Page 111 of Destined for the Fae King

It’s then I know. The king is hurt. Dying.

When Bailey died, her bond to the king vanished. The same is happening now, just the other way around. The world seems to shift under my feet in a way it has only a few times in my life, the last when my father died. It was unexpected, the unthinkable, something so seismic as to shift the balance of my life for good.

Just like then, my chest is hollowed out, shock stealing my wits.

The king is dying. The Court of Fire is losing.

I grab Lysandir’s ring so tightly the metal digs into my palm. It’s warm, but how long will that last?

Ribbons of smoke continue unfurling from our wrists. They barely leave our skin before vanishing into nothingness.

Tharin takes charge, ordering the other guards in the room. “Get the women to the honing point! Take them to the capital at once!”

Because there’s no reason for us to remain anymore. No bond to hinder the king. No king at all.

Tears slip down my cheeks.

“Time to go.” Tharin latches onto my upper arm and tries to haul me toward the door.

But I dig in my heels and jerk out of his grip.

“No! I won’t leave him.” I can’t bear to leave him to fight and die, to hide away when at any moment the ring he gave me might cool.

“I have to take you to safety.”

Already the guards are ushering the other women up and toward the door.

“There has to be something we can do to help,” I all but shout at him.

“Mira,” Tharin grates, a hard edge to his voice. “I have to—”

A sound like shattered glass rings through the room. We freeze and look toward its source.

Queen Elaine stands with the spear in her hands. Its shaft has been extended. The shattered remnants of its top lie in pieces on the stonework as she rights it and holds it out toward me.

“Take the spear.” It’s the order of a queen. A command. “Help my son.”

Something fierce and hot burns in the center of my chest, racing like tingling likes of flame through my veins.

Tharin sucks in a breath, and I know he wants to demand I do otherwise. But even he won’t go against her wishes.

Her unblinking, powerful gaze calls me, tugging me forward like a rope I’d be helpless to wiggle away from even if I wanted to.

I cross the room to her and take the spear. It’s warm under my palm. Just the feel of it gives me strength—and something else. At the edge of my senses, I hear a song, a whisper urging me to go, to protect.

I straighten my shoulders and meet her resolute stare with one of my own. “I will.”

She gives me one solid nod. “Good.”

“Mira…” Adeline stares at me wide-eyed as I turn back toward the others.

“You can use it?” Cora asks.

I flex my fingers on the staff. “Yes.”

And I know it without a doubt. The magic already calls to me, begging to be unleashed. Elaine is too old and frail for the battlefield, but I’m not. I can do this.

I glance at Erymis, for I know he’ll do exactly what I’m about to ask. “Get them to safety. Now.”

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