Page 75 of The Fallen Fae King

Freya grabs onto me, refusing to let go, as I am hauled into the air toward the gaping mouth of the Void, which is already shrinking, painted with my blood.

“I can never forget you,” Freya gasps hot into my ear.

I coil my shadows around her, lacking the strength to return her to safety but determined that she doesn’t fall.

Shadow and Devil roar in exultation. Their shadows wind out of them, raising them into the heavens back home alongside me.

Together, we are drawn into the Void.

CHAPTER TEN

The Void

Lanlin

I awake with a gasp like I am resurrected from the dead.

What happened?

Where am I?

A howling abyss…primal magic…being torn apart and remade…

My mind feels like it has been shattered.

Was I once a king?

My heart pounds, sensing danger despite my confusion.

Heart hammering, I stare down at my blood-stained wrists and forearms. I lick over them to help the wounds heal.

“Did I die?” I murmur.

Sudden flashes of being dragged by the shadows into the Void hit me.

I shake.

I shudder at the memory of voices, raised and furious, and more ancient beings than there are stars all blaming me…

Their rage was a living thing, reaching out like claws and tearing at me.

The veil between worlds was like a throat, swallowing me. The pressure crushed my bones. My skin felt too small.

“Freya.” Stronger than the horror of my sacrifice is the sudden memory that I didn’t enter the Void alone.

My brave but foolish Omega jumped in with me.

Where is she?

I snarl, glancing frantically around myself.

“No,” I whisper, my heart breaking. “It can’t be…not again…”

Silver moonlight catches on the gleaming surface of a tomb, which is carved with lotuses. In the distance, I can make out the flat roofs of stone houses in the village.

I stumble in shock.

I know this place.