Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) by Gwen Rivers (free ebooks romance novels .TXT) 📗

A tear spills down Sigyn’s cheek. “You’ve met Harmony.”

He nods. “I have. And if you don’t care about your own life or mine, care about hers. She doesn’t deserve to die.”

“I met your mate.” Her lips twist into an expression no one would consider a smile. “She’s so cold.”

“No, she isn’t.” Nic is lava under an ice floe. “Believe me, she’s everything to me. As is our daughter.”

Her lips part. “Daughter?”

Though he doesn’t know for a fact that the One True Queen has been born safely, he can think of no other reason for Nic to have crossed the Veil. “You’re a grandmother. I haven’t even met her yet. Please. For once in your life, think about us before him.”

Loki remains oddly quiet.

Sigyn sets the bowl on a small ledge. Loki bellows as the venom drips onto his face. The acid burns him down to the bone. The room shakes in time to his thunderous bellow. Tears stream down Sigyn’s face but her hold is true as she removes the chain from his body.

Cracks form in the ceiling overhead and stalactites fall. Sigyn lunges for the bowl and catches the stream of venom. The snake hisses. Loki takes in a choked breath. His face is unrecognizable. The quake stops.

“I’m sorry,” tears spill down his mother’s cheeks. “For my part in it.”

Aiden kisses her on the forehead, a benediction he isn’t qualified to offer. He’s sorry, too. “Thank you,” he breathes and shifts to sparks.

It’s a matter of moments for him to travel up out of the cave. The winds whip up, propelling him to his destination. Mountains surge up out of lakes below. Underhill is moving the terrain until the landscape looks like cake batter being stirred by an invisible spoon. Shifting her home-field advantage. Whatever Nic’s done, she has her mother’s attention.

The mountain that conceals the Underground Palace appears. Aiden forces himself to travel faster. He must be faster than ever before.

He flies down into the depths of the Unseelie catacombs. There it is, the magnificent crystal palace that had been hewn on the orders of the first Unseelie queen. He doesn’t pause. Doesn’t count the flood of Draugar that surround it.

Aiden coalesces in the throne room to see Nic seated on the Fire Throne. Flames lick up and shadows curl around her. Her hair is ablaze. It’s going to reject her. His brave mate will die trying to wield a power that isn’t hers.

He lunges for her, intending to shift to sparks as soon as his skin touches hers. Her eyes open and she stares at him once. Her cracked lips mouth two words that he hears echoing inside his head.

Protect her.

The Throne explodes.

Aiden throws up a shield surrounding the small group of fey in the throne room. The pillar of flames spurts to the ceiling and shadows curl out of the corners to meet with it.

All around him their allies cough and choke.

“Nic?” This from Nahini who is nearest to him. “Where is she?”

The smoke begins to clear.

Nic is nowhere in sight.

Everything hurts. Even my toenails. The pain is so intense that, for a moment, I don’t realize what has happened.

Then it all comes back to me. Sitting on the Fire Throne. Aiden.

The explosion.

“Did you really think,” a female voice says from behind me. “That you could take it from me?”

I roll onto my back. Pharaildis stands there, her purple gown unsmudged, her kohl-lined eyes narrowed on the tiny tongue of flame dancing in her hand.

Above our heads, the runes pulse with their eerie green light. The Draugar trundle out through the doorway. Off to collect more dead fey for her army.

I glare at Underhill. “Why bother to save me?”

“You’re not my enemy,” she says. “You simply side with them.”

Time for some harsh truth. “I’m not your daughter, either.”

She tilts her head to the side. “I don’t understand you, Nicneven. Anyone else I would kill for ignoring my banishment. I offer you your life and you almost die in a fruitless effort to steal a power you can’t wield.”

Though it feels as if my bones will crack, I force myself to sit upright. “It’s Nic. And you never have understood me.”

“Why fight?” Her face is a picture of bafflement. “You had a child taken from you by another. A child you needed to help set you free. I thought you would understand.”

A part of me does. “I wanted that babe for the wrong reasons. How would your life have been different if the fey hadn’t taken me? You want to destroy the worlds.”

“The worlds destroyed me!” she shrieks. “For love, I lost everything.”

“I know. And it isn’t fair. But his was the action of one man. You punished him and were punished in turn. Don’t drag the rest of the living into it.”

The flame disappears and her hands clench into fists. “Don’t you get it? We are all wrong. Every last one of us. Twisted. Evil. The worlds need to be scourged clean.”

I hold her gaze. “You’re wrong. Not everyone is evil. I’m not.”

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” She waves her hand. A cabinet appears. From deep within I see the throbbing light of Brigit’s heart, the power bestowed by the Fire Throne. “She was supposed to be goodness itself. Yet she traded her heart for your head.”

“And I defended myself.” My horrific burns are healing too slowly. I need to keep her talking.

She reaches into the cabinet and extracts the heart. “You were after this. But it’s too late, Nicneven. My Draugar will capture your friends and I will take the wolf back to Loki and use him to set the Lord of Chaos free. The worlds will end.”

“Not if I end you first.”

Her full lips curve up in a genuine smile. “So that’s your plan? You think you can kill me? You’ll become me.”

“I won’t.” Collecting enough strength to stand, I rise to my full height.

“You’ve taken innocent lives,” Pharaildis says. “This prison will swallow you whole. After