Lowen went crazy in the cage above my head.
I saw why a second later.
Nyx stood on a tree branch, a bow and arrow in her hand.
With it, she took careful aim at Inara, releasing three arrows in quick succession.
Inara dodged the first one, but the second took her in her wing. The pixie dust on the arrow caused them to freeze for a brief moment.
It was all that was needed for the third arrow to take Inara through the chest.
A feral sound ripped from Lowen as Inara dropped, landing in a heap next to Deborah. Wood splintered as he burst from the cage. A streak of purple and blue, he was on Nyx before she registered his presence.
In the next second, she was dead. Ripped apart by Lowen.
“Enough of this,” Muiredach declared.
I felt him tap Summer’s Heart, drawing heavily on the magic of the meadow and oak. Young trees boiled from the ground around Brin, caging him in wood and vines.
To my surprise, Brin didn’t resist, letting the new trees box him in.
His meaningful gaze seemed to meet mine before the last of the trees blocked him from view.
“Him and his damn schemes,” Callie muttered in a frustrated voice as Muiredach turned toward us.
“Queen of snakes. My agents have been hunting you for an age,” Muiredach said.
Callie’s snakes writhed around her head as she placed herself between me and the king. “Here I am.”
The haughtiness on Muiredach’s face as he regarded my aunt made it clear he didn’t consider her a threat. Even as he made her an offer he felt she couldn’t deny. “Your ability to avoid their blade shows you’re not entirely useless. Kneel and declare your subservience and I might allow you to live.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“You’re planning to face me?” Muiredach’s mocking laughter at the thought was the ultimate insult. “And here I thought you were smarter.” He indicated the forest prison he’d grown around Brin. “As you see, even Noctessa’s heir was helpless before me. You’re considerably weaker than him.”
Callie’s lips curved in a mysterious smile. “It’s not me who will face you.”
A white stag rammed into the king. Liam appeared beside them, a broadsword in his hand that he used to stab the king’s back.
Connor lowered his rack of antlers and charged again.
Liam yanked the sword out of the king’s torso and slid out of the way.
I crawled backward to avoid being trampled as Connor rammed the king again. The oak tree blocked my path before I made it too far.
Liam abandoned Connor, leaving his nephew to distract Muiredach as he raced toward me. Snatching me from the ground, he shouted the order to retreat.
We never got the chance.
Roots stabbed up from the ground, impaling Connor’s stag in the belly, torso and neck. They wrapped around Liam’s calves. He tore free, making it several more feet before they caught him again.
A searing glow emitted from the king’s body. A burst of plasma and light.
Something sizzled. The smell of burning flesh reached me a second later.
Liam’s shirt was incinerated by the king’s power, the skin on his back bubbling and boiling.
I sobbed as Liam held me tighter, hunching over to protect me from the pure sunlight engulfing his back.
