by Chloe Jacobs
“Worse. Faerie warriors.”
This group hadn’t been in the Glass Kingdom for Siona to release, which meant they still belonged to Agramon. Crap.
“Siona won’t be able to help,” she whispered. Even if she’d been more alert, she was still too weak.
“We have magick, too,” he said, but they both knew there was a difference between the honed, lethal skills of a warrior, and the casual abilities of faeries who’d never used their gifts in battle before. The faeries who had stuck with Greta were just scared people looking for an alternative to Agramon’s evil, and she’d hoped for a chance to give them at least a day’s worth of training before handing out swords and shoving them into battle.
Otherwise she might as well call it mass murder.
She swallowed hard and nodded. They didn’t have any other choice. It was either fight their way through this, or give in and watch all those faeries be assimilated back into the hive—if they weren’t simply killed instead. Either way, Siona’s sacrifice would be for nothing.
Damn it. She pressed her lips together and made a decision. “Whatever else happens, you stay with her. You have to protect Siona.” He didn’t say anything. “Promise me.”
He nodded. “She will survive.”
She tucked a dagger in her belt. She put another in her boot, grabbed her sword, and then got to her feet. She’d lived through a lot, right? She still had a lot to live for, too.
Goblin and faerie alike, her followers had gathered like sheep into a tight circle, exactly what Agramon’s warriors would have wanted. She quickly found Byron and Leila. “Can you use your abilities the way you did back at the Glass Kingdom?” she asked.
Leila frowned. “We’re still too tired to manage much. And the warriors already know we’re here, so they’ll figure out what we’re trying to do if we attempt to conceal the entire group.”
“What if we just hide the ones who can’t fight? Can you gather them and find a spot out of the way?” She would have liked to make use of Byron’s sword arm tonight, but his magick was more valuable. She had to keep these people alive, had to give as many as she could the chance to make it safely to Isaac.
They nodded. “We’ll take care of it.”
She left them to the task and thanked the Great Mother that she’d thought to ransack the Glass Kingdom for weapons before leaving. She approached the goblins and faeries who she knew had some battle experience, or at least knew what the pointy end of a sword was for, and made sure everyone had a weapon.
The fight broke out. She let out a hiss of relief when she realized she could already find no sign of Byron and Leila and about half of the group. Dryden called out orders as he stood with his sword brandished over Siona, who was propped up against a stone with a threadbare blanket draped over her knees.
Greta gave directions to the rest. Ethan appeared at her side and stuck there like glue until she turned to him and said, “Go with the faerie prince and princess. They’re going to keep you safe through the rest of the night.”
“I’m staying with you,” he said stubbornly. “I can help.”
“Have you ever held a sword before?”
“No,” he admitted. “But I’ve wielded plenty of shovels against raiders looking to make away with my family’s crops. I suppose I can pretend it’s like that and hack at whatever dares try something.” She didn’t doubt him. Crops were hard to nurture to maturity in the harsh soil of Mylena, and thieves looking for an easier way were rampant.
“All right.” She hoped she didn’t regret this. “Stay close so I can keep my eye on you, but not too close that you’re in my way.”
He practically saluted her, and she winced, but then pushed her stabbing guilt aside. If they made it through the night, there’d be a lake’s worth of it to swim in then, but right now all she could do—all any of them could do—was fight.
The faerie warriors were relentless, attacking with ruthless efficiency and holding back nothing. There was no life in their eyes. They had been reduced to automatons, void of even the spike of desperation she’d sensed in Dryden before releasing him. Had Agramon clamped down on their souls after she’d released the faeries at the Glass Kingdom to make damn sure that they would be his forever?
She lost track of time as the battle raged. Luckily, one of the younger faeries had the ability to restore energy through touch. She was too young to fight, probably not even old enough for the Turn, but she was like a little ninja, weaving through the camp, letting her fingers settle on as many of their group as she could. As a result, Greta felt as if she could fight all night.
Suddenly Ethan roared. A faerie warrior had edged between them and was advancing on the goblin boy. She hurried to intervene, but another pair of faeries stepped in to face her, bright pink lightning sparking from their fingertips.
Ethan was filling out just like Isaac did when his beast rose, and he swiped at the faerie in front of him with sharp claws. Greta split her gaze between him and the lightning twins, worried that the strain of battle had been too much and she was going to lose him to the moons again.
He met the faerie warrior’s attack with another belly roar, but Greta had her hands full. She barely avoided getting blasted in the chest with pink fire. As she jumped out of the way, it seared through the fabric of her coat like a knife blade, leaving black charred edges and a burning pain in her arm.
She rolled and came up between the lightning twins with a blade in each hand. She managed to take down the first one, but the other grabbed her arm and sent that electricity shooting through her body. Her legs turned to water, and she collapsed, dragging the faerie warrior down with her and plunging her dagger into his breast. The lightning in his eyes sputtered and died.
She moved to shove his body off her, but the weight was lifted from above and tossed aside. Ethan stood over her, breathing heavily. Blood spatter coated his torso, and his claws were black with it. Wary, she scooted back on her arms. “Ethan, it’s okay,” she said gently.
