Loved by Light (Wings, Wands and Soul Bonds Book 4) Read online

  I think I knew on some level that there was something dark inside me. Something that puts things out. Something that could kill.

  I think maybe that’s why I haven’t awakened yet.

  But as dark wings made of black flame burst out of my back and I feel my ears lengthen, a cooling burst of magic floods through me. I look up at Ian, and I know just what to do.

  I give the others a look. “I have to go to him.”

  Flynn puts up a hand, stepping forward, but I simply take off into the sky, letting my wings carry me up and up as though I’m lighter than the air itself.

  It’s amazing, and it feels like I was always meant to be this way.

  Especially now, with my soul bond twisting in the sky, growing brighter and brighter.

  Right now, he needs the dark.

  I reach him just as he goes so bright it’s hard to look at him, like he’s a star about to go supernova.

  And I focus everything on the power inside me as I throw myself against him, wrapping my arms around him and letting the darkness burst forward to cover him up.

  “No, Liz,” he yells, trying to escape me.

  I feel heat. Feel light. But I hold on to him because I’m never letting him go again.

  If we die, we die together.

  But just as his light bursts through him, I feel the entire world go dark around us.

  So dark I can’t see anything, but I can feel Ian in my arms as he struggles, burning hot, and then goes limp, the light going out of him.

  I smothered it out, and I can only hope he’s okay.

  Cries of fear sound from beneath us as I slowly hold on to my passed-out lover and lower us back to the ground.

  Slowly, gradually, the darkness fades, and I slump forward as I hit the ground, letting go of Ian as all my strength leaves me.

  I’m utterly drained, but it was worth it.

  Because as the darkness fades, I see that no one was hurt, including Ian from the looks of it.

  My heart is bursting with happiness despite my tiredness because I was able to be just what my love needed me to be.

  Perhaps being a dark fae is just perfect after all.

  I smirk up at Ultraviolet, glad his plan is ruined. Even if he orders Ian to do it again, I’ll just put the light out.

  They’ll never be able to use him again.

  A dark, buzzing, nauseating cloud surrounds Ultraviolet as he turns to Dallin, practically spitting with rage.

  Around us, light fae are running into their buildings for shelter, and Ian’s friends are running toward me, shock and gratitude on their faces.

  “Get everyone out,” Tanner tells Flynn and Callie. “Take them to the dark kingdom for safety.”

  Flynn nods and leaves with Callie, and Brett and Avery stay to back up Tanner, Eve, and me.

  I’m grateful because I’m not sure I can stand. And I still need to protect Ian.

  I look down at him, and he stirs. I can feel his magic, small and suppressed but healthy.

  I didn’t hurt him.

  I want to hold him, take care of him, but now isn’t the right time.

  I need to keep my eyes on Ultraviolet.

  “You fool,” Ultraviolet says. “You’ve just made things harder on yourself.”

  “Vexxus,” Dallin says. “It’s fine. We freed the dragons.” He almost looks relieved that it didn’t work. “Let’s stop this. Perhaps Ian is right. Perhaps this is chaos. I don’t want—”

  Ultraviolet sends Dallin a poisonous glare. “I don’t care what you want.” He turns back to me. “And all you’ve done is make it so I have to kill you before I can use Ian again. So be it.”

  My eyes widen and Tanner starts toward me, but Ultraviolet snaps and the world goes dark, spinning with swirls of purple.

  I’m falling, falling, and I hear his voice echoing around me.

  “You’ll wish you died with Ian, dark fae. You’ll wish you had never been born.”

  24

  Liz

  The jolt of force as Ultraviolet pulled us into a portal must have knocked me out, because as I open my eyes, everything is dark.

  The floor beneath me is hard and cold, and I wince as I feel dirt and something crumbly and moist here and there beneath my fingers and legs as I push myself up.

  “Where are we?” I call out, then listen, hearing only a small squeak, groan, or creak, and for a moment, I wonder if I was sent here alone.

  But what about all the threats Ultraviolet made?

  Is he really going to kill me to get to Ian?

  I still don’t get the point of revenge.

  “Hello?” I call out.

