Page 119 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

Calroy wanted the count, to see if our few thousand had a chance.

“All of them.” His voice strained. “She took everyone. She’s using the prisoners as—” He stopped himself.

“As what?” Calroy hauled him up by the collar and pressed the shell dagger to his throat he grabbed from me. “Do you know what this blade does to human flesh?”

The guard nodded frantically, sweat breaking across his forehead. His eyes cut to me, then back to Calroy. “She said you would come. That the prisoners would buy her time.” He swallowed against the blade. “To buy her time to eliminate the winged soldiers before you reached the shore.”

Calroy shoved him back hard against the bar. The guard’s head connected with the metal and he dropped, unconscious before he hit the ground.

“I should have known her plan.” Calroy raked a hand through his hair, turning on his heel. “She never intended to defend the castle. She wanted us in here while she finished my people out there.”

I should have known the queen’s scheme the moment The Priestess said the queen had left her castle. She had never intended to wait for us. She had been setting the stage from the beginning—drawing us here, emptying the castle, moving her leverage to open ground where she could see us coming and control what happened when we arrived.

“I’ll meet you there.” Calroy’s gaze bounced from Rowhan, Palto, Minha, Fraya, Jina. “I can only carry Yeri. You ride hard and you don’t stop.” His eyes settled on Rowhan. “Keep them safe. I’m trusting you.”

Rowhan nodded once, placing a fist to his heart.

Then Calroy’s wings unfurled in the narrow corridor, barely enough room, the feathers brushing both walls, and he pulled me against him. “Hold on tight, my love.” he said.

“Wait.” Palto rushed the short distance to us. “Why travel to the shore on horses. We can arrive before the queen expects.”

“What are you proposing, God of the Afterlife?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“The spirits.” He spread his hands. “Why summon them at the sea when they can carry us there?” He closed his eyes, and when they opened, they had gone gold, blinding in the dim corridor, energy radiating out of him in slow pulses, traveling down through the stone floor like roots finding dirt.

“Oh no.” Jina took a step back, shaking her head. “Absolutely not.”

“I get to fly.” Minha’s grin turned wicked. “I approve.”

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Fraya went pale, pressing herself against the wall.

The spirits rose from the ground, pushing up through solid stone. One, then ten, then dozens, then too many to count, filling the corridor with that charged energy, the living and the dead sharing the same air. Each one wrapped in the same tattered, dark cloaks as tall as Oscan, hoods deep enough to swallow any trace of a face, only shifting darkness where features should have been.

One stepped forward and bowed.

“A pleasure to see you again, My Lady.” The voice carried no gender, but the same sound dragged-through-water quality I recalled, though warmer now than it had been in the land of the dead. Oscan’s voice settled over me like an old companion.

I would have known that voice anywhere—low and warm, threaded with the same dry humor I recalled. I couldn’t believe I had missed him.

“Same here, my friend.”

Oscan straightened, what would have been a smile passed through the darkness where his face should have been.

“I would hug you, My Lady, but that walking storm cloud beside you looks like he wants to rip me apart.”

“Jealous of a spirit?” I nudged Calroy with my elbow.

“Careful,” Calroy said, eyes still on Oscan. “Some habits outlive the body.”

Oscan bowed once more. “Then let us not keep the Seelie queen waiting,”

The spirits glided to their positions. And the dead carried us to war. I could have sworn I’d heard Fraya scream.

Of all of us, Fraya was the last person I’d have expected to lose her composure mid-flight. She’d faced pirates and soldiers without flinching. Apparently, the dead were where she drew the line.

I couldn’t judge. I was tucked in the arms of the sky god, who managed to steal kisses somewhere between the castle and the coast, and whispered we would win this war together.

Chapter Thirty-Seven