
Cold flooded my veins, as my insides immediately turned themselves into a tangle of knots. I looked at Nyx, who remained very still as the echo of the howl reverberated through the walls and floors of the castle. On the floor, the Forgotten collapsed into soft but incessant giggles, covering its glowing eyes with both hands.
With a growl, our shaggy host turned and gazed out one of the tiny barred windows in the wall. “What is that?” he asked as the echoes died away. “Is something coming onto my land? Intruders will not be tolerated. Stay here,” he told us. And before we could stop him, he lowered his head, shouldered his way to the stairwell, and vanished through the frame.
“Wait!” Meghan rose swiftly, but the beast was already gone, his thunderous footsteps fading down the stairs. The Iron Queen gave an exasperated sigh and stepped out of the cell, her gaze falling on me as she came through the doorframe. “Puck? You’ve faced this creature before. Is it...?”
I gave a solemn nod. “It’s him, princess.” The way my insides were churning, the sudden rage and dread coursing through my veins...it couldn’t be anything else. My voice was shaking, and I couldn’t tell if it was from fear or a sudden, gleeful anticipation. “The big bastard has either tracked us down, or is after our giggly friend.”
Meghan returned the nod. “Then it looks like we have no choice but to face it.” Her blue eyes continued to gaze at me, worry and concern shining through. “Puck...are you going to be all right? You don’t have to fight now. The rest of us can take care of it—”
“Not a chance, princess.” My words sounded strange; cold and flat, even as I felt a big, toothy grin stretch my face. “I owe that bastard a little retribution, so if you think I’m gonna sit this one out, I’m afraid I won’t be doing that.” Raising my daggers, I gave them all a hard smile. “It brought out the old Robin Goodfellow. Let’s see how it likes dealing with him now.”
I could see the worry on the faces of both Meghan and Ash, and felt Nyx’s steady presence beside me. The howl came again, closer this time, and a chill crept through the air, coating the stones with frost for a split second before it melted away. I shivered and blinked ice crystals from my lashes, as the Forgotten in the cell curled into itself, making hopeless, nonsensical sounds. Fragmented bits of “it’s here, it’s here,” drifted out between giggles.
Meghan closed her eyes. “All right,” she said, and her voice turned steely. Opening her eyes, she gazed at all of us. “Let’s do this. Be careful. Watch out for each other. We don’t know the extent of what this thing is capable of.”
Ash drew his sword, and Nyx called her light blades to her hands. “We’re ready, Your Majesty,” she said. “We follow you.”
“You can’t stop it,” the Forgotten moaned as we turned to leave. “No one can stop it. The end approaches. Evenfall has come. The world will crack, and the abyss will swallow us whole.”
And on that cheerful note, we walked down the stairs, back through the castle, and into the courtyard, where a monstrous shadow appeared at the edge of the Briars.
I took a deep breath, forcing back the fear, the rage, and all the other emotions that came rushing to the surface. It was him, all right. The big bad himself. The monster with a capital M.
It towered over the wall, a horrible conglomeration of animal parts twisted together into the ugliest mofo that ever walked the Nevernever. It was even bigger than last time, and the shadowy tendrils on its back and shoulders were everywhere now, making it look part squid as well. It stepped over the wall, and as it did, black tentacles sprouted from the ground and stones around it, writhing and snapping at the air.
A challenging roar rang out as we reached the edge of the courtyard, not coming from the big Monster, but from the shaggy beast we’d met earlier. The lord of the castle stomped forward, bristling, the spiky hair on his back and shoulders standing straight up. “Intruder,” he snarled. “You are not welcome here, creature! Leave my castle, or I will be forced to tear you apart!”
The Monster turned its antlered head toward the smaller beast, pinning it with that cold, blank-eyed stare. Raising its head, it howled, making my gut contract and the tentacles surrounding it thrash wildly.
The beast gave a roar of his own, dropped to all fours, and charged the Monster.
“That’s not good,” I muttered.
The Monster also dropped to all fours as the beast came in and leaped fearlessly for its head with its claws and fangs bared. The Monster didn’t move, but the tendrils rose up, a black tide that intercepted the lunging beast, wrapping around him and dragging him from the air. The beast gave a snarl, fighting and ripping several tentacles from the ground, but the Monster continued to lift him, and he eventually vanished beneath a tangle of darkness.
“That’s also not good,” I said as we all hurried forward.
Another roar echoed over the courtyard, and the beast burst from the knot of tentacles, landing on all fours in front of the Monster. He was bigger now, his horns longer, his paws huge and tipped with massive talons. Growling, he swung a thick, blocky head toward us, fangs curling from his muzzle, his eyes empty of reason.
“Trespassers,” he rumbled, ribbons of saliva dripping from his fangs to the ground. “Kill you. Kill you all!”
“Oh, that’s really not good!” I said as the beast growled and sprang toward us, huge jaws gaping wide.
