As Roar flies back to the main group, Gerst calls out to Baelen, loud and harsh, a snarl in the tense silence. “You will lay down your weapons, elf. You have no place in this fight.”
Baelen responds by narrowing his eyes. His whole body thrums with anger. He pauses before he speaks, commanding the attention of everyone in the Court. “Only the gargoyle Queen can command me. I will lay down my weapons when she tells me.”
It’s been so long since I heard Baelen speak. The connection we used to talk with each other while he slept is no comparison to hearing his voice now. A shiver races down my spine. I don’t care that the Queen’s heart glows. I close my eyes and let the sound of his voice wash over me like cool water.
But my eyes fly open as I consider what he just said.Gargoyle Queen?Is he talking about the Queen’s heart?
His response causes a stir. The soldiers turn to each other. Even the miners are confused. One question is repeated over and over: “What Queen?”
Baelen half-turns to me, shooting me a sudden smile across the distance. It’s a smile just for me, making his face light up. It takes my breath away, burning the air between us. His smile should be reassuring but it only serves to make me more confused. And afraid. It’s only been moments, but he’s still alive. Like me, it seems impossible. How have we both defied death today?
Baelen’s smile fades as his focus returns to Gerst. “I recognize you, Grievous Gerst. I was not sightless while I slept. I know what you have done and I will not let your actions go unanswered.”
A shiver shoots down my spine at the violent intent behind Baelen’s speech. I was never sure how much Baelen actually saw or heard while he slept. He spent the last month living as a statue in Howl’s Royal Residence. Howl, who maimed, tortured, and killed his people at will. I don’t want to imagine what Baelen might have seen.
Gerst responds to Baelen’s declaration with a surprised step backward. Fear shoots across his features, quickly hidden. Baelen often has that effect on people. All males and females in the House of Rath were formidable warriors—the biggest and strongest, sworn to protect others. He trained his whole life to be the warrior that he is today.
A thunderous scowl quickly turns Gerst’s expression to anger. He won’t like that everyone saw his fear of Baelen. He screams a command and two of the biggest soldiers leap out from the group behind Baelen, a surprise attack.
Baelen is unfazed, his sword swinging out in a fluid movement to impale the first male through the chest. At the same time, he evades the other male’s weapon and grabs his sword arm before the gargoyle can complete a downward stroke. Baelen wrenches the male’s arm outward and the gargoyle screams. I have no love for these soldiers, but the way the attacker’s arm dangles makes me wince. Baelen moves swiftly, twisting left, his sword whispering through the air. The second gargoyle’s head rolls across the floor and hits Gerst’s boot at the same time as the first male’s body thuds to the floor.
Gerst screams a battle cry and all of the soldiers race at Baelen and the miners at once. They don’t make it twenty paces before the side of the wind tunnel springs up again, creating an impassable barrier from floor to ceiling between the guards and miners. The attackers can’t even fly over it.
On the miner’s side of the barrier, Roar had already taken flight and Jasper had urged the miners forward, but they pull up short, unable to get through, protected on all sides.
Baelen has chosen to take on all of the soldiers by himself.
An ear-popping shriek is the only warning the nearest soldiers have as Baelen’s sword crackles with lightning. A single swing drops ten soldiers to the ground before he clashes with ten more coming at him from every side. He plows through them while blocking any attempts to attack him from behind. One after the other they fall in rapid succession, a trail of bodies lying in Baelen’s wake.
Gerst’s wing daggers slice through the air a moment before he roars a challenge and launches at Baelen. Fear shoots down my spine. A gargoyle’s wing daggers can tear through rock. Baelen ducks, feints left, and comes up on the right, his sword tearing through Gerst in a single, deadly swipe.
My fear evaporates.
Gerst wobbles on the spot, eyes wide, before he topples to the floor. He is dead within seconds.
Baelen spins to the remaining soldiers as they swerve away from him, scrambling out of his path. Their leader is gone. Nobody is making them fight now.
“Who else?” Baelen roars from deep within his chest, an echoing shout. “Who else wants to die today?”
The nearest soldier drops his sword, throwing his hands into the air, starting a chain reaction among the others.
Baelen waits a mere beat before he turns his back on them and strides toward me. Swords and daggers clatter to the floor behind him as the soldiers lay down their weapons. The lightning fades from Baelen’s body as he approaches me. My heart enters my throat as he stops three paces outside the shield he has placed around me. He eases the tornado and allows me to descend from up high, but not by much. I’m still elevated too high to come close to placing my feet on the ground.
This close I can see what’s different about his face.
His eyes are full of fire. Literally. Normally green, his eyes now glow like hot coals, resembling the scorched stone he burns beneath his feet.
“Marbella.” He growls my name, drawing it out like he doesn’t want to stop saying it. The corner of his mouth lifts into a smile, the intensity of his gaze burning through to my heart. His voice washes over me like a lifeline, breaking through the tension in my entire body.
“Baelen… why are you here?”
“You were falling,” he says as though that explains everything. At my questioning look, he adds, “I’ll never let you fall, baby.”
He’s so calm, so controlled that it sends me into a spin. I can’t begin to understand why he isn’t worried about his own life right now. I burst out, “But how are you still alive?”
I’m so worried about him that I’m going to leap out of my skin. Fear consumes me as completely as the flames filling his eyes. After everything that’s happened, after everything we’ve been through, I can’t lose him now. My own eyes burn with tears I can’t seem to shed.
Baelen’s smile fades, concern flashes across his face. He half reaches for me before he reconsiders that action. “I’m alive because I’m not all here. My heart is still suspended.” He shrugs his broad shoulders. “I am a shell made up of storm power while my core remains safe.” He closes the gap between us, one pace away from the shield. His nearness is like balm on my fear, his expression telling me not to worry. “I’m okay. I promise.”
