And there was no amount of training that could have prepared Bryce, no time to teleport to avoid the two swift attacks from the Fae Kings, matched in power.
She dodged the bone-searing blast of fire from her father, only to have Morven’s shadows grab her again. Hands of pure darkness hurled her onto the stone so hard the breath went out of her. The Starsword and Truth-Teller flew from her fingers.
A female cried out, and for a moment, Bryce thought it might have been Cthona, maybe Luna herself.
But it was Sathia.
It was Sathia, on her feet again, and yet it wasn’t. It was every Fae female who’d come before them.
Bryce exploded her light outward, shredding Morven’s shadows apart. They cleared to reveal the Autumn King standing above her, a sword of flame in his undamaged hand.
“I should have done this a long time ago,” her father snarled, and plunged his burning sword toward her exposed heart.
The Autumn King only made it halfway before light burst from his chest.
Hunt’s lightning had—
No.
It wasn’t Hunt’s lightning that shone through the Autumn King’s rib cage.
It was the Starsword. And it was Ruhn wielding it, standing behind him.
Ruhn, who had driven the sword right through their father’s cold heart.
* * *
Ruhn knew in his bones why he’d walked through these caves. He was a Starborn Prince, and he’d come to right an ancient wrong.
With the Starsword in his hand, piercing his father’s heart … Ruhn knew he was exactly where he was meant to be.
The Autumn King let out a shocked grunt, blood dribbling from his mouth.
“I know every definition of pain thanks to you,” Ruhn spat, and yanked out the sword.
His father collapsed face-first onto the stone floor.
Even Morven’s shadows halted as the Autumn King struggled to raise himself onto his hands. Lidia, guarding Ruhn’s back against the Stag King, said nothing.
No pity stirred in Ruhn’s heart as his father gurgled blood. As it dribbled onto the stones. The Autumn King lifted his head to meet Ruhn’s stare.
Betrayal and hatred burned in his face.
Ruhn said into his mind, into all their minds, I lied about what the Oracle said to me.
His father’s eyes flared with shock at Ruhn’s voice in his head, the secret his son had kept all these years. Ruhn didn’t care what Morven made of it, didn’t even bother to look at the Stag King. Bryce and Athalar could handle the shadows, if Morven was dumb enough to attack.
So Ruhn stared into his father’s hateful face and said, The Oracle didn’t tell me that I would be a fair and just king. She told me that the royal bloodline would end with me.
He had the sense that his friends were watching with wide eyes. But he only had words for the pathetic male before him.
I thought it meant your bloodline.
Ruhn lifted the bloodied Starsword. Flame simmered along his father’s body, limning his powerful form. But Ruhn was no longer a cowering boy, inking himself with tattoos to hide the scarring.
I was wrong. I think the Oracle meant all of them, Ruhn went on, mind-to-mind. The male lines. The Starborn Princes included—all you fucks who have corrupted and stolen and never once apologized for it. The entire system. This bullshit of crowns and inheritance.
His father’s sneering voice filled his mind. You’re a spoiled, ungrateful brat who never deserved to carry my crown—
I don’t want it, Ruhn snapped, and shut down the bridge between their minds that allowed his father to speak. He’d had enough of listening to this male.
Blood trickled from his father’s lips as his Vanir body sought to heal him—to rally his strength to attack.
The line will end with me, you fucking prick, Ruhn said into his father’s mind, because I yield my crown, my title, to the queen.
True fear turned his father’s face ashen. And out of the corner of his eye, Ruhn saw Bryce’s star begin to glow.
A serene peace bloomed in him. I always assumed the Oracle’s prophecy meant that I would die. He let his kernel of starlight flicker down the blade, an answer to Bryce’s beckoning blaze. One last time.
But I am going to live, he said to his father. And I am going to live well—without you.
Even Morven’s shadows weren’t fast enough as Ruhn whipped the Starsword through the air again. And sliced clean through his father’s neck.
* * *
Bryce had no words as Ruhn severed the Autumn King’s head. As her brother skewered the skull on the Starsword before it even hit the stone.
She got to her feet. Came up beside Ruhn where he stood rigid, still holding the bloodied sword, their father’s head impaled on it.