It was enough, just barely.
The dark lioness patrolled one end of the line to the other, roaring and ripping apart the succubus as they tried to follow. But the mountain was the one place that the human and fae forces had an advantage. They succubus scrambled, not caring for the pain of scrapes or falls, but they didn’t take care with their footfalls, didn’t think critically about climbing through already churned up mud and clay. They slid back and back. Eventually, they’d make the summit. Gwen could only hope that by then, what remained of her scattered little army would have made it to the next mountain.
73
ARRAN
“Any final words of wisdom, sis?” Veyka tossed the words to Morgyn without even looking at her. She was already focused on the stretch of ground in front of her where she would open the portal rift.
The Lady of the Lake was as immovable as every other time we’d interacted with her. “You have what you need,” she said.
“You should be fighting alongside us.” Veyka leveled the accusation with equal coolness.
“Don’t bother with ‘Avalon is neutral’ and all that or I might have to let the succubus out.”
Evander’s trepidation ratcheted up toward anger with each sarcastic comment Veyka made. He thought she was serious. I knew her better than that. She was a second from breaking, and the thinly veiled sarcasm was the only thing keeping her from shattering into a million pieces. Or worse, losing control of the succubus.
Mya soothed her husband with a hand on his arm and a word whispered in his ear. Fine. Evander was not my concern. Veyka had all of my attention.
I hardly dared to touch her. Not because I feared the monster now residing behind Veyka’s eyes. I could never fear Veyka. But I was afraid of what I might do to her, if I caused even the tiniest fracture in the tenuous glass wall of control she’d thrown up.
I did not give a damn what Morgyn le Fae said. I could feel Veyka’s soul. Maybe it was broken, maybe it was only a tiny fraction of what it had been before. But I could feel it. Maybe what I was feeling was the bit of it that resided inside of me, protected by our mating bond, as the Lady of the Lake had said. But it was stillher.
And that piece of her was still damn stubborn.
“I am going with you,” I said, stepping up to her side but carefully not touching her.
“I can do it,” she said, lifting her hands. “You would not have doubted me before.”
It was a fair observation… and so fucking unfair at the same time. I would not have doubted her ability to open rift after rift after rift to rearrange an entire continent’s worth of armies. I might have worried about the cost, her exhaustion, but I would have encouraged her and stood by her side. Now?
I was terrified of what it might do to her. Would the succubus inside of her take over? She was fighting off a monster from another realm with only a tiny shred of her own self to cling to, and we were asking her to open half a dozen massive portal rifts. Entire armies, that’s what they were asking of her. After she’d nearly died.
I did not want to doubt her. But it was there all the same.
“Here to the Crossing. Terrestrials to the mountains above the Effren Valley. Then the Aquarians and elementals. Last, Eilean Gayl to the Effren Valley,” I repeated the plan.
From Avalon, we would take everyone assembled back to the Crossing. Then Lyrena and Cyara would go with the terrestrial army through Veyka’s rift to the mountains above the EffrenValley, near the natural rift that connected Annwyn and the human realm, but not close enough to Baylaur to draw the attention of the succubus squatting within. Veyka would open another rift for Mya’s Aquarians and Agravayn’s elementals, sending them to set up camp alongside the terrestrials in the mountains. And finally, Veyka and I would go to Eilean Gayl to collect the forces my father had been tasked with raising north of the Spine.
I would be at her side for all of it. The vow we’d made to stay together seemed even more important now, when Veyka waged battle within her own mind.
Her hand hung in the air, like she was about to open a rift. But no spiral of light appeared.
“What do you need?” I asked, pushing away gentleness and trying for the even voice of the battle commander. She wanted me to treat her as capable and whole; I could force myself to do that.
Her head tilted to the side. Her fingers contracted into her palms, forming fists. I tried to meet her eyes, but they were closed.
Alarms began to ring inside of my mind.Veyka, I tried to reach for her. But instead of her bright and brilliant mind awaiting me on the other side of our mating bond, I felt only fathomless dark.
Her head snapped up. She shook it from side to side, eyes popping open. Still black, but focused.
My heart tightened in my chest.
“Let’s go,” she said. A second later, light appeared, spiraling outward in a circle and then a gateway. I recognized the outlines of the terrestrial camp on the eastern edge of the Crossing. There was our tent, where I’d held and kissed my mate thinking it might be the last time. How had the world suddenly become infinitely more complicated?
She is alive, my beast snarled.
There was nothing complicated about that.
