Page 141 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody
“Svenn!”
Something moves through the sea of pitch-black darkness. A beacon of light, brighter than any stars in the sky.
“I’m sorry.”
A sharp pain smashes into my chest. Heat courses through my body, igniting every cell to wake up. I blink my eyes to find Rhianelle with a dagger buried deep into my chest.
I don’t know how she does it, but she’s here. Somehow the girl manages to climb on my twisted form to reach me. Her blade is inches away from my beating heart. A little dove trying to dance with death.
“Svenn,” she says again. Her hand trembles as if she doesn’t have the will to plunge the dagger deeper.
“Rhianelle…” My voice dies in my throat when I see what is behind her.
Through Wendy’s sight, nothing is hidden. I finally see the Rhunhraefn’s true form. All this time, I thought the curse could not take over Rhianelle because it has weakened…
I was fucking wrong from the start. The Rhunhraefn, like all evil beings, has fermented and grown a thousand times more powerful over the years. Its foul form is bigger than the entire fortress, reaching to the sky and tainting the heavens, like a goddamn dragon.
If containing the Rhunhraefn is not enough, another cursed dagger is trying to claw itself into her, the twin to the serpent attached to me. The new curse twirls on her arm like one of her delicate decorations.
I stare into Rhianelle’s glazed eyes.
“Come out,” she commands, but the order is not directed at me. The black serpent twirls from my arm to my shoulder to greet her.
Lilith and the Rhunhraefn were not the ones who attacked me last night. It was this damned fiend.
The white snake on Rhianelle’s arm slithers to settle beside her twin. They both bow their head in reverence in front of her.
“You’ve been very bad,” the girl scolds the two creatures.
We didn’t mean to. We just want blood,the white serpent reasons.
They forge us to destroy the elves. It is our destiny to bring chaos and ruins,the black snake echoes its partner’s sentiment.
Rhianelle sighs, focusing her eyes on them. “I understand. Let go of your anger. You’ve taken many lives today.”
Not as many as I was promised,the black serpent argues stubbornly.
I took even less than him, because you wouldn’t let me,the white serpent protests.
“Both of you stop,” she snaps, a sharp edge coating her voice. Her face is wholly calm as she stares at them. “You have a choice to make. Go to sleep for another hundreds of years or you can be released from your oath.”
The vile creatures exchange a glance at each other.
A small smile tugs Rhianelle’s lips the serpents choose the latter.
“Then be free of this hatred now.” She lowers her head and plants a soft kiss on each of their heads.
Light swathes their skin until they slowly dissolve into the air like mist. My eyes sting from the glow, from awe.
Shadows dance from the corner of my eyes. The remains of Lilith’s power trying one last time to keep its footnote on this world.Curses feed on fear, envy, avarice, wrath, hatred, andmost of all, pain. The battleground is a feast filled with those emotions.
Time slows to a stretch as dark tendrils of the Rhunhraefn’s wicked power strikes Rhianelle from behind her back. It’s the same evil force that has brought down Bas, Vlad, Han, Ruth, and me to our knees countless times.
No, no… please gods, devil, universe, save her.
Save my Nel.
“Rhianelle!”I roar out.
