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Chapter Forty-Seven

I waited for the pain of the shrapnel wounds, But it was nothing compared to the pain oftortured by my aunt Every sword cut, every spear thrust, every whip mark, every claas there on their bodies in one red ruin

Galen writhed on the ground besidethe bloody front of his pants I kneound had reappeared Rhys&039;s ain Doyle lay on his side, fighting to try to get to his knees, but he was too hurt They were all too hurt There were cries in the distance, and it was not just ed I understood in that moment what a terrible hand of power Cel possessed I hadn&039;t understood until that moment I hadn&039;t understood so very much until that moment

Cel jerked ainst his body, and turned round, everyone Andais was just a dark heap on the frost-whitened grass Her cloak of shadows had gone, which meant she was either unconscious or worse

"Draw your sword," he hissed in my face "Let me disarm you in front of them all, and drive it into that fertile woainst me? She made me take those human doctors&039; tests and found that I couldn&039;t father children That&039;s when she called you home" He traced his free hand up the side of ers in my hair He stopped just short of where the crown still burned with its darkling flao of my wrist, and put his other hand on the other side of ently between his hands "Draw your sword, Merry Draw it, and let theainst my face as he came in for a kiss

I put my hands on his hands, bare skin to bare skin, as he kissed inal injury see entle kiss on ood kiss, and not what I&039;d expected, but then he was full of surprises tonight

He drew back fro my hands in his He s to kill you now"

"I know," I said, and I used the hands of blood and flesh together Where Holly and Ash and I had used them to heal, now I used them to destroy I drove the hand of blood into him, not in search of wounds, but in search of blood I used the hand of flesh to cut and tear his body from the inside out As the hands of power had flowed over the battlefield in a wave of cleansing blood and s flesh, now they filled this one man

Cel&039;s eyes ide "You can&039;t," he whispered

"I can," I said, and I flexed that power, flexed it like a giant&039;s fist that I&039;d shoved deep into his body, then I opened that fist One moment Cel was there, eyes wide, hands in mine, the next he wasn&039;t Blood ss hit my face There was a sharp pain inalone, covered in blood and thicker things I scraped as left of my cousin off my face so I could see, and found that it was his teeth in ic I pulled them out, and promised myself a tetanus shot, and antibiotics if I could have thes as I stood there, shaking

Doyle was suddenly atthe blood from his face His eye was back to its usual scar Galen ith ht

"But how ?" I asked

"He died, and his hand of old blood died with him," Doyle said I held my bloodstained hand out to Doyle He took it, and I drew him over the red ruin that was all that was left of our enemy I drew him down into a kiss, and the ht, and he was black fire, bright enough that it cast shadows across the field

There were gasps and whispers, and I finally came away from the kiss to find that there was a crooven into Doyle&039;s hair Thin thorn branches formed a latticework above his head, but each thorn was tipped with silver It was Jonty hispered, "The Crown of Thorn and Silver"

Doyle reached up and touched the crown He caertip "It is sharp"

"My king," I said

He smiled "One of them"

Then a sound, a horrible wet throaty sound, drove the answering smile fro It lay on its side, the spear sticking up like a young tree stripped of its branches Blood had drenched its white coat

Doyle and I went to him I knelt and touched the fur where it was clean of blood He arm to the touch, but there was nosacrifice," Doyle said

I shook ave hiain "I don&039;t want to rule the&039;s still-warm side, and whispered, "Frost, coo"

I smelled roses, thick and warm as summer&039;s kiss I rose and there was a shower of rose petals falling from the winter sky

It was Galen rapped his hands around the spear, and took it out of the stag&039;s side to show the horrible wound Galen stood above us, bathed in the rose petals, the spear in his hands, his face anguished, his clothes covered in blood

Rhys knelt by the stag&039;s head, hands gripping the sood eye Mistral ca his own e of the field, his sluagh like a black cloud of night with hi He bowed his head, as if he knew

Ash and Holly stood with the Red Caps They had all lowered their weapons and pointed then of respect

A voice caive for your Killing Frost?"

"Anything"

"Would you give the crown upon your head?" the voice asked

"Yes," I said

Mistral said "Meredith" But the otherMistral hadn&039;t been with us fro, so he didn&039;t understand

"And you, Darkness, would you give up your crown?"

Doyle took ain, I would"

"So be it," the voice said There was a wind, and the scent of rain, and the dark light of the croas gone

But a hand reached up through the hole in the stag&039;s side I touched that hand, and it wrapped around mine "Goddess, help us," I said