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Rares was waiting for us in the courtyard of Ryza Citadel, alternating between wringing his gnarled hands and smoothing his gray hair down and away from his face. Around him, people buzzed with an anxiety that scraped against my empath magic, and I gritted my teeth, focusing on creating a barrier around my mind that would block the oncoming feelings assaulting it.
“What is it, Rares?” Ruslan snapped as we approached, and the low hum of conversation slipped away as Fae and Félvér alike stopped to listen to the conversation.
In my arms, Princess Gizela wailed, and my already fraying nerves nearly broke as I had to use more magic to calm the babe. As if Liliana could sense my waning patience, she lifted her from my arms, catching my eye as she walked into the citadel and hopefully toward someone who could give Gizela the care she needed.
Anton, Slavian, and Kriath jogged to catch up with Liliana. Guarding the princess was as important a duty as listening to whatever news Rares would relay to us, and the High Lords knew we’d tell them regardless.
“Desmond appeared to me earlier, looking for you,” he began, his throat bobbing roughly as he swallowed.
“Desmond?” Ruslan growled, his fists balling before he cracked each knuckle slowly, sinisterly, as if he were imagining popping each vertebra in the traitorous Mage’s neck. “What did he want?”
Rares glanced at me, then Drazen and Artur, and finally back to his emperor. Sucking in a sharp breath, he said, “The Crystal Realm has fallen.”
My mouth popped open involuntarily, and the world around me swayed as I leaned into Ruslan.
I knew war was coming, but…
The reality hit me like a tidal wave crashing against the shore, sweeping aside everything I thought I knew about how this war was going to unfold and replacing it with the desires of the oncoming storm.
“And what of King Airre and Queen Immonen?” My voice was thin and strained as I tried to process what the old Mage’s words meant.
He dropped his head, then shook it. Zuriel stiffened perceptibly beside me, and the shock must have shaken him to his core for his body to betray his carefully guarded emotions.
On my other side, my mate’s rising fury was like that of a wildfire, and anything in his path would be consumed without mercy. “How?” was his clipped question, posed to the Mage whose countenance paled beyond its usual pallor.
“When Desmond appeared… he was holding their severed heads as proof.”
Bile rose in my throat, and I gagged on the words.
“Fuck!” Ruslan shouted, grabbing the nearest object and throwing it into the stone side of the citadel, causing the barrel to shatter and wood to splinter and shower down on the bales of hay stacked there.
The males surrounding me swore curses and oaths that were so forceful and creative they raised my brows to my hairline.
Drazen was the first to break away through the mayhem and start planning. “Let’s take this inside. We need to gather the leaders of our forces and decide our next move.”
“Someone needs to return the princess to her parents, too,” Ruslan snarled, wrapping me under his arm and hauling us inside the citadel. “Send whoever you can spare, Rares. And tell them to relay the news of the Crystal Realmin personto Queen Viktoria and King Consort Geza. They’ll need to ready their army as well.”
His grip trembled with rage, but I did not fight him, sensing that he needed some semblance of control at the moment so he didn’t lose his shit in front of the entire Iron Realm. I didn’t think I could have moved my feet if I was propelled by my own will regardless. I still couldn’t process the fact that Kazimir and the Night Fae had marched on Vlisa and killed King Airre and Queen Immonen.
Tears burned my eyes as I remembered the Crystal Realm’s queen – her lithe frame, incredible intuition, talent for prophecy, and wisdom that had helped me during the days I was lost in my choice of light and dark.
The choice I made was the right one.
Certainty settled in my bones, more strong and sure than ever before. My mate’s dark hair was a mess from fighting and flying, so similar to my own emotions in that moment. We understood each other, intuitively giving each other what we needed without having to ask for it.
In their last moments, were the mated monarchs afraid? Or did they know that no matter where they were, in this lifetime or the next, they’d find each other?
Because fear suddenly gripped me in a way I’d never experienced, sinking its claws deep into my belly and digging in.If Kazimir could march so easily into the Crystal Realm as we snuck into his realm, what else was he capable of?
And how the fuck did he get an entire army there so quickly?
We had underestimated him, and we were paying the price for it.
Had kidnapping the little princess been a trap for us all along?
My head spun with these questions, and the halls of Ryza flew by, not registered by my anxious mind. It wasn’t until we stood in Ruslan’s office and he plopped me on a plush couch that I realized where I was.
“Bring us food and water immediately,” he snapped to one of the females standing guard outside his office.
