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But before any of us could locate him, the cannons boomed in the distance. Blazing fireballs burst from the tips of the castle wall, its offensive magic unleashing. Except instead of those cannons pointing outward, they’d been swung toward the courtyard.
Toward us.
Screams erupted from inside the castle as servants and other fae appeared at the windows, faces plastered to the panes. Horror filled all of their expressions.
The cannonballs sailed toward us, and Ilara flung her hands up. Her fire element blazed from her palms as she met the fiery cannonballs midair.
The cannonballs exploded in a dazzling display of power.
But another poisoned vial was already careening through the air.
“Ilara, watch out!” I caught the vial on a gust of air a second before it hit the ground beside her. My air pulled it toward me, and my hand closed around theintact vial as another burst of magic erupted from the castle.
Swords clashed, the sound ringing through the air. Castle soldiers were directly engaging my four guards. I tried to keep my hold on their souls, but the nulling mist was strong enough that I couldn’t keep my grip.
Released, the soldiers near me fled and headed toward Haxil, Ryder, Nish, and Sandus.
They were trying to weaken us, pluck off the lesser magical beings first while they worked to erode my and Ilara’s magic with weapons and potions.
“Norivun! Duck and roll!” Ilara yelled.
I didn’t pause to question her warning. I crouched at her command and tumbled to the right just as more offensive magic unleashed. Nettings of crackling blue magic, coming from the ground behind me, tried to ensnare me. I rolled again, my wing nearly catching on a statue near the stair’s bottom as the netting grabbed toward where I’d been standing only a second prior.
Ilara blurred out of the way a moment before a net would have captured her, my guards doing the same as their warrior abilities moved them as fast as the wind.
My father’s commanding roar came from behind the soldiers near the far wall, and before I could take a breath, hundreds of arrows shot into the sky again.
“We have to get to him!” I yelled to my mate.
More sizzling blue nets zapped up from the ground as we dodged and dipped out of the way to avoid the offensive tactics of the castle’s magic erupting in its full capacity.
“Don’t allow it to touch you!” I called to Ilara.
If any of those nets grazed our skin, the encapsulating magic would momentarily smother our affinities, rendering us vulnerable.
“Kill him!” my father again roared from the back.
Despite the scent of fear filling the air, the castle guard marched forward, weapons raised. Magic rumbled along my limbs, vibrating through the remains of that nulling mist, and I wrenched on my death affinity. I shot it toward the soldiers, regret hitting me so quickly that I tasted it.
“I’m sorry,” I called to them.
But just as my affinity ensnared half of the castle’s guard, Ilara’s life-giving affinity formed a wall, a protective barrier around the soldiers, halting their demise.
“No,” she called, and then on a gust of air, she was at my side. The entire time we continued to dodge the blue nets. “We’re not killing them. Not yet! There has to be another way.”
A rush of relief barreled through me. I hadn’t wanted to murder innocents today, and my mate had just taken that decision away for me.
The guards that I’d held within my deathly grip for that brief second stumbled. The scent of their fear swam potently through the air. Most quickly recovered, but instead of attacking again, several gazed at one another with bewildered expressions.
“Did she just stop him from killing us?” one of the guards asked another. His grip on his sword slackened.
“She did! We do not wish to kill any of you!” Ishouted. “The king is lying to you. We just showed all of the councilors in the council chambers the truth of what’s been happening on our continent, and an ancient accord has been enacted. The king has been removed from power!”
Before I could blink, Ilara had the looking glass out of my pocket. She whispered the words to activate its spell. Light blazed out of it, competing with the lightning cracking in the sky. Thunder boomed a second later. A fairy with a storm affinity was wielding their magic, no doubt at my father’s command.
The image from the land of Canada glowed in the air, and a glimpse of my father appeared in the distance. He was atop the castle wall, near the main gate.
“I see him,” I called to my mate.
