It wasn’t the sound that made me cringe. It was the knowledge that more of the wreckage had fallen on our friends, burying them deeper and possibly entombing them in a broken crypt of death.
Not necessarily, I told myself. They can still be alive beneath that wreckage. Broken and suffering, yes, but also alive.
I yearned for that to be true as I recalled Ellery, Ryker, Callan, Luna, and Scarlet saying goodbye to us in the dungeon. We’d exchanged hugs and well wishes, we’d assured each other we’d be fine, but we were aware there was a chance we’d never see each other again.
Determined to ignore my fear, I’d walked away, choosing to believe I’d hug my friends again. We deserved to win this, and while I’d learned years ago that life wasn’t fair and the good rarely triumphed, I was so certain that between us, the gargoyles, and the destruction of the aristocracy, we would win.
And we did win. The palace was gone. The duke might still live, but he had no power left. We would root him out and destroy him; it didn’t matter how many remained loyal to him, we’d carve them all down.
But were my friends—no, my family—the cost of that win? I’d walked away from them, even when I didn’t want to, because I’d clung to the hope we’d be reunited, and I knew we each had a different role to play in this war.
We’d already lost so many tonight. I couldn’t bear to lose more, but I couldn’t put the palace back together, and I couldn’t reach in there and pull the others free.
“Shit,” I hissed through my teeth.
The dust drifting across the field clumped in my eyes. I tried to wipe it away, but it refused to let go. It was determined to be a reminder of everything we’d lost today.
The disbelief that had captivated all those on the field dwindled as reality returned. Despite the loss of the castle and the unknown fate of our friends, we remained on a battlefield, facing the duke’s men.
Without the chaos of the storms ravaging the land, the full atrocity of what occurred here was clearly visible. In some places, bodies lay three or four deep; in others, only severed parts remained.
Weapons, cannons, and shields covered the field. The moonlight shimmering off the countless puddles revealed their gory, ruby hue.
The tornadoes had torn up the earth; chunks littered the field. They’d left culverts, rocks, and debris in their wake.
At the edge of the field, more corpses floated in the lake and lined its shore. Stirred by the breeze, they drifted in lazy circles in the bloody water.
The once green, beautiful field and pristine lake had transformed into brutalized ruins that reflected the true nature of the souls who’d recently ruled Tempest. They’d believed themselves safe within those high walls, but they’d never prepared for Ellery, and it had to be her who’d done this; she was the only one with enough power.
Did anyone survive?
Someone had to. They just had to.
We had to get to them, but the remaining army stood between our loved ones and us. I was out of fight; all I wanted to do was save now.
The soldiers, realizing that the palace’s collapse would make it impossible for their leader to rule, understood they were now the mice, with no chance against the cats. Their gazes shifted between us and what was left of the palace.
It was highly unlikely the duke escaped before the collapse, given that gargoyles and amsirah surrounded the palace. Someone would have seen him fleeing and gladly slaughtered him.
There was no one left to pay and shelter the enemy, and they didn’t even know we’d taken out most of the aristocrats before arriving here. They had no idea how hopeless their situation was.
“Throw down your weapons!” Tucker bellowed from a hundred feet to my right.
Not a second passed before assorted weapons hit the ground with a clatter. Some of the men and women held on, but as they stared at the unarmed troops surrounding them, they eventually conceded defeat and threw down their arms too.
Now what do we do with them?
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
Ianto
I didn’t have an answer for that as the gargoyles circled overhead before Indon landed in the center of the field. He folded his tattered wings as he turned to survey the soldiers.
When this started, a no-mercy rule was in place. They were better armed and trained than us. We couldn’t do anything other than slaughter anyone in our way, but they were defenseless now, and many were falling to their knees and placing their hands behind their heads.
We couldn’t slaughter unarmed men and women, but we had no dungeons to place them in and no other way to keep them secure. We couldn’t waste our time and manpower on watching them when we had to dig our friends out from under a massive pile of rubble.
If any of our friends had lived through that, then we had to free them.
