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The battle had begun.
Black lightning snapped out from the shield, electrocuting a falcon who’d reached the upper exterior. The steaming bird dropped like a stone to the ground, where it disappeared beneath dozens of unseelie fae streaming out of the city gate. The creatures had left the safety of the magical bubble and scrambled toward the approaching army, hunger all too obvious in their focused expressions.
Sorrow blended with fear squeezed my lungs. The shifters caught by the earlier bomb and the trampled phoenix were among many who would die today, and even more who would wish for death if caught by an unseelie. There was nothing I could do now except fight.
And win.
I swooped down toward the nightmarish fae and rained liquid fire upon them. My magic poured from my hand like lava, an inferno washing over their grotesque bodies. It drowned and melted anything that moved.
As I shot back up to join the dragons, Imos’s serpentine tail smacked against the wavering dome, generating sparks but failing to make a dent. He dropped his giant maw open and spewed deadly fire onto the shield.
Spanning out beside their alpha, the other dragons added their billowing flames to his, attempting to burn a hole through the dome.
I drew on my inner flame and threw my arm out, aiming for the same location. A fiery spear whistled through the air and slammed into the bubble, but the lance splintered into sparks and ash.
Deep rumbles shook the earth below me, and I spun to search for the source. A wide swath of trees and leaves trembled behind our army as something moved through the forest at a breakneck pace. Some things, and there were a lot of whatever it was.
I wanted to scream a warning, but my heart had leaped into my throat, rendering me speechless. My pulse thrashed in my ears as I gasped for air.
Oh my gods…
We had walked right into a trap.
I dove toward the hill, toward my friends and Community, beating my fiery wings with all my might and praying I would reach them in time.
Except the sight that came next stopped me short and nearly shocked me right out of the sky. I stared with my mouth hanging open, not sure I believed what I saw.
Moving trees with branches for arms and roots for legs charged out of the forest—the Guardians. They surged from the treeline like a tsunami, surpassing the gaping witches and warlocks and using their branches to thwack the unseelie who’d made it past our infantry.
Squeals of agony blended with the cacophony of battle as the trees’ branches launched the fae into the air or splattered their shattered remains over the others. The unseelie tried to stop the enormous trees with their claws and teeth, only to find themselves barreled into and right over, leaving behind unrecognizable blobs and bloody smears.
Unable to resist, I let out a whoop and raised my sword. No victory yet, but our unexpected ally had to surprise Colin, too.
Spying two of the neamh-mairbh, the vampire-like fae we’d faced in the forest, about to surprise a distracted witch, I landed just behind the fae and swung Lisa at their exposed necks. She sliced through the first in a clean cut, its body and head toppling to the side, but she stuck partway through the next one’s bones.
Screeching, the creature tried to spin around despite the blade in its neck and lashed out at me with razor-sharp claws. Black ooze that dripped from its pores splashed across the exposed part of my arm near my elbow, and a fierce sting dug into my skin.
I hissed through my teeth as I blocked its claws with my vambrace. I tapped my boot buckles together, activating the stakes. With a well-aimed roundhouse kick, the wooden points tore through the vampire-fae’s throat.
Gurgling from its own black goop, the creature struggled to recover enough to retaliate. I tugged Lisa free and thrust her through the greenish-black skin covering its heart. Or what I hoped would be a heart, if it had one.
The vampire-fae’s empty eye sockets locked on my face as the life drained from its body, and a chill swept over me. Even though the creature didn’t have eyes, I knew it watched me, somehow, craving my flesh until it died.
I kicked the body off my blade and inspected my arm. My skin sizzled and charred wherever the liquid had landed, emitting a sulphuric scent that stung my eyes. Rubbing the remaining ooze against my pants and flushing it with my fire did little to stop the spreading burn.
A cry of fear from a warlock nearby drew me back into the battle. I would have to worry about the mysterious toxin later and hope for the best.
Because that kind of thinking always worked well, right?
26
WEDNESDAY MORNING
Thane
Beneath the wavering magical dome, a sinister atmosphere encapsulated the city and palace, trapping whatever inhabitants remained in unnatural darkness. I’d realm walked us to a bushy area along the palace’s foundation, where Edric assured us there would be a secret entrance.
He hadn’t been wrong, and we snuck up a staircase and inside the palace halls without being caught. As we slunk farther into the castle’s depths, my pulse sped up until it droned in my ears. I prayed we would reach the queen without incident.
