Keeper of Storms (The Fallen Fae #3) - Jenna Wolfhart Page 0,58

She itched to run to him. Instead, she pulled her dagger from her waistband.

“Lorcan,” she whispered.

Her voice echoed through the throne room. His body stiffened, but he did not glance up to meet her gaze. Instead, he kept his eyes locked on the sword that lay before him on the dais. His surrendered sword.

“We surrender,” he said, his voice sounding strangely thick in his throat.

“Of course you do.” The wood king laughed. “You had no other choice.”

“Lorcan, don’t.” This time she spoke so loud, her voice was a boom throughout the hall. “I know you must not have received my letter, but—”

But what? If she told him that Thane would be on his way by Beltane, the wood king would now know it, too. And if she told him that she had planned to kill Molt, then…well, she had failed.

For now. She twisted her hands around the dagger’s hilt. This was it. Her final chance. Drawing upon every strength she could find within herself, she raised her blade and charged.

Molt stepped toward the dais. He raised his own sword, ignoring Reyna’s approach. She saw what would happen a second too late. Screaming, she pounded her feet against the floor, desperate to reach the king in time.

He sliced his sword through Lorcan’s neck. Bones crunched; blood arced through the air. Her lover’s severed head rolled down the stairs and landed at her feet.

20

Reyna

An inhuman scream poured from Reyna’s mouth. The world shook beneath her feet as she crumpled to the floor, her legs giving out on her. Her entire soul ripped wide, shattering into a million pieces. Horror choked her until she couldn’t breathe.

She stared at his head. His eyes were wide and unseeing. His mouth gaped wide, the one that had once kissed her skin with so much love and passion.

Her entire body heaved as she clawed at the ground. Lorcan, Lorcan, Lorcan. Her mind repeated his name, echoing in her head so loud that it drowned out everything else. Hot tears splashed onto her cheeks, blurring her vision so that his face was nothing more than a featureless blob that she could not recognize as him anymore.

He was gone.

Lorcan was dead.

No. A knife stabbed her heart. He couldn’t be gone. This couldn’t be happening. She had fought so hard to get here, to save him, to wrap her arms around him and beg him to forgive everything she had ever done. Her plot toward Thane. Her deal with Seelie. Her failure at killing the wood king.

Another piece of her soul cracked, shattering completely. A new horror twisted her gut, and she bent over, desperate to rid herself of the burning nausea building in her throat.

My deal with Seelie.

Reyna had done this to him. She’d made that deal, knowing that they could not be together, and then she’d forced herself back to his side.

And so Seelie had taken him from the world to prevent them from coming together once again.

“No,” she choked out, grasping at the floor. “No!”

“Kill her.” Molt’s steely voice cut through her despair. She blinked away the tears and glanced up to see a line of shadow fae standing between her and him. “I’ve killed your king, which makes me your king now. I said kill the girl. Disobey, and you will follow your king to the Court of Death.”

“Go, princess.” The whispered word came from one of the shadow fae blocking the king, but she could not pinpoint which one.

“No,” she said, struggling to her feet. “I…”

She didn’t know what to say. All her words had left her. Lorcan was gone.

“You can’t help this city if you’re dead,” the voice whispered again. “Please, princess. Go.”

The moments seemed to freeze around her as a bitter chill swept through the hall. For once, she was not grateful for the cold. It felt like death, like the end of everything. Her body trembled, her heart a broken, shattered thing that would never be whole again. What had it all been for, if this was where the road would end?

Molt roared, and the sound of his anger knocked her out of her stupor. She took a step back, and then another, her body taking over while her mind could not manage. As the king’s blade clashed with shadowsteel swords, Reyna reached the throne room door. She spun on her heels and ran.

Now that she was moving, she could not stop. If she did, her grief would crash into her, and she would not be able to start back up again.