Page 203 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“Ornella!” screamed a woman, and I saw a dark-haired female in silk robes standing among the griffins. She was the only one with them who was dressed the same without any wings so I knew it must be the witch called Amira.

The same witch we had just dispatched that letter to in a bid for negotiation.

My attention snagged on the biggest portal I had ever seen through which Spring Court fey were streaming in the dozens trying to escape certain doom.

“Portals,” I ordered my riders, and they all complied, allowing me to direct them mentally so dozens of escape routes opened up to every location where we had people. Multiple portals in every major city I could remember. Some of those places were already lost, and it felt like my mind was clawing through smoke to grab onto what was no longer there, but I focused through the horror.

Our portals were not transparent like the one through which Balor must have come, but we could faintly hear the screams through ours. There was a pause, and Sage tensed like he would run into one of the portals to start directing people into it, but I forbade it.

We waited, and finally people started to come through, crying as they collapsed to the ground.

“Rian! Thank the gods,” sobbed an elfin woman whom I recognized as one of our trackers who had been trying to find Balor before he did something like this. She clenched a child that I was sure was not her own. “Everyone who could portal fled and left us all behind,” she cried.

I knelt next to her wordlessly and placed a hand on her shoulder as she bowed her head over the child and cried. While Istared through the big portal, watching as the Spring Court was gradually consumed in darkness. I did not know what it was, perhaps the nothingness of the place in which the world had been created.

One by one, our portals were closed with wisps of black that quickly faded as each location was destroyed. One fey lost his arm coming through just as it collapsed, but Ornella instantly leapt forward to heal him.

And still I knelt and watched through the giant portal as the Spring Court was destroyed. Tears tumbled down my cheeks as I beheld it. Helpless to do anything else.

And then our last portal closed in a puff of smoke just before the darkness hit the big portal and swallowed the crowd of fey still trying to come through…

The portal warbled and closed, and the Spring Court was forever lost. I could not move for many moments as the final waft of its scent faded in the air around me.

This was my fault. My failure. I had ferried thousands of fey home over the years only for them to die there…

My heart felt like it split open wide, the anguish was crippling, and my magic roiled in ready response.

I took my hand away from the female elf before I felt my magic bleeding out of my pores. It moved in me with a violence that made this young worldtremble.

I rose slowly and turned, feeling my riders behind me while I faced the griffins and King Balor with them.

“You,” I snarled, my rage a palpable thing when I set eyes on the treacherous king who had the gall to smirk at me like he had won some game.

All of the fey kneeling around us swiftly regained their feet and began to disperse into the forest. Fleeing from what they knew must be coming now that I had Balor in my sights. I had notmeant to start a fight, but after what I had borne witness to, I would not be restrained.

“Do not come any closer,” someone commanded, and I tore my gaze from Balor to look at the griffin standing just in front of him. He was dressed in golden armour and a crown with his wings tensing readily. At his side was that witch who was staring behind me at Ornella.

“You must be King Riordan,” I spat at him in disgust as more of my shadows hemorrhaged into the air.

Do not hurt the witch,Sage cautioned me, but I made no promises. Not after this egregious crime.

Riordan eyed my riders and my shadows. He did not look nearly as terrified as he should be, and there was a cruel part of me that relished the thought of showing him how foolish he was for it. How quickly and easily I could take absolutely everything from him if I wanted to.

Then the Griffin King reached down and unsheathed a strange blade very calmly from his belt.

“There are five riders in the Wild Hunt, are there not? Where is the other?” he demanded.

I didn’t know why he wanted to know, but I certainly was not giving him answers. Especially not while he was holding a Sylvan blade that was possibly the only weapon that would repel my magic. I understood why he was not afraid since he must think himself invincible now with such a weapon in his hands. As if I could not still bleed his power from the world around him. Although I was unsure why he set the tip of it against his own finger like he was about to cut himself instead.

Darragh hissed at the very sight of it, but I held up my hand for him to be still.

“I had no quarrel with you, Griffin King. Until today. You will answer for the millions of fey who just lost their lives because of what you have done.”

“No quarrel with me?” Riordan repeated with a scoff. “You kidnap my people, you hunt for the fey monarchs to consume their power, and you did not think that I would take any issue with that?”

“Riordan, you do not understand!” Ornella shouted at him before I could speak up. “He was protecting the fey! That darkness has infected all the Four Courts—”

“Lies!” shouted King Balor, storming forward to stand at Riordan’s side with a glance down at the Sylvan blade. “He has lied to you, child!” he swore to Ornella with an admirable performance before narrowing his eyes at me. “This has all been his doing. His unnatural magic poisons the Tithriall as he leeches from it, and heknowsit!”

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