This entire time we had been focused on the fae lord and the winter queen, all the while forgetting about my menace of a father. “You never planned on letting the Dark Fae Lord rule Earth, did you?”
This time her smile did reach her eyes and she stepped closer. “Of course not. I only needed him because he said he could find me the second dark staff. I almost killed him when he lost it to you shifters.” Her lips curled in disgust. “But he assured me you would fall for the other part of our plan. You’d come and find us here, and he would be able to retrieve the staff, which is rightfully mine.”
“Where is Luca?” I repeated with more force.
“In New York, marching on your people.”
Everything inside of me clenched, and on instinct I reached for my bond to the thousands of wolf and bear shifters I ruled. The essence of my people so strong that I could almost scent shifter on the breeze. As their energy filled me, a power like no other strengthened my body. It was as I had always said, as I had always believed: a queen was only as strong as her people. And I would use my love for them to destroy the winter queen—a monarch who did not value the ones she should.
I lashed out with so much magic it blew both of us back a few feet.
The queen recovered quickly, throwing magic at me in one blue stream of ice. I blocked, and we traded blow for blow in a flurry of ice and wind. I had to hop to stay on my one good foot, but the power of my shifters and their bond to their queen was giving me a fighting chance. Any time I came close to a tree, I leaned against it for support. It was a comfort, like I had an ally right at my side. Isalinda narrowed her eyes on me more than once and I knew she was trying to figure out where my sudden strength was coming from.
If she hadn’t been so selfish and evil, she would have known. It was there all along for her to utilize, but as a true narcissist, she thought of no one but herself.
Neither of us gave an inch, and I was afraid we would be locked in this battle forever. Our powers were just too evenly matched, especially while I was injured.
The tree next to Isalinda moved. What in the…? It actually moved.
Roots ripped out of the ground, throwing dirt and bark everywhere as the queen lurched to a halt, her jaw unhinging as she stared unblinkingly at the mobile tree.
I wanted to stare too. It was probably one of the most incredible, unbelievable things I had ever seen. Animation had overtaken the tree; it had arm-like branches, leg-like roots, and it was walking.
Focus. I forced myself to look away. This was my one chance.
Building up a large ball of magic, I hopped forward, and keeping nothing inside, thrust it at the queen, directing it to encase her. This was the spell she had first used on me in her castle grounds. It felt right, poetic even, to use her own spell against her. Even though she was the winter queen, I could use the ice against her.
She froze in place, literally, too spent to break through my frost. From her toes to her neck, encased in my spell, only her head remained exposed. Kneeling down, I fashioned a sword from the ice, a long, lethal, shimmery blue number. Sometimes my winter magic was beyond incredible. I couldn’t believe I’d ever been afraid of it.
Holding my weapon, I hobbled toward the queen, relieved that some strength seemed to be returning in my leg. The pain was a dull throb now. She tracked my movements, her eyes filled with a tumultuous fury. Even when vulnerable, she couldn’t turn off her bitch face.
“Your reign is over,” I declared. She opened her mouth, but before she got the chance to cast a spell, or speak at all, I swung my ice sword, and in one clean blow took her head off.
It was a more humane death than she deserved, considering the way she tortured people, had cut up a little girl, but I was done playing games. I wanted to prove I was not like her in any way. She would have drawn out my death, hurt me as much as she could.
Her head went one way, her body another, falling to the ground and shattering the ice, her blood gushing into the air before settling to paint the snow in a macabre artwork. Red mist settled across the white signaling the end of a monarch. A tree, the one that had walked and distracted her, shot out a branch and pierced the winter queen’s abdomen, lifting her high up into the air. Another branch pierced through her skull, lifting it as well.
It then carried both to the burning lake, and flung her body out into its flaming depths.
She cared not for nature. Neglected her trees.
I realized another tree had uprooted and was standing at my side, its branch brushing my arm.
As I expected, her inability to put her land and people first had come back to bite her.
Thank you, I said. I will always treat trees and nature with the respect they deserve. You have a friend and ally in me.
It extended its branch arm toward me, and as I reached out to grab it, thinking it was like a handshake, a perfectly polished walking stick broke off. I smiled, sheathing my ice sword just in case I needed it again.
Placing one end of the stick on the ground, I leaned into it as I hurried forward, using my bad leg more fully than I had up to this point. My leg didn’t collapse into mush, which was a great sign, but it still hurt like all hell. Pain shot up to my kneecap and I sucked in a breath.
Okay, it definitely needed more time to heal.
I eased some of my weight off it, putting more onto the stick as I headed toward Kade. Through the trees, I was catching glimpses of the darkness, and as I hobbled closer I saw that Kade had the Dark Fae Lord pinned against a tree. Now both of his antlers were hacked off — one lying in a puddle of black oil.
The back of Kade’s thigh had a wide four-inch gash that didn’t seem to be healing, but he was standing strong, so either it wasn’t laced with dark poison or my mate had developed some sort of immunity after last time.
Just behind them was an advancing line of a half-dozen killians, no doubt trying to come to their master’s aid. At this stage, they were being held off by Dante and Kian—who must have crossed the long way around the lake—the pair swinging their swords with precision, taking off heads left and right. Satisfied they were okay, I focused on the more pressing problem.
I limped closer to Kade quickly, one hand on my walking stick and the other on my sword. Whatever the ice magic had done, my weapon remained strong and cold beneath my touch. A breeze blew a wave of smoke from the lake through me, and I coughed a few times as the acridness invaded my nose and lungs.
I’ve killed the queen. I’m coming to help, I sent to Kade, because at the moment I couldn’t see him through the blackness.
I wasn’t sure what state physically or mentally he was in, I hadn’t been able to focus on him during my fight. But I needed him to know that I was here now. I had his back.