The sunlit rays shine just to the left of the Valor Bell—not quite reaching it.
Tòrr lets out a fierce snort, muscles coiling beneath my thighs with gleeful rage.
“Now!” I cry, digging in my heels.
He charges.
My hand shoots up, silver magic already thrumming. I hurl a blast of fey at the Valor Bell, causing it to swing to the left as its clapper rings out a deep, ground-shakinggong.
The bell’s copper surface hits the ray of dawn’s light, reflecting it and funneling it down the street into a glowing beam.
Tòrr lifts his spiraled horn into the glow, the light striking it and bursting into a cascade of iridescent color that dances across the early morning darkness.
Not just color.
An explosion of light that knocks down the dead, clearing our path.
Chapter 32
Basten
The streets are thick with the risen dead.
As Rian and I race down the Strand toward the city gates, no one’s dismissing the bodies anymore as leftovers from Artain’s little puppet show. People scream as they flee corpses, who shuffle their rasping way through the city streets like a virus, cornering and biting any warm body they can manage to trap.
“Lock yourselves in your homes!” I shout, pausing to help a woman who tripped over her cloak. “A church, a business—get anywhere but out on the streets!”
Woudix’s risen dead are relentless, but they’re also seemingly mindless. It doesn’t take long to study them and observe that they take the path of least resistance. The widest streets. Any roads that are flat, downhill. Easy to traverse.
So, Rian and I steer clear.
If Rian knows anything, it’s the back alleys of the Sin Streets district. He guides me away from the main thoroughfares, along catwalks and across rooftop shortcuts, until we reach a small tavern called The First Stop that serves as a resting point and wayfinding center for travelers entering Old Coros.
The resurrected dead haven’t made it this far yet, but their growls reverberate just a few blocks away.We don’t have much time.
Rian finds an old, coiled rope, left behind from a roofer, and ties it to a chimney. We use it to scale down the front of The First Stop, drop down onto its front benches.
My heart slams as I toss my hair back, turning to face the city gates.
And that’s when I see them.
The dead aren’t here yet, but wearen’talone.
Immortal Samaur and Immortal Thracia stand before the closed gate’s wooden beam barricade. The beam is reinforced with iron caps and studs, and Samaur is currently using his sunlit fey to melt the iron, effectively creating a seal on the gates that no amount of manpower could ever open.
“Hey!” I shout. “Why don’t you fucking stick to making party favors, eh?”
They’re in their human glamour, both of them. Yet as they whip around, eyes flashing the whites, looking as vicious as animals, it’s never been clearer that they aren’t human.
“Lord Basten.” Samaur’s smile spreads, all teeth and no warmth. “Or is it King Basten now? You mortals live such short lives that I tend to forget what roles you currently play in your silly little games of pretend.” He aims his contemptful smile at Rian. “And the Lord of Liars. Shame you never joined us in Volkany—you would have done well in Norhelm.”
“Beneveto sided with you,” Rian says, casually plucking at a wrinkle on his shirt. “How did that work out for him?”
Samaur’s lips curl back, more like a predator now.
“Thracia.” I step forward, ignoring the God of Sun, and appeal to the round-faced girl instead who looks barely old enough to be out of church school. “We don’t know one another, but I’ve spent more time with Vale’s court than you have. Therest of your fae brethren put on a good show of being benign, hiding behind their revelries. But now, they’ve shown their true motives.” I pause, taking a deep breath. “There’s another way. Sabine—Solene—isn’t like the others. You don’t have to repeat the past. Just because you always form an alliance with Samaur doesn’t mean you have to this Return. You could ally with humanity instead. We could use your help.”
At the same time that I’m entreating to her, I’m quietly scanning the city gates. Looking for any weakness in Samaur’s barricade that we can exploit to get the gates open.
