The other Supes roared and charged him, but the Fae moved almost too fast to see, slicing at them with a second knife he’d drawn from his belt. No doubt once he was finished with them, I was next.
I turned and ran, leaving the sounds of screams and flying spells behind me.
The lighthouse was only a hundred yards away. If I could get there I could—I wasn’t sure what I could do. Hide? Think of another way to stall for time? Talk with him? He must have been sent by General Zell. He must have been sent to bring me back.
I looked up to the top of the lighthouse as I neared it. There was an idea. I just needed time to—
My breath stuttered in my throat as I picked up faint footfalls behind me. I looked back for only a moment. The shadowy Fae was close behind, his knives glinting wet with blood.
I ran faster, lungs and chest on fire.
I practically broke the door as I fumbled for the handle and fell inside. “Listen!” I yelled, slamming it shut. “I just want to talk! Can’t we talk—”
I screamed as one of the knives pierced the wood and nearly skewered my stomach.
Apparently we couldn’t talk.
I barred the door with the deadbolt and ran up the steps. My strength was waning fast. At this rate, even if I managed to reach the top, I’d be in no state to cast spells. If I was lucky, I’d have one shot, max.
I slipped on the next step as the door exploded inward. I glanced down to see the Fae move through it in a near-blur, scanning the interior before looking up at me. I didn’t even try to reason with him this time, but used the railing to heave myself up and keep running.
Around and around I ran, legs burning. Past the control room, past the blank, empty service room, using my strength to pull myself up as fast as I could. I only hoped the bulb worked. I really, really hoped the bulb worked or else this was where it ended for me.
I screamed as one of the Fae’s thrown knives glanced off the railing by my hand. He was one floor below me and closing fast.
I reached the top.
I didn’t even try to bar the door this time, but scrambled over to the bulb in the center of the room and shoved with all my might until the entire thing was turned toward the top of the staircase.
The Fae crested the stairs a moment later. I ducked just in time as his other knife sliced the air over my head.
“Please!” I said. “I don’t know what you want!”
The Fae sneered as he paced closer. Outside the windows, I could see the storm swooping in fast. We’d be hit in minutes.
“I knew you mortals were dumb, but this is stupidity beyond even my expectations,” the Fae said. “You murdered Prince Zephyr. You colluded with others of your filthy human kind to ensure there would never be a united Fae. We were a threat that you could not handle.”
Okay, now I knew what I was being accused of. I’d assumed this. I could work with this.
“I didn’t kill Prince Zephyr,” I said, keeping my voice level. “Kasia Armani did. If you’d just check—”
The Fae raised a longer, more jagged knife, tilting the edge so I could see just how sharp it actually was. “I don’t need to check. Innocent or not, it doesn’t matter to me. The only thing that matters is seeing you dead!”
He lunged, but I was ready.
I slapped my hand onto the lightbulb and pushed my weary magic into it, praying it’d work, praying the filaments hadn’t crusted over too much.
The magic took. I slammed my eyes shut as light brighter than the sun encompassed the room. The Fae screamed. Even with my eyes closed, white spots danced in my vision, making me rapidly blink even after I pulled my magic back and dimmed the light once again.
The Fae stumbled away, clutching his face. “You stupid mortal!” he screeched. “How dare you blind me! How dare you—”
Tears streamed from his closed eyes when he pulled his hand away. “You…You…No matter! I don’t need sight to kill you!”
His ears twitched, swiveling my direction when I tried to sneak past him. “There you are!”
He lunged for me, angling his knife toward my throat. I didn’t think, didn’t even consider the consequences, but pushed against him, digging into the last of my strength as I drove him back against the windows. The old, cracking windows.
They gave beneath our momentum. One second I was clutching the front of the Fae’s vest, the next I clutched nothing. I watched the Fae tumble out the window, flip backwards over the balcony, and hang suspended in midair for only a moment before falling out of sight. I heard a dull thump as he hit the ground.
