by D. N. Hoxa
Faces I recognized from my House’s army passed me by in a flash. Light spread all around us, before it blinked out of existence, only to come back and light up the sky another time. I was used to the rhythm now. I closed my eyes at the right time, but it was useless. Elf soldiers had completely surrounded the circle of sidhe, which was becoming smaller and smaller, but enough elf blood had already been spilled.
When an elf soldier was stabbed in the gut by a sidhe, I sent my magic to both of them. One, I slowed down enough so that when I ran my sword through his neck, he wouldn’t be able to stop me. The other I prepared to heal for when that sword was out of him.
“My Lady,” the soldier whispered, holding his chest with his hand as my magic took his pain and knitted him back together. He was on the ground, and I didn’t want to fall to my knees when there were sidhe all around us still, but I had no choice.
“Where is he?” I asked the soldier. I knew his face, but I didn’t remember his name. “Where is Elid? Is he here?”
“He is. He led us,” the soldier said. “We thought you—”
I didn’t let him finish. I jumped to my feet again and searched the field, but it was impossible to see my brother like that.
I could see Mandar.
While I made my way through sidhe and to him, I could see the others running for the battle—Julie and Daredevil with Faceless and the girls right behind them. They were all weaponed up and ready, and I wished I wasn’t glad that they were there. But I was.
And right now, I needed Mandar. A sidhe arm was between his jaws when I reached him and touched his fur. He turned to me fast, thinking I was sidhe, but the moment he felt my magic slip inside him, healing his many wounds, he simply stepped back and let go of the torn limb.
“I need you,” I whispered to him. “May I?”
I don’t know what he said when he howled, but I jumped on his back anyway. I held my breath, expecting him to throw me off any second, but he didn’t.
“Take us through. We need to break that circle,” I whispered, knowing he’d hear me even through the sound of battle. The only way I could put an end to this was to kill the leader—Rezan. And the coward was hiding in the middle of all his men.
Mandar didn’t hesitate. When he jumped, I had to let go of one of my swords just to make sure I wouldn’t fall. I grabbed a fistful of Mandar’s long fur, and if he felt it, he didn’t complain.
He jumped impossibly high. I felt like I was flying, and for a moment, the world stopped breathing. Everything moved in slow motion. Heads turned up to watch me. Silver eyes, both elven and sidhe, widened at the sight of us in the air.
And before Mandar landed almost in the middle of the sidhe circle, I saw him.
I saw Elid.
The world breathed again. Mandar fell on sidhe bodies, and two swords buried in his gut before his paws touched the ground. I jumped off his back and kept my magic inside him as he growled, and the moment the swords were out of him, my magic took away all his pain to the last ounce. He kept on biting, and I kept on swinging my sword and moving my body until I couldn’t feel any of my limbs anymore.
All I could feel was the pull, right to where I’d seen Elid. Where Elid had seen me.
His helmet was no longer on his blood-splattered face. His eyes were as wide as when they’d told us that we’d lost our parents in battle. He was terrified, but he would fight until the last breath. I just had to make sure it didn’t get to that.
I was two lines of sidhe away from Rezan—I could see the back of his head. If I killed him, the sidhe would retreat. But before I could reach them, the sidhe broke formation.
Their lights flashed from their hands, blinding all of us momentarily. This time, I’d been too distracted to calculate the time. I’d had my eyes wide open when the light hit me. Magic infused the air. My body could barely hold itself upright.
What I would have given for some darkness.
It struck me at once, like a slap to my face. I had darkness. I had darkness in my pocket. I had a violet-colored stone no bigger than my thumb, and it would absorb all magical light within a mile radius. Signora Vera’s spells. How could I have forgotten?
I reached into the pockets of my jacket, terrified that someone might reach out for me. I didn’t have time, or sight, to check which one of the stones was the violet one I was looking for. I just sent my magic into my fists a second before I dropped all four of them.
