Summer of Frost (Forever Fae #3)(47)

She flinched when she heard the audible crack of her spear splitting in two, and immediately afterwards she let out the loudest war cry I’d ever heard. Her spear was sacred to her, and Alston just destroyed it. Breathing hard, I knew she was livid when all I saw on her face was vengeance. “This isn’t good,” Oren claimed. “She’s pissed and we both know how impulsive she can get when she’s like that.”

“Yes, I know,” I agreed. “I’ve seen her make mistakes when I was training with her in our dreams. She lets her emotions get the best of her sometimes, especially when she’s really angry.”

Sorcha’s rage consumed her, and that rage blinded her. Alston got the upper hand, and took her to the ground, straddling her waist. Her legs were pinned beneath his body while Alston’s arms held hers to the side. Alston winked at me, and I scowled at him before he looked down at Sorcha. “Do you give in?” he asked her.

When she didn’t answer he slammed her head into the ground. She winced and screamed in pain. With her jaw clenched, she lifted her chin defiantly. He repeated, “Do you give in?”

Expecting victory, a smile splayed on his face, but disappeared when Sorcha calmly said, “No.”

Alston seethed with fury and slammed his forearm into her neck, cutting off her air. My fists were bloody from the incessant pounding on the invisible wall, but I kept hitting in hopes it would come down. Eventually, the wall began to waver and thin where I hit it with my bloodied hands. The places where my blood touched, it thinned. My eyes grew wide in delight and I smiled.

“Why the hell are you smiling?” Oren demanded. “There’s nothing to smile about right now!”

Unsheathing my sword, I sliced the tip over my palm. The blood gushed out and I placed that bloody hand to the wall. Slowly, my hand started moving forward through the invisible barrier inch by inch. I could feel it giving away until there was nothing but air.

“How is this possible?” Oren whispered so Alston couldn’t hear him.

“I’m not sure.”

Sorcha was still refusing to give in, and soon I’d be in there rescuing her. When the wall fully opened, Sarette made her appearance and barreled past me, heading straight for Alston. His eyes grew wide and he faltered when he saw Sarette approaching him.

“How could you do this?” Sarette cried. “How could you betray your people?”

Alston kept the pressure on Sorcha’s neck, keeping her in place, but I could hear her wheezing for air. “I had to get what I want,” he answered, looking wistfully down at Sorcha. “But now it’s all over. I can’t let him have her.” Slowly, he leaned over and kissed Sorcha on the lips. “I’m so sorry, baby, but we’ll meet each other again in the Hereafter.”

Everything after that went into slow motion. With my sword drawn, I lunged the second I saw him pull out the iron dagger from his belt and aim it toward Sorcha’s heart. Before the knife hit its mark, Sorcha unlocked one of her arms from Alston’s grasp and knocked him onto his back. It took a few seconds to understand what happened, but then I saw the jagged stick protruding out of Alston’s chest. Sorcha had stabbed him with her broken spear.

Sarette rushed to Alston’s side, crying and wailing while I went to Sorcha’s. I scooped her up in my arms and crushed her to me. “Are you okay?” I asked, holding her tight.

Sorcha rubbed her neck and grimaced. “Yeah, I’m fine. My neck hurts, but at least I can breathe again.” I set her down so she could join her grieving friend while Alston choked out his dying words. Her face showed no remorse as he lay there dying on the ground. “All I wanted was to be with you,” he stuttered weakly. “I loved you, Sorcha.”

Sorcha regretfully shook her head and knelt down on the ground beside him. “No, you didn’t. If you truly loved me you wouldn’t have done what you did. Good-bye, Alston.” She backed away quickly when he tried to reach for her, and came to stand between me and Oren. Sorcha turned her back and slowly walked away.

When she was far enough away from Alston and Sarette, Sorcha flung herself into Oren’s arms. “You had me worried, ai dulin,” he whispered gruffly to her.

She sighed. “I told you to trust me, didn’t I?”

He released her and lifted an eyebrow. “Sometimes that’s hard to do with you.”

They both laughed lightly. Sorcha came to my side and took my hand, holding it tight. “I knew what you were doing, by the way,” she admitted. “Because I did the same thing.”

“About what?” I asked, confused.

She looked up at me and grinned. “About the promise to hand me over if you lost the fight.”

“Yeah, about that,” Oren interrupted, glaring at me. “I was going to kill you myself if you let Alston have her.”

Sorcha patted her guardian on the arm. “You had nothing to worry about, hence me telling you to trust me. The thing is, our promises don’t hold power in the mortal realm. I could’ve promised him I’d stay with him forever and wouldn’t have had to live by it. It was going to be my way of escape without putting anyone’s lives in danger.”

“I didn’t know that promises didn’t work here,” Oren said sounding surprised. “Who told you that?”

Sorcha narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure who told me, but I knew it was true somehow.”