The Unseelie King (Maze of Shadows #4)

by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

“Tell me you understand.” “I do.” “And so do I.” He tipped her head to his and placed his lips to her forehead, before wandering his kisses down her cheek. “This is how it must be. I tried to spare us this fate…but I failed. I am sorry.” “I love you, Valroy.” She placed her palm over his heart, tracing the lines of the Maze with her fingertips. “I love you more than words can express.”

She let herself hear the song of life, and feel it humming low, and quiet, and slumbering. And with a whisper, she told it to change. “Wake up.” She shifted, turning cold to warmth, and simply willed it.

Abigail Moore…was Tir n’Aill. She was the roots of trees, the grass, the life that surrounded them.

He suspected Abigail was still adjusting to the reach of her gifts. It was a shame she had no one left who could teach her.

She lifted her head, and for all the world she looked just as regal as the title as she had been given. Finally.

You cannot travel to where you wish to go! The place you seek is not yours to touch.” “You are wrong, Unseelie King.”

Moving through a part of him as though she were a poison ripping through his veins. He could feel her there—he could slow her—but by the stars and the void itself… He could not stop her.

I promise.” It was a lie. It was perhaps the first time he had ever lied to her.

Fear. By the stars, he was afraid.

“I am not the one who dies this night, husband.” Her fists clenched at her sides, and then slowly released, her stern expression cracking only for a second as sorrow broke through. “Forgive me.”

“Do it, my love,” she whispered. “Bring yourself the peace that I cannot give you.”

Defeated. That was what he was. Purely and entirely…broken.

“Promise me one thing.” His words were quiet, nothing of his anger remaining in them. “Tell them you defeated me in battle. Or say you played some terrible trick upon me. Do not tell them I…I could not kill you. That I would rather surrender all that I am than to watch you die a second time.” His features contorted in pain. “I could not—I could not survive it.”

Like night and day. Like life and death. For that was what they were. And one could not exist without the other. If he died, she would follow him.

“Just the two of us?” Sapphire eyes flicked between hers. “Just the two of us.” “I will defeat you.” His lips quirked in a faint smile. “You will try.”

“My little witch…my Seelie Queen. No matter what we shall endure. No matter what becomes of us. My sunlight. My glowing blossoms. My living heart. I will not stop until I defeat you. And I will relish every moment I fail. I love you.”

Her moonlight. Her bone, and her blood, and the promise of sharp teeth and the tear of claws. Yes. This was how it should be. Like this—together, in this dance or any other. They would be together.

“Well, way back when, there was a small cottage that stood there. You can still find the foundation if you push through the grass long enough. It was a farm owned by a witch who was double-crossed by her husband, they say. He sold the house right out from under her. She cursed the house and all the land. It burned down one day, and no crops ever grew again.”