Page 81 of The Unseelie War
Alone.
“I used to wonder what it would be like to meet you properly. Away from the politics and the careful maneuvering, away from Abigail's restraining influence and the weight of our respective kingdoms.” He smiled, though he found a genuine sadness in himself. “I imagined we might find common ground. Two creatures abandoned by their creator, shaped by forces beyond our control, struggling to find meaning in a universe that sees us as aberrations. Driven by a need to destroy.”
Serrik's expression didn't change. “And instead?”
“I find you have abandoned your calling. I find you've chosen them over your clear purpose.” Valroy gestured at the women behind him without taking his eyes off his brother. “Chosen the very people who would cage us, diminish us, force us to be less than what we are. You've fallen in love with your jailer and decided that makes imprisonment preferable to freedom.”
“Freedom,” Serrik repeated, his voice carrying notes of dark amusement. “Is that what you call this? Standing in a forest of death, having murdered your own followers, having driven away everyone who ever cared for you?” Golden threads began to weave themselves around his fingers. “If this is freedom, brother, it looks remarkably like damnation.”
The words hit deeper than Valroy had expected. Because yes, this was freedom—the freedom to be exactly what he had been created to be, without compromise, without restraint. But it was also solitude so complete it felt like someone had their hand wrapped around his heart in a vice grip.
“At least I am honest about what I am.” Valroy spread his wings. “Ido not wander about in meaningless preamble, pretend to be noble or redeemable. I do not lie to myself about my nature.”
“No.” Serrik began to circle him with a remarkable amount of grace, given his size in his true form. “You simply lie to yourself about what it means to love. About what it requires, if you were brave enough to accept it.”
“Love?” Valroy's laugh was bitter. “Love is what brought us here, brother. Love is what forces impossible choices and demands sacrifices that strip away everything that makes us who we are. Abigail loves me, but not enough to stand beside me. You love your little Weaver, but not enough to protect her from the slow death she's chosen. Love is the cruelest lie the universe ever told.”
“Perhaps.” Serrik did not even glance to Ava, likely knowing that Valroy would take the moment to strike. He was no fool. “But, if so, it is the only lie that makes existence bearable. So I will tell it to myself gladly.”
Valroy felt something crack inside his chest. The last vestige of hope that his brother might understand, might choose to stand with him instead of against him. “Then we have nothing more to discuss.”
The attack came without warning, faster than thought, born from centuries of accumulated fury and the desperate need to make someone else feel the isolation that was consuming him from within. Darkness erupted from Valroy like a physical force, reaching out to unmake everything it touched.
Serrik was ready for him. Golden threads snapped through the air with the sound of singing steel, cutting through the advancing void like light through shadow. Where they met, reality sparked and screamed, the fundamental forces crackling against each other with nothing but fury.
They collided in the center of the clearing, and the impact shattered the air around them. Valroy's claws, wreathed in darkness, met the razor-sharp lines of Serrik's threads in a symphony of destruction that made the earth itself cry out in pain. The tree at the heart ofthe Maze shuddered, its twisted branches reaching toward them as if trying to drink in the violence.
Joy filled his heart.
And despair rose to match it in equal measure.
Two voices in perfect symphony.
This was what he had always wanted, Valroy realized as he fought. This pure expression of power, this moment when all the careful political maneuvering and restrained aggression could finally be set aside.
Thiswas honesty.Thiswas truth.
Even if it was the truth of mutual annihilation.
Even if it was the final confirmation that he would face the end alone.
So be it.
Let it end.
Let itall end.
Ava had to focus.She had tonotworry about Serrik and focus on the spell.
He was a big spider. A very big and ancient spider. He could take care of himself.
The ritual pulled at Ava's consciousness like a tide, demanding everything she had and more. She could feel the three worlds straining against each other, reality groaning under the pressure of forces that were never meant to coexist. Book lay open in her hands, its pages fluttering in winds that came from everywhere and nowhere, the words of separation burning themselves into her mind with perfect clarity.
Words were falling from her mouth that she couldn’t hear. Couldn’t process. But they came out of her all the same by instinct alone. The airitselfbegan to fracture, hairline cracks appearing in space like breaks in a mirror. Through the fissures, she caughtglimpses of the other realities—Earth's blue skies and concrete cities, Tir n'Aill's silver trees and eternal twilight, the Web's infinite library of dreams and nightmares.
Had they been there the whole time…?
Or were they were trying to separate?
