Page 24 of The Forever Queen

Lir threw both axes this time. Mid-flight, they curved inward, careening toward Fionn like sparrows.

Fionn slammed against the ground, avoiding his brother’s axes by less than a sylph’s width. Hastily, he leaped to his feet, walking backward to increase the distance between himself and his brother.

“I will make the time to gut you,” Lir growled, but the voice was not his own. It was dark; the sound of blades dragged across bite-sharp stones. “To cut Aisling’s name from your mouth like a sacrifice.”

Lir caught his spinning blades again, throwing one and then the other, his entire body lunging forward.

Fionn’s spears of ice blocked both blades the moment they converged. Yet, Fionn’s heels were now bending over the edge of Castle Annwyn.

“Let Anduril make a warrior of her,” Fionn shouted, teetering at the edge. “Your selfishness—your bond—will only bring the Sidhe to their knees.”

“Perhaps, but the decision was not yours to make.”

The dark lord continued, throwing his blades again. Fionn dove backward, flying off the edge and down.

Lir leaped shortly after, plummeting with reckless abandon. Vines and roots tangled themselves around his limbs, carrying him as he fell.

Both lords crashed into a floating bridge. The center cracked and burst with stones upon impact, immediately tilting onto its side. Fionn and Lir reached for the balustrade, gripping its edge and climbing till they balanced on its side.

Lir wrapped the bridge in vines, hungrily climbing and reaching for the son of Winter.

Fionn clawed through them, spraying the stairwell with the blood of his palms.

Lir’s lips curled. His magic swallowed the son of Winter with its thorny limbs. They squeezed, sucking the air from Fionn’s lungs.

“Lir,” Fionn struggled, grasping for hisdraiochtwithout breath. “I did not make such a decision. You did.”

Lir’s smile widened: the image of a wolf raising its bloody muzzle from the belly of its kill.

“Beg for it,” Lir said. “Beg for your life.”

Fionn shuddered, filled by the same goblet of thousands before him: fear. Lir’s expression was monstrous. The nightmare shadow that slipped between the rooms of your mind.

Even so, Fionn couldn’t speak if he wished to. His complexion was purpling, his body tightening, his life fading while Lir continued.

“Li—”

One, two, three more breaths…

“Enough!” Peitho’s voice shouted from above. A beam as bright as sunlight crashed into the bridge in a flash of gold. The bridge split, severing Lir’sdraiochtand freeing Fionn.

They fell further this time, slashing through the moonlight. At some point, their paths met; a tangle of magic spinning as they plunged, fighting fist to fist, and magic to magic.

They crashed into the angled side of a turret, but still, they did not stop. Both slid down the jeweled shingles, reaching for something to break their fall. Everything they touched fell loose, sending both the son of Winter and Lir down the edge of Castle Annwyn’s mountain where nothing rested below save for the river’s rapids.

Fionn caught onto the rim of the turret, stopping his descent.

Lir’s hold on the rim, however, broke loose, sending Lir further down the tower’s side. Lir unsheathed his blades, slamming them into the side of the tower. They took hold, ripping through the side of the mosaicked edge.

Finally, Lir stopped, a few lengths short of the bottom of Castle Annwyn altogether.

“So long brother,” Fionn said, finding dark amusement in his brother’s misfortune. He looked as if he’d happily leave Lir stuck at the edge of Castle Annwyn, shivering till daybreak.

Lir’s mouth bent with agitation, pulling one of his axes free and slamming it into the tower further up its side. He repeated the movement, climbing up and toward Fionn.

Peitho struck once more from above, tearing Fionn’s hold. And so, the son of Winter flew off the edge and toward his death. An end written in the hand of his brother.

Fionn seemed to brace himself for the fall. He closed his eyes, jerked open almost instantly by the violent tug from his shoulder. Fionn inhaled sharply, glaring down at his boots dangling above the clouds.

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