A Court of Smoke and Moonlight

Chapter Nine

Like his brother, Mantyx was stupidly handsome.

With skin as dark as night, hair blacker than the pits of hell, and bronze eyes shining more brightly than the sun, he truly looked like a King. A god, even.

But Aelin knew what filthy, rotting evil lie below that beautiful mask.

She knew; because she had a similar mask herself.

Swirls of shadow lapped at his feet, wrapping around his ankles like hissing serpents. He gave a stunning tilt of his lips, which somehow made his face glow brighter. "Your Majesty. High Lady. I hope you enjoyed my gift."

Aelin kept her gaze neutral and cool as she stared right back into those depths of swirling bronze ore. "Mantyx," she greeted, "a pleasure." From his bronze eyes, she could tell which King it was; Mantyx, after all, meant bronze in the Old Language. "Though, I don't think we could say your 'gift' was one, too."

He shrugged, a casual, graceful tilt of his shoulders. "One can try." He rolled his neck, and a wisp of darkness coiled around his wrist, and he admired it with glowing eyes. "Now, here is how this is going to work."

"Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there," Aelin interrupted. "You don't get to make the rules around here. I do."

He arched an elegant brow. "Is that so?"

"Indeed," Aelin said, a smirk tilting her lips. "For example; you will leave my world and Feyre's alone and go and rot in your own world for all of hell's burning eternity."

"As lovely as that sounds, Aelin, you and I have some unfinished business."

"And what would that be?"

His bronze eyes darkened as that coil of darkness disappeared into thin air. "Your killing my brother."

"Oh, that. Well, I thought you would've been grateful for it," Aelin inspected her nails as she shot him a sly smile. "Your brother was a pain in the ass, after all."

Mantyx inclined his head. "Regardless, he is my flesh and blood-"

"Don't you mean rotten flesh and filthy blood?" Aelin snorted. Feyre shot her an alarmed glance.

"-And you killed him," Mantyx finished, as though nothing happened. "And you will pay for that."

"How much?" Aelin's eyebrows rose, and she began to count off her fingers. "I can give you gold, silver, rubies, emeralds-"

"With you life," Mantyx snarled, and a sword made of darkness turned solid appeared in his hand.

Aelin rolled her eyes, twirling her sword in her hand. "That's something I haven't heard before." She cracked her neck. "Alright, lets get this over with."

Mantyx lunged for her with a snarl, darkness rising over his shoulder like asps ready to strike. They darted over him, aiming to punch through flesh. Aelin blocked their attacks with swipes of her sword and bursts of her fire. Rhysand and Feyre used their winnowing to their advantage, disappearing and reappearing in flashes of shadows to attack.

Rowan sliced through those daggers of shadows, moving as smoothly as a deadly knife cutting through water. Aelin struck out with a foot, more fire pouring from her soul. Mantyx blocked it with more shadow power, somehow managing to stop Rhysand, Rowan, and Feyre at the same time.

Aelin darted back, huffing hair from her face. "Alright," she panted. "Enough games. Let's finish this."

Feyre took this as her cue, appearing behind Mantyx with a burst of shadows. She went to slam her hands, wreathed with golden light, onto the sides of his head, but a spear of darkness shot up from behind her...

And pierced straight through her stomach.

~

Rhysand roared as she fell to the ground, clutching her stomach as she gasped. Aelin screamed, lunging at Mantyx with growing ferocity. He met her attack with his own sword. "This is what happens," he seethed as Rhysand skidded to his knees beside his wife, "when you kill a King."

"Oh, yeah?" Aelin hissed. "But do you know what happens when you piss off a queen?"

She leapt back, ripping that wretched black jar from a pack on her hip. 

It had kept it's part of the deal, after all, and belonged to her.

She threw it onto the ground, and, with a wild, untethered scream, lava -pure, molten lava- poured from her mouth. It cascaded onto the jar and burnt it to ashes, and that incredible phoenix arose. But this time, it was bigger than a castle. It screeched a battle cry and dove straight towards Aelin.

"Come on!" She screamed, and Rowan shouted, but she didn't hear him. She opened her arms wide, as though to embrace a loved one.

And it crashed straight into her chest.

~

Pure, burning fire pierced her soul, pierced her very being. But she welcomed that pain, encouraged it. That devilish little weapon had taught her to control her fire. But it didn't say anything about controlling other's fire.

She grunted as it pooled into the already-overflowing pit of her stomach, exploding in her lungs and chest and veins.

When your fire is burning it's hottest, you are not only susceptible to its heat, but its anger.

She had never understood that saying from her mother, which she had told her when she was young, until this very moment.

Her anger at Mantyx, at Erawan, at the world, threatened to overthrow her moral compass. She was close to burning down all of Erilea if she didn't control the phoenix's fire. She had too.

Fire was a source of destruction; but also, of healing. It could purify with its burning heat, if used correctly.

And that's exactly what she planned to do .

She fell to her knees as her body engulfed itself in flames. Rowan stood by her side, not touching her, just standing there. A hand shielding his eyes from her whipping flames, he was helpless as she burned.

She gritted her teeth, wrestling with that white-hot fire that could burn her from the inside out. Her core even began to heat, as though her organs were melting.

Burn down the world burn down the world-

She shut out that dark, evil little voice hissing in her head. With a cry, she summoned the last of her energy, and released all of that fire. It poured from her mouth, her eyes, her ears and hands and feet and tongue.

Mantyx yelled as her drowned in that golden flame, as it poured over him like a rushing river. He collapsed to the ground, silver smoke rising from his burning body. He screamed again, and those asps of darkness cracked and snapped, falling around him. With a final, earth shattering cry, he disintegrated to a pile of ashes.

Aelin collapsed into Rowan's arms, panting as he held her tight. "Feyre," she mumbled, trying to reach her friend.

"She's alright," Rowan murmured. His voice shook almost as much as his hands. "Her healing power saved her and her babe. Its okay."

Aelin let out a sob, and he eyes met those of the High Lady across from her.

There was pain and sadness and relief in those blue-grey eyes, but most of all, tiredness.

A wind smelling of pine and snow, smelling of home, swept across the rubble of Endovier, spreading the ashes of the Valg King into the sky.

It was over.