Page 124 of A Deception of Courts

I wished it took longer for Aldrick to die, but even the universe seemed to want his soul with such desperation, he left the realm of the living too quickly.

Althea didn’t release her dark flames as she withdrew from Aldrick’s charred husk and faced the crowd.

“I will give you all the same opportunity, so listen carefully,” Althea called out, whips of flame hissing like serpents from each of her fists. “Now your minds are your own, will you continue to fight against us or lay your weapons down and stand beside us?”

Figures slipped from the line of Hunters, scratched and battered but alive. I noticed Gyah stride forward, a deep gash sliced above her brow, blinding her left eye with blood. Lady Kelsey followed, limping with the aid of another fey who had joined us from Aurelia. One by one, the humans allowed our kind through until the middle of the gate’s circle was filled with us.

Arms engulfed me, pulling me tight into a hard chest. Beneath the harsh tang of death that covered him, I still smelled Duncan. His hand cradled the back of my head, his lips pressed atop it.

“It’s over,” Duncan whispered, voice muffled into my hair. “It’s fucking over.”

I wish it was, but I knew that we were far from the end of this story.

Aldrick was evil, but he, too, was a puppet to a master. Duwar was still the threat, we couldn’t forget it.

“Is it?” I replied meekly. I forced my eyes closed. My fingers wound into the material of Duncan’s jacket, and I held firm. “Aldrick may be dead, but the gate still stands. Duwar is still a threat.”

“Robin is right.” I pulled away from Duncan enough to see Rafaela. She used her hammer as a walking stick to keep herself upright. Her wings were torn and thin, feathers had been ripped out in clumps by the hands of those who attacked her. One hung at her side, unmoving, unlike its twin, which twitched with energy. “For as long as the keys play a part in the realms, Duwar will always have a chance to return.”

This was the part of mine and Rafaela’s plan that we’d not divulged to anyone. The price I’d offered to pay for her help.

Althea continued calling out to the humans, not knowing what was brewing in the centre of the gate. “I will regard you all as victims of Aldrick’s control until you give me a reason to think otherwise. Lay down your weapons. No one else needs to die today.”

There was a clatter of metal as weapons were thrown to the ground in surrender. Many of the humans fell to their knees with their hands raised behind their heads. Those who continued to stand, hands still gripped around a blade, were targeted by our forces, who surged back toward the crowd to deal with them.

I saw Erix then, standing in the same place he’d held Duncan. His heavy breathing and hunched frame told me of his exhaustion. He had one hand pressed against the side of his head. He must have felt my eyes upon him because he looked up then. The gryvern –hisgryvern – screeched in the sky above us. A cloud of grey skin, coiling and twisting among one another in a bundle of black blood-covered bodies. Not a single Draeic was left in sight.

Had they fled as Aldrick’s control had slipped from them? Did Duwar even recognise the failure waiting for it?

“It wasn’t me,” Erix mouthed. Each word clear even from a distance. “I wasn’t in control.”

I blinked, parting my mouth as I formed my reply. “I know.”

Erix was no stranger to being controlled by sinister people.Doran had used him to hurt me, and Aldrick almost succeeded until Jesibel…

Where was she? Daveed had teleported her to safety, but I still needed to see her, the desire was burning inside of me.

“It’s now or never, Robin,” Rafaela whispered at my side. “You know how we can save this realm. This must be done before the chance is taken from us.”

I sensed panic edging her words, the way her knuckles paled as she gripped tighter to her hammer. I sensed there were more reasons as to why she wanted the keys destroyed – forever removing them from the game board that was this world. Her purpose was to protect them, and yet she would happily default from the Nephilim and go against them, for this one purpose.

But she was right. As long as the keys were in play, the gate was always under threat to be opened. Duwar would find another person instead of Aldrick, and attempt their campaign for freedom. The only way of preventing it was making sure this gate, or any other, could never be opened.

I locked eyes with Rafaela and nodded in silent agreement.

“What is the meaning of this?” Duncan moved his body before me once again, but I pushed at his upper arm.

“Duncan, please,” I begged. “Don’t stand in my way.”

“All well and good asking that of me, but what from exactly?” he barked. His blood-splashed face was twisted in confusion as he took hold of both of my arms and held on. “How can I stand in your way if you do not tell me what it is you’re doing!”

Rafaela winced as she hoisted the hammer above her shoulder where it rested. “Aldrick is not the first and will not be the last whose mind is infected by the will of the Defiler. Gates will be erected, and Duwar will not stop his campaign to be free. But the gates are useless if there are no keys to open them.”

“They need to be destroyed,” I said, aware everyone was listening. “The keys. Duwar will never have a chance of freedom again.”

It was theonlyway.

Duncan’s face shifted between emotions. He wrestled with what I told him. Before he could refuse or say anything else, I stepped in close and pressed both hands onto him. On tiptoes, I raised my aching body and placed a kiss on his hesitant lips. “I need you to stand by me. It will be one less person I’ll need to ask for forgiveness when it is over.”

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