Song of Sorrows and Fate: A Dark Fantasy Romance (The Broken Kingdoms Book 9)

The Court of Hearts—Southern Kingdom

Ari’s long Night Folk legs could outpace me by three strides to one. I fought to lengthen my gait, but with the violent shudders in the soil, it made the journey worse. My heart was screaming for speed. We needed to reach the burrows. I needed her in my arms.

All at once, Ari yanked me off our path as the ground sunk into a deep crevice.

“What’s happening?” A pointless question. Ari knew as much as me.

For days the isle had, once again, succumbed to the wild plague, only worse. Fae folk thrashed and writhed in spitting rage until the healers tended to them with Niklas’s elixirs. Since the battle of the isles, every kingdom was well stocked with the wards against Davorin’s dark glamour.

Still, when it caught their blood, the wild plague was vicious and unforgiving.

The ground rocked again. Ari tucked my head to his chest, his breaths harsh and swift, as though he could not fill his lungs before he needed to reach for another gasp of air.

When there came another pause in the shift, we wasted no time before we sprinted toward the trees again.

All around us folk abandoned the Borough walls. At the command of their king and queen we would head for Whisper Lake. It was the only flat ground close enough to the Court of Hearts where few trees could topple over us, where knolls wouldn’t give in.

“This . . . isn’t Valen,” Ari said through strained gasps as we ran.

At first, we’d thought—we’d hoped—the North had arrived to aid us in the rising battle. It would mean they were safe; it would mean the warning they’d lit on the torches had passed and they’d come to aid the isles.

There were no Ettan ships. Only shifting earth and a gold burst against the blood-red sky.

There was no Davorin.

Ari had not slept, he’d hardly eaten. Since the flame ignited as a warning, he’d traipsed the gates tirelessly, the heirloom blade in hand, waiting for Davorin’s strike. Only the essence of his glamour was here, but no true sign of the battle lord.

Lack of sightings of him meant little since Davorin took pleasure in the torment. He was here. Somewhere.

I could sense it to my very soul.

The thought added a burst of desperation to my pace, and I quickened each step until we reached the tree line.

I let out a strangled cry. “Ari, there. Gods, hurry.”

“Dammit.” Ari released my hand the instant he caught sight of Gorm sprawled on his belly, a hand down a wide hole. Magus and the Court of Serpent guards surrounded the blood lord, shouting commands and shielding their heads from falling branches.

In the trees, Gunnar Strom and other archers fired at the borders of the burrow when feral fae tried to rush against us.

Eryka’s eyes were white like the blaze of stars, her face pointed toward the sky, and she kept repeating the same words. “Back to the beginning fate will lead. Who rises in the end, is yet to be seen.”

I shook my head, peeling my attention off the star seer, and dropped in front of the entrance of the troll burrow.

“Gorm, where is she?” Ari skidded next to the blood lord.

“The troll folk are caved in on the opposite side,” Gorm said. “The princess is too deep to reach.”

“What!” I leaned over the edge. “Mira? Mira, speak to me.”

A whimper replied.

Ari mimicked Gorm and flattened on his belly. True enough, the troll burrow was deep. Magus hung a lantern over the king’s head to chase away the shadows of the opening. Perhaps a dozen paces down, Mira sobbed at the bottom of the burrow, surrounded by rocks and massive clods of dirt.

The trolls, Dunker and a few of his rowdy cousins, were tasked in watching the princess, tasked with hiding her from Davorin should he show his damn face. Rune kept to the trees, Gorm and Magus watched either entrance.

If the burrow did not cave in from the shudders, soon enough the wild fae would claim us all. The rancid tang of blood spilled over the area from the endless arrows slicing through flesh, through Gorm’s blood fae on foot, using their blades much the same.

Ari reached a hand into the tunnel. He grinned, wide and white. A forced grin, but to Mira it would be her familiar father who loved nothing more than to make her laugh with his jests and taunts.

“Come on, my girl,” Ari said. “Maj and I were having a race through the trees. Thought you might want to join.”

I bit down a cry when the ground shifted again. Mira sobbed. Ari’s jaw pulsed, but he returned the smile again.

“Mira,” he said, firmer. “Come on, now. Time to leave the burrow. You must stand, climb as high as you can, and reach for my hand. Look nowhere else but me. Maj will help you.”

