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Saga Sekundär was a small woman, but she fought with the confidence of any warrior. Met with guards on the ground, my mother did not hesitate and swung her blade at a brute twice her size.

She rammed the point of her sword into the man’s ribs. Maj spun around, braids flinging behind her. The knife in her opposite hand sank into the eye of a second guard. Daj kicked the first man’s body off her sword, not even pausing to watch him die, and helped his wife through the gate.

A sea of terrified people filled every road of the village.

Daj lifted one palm, and every alleyway, every alcove, erupted in snarls and dripping fangs of wolfish hounds. The tips of their fur glimmered in faint silver.

The townsfolk fled from the beasts, screaming, pleading to the gods.

My chest squeezed at the sight of a wailing child no older than three turns huddled in the road, alone, lost.

I forced myself to turn away. The stairs leading to the Head House remained blocked by too many blades.

Jonas and Skadi roved through the fighting like it was a delight. Laughing and chattering. Skadi’s mists surrounded a man, tossing him into an empty void within her affinity, never releasing him. Jonas landed a strike on the back of a stumbling man’s neck in one breath, then pinned another in the blackness of the prince’s eyes until the mortal screamed and pleaded for the biting to cease.

A prince who crafted nightmares and his wife who tossed folk into the Nothing.

Bloodsinger knew the blade as well as he knew his ship. He limped, and to some might’ve seemed to approach a fight with a disadvantage, but the Ever King left a path of corpses in his wake.

With the edge of his blade, Erik sliced open his palm and clapped the bloody hand over the mouth of a thick man.

Bloodsinger did not wait for his victim to fall, convulsing from the poison blood, before moving to the next.

Livia kept close to Celine and Sewell. Her fury would be weaker here, like mine, but my friend had learned the blade as well as any of us. She spun and jabbed, guarding Celine’s back as Tidecaller guarded hers. Sewell ripped open chests with his low, rumble of a voice, leaving men screaming and pawing at their gaping wounds until their hearts gave out.

But bursts of spells landed in the throes of the fighting—rancid air that left the eyes weeping, fiery whips that scorched the skin, even a cloud of biting pests attacking the heads of sea fae, leaving welts and open pustules swelling up their faces.

Lena was still alive. Hiding.

Illusions, bespelled tides, and armed fae herded mortal folk toward the center of the village. The fighting slowly peeled guards from the staircase, but not fast enough. Tait would be up there, and I didn’t know how much time was left.

“We need to get that staircase cleared,” I shouted at Gavyn. “They’ll be keeping Tait up there.”

“Use Broken Earth, Mira!” My father’s voice drew my gaze. He pointed toward the jagged staircase.

Broken Earth, an illusion we’d used many times to taunt my uncle Valen. Daj said it was his way of giving the Night Folk king a taste of his own frightening power. Illusions of cracking, crumbling soil.

I nodded and felt a wild sort of grin spreading over my face. It could work.

“I take it you have a plan?” Gavyn said, using the back of his hand to wipe blood from his brown eyes.

“Watch my back, Seeker.” I looked over my shoulder. “Daj! I need your help.”

My daj shoved a guard’s body off the point of his sword, freeing his blade from the belly of the man. He sprinted to my side, kohl dripping down his cheeks, golden hair damp with sweat. “Takes more focus in the Far Seas, my girl, but you have the strength. I’ll build upon your foundation, follow your lead.”

I sheathed my blade, trusted Gavyn to guard my neck, and raised my palms.

Soon, the stone staircase shifted. The rush of Djur’s men drew to a halt.

“Good.” Daj’s eyes were closed, but he waved his wrist. A crack widened in the lower half of the staircase. The slightest shimmer coated every fissure of rock.

Men backpedaled. Others shoved their fellow guards, panicking.

I strode forward, palms open, hands weaving and painting new elements to the illusion. One wall would shudder. Heavy boulders would fall. Rooftops caved in. Daj cursed against a pulse of his own magic that caused one cliffside to appear like it was caving inward.

Folk scattered.

“Dammit.” Gavyn stumbled, chuckling nervously when we stepped directly on a wide crack in the soil. “Seemed so bleeding real for a moment.”