“What are you doing?”
Cyara swallowed down the lump of cowardice in her throat. “We must go.”
Osheen straightened. Maisri was at his side now, too, a skein of neatly raveled yarn in one of her small hands.
“We must make common cause with the Faeries of the Fen.” Osheen’s voice cracked over the words, though he tried to maintain that lieutenant’s command.
The stones were in place. Diana stood and began chanting, joining hands with her brother. Diana was the one with the power of prophecy, the witch-gift in her blood that allowed her to unmoor her mind the way her full-blooded witch ancestors could.
“You have your orders. I have mine,” Cyara said. She’d written some variation of these words on her note a dozen times, scratching out every iteration. They were just as insufficient coming from her lips as the end of her quill.
Diana began to tremble, her eyes rolling back in her head. But just like the spell she’d cast in the temple at Eilean Gayl, her lips continued to move, repeating the chant again and again.
“Do not do this,” Osheen implored. He started toward them, long strides eating up the snow-covered ground. Maisri trailed behind them.
Cyara pulled her wings in tight, shoving the harpy down, lifting her hand to send out a blast of fire instead. It struck the ground between them, bringing Osheen up just a yard short of Percival’s back.
Osheen shoved Maisri behind him, to safety from the raging wall of flame.
A familiar tingling began in her limbs. Not quite like Veyka’s ability to move through the void, but close enough that she could see the comparison, understand how Gorlois had manipulated Diana’s gift to allow the short movements between realms and over land. The same way she forced Diana now.
Maisri’s lower lip trembled, a pair of tears sliding down her cheeks. Osheen tugged the child against his side, his eyes dark. Cyara thanked the magic that was pulling her away before she could see the light in his eyes fully die.
“I’m sorry,” Cyara said, knowing that the words were not enough. That they might be stolen by the wind and the flames. Knowing that she was hurting him. “I cannot let her die.”
Her flames winked out.
But before Osheen could cross the line of scorched earth, they were gone.
38
GUINEVERE
It was a terrible idea. Truly, the worst she’d ever had.
The aftermath of beheading the elemental who’d abused the human child was mixed. The humans were still scared of her, but she encountered no open hostility. The same could not be said for the elementals. Some barely acknowledged the incident. After so much loss, what was one more death? But others broke their elemental masks and glared outright.
Fine. As long as they’d fight to defend themselves.
Which brought her back to her truly terrible idea—to integrate the human and elemental volunteers.
The idea had entered her mind after two patrols, one human, one fae, had nearly slaughtered each other in the mountains outside of Eldermist. Each thought the other was an infiltrating force. Two humans died, one water-wielder was injured.
Sylva’s words rang in Gwen’s head.If you kill everyone who carries prejudice in their heart, then we will not have much of an army left.
Killing each other would have the same effect.
In her stupid, stupid attempt to focus that lethal energy on the succubus, she’d called the volunteers to the hilltop outside ofEldermist, in view of the standing stone that marked the rift to Annwyn. It was the largest expanse of flat space she’d been able to locate in the nearby mountains without descending into the valley itself, which would leave them not only too far from the village, but exposed to any approaching enemies.
The other benefit was that the space was too small for the two groups to remain separate. But Ancestors, were they trying.
The elementals took up more than their share of the hilltop, their superior size and general menace warning off the humans. While wary, the humans who’d climbed to the hilltop to volunteer were not the same ilk that hid in their doorways at the first sign of violence. These were the women who had fought for their families, learning to hunt and fight while their husbands and sons were kept under constant guard. Now, they were joined by the men who had been forced to watch, useless, as their brothers and fathers and sons were taken by the succubus. They allwantedto fight.
Gwen told herself that she had mustered troops under worse conditions.
“Stop glaring at each other and form up. Straight lines of ten,” she barked. The human half of the contingent jumped, though they did not move to form up. The elementals continued glaring at her.
“You are not our commander, terrestrial.”
