Page 65 of Forgotten Monsters
“Jules?” he asks, breathless.
“I just need a minute—” My arms shake.
The magic I absorbed clouds my brain, bits and pieces of memory stuck inside of it. I draw in a deep breath and push past the veil of hollows to the other side. They don’t sting as they did earlier, but their cold embrace feels emptier still.
A life’s work, Amalthea called it…well, if I can kill hollows now, I know which one I want to destroy first.
Cole grazes my hair. “What did you do?”
The bright shade packs a bit of a punch, and I bite my bottom lip. “I…powered up.”
He sniffs the air. “The new magic inside you…my gut says not to trust it.”
“Same.”
The instinct to flee as he sinks his fingers into my hair almost floors me. My chest heaves, and goosebumps freckle my neck. Hatred bubbles up from the Earthly King’s memories, but the ache is quickly snuffed out by my love for the Fae King in front of me.
I reach for a kiss, but Cole grabs a fist of my hair and holds me off. “You found the Aegis.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t—but the magic in me does. It remembers the Earthly King. It remembersyou.” He licks his lips slowly as though his brain is catching up. “You killed me.”
“You burned down my sacred lands.”
Cole’s lips curl up. “I guess I did.” He brushes my hair away from my face and claims my mouth.
The ambivalent punch of our new, elusive memories fogs my brain, but my body recognizes what it loves, and I kiss him back. The Earthly King might have created the hollows to kill a Fae King, but I’ll keep this one safe from their ugly teeth, even if I have to spend the rest of my life hunting them down to protect him.
Before he starts tearing my clothes off, I link our fingers and tug gently on his arm. “Come. Let’s get the sucker that’s buried into Flynn before it’s too late.”
Cole grows quiet. “You can save him?”
“Maybe. What should we do about Darkwood?” I point to the vampire. Flynn is my priority, and I don’t know if I can save one of the hollows’ victims, let alone two.
Cole shrugs. “Let his people deal with him.”
We hurry back the way we came.
The lights of the ballroom come into view, and Lydia spots us through the broken windows. “Jules!” She jumps over the ledge, carves a door into the thin new force field they erected in our absence, and pulls me into her arms. “You made the right choice, Jules.”
“How—”
She hugs me tighter, her voice too low for anyone else to hear. “I saw it, but I couldn’t tell you. You’re the phoenix.” Tears shine in my best friend's eyes as she grazes my new hair.
“Red suits you.” She wipes the corner of her eyes and pulls me back to the ballroom, Cole on our heels.
At the entrance, Oz chats with his subordinates.
A parchment and quill fly mid-air next to him, recording everything he says. “We have seven wounded, two dead, and three hollow casualties, but the President is still missing.”
An agent runs into the meeting. “We have secured a passage for the healers, boss.”
“Well done. Now, we clean out the debris and record the witnesses’ testimonies. The High Council will want a detailed recount of what happened here, and how many hollows are—” Oz’s gaze flicks to mine, and silence washes over the scene.
“You found the source,” he whispers.
“You better not get in my way.”
