“Only as long as the ferry takes to arrive.” I could feel eyes in the mist and shadows around me, and that strange pull tugged at my insides.
“Come on. Let’s find that inn and get out of the street.” Like the thin man promised, it wasn’t difficult to find the inn, a large, two-story structure on stilts that leaned over the water as if it might topple into the river at any moment. Not surprisingly, it was empty as we walked through the door into a dark, gloomy foyer, the ever-present mist coiling along the f loor and around the scattered tables.
“Huh.” Puck’s voice echoed off the walls as we ventured cautiously inside. His boots creaked horribly against the wooden f loor as he circled the room. “helloooooo, room service? Bell boys? Can anyone take my luggage to my suite? Guess this inn is self-serve.”
“The rooms are upstairs,” whispered a voice, and an old woman slithered down from the ceiling. She was more spiderweb than anything, fraying at the edges, though the eyes in the cloudy face were 157/387
sharp and black. “Five guests? Good, good. You can each choose one.
Except for him—” She pointed at the Wolf, who curled a lip at her. “He can take the big room on the end.”
“Good enough,” I said, secretly relieved for the chance to rest. Whether I was still feeling the effects of the hobyah poison or my body was simply reacting to the strain of keeping everyone alive, I was tired, more weary then I had been in a while. I knew the others were feeling it, too. Ariel a looked exhausted, and Grimalkin had somehow fall en asleep in her arms, his nose buried under his tail. Even Puck looked wornout beneath his constant energy, and the Wolf didn’t seem as alert as he normally was, though his temper was definitely wearing thin.
Upstairs, the rooms were small, each containing a table and a single bed beneath a tiny round window. Gazing out, I saw the River of Dreams stretching away beneath me, and the lonely dock in the distance, nearly swallowed up by the mist.
For just a moment, I couldn’t remember why I wanted to go to the dock, though I knew it was important. Shaking my head as memory returned, I sat on the thin mattress, rubbing my eyes. Tired. I was just tired. As soon as the ferry arrived, we could leave this place, and continue toward the edge of the world. And then the Testing Grounds, where I would finally reach the end of my quest. And then my fate would be decided. I’d return to Meghan as a human with a soul, or I wouldn’t return at all. That simple.
Lying back, I put an arm over my face, and everything faded away.
I was kneeling in a field of bloody snow, countless bodies of Winter and Summer fey surrounding me.
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I was standing before Queen Mab, my sword plunged deep in her chest, her dimming eyes filled with shock.
I was sitting on a throne of ice with my queen beside me, a beautiful faery with long silver hair and eyes of starlight.
I was standing on the field of battle once more, watching my army tear through the enemy forces, feeling a savage glee as they killed and maimed and destroyed without mercy. The darkness in me reveled in the blood, drank in the pain, and spread it as far as it could go. But no matter how much pain I felt, the emptiness swallowed it, demanding more, always more. I was a black hole of death, needing to kill, needing to fill the terrible nothingness that existed inside. I’d become a demon, soul ess and without pity, and not even Ariel a’s presence could sate the despair that drove me to slaughter everything I had once cared for. Only one thing would stop me, and every death, every life I destroyed, brought me that much closer.
She came for me in the end, as I knew she would. I’d made certain it would be her. The terrible Iron Queen, her eyes filled with fury and sorrow, facing me across the ravaged fields of the Nevernever. The days of her pleading with me, trying to reason with me, were long gone. I didn’t remember why I wanted to see her; I didn’t even remember my own name. But I knew she was the reason for my emptiness.
She was the reason for everything.
She’d grown stronger during the long years of the war, infinitely more powerful, a true Queen of Faery. I’d killed so many of her subjects, so many fey had died by my hands, but it was the death of a certain Summer Court jester that finally pushed her over the edge. We faced each other, Iron Queen and Unseelie King, as the cold wind howled around us, and knew that whatever feelings we’d once had for each other didn’t matter now.
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We’d chosen our paths, and now, one way or another, this war would end. Today, one of us would die.