With a bellow of flame, Coaleater reared up into his stallion form. “Nyx,” he cried, and Nyx immediately leaped onto his back. “Stop the creature,” the Iron faery told us. “We will deal with the beast.”
Nyx met my gaze, her golden eyes shining with several emotions I couldn’t place. “Be careful, Puck,” she said firmly. “Don’t lose yourself completely. I still want to see the Nevernever when this is all over.”
I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat and grinned back. “Count on it.”
Coaleater whirled and galloped straight for the beast bounding over the courtyard toward us. I watched them go, feeling my heart leave with the silver-haired faery assassin, my insides a tangled mess. Coaleater charged at the beast, swerving aside at the last minute, and Nyx’s swords lashed out, scoring the shaggy hide. The beast roared in fury and whirled, chasing them toward another section of the courtyard, away from the rest of us.
I breathed deep, trusting my assassin would come through this just fine, and turned toward the real problem at the edge of the Briars.
The Monster let out a bellow and prowled forward, and the carpet of tentacles began creeping toward us as well. The closer they got, the colder the air became, and the more my own stomach churned with fear and anger. I could feel the taint now, the roiling mire of rage and hate, emanating from the Monster and seeping into the ground. The ruthlessness in me stirred, responding to the glamour aura, as unwelcome thoughts and memories began flickering through my head.
“Nothing to say, Goodfellow?”
I blinked and glanced at Ash, walking beside me with his sword at his side. He shot me a look, then turned his attention back to the Monster prowling ever closer. “This is the quietest I’ve ever heard you before a fight. You’re usually taunting our opponent or making ridiculous comments by now. Don’t tell me you’re scared.”
I sneered at him. “Me? Scared? Who do you think you’re talking to, ice-boy? Is this the face of someone who’s afraid of the big bad monster?”
He shot me another glance, his brow furrowed. And I knew I couldn’t hide it. Not from him. I was afraid. My hands were shaking, and the phantom wound I had taken before was throbbing, an icy cold pulse right below my ribs. But I was also furious, shaking with anger and hate for this Monster. This thing that dared make me, Puck, feel real terror for the first time in eons, who had twisted my world around and turned me into something I loathed. The Robin Goodfellow everyone had despised for his cruelty and vicious pranks. Who held grudges, played with human emotions, and crafted elaborate schemes of revenge. The faery who was contemplating becoming an enemy to his best friend once more.
So, yeah, I wasn’t feeling very jolly at the moment. I felt less like making jokes and more like carving this bastard’s ugly head from its neck. Though I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, even with the Ice Prince and the Iron Queen at my side.
“What is this thing?” Meghan whispered, as the silhouette of the creature grew even larger, huge antlers framing the moon. “The amount of negative glamour it’s putting out...is frightening.”
“Yeah,” I growled. “Whatever you do, don’t let those tentacles touch you. It’s not fun, and you might end up...a little different than before. I found that out the hard way.” I spared a glance at the direction Nyx and Coaleater had fled but couldn’t see either of them among the forest of statues.
Ash raised his sword, letting the icy blue light wash over us all. For just a moment, in the chilly glow of the blade, the prince’s face was pale. “Then let’s kill it quickly, before it does any more damage,” he said, and plunged the blade down, sinking it into the earth.
With a rush of glamour, ice spread out from the tip of the sword, coating the ground in a frigid wave. It covered the stones, the walls, the twisted statues scattered throughout the courtyard. The writhing carpet of tentacles froze as they were encased in ice, then shattered into thousands of tiny shards, creating a crystalline blizzard in their wake.
That was our cue. I sprang forward with a snarl, daggers in both hands, racing across the frozen ground toward the Monster. Ash was right beside me, throwing out a flurry of frozen knives that spun through the air right at the creature’s ugly face.
The Monster lowered its head, and the dozens of tendrils on its back and shoulders flailed, striking the darts from the air. By that time, though, Ash and I were right beneath it, darting to the left and right as it lashed out, curved talons slamming into the flagstones and shattering them with a roar.
Fear suffocated me. This close to the Monster, it was hard to breathe without gasping in terror. I shoved down the dread and latched on to the rage that came bubbling to the surface, anger toward the Monster, toward Ash, toward Oberon, Titania, and the entire Nevernever. I channeled that rage into a knifepoint and with a snarl of my own, slammed my daggers deep into the Monster’s side. At the same time, I felt the chill from Ash’s sword as the ice blade came slashing down, hitting the creature from the other side and probably severing something vital.
Beneath my dagger hilts, the creature’s dark, leathery hide rippled like shadow, almost insubstantial. The Monster itself barely made a sound. No howl of pain, no roars of anger or agony; my blow didn’t even seem to register. I yanked my blades free, and a spray of darkness followed, writhing and thrashing as it solidified into a long black tendril, grabbing at me as I danced away.
