Page 61 of Endless Terrors
Savannah cleared her throat. “Before we begin, I need a name.”
I frowned up at her. “What?”
“For the spell,” she clarified. “The wording is very specific, and in order to direct the magic, I need to give it a focus. Does your new Court have a name?”
“It’s not a …” I started. Then I stopped myself. Why was I fighting this so hard? Because I was so afraid of being a queen again? That wasn’t what was happening here, not in the same capacity. These were people I cared about. People I trusted. The fact they were standing in this room with me was proof of how different we were from the faerie Courts.
Savannah was still waiting for a name.
I thought about it, my gaze falling to the floor while I drew a complete blank. As the silence lingered, I noticed the shapes slanting over the wood. Shadows. They were neither darkness nor light. Something always in between. My eyes shot back up, and I studied the faces around me. It fit perfectly.
“The Shadow Court,” I said.
It was a moniker the Unseelie Court was known by, and it was fitting, but I would claim it for us nonetheless. We were the gray ones, the strange ones. The wounded and the vulnerable. The strong and the dangerous. They made us powerful, our shadow selves. Our eternal struggles. We wouldn’t be ashamed of them anymore.
Now, we would claim them.
“Okay, then. The Shadow Court it is.” Savannah took a deep breath, her fingers curling around the edges of the book.
There were certain moments in life when you had the thought: My life is never going to be the same after this. I’d learned to take note of such moments. I looked at the people I loved, and I wasn’t afraid.
Savannah called the magic forth using ingredients she’d gathered and the words pouring out of her mouth. There was a bowl on the nightstand, and at one point during her incantation, Savannah dropped a match in it. Smoke coiled through the room. As Savannah picked up a knife, I felt it. A slight temperature change in the room.
Magic.
The first half of the spell—the bonding part—was exactly how I remembered from the times I’d performed it with Gil and Finn. We all did our cuts and vows. There were a few alterations, because there was a group of us, instead of two people. The others had to exchange blood, as well, not just with me. Bonding them made all of us stronger.
Within seconds of the final blood exchange, new threads appeared in my mind. They were bright and golden.
Before I could marvel at them, Savannah’s voice came from a distance. “Fortuna? Fortuna, it’s done. We should be able to proceed with the second part of the spell.”
Once again, my eyes flicked around the bed. This time, I could feel the connections to them. Connections that had always been there, but now they were marked with magic. Amplified. They felt … right.
The easy part was done. Now came the part that had sent me to my brother’s side earlier tonight, needing a reminder of why I was doing this. Why any of us were. Knowing this could possibly be the last time I spoke to my family, I swallowed and thought about what I wanted to say. For once, the words came easily.
“I love you. You should know that, before all this goes to hell. Literally.” My eyes moved beyond them, including Emma, Lyari, and Adam in what I was saying. I smiled at them and added, “Thank you for finding me. For being my family.”
When it was clear I’d finished, Laurie pushed off the wall. He rounded the bed and stopped at my side. He didn’t say anything, and the rest of the room faded away. We looked at each other silently.
It felt like we’d been here before. At the Unseelie Court, just before I battled Jassin. At the mouth of an ancient tomb, just before Laurie sacrificed what he valued most to spare me from doing the same. We’d survived every time. We always survived, and then we found each other on the other side.
“I can do this,” I said. A slight waver in my voice betrayed me. I tipped my chin up and looked at Laurie. “Right?”
The corners of his beautiful mouth turned downward, and his brows drew together. I could see the struggle in his starry eyes—he still didn’t approve of my choice. He was probably pondering the cage he’d mentioned earlier, and whether he should put me in it until the full moon had passed. I waited patiently, trusting him to make the right decision, just as I had with Collith.
Finally Laurie said, his voice soft, “You’re the bravest creature I’ve ever met.”
They were the same words he’d given me as I prepared for the fight with Jassin. I felt my heart shift, as if it were releasing a faint sigh. I hoped Laurie could see the truth in my eyes, because even now, I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. I love you, too, I told him silently.
He saw it. Of course he did. I watched Laurie’s expression change, as if my admission hurt him but also brought a rush of joy. His long fingers clenched as he fought, more than ever before, against the urge to pluck me up and whisk me away, like he was one of the fae from those old, twisted fairy tales.
“You can start, Savannah,” I said, shifting my attention to the figure hovering behind Laurie.
Slowly, the Seelie King moved away, and a wide-eyed necromancer stepped up to take his place. To my relief, Savannah’s voice was steadier than the hands holding that spellbook.
“One more thing,” she told me. “Magic always seeks balance. For every spell that is done, it comes with at least one way it can be undone. Look for a sign when you first arrive in the Dark Prince’s dimension. It might be subtle, like a stray thought or a doodle you feel compelled to do. It could be words, or an ingredient. There’s no way of knowing for certain.”
“Great,” I responded weakly. I could sense the unease coming from the people around my bed. Quickly I said, “What do you need from me?”
