Page 60 of Evergreen

The figure raised the wand, and I felt the magic building behind it. I responded by slapping my hands onto the chamber floor. The silver and gold inlay cracked and split, and vines erupted from the fissures like serpents, wrapping around the figure’s legs and yanking them off their feet.

“Run!” I shouted at Cass, but he was already moving, his own magic crackling to life around him. The air temperature dropped ten degrees in an instant, and I heard the distinctive sound of ice snapping and forming above us.

Around the chamber, the Elder Council members were fighting back against the attackers. Elder Thaddeus, still in his dragon form, was laying waste to anything that came within reach of his claws. Elder Brina had conjured some kind of protective barrier around herself and a fiery-eyed witch I didn’t recognize. But there were so many attackers, too many for the Council to handle on their own.

And then I saw him.

Jackson Rose stood at the far end of the chamber, his black suit somehow pristine despite the absolute carnage surrounding him. He wasn’t fighting. He was watching. Observing. And when our eyes met across the chaos, I saw confirmation of everything that Elder Briar Hall had accused him of. For one brief moment, I thought he would come after me, that this attack was all some grand plan to take me down and take my land.

But then, in a burst of fire, he was on the ground, his body smoldering and dead. Elder Thaddeus stood a few feet away, his mouth still glowing from the fireball he’d expelled. He looked to me, gave me a quick nod, and headed back into the fray where the other Elders were struggling to stay ahead of their attackers.

Another masked figure broke away from the crowd, running toward us at full speed. I didn’t have time to summon up more vines as he raised his wand. However, Cass stepped in front of me, electricity crackling around him as his eyes went dark once more.

“Get the fuck away from my boyfriend!” he shouted, lifting a hand to the chamber ceiling.

I expected lightning. That’s what Cass was good at. But instead, the icy storm forming above us did something else. With a swing of his arm, a translucent icy spear shot out of the clouds, hurtling toward the attacker at a blinding speed. He didn’t even have time to lift his wand before it ran him completely through, pinning him to the marble floor. He cried out, wrapping a hand around the spear to try to pull it free from his chest, but he was done for. A second or two went by before he went limp, blood pooling around him.

I felt something snap inside me at that moment. Like a coiled spring finally finding release. Cass had just killed someone. My Sparks. My gentle, grumpy, sarcastic boyfriend had just run an icicle through a man’s chest like it was nothing to protect me. And instead of horror, all I felt was a fierce, primal pride and a whole lot of love.

“Thank you,” I breathed, pulling him back against me as more attackers surged toward us.

But we couldn’t stay there. Not in the center of the massacre. The chamber was a war zone now, bodies littering the floor, magic crackling through the air in every direction. I could feel the ancient magic in my blood screaming at me to fight, to protect, to destroy anything that threatened what was mine. But my mind was clearer than that. We needed to get out. We needed to survive.

“Linden!” Elder Briar Hall’s voice cut through the chaos. I spotted him near one of the side exits, his fae form fully manifested now, his green eyes blazing with power as he fought off three attackers at once. “Leave through here! Now!”

I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed Cass’s hand and started moving toward the exit, using my magic to create a barrier of thick vines and thorns between us and the nearest group of Purity Front soldiers. They screamed as the thorns raked across exposed skin, but I didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. My survival instincts were in full overdrive.

We were halfway to the door when I felt a blast of magic hit me from behind. It wasn’t lethal, but it was strong enough to send me sprawling forward. I hit the marble floor hard, the breath knocked from my lungs. Cass immediately spun around, his hands already moving to summon more ice, but I grabbed his ankle.

“Keep going!” I shouted, pushing myself back up. “Get to the door!”

“Not without you!” he yelled back, his eyes still dark as he unleashed another wave of freezing magic at our pursuers.

Elias appeared out of nowhere, his quiet demeanor replaced by something far more lethal. He was moving through the attackers methodically, his movements precise and deadly, like he’d been training for this his entire life. I didn’t know where he’d learned it, and I was a little afraid to ask as I watched him tear through one attacker after the other without missing a beat.

“Go,” he said, not even looking at us as he disarmed an attacker with a casual flick of his wrist. “I’ll cover your retreat.”

Elder Briar Hall was already at the door, gesturing frantically for us to hurry. I grabbed Cass one more time, and we ran, my longer legs eating up the distance even as my magic continued to lash out defensively, buying us precious seconds.

We burst through the doorway into a dark room and stopped short, not sure where to go next. A moment later, Elias appeared behind us, pausing in the doorway.

“Come on,” he called to Elder Briar Hall. “We need to get out of here!”

“Get them to safety,” the elder replied, grabbing Elias by the front of his shirt and kissing him hard. “I have to stay here and help.”

“I can’t lose you, Wild⁠—”

“You won’t!” Elder Briar Hall gave him a shove into the room. “Now go!”

Elder Briar Hall slammed the door shut, his fae magic sealing it with thorny vines that erupted from the frame itself. Elias banged on the door, swearing loudly.

“We should go back for him,” I said, my voice cracking as I stared at the sealed door. My magic was still boiling beneath my skin, desperate to fight, to protect, to do something other than stand here uselessly while the Elder Council faced down an entire army of Purity Front soldiers alone.

“We can’t,” Elias said, his usual reserved demeanor completely shattered. His hands were shaking as he pulled away from the door, forcing himself to back up. “If we go back, we’ll all die. That’s not what Wild wants. That’s not what we’ve been training for.”

“I don’t care what he wants!” I heard myself shout. The sound echoed off the stone walls of what appeared to be some kind of underground tunnel. “He’s in there fighting for us and we’re just running like cowards⁠—”

“Like survivors,” Elias corrected, his brown eyes hard as flint. “Wild is a High Fae from one of the oldest families in the Seelie Court. He can handle himself far better than you can. What he needs is for you two to get to safety so he doesn’t have to worry about protecting you while he’s fighting.”