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Stone, Margetta’s coming closer.
He shot his attention back to the golden glow. He was still heavily charged with the elf-lord power and without giving it a second thought, he revved up his battle energy again. The moment his elf-lord power connected with it, he sent it in the Ancient Fae’s direction.
Margetta met the attack with a blast of her gold power and the two streams met in the center. Violet-green and black-gold exploded once more in the air, rising higher and higher.
Keep it coming, Rosamunde.
With pleasure. But if only we could take her right now—
I’m thinking the same thing.
He still held her pressed against him and the power flowed steadily. He had no idea what it looked like from the ground, but violet-green hitting black-gold was strangely beautiful.
He sensed a shift at Margetta’s end, but he couldn’t tell in what direction. Hold tight, Rosamunde. Something’s happening.
I can feel it, too. What’s going on?
I don’t know.
Should we try another boost? I mean, maybe this is it?
Give it a sec.
Suddenly, Margetta’s battle energy gave way and their violet-green stream of power flowed through the night sky stronger than ever.
For a moment, he thought they’d broken through, that they’d destroyed Margetta, and he was ready to give a shout of triumph. But when he slowly drew the elf-lord power back, nothing remained of the Ancient Fae or her mastyr wraith-pairs.
She left. Rosamunde’s stunned voice was quiet in his mind.
Glancing below, he watched as on the shoreline the Combined Forces overran Margetta’s wraith-pairs. It was clear that though Margetta had retreated with the most powerful element of her force, she’d left the Invictus to battle on their own, without her further support.
Stone immediately pathed to the mastyrs to take as many prisoners as possible. Margetta quit the field and left her wraith-pairs behind to fend for themselves.
Despite the men he’d lost, if he could save some of the wraith-pairs and get them to Ethan’s realm for rehabilitation, he would.
He flew Rosamunde slowly around the perimeter of the lake. Bodies floated in the water or lay close to the shoreline, some Invictus, some Guardsmen.
He rose high into the air, an arm around Rosamunde’s waist checking for any sign that Margetta was still in the vicinity. But once he saw that Margetta’s gold mist was completely gone from the forest as well, he immediately contacted Harris. He wanted the Tannisford Guard to move in and help with the last of the fighting and to gather up as many prisoners as possible.
It wasn’t long before his Guardsmen were pouring over the hills in support of the rest of the Combined Forces. Shortly after, he pathed to Cole, whom he’d left in charge of the Com Center for the duration. He let him know what had happened and asked him to send troll clean-up support.
The whole time he held Rosamunde tight against his side. She kept the elf-lord power humming through him in a steady, though much less powerful stream. He hadn’t asked her to continue, but right now he knew they were of the same mind, that they both wanted to be ready in case Margetta returned unexpectedly.
~ ~ ~
Later, when the last of the wraith-pairs had been subdued, Rosamunde stayed quietly out of the way. A sober spirit had run through the ranks as the mastyrs of each of the Nine Realms cared for their wounded and their dead. A solemnity had fallen over the lake, the forest and the night air. A breeze carried the last of the smoke out of the area and the fire on the dock was extinguished.
She sat in a chair on the lake house deck just outside the living room. The end of the dock was now burned and unusable. Several of the trolls had worked to put out the fire and to make sure the rest of the wood didn’t have even the smallest ember that could ignite later.
She had to admit she was exhausted from the stress of the battle and from the grief of seeing how many strong vampire Guardsmen had died this night because of her aunt. Even the amount of elf-lord power she’d channeled had taken a toll.
She saw Stone now as he levitated with Harris and a group of trolls. They had a vampire on the stretcher, severely wounded but alive, the last of the Tannisford Guard being carried out.
Stone stopped at the forest line, but the rest continued on. She watched him, the drag of his lips and cheeks. He looked haunted but with good reason. Too many men had died tonight.
Each of the mastyrs had thanked her for her part in turning the tide of battle. More than one of them had mentioned their amazement at seeing her as both Rosamunde and Aralynn and expressed appreciation for her long service. It was therefore no longer a secret that the Queen of Ferrenden Peace was not only a blood rose, but could transform into a second woman entirely.
Once each had assembled his troops, as well as the dead and the wounded, she and Stone together had used the elf-lord power to send them to their respective realms.
