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“We need to get down there and help Royad,” I argue instead of vomiting because having a task to focus on is always better than to dwell on the unsteadiness of my stomach. I learned that the hard way during my first days on the Wild Ray. “We need to help.”
He gives me a sideways glance that makes me question if he just bargained away his chance to break the curse next year for nothing if he sends me away into the dangers of the fairylands.
“I can handle water. Not much but enough to douse some fires and soak some Flames.” At least, I’d die trying. Power thrums in my veins as I reach for the lake once more, and I can sense the water as it answers my call. I don’t ask him to let me help; it’s no longer his choice. I might have run had the Fire Fairies not already breached the palace, but now there is no way I’m going to leave Myron and Royad to their fate.
“You’ll stay hidden, and if the situation escalates, you’ll run.” It’s not a request, and I don’t bother telling him that I don’t take orders from him. The chafing noise of steel on steel is echoing from the level below, and the angry hisses and caws are telling me that Royad has managed to pull together a line of defense.
Without a word, I step out of the alcove, feeling the lake rushing after me as I make my way to the same banister from where I fought the traitorous Crows. I try to ignore the burnt corpses scattered across the floor, not wanting to recognize a face—whatever faction they belong to. All I can think of is that I have a weapon at my disposal that neither of the Crows do: I have water to wield. And our enemy commands fire.
“Ayna,” Myron hisses as he follows like a winged shadow, his magic coiling around me in an attempt to protect me. But the water has reached us, and it cuts off his power like a shield of its own, weaving and winding around me like it did last time until I’m layered in an armor of tears.
Myron’s magic bounces right off, and I could swear I hear him gasp through the battle noise from below. I don’t stop to check his expression—shock or pride, betrayal or fear, it doesn’t matter. I’m here, and I’m capable. I’m alive, and all I want is for him to live long enough so I get to break the curse. So, he’d better deal with my decision to fight when the entrance hall is swarming with fire-wielding fairies in leather armor who back up their strikes of fire with stabs of their slender blades.
“Let’s have some fun,” I say with a wink I don’t feel, imitating Clio’s bravado as best I can, and let my gaze lock onto the nearest opponent engaged in claw-to-sword combat with a Crow I don’t know but who’s obviously as eager to defend the palace as I am, so I’m good to help him out.
Myron’s magic floats right alongside my strings of water lashing through the hall like whips commanded by the hands of ghosts. His invisible power slices into Fire Fairies, suffocating the spreading fire before it even leaves their hands.
There are fighting pairs everywhere. Crows and Flames seem to be evenly matched in physical strength as long as the devouring force of flames isn’t involved. And for now, they seem to have used up most of their resources by razing the upper level of all life—all but ours. And we are coming at them with a vengeance.
The lake slides up and down my arms, striking out of its own volition and reeling itself back in, and every time it does, more streaks of crimson mingle with the otherwise crystal liquid. I haven’t spotted Royad yet, but he can’t be far. He’s organized the defense, so he must be somewhere on the lower level.
As I’m scanning the hall for a sign of the Crow, I spot three Fire Fairies who haven’t engaged in combat and are trying to sneak past the two Crows trying to hold back another three of the intruders with claws, swords, and the scraps of magic some of them possess. They are closing in fast, their backs sliding along the wall so as not to be noticed by attentive opponents, and at their fingertips, fire rises, spreading around their blades as one after the other leaps at the Crows locked in battle. The water surges toward them a moment too late, and all I can do is stop the flames from spreading across their feathers as the blades leave their backs. If their ability to heal is as refined as Myron’s, they might have stood a chance, but they don’t even get a moment to try. The Fire Fairies in front of them shove their own blades into their stunned bodies, and they drop like birds shot from the skies.
And they are not the only ones.
As I reel back the fire, dragging it across the stone tiles in an attempt to push the Flames off balance, I realize that we’re overrun. The Fire Fairies killed the guards up here with an assault of fire, but this time, they aren’t here to send a message. Today, they are here to end the Crows for good; I can tell by the way they don’t stop to taunt their opponents, They go for the quick kill. And they are landing more blows by the minute, even without using their fire now that I’ve drenched all Crows in water so they won’t go up in flames at first contact.
Beside me, Myron is picking out individual Flames and pinning them to the walls as he impales them with his power, and for once, I’m grateful for his ability to strike without hesitation and the insurmountable strength each blow conveys. It’s beautiful and terrifying.Heis beautiful. Wings and feathers and talons ripping through the air as he shreds every last Flame attempting to ascend the stairs to take us out.
Of course, they’ve noticed us up here, my water rolling through the room in coils and waves thinning their rows as they thin ours with their blades isn’t anything to overlook easily.
“Where is Royad?” I shout at Myron over the noise of steel clashing and water roaring, over the cries of dying Crows and Fire Fairies.
He shakes his head. “He must be at the back or in the throne room.”
A glance into the back of the hall where the doors to the throne room stand wide open tells me that the battle has spread.
“They won’t stop until they kill all of us—or we all of them.” It’s a fact, not a question, and the way blood of both friend and foe is spreading on the floors is proof that we might get to a point where none of us will be left to tell the tale of how this battle ends.
If only it ended.
By the time the first Flame makes it up the stairs, my neck is beaded with sweat under my braid, and my arms ache from directing the water back and forth. I’m surprised the lake hasn’t decided the effort is futile and abandoned us.
Myron is there, ready to rip out the fairy’s throat before it comes within striking distance for my own dagger. Blood sprays as his talons rip through the Flame’s neck and chest, his horrified expression frozen on his dying face.
Shit!This is what people talk about when they speak of the nightmares in the fairylands. I’m not proud to admit there’s no one at whose side I’d rather fight. Somewhere along the way, this has become my home as much as the Crows’, and I’m fucking defending it with all I have. So, my new family has a place to stay when their bargain won’t allow them to leave.
My magic slices through the next Fire Fairy coming for us before he is even halfway up the stairs, and Myron’s smirk of approval fuels me like a secret source of strength I didn’t know I had.
But the sensation is short-lived when the doors in the entrance hall burst open, and every chance I’ve had for a victory plunges from the skies when I lay eyes on the group of fire-wielding fairies stepping over the threshold, and in their midst?—
“Ephegos—” Myron beats me to it, and the disbelief and rage in his voice equals the heat in my chest as his spymaster notices us and he nods his head with the wordrevengewritten all over his all-black eyes.
Forty
“Traitor,”I whisper as Ephegos meanders between the corpses as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. His grin is back, and he’s?—
Alive. He’s alive. And he betrayed us. I don’t understand the full degree of what is happening, but I don’t need to in order to know he’s been working with the Flames all along. The way they flank him like he’s a leader to be protected among their kind. Like he’s a king.
