“There’s magic to twins.” My mother had said with a smile. “And you two, perhaps most of all.”
I knew she loved the idea that we were part of some great destiny. Thatshehad been the one to bring it to life. But I wasn’t sure about any of that.
Family was what mattered to me, and knowing my sister had to go meet the gods gave me enough anxiety for the rest of my life, quite frankly.
“I don’t see what good you’ll be.” Zakat snorted as he walked in with the others. “Your father has made it clear he’d support a madman rather than take the dent to his pride. What will your little ragtag team manage?” He rolled his eyes.
“More than you think,” Altan argued, clearly fuming if the look on his face was anything to go by. “I already heard from my sister that she’s managed to get a good number of soldiers on our side. Not everyone is as clueless as my father.”
“What are you two arguing about?” Lilith asked, shaking her head at the two of them. “I swear you’ve done nothing but pick at one another since you got here. Aren’t you tired of it by now?”
“It’s all that sexual tension,” Harpina quipped, smirking as she passed by. She sent me a wink as she looked me up and down. She was beautiful, of course, if a bit brash. But she was also a close friend of Asteria’s, and as far as I was concerned, that meant she was off limits, even for a night. Though, I was sure that night would be quite spectacular.
“With him?!” Altan blustered, a faint flush gracing his cheeks. “Absolutely not! He’s a cocky hot head with no sense of responsibility.”
“Wow,” Zakat drew out sarcastically. “Tell me how you really feel.” He leaned closer to Altan, making him lean back. “But we both know those pants are on fire,” he murmured seductively.
The tips of Altan’s pointed ears turned deep red, and his throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. But he turned to me with a sharp shake of his head as he brushed the other prince off. “We need to begin training. Titan sent us here. Apparently, we need to learn how to fight among you.”
I raised a brow, looking over the crowd for Titan. When I spotted him, I called him over, waiting until the General reached us. I straightened as he approached. I hadn’t been General of Day’s forces for very long, but Titan had been Night’s for centuries. I knew I couldn’t compare myself to a Fae as old as Titan, but it was a bit intimidating, nonetheless.
I’d been raised to be my sister’s sword and shield. I had no idea who I was if I proved myself to be useless in that role.
“Prince Arien,” Titan greeted with a nod of his head. The moon phases tattooed on his neck showing his status as a warrior glimmered in dark ink against his golden skin.
“Titan, Prince Altan indicated you wanted a specific training regimen for them?” I questioned, getting a small smirk in return.
“They’re princes; they’re used to giving orders, not taking them. Plus, we’ve never had phoenixes in our aerial battles before. We all need to adjust our tactics going into this war if we hope to win,” he explained, and I nearly kicked myself for not thinking of that.
My eyes closed, and I took a deep breath, running a hand through my long, dark hair. A large hand landed on my shoulder, and I opened my eyes to face startlingly familiar sky-blue eyes.
“You’re doing a great job,” Titan reassured me, and for a moment, but for the shorter hair, squarer face, and tattoos, it was the ghost of my father saying words I’d always secretly hoped to hear.
I swallowed hard, trying to find my equilibrium.
“You’ve taken on a lot of changing circumstances with little time to adjust,” he continued. “You managed to hold the line in Avalon despite overwhelming odds, and that’s the kind of leadership we need right now.”
“So, we get in the air and practice aerial tactics with the phoenixes,” I said, tilting my head in thought. “Their fire is very different from mine. While I can shoot flames out in large bouts, they have a much shorter range.”
“We can still use it as a weapon,” Zakat assured me with a smirk. “We just have to get closer than a dragon would.”
“So you, what?” I asked, my brows furrowing. “Get right up to whatever you want to set on fire?”
“Pretty much. We can also take out someone while we’re on fire ourselves.” Zakat shrugged a shoulder casually. I was beginning to see what Altan meant about his reckless attitude.
“That’s not always a great idea, considering we have to barrel into our target for that method to be effective. But when we want to target our fire, we need to take the time to set ourselves fully aflame before we can, essentially, inhale that fire.” Altan stepped in to explain, narrowing his eyes at Zakat, who just continued to smirk back at him with a raised eyebrow. “Once we have, we can then blow it outwards. But like you said, it’s a much shorter range than a dragon’s fire.
I nodded thoughtfully, noticing Titan was watching me.Evaluating me.
I knew he cared about my sister in addition to Calix, who seemed to be like a son of sorts to him. With their mating, it made sense that he wanted to ensure I was up to the task before us. Day and Night were now inextricably entwined in a way no two kingdoms had ever been before.
“Our fire is more easily targeted,” I began, thinking through the options before us. “So we can keep the dragons on task, and the phoenixes can provide distraction and chaos.” I began to smile as the plan came together in my mind.
Titan nodded firmly with a small smile on his face. “It’s a good plan. Much like we’ve been doing for years, attacking to hide our true motives. We were getting humans out while using darkness, fire, and steel to distract and distort what everyonethoughtthey were seeing.”
“Alright!” I clapped my hands with a nod. “Altan, Zakat, I want you two up in the air with me. We’ll fly out over the ocean and do a few maneuvers to test this out.”
“Tartarus yeah, here we go!” Zakat cheered, already making his way out of the crowd to find a place to shift.