  “Is someone there?” a scratchy voice answers.

  “Good God, they put someone else here?”

  There’s a clicking sound, and the darkness lights up with a purple and white flame swirling with black, giving just enough light to see that we’re in a cramped dungeon, populated by several cells with rusted iron bars between them.

  The flame is held above Ultraviolet’s hand, flickering just above his palm and outstretched, delicate fingers.

  He walks in the direction of the cell where I heard the voice, deep and scratchy, and I hear Ultraviolet let out a grunt at what he sees.

  “Barbarians.” Ultraviolet storms back to me. “And now, thanks to you, they won’t be punished.”

  “Dallin said you killed the elders. It’s finished. It’s—”

  “What do you know?” he is practically screeching, whirling on me as his stormy purple hair floats around him eerily, looking like an evil cloud. “Their warriors will be here. Their princes. Their sons. Things will carry on in the shadows as usual once everyone has left.”

  Ultraviolet looks around him, his beautiful features tight with rage and hatred. His irises have gone fully black.

  Does that mean he’s completely tainted with chaos? There’s a sickening feeling in the air, that’s for sure.

  I look down at my hand, wondering how I summon my powers again. But I feel weak, as though I used everything I had to save Ian.

  “That’s right,” Ultraviolet says. “You’re helpless. And I’m going to hurt you. Like they hurt me down here in this cell.”

  “Help,” the voice, deep and masculine despite the croaking pain of it, calls out to us, and Ultraviolet lets out a curse.

  “Shit,” he says. “I can’t just… Well, Dallin would never forgive me if we missed a dragon.” He storms over to the cell and pulls out his wand. It’s covered in purple flames, and he points it at the cell, burning the lock so the iron door swings open. “Get out of here, dragon.”

  But whoever it is—I can’t see from my cell in the darkness—just lets out a sigh. “I can’t move.”

  Ultraviolet curses again and comes over to pace in front of me. “I can’t even get my revenge properly, can I?” He looks over his shoulder at whoever he just freed. “Stay there, creature, if you know what’s good for you.”

  There’s no sound in response.

  Ultraviolet comes closer, backing me into the sticky, damp stone wall, which smells of ancient mold and rot.

  He doesn’t stop until he has a hand on either side of my head, caging me in, his eyes pinned menacingly on mine. “You’ve ruined everything. It wasn’t enough to kill them. But their sons, their son’s sons, their daughters, their daughter’s daughters—”

  “That doesn’t seem fair,” I say. “You suffered, but—”

  He slams a hand over my mouth, pressing me back into the wall painfully. “Suffered? You don’t know the meaning of the word.”

  He snaps his free hand, making the dungeon light up, and I gasp at everything around me.

  All around my cell are primitive-looking torture implements. Ragged knives. Arm and leg cuffs and God knows what other kind of rough iron restraints chained to every surface.

  And a bed covered in evil, long, jagged spikes.

  “That’s my bed,” Ultraviolet says, glancing toward it as his expression hardens. “I stayed there,
day after day, perfecting my glamour to escape this place, if only in my mind. That’s how you make a glamour fae.”

  My heart squeezes intensely just at the thought of what Ultraviolet has been through.

  “But the lab… You weren’t in the lab? Dallin said…” I trail off because I only remember vague mentions of it.

  “Oh, I went to the lab to run tests. But I’m high fae. It was harder to break me than a dragon, so I came back here after. Dallin didn’t know about that part.” He looks over at the cell he unlocked where a tall, muscular man in ragged, barely-there clothing is struggling to push himself up on the bench. “Apparently, they’re trying it on dragons now.”

  I glance over at the dragon, but he doesn’t look strong enough to stand, let alone help me.

  I don’t think I’m strong enough to help him either.

  Ian, please find us.

  “Don’t you dare think about your love,” Ultraviolet spits at me. “Your soul bond. My God, no light fae ever deserves a soul bond again after what they’ve done. And thanks to you, they’re going to get away with it.”

  “They aren’t,” I say, gasping as Ultraviolet’s hand closes around my neck, squeezing my windpipe.

