Page 73 of The Fallen Fae King

I saw hints of it in the Crocodile House.

Melancholy grips my heart. I wish that I would be around to see it. Daire would have been a truly worthy King for the House of Sin.

“I was bound by a Blood Oath not to tell you that I was the sacrifice, one chosen from each generation,” I explain. “If I don’t do this, then⁠—”

“You think that we don’t know about threats that could burn the world?” Freya demands. “We’ve been living with Hadrian.”

I bare my fangs. “I had visions of Hadrian’s fiery destruction. I experienced it, deep in my bones. I have had nightmares of what will happen if the Golden Dragon is resurrected. The ancient world that will come through into ours from the Void, however, will be different. Everything and everyone will be devoured, creating a new world. Once, I thought that was…”

“You wanted that.” Daire tilts his head. “You were tempted.”

“The Void Devils are in my head. They whisper to me.”

“Now?”

I shake my head. “They’re waiting on the other side. They will punish me for defying them. If jumping into the Void doesn’t kill me, then the Void Devils will tear me apart for standing up to their plan. I will have disobeyed beings who expect to be worshiped.”

“A bit like you, the dark gods, expect to be worshiped by the Shadow Humans, hunting and executing them when they don’t.” Daire gives me a long look. “It doesn’t feel good to be on the other side, right?”

Guilt seeps through me. “Which is why I am delighted that I slaughtered Sobek, and you fed Isis to her own crocodile.”

“You did what…?” Freya’s eyes widen.

Suddenly, from the depths of the living abyss, I hear a distant chorus — more voices than there are grains of sand in the dunes, speaking in a language older than existence.

The voices are still too far away to make out the words.

But they are getting closer.

I shudder.

Freya and Daire exchange a glance.

“What changed your mind?” Freya asks.

“Meeting you,” I reply. “My blood will seal the Void. My Omega’s would too, but I threatened to tear out Ruin’s tongue for even speaking of that. Instead, I made the deal that you will reign as my royal widows under Ruin’s guidance.”

“Idiot bat.” Daire hisses. He pulls back his shadows from me, and I sit up. “We could have worked out a plot to save you.”

“Don’t you think that I have looked at every angle of this since my twin was taken by the Void Cult?” I shove him back from me into Freya’s arms, but a fond smile dances around my mouth.

I respect that he never stops fighting. It is one of his best qualities.

There comes a time, however, when stopping is a type of defiance too.

I crawl closer to Daire and Freya, sheltering them with my body against the violent storm, which whips my back.

I shiver.

How cold will it be in the Void?

Will I die straight away? Or like the myths that Ruin has taught me, will I be lost in the other world, toyed with as the Void Devils’ plaything, until they grow bored and take me apart piece by piece?

Then my spirit will be forever trapped in the Void, separated from my ancestors and descendants.

I steel myself.

Together, my King, Queen, and I are huddled in a small world of our own, our warm breaths and scents mingling against our cheeks, our mouths almost touching, and our tormented gazes meeting.