The light dimmed instantly. I only had one sword left, and I swung it without aim while another stabbed me in the shoulder before my sight had returned. The scream of the sidhe and the pain of his cut off arm said I’d hit my mark. I blinked my eyes and tried to move back, but a hand wrapped around my face. I’d already been there, and I knew how it went. That’s why I squeezed my eyes shut a split second before the light should have come to me.
It never did. Signora Vera’s spell held—and the other three stones I’d dropped on the ground had worked, too. Two sidhe were on fire a little farther away, and the one who’d frozen with his sword half raised, was being cut to pieces by an elf soldier. There were no more blinding white lights anywhere. Elf soldiers were taking proper advantage of it, too, for as long as the spell held.
I sent my magic after the sidhe holding me to his chest, trying to get his light magic out of him. Then, I turned the handle of my sword around and stab him in the gut. The moment he let go of me, I spun around with my leg outstretched and took his legs from under him. When he fell to the ground, I used my sword to cut through his neck.
By then, the rest of them were already moving backward.
The soldiers who had been on fire from the spells I’d thrown were already dead, but they still burned. I looked up to see Rezan, his face bloody, his hands in front of him. There was no smile on him now. His teeth were gritted when he opened his mouth and shouted at the top of his voice.
How long would Signora Vera’s spell hold against his light?
I found out soon.
The light that exploded from him didn’t only take my sight—it pushed me back and threw me off my feet, too. I fell on top of a body and was a hundred percent sure that I was completely blind now. That light had slipped all the way into my brain, wiping it clean of thoughts, too.
The silence was suffocating. I blinked my eyes and my magic tried to heal me, but it was too much damage. It felt like my eyes had been fried completely, together with my nerves.
Then, he spoke:
“This is not the end,” Rezan said, his voice echoing in the open space, as strong as it had been before the battle. He didn’t even sound out of breath, when I could barely catch mine. “By the gods, it is not the end. Prepare yourselves! I will be back.”
I tried to stand, but my body refused to obey me. I tried to move my hands and I barely managed. I pushed against the body of whomever I was lying on—he was dead—and I somehow managed to sit up.
Pushing my magic to heal my eyes faster, I tried to focus on my ears, too. The weak moans of the people around me filled my head. My magic worked to fix me, and by the time I was standing, I could see halfway. I could see that everyone—the entire army was on the ground, even the ones who’d been at the very back of it.
I could see Rezan and another group of sidhe, no more than fifteen, making their way toward the castle.
My mind, all of my instincts, insisted that I go after them. I would never have a better chance to kill him than right now, but the rest of me knew that it would be impossible. I was too weak. I’d lost too much blood, too much strength. I couldn’t kill him. He would kill me.
And I still hadn’t found Elid.
“I can’t see,” a man whispered somewhere behind me. “What happened? Am I dead? Please, somebody…”
“You’re not dead. I can’t see either,” said another man and another after him. I looked around me at the bodies of the elves—and my friends. All of them were there, including Mandar, and he was the only one who didn’t have trouble getting to his feet.
/> But all of them were moving. All of them had their eyes open, even though none could see. Something touched my leg, and I looked down, terrified to find a sidhe hand about to wrap around my ankle, but it wasn’t a sidhe.
It was Hiss.
My heart stopped beating. I leaned down to see his face, all his eyes still perfectly functional, focused on me.
“Where is he?” I breathed, and Hiss didn’t say anything for once. He only turned his head back and started slithering over the bodies of dead elves and sidhe. I followed, searching every face that I could see, but I didn’t see my brother’s until my feet were drenched in blood all the way to my knees.
And when I saw him, I wished the whole world would catch fire and die.
Elid lay on the ground, his young face covered in blood. Both his hands were on his chest that was missing the armor. My magic reached him before I did. My legs shook and let go of me two feet away from him, and I had to crawl on all fours to get closer.
“Elid,” I breathed as my magic searched his body. Too many wounds. Too much blood lost. His heart was torn in two.
