Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3) by Katerina Martinez (novel24 .txt) 📗

“Don’t you dare!” Radulf roared.

“Dahlia, do it,” Cillian said, “You know you have to. Ashera is the only one who can cut them, and she can’t get close—only you can, and that means there’s only one choice left.”

I stared at the dagger in my hand again, then looked up at him. My heart was thumping so hard I could barely hear a word anyone was saying. It didn’t help that the world itself was shaking, and the wind wouldn’t cease, but I had heard the Prince just fine. I knew what he wanted me to do. What he needed me to do.

“I… I don’t know if…” I tried to say, but the words wouldn’t come.

“Dahlia!” Cillian yelled, and I saw the look on his face now; not of surrender, but of courage. He wasn’t giving up, he just knew this was right, and he was giving me an opening. “I can’t hold him forever,” the Prince said.

“She wouldn’t,” Radulf growled. “Don’t you see? Her love is as strong as her greed. She wants you all to herself; she won’t give that up now—not when she’s so close.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Cillian said. “You know what you have to do. You promised you would.”

“Think carefully,” Radulf’s voice lowered a little more. “Think about what we can give you… you could be our queen. I would be willing to share…”

I scanned my surroundings, because I didn’t want to look directly at the Prince. Mira had gotten back up, but she was only just standing upright with Toross’ help. The other moon children were in their wolf forms, watching me from where they sat. Mel and Gullie were doing their best to hold up the shield, but it was failing, and there were more Wenlow than I could count on the other side of it.

I turned my eyes up at the Prince and slowly stepped up to him.

“You have… to hurry…” Cillian groaned.

My dagger burned in my hand. I had it so tightly gripped, I never thought my fingers would unclench again. “I don’t know if I can,” I said.

“You have to,” Cillian said, “You’re the only one who can get close.”

“Because of our bond…”

He nodded. “That’s right.”

“If I don’t do this, darkness reins… and I lose you. If I do this, I lose you. I lose us.”

“If you don’t kill me now, we all lose everything, Dahlia.”

I shut my eyes. Somehow, it felt like the wind wasn’t as intense, here; like we were directly in the Veridian’s narrow eye. “You’re a jerk,” I said.

“I… what?” he asked.

“You kidnapped me from my home, you forced me to take part in some stupid contest, and you could very well have gotten me killed many times over.”

“I’m—I’m sorry, Dahlia.”

I shook my head. “I’m not.” I looked up at him. “I learned more about myself than I ever thought possible because of you. I saw my parents again, and met my flesh and blood family because of you. I fell in love because of you. With you. I would do it all again if I had to.”

Cillian, though strained, forced a smile. “As would I,” he said, “Although perhaps next time… I would ask you first.”

I stepped a little closer to him and placed my hand on his cheek. “I love you, Cillian…” I said, swallowing the catch in my throat.

He wanted to touch me, but he couldn’t. It took everything he had just so he could keep talking to me. But I noticed something I hadn’t expected to see. A single tear rolled down his cheek. It quickly turned to ice on his skin, then melted again. I brushed the stream with my thumb.

“I love you, Dahlia…” he struggled to say, “I would have turned the world over to keep you.”

I shut my eyes again, fighting back the tears, and pressed the tip of my dagger against his chest. “Don’t do it!” Radulf roared, and the world shook.

I held onto Cillian’s body with one hand to stop from falling over, screamed, and then plunged the dagger into his chest—right into his heart. A thunderous cacophony of lightning and booming erupted all around me. Cillian lost his footing and fell, and I fell with him, on top of him. Not once did I let go of the dagger, nor did I pull it out of his chest.

I was screaming, inconsolable, wild. I hated Radulf, I hated Cillian, I hated the world for what it had made me do. Everything that had come before now had been a test, but how could it have been leading to this? This moment, this final, dark moment. It wasn’t only unfair—it was cruel, a joke from a twisted higher power with a sick sense of humor.

The Veridian rumbled and howled around me, the wind getting worse before it started to dissipate. Under me, under Cillian, the snow started turning red as his blood spread through it. His eyes were open, and he was gargling, choking on the blood pooling in his mouth and spilling down the side of his face.

I couldn’t bare to look at him. I didn’t want that horrifying sight to be the way I remembered him. Instead, I pressed my face against his chest and sobbed. All around me, the Veridian seemed to fall away to silence. Before it was gone, the Prince’s body jerked and convulsed, then it settled again. But I couldn’t move.

I didn’t move.

I stayed exactly where I was, hoping he would rise again, hoping I hadn’t just killed the man I loved moments after finally telling him how I felt. We had both known it for days. We’d felt it from each other, but the words had never come. Not until now.

I wish I’d said them sooner.

I should’ve told him sooner.

Maybe that would’ve made our bond stronger…

“Dahlia,” came a voice from behind me. It was Mira. She placed her hands on my shoulders, but I shrugged her off me.

“Leave me,” I said.

“I won’t leave