He released her vine to clutch his gaping neck. But he’d filched so much of her power, he healed in seconds.
The moment he recovered, he reached for her. She struck again, raking the thorns from his sternum to his navel, leaving his entire torso gaping open this time. Then, she clawed him again. And again. And again.
Only when he ceased moving did she pause to catch her breath and take stock. He lay on the ground, bleeding, his eyes wide, blood gurgling from his mouth.
Cookie leaned over to clasp a fallen sword. This man had harmed young Kaysar and probably others.
Her arms trembled as she slowly lifted the blade. With glassy eyes, he pleaded for mercy.
“If I’d planned to spare you, I’d have worn a different dress.” A lone blow did the trick, his head separating from his body. And like that, victory belonged to Cookie.
Panting, heart a war drum, every muscle on fire, she fell on her haunches. It was done. For good or for ill, Kaysar’s abuser was dead.
“Chantel?”
A stouter whistle of wind masked her surprised intake of air. Lightning flashed as she flipped her gaze up. Kaysar stood upon a pile of corpses, his dark hair blowing around a disbelieving expression. His wild eyes darted here and there, horror pulsing from him.
“What have you done?” he croaked. He shook his head, as if to clear his field of vision. “Tell me you haven’t done this terrible thing. Tell me you haven’t done this, Chantel.”
She remained on her haunches, trembling. Because she knew what was coming. The inevitable confrontation. Cookie had thought she’d prepared for it. But how did you prepare yourself to break your lover’s heart? To have your own shattered in return? Still, she couldn’t regret her actions. Kaysar deserved the future her actions would provide, even if she doomed herself in the process.
“Answer me.” His demand sounded more like the last bray of a wounded animal, turning it into a plea to dispute what his eyes unveiled as truth.
Cookie licked her dry lips and labored to her feet. “I killed the Winter Court king. The final Frostline responsible for your suffering.”
He blanched, but said nothing.
She extended her hands to him in a silent plea for understanding. “I gave you a chance to live again. A real beginning. The first you’ve ever had.”
His eyes slitted, his broad shoulders vibrating. He ignored her request for connection, acting as if the arms she stretched toward him were invisible. “You didn’t give me anything. You stole. You robbed me of my only lifeline.”
The bitterness in his voice summoned beads of sweat across her brow. Her stomach pitched, and for a moment she battled unrelenting doubt. But, she’d done the right thing, yes?
“I did this for you,” she told him softly, her hands falling to her sides.
A man possessed, he pointed a claw in her direction. “You did this for you. You betrayed me, so I would have no reason to leave you again.”
“I never betrayed you.” She took a step back. “But you had already left me, Kaysar, even when you were with me.”
She’d expected his anger, not the quiet finality of his tone. And that frightened her more than ghost trolls, or centaurs, or any of the multitude of truly threatening things she’d encountered since walking through the doorway into this land. To him. This king she adored.
The man she was losing.
Her shoulders slumped, her eyes burning. “I loved you the best way I knew how, Kaysar.”
He stalked closer at last, a predator through and through. The predator she’d never before faced—the one so many other feared. “You planned this,” he hissed. “Even as you pleasured me, you planned this.”
“Yes.” She jutted her chin, unrepentant as she remembered why she’d followed this path. Unrepentant but broken. The cold raindrops blended with her hot tears. “Your obsession was destroying you from the inside out. Now you can heal.”
“I don’t want to heal! And I don’t want you here, in my land, breathing my air.” He lunged. Gripping her by the nape, he dragged her through the camp. She struggled to keep up.
“You will heal, Kaysar,” she said, “You will heal, and you will regret this.”
“Shut up. Not another word.”
When she tripped and fell, he yanked her to her feet and kept going.
“Just listen to me. You had linked the king’s misery to your sister. You aren’t angry with me.” Maybe? “You’re mourning the connection you think you’ve lost.” The very reason he might never forgive Cookie, even after he healed. Even though a part of him had longed for this very outcome.
His footsteps stalled, and she stumbled into him, bouncing back. He twisted to glare down at her with pure malice. “I assure you, my anger for you is very real.”
Cookie tried again, cupping his cheek, but he flinched from her touch. She dropped her arm at her side. “Now, at least, you won’t think of Hador when you think of your sister. You can remember the little girl who followed you around as she clutched her pretty doll. You can smile. Peace is yours, if only you’ll grab it.”
When he started forward at double the speed, dragging her behind him, Cookie’s lower lip wobbled. She’d lost. For the first time since discovering her powers, she felt utterly powerless.
As soon as the mountain appeared in the distance, Kaysar flittered her into their castle. To the room with the permanent doorway. He held her before it. “You will leave this realm, Chantel. You will leave, and you will not return. From this moment on, you are my enemy.”
The way his voice crackled... She’d expected a one-sided war with him. She hadn’t predicted banishment.
“Don’t do this, Kaysar.” Tears gathered and poured. He didn’t know she’d eaten elderseed. That she was soon to pass out, and she was too afraid to tell him. Too afraid he’d do this, anyway, and that, she couldn’t forgive. “Astaria has become my home. I belong here.”
“I. Don’t. Care.” With that, he pushed her through the doorway.
* * *
COOKIE STUMBLED THROUGH the portal and tumbled into a dark, wooded area without pixies or poisonvine. Weakness stole through her, as if she’d lost the power of the elderseed as soon as she’d entered the mortal world. Fueled by a surge of adrenaline, she clambered to her feet.
She spun, hoping to dart through the doorway—“NO!” The gateway was gone.
Bone-deep cold invaded her quivering limbs. Fighting to remain upright, she darted her gaze left, right. Trees and bushes, nothing more.
Her vision blurred, obscured by more tears. What was she going to do?