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

millennium incarcerated in this place, you will be just like me.”

“It never had to be a prison though. You made it this way. Your anger about John, about what happened to you. You are trapped in a jail of your own making.”

She shakes her head. “You know nothing about it.”

I move forward. Closer to her. My immortality is reviving me. “Why did you let the fey keep your child?”

She stares at me a long moment.

“Even before you had Brigit’s heart, you had the power to reshape this world. Why would you allow the fey to keep your baby from you?”

I see an echo of the vulnerable girl from my dreams in her dark eyes.

“You wanted better for her, didn’t you?” The same way I wanted better for Addison.

Pharaildis shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“You treated the fey as your children for a time. Played with their magic. Giving boons and doling out punishment. You cared about them. What changed?”

“I cared for them, but they never cared for me,” she seethes. “No one sought me out. I had the knowledge of centuries. Yet none came to be with me. You want to know why this is a prison? Because I am trapped with the knowledge that I don’t matter to anyone. Power isn’t the ability to shape the world, but to have the world recognize and celebrate your contributions.”

I hold out a hand to her. “I recognize you.”

She stares at it as though she’s never seen anything like it.

“End this,” I beg her. “I’ll stay with you. I promise.”

Her eyes glisten with unshed tears. “You aren’t fey. You can lie.”

“I can, but I’m not. I’ve discovered something about myself. I come from goodness. My soul was brought back by love, my body conceived in love and I’ve been raised surrounded by love. You never had the chance to know that. But you can have it now.”

A single tear escapes. It slides down her cheek in a glistening trail.

“Please, Pharaildis.” My tone is fraught with a sea of churning emotions. “I’m not your daughter. But part of her still lives in me. A portion that yearns to be with you.”

“No.” Her expression hardens.

I realize my mistake at once. Nicneven was one of the fey who never sought her out. I see her shut down her feelings an instant before she raises her hand. A ball of fire appears white and blue flames. A killing blow.

“Goodbye, Nicneven.”

Something clatters to her left a moment before a black blur slams into her from the side. Aiden, in wolf form. He knocks her to the ground, teeth bared.

I glance around, hoping to spy what he’d dropped. Seelenverkäufer. Each motion full of agony, I drag myself to it.

Pharaildis fights back like a wild thing, teeth bared, hands curled into claws of her own. The ground beneath us shifts. One blood-soaked finger traces something in the sky. A rune.

The Draugar at the far side of the cavern turn slowly to face us.

Nightweaver appears and dives inside one of the corpses. It shudders and collapses. The Valkyrie spirit emerges and then goes into the next one. Buying us time.

My hand closes around the sword hilt.

Nic, Aiden thinks at me. I can’t hold her much longer.

Pharaildis throws him off, straight into the black water. Dead hands grab for him, ready to pull him apart.

I don’t think. I lunge forward and plant my lips against hers even as I drive the blade into her stomach.

Delivering my goodnight kiss for the final time.

Her lips part. The ground beneath us stills. Black lines streak across her face. The toxin acts fast or slow depending on the dose. I give Pharaildis every drop of the poison water she once drank to kill herself and her unborn babe.

“I….I…,” she sputters and her eyes fog. Her entire body shudders. A trail of blood oozes from her ear. Only moments from the end.

“I would have kept my promise,” I whisper through the knot in my throat. No matter how hard it would have been, after all she had done, I would have found a way to forgive her.

Chloe is right. Forgiveness is for quitters. And I am more than ready to be done.

Her lids flutter and all the tension, all the power, leaves her.

And finds me.

Aiden dissolves into sparks, freeing himself from the corpses.

“Nic?” Aiden shifts back to human form. He’s naked and sweating, covered with dirt and blood. His green eyes are wild. “What’s happening?”

“Stay back.” I hold up a hand as energy courses through me. This doesn’t burn like fire. It’s deeper, stronger. I close my eyes sensing…

Everything.

Too much. I fall to my hands and knees, retching. The land around me is dead or dying, poison is everywhere. Dizziness washes over me as all the thoughts and emotions of the fey make themselves known. Their fear and panic overwhelm me. To help or hinder? I’m losing myself in the endless sea of them.

I can feel the ground trembling beneath our feet, the land up above. I can see the fey. The Draugar, the ones in this cave and the ones that surround the palace. Can see them fall as ghosts dip into them, stealing their animation.

A hand cups my cheek. I detect his scent. Cedar, sage, and wildness. Aiden whispers, “Stay with me, love.”

I focus on his eyes. He’s here. He’s here and he’s in danger. Nightweaver is slowing down, she can’t take them all out. I must master the power. But not all at once. A little at a time. The same way I learned to fight. Right now, I need to shut all the noise out. In my mind’s eye, I picture turning off a faucet to cut off the flow of all the panic and pain. From a torrent to a trickle and then to a drip. Until it is safely contained. The tremors cease.

“That’s it.” Aiden strokes my hair. “Come back to me.”

And just as the last drop of sensation falls, I sense the runes. They throb like a heartbeat