by Ciara Graves
Then the voices were back to screaming at me and the hand with the dagger nearly implanted itself in Draven’s neck. I stopped it in time, spun around, and marched for the tent flaps.
“I won’t do it,” he called after me. “I won’t give up on you so easily.”
“You should,” was what I heard myself say, my voice no longer just mine. I sheathed the dagger at my hip and stepped outside to find everyone else in the camp had stopped, as if some spell froze them in place. I walked a bit further hearing Draven’s steps fall in behind me. Everyone looked in the same direction, and when I finally shifted in that to look, I cursed.
There across the field. It wasn’t merely a rift, but Rudarius’s entire fortress. The massive abomination was a thing from nightmares, one I remembered all too clearly, with its four towers rising into the sky, a formidable wall, and black portcullis. The rift remained opened beyond it and pouring out the front gates was his army, far larger than I ever believed he could muster. He’d come because I pulled him to me, I taunted him with his death.
And now, I was going to be responsible for anyone who died this day.
Finally, our time has come. Remember your promise, Seneca. Nothing else matters. Nothing.
I buried my emotions as deep as I could, along with my thoughts of Draven. They’d only distract me now. Draven called out orders behind me, and I jumped, along with everyone else. An eerie quiet fell over the fields, and even though voices called to one another and weapons clanked as they were passed around and strapped on, the quiet remained, muffling all other sounds. My rings crackled and a rush of desire for blood, a desire to kill, filled me. I stepped forward and continued to walk, following the rest of our army toward the field.
The mages lined up near the rear, the demons creating a protective wall of solid muscle around them. The fae were nowhere to be seen, while the vampires took their places toward the front of the columns. The coven leaders along with Owen, myself, and Draven stood on the frontline, waiting. I’d say we were ready, but could anyone ever be ready for this moment?
A familiar tugging started in my mind, and I was about to tell Draven, but then I gasped and bent over double. My vision swam, and I found myself mentally thrown to the side as Rudarius forced his way into my mind.
Apologies, Seneca, his voice hissed through me, it will only be for a moment. Unless of course, you have decided to forget this plight of yours and join me?
“Go to hell,” I spat, earning a concerned look from Draven.
Ah, that is a shame. How many are you willing to lose this day, hmm? All to try and prove you are stronger than me. Clearly, you’re not. You never were. An oversight on my part, one that will not happen again.
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”
His furious snarl had me cringing. I cursed him, but my mouth wasn’t mine to control anymore. All I could do was stand in a void of nothingness and watch as Rudarius straightened my body and grinned darkly.
If only he could see past the surface and realize the cesspool he just waded into.
If only he could see the choice was no longer mine to do anything except fight. To kill.
Chapter 9
Draven
My hand was inches away from Seneca when she straightened, and a pair of red eyes glared back at me. Not Seneca’s eyes.
“Rudarius, let her go. Now.”
“Don’t worry,” he said with an evil laugh, “I won’t stay long. I merely want to talk.”
“What for?”
He spread Seneca’s arms wide. “This is your army? Quite small. Do you wish to see them all slaughtered this day?”
“You’re not giving us a choice.”
“Ah, that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m giving you a choice here and now. I understand we’ve had our differences in the past, but I am more than willing to put those moments behind us.” He tilted Seneca’s head to the side, looking at me intently. “Why not come together now, hmm? You have shown how much potential you truly have hidden with you. I could use that in the future that is to come.”
“One where you destroy anyone who doesn’t agree with you? Anyone you don’t like? I’ll pass.”
He sighed heavily as if he was speaking to an annoying child. “Pity, such a pity. You know,” he whispered as he leaned in, “between you and me, I don’t think Seneca’s going to make it out of this fight unchanged.”
I snarled, but there was nothing I could do to him while he was inside Seneca’s body. “Maybe, but I’m not the one who’s scared of her.”
Seneca’s eyes narrowed. “Is that what she told you?”
“She doesn’t have to. I can see it for myself, smell it too. You’re terrified. It’s the only reason you came here. Maybe you’re the one who should consider retreating.”
The red flickered, and Seneca’s voice pushed through Rudarius’s. “He’s right. Run while you can.”
But it didn’t last long, then Rudarius was back, gnashing her jaws. “I will not run. You both will rue the day you thought you could defeat me. Neither of you are walking away at the end of this battle. They’ll find your corpses, torn to pieces by my army. Just remember, when the cries of the dying start, you could have stopped this.”
Seneca’s head fell back, and I rushed to grab her arm, stopping her from collapsing to the ground. When she breathed harshly and shook her head, her emerald eyes were back. “I’m fine. He’s gone.”
I released her quickly and turned to face the part of our army standing behind me. “Macron,” I called over their heads, “make ready. The rest of you, on me. Stay together; stay as one. When we’ve drawn them out, when the fighting truly begins, the fae will attack. We just have to give them a chance.” I searched the faces around me and spotted Wendall. “You know what to do, as soon as the path is clear.”
He ducked back into the ranks, and I took in every face of the vampires and demons standing there with me. I never imagined this day would come, that we’d stand united as we were. And here it was. There wasn’t anything to say, not really. I was never one for grand speeches or optimistic talks. Not like they seemed to do any good for Seneca.