Despair and anger rose up, even as I shoved them back. Same thing as before; I couldn’t hurt the bastard, and even worse, my strikes seemed to be making it stronger. On the Monster’s other side, I saw Ash dodge a vicious swipe and lash out with his blade, cutting deep into the hairy arm. It should’ve severed the limb completely, or at the very least opened a huge gash in the flesh. I’d seen him do it before, on things that were just as big. But there was nothing. No blood, no reaction from the creature; only those wisps of darkness that turned into more of those damned tentacles.
The Monster lashed out with its other arm, and Ash rolled away, just barely avoiding the claws that raked deep gouges in the stone. I darted in while it was distracted with Ash, leaped off a thigh, and drove my weapons into the base of its spine as hard as I could, putting all my anger and hate for this thing into the blow.
It jerked up with a snarl, blank white eyes rolling back to glare at me, giving Ash just enough time to slide beneath it and jam the full length of his sword into its chest, far enough that the very tip erupted through the skin of its back.
Panting, we circled around to its front, watching as it spun to follow us with that horrible, surprising grace. Its movements were slow and smooth, not hampered in the slightest. Though three feet of superchilled metal right through their rib cage would’ve killed most monsters, all we had done to this one was annoy it.
Ash shook his head with a frustrated noise. “This isn’t working, Goodfellow.”
“Oh, you think, ice-boy?” I curled a lip at him. “What was your first inkling?”
He glanced at me, and his eyes narrowed, anger sparking to life within. My gut twisted as I recognized that glare. The same look I’d faced when Ash had been out to kill me.
And then, the skies flashed, and a bolt of lightning streaked down to hit the Monster in the skull. It roared, the first sound of pain I’d heard from it tonight, and it staggered back, baleful white eyes snapping to the figure behind us.
Meghan stood a few paces away, sword drawn and shining beside her, one arm outstretched toward the Monster. She blazed with power, her blue eyes hard as she stared at the creature, and for just a moment, my heart swelled with hope.
Then the Monster threw back its head and roared, and the ground at our feet erupted. I scrambled back as dark tendrils rose into the air, writhing and lashing out at everything. They spread over the whole courtyard, until no part of the ground was left uncovered.
I dodged a pair of tentacles, leaped through another, then felt one snake around my waist, burning with cold as it pulled me down. Images flooded my head again, unwanted and unwelcome, and rage flared. Snarling, I freed my arm and sliced through the coils around my waist, seeing Meghan and Ash also entangled in the darkness. The ones surrounding Ash had frozen solid, but more were rising to take their place, and a couple had managed to coil around the prince’s legs and sword arm. With a flash of glamour, they stiffened and iced over, and the prince tore himself free with sharp crinkling sounds.
Just as a massive claw snatched him up, lifted him into the air, and slammed him into the stones with a sickening crack.
My heart stopped beating. The Monster gave a howl of fury and triumph as it pounded Ash into the ground again, then lifted him up with a roar, jaws gaping to bite off the prince’s head.
“NO!” Meghan raised her hand, and a pulse of electricity rippled through the ground, centered on her.
The writhing carpet of tentacles jerked, snapping wildly, then vanished into coils of darkness on the wind. With a yell, the queen flung out her other arm, lightning streaking from her fingers to slam into the Monster’s chest. The creature snarled, dropped a bloody Ash to the stones, and went stumbling back a few steps, shielding its face.
With lightning sizzling around her, the queen strode forward, grabbing Ash as he struggled to his feet. The Ice Prince’s long coat was tattered, blood streaming down one side of his face, but he still turned and gestured weakly at the Monster, and ice spears sprang up from the ground, surrounding them both in a protective ring of frozen crystal.
“Ash.” Meghan’s voice was breathless, her normal calm shattered. She sounded terrified now, kneeling on the flagstones with her Ice Prince, clutching his shoulders. Her fear echoed over the wind, carried on the wisps of darkness till fading around us. “Talk to me. We have to get you out of here.”
“I’m fine,” Ash gritted out. He didn’t sound fine; he was obviously hurt, and the tightness of his voice showed how bad it was. Like Nyx, the stoic Ice Prince never let on how badly he was wounded. His free hand came up, covering Meghan’s, as he met her gaze. “I’m fine, Meghan,” he rasped again. “I can still fight.”
Above them, the Monster reared onto its hind legs and roared, dark tendrils flailing, and more rose from the ground, surrounding the pair in the circle of ice. Meghan gestured toward it, and the skies flashed as another lightning bolt slammed into its skull, but this time it didn’t even flinch.
Watching them, I had a sudden, strangely calming realization. We were going to die here. The prophecy, fragmented and incomplete as it was, already said this Monster was unkillable. That no one could stop it. If even the Iron Queen’s magic couldn’t give this Monster pause, there was nothing we could do.
I was going to lose them both.
