Page 90 of The Fallen Kingdom

“Keep directing me,” I tell Derrick.

Derrick sits on my shoulder, telling me how Kiaran will strike before it happens. The pixie can sense his movements, how his body bunches before an attack. Soon I’m driving Kiaran back, but my movements are slowing down, getting clumsier.

“Kiaran,stop!”

“Lunge!” Derrick yells.

I dive to connect my sword with Kiaran’s, but at the last moment, he slams his fist into my face. I spin and hit the ground hard, fighting not to black out.

“Get up,” Derrick tells me. “Get the hell up, Aileana.”

Listen to him. Move!

Footsteps. Hard boots against the floor. The Morrigan’s voice beneath Kiaran’s, sounding triumphant.I’m going to win. “Shall I sacrifice my pawn? Or will you say yes?”

“No,” I breathe. “No.”

“Stay away from her,” Derrick snarls.

Shall I sacrifice my pawn?I see the Morrigan’s eyes gleam when she looks at the pixie. Derrick is flying toward Kiaran, his blade drawn and ready to attack.

Kiaran isn’t the pawn.

“Derrick,” I scream. “Wait!”

Kiaran snatches Derrick from the air and closes his fist with a sickening crunch. Then he tosses the pixie to the ground.

I don’t remember saying anything. I don’t remember screaming. I don’t remember getting to my feet or stumbling to Derrick’s broken body, lying next to his detached, mangled wings.

All I recall is picking up his broken, wingless body in my hand, and saying his name.Derrick.

He stirs. “Don’t cry,” Derrick whispers, his voice faint. “I don’t like to see you cry. You’re my favorite.” He doesn’t move again.

“Derrick?Derrick!”

I say his name over and over and over. He’s not dead. He’ll wake up at any moment with a stupid joke about how he fooled me and then he’ll start plaiting my hair. He’ll sew me a new coat. He’ll threaten to make me another dress. Because Derrick is immortal and the fae don’t die. They live forever.They live forever.

Derrick isn’t dead. He isn’t dead, he can’t—

His eyes don’t open. His wings don’t heal. His blood drips down my fingers.

I throw back my head and scream. Power bursts out of me, wild and furious and violent. Every mirror in the room shatters. Glass falls to the floor around me.

The room is quiet after that. There is only the sound of my breathing, rough and painful. I press Derrick’s small body to my chest and finally notice that the taste of his power is gone.He’s gone and he’s not coming back. He’s not coming back. He’s not coming back.

“Kam.” A choked whisper across the room makes me go still.

I open my eyes. Kiaran is standing there, his eyes back to normal. He’s staring at Derrick’s unmoving body.

But I feel nothing. Just numb. Derrick’s body is losing its heat and I need to—I need to—I don’tknow. I don’t know what to do.

“Kam,” Kiaran says again.

I scramble to my feet and gather the remains of my power. The physical pain of it cleanses me. For a single beautiful moment, it washes away my grief, my despair. Everything. The pain is a cure. I feel it in my chest, through my veins, across my bones. In the shattered remnants of the mirror, I see my hair lift as if picked up by a breeze. My eyes are lit with the uncanny amber glow of something not quite human, not quite fae.

Derrick’s wry voice rises from my memories.Freaky eyes.

I reach my hand out and light flickers between my fingertips. I gather the energy inside me until my body feels as if it will shatter with the gathering of it.Hold. Hold. I endure, because I have to. Because I’m not going to leave his body in this room. I’m not going to leave Derrick, just as he didn’t leave me.

---