I pressed my palm on the soil, urging the land to sprout roots, vines, anything of use for our daughter to take. Until my heart stilled at her words.

“I c-c-c-can’t,” Mira wailed. She screamed, a sound that shattered my soul into broken pieces when a violent roll of the soil cracked the distant windows in the Borough.

“Mira,” Ari said, voice rough. “Take my hand. Now.”

“Daj,” she whimpered. “It’s m-m-my foot. It’s stuck.”

No. A sick rush of bile burned my throat. A few more violent quakes and she’d be buried. No matter how desperately I pleaded with the isles, they would not cease the movement. It was becoming clearer, a different power, a different glamour was at play here.

“Saga.” Ari tossed me the heirloom sword. He maneuvered to his knees and started to slide through the hole.

“Ari, no.”

He paused, only long enough to flicker a quick grin. “Back in a moment, sweet menace.”

A promise was buried in his words. A promise we both knew he couldn’t keep, yet it mattered little. Either Ari or I were going in that damn hole, and the only reason it was him was due to those long, bleeding Night Folk legs.

His mussed head of golden hair disappeared into the burrow. I closed my eyes, pleading to the night for his return, for my girl to be unharmed.

Gods, one more cruel shiver of the bedrock and they’d be trapped. My family, the two people I cared most for in the whole of the world, would be lost to me. Hot tears of hate, of fear, of regret, scorched through my veins.

Davorin was my tyrant. I’d brought him back. In more than one way I could not help but feel as though this scourge, this pain, was the fault of my foolish young heart. To think, I once thought I knew love with that bastard.

The love I had now with Ari, all I’d ever known before my husband was mere infatuation.

I took Ari’s place at the top of the hole and blinked through the billows of falling dirt as Ari skidded his way toward Mira. How long had she been trapped in the dark? The trolls could burrow away from the cave in, but Mira could’ve been trapped there if Rune and Gorm had not sent the signal.

“It looks to be the ankle,” Gorm said plainly.

He was flat and direct in most cases, but I’d known Lord Gorm long enough now to catch the flickers of anxiety in his tone. It was there. He valued the little princess. Not only because she was a royal and Gorm honored the royal house, but he . . . he truly cared for her. Like a strange, gentle uncle who never understood the meaning of her jokes.

I lifted the lantern, feeding more light to the darkness. Pebbles and bits of dirt struck my face. I didn’t blink. I hardly breathed until Ari reached Mira.

She sobbed and gasped. Danger was all around, but he took a few breaths to wrap her in his arms, to kiss her head, to assure her he’d be there.

“I’m not leaving you,” he said.

Ari slapped a heavy mound of dirt. “Get out Dunker. Damn troll. They’re still hanging around as if that’s useful.”

No doubt, the trolls could not stomach leaving their royal charge. Still, it would’ve made a great deal more sense if their hefty claws dug out, came to warn us, or dug a new hole to better reach Mira.

The ground shook, enough Ari had to brace against the dirt cavern walls. He hunched over Mira, creating a shield over her small body. Gorm’s heavy palm gripped my lower leg when the edge of the burrow gave and nearly tossed me down the flume with the rest.

“Mira,” Ari said when the shudder lessened. “I’m going to lift this stone, and I need you to move.” He held up a hand. “No, I know it hurts, but we cannot stay here. You are strong, like warriors. Besides, think of how you’ll be able to boast of your strength the next time you see those pesky twins.”

Mira coughed, and if I had to guess, she almost laughed. It was a delight of her existence to prove to the Eriksson twins she was brave and cunning.

“Ready. One,” Ari braced his shoulder under the stone. “Two. Three.”

He grunted and the stone shifted. Mira cried, gasping, but dragged herself away until another angry quake rocked the ground.

“Ari!” I stretched my arms into the tunnel. “Hurry, gods, please hurry.”

In the next breath, Ari scooped Mira up, he maneuvered her onto his back. “Head down, Mira. Keep your head down.”

His fingers dug into the walls of the tunnel. I cursed and stretched out my hands as the sides gave slightly against the quaking. Gorm held my ankles, but I leaned deeper into the tunnel, desperate to get my hands on them.

