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“I don’t know. Right now, all that matters is that Maebh believes she’s alive.”
“Okay then. Vamanos. Before I lose my nerve.”
Leaf held her hand with his left, andReckoningwith his right as they jogged toward the front gates. When they arrived, Jasper and his soldiers tried to stop Leaf from opening the gates.
“You can’t go out there!” Jasper looked at him like he was mad. “It’s what she wants. Obviously, it’s a trap.”
“I have a plan,” he returned.
“Of course you fucking do.” Jasper’s expression darkened. “You always have a plan. If you shared it once in a while, we wouldn’t be in this mess. I want to say fine, to leave you to your death. It’s the same respect you showed me when Mithras had me caged.”
Leaf winced at the truth. Before Nova, he was the biggest supporter of keeping out of fae politics, and Mithras killing every bastard he’d sired had nothing to do with the Order. Technically, Maebh’s vendetta with Aleksandra had nothing to do with the Order either.
But now Leaf knew there was no such thing as remaining impartial. Every action affected the people he cared about or the integrity of the Well.
Leaf had supported the Prime’s directive to not search for Jasper when he went missing. But it turned out, Jasper was fated to become the Seelie High King and ended up mated in a Well-blessed union. Thorne saving him had been just as important to the survival of the Well as this battle was. Aleksandra had moved her chess pieces around to help this prophecy come to light, but sometimes Leaf wondered if she did it on purpose, or if it was like Leaf ignoring his responsibility. Fate found Jasper anyway. One way was easier, the other more painful.
He opened his mouth to apologize, but Jasper gave him a placating look and lifted the still-active communicator, the watery surface showing his son’s blurry face. “Aspen told me you saved his life. He disobeyed me and portaled to the Order. You could have ignored him, but you found a use for him and Jasmine. You kept them distracted so they stayed out of trouble, and then you pushed them to safety and closed the portals.” His shrewd gaze turned to Nova, then back to Leaf. “The Crimson who founded the Order wouldn’t have done that. He was like that woman out there—” He pointed to the gates. “Obsessed with one thing, even if he wasn’t insane yet. So, if you think your plan is our best bet, I trust you. Tell us what to do.”
Leaf could do him one better. “I’ll share the plan instead.”
Jasper’s brows lifted. Screeches beyond the gates sent Leaf’s pulse skyrocketing. They didn’t have much time before Maebh picked at their seams again. Dawn approached at lightning speed. It made strategic sense for the Seelie to wait for the sun when they faced an army of nocturnal fae. But even though the sun weakened their opponents, it also made them desperate. And a desperate foe was not someone Leaf wanted to face.
ChapterForty-Five
Morning birds chirped in the poisonous trees outside the Order walls. They had maybe two turns of the hourglass before the sun rose. Leaf quickly outlined to Jasper what he intended to do, including why.
“And if it turns to shit?” Jasper asked.
“Then we do our best to stop her any way we can.” Leaf shrugged. “If it comes to that, it’s best if I get a shot of raw power out before your soldiers join the fray—unless they want to join the casualties.”
Jasper folded his arms, looking at Leaf intently. “I heard about the army in the woods. They said flesh was flayed from bone.”
“It’s true,” Leaf admitted, but would not divulge that he hadn’t intended it. No need to worry the king. “A wave of raw power should buy me time to bring Nova back here to the wall, and then we can coordinate which Guardians or Well-blessed women to use first.”
“Who’s leading the Guardians while you’re gone?”
His words hung suspended in the air. In other words, he meant who will lead if Leaf dies. He frowned and glanced at the Guardians manning the walls and hovering in the air, their wings beating as they aimed metal arrows knocked in bows. He scanned the line. Shade and one of the crows further down were together, heads close in conversation. It wasn’t Cloud.
On the wall, Rush and Thorne prowled behind the guards. The silhouette of Caraway’s big body and unmistakable horns walked along another wall. Leaf returned his gaze to Jasper and said, “Shade is the only reliable Guardian in the Council left.”
Jasper nodded, then motioned for his soldiers to make a path. Keeping his spine straight and his will like steel, Leaf took the only woman he’d ever loved with him into possible death.
The grand wooden gates of the Order opened with a creak, and they stepped through. The Guardians on battlement curtain trained their arrows ahead of Leaf and Nova—warning anyone who attacked that they’d be killed. High above the walls, winged Guardians prepared to do the same.
To the right, left, and rear of the Order, a poisonous forest sheltered the campus from intruders. But the field ahead was vast, open, and the perfect battleground for war.
It wasn’t hard to spot Maebh in the line of soldiers waiting a few hundred feet away. She stood resplendent on a ten-foot-wide litter resting upon the shoulders of muscular orcs. Other queens might remain at a safe distance. Not Maebh. She was high, in the open, and a target.
That was all Leaf needed to know about her mental state—she thought she’d already won. She thought she was invincible. She was out of touch with reality. Leaf’s blast of power might not kill the demogorgon prowling below the litter, but it would kill Maebh and a good portion of her army. That might mean something, if not for the hundreds—possibly thousands—of soldiers hiding in the shadows behind that first line.
The demogorgon used to be Nero’s right-hand man, Bones. Its tentacled wings thrashed about in agitation. The wind whipped Maebh’s dark embroidered dress into a frenzy. No veil, he noticed, as he guided Nova forward. Reports from the Winter Court said Maebh was so aged and decrepit that she had to cover her appearance. But the closer he and Nova approached across the field, the more he realized those reports were exaggerated, or she’d found a way to turn back time… just like Nero had.
Leaf’s gaze slid to the wilted owl shifter at Maebh’s feet. Indigo had been right, she had aged. Aleksandra glanced up, her gaze clashing with Leaf’s and filling with emotion. Her relief surprised him. He’d all but left the Prime to her fate. Just moments ago, he’d been reminded by Jasper that he’d not exactly been an example of compassion before he’d met Nova. It seemed he had a long way to go before he learned more.
The demogorgon stilled as Leaf and Nova hit the halfway mark, their boots crushing grass, thistle, and dandelion. Soon, the miasmatic stench of beasts, blood, and sweat would violate the beautiful bouquet he associated with his home. Even long after the killing was done and the last manabee shed, war had a way of erasing everything good about a place.
“Finally, he comes to face his doom,” Maebh snarled, her voice a husky rasp. Red war paint covered her face from nose to forehead. Red ribbons twisted her afro hair into severe rolls scraped from her face. They entwined on the top like a crown, then rolled down her back in dreadlocks. No vampire wings were out tonight, but that wasn’t unusual. She was rarely seen with them anyway. Behind her, the line of shadows rippled. Soldiers upon soldiers. All kinds, from Redcap goblins to orcs, trolls, elves, and vampires. Too many fae had rallied under her banner to distinguish.
