Someone called from behind me, “Wait, Your Majesty! Don’t charge ahead without us!”
I barely turned my head. “Then catch up!”
Titan immediately put on a burst of speed. Titan knew what he was about. Rather, his hatred of Valentina now made total sense, and I didn’t blame him for wanting to stomp her out of existence. I felt the same way about it. We couldn’t let her get too far ahead of us. Who knew what she had planned and laid out, and I still hadn’t been able to reach my knights stationed in Berengar, which worried me.
I urged Titan forward, riding hard, praying like I never had before.
If I didn’t stop Valentina from raising the Demon King, if I lost the battle that was just beginning, then I risked a full-out war. I couldn’t put my Edwin—my country—through another war. I just couldn’t.
Which meant I’d better win this battle.
Eighty
James
The very second I arrived on scene, my worst fears were confirmed.
I was too late.
Even at a run, it was clear what had happened. Many were dead, the bodies strewn about the portal like the discarded sacrifices they were. I saw both nationalities, Ascorians mixed in with my own people. Five hundred dead, at least, which meant—shit, did they have enough blood magic in order to undo the already failing wards? Priest Edes had said three thousand was necessary, but there were still a couple hundred possessed milling about. Did it really take so little blood magic?
Fuck.
A mage stood near the portal, hands raised, chanting like his life depended on it. He was not one of mine, and I knew he was trying to take the ward fully down before someone could stop him. I could see no clearer target. Titan still charged, and I let him run without direction, lifting my bow once more. I fired at the mage, desperately needing to stop him.
In a blur, Valentina intercepted the arrow, knocking it aside, a taunting sneer on her lips.
Oh, she’d pay for that.
“Your Majesty, troops are beginning to catch up!” Sir Collins reported.
I was glad to hear it, and surprised, considering most of them had been bogged down trying to undo the possessed. But if they were catching up, all the better, because the situation in front of me had seconds before it went pear shaped.
My failed attempt to take down the mage was my only attempt, sadly. The ward failed completely and the despair swamping me couldn’t be expressed in words. I took five seconds to just absorb the situation. The wards—both the new ward I’d ordered erected and the older ward—were down, leaving only the seal on the portal active.
Two things worried me now. One, Valentina was clearly stationed to stop me, as she was covering the portal to prevent me from running in. She didn’t look like someone who had been pincushioned with three arrows, either, so she was fully using her demonic powers to heal and likely borrowing power from the sacrificed to stay that way. Damn her.
The second thing worrying me was Victor. As suspected, Valentina had him, but he was clearly not here willingly. He knelt at her feet, bound, tears of terror coating his cheeks. Two possessed servants held him down.
“J-James,” Victor pleaded. “James, please, you have to help me!”
Could I? I had a dark suspicion why Victor was here. I wasn’t sure I could get to him in time.
“James, I don’t deserve this! I’m still a prince of the kingdom. It’s your duty to help me! You have to rescue me! You have to! I didn’t know, all right? I didn’t know she was a demon. She just showed up at my house and offered to take me with her, and Ididn’t see the harm, and so I went, but I didn’t know she’d do this to me!James!”
“King James.” Valentina’s mouth lifted in a sneer, pure hatred pouring out of her. “You are quick on the uptake, and honestly, I hate you for it. You’ve made a mess of my plans both times, and I’m heartily sick of maneuvering around you.” She casually slapped Victor upside the head, shutting him up. “But I do believe I have the upper hand here.”
Right now, I was not in a good position. My priests were still catching up, my troops scattered, and I needed time. I used one hand to gesture for my people who were here to move out, because this was the worst-case scenario, and we had a plan for this in place. Mages and priests immediately fanned out to either side of me and started chanting, either prayers or spells. My soldiers flanked them—protection just in case Valentina had more people hidden. It was a well-known demon tactic to ambush the priests. Effective, too.
All right, let’s make with a distraction. “Rexword, target that mage!”
“On it, Your Majesty!”
I fired three quick arrows at Valentina. I had to pin her down if my mages and knights were to have a prayer of taking down the demonic mage, or at the very least, distract her. It failed, her minions leaping to be human meat shields and effectively taking the arrows for her.
They didn’t, however, go down. Dammit. Had their possession progressed to the point they no longer felt pain? Or were they even past that?
Either way, this wasn’t good. I had too much distance between me and her—most of the city square—which wasn’t a good thing. I encouraged Titan to keep going, as we needed to close the gap.
