And then I watched in horror as a blade came pushing through her midriff, from the midst of the flowing fabrics.
Cantillion’s sword had pierced her. Purple blood oozed out in streams, and the queen sunk to her knees.
Cantillion yanked out the sword and muttered those familiar words, and only then the queen’s face distorted into a frightened grimace, until she fell peaceful, closing her eyes half-way. She kept on bowing towards the ground until she was lying down in a silent heap.
Cantillion’s eyes were transfixed on the queen as he watched the effect of his words that were draining the life out of the Queen’s eyes, so he was slow to look up, when Lyria dove down and pulled on Cantillion’s legs, so he tripped and fell on his back.
A tired growl escaped him, as he struggled to rest on his arm and push himself to sit upright.
“Did you kill my father?” Lyria yelled. “Did you? Answer me!”
Cantillion only grinned, sprawled on the ground, and I couldn’t tell if he even meant that for an answer.
Then something happened that blinded me and deafened me, a burst of energy. For a moment, it lit up everything, until it focused down to a stream of light that Lyria held between her hands, like a bolt of lightning suspended in the air.
“You’ve brought enough pain and chaos into this world,” Lyria said through her teeth.
And as she raised her hands, those energies flowing between her palms shot out to flow towards Cantillion.
Cantillion turned his face to the sky, screaming.
Somehow, he managed to get a hand free of the cage of light and fought himself to his feet, and with almost the same lightning-fast move, he grabbed Lyria by the throat. Lyria looked panicked and kicked at Cantillion to get free, but Cantillion was too strong and only lifted her off the ground.
I was right there, though Cantillion seemed to think nothing of me. I sunk the blade into Cantillion’s chest, driving it deep, and said the words I’d learned by now — they were in Fae, but Lyria had gone over them with me a million times. They did strike Cantillion down again, and he fell, groaning…
Lyria glanced at me, eyes wide.
She yelled out those words again, the power in them shooting out like fire.
That was the final strike.
I looked at Cantillion. It was done, it was done…The life in Cantillion’s eyes was dying and the previously glowing brilliance turning blank. I waited a second, hands shaky, but he stayed still. He was gone.
The battle was still mulling around us, but the fae warriors closest to us had already noticed.
They were reacting.
Lyria pulled me up by the arm and nodded quickly towards the open desert, her face worried.
But one look again at the crowds made us halt on our feet.
They were kneeling down, one after another, row after row, and bowing, all eyes on Lyria...
Lyria was queen.
Chapter 33
The hills and mountaintops lined the horizon and mountain lakes glittered in the sun, mere specks here and there — the high tower of Galandea offered magnificent views.
I still wasn’t used to calling it home, exactly, but it was quickly finding a soft spot in my heart, with all our walks on the paths on the mountain slopes and in the forests in the valley below, and with our trips to swim in the river in the gorge, skinny-dipping under the moon, and even occasional horseback rides to the fae deserts not that far away.
“But what are you going to do?” I asked. “Oh my gosh, you looked so serious, when you told me about those stars you were born under and how they defined your place, how you had a life ahead of you, predefined…Destined to bring a peaceful world and a long, quiet, prosperous reign…And what was it, again, three sons…?”
“Yes,” Lyria said with a laugh. “Oh, my gosh, three sons? I don’t know about that, but never say never…Yes, I guess you could say my birth stars are in shards, now! Absolutely none of that pre-planned life will be mine. But who cares for it? These shards are much prettier than the supposedly perfect picture ever was. You know what, I’ll take those shards and they’ll be my diamonds, my prettiest jewelry, and I don’t care what people think, I’ll be perfectly happy as long as I have you. We’ll have our own bubble of happiness. That’s all I care about in the world. All the rest, let them take it.”
“You shouldn’t say things like that,” I put in, uneasy. “What about your crown, your court, your castle, your kingdom…Your entire life? You shouldn’t talk about things like that so lightly.”
Lyria pulled a breath, smiling, but some tears welled up in her eyes. “You know what, things may have changed. After all this, the court is a whole different world, now. It will be interesting to see how people react to the new winds blowing. Finally we have fae alliance. Some people will fall away, I know. Some people are terrified of the fae — for good reason.”
“I know, I know…” I discreetly admired her in my arms, trying to see her expression better from behind all the masses of curls as she had pressed her face to my shoulder again.
“But of course I’m very much aware that I have the same power in me,” Lyria muttered against my throat. “Maybe that’s part of why I fear them so much. I don’t want to see them, to see what I could be. What if my powers get loose, one day? And I become more like them?”
“Shh,” I whispered back. “That’s not going to happen.”
“I feel like there’s this bomb inside of me, waiting to explode.”
“You won’t let that happen,” I whispered still, “I know you, you’re the one person in the world I’d trust with magic like that. You’re the sweetest, bravest, most genuinely wonderful woman I’ve ever known. Just think of what you have done with your magic so far? You’ve brought peace between the humans and fae. Not to mention, the fae are focusing more on experimenting in their gardens underground than on murdering each other…”
She lifted her chin to stare into my teasing eyes, quiet for a moment. A gentle flicker of violet glow visited her sweet eyes in sparkling lines among the chocolate brown, but vanished like a passing thought, gone already. Taking hold of my arms, she pushed me back a little.
“You always have this way of grounding me and bringing me back to earth…But if I were the Queen of the Fae, I’d have to stay there, and for all the riches of the world, no thank you! I’m going to give up the Fae throne. You do know I can choose the successor? It’s silly that the victor of a duel has always named themselves as the successor, but they’re fae, of course they would! Anyway, it’s still possible to decline and name another successor. So, I’ll just need to find someone who loves gardening, right?” She winked.
I didn’t know what to do with the contradicting emotions running through me. “Lyria…You could have the entire fae kingdom with all its riches. That’s a lot to give up. Don’t you want that?”
The lilac in her eyes swam in gentle swirls, never overpowering the brown. She smiled as if I had to know the answer, and shook her head.
“But I warn you, there will be adventures…”