A hollow pit opened inside me. A world without Meghan and Ash? I couldn’t imagine it. What would I do if they were suddenly gone? If I could never again tease Meghan or get under ice-boy’s skin? If we never fought side by side together, explored new and hidden places in Faery, or saved the Nevernever one more time? And suddenly, all that resentment and jealousy I’d been carrying around seemed petty in comparison. Why had I been so angry? Why had this Monster been able to bring out the absolute worst side of Robin Goodfellow?
Nyx’s voice came back to me, soft and damning. This desire for revenge against the prince consort—is it because you’re still in love with the Iron Queen, or is it simply because you lost?
I hadn’t replied, not truthfully, because deep down, I already knew the answer. It was the reason Nyx had become so intriguing, the reason the Lady’s assassin was constantly on my mind and in my thoughts. Because...I had moved on. I didn’t love Meghan that way anymore, not romantically.
But if I had moved on, then the reason for my anger and resentment was because I had lost to Ash. Because I had been too proud, stubborn, or defiant to admit that, after everything, after all the fighting, grief, and hell we put each other through, he was the one who had come out on top. He had won his soul, gotten the girl. And worst of all, he’d been able to forgive us both and put all that anger and hate behind him.
My throat closed at the realization. Ash had forgiven me for Ariella, and he had forgiven himself for all those bad years between us, but I had never done the same. This feeling of bitterness and rage... I had carried it around for years, never airing it, burying it under laughter and sarcasm, letting it fester without even knowing it was there. The Monster hadn’t changed me into something I wasn’t, it just brought all those feelings to the surface again.
And now, I would never have the chance to set things right.
What? No, screw that!
Deep inside, a tiny spark of defiance flared, a bit of Puck surging to life. Give up now? Was I really going to sit here and watch my best friends get stomped into paste by some random big nasty? I’d never surrendered without a fight before. And even if the prophecy was true, even if this thing was unkillable, was I going to let that stop me? Or I was I going to look it in the eye and laugh in its ugly face?
The Nevernever could be crumbling under our feet, echoed a voice in my head, Grimalkin’s, a memory from not so very long ago, and you would make a joke about it.
Well, duh. It would be my last chance to. If I’m going to stare Death in the face, I’m gonna do it laughing at him.
Oh yeah. That was who I was. In all this chaos, I had somehow forgotten.
I took a deep breath. Welp, no time like the present to make up for it. Especially since we were probably all going to die. Bending down, I picked up my daggers, twirling them in my hands as I rose. Gazing at the Monster, at the creature who was very likely going to kill me, I grinned.
Ash had struggled to his feet, and now he and Meghan stood side by side, facing the Monster who towered over them, silhouetted against the moon. Surrounded by a shrinking island in a sea of black, the Ice Prince brandished his sword, and the Iron Queen raised a hand, lightning snapping at her fingertips.
The Monster roared, rearing onto its hind legs, talons spread and horrible jaws gaping, to tear them apart once and for all.
With a cry and the flapping of wings, a flock of screaming ravens flew right into its face. Shrieking and cawing, they swirled around its head, tearing at tentacles, pecking at eyes and skin and everything they could reach. The Monster bellowed and staggered back, swiping madly at the screaming cloud of birds, ripping them from the air. A few ravens fell, exploding into puffs of black feathers as they hit the ground, but the rest continued to shriek and flap around its head.
Cawing, the ravens swirled together, forming a whirlwind of feathers, wings, and talons right above the Monster’s skull. With a final raucous caw, the flock scattered, flying away in different directions, and with a loud whoop, I dropped from the mass of feathers onto the Monster’s head.
“Hey, ugly! Guess who it is!”
The Monster jerked, throwing its head back. I grabbed one of its antler tines and waved at the eye that rolled back to glare at me. “Oh hey, fancy running into you here. I was in the area and thought I’d drop in to say hello. You don’t mind, do you?”
It snarled, and the tentacles on its neck and shoulders flailed, lashing out at me. I dodged one, swiped at another, and scrambled farther up the Monster’s bony skull, away from the writhing shadows. “Whoops, guess I came at a bad time, then. No, no! Bad tentacle, no touchie!” I spun and danced on the Monster’s head, avoiding the lashing tendrils while sparing a split-second glance at the figures below. “Hey, ice-boy, not that I don’t enjoy monster-skull tap dancing by myself, but feel free to jump in anytime!”
With a howl, the Monster lowered its head and charged a pair of statues standing together against a corner of the courtyard wall. I saw what it was intending and leaped off its head with a yelp, just as the Monster’s bony skull slammed into the figures and shattered them into tiny marble fragments. The tentacle-covered ground rushed up at me, but there was a pulse of static filled glamour that sent lightning coils across the ground, and the carpet of black vanished into mist.
