“Do you feel it, Percival?” Diana wandered forward a few steps, toward the center of the island.
Her brother frowned, scrubbing a dark red-brown hand through his already unkempt tangle of black hair.
“Maybe.” His hand rubbed across the stubble darkening his chin. “Following it could be dangerous.”
“This entire place is dangerous,” Cyara murmured. Percival’s face contorted into a scowl.
She should not have said that, not after all she’d asked of Diana in order to get them there. But the compulsion to flee was visceral, embedded in that place in the center of her back, below her nape and between her wings, that ruled with instinct rather than logic.
The urge to take flight back to the safety of the continent, to leave her companions behind…
“We are here,” Diana said with uncharacteristic calm. “We must follow.”
One hand gripping her heavy purple robes, she started into the interior, all exhaustion seemingly forgotten, lost to the compulsive call of the island. Percival ran to keep up with her, no hesitation.
Cyara’s wings tensed. Her thighs. She could shoot into the air and be away from this place. She pinned her hands to her sides to cut down on resistance—but one collided with the hard bulge in her pocket.
The communication crystal.
Her wings sagged, realization and relief coursing through her. She’d almost lost herself to the witch magic. Never again.
She must remain in control.
She dug her feet into the sandy ground, running to join the pair of humans.
She must save Veyka.
45
ARRAN
I’d been away from Wolf Bay for nearly a year, but walking into the army camp shocked my senses into thinking mere minutes had passed. The scents were the same—roasting meat and blood and unwashed bodies. I’d missed the sounds. Maybe that was why I’d struggled to sleep these last few months. Even a busy palace was quiet in comparison to a city with walls made of canvas.
Veyka and I split as soon as our feet landed in the thick mixture of mud and snow. Lyrena appeared at her queen’s side, armed with information about the layout of the camp and a proposal for how to distribute the amorite gems remaining to us. Barkke waited for me, Orcadion and three other lieutenants I recognized at his side. I’d swallow the presence of the Dyad; at least Morgause was nowhere in sight. Poison was not an effective weapon against the succubus.
I started down the central artery of the camp, the three males and two females falling into line on either side of me. “The latest word from the humans is that the Crossing—their version of the Spit—is swarmed. The succubus are pushing inward toward the land mass that corresponds to the Terrestrial Kingdom.”
“We do not know how they reached the Crossing, whether this is the same force that took Baylaur or another wave entirely.” I laid out the information we did have in succinct, factual sentences, trying to remove all bias.
“The queen will open a portal rift to the bluff to assure we have the high ground. We’ll attack in a standard formation. Three columns, head on.” I pivoted when I reached the sheer cliff face, dropping straight down from the mountain towering overhead. Veyka had selected this spot to open her rift. But not just yet.
I turned to my lieutenants. The two females and their male counterpart had served under me for a combined total of two hundred years. Orcadion was married to Morgause, but he was also very good at ripping out throats. Barkke deserved a chance to lead after the services he’d rendered to me and Veyka in Baylaur.
“Concerns.”
The first female lieutenant, a blonde flora-gifted terrestrial with a particular affinity for trees, stepped forward. “If we push them across the Spit—the Crossing—what is to stop them from spreading out once they reach the other side and ravaging the humans there? It might be better to drive them into the sea.”
“They will not retreat. Not with Veyka there.”
“You are certain?” she pushed. I let her. When I asked for my subordinates’ concerns, I meant it. If there were holes in my plan I wanted them to find them before the enemy did.
“I wish I wasn’t. What else?”
Barkke twirled the end of his ridiculously long beard around his forefinger. “Could we try to surround them? Use Veyka’s magic to take a few companies and catch them from the rear?”
“We do not know the size of the horde or where the rear is.” If there was one. “I will consider it if the situation changes or we gain new information.”
None of them suggested leaving the humans to die. That was a victory. In what was bound to be a day of defeats, I would take even the smallest one.