But he was breathing.
I grabbed his face in my hands and prayed that my mind didn’t give up on me now. Elid couldn’t die. I’d give my life away this instant, but he couldn’t die.
“Look at me, Elid. Look at me,” I begged him, and his eyes turned to me, but he couldn’t see. His hands reached up to touch mine and his mouth opened. Blood spilled from the corner, just like in the vision the Seer Eye had showed me.
By the gods, I was such a fool. I’d believed that image so much that I’d brought it to reality myself. If I’d just stayed in the New Orleans Shade, if I hadn’t tried to come see him, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.
Maybe Elid would be home now, sleeping.
Maybe all of this would turn out to be nothing more than a nightmare.
But my magic took his pain and mended him, and I knew his brand of pain well. It was as real as my own as I kneeled there, begging him to look at me.
“Elo…Elo…” he breathed every few seconds, like he’d been dying to say my name. I didn’t care what had happened in the past, if he’d poisoned me, or if he’d killed me with his own hands. This was my baby brother. He meant the whole world to me. Everything would lose sense if I lost him.
No.
I wasn’t going to lose him. Squeezing my eyes shut, I brought my forehead to his and dug my fingernails into his cheeks. I pushed my magic harder, faster with all my heart, until his was back together again. Even I couldn’t heal hearts that were too far gone, but Elid’s wasn’t. I refused to believe otherwise.
“I’m s-s-sorry,” he whispered, putting his hand on my head. “Elo, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I told him. “Hush, Elid. You’re going to be okay. Just hold on. Don’t give up, do you hear me? Don’t give up.”
“She said…she s-s-said…” but he couldn’t finish a sentence, and all that struggle to speak was costing him energy.
I put my hand over his mouth. “Please, focus. Heal. We’ll talk when you’re better. Just heal.”
My magic took away every last bit of his pain. There were no more physical wounds anywhere on Elid’s body or his organs, but my magic couldn’t make blood from thin air, and he’d lost a lot of it. His heart was still beating. He was breathing. There was hope.
With my eyes closed, I stayed like that for a while. My magic stayed inside him, even though it wanted to get back to me and mend me. I didn’t need to heal. I couldn’t die, quite literally. But Elid could. If I had to stay like that with him for the rest of eternity, I would.
Eventually, Hiss sneaked in his head through the curtain that my hair had made. “He’s alive, Pain Seeker,” he said and licked my nose.
“So why hasn’t he woken up?” Elid was alive, I could feel it. But his eyes were closed. He wasn’t waking up, even though I sent surges of energy through his system with my magic. He was still unconscious.
“He will when the time is right. You need to rise,” Hiss whispered. “Rise, Elo.”
Letting go of Elid was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. For one last time, I focused all my being in his heart, to convince myself that it was beating. It wasn’t going to give up. Elid would never give up.
Then, I made it to my feet.
Almost all the soldiers of the Heivar army had stood up, together with my friends. Mandar was still in his wolf form. More than half of them couldn’t see—but one could, and he was standing right in front of me.
Orah Meverick.
He was a man I’d considered family all my life, even though we weren’t blood related. He’d been my father’s best friend, and he’d watched me grow every day of my life. He taught me just as much as my father did.
And he’d betrayed me, too.
“My Lady,” Orah said. “It’s good to have you back.” He bowed his head deeply.
He was six foot one, with wide shoulders and a face that inspired fear, even among the brave. His silver hair was cut close to his head, and from all the blood coating it now, it looked black. His eyes hadn’t changed a bit. His skin was smooth and unwrinkled, but his eyes gave away his true age. Orah was almost two hundred years old, and that was rare, even for immortals, when you lived the way he did. When you fought as many battles as he had.
Despite the feelings inside me, I couldn’t lie to myself and say I wished him harm. I didn’t. To see that he was still alive was almost like finding out my father had never died.