I hit the flagstones with a grunt and immediately scrambled back as the Monster’s claws smashed into the ground where I’d just been. The creature lunged at me with a roar that made the ground shake, and more shadowy tendrils erupted all around me. I could feel the rage and hatred pulsing from them, from the Monster, from the dark corners of my own heart. I could feel the fear rising again, seeking to drag me under, to suffocate me.
I laughed instead, and a strange thing happened. The tendrils reaching for me drew back, just slightly, as if recoiling from my presence. Of course, that didn’t stop the Monster’s talons, which came scything down with the force of a missile. I ducked beneath them, wincing as flagstone chips peppered my back.
“You know, for a big, scary monster, you’re awfully clingy,” I called up to the creature, who curled a lip at the sound of my voice. “Do you want to kill us, or do you just want a hug? I’m getting mixed messages here.”
It smashed a fist at me. I leaped back, grinning. “Okay, so not a hug. Maybe you just need a friend? Are you a lonely monster who’s just misunderstood?”
With a roar, the creature barreled right at me, coming in shockingly fast. I scrambled back, but with no room to move aside, my choices were either leap into the tentacles or get stomped by the Monster. I saw its gaping, fang-filled mouth coming at me, gripped my dagger, and leaped straight up.
The creature’s bony head hit me square in the chest, driving all the air from my lungs, but I raised my dagger and stabbed it into one blazing white eye, before the force of the blow hurled me back several feet. As I flew into the air, I heard the Monster let out a scream of pain at last.
I hit the ground on my back and felt the tendrils latch on, coiling around my waist, arms, legs, and chest. Cold burned my skin, images and emotions flooding my mind, even as I tried blocking them out. Rage. Betrayal. Despair. I felt the darkness rising again, trying to drown every good emotion and memory I had.
Nope, not this time, big ugly. With a deep breath, I closed my eyes, summoning the courage for what I should have done a long time ago. Are you listening, then? I forgive Ash. I forgive Ash, and myself, for everything that happened between us. I forgive myself for that thing with Ariella, I forgive Meghan for not loving me, hell, I’ll even forgive Oberon for being such a jackass all these centuries. Let’s start over, clean slate, blank everything. Free love for everyone, whaddya think about that!
The coils around my limbs vanished, and the bleak emotions trying to suffocate me disappeared. Panting, I struggled to my elbows, then looked up into a pair of familiar silver eyes. Ash gazed down at me, glowing blue sword unsheathed, his face shadowed with concern.
I grinned up at him. “A little late there, ice-boy. Why do you always have to wait until the last dramatic moment?”
A relieved expression crossed his face, and he held out a hand. I grabbed it and let him pull me upright, meeting Meghan’s worried gaze as she joined us. Several yards away, the Monster was howling and thrashing about, crushing the stones and the statues around it with its tantrum.
“Puck, are you all right?”
“Never better, princess.” I offered a real smile, which startled her for a moment. “Just had to find a little piece of me that was lost for a while. I’m good now. I’m back, and I’m here to stay.”
“You hurt it.” Ash sounded surprised, but there was something else in his voice that wasn’t there before. Hope. “It didn’t ignore it like last time.”
“Yep, I did, didn’t I? It looks like the invincible monster isn’t quite as invincible as it would have us believe.” Still grinning, I turned to look at the Monster, who had lowered its arm and was now glaring at us with the coldest hate, its ruined eye now an empty black hole. “You know, I think I’ve figured this thing out,” I said, smiling with the realization. “I believe our big ugly friend feeds on negative emotion. That’s why we couldn’t hurt it, and that’s why it tries to evoke those emotions whenever it can. Things like rage, fear, and despair only make it stronger.”
“So, the answer is not to feel anything?” Ash wondered.
“Not necessarily.” I shot him a challenging grin. “If rage and hate make it stronger, then we should do the opposite. Maybe you should try smiling, ice-boy. Oh, and laugh a little, I think that really pisses it off.”
The Ice Prince gave me a pained, weary look. “What are you talking about?”
Some distance away, the Monster bared its fangs, then reared up with its loudest, most terrifying roar yet. I looked at Ash, who had a dire, determined look on his face as he grimly raised his sword. I watched him steel himself for battle, him and Meghan both, and a wicked idea floated to mind. A ridiculous, inappropriate, completely Puckish idea.
“Hold on, ice-boy.” Reaching back, I plucked something from my hair and held it up: two jet-black feathers that fluttered in the breeze. “Before we start again, we have to set the mood. This could be our last stand, after all. And what’s a last stand without some cool battle music?”
I tossed the feathers into the air, sending a pulse of glamour after them. There was a soundless explosion of smoke and feathers, and two more Pucks stood a few feet away, watching us with twin smirks. One held a lute, the other clutched a panpipe under his lips, ready to play. As Meghan blinked in astonishment and Ash frowned, I regarded the duplicates critically a moment, then shook my head.
