To My Dearest Stardust, To My Dearest Moony - Fenrys' Mate

Chapter 29

I couldn't remember the face of the first of many men that approached me. I'd slit his throat and jumped over his body before it had the time to hit the ground. The next, I'd forgotten just as quickly. My blade pushed through his eye socket and let the screams behind me propel me forward.

There were some I could barely recall, others I could place better in my memories.

A grey haired man sneered at me. He crouched, as if he intended to try and defend himself against my onslaught. But I knew that face, and I had a score to settle. I'd become more lucid once, almost enough to fight back until he'd bound me to a tree like a dog. He'd laughed and berated me as such as he'd called over his friends. 

I snapped his legs. 

Parred around his lunge and put my foot through the back of his calves until they crunched. He writhed in pain, but I let him suffer. Left him to his misery. I'd deal with him later. Give myself more time to get creative. I was on the  clock.

I held my breath with every body I battered and bruised, waiting on bated breath for the person that came for me next to be someone I knew. I couldn't think about it. Lorcan would be a problem, as would Rowan when it came to strength. Dorian and Manon when it came to their power. I couldn't think about it... naturally I thought about it a lot. 

It was a large blessing that that moment didn't come.

With the few moments I had spare, I let myself scan the room.

It didn't make sense. 

If Malakai had them all under Luna's control, why were they just sat there. Sat there staring blankly in front of them, the false smiles gone.

Marion's entire body was tense, her eyes glaring at Luna, hers glaring back. 

It was a battle, I realised. A silent unseen battle that left her distracted. Too occupied trying to keep Marion at bay that her powers she held over everyone else had paused. It'd taken its toll- the power- and now Luna was tiring. Weakened.

Malakai seemed to sense it too, the stillness of Aelin's cadre and family. The exhaustion.

Luna's face, still lovely but severe, was seared into my mind. I kept bounding forward one leap at a time, the blood of my enemies left in my wake. Felix, too, beat anyone that came close to him or Marion. Kept their mental battle going as long as Marion or Luna could hold on.

It was then that her cold eyes snapped to me and narrowed.

I had the chance to see shoulders sag, a few people gasp, and a commotion begin to rise before my knees buckled as I felt a surge of her power come over me.

Her long white hair darkened until it was black as night. Her eyes looked like the very pits of hell.

My former queen stared at me silently, her features sharp as she crossed her arms. But I'd come here for a reason. I'd come here to...

I couldn't quite remember. I was looking for something- no, someone.

"Can I help you with something?" She cooed, voice laced with poison and condescension.

I slowed my pace until I was an arms reach from her. "I- I'm looking for someone." I peered around the throne room. Everyone was there. Vaughan looked more bored than the rest of them combined, still, they were all there. So who was it?

"Would you betray me, Fenrys?"

My mouth opened to answer. No words followed. I tried to be honest more often than not, so why did the answer no feel so wrong on my tongue? In my head?

Darkness swept before my eyes, my heart aching at what followed.

Connall lay lifeless at my feet.

She looked at me. "This is your fault, Fenrys. You made me do this." She was looking at me like she expected me to pounce at her. To kill her.

Only... only these wounds didn't feel new. 

Like scars that had been trying to heal for a long, long time.

"Not real." Fell from my lips. "Not. Real."

I pinched my eyes closed as I stepped over the body that was not there. The woman took a step back, but I held her cheeks in my hands. "This is not real." I said. "But you are. And I am." Connall disappeared, as did the throne room.

I pulled at that beautiful tether, still strong, between us. "This is real."

I took out the ring. "I never thought this would be the first ring I put on your finger." I let my eyes search her face, waiting for the darkness to subside as I slide it up her finger. "You are my mate." My voice kept strong and firm. "You are my mate, Luna. Let me see you. Bring us both back to the light."

The image of Maeve sighed before melting away.

Luna was standing, looking doubtful at me. "My mate?"

"Your mate." I coughed. "If you'll have me."

Aelin's growl took my eyes from Luna, I watched as her mother tore through a woman's intestine as Asterin used her teeth to rip out another's throat. Rowan was hovering over Malakai's body, his knee pressing into his temple until his skull groaned with the pressure.

There were no words to describe the hall. Gory. Bloody. That didn't begin to cover it. Most of the bodies' faces were warped into horror stricken expressions. Some bodies didn't have heads at all. Others were marred past the point of recognition.

It was... grotesque. 

Almost beautiful.

That amongst all of that, Lorcan sat wiping the blood from Elide's leg. Felix placed a gentle kiss on Marion's head as her nose bled lightly.

She looked at them briefly then made her way over. She wiped her nose clean with the back of her sleeve and smiled. "I think I can help get that thing off." Malakai let out a cry as Rowan put a knife through a finger. "It's a strong theory but if the mating bond can bring you back, maybe it can help break that." The band around Luna's neck.

"I'll try anything." Luna spoke softly but there was a coarseness to her voice that made it sound like she was doing too much. She was exhausted. I put an arm around her waist to steady her, and she transferred most of her weight onto me.

"If you could both put a hand on my shoulder and try to pull at the bond."

I did as she asked. The bond was unlike anything I'd ever felt. Like pulling the string of an instrument that played the most magical melody. It hummed through my body as there was a gentle tug back.

Marion shivered and reached forward. The chain snapped in her hands and she threw it to the floor.

There was a larger weep from Malakai that was met with a growl from my mate. She turned on her heel and stormed towards him. Her foot connected with his face once. Then again. And many more times until his wails became pitiful grunts.

The grunts sounded like attempted words. "What's he saying?" There were three syllables, the last almost sung but they were still intelligible to me. "Luna, what's he saying?"

She turned to me.

The look in her eyes was enough to have me frozen in place.

Defeat. She looked defeated, and her skin paled.

He laughed. Malakai cackled as he choked on his own blood. He spat it across the floor to clear his throat. "I said." He spat again. "She'll. Still."

"Die." Luna finished. "I'll still die."

And her nose started to bleed.