I gave them all a firm nod, drew my two short swords, and turned to wait for our enemy.
Vampires, witches, shifters all looked back at us as even more poured out of the front gates of that hellish fortress. The place where I was tortured for so long, where Seneca nearly lost who she was, where countless were mutilated and killed. It had come here. I looked beyond the number of soldiers ready to tear us apart to the figure who appeared atop the wall. Rudarius. He wasn’t even going to fight on the main lines. Figures.
Beside me, Seneca hissed as shadows slipped from her rings. They twisted and churned, shifting into a short sword. She held it in both her hands and broke it into two. She set her feet, and the thought struck me that I was very glad she was on our side.
For now, at least.
Rudarius’s arm shot into the air, and a burst of red fire shot from the fortress behind him. The totem, it had to be. I waited for the fire to come for us, but instead, it rained down on his army, lighting them on fire, but sadly not killing them. Not burning them to crisps.
“What did he just do?” Owen growled from my left.
“It would appear he’s bolstering his army somehow,” I replied with a hiss. “This won’t be easy.”
“Like it was going to be easy before?”
“Easy is boring,” Seneca replied, and we both turned to look at her. Though her eyes remained green, the hunger for blood within those depths was not her. Not even close. “I prefer a challenge.”
Our last kiss flashed through my mind, what she tried to make me promise, and I was suddenly more than ready to spill some blood. I didn’t want Seneca to disappear because of the power coursing through her veins, but she was right. Turning into the monsters we were, the visions of nightmares might be our only way to survive this day. To be bloodthirsty killers who showed no mercy. There was no room for weakness or seco
nd-guessing. This day, right now, was about surviving.
Rudarius shouted, his yell carrying to us over the vast field. His army surged forward. And we waited. The mages managed to set only three traps, but they were large. If we ran into them, Macron assured me we wouldn’t be harmed.
We waited.
A bit longer…
A few more moments…
I yelled and blurred into the fray, those behind me picking up my call and following. Seneca stayed to my right and just as we were about to meet the first line of Rudarius’s army, a bright burst of pure light exploded out of the runes drawn into the dirt. The first line was obliterated with no time to even scream. Another trap to the right and left went off when they were too slow to stop themselves from running right into them. As the dust cleared, I waited for a burst of hope to fill me that maybe the traps would give us some sort of advantage right off the start.
But the army beyond them looked just as large and even more pissed off. The fire they’d been touched with flared, making them appear as human torches, but there was no stopping now. We clashed like two storm fronts colliding in the sky. I ducked and dodged beneath attacks from blades and claws. Chaos consumed the battlefield, and it was all I could do not to be swept up in the tide of madness.
The fighting was brutal. Warm blood covered me in seconds. I tore at a vampire’s throat with my teeth, spitting out a chunk of his throat as I dropped his corpse to the ground and spun around in time to meet a witch, a spell of attack ready on her lips. It slammed into my chest, and I plowed through those around me, hitting the ground and rolling hard back to my feet.
Seneca’s scream reached me, but I couldn’t find her through the mass of bodies pressing in around me. I cursed, attacking with a new fury, but the enemy wasn’t going down without a fight. Someone screamed to my right as the flames jumped from the vampire to the demon and consumed his body in a blink.
“Really?” I muttered in disbelief because this fight wasn’t hard enough already, we had to deal with a fire that could devour our forces.
Another burst of red fire appeared over the fortress, but this time, it was coming for our side of the battlefield. I yelled a warning and took cover as the fireballs struck the ground, igniting the dried grasses and a number of our people and Rudarius’s own. A flash of red hair caught my eye a second time, but then it was gone, pushing through the throng of attacking vampires.
I took down another shifter and straightened, spinning around until the front gate of the fortress came into view. The army had stopped pouring out, meaning they were all on the field now. The signal, I had to give Marlie the signal to attack from the trees. It was an easy enough plan, but I was in the center of the field now, with no easy path back to Macron, or one to the trees, but if the fae didn’t join the fight soon, we’d be overrun and slaughtered. I searched through my coat pocket for the coin Macron enchanted and gave to me a few hours before the battle. All I had to do was whisper the word and throw it into the air.
Then someone crashed into my back, and the coin rolled away through the mud.
With a curse, I threw myself after it, straining to keep it in my sights as it passed between legs and finally came a stop on a small tuft of grass. I bent to snatch it when a shifter snarled right in my ear. I whirled around, ready to stab him through, but his face was already scrunched in pain. He shuddered then fell to the ground in a heap. Seneca stood behind him, her shadowed blades dripping blood. Her eyes were hard and mostly black now. She nodded then took off without me getting a chance to say anything.
I’d take it as a good sign she hadn’t let me be mauled to death.
With the coin in hand, I whispered the word to trigger the spell, then threw it as hard as I could. The coin exploded like a firework of blues and greens. Some of the vampires nearest me paused in their fighting, when arrows shot from the trees on both sides. The fae archers’ aims were true, and the enemy dropped in clusters. There was a yell from the rear lines, directing the forces toward the trees, but the onslaught of arrows slowed them down, giving the main army a chance to regroup in the center and attack again.
