“The honor has been mine, brother,” Gage said, voice lethal.
“And mine,” Zaela echoed.
I sucked in a breath as I straightened my spine, unsheathing my sword from its case.
“NOW!” I bellowed while raising my blade high in the air above.
My warhorse lifted us up onto his hind legs as a roar of triumph erupted from our forces while they raced forward, past me and my horse, and straight into the enemy’s front lines.
Our armies clashed, slamming into each other with weapons and fists. The air was pierced with horrifying screams as lives were abruptly ended at the very start of the battle. We were at a major disadvantage against the fae army, who were stronger, faster, and more lethal. While they could easily heal their wounds, we had to compensate by staying united and relying on our extensive training.
While galloping through the masses, enemy soldiers flanked me on all sides. I swung my blade in every direction, ending their lives short, just as they already had with my own men.
I desperately willed myself to focus on the chaos ensuing on the terrain and not on the giant blazes of raging flames that continuously erupted in the sky above.
The once serene meadows at the foot of Isla’s towering gates were now a deadly battleground, the air reverberating with the sound of clashing steel and the metallic scent of spilled blood.
The enemy forces launched their assault with a deadly ferocity. It made me wonder if they truly fought for Idina’s cause or if they feared thatnotfighting for it would doom them even further with her once this was over. No soldier wanted to fight on the losing side of a war—I would know…I’d been fucking leading it for years.
Our catapults groaned and roared as they launched volleys of boulders toward the city walls, but when we expected stone blocks to rain down upon the back of their lines, our enormous rocksshatteredinstead.
My eyes flared as they remained fixated on where the boulders had struck the city’s battlement. Sparks of crackling power were left in their wake as if a physical shield was forged around the city.
“Fuck,” I breathed as I jumped down from my mount.
Shouts of horror sounded from the gate, and my gaze whipped to the center of the madness unfolding. My eyes landed on the three witches.
Shadows erupted from each of them, and those wearing Islan armor within their proximity dropped to the terrain they stood on, blood seeping from their eyes.
“Holy gods,” I breathed through swipes of my sword.
My gaze landed on them once more as one of the twins, Madalae, formed a ball of lightning in her hand—the force of its crackling power was felt even down the battlefield.My eyes followed it as she launched it straight at the battlement.
I expected the force of her power to shatter the shield, or at the least crack it—but nothing could have prepared me for what occurred next.
The force field around the city absorbed that power she unleashed and shot it directly back at her. The glowing ball of lightning flames soared over the battlefield, the roar of its crackling power even louder than the sound of clashing steel, and slammed right back into Madalae’s chest.
No, not into her chest—throughher chest.
My jaw dropped, and I blinked over and over again, praying to Terra herself that what I beheld was a lie. However, no matter how many times I blinked, the sight held true.
Where the ball of power struck the witch, a gaping hole remained in the center of her chest, where her heart had once been. Her eyes were wide and unseeing, Veli and her sister’s matching as they were frozen in pure horror at her side.
Madalae’s body began to char, starting where the power struck her, and quickly took over her entire being until she withered away into nothing but flaking ash on the wind.
A gut-wrenching scream of what could only be described as pure agony left her twin. Empri’s eyes were glowing a blinding red as she sent out a blast of rage-induced power around herself, destroying all within thirty feet of them—includingmyfucking men.
“EMPRI!” I roared, and her ravenous eyeslocked on me.
Veli snapped out of her trance and screamed at Empri to stand down.
The remaining twin’s breath was heaving, and I was forced to catch quick glimpses as I swung my blade at more oncoming soldiers.
A moment later, my horrified eyes watched as Empri vanished, leaving the battlefield and abandoning us to our doom.
Veli’s face was a mixture of pure devastation and fury. Her long silver hair glinted in the pale light of the waning sun as her body began levitating high in the air, her robes flowing around her like an otherworldly dark goddess.
The sorceress’ eyes exuded their pink-tinged golden glow as shadows erupted from the palms of her hands, shooting towards the Islan troops. Bodies dropped the moment they came in contact with her mischievous darkness, and I was thankful that, for the time being, Idina’s witches weren’t placed among us within the battlefield.