He grinned at her through a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and held out his hand to help her up, making her pause. “I can control it,” he said. His voice was deeper, but he seemed to be telling the truth. He was in complete control. “All the tension and intensity that was overwhelming before…now I harness it. I can use it without letting it take over.”
She looked him up and down and reached for his hand as she got to her feet. “Are you sure?” She spotted the other goblins and realized that many of them had taken on the wilder form of their moon phase as they fought, too, but they were still fighting with precision and purpose.
“You gave me more than just my freedom when you brought me back from the Lost, my queen,” he said. “You gave me control.”
There were already three more faerie warriors converging on them. “With power, also comes great responsibility,” she said and winced. Jeez, that was corny, like something you’d hear in the movies. “You might think you’ve got everything under control, but just be careful and don’t take it for granted, because the moment you do, that’s when it will fail you…and probably while someone else’s life is on the line,” she said before she realized Luke had given her the exact same lecture the first time she’d knocked him on his ass during a sparring session.
The kid’s expression was serious as he nodded, apparently taking her sage advice to heart like she was some kind of guru. It felt kind of good to realize she wasn’t the hated human anymore, and that she was also more than just a sword arm to these people. But it also freaked the hell out of her.
Maybe one day…
There was no time for maybes.
The battle continued until blood seeped into the ground, but at one point she realized the tide was actually turning in their favor. They might not be as experienced as the faerie warriors, but they had greater numbers and were fiercely determined to never give up their freedom to the demon again.
They’d joined their gifts with one another for more power. Goblins and faeries f
ought side-by-side, and when one faltered, someone else was there to hold them up. She’d never seen anything like it. The Mylean species might have united in their hatred of humans, but that was about the only time there’d been any common ground between them…until now.
The faerie warriors finally retreated.
When the fighting was done, she didn’t think anyone realized at first that it was over, that they’d won.
Covered in blood and various other substances that would have to be scrubbed away from skin and hair and clothes, they all kind of stood there staring at one another with blank expressions on their faces, herself included. She couldn’t even begin to guess how long the battle had raged, but it had still been full dark when the fighting began, and the suns were now inching up into the sky.
The magick that had kept her going was gone just like that. Her shoulders drooped as exhaustion hit like a caffeine crash, and she wasn’t the only one.
Byron and Leila uncloaked their group, and Greta slowly made her way through what remained of the camp, organizing the able-bodied to help the wounded, and instructing the rest to gather whatever supplies could be salvaged. As tired as they all were, it would be a bad idea to rest now. They had to get moving to join Isaac before Agramon regrouped and sent out reinforcements.
Before dusk that day, the group was crossing Solem’s Bridge. The dangerous contraption made of frayed ropes and rotted boards was long gone, but three faeries clasped hands with Leila—who was looking pale and drawn—and they floated a slightly sturdier replacement all the way across the chasm and tied it off on both sides with magick. Greta had to wonder if that’s how the original bridge had been constructed.
She went across the new bridge first, warning Byron to keep everyone else off until she was all the way to the other side and had signaled back that it was safe. It was slow going. She kept expecting screeching harpies to swoop out of the sky, but there was nothing.
When she stepped onto solid ground, she prepared herself to face off against the bjer, Midas, but there was no sign of him, either. She breathed a sigh of relief, because she was out of songs to sing and had no idea how else she would have convinced him to allow her to pass this time, especially with so many more “trespassers” in tow.
Still, when she found the mangled remains of the rizos lying dead at the base of a blackened tree, the trunk charred and cracked and splintered all the way up its length, she realized that Midas wasn’t simply “out” and the harpies weren’t disinterested…something else had been through here. Someone else.
There used to be a forest bracketing the clearing that met the cliff’s edge here, but now the forest was practically gone. Had they been driven out by the fires that had razed the forest to the ground? Had Agramon killed them…or recruited them?
She really hoped she didn’t have to find out.
She motioned the group to start crossing.
Leila came over first. “Everyone needs rest, danem,” she whispered. There were dark circles under her eyes, and she looked as if she was going to float away on the slightest breeze. She wasn’t the only one, either.
“We should have been much farther along today,” she murmured, mostly to herself. She gritted her teeth and glared up at the stars. Another entire day was gone, and she was still miles away from Isaac.
Dryden stopped beside her, arms crossed. “If not for the attack and the slow progression of approximately two hundred Myleans across a single-file rope bridge, we likely would be farther along,” he agreed, ice-cold sarcasm dripping from each word.
He’d crossed the bridge with Siona strapped to his back like a knapsack and then returned to the other side again and again to do the same for the faerie children and the others who’d been injured. He’d been tireless through it all, but now even he was looking wilted.
“I know,” she said, “but we can’t stop here. We’ll find some cover away from the cliff.” Just in case she was wrong and Midas returned while they were all sleeping. She didn’t want him to find so many tasty snacks all laid out for him like piggies in a blanket.