“Huh, something is missing,” I mused.
Across the courtyard, the Monster snarled again and prowled forward. Its steps were measured and unhurried, and tentacles sprang up once more, creeping toward us as it came. Meghan and Ash gave it wary looks, but I ignored it, tapping a finger to my chin as I pondered.
“What is it, what is it? Oh, I know!” While he was distracted by the Monster, I slipped behind Ash, grabbed a single strand of jet-black hair, and tugged it free.
“Ow.” The Ice Prince stepped back and glared at me. Not long ago, that sort of action would’ve required me to dodge a swat from his sword or an ice dagger hurled at my head. Now he just gave me a look of resigned exasperation. “What are you doing, Goodfellow?” he snapped.
“Help me out, ice-boy.” With a grin, I raised the strand of hair between my fingers. “Remember that period of time where you were trying to learn a new skill?” I went on and watched his brow furrow in confusion. “I think it was to impress Ariella? You spent an entire summer trying to perfect it. Did you ever tell Meghan about that?”
For a second, he continued to frown in confusion. Then his eyes widened, and his face took on an expression of alarm. “Goodfellow, don’t you dare—”
I released the strand with a little nudge of glamour. It soared over to the pair of Pucks, and with a poof of smoke, a second Ash appeared between them. He was a bit younger than the Ash standing beside me, dressed in a fine suit with tails, his hair pulled back, and in one hand he held an elegant white-and-gold violin.
Meghan’s eyes went huge, and she clapped both hands over her mouth in both amazement and utter delight, forgetting, for the moment, the huge creature still stalking toward us.
I chuckled and looked at Ash. “I seem to remember you played quite well, ice-boy,” I said, grinning as the Ash double expertly raised the instrument and placed it under his chin, touching the bow to the strings. “Why don’t you start the final battle, then?”
Ash glowered a moment longer, then let his head fall back with a long sigh, raising an arm toward the trio of musicians waiting off to the side. “Goodfellow, I am going to kill you for this,” he muttered, and snapped his fingers.
Music filled the air, haunting violin chords that soared up and around us, followed by the sounds of lute and panpipes. The melody swirled around us, rising toward a crescendo that pulled at your emotions, dramatic and exciting and completely epic. It drowned out the snarls of the approaching Monster and made my heart soar in response.
I laughed and looked at Ash again; the Ice Prince stood there glaring at me, but there was the faintest of smirks hiding behind that silver gaze, and Meghan was smiling broadly.
“There now, ice-boy, who said you can’t have any fun?”
With a roar, the Monster descended on us, smashing its claws into the middle of our little party, and we scattered. The musicians leaped back, filling the air with a rousing chorus, even as the Monster howled and slashed at them. The two Puck musicians danced as they circled the Ash in the center, eyes closed as he deftly sawed at the strings. The whole thing was so ridiculously wonderful that I laughed out loud, even as I ducked beneath a pair of flailing tentacles and darted close to the flailing Monster.
“And this little piggy went ‘ow!’” I said, stabbing my dagger point into one big, hairy toe. The Monster jerked, pulling his foot back like he had just stepped on a hairpin. I danced away, grinning at Ash who was circling around the creature with his sword raised. The Monster’s head followed me, eyes blazing with fury, and I shot Ash a gleeful look.
“Come on, ice-boy, I can’t be the only one doing all the work. So far, the score is two–zero in my favor.”
He gave me a brief, half-annoyed smile as glamour started swirling around him. “Stubbing its toe counts for nothing, Goodfellow,” he returned.
I dodged a swat from a giant talon that swooshed over my head. The musicians danced around us, continuing to fill the air with song, the melody rising to fever pitch. “Well, it’s better than you’re doing, prince!” I challenged, and pirouetted away from the second swat. “I’m still waiting to be impressed. When are you going to start stabbing things?”
“Right now.”
The creature bellowed. Tendrils rose up, surrounding me in an inky black forest, but the air turned frigid a moment before ice froze them all in place. The Monster smashed down with its claws, and I danced out of the way as the blows shattered the tentacle forest into tiny pieces.
I grinned, seeing ice-boy on the Monster’s other side, hand outstretched as his glamour turned the air frigid. There was a streak of white, and Meghan darted past him, sword upraised. She sprinted at the monster, and with a gesture from the Ice Prince, a series of frozen pillars appeared in front of the Iron Queen, each taller than the last. Meghan bounded up these icy steps, leaped at the Monster just as it was starting to turn, and brought her sword slashing down across its face.
The Monster screamed and reeled back, one hand going to its eyes. Unlike the wisps of shadow from before, dark liquid oozed between its fingers and dripped to the ground. The Iron Queen landed and rolled away as the creature’s claw hammered down, shattering flagstones and sending ice chips flying.