  “I don’t have a choice but to do this,” Ultraviolet says. “You know that, right?” He glances at the dragon again. “Look at him. Someone in this kingdom will keep going. Or get this idea again. I need to rule them…” His eyes go unfocused, and his hold loosens slightly, just long enough for me to suck in a breath.

  “Rule them?”

  “So they can’t do any of this again.”

  “I don’t think that’s it,” I say. “I think you’re angry. I think you should be angry. But—”

  “I’m done hearing your stupid, kindhearted human opinion. You say you’re fae, but you understand nothing of our brutal world. And now you’ve undone the only plan I had to avenge countless years of suffering.” He leans in close, tightening his hand on my throat as his voice becomes a whisper that tickles my ear. “Fae have very long lifetimes. I lay on that bed for a hundred years.”

  My heart drops at the thought of it, but I still don’t see how killing me is going to help.

  He tightens his grip yet again, and I meet his eyes, thinking of all he’s been through. Love, unexpected and compassionate, washes through me.

  “I’m so sorry,” I say, feeling a tear fall. “I’m so sorry for what you’ve gone through.”

  Ultraviolet jerks back from me in response, letting me go as if I’m poisonous to touch. “I don’t need your pity. I’m stronger than you can imagine. I’m going to kill you and go on with my plan.” Desolation fills his dark eyes. “It’s all that I have…”

  His arms go limp at his sides, hands still in fists, and he paces, glaring at me as though he’s not sure what to do next.

  He leaps forward, pinning me to the wall again, this time with a hand on each of my wrists. “Why? Why is it so hard to kill you?”

  “Because she’s also partly radiant fae. The darkness blood is dominant, but the radiant is there, dispelling chaos.” A voice interrupts us, and I look up to see Dallin walking with a torch in his hand, lighting up stone stairs on the other side of the dungeon. “I noticed when she stopped Ryder from attacking the other day.”

  “Something you should have brought to my attention,” Ultraviolet says, hissing.

  “There are a lot of things I should have brought to your attention,” Dallin says in a low voice. “Like the fact that I knew you lived here. I knew what was done to you, so I gave you a wide berth. Wider than I should have perhaps. But we are friends.”

  “You’re not my friend,” Ultraviolet says. “You betrayed me. You went soft at the end.”

  “No,” Dallin said. “I saw the children. The women. I saw that the fae I hated, envied, weren’t so different. The ones who weren’t evil. Still, I believed you when you said they had to die. It was easy to think of them as different than me. To think they should be eradicated after all they had done to my kind. After what you said about dragons being slaves in other kingdoms. But… something has been happening ever since I met Ian. Some fae aren’t bad. Since I realized that, I’ve been struggling with our purpose.”

  “Weakling,” Ultraviolet spits.

  “But I still didn’t say anything,” Dallin says. “I wanted revenge.” He swallows, coming even closer. “I wanted you to have revenge.” He shakes his head slowly. “I should have noticed chaos was slowly taking over.”

  “Shut up,” Ultraviolet says. “If chaos is what it takes, then so be it.”

  “Why did we only think of killing? Why didn’t we think of having better lives?”

  Ultraviolet lets out a scoff that’s more like a shriek. “You have to be kidding. After what we’ve been through? Who we are?” Ultraviolet whirls to face Dallin, dropping my hands and moving one of his to hold me by the neck again. “So weak. I never thought you would betray me.”

  There is genuine hurt in his words.

  “We aren’t alone anymore,” Dallin says. “We don’t have to do this alone. Other fae can help—”

  “Where were they? When we were locked in dungeons? They were out there benefitting from this system—”

  “Ultraviolet, it’s over. The other princes are gathering the light fae, calling in help from other kingdoms. There will be changes. There will—”

  “There will never be justice,” Ultraviolet says, hanging his head slightly. “There will never be a point to what we went through.”

  I hear the hollowness there, and my heart reaches out to him. I can’t help it.

  “Ultraviolet,” I choke out. “Please, don’t—”

  He tightens his hand, cutting off my breath. “Shut up. Shut up forever. I’ll kill you. I’ll go to Ian, and—”

  “The light prince is coming,” Dallin says. “He can trace you. I’d let her go so we can talk.”

