I breathe out a sigh of relief.
My gaze darts to the wall just as Manu and his queen sister pass through. Call me crazy, but I’m actually relieved for him. He looks across the courtyard, and when he sees I’m with Osrik, he gives me a small smile and a nod.
Osrik tenses next to me, but I tap his arm and look up at him. “It’s fine,” I tell him. “Sharing that tower window was good for me, I think.”
“Killing them would be good for me,” he mutters.
I laugh and pat him again before wrinkling my nose when I see all the blood I got on my hand. I wipe it off on his armor. “You just killed, like, a hundred fae,” I point out.
“Actually,Ikilled a hundred bloodthirsty fae,” Judd says cheerfully as he walks by, strutting like a peacock and tossing back his sweat-slicked hair. “I practically won this battle single-handedly!”
“You did not,” Captain Lu shouts back as she appears.
“Aww, don’t be jealous, Lu-Lu,” he tells her as they meet up. “You helped a little. Right, Dig?”
Auren’s old guard shakes his head at Judd. It’s strange to see him in black armor instead of gold. Right behind him is Commander Ryatt. Every single one of them looks just as bloodied and battle-worn as Osrik.
But alive.
Second Kingdom’s soldiers gather around too, their copper-hued armor stained with blood, and I can’t help but notice there are fewer of them than the number that first crested the slope. I wonder how many they lost. I wonder how many all of our kingdoms have lost.
Like Cran said, even if we win, we still lose.
King Thold enters the ruined courtyard with some of his guards trailing after him, and he heads straight for Queen Kaila and her Elites. He still has a snow serpent dangling from his neck, the snake’s tongue darting out and tail flicking against his side.
“Where did the rest of the snakes go?” I whisper to Osrik.
“He sent them back under the snow.”
I glance down at the ground, barely stopping from picking up my feet. “That’s…unsettling.”
Osrik chuckles.
Judd breaks off to speak to a couple of Red Raids, their blood-colored cloths still tied around their faces. In the distance, some of their ships are smoking and ruined, their fire claws roaming free to feast on the fallen.
My stomach turns and I yank my gaze away.
A shadow suddenly casts over us, and I look up to see a timberwing landing. Commander Ryatt strides forward, stopping right in front of where the bird lands.
“Tyde?” he asks.
The Elite on the saddle has a bandage around his arm, and he holds himself stiffly. Beneath his armor, I can see the bulge where I know his chest is also wrapped. He was injured at the battle of Cliffhelm, but he didn’t want to be left behind. His power of sight is so helpful that Osrik and the others didn’t argue.
Tyde pulls down his face mask and wipes away the frost at his eyes. “I tracked them. There are still a few battalions between here and Breakwater.”
An Orean with a copper breastplate steps forward. “Second Kingdom will defeat them. We have another ship landing at Breakwater soon. We will trap them and end them,” he declares.
Everyone nods, and Tyde speaks up again. “Commander, I also tracked another group. Stragglers that fled back toward Sixth Kingdom. And there’s still the fae who took Highbell.”
“Then we take it back,” the serpent king declares, his expression firm. “We go to Highbell and then to Seventh Kingdom too. We chase every fae all the way to the edge of the world.”
Queen Kaila looks at Manu before stepping forward. “Third will help. Let us rid Orea of the rest of these fae,” she says, her voice strong, her braid of black hair still perfectly in place and her silver armor gleaming.
Commander Ryatt exchanges a glance with Osrik, Lu, and Judd, and they seem to communicate silently. “We will track down the stragglers and meet you in Highbell,” he says before he looks to Kaila. “Like Her Majesty said, let us rid Orea of them. Once and for all.”
Everyone looks around at each other, the weight of this battle, this win, settling in. Orea was victorious. Through luck and strategy and uniting together, we somehow won against a devastating force. But it’s not over.
Not yet.