“Ooh, nice one, princess!” I grinned as the Monster growled and turned on Meghan, its one remaining eye blazing in fury. “Okay, fine, that was impressive, you two. Now, let’s see if you can bring it home.”
The Monster took a menacing step toward the Iron Queen. I darted behind it, drew my arm back, and stabbed the point of my dagger into its rear haunch, right below its buttocks.
“Oh, that wasn’t nice of me, was it?” I grinned as it whirled with a yelp. “You know, there’s still time to work this out—sit down, have a cup of tea, cry on each other’s shoulders. No? How about a dance, then?” I danced a little jig, dodging a couple vicious swats, as all the while, the music continued to play, filling the air with emotion and triumph. I laughed again, just because I felt like it, hearing my voice echo over the battlefield and join the rising music.
“You know,” I told the creature, smiling as I backed up and it loomed over me, baring its fangs, “you may be one scary mofo, but you’re not very bright. Anyone of average intelligence would know that I’m very clearly the obnoxious decoy, and you’re about to get your ass handed to you by the real powers. So, yeah, have fun with that.”
For just a second, it seemed to understand my words, for it paused and turned its head to where Meghan and Ash had stopped a few yards away. The Iron Queen stood with her eyes half-closed, palms turned up and glamour swirling around her like a whirlwind. Behind her, Ash stood with his hands on her shoulders, adding his own icy power to the mix, and the storm of magic around them caused the air to flicker and frost to spread out over the ground.
The Monster gave a snarl of what almost sounded like alarm and turned, intending to charge the pair, just as the sharp clatter of hooves over stone rang over the courtyard.
With Nyx on his back, Coaleater charged around a broken wall, barreled toward the Monster, and slammed his powerful iron body into a thick hairy leg. The was a crack, and the fiend staggered with a roar, as Nyx leaped from the Iron faery, vaulted off the Monster’s thigh, and brought both moonblades slashing down across its neck. The Monster gave a shriek, flailing wildly, and Nyx sprang away from the lashing tentacles, landing on Coaleater’s back like they had practiced this move for decades.
I grinned as my heart soared with relief and pride. “When did you guys decide to join the party?” I called as Coaleater spotted me and galloped over, snorting steam. On his back, Nyx smiled down at me.
“About the time the music started,” she replied. “We were letting our host chase us around the courtyard, but when the music started playing, it was like he remembered who he was again. Or at least, the Monster’s influence started to fade.”
“Where is he now?”
A massive shadow leaped to the top of the courtyard wall, eyes blazing. With a roar, the beast sprang at the Monster, landing with his full weight atop its back and driving it to its knees. And at that moment, the rulers of Iron unleashed their glamour.
The ground trembled, and enormous roots erupted from the earth, breaking through flagstone and shattering the stones around them. The roots coiled around the Monster, thickening and tightening, becoming as gnarled and tough as tree trunks. They also radiated cold. Even from my perch, I could feel the icy waves, see the tendrils of mist and frost in the air as the roots continued to coil around the Monster like massive pythons. The creature snarled and thrashed, raking the ground and causing several roots to snap, but with a shimmer of glamour, the roots turned to steel cables and the cold grew even sharper.
A coating of frost crept up the Monster’s legs, turning to ice as it rose higher. Ice covered its bottom half, freezing it in place, and continued to climb with sharp crinkling sounds.
I saw what was happening, and an evil, Puckish grin spread over my face.
“Puck.” Nyx saw my expression and immediately held out a hand. I grabbed it, and she pulled me up behind her, balanced on the Iron faery’s broad metal back. “Where to?”
“Right at it,” I answered. “As close as you can get.”
We charged. Coaleater’s hooves rang against the stone as he cantered toward the looming mountain of Monster, still thrashing against the web of ice and iron holding him down. Snorting fire, the Iron faery dodged a flailing claw and swerved close, leaping over the tangle of tentacles sprouting around the Monster. At the peak of his jump, I sprang off his back, landing on the slippery, ice-covered slope of the fiend’s shoulders.
Farther up the back, the beast turned and gave me a look as I sprinted toward him, dodging the final few tentacles as I reached its head.
“Hey, beastman, give me a lift!”
He scowled in confusion for half a second, before understanding dawned in those blue eyes and he crouched, opening his paws for me to step into. I sprang onto his palms, and he rose, hurling me straight into the air and over the Monster’s head.
Throwing back its muzzle, the Monster let out a final bellow of fury before the growing layer of ice reached its skull, flowing over its head, covering its antlers. And suddenly there was an enormous frozen statue standing in the center of the courtyard. Right underneath me.
Pulling my daggers, I grinned down at it. “Checkmate, big ugly.”
I plunged toward the Monster, bringing both daggers point down on its skull, and the creature shattered.
With the sound of a million china cups crashing to the floor, the fiend that had terrorized Phaed and the Nevernever, turned me into an evil bastard, and had very nearly killed us all exploded into thousands of glistening crystal shards that scattered throughout the courtyard. There was a rush of wind, a howl that curled my insides, and a choking cloud of darkness emerged through the falling ice, fraying apart as it spiraled up and vanished into the night.