The trouble was, there wasn’t any cover left. The goblin forest was gone, and only the deep chasm at Solem’s Bridge had stopped the fire from continuing on all the way through the rest of Mylena.
As they walked, the ground turned into a slurry of snow and ash, and hopeless destruction.
She tried to focus on finding a safe place, but even she was too tired to continue for long. She knew they’d finally reentered goblin lands, but it didn’t look the way she remembered. She’d spent four years hunting the Lost across every inch of this terrain, but it could have been a completely alternate world.
She told herself to stop, but a nagging, gnawing grumble in the pit of her stomach pushed her to keep moving. Suddenly, she changed course.
Find me. You know how to find me. You can always find me.
She diverted the group south from the steadily western direction they’d been travelling.
Byron approached on her left. “Where are we going?” he asked, frowning.
Greta knew where she was going, but she didn’t quite know how she knew. It had just come to her in a whisper at the back of her mind.
With one arm around Dryden’s shoulders and the other around Greta’s, Siona—who had started to regain her strength in leaps and bounds after admitting that she did finally say Isaac’s name out loud—smiled weakly and said, “I believe we’re marching on the goblin stronghold.”
Greta’s gaze snapped to Siona’s sharply. “What is that?” she asked. “And how do I know its location, when I’ve never heard of a goblin stronghold before?”
But suddenly she knew the answer to that, too, and her steps quickened in time to the hammering of her heart. Isaac.
Every molecule in her body strained, like little metal filings being drawn by a magnet. Close.
Siona groaned through a pain-filled laugh. “Leave me here.”
Greta vibrated with the need to find him, but she couldn’t just take off and leave everyone else…could she? “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Siona dropped her arm from Greta’s shoulder and leaned fully on Dryden with a smile. “Go. We’ll be right behind you. But please do not make me watch your mushy reunion with my cousin.” She made a puckered-up kissy face.
Greta snorted. “Keep it up, smart ass. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that someday your face will freeze like that…especially here in the world of eternal cold?” she teased. “Besides, don’t act like you aren’t going to do the same when you see Wyatt again.”
Dryden glanced down at the top of Siona’s head with a barely perceptible frown that only Greta noticed.
Wyatt. Dryden. She hoped her friend knew what she was doing.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Her exhaustion was all but gone as she raced across the broken landscape like a homing pigeon. She crunched through ice and dodged scorched tree trunks and other debris to get to her destination. It wasn’t even a destination, just a sense of knowing that got stronger and stronger with each step.
As she crested a hill, a figure stood alone in the middle of a clearing—which had been part of the forest up until a few days ago—tall and proud amidst the devastation of his lands. He looked hard and forbidding, until she got close enough to see the shimmer of welcome in his eyes and the shaking of his hands when he reached out to catch her as she launched herself at him at full speed.
He crushed her close, claiming her mouth with a fierceness that left her trembling and weak when he set her back down. His quickened breaths teased the fine hairs at her temple, giving her goose bumps.
She groaned and closed her eyes as she suddenly remembered the two hundred Myleans who’d been right behind her. “Did they all see that?”
A deep chuckle rumbled through his chest. “It’s good for our people to know that their king and queen are united in love.”
She cleared her throat and looked up. “Maybe we could have just told them instead of putting on a
free show.”
His smile faded, and his expression turned serious as he gazed down at her. He rubbed her arms as if to reassure himself that she was all physical, instead of a ghost or a dream. “I grow irritated with this habit of being separated from one another.”
Greta felt the same, but it wasn’t easy to forget their audience again, so she stepped back. “I’m here.” She frowned and looked around. “Uh, where is here?”
“The goblin stronghold,” he said. “A closely-held secret, my father brought me here only once when I was a child. It represents the last defense of the goblin people and has never been used until today. But it was built for just such an occasion as this.”
“You mean your forefathers knew the demon might one day escape his fortress prison and try to wipe out Mylena?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Sounds reasonable. But, uh…Isaac? I still don’t see anything.”
He grinned and squeezed her hand. “That’s the point.” He stepped aside, and she realized he’d been standing right on top of a doorway, cut into the ground. The gray ash had been cleared off, leaving dark streaks on the iron panel. It creaked and groaned as he hefted it open, the muscles in his arms and back tightening.
She looked inside with a hard swallow. A ladder was propped up to the opening. It went down. And down. Until she couldn’t see anything but darkness. She could already hear the heavy metal door slamming closed over her and locking her in. She took a step backward and shook her head. “That’s okay. I’ll stay out here and make sure everyone else gets inside safely.”
He didn’t point out her fear. He didn’t say she was being ridiculous. He didn’t tell her she could do it. He simply squeezed her hand and waited.
It was hard to breathe, and she couldn’t hear anything but the thundering of her heart in her ears. She gritted her teeth and dropped his hand. If she as going to do this, she would do it by herself.
She stepped forward. It was like walking with her feet glued into concrete boots, but she made it to the opening and looked inside again. It still looked like a tomb. A forever place that would envelop her in darkness and never let her go.