“It’s good to see you, Orah,” I whispered, and tears fell from my eyes. He wouldn’t see from the dirt and the blood on my cheeks, and I doubted his eyes worked as well as normal, too. He was my brother’s second-in-command, but until Elid had come of age to join him in battle, he’d been the commander of our army after our parents’ death.
I turned around, afraid to look at him longer, afraid I might break down—and there was more that needed doing. So much pain all around me. I raised up my hands and let out whatever magic I had left. There wasn’t much, but it would heal as much as it could. It would heal until I no longer was able to stand.
I looked at my friends and thanked all the gods who cared to hear that they were alive. They were wounded, and in pain, but they lived. They approached me slowly, and Hiss made his way up my body, too. The familiar warmth he brought with him gave me strength.
“Are you okay?” I asked the others, even though I could see that they were. My magic could see inside them. No wound they had would threaten their lives.
“We’re fine,” Julie said. “Is that him?”
She was looking down at Elid next to my feet. I didn’t have the courage to look at his face again.
“Yes,” I said with a nod. “Thank you.”
“My Lady, we’re awaiting your orders,” Orah said, his head still lowered. There was very little pain left in the battlefield. Very little pain, but a lot of bodies. The sun showed every detail. Everyone who lived was standing. Heivar elves. Soldiers. My army.
“We will be stationed in the Winter Shade for now. Clean up the battlefield. Send men back to House Heivar for weapons and supplies,” I said in a breath. “We will talk more in the castle.”
“Yes, my Lady,” Orah said and immediately moved toward the soldiers. Three of them gently lifted Elid by the arms and legs.
“To the castle,” I told them, and they started walking ahead.
I turned my head the other way while they passed, but my magic slipped into Elid’s body before he was too far out of reach. His heart still beat. His vital signs were good. He was steady. He would wake up soon.
I reminded myself of that over and over again.
With my friends and my soldiers, I walked back to the castle, surprised with every new step I took that I was still standing. We didn’t say anything—there was nothing to say for now. We’d all seen. We’d all been there, had witnessed death, had tasted it on our tongues. The time to talk would come soon, anyway. For now, we
needed to make sure that the Gateway was guarded.
I looked at the Winter fae soldier and could hardly believe the words he was saying.
“What do you mean, they didn’t go back?”
“We saw them,” the one I’d spoken to before the battle said. We’d found him and three of his friends still alive, chained to the pillars outside the castle. They’d seen everything. “They didn’t go into the cave. They disappeared into the forest.”
My heart fell. The sidhe were still in Gaena. Rezan was still in Gaena.
I nodded for the sake of appearances. “Go back to your kingdom. Tell your king what you saw. Tell him everything,” I said.
The fae was so surprised, it physically hurt him. I could feel his gut turning and bile rising up his throat.
“Give them horses. They leave immediately,” I told Orah, and when he nodded, two elf soldiers guided the Winter fae outside. They didn’t say anything—they just kept their heads down and their feet moving.
We were all in the dining hall of the castle. That’s where Mace and his men had eaten. I’d watched them through the small windows on the side of the door of his room. The room that was right across from me now. I wanted to go in there so badly, but I resisted. Elid was in the room next to it. I needed to see him first.
“I’d like some privacy now,” I said, and all twenty of the soldiers who were still inside the dining room made their way outside. I’d forgotten what it was like to be listened to. I’d forgotten what it was like to say a word and never have it questioned. Everyone obeyed the Lady of House Heivar. No one talked back.
“Man, I am really glad that you are who you said you were,” Daredevil said with a grin. He and the others sat beside me around one of the tables. And Orah.
“You are speaking to Eloine of House Heivar. Do not—” he immediately started, but I cut him off.
“Orah, it’s okay. He’s a friend.”
“Yeah, I’m a friend, too,” Lola said. “And can I just say—fucking hell, we kicked ass out there!”
“Hell, yeah, we did,” Charlotte said, immediately blushing.