Maybe I should have been horrified at what I’d done. Maybe I should have been scared that he was still alive. Fae were practically immortal. He could have survived a fall like that.
But my head spun. The room began splitting into two. I needed to get out of here. I had to make it back downstairs and get as far away from this village as possible—
I didn’t make it a single step before my strength failed me and I collapsed.
I was treated to a different dream this time. Or maybe it was a vision. I wasn’t sure.
I stood in a place I’d stood only once before, a cliff made of clouds overlooking an endless blue sky. More clouds were smeared as far as the horizon, lit with an ethereal glow. Below was nothing. To the left and right was nothing. But above, far out of my reach, was a gigantic spiral of white cumulus as big as a mountain. I remembered seeing the very same thing the last time I’d come here with the Dark Prince. At the time, I’d been able to only vaguely make out structures at the top of the clouds, but now they were sharp and clear. Columns supported vaulted rooftops. Glistening streets of stone curling up swirls of white. Bridges that seemed to lead to nowhere, suggesting more places I couldn’t see from where I was.
The realm of the gods. I expected the Dark Prince to pop into existence beside me as he’d done last time. Though seeing his sneering face would be partly unpleasant, it would be nice to have someone familiar. Even if it was a sadistic kind of familiar.
“Hello?” I said. My voice didn’t echo like I thought it would, but stopped at the edge of the cloud, like I was trapped inside a bubble. “If I’m here for a reason then it’d be nice to know what that reason is.”
I walked to either edge to make sure there wasn’t something I was missing, then looked back up at the clouds above. Was I supposed to go there? How? I wasn’t even sure why I was here without a god of my own anymore. Unless…
I put a hand to my chest. There was no way. And yet… was I somehow still connected to this place? I couldn’t use the Dark Prince’s power anymore. I didn’t even have him with me anymore, and yet I still felt that same stirring, that same calling, I had the first time I’d been here.
“Hello—”
I gasped as my chest burned, like someone had snared the skin with a fishhook and pulled.
Break the bond.
“What?” I bit down the pain and whirled, searching for whoever had spoken. “Who said that?”
Break the bond.
Stupid disembodied voices. Why did it always have to be disembodied voices? If something wanted to be helpful, it’d be nice if they could just come out and say it without trying to sound mysterious.
“Break what bond?” I said.
Another painful jerk on my chest, but this time I was ready for it. I slapped my hand against the pain. Something twinkled. I slowly raised my fingers until they met slight resistance in the air. I could make out a thin thread, barely discernable in the light, like a spider’s web. It ran from the center of my chest, up, up, up…
Up to the city in the clouds.
Break the bond.
The bond between me and the realm of the gods. That’s what it wanted me to break. But…
“I don’t have it anymore!” I yelled. “I don’t have a god anymore. I don’t have any power!”
Break the bond.
“I can’t break my stupid bond! So stop telling me—”
Another tug on my chest, this one so hard it threatened to pull me off the side of the cloud. My vision swirled into washes of white clouds and blue sky and yellow light. I couldn’t see anything clearly no matter how much I blinked. The white and blue leached away to shades of gray and black. My skin prickled as I returned to my physical body, lying on the floor of the lighthouse.
I could make out a figure standing above me. They leaned over and I tensed, expecting to see the Fae assassin. Instead, the Dark Prince’s face came into view.
“I must be still dreaming,” I said faintly, too disoriented to move.
The Dark Prince smiled, but it was kind, almost happy. “I’m glad to hear you dream about me.”
“Don’t make it weird. What are you doing here? Why’d you come back?”
The Prince’s smile shifted to confusion. My vision swirled again and the Dark Prince’s face was replaced with Asher’s.
“Now I’m definitely dreaming,” I whispered.
But his hands holding me were too warm to be a dream. The feeling of safety washing over me was too real. All of it was too real.
“You’re here,” I said.
He kissed my forehead. “Anywhere and always. Rest now. Just rest. I’ve got you now. You’re safe.”
“Thank you.” I was fading fast, propelled by his warmth. In seconds I was out.