Page 60 of The Fae Lord

His body feels so good against me, and so bad at the same time. I don’t want him near me, and yet he feels like strength and safety in this moment.

I try to pull away from him because I don’t want him to speak to me like that or hold me like that, but I can’t. He is too strong.

He won’t let go.

Even as the forest floor turns to nothing but smoke and shadow and ash, and the sky darkens, and lightning forks across it, he does not let me go.

He holds me still when the demon appears in front of us. Red eyes glinting in a shadow-covered face. It looms over us, and then it laughs.

Pain hits me again, this time in between my ribs, and my knees, and my hips. All the places that never usually hurt now feel like they are on fire.

“You can do it, Alana, take his magic.” Eldrion talks softly into my ear. “Do what you did to Kayan, and to me. Use your magic to claim his and make it yours.”

And then I bolt upright.

The vision disappears. I am back in the forest, near sunset, surrounded by nothing but trees and grass and the scent of pinewood.

I am breathing hard and fast. I hear Eldrion’s words again and again.

“Do what you did to Kayan, and to me. Use your magic to claim his and make it yours.”

That’s what he wants me for. I see it now; clear as the morning sky. Eldrion believes in the visions, and he wants me to take the demon’s powers and give them to him. That is why he wants me.

From the very beginning, that’s what this was about. Why he spent so many hours talking to me in his study, and why he fucked me in the tunnels.

He was trying to understand what I am, and what I could do for him. I am a weapon he seeks to wield in a fight that has yet to arrive.

I stagger to my feet and brush down my dress. I stand for a moment, bracing myself against the tree. In the distance, I hear the crackling of the campfire and someone playing guitar. It is always the evenings when the camp is at its friendliest.

And its most distracted.

I run to the tent. I throw off my clothes and rifle through Finn’s instead, pulling on a pair of his pants, and a shirt. I tie one of his belts tightly around me, then roll up my sleeves.

If Eldrion thinks he can control me, he is wrong.

And as much as I love Finn, I will not let him be the one to decide my fate either.

I have spent too long bending under the gaze or wishes of others. I wore those damned purple gloves for years. I let the villagers make me believe I was evil.

I was never evil, and I will not allow Eldrion to turn me into something I despise.

I am taking back control. I am going to end this myself. Now.

I pull a sheet of paper out of Finn’s bag, and a pen. On it, I scrawl a hurried note, telling him I love him, and then I leave it on our bed where he will find it when he returns.

I hesitate at the opening of the tent. I know what I’m about to do could end badly. But it could also be the start of a new chapter for us all – just like Finn said. Except, this way, perhaps no one except Lord Eldrion needs to get hurt.

When I reach the shield, I half expect Kayan to appear and try to stop me. When he doesn’t, I slip through and run as fast as I can for the edge of the forest.

By foot, we are hours from the castle. So, when I reach the outskirts of the city, I begin to fly. It has been a long time since I flew like this. Living in Eldrion’s clutches, I thought I would never soar through the sky again.

Yet, here I am. High above Luminael.

The wind caresses my wings. I let it stroke them, and hover for a moment, looking down at the place I was so very nearly banished to all those years ago.

Briefly, I allow myself to wonder whether it really would have been so bad after all if I’d just left. Maybe things would have turned out differently. Samuel might have lived. We might never have been captured and taken to Eldrion’s castle.

Everything could have been so different.

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