hand and knew she would cast her spell here, in front of the fae and human armies. It would give her even more delight to have them watch.
I took a shaky breath and steeled myself. At least I wouldn't be alone; my fellow humans were there with me.
“Welcome!” Gremara shouted suddenly. “Welcome fae and humans. Welcome Sidhe and Unsidhe. Welcome to your deaths!” She cackled like a madwoman. “Do you remember a time, not so long ago, when the first Valorian was made?”
The armies before me went silent, everyone watching her warily.
“Do you remember the curse that I made? The beautiful weapon that human destroyed?” Gremara laughed as my guards shoved me up beside her. “I have reconstructed that curse except that now, the human shall be the catalyst!”
I was forced to my knees and thick fingers pried my mouth open until my lips stretched painfully. Gremara opened the bottle in her hands and poured its murky contents down my throat. One of them held my nose so I'd swallow. Even as I gagged, I tried to focus; I knew I'd only have one shot to get free of her. I needed to wait until they weren't holding me. When they were—
Oh, dear, God!
Pain burned through my body. I screamed as my muscles tore and repaired themselves in seconds, bulging grotesquely from my limbs. My skin darkened, becoming a pure black as if the night sky had filled it—a shade even darker than Farungal flesh. My fingertips itched and then burned as claws sprouted from them. Around me, I could faintly hear birds screeching, but when a roar echoed out of my monstrous throat, everyone went quiet.
I surged to my feet, power unlike anything I'd ever felt rushing through my veins. The pain was gone. In its place rose rage. But it wasn't my fury; it belonged to this monstrous me. This creature whose thoughts turned toward inflicting pain and spreading rot. Toward watching people suffer endlessly. Blood and fear and death—I wanted it all! I trembled violently in need of desolation. Waste. Ruin!
Gremara was speaking again, saying something about me being her Prince, telling the armies before her what she'd told me before. That I would poison the world. Destroy them all. And I wanted to. Darkness filled my mind and offered me a tempting path—one of destruction and blood. Of dominion. I would make the world into my playground and never have to hide who I was ever again. I wouldn't be a prince, I would be a king. No, an emperor! I could almost taste the fear of thousands of people on my tongue.
But then a face flashed in my mind. A kind face with soft brown eyes and a gentle smile. My Gerard. The man who had awakened me to what love could be. My only love. The greatest joy in my life. The man Gremara had gleefully killed in front of me.
His last words rang in my mind, “Live, Luca. Survive this and live for me. I love you.”
Somewhere beyond those armies, past the shores of Alantri and across the Bellor Sea, was the home I had made for us. The one Gerard couldn't live in for fear of persecution. I had bought it for us anyway, in the hopes that one day things would change and we'd be able to live in it together, making love in our bed instead of meeting secretly in the forest. It was there, our dream, just beyond the sea. And now it was out of my reach forever.
But I wouldn't let this monster destroy our home. I couldn't save my beautiful Gerard, but I would save our dream. I would save all the dreamers in Stalana and even those in the Fae lands of Varalorre. Those men and women who lived and loved as their hearts led them even if they had to hide their love. Those people who hope for a better tomorrow. I would save their homes and their lovers and their children. I would save their tomorrow and give them my hope that it will be better than today. I would die knowing that they lived on. That even if I never saw it again, my home would still be there.
As the darkness rose to threaten my mind, I knew I had mere moments left before the real me was lost forever—before Gerard's image faded and the chance he gave me disappeared with him. I lifted my face to the moon. Tears ran down my