But the fires blessing Rudarius’s army were taking more of our number down than we could hope to kill of the enemy. A familiar shout sounded close by, and I whirled around. I spotted Nathaniel, currently engaged with three vampires. I jumped in to assist him, running a vampire through his heart as Nathaniel decapitated the other two with one swing.
“Run back to Macron,” I yelled. “Tell him he has to do something to put those fires out.”
Nathaniel looked reluctant to leave.
Two witches charged from behind him, and I threw him back toward our lines, shouting for him to get a move on. My blades slashed through the air, pushing the witches back. I decked the one on the right as she tried to speak then kicked the second in the gut. She stumbled backward, but the spell went off anyway, and I found myself unable to hear anything around me. I worked my jaw as if that would somehow help, but I staggered around, deaf to the fight.
As terrible as the situation was, being without hearing made it seem that much worse.
All around me, I saw fighting, saw members of our army fall, even as the fae finally had to break from the cover of the woods and run in to join the fray. If we couldn’t put out the fires protecting Rudarius’s forces, we’d never make it to the damned fortress.
A raindrop fell on my cheek, and I glanced skyward. More drops fell, icy to the touch.
My hearing slowly came back. The gentle shower turned into a full-on downpour, turning the already muddy ground into a sloshy mess. But as I watched, the flames Rudarius set went out.
“Macron.” He’d done it. He’d found a way to end the enchantment.
Hoisting my sword high, I shouted and blurred through a line of witches, slashing through them all in one strike. Far to my right, a flash of red hair drew my gaze. Seneca was surrounded by a ring of vampires, but she took them all on, not breaking stride for a second. With blood on her face, hands, and clothes, she looked like a demon pulled from the depths of hell. I fought my way toward her, but my path was closed off almost as soon as it appeared.
As the rain poured down, we rallied our forces and pushed forward, driving Rudarius’s forces back toward the fortress. As I decapitated another vampire, I spotted Wendall making a break for the fortress, several other vampires tagging along with him. Good. With any luck, he’d free the prisoners, and we might be able to have a third wave join the fighting.
A furious roar came from behind me, and I spun to see Owen and several other demons. Bodies were scattered all about their feet. He took a second to nod at me then charged headlong into a crowd of shifters barreling down on Marlie and Lark.
I looked around once more for Seneca, but there was no sign of her. Rudarius remained atop the wall, pacing back and forth as he watched the battle. I hissed, needing to get to him the same time Seneca did. Even as I thought it, a voice told me there was no way. She’d find him first, and she’d face him alone, just as she wished.
My thoughts darkened as I wondered how that fight would end.
One step at a time.
First, I had to survive.
I plunged my sword through a shifter’s head, kicked his limp body off my blade, and zeroed in on my next target.
Chapter 10
Seneca
I slammed my fist into the vampire’s face, breaking his fangs. He screamed in pain, but I didn’t stop. I followed it up with a second hit and a third, driving him to the blood-soaked ground. The shadows twisted and reformed in my right hand until a stake was formed. With a furious yell, I drove it down, into the vampire’s chest.
He clutched at it as his dying screech echoed over the battlefield. Then he was still, and I yanked it free, searching for my next victim.
As I straightened, shoving my wet hair from my face, I tried to see how we were doing. But until we killed Rudarius, there wouldn’t be an end to this fight. How could there be? Even with the vampire
covens and the fae army, Rudarius’s forces outnumbered ours easily, ten to one. If not more. If we fell, there’d be no sunlight, not here. The darkness would spread until it covered the whole country, the continent. He would destroy every living being and rule this world.
He would if I wasn’t here to stop him.
Another vampire charged me, and I dodged to the right, but two more flew at me from the left. One bit down on my shoulder, and I screamed at the pain, but it wasn’t long until he was flailing, grabbing for his burning throat. I might be a fae of the night, but pure moonlight was enough to kill any vampire dumb enough to try and drain me dry. They should’ve learned that by now.
The second vampire grabbed hold of my arm and brought his fist around. I ducked at the last second and kicked out his legs. But there were five more vampires, maybe six, swarming me. The sheer weight of them slammed me into the ground.
I dug my nails into the mud seeking purchase, but couldn’t find any. They stopped trying to bite me, but a stab to my side had me growling in fury as the shadows within me swirled and grew.
“Seneca!”
Draven. He was close, but he wasn’t going to get to me in time.
You’re really going to let them bring you down? Weak, pathetic vampires?
I snarled at the voice, pushing up on my arms, but the vampires shoved me right back down as claws raked the length of my back. Warmth spilled out of the fresh wounds, and I caught a kick to the face, dazing me. Draven shouted again, but there was no use looking for him.
Get your ass up, Seneca, get up and finish what we started. You are not weak. Get up. Get up!
On the last shout, the power inside me sucked in a breath, then with my yell, it exploded outward. Whips of darkness wrapped around the vampires who’d pinned me and they were consumed by the darkness until nothing but ash remained. As I found my feet, I gritted my teeth, ignoring the new wounds, and pushed forward through the fighting.
