CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
I pray this gets to you. The king’s power dwindles. Strike soon.
—Intercepted correspondence from Queen Galena, intended for Commander Ronan Merik of the Rising. 72ndof Autumn, 071.3E
“Absolutely not,” I snapped, as Evony trailed me through the muddy avenues of camp, now only a mile south of the walls of Aedrialis. “We agreed you’d keep to the back of the lines and remain with Tempest.”
Though the mare wasn’t up to the standards of the agrippa in our homestead in Aedrialis, she was fierce, and I was confident she wouldn’t let a single person hurt her rider.
“And should I signal you, you ride back to Khasimir.Thatwas the plan. That was the agreement, Evony. The only reason you areherewith us is because you agreed to it.”
“That horse ispsychotic!” she shouted after me, reaching for my arm.
I stopped, sliding into the mud, turning to her. “I don’t care if you think she’s psychotic. I trust her to keep you safe, so you’ll stay with her.”
“I want to fight with you,” Evony pleaded, a pathetic mask of desperation forcing her lips down.
“I told you I’m going to keep you safe?—”
“Then what has been the point of all this?” she snapped, her temper flaring.
I swallowed, glancing around the bustling camp. “Calm down, Ev?—”
“I’m serious! What has been the point of training me? You, Nerissa, Vulcan, Ezrich… Am I not good enough? I want to help. I’mgoingto help.” The muscle in her jaw twitched as she dug her heels into the ground.
My powers blinked awake at my rising anger, and I did my best to leash them, resisting the smoldering glow forming in my eyes.
“I can see you’re upset,” I tried, forcing a gentleness into my voice.
“Oh, did your Bellator powers tell you that?” she snapped, her fists shooting to her hips as she raised her eyebrows.
“Thepointof it,” I said quietly, stepping up to her, “is to keep you fucking safe. To ensure you can protect yourself. Not to blatantly put you in more danger. You are sixteen years old. I’m not allowing you to march to war.”
“You’re not my fucking mum.”
“Morwyn would skewer me alive if she knew I sent you to war.”
She opened her mouth to protest.
I held up a hand, “We’re done.” I stalked off as she hurled a colorful array of curses at me.
My fingers tuggedthe back of Nerissa’s armor-enforced leather vest, tightening the laces in our dark tent.
Tiberius’s hooves slammed onto the ground outside, followed by the wild flap of Aquila’s wings, shuddering the walls of our tent.
“No changes,” Nerissa murmured, eyeing the flaps of the tent as Aquila spoke to her.
I nodded in agreement. Our caeluma had scouted the city for the last two days. And though we knew Saros’s shield was strong, we tested our magic at its barriers anyway, with no luck. Our powers bucked against it, but we’d at least been able to determine the border of the shield. When Nerissa and Aquila sent blasts of white flames against it, the light seemed to bounce off the shield, illuminating its edges.
Word had spread that Lord Pavel’s ships had saved Stynguard from Dark King Daimos’s forces, and Saros’s soldiers now marched south. Our window to take Aedrialis shrank rapidly.
“The night before always sucks,” she muttered as she began twisting two tight braids down the side of her head.
“I know,” I replied, thinking of that last night on the Lake of Light with Bayne. I’d been sick with nerves, and he’d given me what I’d needed. And now, where was he? I squashed the thoughts before they could take me down a path I wasn’t ready to travel.
Nerissa’s Ravindra eyes slid to me as if she knew.
“We keep to the plan,” she murmured. “Aedrialis. Nivis. Lotrennia.”