  “He’ll be too late,” Ultraviolet says, letting out a cackle as things start to get blurry, and I can’t hear anything over the need for more breath. “I’ll have killed her by—”

  A bright flash floods the basement, and a laser of light shoots forward, burning Ultraviolet’s hand, forcing him to pull back with a hiss as I slump forward, gasping for air.

  “You fucking miserable piece of—” Ian stops and looks at me, then rushes forward, pulling me into his arms.

  Ultraviolet is cursing, shaking his hand as Dallin comes up to him.

  I hear others enter the basement as well and look up to see Tanner and Brett, along with Avery and Eva, standing at the entrance to the stairs.

  Along with the dragon Ian fought the other day, who is in human form and staring at us with narrowed eyes.

  His hair is darker than Dallin’s, his eyes a color I can’t make out.

  I look from him to the others and then shake as I hold on tight to Ian.

  Ultraviolet pulls out his wand, and the others gasp, pulling back as Dallin steps forward, putting out a hand.

  “You can’t stop me,” Ultraviolet says. “If what you say is true and I’m chaos, then I have nothing to lose now. No way to go back—”

  “I will never give up on you,” Dallin says. “We simply have to find a new plan.”

  Ultraviolet hangs his head for a moment, his purple hair falling over his face and shoulders. When he raises his face to look at me, only one angry black hole of an eye is looking at me.

  “He’s not the Ultraviolet I know,” Ian murmurs, reaching behind him to pull out his wand.

  “He lived here,” I say, looking around the cell, which is lit by Ian’s presence and appears even more disgusting and awful than before. “They tortured him.”

  “It doesn’t give him the right to kill,” Ian says. “Pain can’t just keep leading to more pain.”

  “But it does,” Ultraviolet says, pointing his wand at Ian. “So stand and face me, knowing you can’t win because the hundred years of pain here mean that I’m going to kill you.”

  Ian stan
ds, stepping in front of me. “I’m fighting for my soul bond. And the fae kingdom.”

  The two men look so big, facing off in this cramped, ugly cell.

  “Why do you have to fight?” I cry out. “Why can’t we find a way to make this right?”

  “Shut up, radiant fae,” Ultraviolet says. “Your kind were killed off or chased into the human world for a reason.” He sneers. “You’re good for nothing but making people weak.”

  “Love isn’t weak,” I say.

  “It is when you’re facing hatred,” Ultraviolet says, and I can tell from the dark energy gathering around him that this is it. He’s going to attack Ian.

  Ian is in fae form now, his armor shining and white, his wings pure light stretching up to the ceiling.

  My white knight.

  “Wait,” I say, not knowing why, but feeling like I need to stop this. “Ultraviolet isn’t in his right mind. Don’t kill him.”

  “I don’t need your intervention, human,” Ultraviolet says. “I’m going to kill him and take my revenge.”

  A groan comes from the other side of the dungeon, and Dallin lets out a curse as he goes to find the man down the hall.

  “Fuck,” Dallin says, and I hear dragging as he apparently puts an arm around the man, pulling him back over. “He’s in bad shape. Ultraviolet, we need to help him.”

  Ultraviolet’s tone is dark. “Do whatever you want, Dallin. It ends here for me. Either I die here or he goes into that sky and ends every light fae in existence. You are free to do what you want.”

  Ian wavers, sensing my hesitation, but as he straightens and faces off with Ultraviolet, I can tell that one of these men is going to die.

  “I didn’t want to do this,” Dallin says, handing over the man he was supporting to Tanner and Brett. “But you give me no choice, Vex.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “Vex,” Dallin says in that low voice he used with Ian when he sent him into the sky. “Show us your true form. Drop your glamour.”

  Ultraviolet’s eyes go wide, and he glares at Dallin over his shoulder. “You wouldn’t. Take it back.”

  “You give me no choice,” Dallin says. “I won’t see you die, and I won’t let you kill either. Not when you’re infected with chaos. There’s another world on Earth. We can make lives there.”