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“Little Rose.” Silas cursed and shoved me aside when another of the young sea fae appeared from the edge of a canal. A boy who’d been nothing but mist before, all at once, was there, knife in hand. As though he’d materialized from droplets in the damn air.
He had smooth, dark skin, ferocious, stormy eyes, but the boy looked wholly terrified. Like he was attempting to find someone else and found me instead.
He jabbed his blade, and only then did I take note of the way one arm hung limp at his side, the way his body was battered. Did his sea magic tear him apart when he turned to bleeding mist?
Silas lifted his sword, the fae boy flinched.
I did not revel in the thought of killing young fighters who, no doubt, were forced to be here. It seemed, nor did Silas.
“Leave here, boy. Live another day and remember who let you go.” Silas shoved the boy into one of the deep canals before he could swing a blade, then gripped me under the elbow. Silas didn’t try to stop me from racing toward Davorin, he merely joined me.
By my side. As he’d always been.
Davorin had a hold of a curved blade from the sea and cut at Malin’s neck, only this time she stumbled backward. With one knee, Davorin pinned her down. “I wonder what will happen when one gift is wiped away?”
“No!” I cried out. “Malin you are a queen of fate. Your tale is here. It’s here.”
I closed my eyes, the hum of power bled in my blood.
“You have the words, Little Rose.” Silas’s soft voice was there.
I clung to him. Somewhere amidst the chaos, the bastard of a battle lord called for our necks. What was happening, I didn’t know, all I knew was my blood was on fire. I knew Silas was near.
I knew a promise needed to be kept.
“Shadow Queen!” I called, eyes clenched shut. “The beacon of a crown beckons you through. Step from darkness and take back what has always belonged to you!”
Words said before. Words I’d promised during a different time, a different battle. They were a reminder of what games had brought us here. Silas’s deep, soothing voice blended with mine until the heat of our heart song coiled like mists of gold.
A few sea fae gasped. Some backed away.
Others were entranced enough to approach, possibly to kill us. They could try. I felt as though I might be able to melt their bleeding brains should they dare touch me. When I opened my eyes, Davorin looked at me with hateful resentment, then lifted his blade over Malin again.
Only now, she was grinning. The ring burned like a golden flame on her finger. Even her golden-green eyes were alight in something new. She ripped a blacksteel knife from her boot and tried to slash the point across Davorin’s leg.
The blade didn’t seem to do a bit of damage to his flesh, but it startled him enough he shifted to one side, giving Malin room to kick him off.
She spun the blade in her grip and rose to her feet. “You thought you could pin me down and he’d sit back and let you?” What Davorin hadn’t noticed was the coiling darkness around their ankles. Malin sneered. “Then you do not know truedevotion.”
The sea fae shuddered around her. Some collapsed in screams and fits. I grinned. Their nightmares were attacking their damn minds.
More shadows surrounded Davorin and Malin, growing taller. Thicker. Until Malin held out a hand. From the shadow wall, Kase emerged with Kryv, with Ettan warriors, with Niklas, a handful of his Falkyns, and their crooked blades.
Kase tilted his head. His sword rolled in his grip as he looked at Davorin. “You’re afraid your wards won’t hold?”
Wards? What wards?
Kase’s eyes flicked to Davorin’s skin. Barely visible beneath his tunic were inked symbols. All hells, did he have some kind of protection against him?
If he did or not, that didn’t bother Kase and Malin.
“Shall we find out if they do?” The Nightrender locked his fingers with his wife. Together their power was fierce. The magic of that cursed ring combined with his wretched gift of fear and darkness billowed like a dark wave over the battlefield.
The stun was delicious to behold.
I laughed with a new kind of cruelty as Kase’s wave of nightmares rose higher and higher.
Davorin let out a roar of frustration and dissolved his murky body into the soil at the same moment Kase and Malin flung their arms out and pulsed the darkness against the sea folk.