“Go to Maj,” Ari commanded. “Mira, go, go.”

She reached her skinny arms over his shoulder. Our fingers hooked, then slid apart. Ari cursed, his muscles flinching as he held steady on a ledge of the tunnel, trying to balance and ease Mira toward the surface without falling backward.

“A little more, my girl.” I was practically tumbling into the tunnel. If not for Gorm, I would spill over the side.

Mira slapped for my hands, sobbing, but in the next attempt her palm landed against mine. I pulled her up the side. Gorm pulled my legs. Like a rope of bodies, we dragged Mira free of the tunnel. She collapsed in fitful tears against my chest.

At the next shudder, half the tunnel caved in and my heart stopped.

“Ari!” Gently, I guarded Mira at my back and dug through the dirt half-covering the opening. Ari had pressed his body against the side of the wall to avoid the spill. His skin was coated in damp soil, his body trembled from exertion. Those beautiful, soft, golden eyes held mine in the dark.

“Don’t you dare,” I said through clenched teeth.

“We’re out of time. This earth is going to give in and you need to take her from here, Saga,” he said softly.

“We fight these fights together, don’t you dare give up on me.” I reached my arms into the tunnel, no thought for the cracks in the soil, the snapping of trees. No thought but having my husband’s hand in mine, his arms around me.

“Together. You promised me, Ari Sekundär.” I sank deeper. Once again, Gorm gripped my legs. “This is not where our story ends. Now climb your ass out of this tunnel.”

Constant shudders sent more stones, more debris into the troll burrow, but soon Ari tightened his jaw. He began his climb, careful as he went. All around him soil was breaking. The strength and sturdiness of the burrow was failing.

“Saga,” he gritted out when it felt as though the whole of the isles were flipping upside down. “Go, gods. Go.”

“Give. Me. Your hand.” I was bathed in dirt. Clumps of it hung on my lashes, blurring my sight, but he was mere paces away. A few more movements and I’d have him.

He cursed, but reached for a jutting root. In a swell of shuddering soil, the burrow split in half.

“Ari!” I screamed. The crack was taking him in. “Take my hand. Jump!”

With no options left, Ari released his hold on the dirt wall and jumped across the crack, arm outstretched. I let out a cry of agony when his hand clasped my palm, yanking my shoulder painfully with his weight. In an instant, I grasped his wrist with my other hand.

“Climb,” I whispered, voice rough. “Help me.”

Ari was hanging over an open pit, all the walls caving in. He swung his body until his feet found purchase in what was left of the wall. Over my body, a thicker, broader form reached into the tunnel.

“Hold tight, My King,” Gorm’s gravelly voice followed. “I’m vastly stronger than the queen, and I will be taking hold of your tunic. It must be done.”

Gorm didn’t wait for a word before he reached over me, close enough now to grip the back of Ari’s top. Together, we heaved. The extra tug was enough to draw Ari to the edge, where he could hook a leg on the ledge and roll out of the tunnel.

His tunic was half-peeled off his back, his face coated in dirt, but he was bleeding free. In two breaths he had my body pressed to his.

“Foolish woman,” he gasped against my throat. “You could’ve been trapped or hurt or—”

“Stop talking.” I choked my arms around his neck, breathing him in. “Don’t you ever again tell me to leave you, understand me? It will not happen, you damn fool.”

Ari kissed my throat, then let out a shuddering breath once Mira nuzzled her way between us. He held us both, kissing our heads, my cheeks, Mira’s forehead.

“All gods.” Gorm shook us from the moment of relief. The blood lord did not gasp, not in such a way. He was rarely taken by surprise. But he was stunned now.

I lifted my gaze and cried out in fear. Ari positioned me behind him; I covered Mira with my body. The forest floor snapped and bent, great bursts of dirt and rock shot into the air like the bursting geysers in the Court of Blood.

But beyond them was a cloak of night. Shadows like clotted ink devoured trees, ferns, anything in its path was devoured. The darkness was speeding our way, too swift to outrun. We’d be taken.

This was the moment I’d always feared.

The moment our stories ended.

“I love you,” Ari said, holding his arms around me and Mira. He ducked his head. “To the Otherworld, I love you.”

His words were the last thing I heard before our world was swallowed up in cruel darkness.