All the blood drained from my face. “No…”
“Yes, Daughter. New York is the ideal place to relocate the fey realm. The perfect combination of Faerie and Earth—just like you.” Her wicked smile widened. “And your death will make it all possible…”
My eyes shot wide open and darted around. It wasn’t fey magic that I felt around us—saw surrounding the army before us—but Faerie itself, evident from the shape of the trees to the shade of green that colored them to the scent of the air.
Faerie hadn’t swallowed us and spit us out.
Faerie had been dragged into our realm by a malicious queen ready to unleash her fury on the city of New York. My city. My home.
And my death would ensure it all.
Chapter Twenty-One
Everything made so much more sense now. Every step the queen had taken, every single way she’d played me—played my emotions—had been to get to this moment. I was her ticket to a world with endless power. All she had to do was take out the final hurdle in her way.
“So this is it, huh? This is where it all goes down?” I asked, doing all I could to bolster my bravado and buy myself time to think of something. Because we had neither a full army, nor Etherian, nor the element of surprise any longer. We were outnumbered and likely overpowered, given the amusement in the queen’s eyes. The king’s, too, for that matter.
She cocked her head at me and feigned curiosity. “I see no reason to prolong the inevitable, do you?”
At her words, a growl erupted behind her, and for a moment, hope surged in my heart. Those that had been left behind hadn’t all died trying to get to the Ether—or at least some of the New York pack hadn’t, by the sound of it. I wondered if they’d somehow tracked Knox through their connection and come to our aid.
But the fey army didn’t even flinch at the potential surprise attack. Instead, they merely parted so that Mack’s former wolves could waltz between them, wolf eyes gleaming in the moonlight and pinned on us as their growls grew louder and more menacing.
The look on my face must have shown my utter disbelief, because the fey king’s laughter rang out so loudly that it actually startled me. “Did you think they were yours? Did you think Knox could control them?” he asked, stepping in front of his bride to address us. “Do you think I can’t control him?”
I dared a glance to where the alpha wolf stood stock-still, teeth bared in a snarl.
“They were Mack’s, and Mack was mine,” Phineas continued. “And since they failed to kill you earlier without my assistance,” he said, his disdain at their shortcoming plain in his tone, “they will do so now—just like they killed the rest of your little army you left behind.”
His words barely had time to register because the fey guard had joined the wolves and were headed toward us.
“Sherry!” I yelled. “It’s time for that talisman...”
Sherry emerged from the crowd with a black stone hanging from a leather cord around her neck. She touched her fingertips to the craggy crystal, then whispered something in a language I didn't recognize. A mist of sorts emanated from it, grazing each of the wolves on our side of the mob. Then it drifted toward the New York pack, who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the fey guard. But the second it reached their line, it hit an invisible wall and dissipated entirely.
And the fey king laughed. Again. “You’re going to have to do better than that if you want them back,” he said, taunting us.
To say we were greatly outnumbered would have been an understatement, and while that hadn’t proved to be a problem moments ago in Faerie, as the pieces of what the royals had done fell into place in my addled mind, my concern grew. The army we’d faced there had been a ruse—a distraction to keep us busy while they’d escaped to New York to do whatever the fuck they’d done to blend it with their realm.
With their full, intentional power behind them, I wasn’t sure we’d survive this time.
But I sure as fuck wasn’t going to give up.
“Kingston!” I shouted. “A little help over here…” The sinister warlock was at my side as I called my winds to me. “Time to teach me that little tornado trick of yours.”
“With pleasure.”
Standing at my side, wrists glowing blue, he spun his arms in a circular, swirling motion as I thrust the gale toward the advancing army. A funnel the size of a Manhattan building began to swirl, sucking up anything and anyone in its wake. I heard my father and the coven queen shouting commands at their followers to add to the force I’d created with my former nemesis. Knox and his wolves, alongside Merc and his enforcers, held fast, waiting for anyone that made it past the violent funnel.
But then I felt it—the thrum of the royals’ combined power crashing into that magical, twisting trap—and I knew I couldn’t hold it forever. Together, they were so strong. Too strong.
I turned my panicked stare to Knox. “I can’t hold it!”
Knox’s hands clamped around my wrists. “You can,” he said as he stared into my eyes with a determination so fierce it almost scared me. “You have to kill them, Piper. All of them.”
Bea stepped between her brother and me and rested her hand on my shoulder. She chanted in Latin in my ear, and I felt the fire rise within me, though I hadn’t called it. Heat tore through my veins, and I screamed as it shot from my fingers, ripped from me by Bea’s spell. Knox’s grip on me tightened as I fought the magic, red and blue flames igniting the swirling vortex of fey army and wolves only yards away. The screams from inside barely broke through the haze of heat and pain racking my body, but as I pushed through both, I felt the spark of elation start to override them.
Then a tsunami of water crashed down upon the funnel cloud, extinguishing it. I tumbled back a step from the sheer force of the magic used against me, and only Knox’s grip kept me on my feet.
The speed of the tornado began to slow. Kingston and Bea fell to their knees. And I felt that spark sputter as my mother’s voice echoed through my mind.
They’re all going to die…because of you…
“Knox!”
“I see it,” he growled in return. “Merc…we need a plan B. Fast.”
“Here!” Liam shouted as he ran towards us. Beside him was a portal that shimmered in the light of the moon. Without hesitation, Merc began shuttling everyone into it while I held the tornado as long as I could to let the others escape.
“I can’t hold them much longer,” I ground out as I strained against the royals’ response to my attack. The queen’s wall of fire crashed into my wind like an explosion, and my feet skidded across the ground as I fought to keep it from incinerating us all. Knox dug in hard and held me up.
“Almost done!” Kat shouted over the roar of magic. “Just a few more.”
“Go!” I yelled at her. “Get out of here—all of you!”
A growl eclipsed her argument, then both went silent. Merc called for his brothers, and the support at my back lessened.
“On three,” Knox whispered in my ear. “One, two…three!”
He snatched me around the waist and dove through the portal. I looked back at the queen’s murderous glare until Liam blocked it and sealed her out. Panic surged through me as I considered that wherever we were might not be an improvement—or a place the royals couldn’t find us, since Faerie was their realm.