I landed on the broken flagstones, covering my head as frozen bits rained down around me, stinging exposed flesh and plinking off the stones. Sharp bits of hail struck my arms and bounced off my head, but it was ice and nothing else. No blood, bones, or frozen creature parts. The Monster had vanished, as if it never was.
As the rain of crystal shards came to an end, I straightened and looked around for the rest of the party. A few paces away, Coaleater tossed his head, then reared onto his hind legs with a bugle of triumph, pawing the air. At the edge of the shattered flagstones, Meghan let out a sigh and leaned backward into Ash, whose arms came up to support her tightly. And the beast stalked through the glittering remains, nodding his horned head and looking pleased.
I turned, looking around for Nyx, then felt the cool edge of a moonblade against my throat from behind. “Sloppy again, Goodfellow,” the Forgotten murmured in my ear. “Even after a victory, you shouldn’t let down your guard.”
I grinned, shaking my head. “Is this how it’s going to be, then?” I asked, as the blade dropped away and Nyx slid around to face me fully. “Knives to my throat after every major occasion? Is that how your Order said happy birthday or congratulations, you just saved the world?”
“Typically not,” Nyx replied. “It’s just more fun with you.” Her eyes went to my forehead, and cool fingers brushed my hair back. “You’re not horny anymore.”
I chuckled, relieved beyond common sense that I was finally back to normal. I could see my regular, nonhorned reflection in her eyes, feel the lack of fur beneath my pants, and grinned at the Forgotten in front of me. “I could go sooo many places with that.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, well, it’s getting rather old, so let me stop you right there.”
And she kissed me.
I closed my eyes, wrapping my arms around her slim waist as her arms circled my neck. For a few seconds, there was only Nyx, her body against mine, and the sweet feeling of triumph, elation, and relief sweeping through us both.
Suddenly, I became aware of the music, of the sweet, haunting notes of a violin mixed with the melody of a lute and the sound of panpipes. Opening my eyes, I saw the three conjured musicians surrounding us, the Ash double out in front, playing, unless I was mistaken, the theme song from Lady and the Tramp.
Which I certainly hadn’t told them to play.
I jerked my head up and saw Ash, standing with his arms around Meghan, smirking at me over her shoulder. I felt my face heat, even as a laugh crawled up my throat and burst free, even as Nyx gazed at us both in confusion. The lingering anger and resentment that had been buried deep inside me was finally gone; for the first time in centuries, I felt truly free.
“Oh touché, ice-boy. Happy to see you finally grew a sense of humor.”
He smiled. Meghan chuckled and leaned against her husband, resting her head against him with a sigh. “Well, this was an ordeal,” she said, letting a hint of weariness creep into her voice along with the relief. “Everyone, you have our gratitude, and the appreciation of the Iron Realm. That you would stay and fight, even when things looked hopeless...” Her blue eyes flicked to me, her smile a thank-you without words. “I’m grateful.”
“It was an honor to fight with you, Your Majesty,” Coaleater said in a solemn voice. “The Iron herd will always stand ready to defend the realm and its queen, from any threat. I am just glad that it’s over.”
“I would not celebrate just yet.”
Everyone turned. Grimalkin sat a few feet away, his back to us, his gaze pointed toward the beast’s huge castle. But his attention wasn’t on the castle itself. The Forgotten we’d left in the tower had come forward, staggering like a drunk across the courtyard, staring at us with its yellow headlamp eyes.
“Not over,” it whispered, taking a few shaky steps forward. “It’s not over yet.” It paused, staring at the place the Monster had vanished, at the smashed stones and broken statues, and gave a violent shudder. “No, this...this was just a fragment, a stray thread of consciousness that escaped from the whole. It sleeps still, barely aware of the world above. But it is starting to awaken. It is starting to become aware, and when it does, the world will crack, and we will all plunge into the abyss.”
It turned huge, maddened eyes on us, raising an arm toward the horizon. “The end has begun,” it whispered. “You cannot stop it. No one can stop it. Evenfall is coming. Faery, and every living creature that exists under the sun, is doomed.”
And before we could do anything, it reached down and drew a dagger out of nowhere, from the shadows that made up its whole form. The blade was obsidian black, seeming to draw in the light rather than reflect it. I jumped as, with a cry, the Forgotten raised its arm and plunged that inky blade into his own chest. He jerked once, twitched twice, and then seemed to fray apart into tendrils of shadow that coiled into the air and faded on the wind.
In the stunned quiet that followed, Meghan took a shaky breath and stepped away from Ash, her expression grave as she faced us all. “All right,” the Iron Queen said, and her voice was steely, preparing for what was to come. “I think it’s time to go home.”