“I’m fine.” I moved forward to hug her, resting in her strong, branchlike arms. “We’re all fine. What happened here?”
“Nothing. They stayed on the other end of the lake. The wizards…”
“What?” I pressed. “What did they do?”
“They threw balls of dark magic at us all night. I don’t think they were even trying to hit us—they kept throwing them at the trees and blowing holes in the side of the cliff. And now they’re gone.”
“Gone?” I asked. “They just left?”
“The Fate Maker’s army disappeared about an hour ago. One minute they’re throwing magic at us shaking their clubs in the air, then nothing. Just poof! It was like they had never been there. We don’t know what happened.”
“They must have realized that he had failed,” I said quietly. “Someone on their side was watching him, and when he didn’t manage to kill me they ran and left him behind. They chose to run rather than fight to get him back.”
“Cowards.” Darinda wrinkled her soot-covered nose. “But you, Your Majesty, are now in possession of both the Fate Maker and the tear.”
“Yes.” I nodded and licked my lips.
“What will you do now?” she asked.
“I’m going to keep us all safe. No matter what it takes. It’s time for something more permanent,” I said. “Something he can’t come back from.”
“The Nymphiad will support your decision.”
“More permanent?” Tevian asked as people began to crowd around us. Rhys dragged the Fate Maker into a small cleared-out area at the front of the crowd, just behind me. He let go of him and stepped into the crowd to face me.
Winston put my half brother’s body down and joined the rest of the crowd. I watched as the woodsmen stared at the limp form in front of me, and I swallowed as I met my father’s red-rimmed eyes, his face still a blank, emotionless mask.
“Eamon of Leavenwald died saving me,” I lied, my eyes never leaving my father’s gray ones. “He died defending our people. However you honor your dead, know that I will never forget his sacrifice for me.”
All of the woodsmen, except for John, bowed low, their hands pressed together, palm to palm, and they brought them to their chests. Two of the younger woodsmen moved forward, lifting Eamon’s body and disappearing into the forest with it, others trailing behind them.
“Your Majesty?” Darinda stood to one side of the crowd, the rest of the Nymphiad beside her, while Tevian and the Dragos Council stood on the other side of the group, their dark eyes fixed on me, their faces covered in smoke, unreadable.
My father stood with the rest of his men between the dragons and the Nymphiad, a head taller than any other man standing near him. His face was tight and his jaw clenched. My heart skipped a beat when I recognized the gesture as the same one I always used to keep myself from crying.
“No mercy.” I lifted my head, trying my best to look like a queen was supposed to, and I turned to the Fate Maker, keeping my eyes fixed on his.
“Last chance,” the Fate Maker said, his voice barely more than a whisper as I closed in on him. “It’ll be so real that you’ll never question it. The perfect life. I’ll even give you your brother back. I’ll snap my fingers, and he’ll wake up. How can you resist? ”
“Because no matter how perfect it is, it’s not real. It’s not the life I was meant to live.” I pulled the tear over my head, holding the crystal tight in my hands. “That’s not what Fate has in store for me.”
“Aren’t you the one who always says that each person should choose their own fate?” he asked, his eyes twinkling. “That there is no goddess of destiny for you to worship?”
“Who says I haven’t chosen this?” I forced my fingers to brush over his forehead, and I immediately felt my soul contract, pulling away from the bleakness that surrounded the two of us. Instead of panicking I opened my eyes. Our gazes locked, and he paled, his eyes wide as they darted from person to person. He licked his lower lip once before he focused on me, panting like he’d just run a marathon.
The world around us melted, and everyone else disappeared, leaving just the two of us staring at each other. Everything around us was gray and wherever we were, there was no one there. There was nothing, thousands of millions of miles of nothingness in every direction.
“I want you to know,” I said, keeping my eyes on his, “that when this is over I will pass a law that will prevent anyone from ever saying your name again. If it’s the last thing I do I’ll make sure you’re forgotten.”
“You can’t do this,” he said as I pulled my hand from his forehead. “Please.”
“Yes, I can. And because of what you did to my mother and my brother and the rest of my family, I’m going to enjoy every single second of it.” I closed my eyes and tried to remember Winston’s face. The darkness around me began to swirl, the air pressing in on me like I’d been caught inside a whirlpool. Warm light caressed my skin. But this time I knew the light wasn’t an illusion. This time it was the way home. I concentrated on sealing the wall between the World of Dreams and the Bleak, leaving the Fate Maker behind.
I opened my eyes and found myself looking directly into Winston’s dark ones. “He’s gone. He can’t hurt us ever again.”
“I love you.” He pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me.
“I love you, too.” I buried my head in his chest and tried not to cry. “And thank you for coming to save me.”
“You’d have done the same for me.”
I heard a cough and lifted my head. John of Leavenwald coughed again, and I stepped back from Winston and wiped my hands on my trousers. John wouldn’t meet my eyes. “John?”
He sprinted the few steps between us and wrapped his arms around me so tightly that ribs creaked as he buried his head against the top of my head. “Thank the stars I didn’t lose you too,” he murmured. “I don’t know what I’d have done if I lost both of you.”
“You’ll never lose me again,” I promised.
“We’ve got so much time to make up,” he whispered. “So many things for me to make up to you.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’ve got nowhere else to go.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I stood on the Cliffs of Fesir, looking out over Dramera Lake, and watched the sunset, staring at the crown that I’d finally managed to go back into the forest and retrieve. It didn’t feel right to wear it. Not now. Not with everything we’d lost today.
“So, John of Leavenwald is your dad, huh?” Winston sauntered toward me, his hands in his pockets. “That’s got to be weird.”
“A bit.” I smiled as he sat down beside me and took my hand in his. “It’s a good weird, though. Better than having a psycho, homicidal wizard for a father.”
“True.” He nudged me with his shoulder.
“He might make the whole prince consort thing a nightmare for you, though. You know, being my dad and all.”
“He’s already threatened to wire my jaws shut if he ever sees us kissing again.”
“Ouch.” I wrinkled my nose, and we both laughed.
“I think we’ve got a few days before he actually does it though,” he said quietly, his voice becoming serious. “Since he’s leaving with the rest of his woodsmen in a few hours.”
“He’s leaving?” I asked, stunned. What did he mean my father was leaving? We’d just gotten each other back.
“The woodsmen do their funerals at dawn,” Winston said. “They’re going to…”
“Bury Eamon.” I nodded. “They’re going to bury my brother.”
“And then they’ll be back,” Winston said. “Your father made sure to tell me that. They’re going to take care of Eamon and then they’re coming back. He’s coming back.”