Page 71 of The Iron Raven

“I’m fine,” Ash gritted out. He didn’t sound fine; he was obviously hurt, and the tightness of his voice showed how bad it was. Like Nyx, the stoic Ice Prince never let on how badly he was wounded. His free hand came up, covering Meghan’s, as he met her gaze. “I’m fine, Meghan,” he rasped again. “I can still fight.”

Above them, the Monster reared onto its hind legs and roared, dark tendrils flailing, and more rose from the ground, surrounding the pair in the circle of ice. Meghan gestured toward it, and the skies flashed as another lightning bolt slammed into its skull, but this time it didn’t even flinch.

Watching them, I had a sudden, strangely calming realization. We were going to die here. The prophecy, fragmented and incomplete as it was, already said this Monster was unkillable. That no one could stop it. If even the Iron Queen’s magic couldn’t give this Monster pause, there was nothing we could do.

I was going to lose them both.

A hollow pit opened inside me. A world without Meghan and Ash? I couldn’t imagine it. What would I do if they were suddenly gone? If I could never again tease Meghan or get under ice-boy’s skin? If we never fought side by side together, explored new and hidden places in Faery, or saved the Nevernever one more time? And suddenly, all that resentment and jealousy I’d been carrying around seemed petty in comparison. Why had I been so angry? Why had this Monster been able to bring out the absolute worst side of Robin Goodfellow?

Nyx’s voice came back to me, soft and damning.This desire for revenge against the prince consort—is it because you’re still in love with the Iron Queen, or is it simply because you lost?

I hadn’t replied, not truthfully, because deep down, I already knew the answer. It was the reason Nyx had become so intriguing, the reason the Lady’s assassin was constantly on my mind and in my thoughts. Because...Ihadmoved on. I didn’t love Meghan that way anymore, not romantically.

But if I had moved on, then the reason for my anger and resentment was because I had lost to Ash. Because I had been too proud, stubborn, or defiant to admit that, after everything, after all the fighting, grief, and hell we put each other through, he was the one who had come out on top. He had won his soul, gotten the girl. And worst of all, he’d been able to forgive us both and put all that anger and hate behind him.

My throat closed at the realization. Ash had forgiven me for Ariella, and he had forgiven himself for all those bad years between us, but I had never done the same. This feeling of bitterness and rage... I had carried it around for years, never airing it, burying it under laughter and sarcasm, letting it fester without even knowing it was there. The Monster hadn’t changed me into something I wasn’t, it just brought all those feelings to the surface again.

And now, I would never have the chance to set things right.

What? No, screw that!

Deep inside, a tiny spark of defiance flared, a bit of Puck surging to life. Give up now? Was I really going to sit here and watch my best friends get stomped into paste by some random big nasty? I’d never surrendered without a fight before. And even if the prophecy was true, even if this thingwasunkillable, was I going to let that stop me? Or I was I going to look it in the eye and laugh in its ugly face?

The Nevernever could be crumbling under our feet, echoed a voice in my head, Grimalkin’s, a memory from not so very long ago,and you would make a joke about it.

Well, duh. It would be my last chance to. If I’m going to stare Death in the face, I’m gonna do it laughing at him.

Oh yeah.Thatwas who I was. In all this chaos, I had somehow forgotten.

I took a deep breath. Welp, no time like the present to make up for it. Especially since we were probably all going to die. Bending down, I picked up my daggers, twirling them in my hands as I rose. Gazing at the Monster, at the creature who was very likely going to kill me, I grinned.

Ash had struggled to his feet, and now he and Meghan stood side by side, facing the Monster who towered over them, silhouetted against the moon. Surrounded by a shrinking island in a sea of black, the Ice Prince brandished his sword, and the Iron Queen raised a hand, lightning snapping at her fingertips.

The Monster roared, rearing onto its hind legs, talons spread and horrible jaws gaping, to tear them apart once and for all.

With a cry and the flapping of wings, a flock of screaming ravens flew right into its face. Shrieking and cawing, they swirled around its head, tearing at tentacles, pecking at eyes and skin and everything they could reach. The Monster bellowed and staggered back, swiping madly at the screaming cloud of birds, ripping them from the air. A few ravens fell, exploding into puffs of black feathers as they hit the ground, but the rest continued to shriek and flap around its head.

Cawing, the ravens swirled together, forming a whirlwind of feathers, wings, and talons right above the Monster’s skull. With a final raucous caw, the flock scattered, flying away in different directions, and with a loud whoop, I dropped from the mass of feathers onto the Monster’s head.

“Hey, ugly! Guess who it is!”

The Monster jerked, throwing its head back. I grabbed one of its antler tines and waved at the eye that rolled back to glare at me. “Oh hey, fancy running into you here. I was in the area and thought I’d drop in to say hello. You don’t mind, do you?”

It snarled, and the tentacles on its neck and shoulders flailed, lashing out at me. I dodged one, swiped at another, and scrambled farther up the Monster’s bony skull, away from the writhing shadows. “Whoops, guess I came at a bad time, then. No, no! Bad tentacle, no touchie!” I spun and danced on the Monster’s head, avoiding the lashing tendrils while sparing a split-second glance at the figures below. “Hey, ice-boy, not that I don’t enjoy monster-skull tap dancing by myself, but feel free to jump in anytime!”

With a howl, the Monster lowered its head and charged a pair of statues standing together against a corner of the courtyard wall. I saw what it was intending and leaped off its head with a yelp, just as the Monster’s bony skull slammed into the figures and shattered them into tiny marble fragments. The tentacle-covered ground rushed up at me, but there was a pulse of static filled glamour that sent lightning coils across the ground, and the carpet of black vanished into mist.

I hit the flagstones with a grunt and immediately scrambled back as the Monster’s claws smashed into the ground where I’d just been. The creature lunged at me with a roar that made the ground shake, and more shadowy tendrils erupted all around me. I could feel the rage and hatred pulsing from them, from the Monster, from the dark corners of my own heart. I could feel the fear rising again, seeking to drag me under, to suffocate me.

I laughed instead, and a strange thing happened. The tendrils reaching for me drew back, just slightly, as if recoiling from my presence. Of course, that didn’t stop the Monster’s talons, which came scything down with the force of a missile. I ducked beneath them, wincing as flagstone chips peppered my back.

“You know, for a big, scary monster, you’re awfully clingy,” I called up to the creature, who curled a lip at the sound of my voice. “Do you want to kill us, or do you just want a hug? I’m getting mixed messages here.”

It smashed a fist at me. I leaped back, grinning. “Okay, so not a hug. Maybe you just need a friend? Are you a lonely monster who’s just misunderstood?”

With a roar, the creature barreled right at me, coming in shockingly fast. I scrambled back, but with no room to move aside, my choices were either leap into the tentacles or get stomped by the Monster. I saw its gaping, fang-filled mouth coming at me, gripped my dagger, and leaped straight up.

The creature’s bony head hit me square in the chest, driving all the air from my lungs, but I raised my dagger and stabbed it into one blazing white eye, before the force of the blow hurled me back several feet. As I flew into the air, I heard the Monster let out a scream of pain at last.

---