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Agenor sighed, face weary but fingers drifting to the sword on his hip. ‘Yes. It’s about time I get involved anyway.’
My stomach clenched tight without warning.
Get involved.
He was unbound now, I tried to reassure myself. He’d survived plenty of battles in his lifetime. Ifanyonehere could get throughthis mess alive, it was probably Agenor Thenes, powerful mage and male the Mother had once entrusted with the safety of her court … But against the backdrop of hissing arrows and howling hounds and screaming warriors, none of those thoughts held even the slightest reassurance.
If I don’t see any of you again …
I might be too slow. Rosalind might be too human, too frail. What if they were lying in their graves next time I saw the two of them – what if these few months, these few days, had been all we’d ever have?
They knew I would care, didn’t they?
Had I ever even told them how glad I was I’d found them before the end?
‘Em?’ Creon said quietly.
Hounds howled behind me.
‘Don’t die,’ I blurted at my parents, words coming out scrambled and not at all like what I’d wanted to say –thank you, that’s what I should have said,thank you for being here, andI know we’ve hardly had the time to try and be a decent family, but I think we could have been pretty damn good at it if we’d only been given the chance …Yet all that would leave my lips, as if my mind had simply blocked the path to all feelings in the face of the horrors behind me, was another numb, ‘Pleasedon’t die.’
‘You’re the one who’s about to walk into the Mother’s hands, Em,’ Rosalind said and hugged me, arms drawing tight one last moment before she released me. There was a glimmer of tears in her eyes, but she smiled so very determinedly all the same – a forced, watery smile that desperately tried to hide the fact that dying was far from the worst outcome she’d imagined. ‘You’ll be careful?’
I managed a nod. More than that, and I might have burst out crying.
‘Good.’ She stepped back, giving me a last little nudge. ‘Then go and show her, baby girl.’
Show her.
Right.
ThatI could do.
I took a single step, and then I could no longer allow myself to stop moving for fear I’d stand still again. Creon’s hand found mine. I exchanged one last glance with Agenor – one last look into those green-gold eyes so very much like mine – and then we were running, side by side, hand in hand, down the slope of our hill and towards the city.
Towards the tunnel that might save the world.
And most of all, towards the rows and rows of fae around it.
The peaceful farmland of the White City looked nothing like farmland anymore, and even less like peace.
The acres of grain we passed had been trampled by hundreds of vampires ahead of us; the low hedges had been torn root and stem from the earth, then snapped and crushed by dozens of passing feet. The territory to the south of the city, the side where I’d arrived four days ago, was now the stage of the fiercest fighting, phoenix arrows and alves making desperate attempts to break through the ranks of the fae. Closer by, wings of fire flared around the bulging shapes of the hounds, whisking in and out of existence – Lyn and Tared, burning and fading.
They were still alive, then.
We ran, not breaking our speed. Creon swung an arm around my waist as we approached a small irrigation canal; a single slap of his wings and we’d crossed it, his strong arms carrying meeffortlessly to the other side. No grain on this side, just rows of cabbages. The food wasn’t as trampled, here, a little closer to the city; no armies had passed this part of the territory yet.
I saw a glimpse of pink in the distance. Around it, at least two dozen fae fell screaming from the sky.
Naxi.
I would have told Creon if I’d had any breath left to speak.
About a mile ahead of us, the city loomed, half-hidden from view by the fae surrounding it. None of them seemed to have noticed us yet, their attention focused on the greater battlefield – but there, to our left, a streak of black came diving our way …
Red magic flickered towards us, missing me by a hair’s breadth and ruining a bed of cabbages instead.
Creon yanked me aside, slowing down – just in time to dodge a second attack. I threw a burst of red back at the fae and hit his wing on my first try, sending him plummeting into the furrows with a cry of agony. Next to me, Creon had already released me and drawn a knife, stepping forward to slit our attacker’s throat as I scanned the sky for others.
