Riaan’s hand tightens around her neck. “Enough out of you.”
Still gripping my sister, he lunges for me, and his hand wraps around the fire gem at my neck, but he doesn’t get a chance to pull it off, because Sebastian plunges his blade into Riaan’s back.
Gasping, Riaan releases my necklace, then my sister. His eyes are wide, his lips moving as he looks down at the blade protruding from his chest.
Sebastian steps close behind him, catching him under his arms before he falls. “You were like a brother to me,” he says into his ear. “My only friend through so many lonely and difficult years.”
Jas stumbles to my side, pressing her hand to the wound on my thigh, her fingers turning red with my blood. “Brie,” she whispers, and we sink to the ground together, neither of us strong enough to stay on our own feet.
“Arya’s . . . kingdom . . .” Riaan sputters, blood trailing down his chin.
Sebastian sneers. “Her kingdom—the whole damn realm—is better off without you both.” With that, he brings his blade to Riaan’s neck and slices though, ending his pain and his life.
The last thing I see is Riaan’s head falling from his body. The last thing I feel is Sebastian scooping me and Jas into his arms.
Chapter Thirty-One
It’s dark when I wake, and I’m immediately aware of Finn next to me. His even breathing as he sleeps, warmth radiating from him.
I roll over to see the stars twinkling in the sky above me. We’re on the rooftop terrace of the cottage in Staraelia—the mountain home Finn gave me back before he knew I was Mab’s descendant.
Someone brought a bed up here so I could heal while sleeping under the stars. Heal while sleeping next to my beloved, my tethered match, the one I draw strength from.
I need to get up and find Jas, or someone who can tell me where she is. I need to make plans with Sebastian. But I don’t want to leave this bed. I want to hold on to this moment for as long as I can. I never thought I’d be here again—under the stars, in Finn’s arms. Even in my strongest, most optimistic moments inside that tomb, the best I’d hoped for was to see his face again.
Finn stirs beside me, and when I turn my head, he’s awake and watching me. “How are you?” he asks.
“I’m okay,” I say. “Thanks to you.”
“And thanks to Sebastian. He brought you to me.”
“But you . . .” I swallow hard, but it does little to keep the emotions bubbling inside me at bay. “I had to pull power from you.”
He finds my hand between our bodies and brings it to his chest, pressing it there against his heart.
“We looked everywhere. Ten days you were missing, and we couldn’t find any sign of you or Sebastian. Arya was using her power to shield her mountain stronghold. It could’ve been right before our eyes and we would’ve missed it. I’ve never been so scared.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. I can’t imagine how I would’ve felt if our roles had been reversed. I’m not sure I want to.
“When I suddenly felt you drawing from me, I could’ve wept.”
“Did I hurt you?”
He shakes his head. “No. You drew a lot of power from me, but less than I had to give. I only cared that it meant you were alive. Shortly after that, the shield was down—it fell once you’d killed her—and my people were able to find you and Sebastian and bring you home.”
Home. Yes, here with Finn certainly feels like home to me, but I wonder if anywhere feels like home to Sebastian after being sacrificed by his own mother and forced to kill his best friend.
“You wielded your shadow self.” Finn strokes my cheek. “I didn’t know you could control her.”
“I couldn’t,” I admit. “Not so long as she scared me.”
“You’re not afraid of her anymore?”
I shake my head. “After days in that tomb, it was easier to face the darkest corners of myself. I’ve been hurt and betrayed. I’ve been angry for so many years. And I’ve hated those parts of me—the bitter, hardened, brittle pieces. But that is who I am. I’ll never be sunshine and smiles like Jas. Once I accepted that, accepted that there is this darker, crueler part of me, only then could I control her.”
“It’s so good to see these eyes looking at me again.” He drags in a ragged breath. “I shouldn’t have let you go without me. I should’ve been there to protect you.”
“Arya’s dead,” I say, though I don’t quite believe it myself. “She’s gone. We’ll be okay.”