I know the taste of his lies now. He fed them to me so many times, I can catch their particular tang. He has no intention of stopping, and his words are empty. Even if he swore by the magic, he’d find some way around it, some way to turn the peoples of the day realm to his will and send them off to endless war. I can’t let it happen.
Turning, I watch as his army pushes into the sunlight, into the bright haze of the realm that should be their death. But it isn’t. Because of a ward from a witch who knew far more than I ever guessed. I blink, realization hitting me as I finally see it all, the entire scope of Eraldon’s downfall. This moment is what Lex whispered in my thoughts before she died. Like a map tucked into my memory, a plan unfurls. She showed me the way, I just have to be brave enough to follow the path toward redemption. Toward making things right.
And the first step will be the hardest. I turn my face up to Eraldon’s and press a kiss to his hard mouth.
As Eraldon wraps his arms around me, Solano’s roar shakes the ground.
42
Solano
She’s falling under his thrall.
I roar again and rip through a line of seekers. Bounding and slashing, I use my claws, fangs, and sheer size to cut them down. They can’t get close to me, a fiery halo of sun all around me as I fight through them.
Malnaloch devours dozens in a single swipe of his mouth, but he’s slowing now, and lets out an enormous belch that drops the seekers nearest to him.
I can’t leave Emma, but I can’t let my people fall beneath the sudden onslaught of seekers. There are too many, an entire ocean of bloodlust racing toward us, fresh for battle and primed for slaughter. They have to fall back, all of them.
Leaping over a crush of seekers, I trample them beneath me as I race back toward our mass of soldiers. Brock and the redcaps are cutting a bloody swath as Charen wields his magic to corral the seekers.
I leap behind them and change my form. “We have to fall back!” I kick a seeker in the face, and Brock finishes him with his sword.
“We’ve pushed them back to Nightsbane,” he yells.
“There are more. Many thousands more.” I duck as a seeker flies overhead.
A redcap jumps up and grips its throat, then slams it to the ground and drives a knife into its heart. We are efficient, all of our fighters working as one. But we can’t survive the coming onslaught.
“Fall back, that’s an order!” I yell.
Brock, his face darkened with seeker blood, gives me a nod and yells for our army to sound the retreat.
I go to move past him.
“Where are you going?” He grabs my arm.
“Emma needs me.”
“You can’t go to the night realm. Youcan’t.” Real fear creeps into his voice. “The night realm.No. Your power wanes, and Eraldon’s waxes under the moon. If you pass through the barrier, you won’t return.”
“If that is the case, I leave the realm in good hands.” I grip his shoulder and press my forehead to his as our army begins to lose ground. “May the Ancestors bless your line.”
“Solano!” Brock tries to hold onto me, but I change into my feral, light pulsing from me in waves that destroy seekers as I race toward the barrier.
More come, endlessly pouring through Nightsbane like a black river. But I can’t stop, can’t give up. The day realm cannot stand without its queen, and I cannot live without my mate.
43
Emma
Eraldon deepens the kiss, his hands straying to my waist.
I clutch him closer with one hand, my heart hammering as he crushes me against his chest. He kisses me like he means it, like he wants me more than anything in all of Arin.
But once again, I taste the lie.
He pulls back, his gaze dropping to my throat, to Solano’s mark. His fangs lengthen. “It’s time I ripped his claim off you, don’t you think?” His grip tightens. “This will hurt, my pet, but your skin will grow back.” He leans closer, his fangs glancing along my neck.
