From that first moment we’d met? She’d stoked that dark place inside me that feared what I was.
Sometimes one didn’t need a thrall stone to be turned into a slave.
“I learned something when I became a parent,” my father was saying. “When you love a child, you want what is best for them. Know that if this is the end of my journey in this form, I will be waiting to see you again. We all will. Because we’re your family no matter what you do. Because my love is eternal. Long past this body, long past breath and blood, I will be your father, and I am always on your side.”
Something fell away from me in that moment when my dad explained what love really meant. I could be the reason he died and he would love me. I could bring down all the planes and he would love me.
The charm fell off my neck and into my hand, proof that I had always been my own jailer. Proof that it was time for me to take my place.
I closed my eyes and let my heart be filled again.
* * * *
Zoey
I saw Daniel running and then the ax split his back in two and I felt my whole world shudder and threaten to crack. I screamed and tried to get to him. He couldn’t survive that. Even from where I stood, I could see the blood begin to flow, to leave his body and sink into the dirt around him.
He couldn’t die this way. We couldn’t end this way. I had to get to him, to put my arms around him.
Marcus. Marcus could save him. Marcus could give him blood and then Daniel would be fine.
I turned in time to see the witch throw Marcus back with the force of her magic. My dear friend was knocked back on the branch of a tree that pierced his heart.
He turned to ash before my eyes, and I realized all was lost.
I felt a rough hand grab me by the elbow, preventing me from getting to Daniel. I whirled on him to hit him with all my might, but that mountain didn’t move.
Dev. I saw my faery prince with a knife to his neck, a thin line of blood already welling.
I would lose them both and my daughter. The Taggarts were fighting, but they were going to lose.
Summer stood in the middle of it all, completely still. Two guards had her by the wrists, but she didn’t move, and there was a blankness to her eyes that frightened me. The general was arguing with the witch, and I heard him call out that they should kill us all and be done with it.
Summer’s eyes cleared and an unearthly light illuminated the air around her. My daughter, who seemed to almost hunch in on herself most of the time, stood tall, and her voice was firm when she spoke. “Let me go.”
The guards dropped their hold.
The general stared at them. “I told you to take her into custody.”
Both guards began to reach for her again.
Summer snapped her fingers and suddenly there were two stones in her hands. “You may go.”
I heard a roar and was suddenly free, and the man who’d held me had a clawed hand around his throat.
I looked up and saw the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen. Daniel had the man dangling from his grip. His eyes had bled to that deep blue he got when the vampire part of him was fully in charge. And those fangs of his were out.
The king was back and he was angry.
“I would let my partner go or you’ll feel my wrath,” Daniel said, his eyes on Devinshea.
Kelsey ran up to me, her eyes wide. “He turned. He must have died and turned. It happened so fast.”
Summer smiled at her father, an oddly serene expression given we were surrounded by death. “No. He didn’t have to die. My father was freed when I was. He is who he always has been, who he was born to be.”
Erna seemed to realize something was going wrong. She held a hand up toward Dean, threatening him with that dark magic of hers. “Put that charm back on, girl, or I’ll kill your little playmate.”
The man holding Dev let him go, and Daniel tossed aside his captive. I found myself surrounded by them. Dev pulled me into his arms as Daniel stood between us and everything else.