“For King Calix! For Queen Asteria! For The Star Queen and the Night King!” they chorused, and a lump formed in my throat.
“For all those still in chains! For the balance that our free world will rest on!” I managed to get out roughly. “For freedom!”
“For freedom!”The others bellowed, and Calix and I flew gently down, straight onto our horses. We kicked them gently into motion, leading the charge out of the camp and toward a battle that would decide the fate of our world.
I couldn’t begin to contemplate what might happen if we lost. Chaos was so insidious, sneaking its way into this world and leeching it of everything I loved so much. The color. The magic. The life.
Fear was a second passenger on the horse with me as we rode toward Evenfall. It beat in my heart like the pounding of the horse’s hooves on the ground. Calix’s strength and confidence came to me in a wave, and I took a deep breath, letting it fill me and slowly easing away the terror I struggled to keep down.
Facing down the man who abused me in front of thousands, with the fate of the world riding on it.
No pressureat all.
* * *
We stopped welloutside the gates of Evenfall, out of sight of any guards who may be watching. We dismounted and readied to shift, but Calix quickly gathered me in his arms, his lips finding mine with a ferocity that made it clear the fear I felt wasn’tonlymine.
I leaned into him, kissing him with every ounce of love in my heart that my lips couldn’t form in any other way. I clutched at him, wondering if it would help if I just held him a bit tighter. Would that do anything to ensure he stayed with me always? That this battle or the next wouldn’t take him from me?
His forehead fell against mine when we pulled back, and his whisper was hard to hear with the noises of the army surrounding us, even with Fae hearing.
“Promise me you will be careful,” he asked, eyes creasing in worry. “That you won’t take any unnecessary risks.”
“If you promise the same,” I countered. Calix smirked slightly, though it was clear his heart wasn’t in it. But he nodded, so I nodded back in agreement. I swallowed hard, hoping I wouldn’t make a liar of myself.
We stepped back, our hands lingering until just the tips of our fingers touched, trying to hold onto the warmth of one another before facing the cold of battle. But we’d never truly be apart. The bond would keep us connected in a way nothing else could. Soul to soul.
I closed my eyes, unable to bear looking, and allowed my dragon form to come forth. Fingers became claws, and skin became scales. My wings flapped upward, pushing me into the sky. Calix and Arien flanked me while Altan and Zakat flew behind us.
We flew out in five different directions, each taking a side of the city to scope out any defenses. We stayed high in the cloud cover to hide from any scouts looking for us. I flew to the right to cover the north end of the city and circled around the perimeter, my Fae eyesight straining to make out everything down below.
Cyrus had indeed been busy.
New fences, buzzing with lightning, circled the city. Grey spikes were outside the gates, hidden from the front but more obvious from the back, sticking up to catch anyone who approached.
Iron.
“Do you see it?”I sent to my brother and mate, and got their affirmative responses back. It took another minute before Arien sounded once more in my head.
“We’ve got some kind of catapult here. I’m guessing filled with iron,” he told us grimly.
“Light it all up,”Calix directed, his bubbling rage like a siren song in my chest, coaxing my own higher and hotter.
I let it fuel the fire inside me, spilling out in a wave of flame that washed over the fences and spikes, melting them into heaps of scrap. The loud howl echoing through the city had me smirking, as best as I could in this form, anyway.
The alarms began to sound within the city, our presence now obvious. Dusk’s warriors spilled from the palace and surrounding areas, just as we knew they would. And the first wave met our flames as we dived down, our fire taking the entire line of soldiers to their deaths.
I shifted mid-air, letting my bulky dragon form slim down to my Fae form, pulling my sword from my sheath before my feet hit the ground. Calix and Arien now flanked me while Altan and Zakat remained in the air, catching fire to key buildings we knew Cyrus was using for the transport of humans and iron in and out.
When the next wave of Cyrus’s soldiers came, our forces were ready. Calix had sent the signal to Lilith, who’d been waiting in her wolf form to get the message. With her howl, our warriors began to flood the streets like a plague upon Dusk.
They came from every gate, but also from within the city itself. I smirked, knowing Nithe would be leading warriors up from below the tunnels running under the city. They were meant to be an escape for the royals, part of the same system running beneath the palace I’d once found. But now, we were able to use them against those same royals.
I swung my sword as the first man rushed me, clearly thinking me the weakest link. My blade found his neck, and his head hit the ground, leaving another man behind him blinking in shock. My starlight rammed into him, throwing him into the far wall.
Darkness and sunlight flew by me, but I couldn’t let myself be distracted as more soldiers rushed forward. The fighting was thick and fast, with the vanguard of both armies clashing, but our numbers were greater. Sunset’s men had added to ours, and they’d been joined by a bit less than half of Sunrise’s as well.
As promised, King Tieran had been waiting for us before we made camp last night, and his soldiers and the rogue Sunrise men following Altan had blended in with ours until we became one army.
