She’d circumnavigated half of the valley now. In a few minutes, she would be just above the horde. She must get close enough to assess numbers, strength, and speed. From what she could tell from her first look, they were moving in a tight group. That information would be vital to forming battle plans. They’d only faced the succubus in massacre scenarios, where they overtook the unprotected males at such a speed that those remaining could not hold them back. But what would it be like to face a horde in the open field of battle? They did not have commanders as far as any of them had been able to tell, did not follow a strategy of their own. Ancestors, they did not need one. Not when they did not tire, did not feel pain.
They were drawn to Veyka. That was the most telling bit of information thus far.
Veyka was on the other side of the continent, in another realm entirely. What had drawn the succubus horde to the valley?
Thoughts changed and formed and changed in time with the cadence of her own bounds and leaps. But they all faded away as she cleared the next rise—the one that would bring her into direct view of the advancing horde.
They would be able to see her as well, but she was far enough and fast enough for it not to matter. Besides, she would appear as nothing more than a lion of the mountains, hunting for prey just like them…
It couldn’t be.
She shifted, not believing her lioness’s eyes. But the sight she saw now, the details in sharp relief, was the same.
Not a succubus horde.
She counted, doubling, stretching, estimating. One thousand. Two thousand. Three. Her heart stretched and groaned, unused to the emotion that pushed aside the worry and fear.
Not a force of darkness, but of light.
Elora marched at the head of the remains of the elemental army. And at her side, in perfect formation and keeping pace despite their smaller stature, was a company of a thousand human foot soldiers.
54
VEYKA
“Traitors.” Anger seared through me, hot and bright even through the driving rain. I expected to see lightning coming down around me, even though I’d shown no affinity for storms. The force of my anger was enough to defy all logic. “I knew you’d come for me one day. But I will admit, I did not expect it to be today.”
The resemblance only made it worse. Agravayn conjured images of his brother, memories of the guardian who’d been the next thing to a father to me in those months after Arthur’s death. Just the memory was enough to set the blood in my veins sizzling dangerously.
“We are no threat to you.” Agravayn lowered his weapon, sheathing it at his belt and showing submission by offering his hands palms up. I gripped my weapons tighter, savoring the weight of Excalibur in one hand, my familiar dagger in the other.
“Save your lies. Your brother was good with them, too. I have learned my lesson.” My eyes scanned the flat expanse behind him. There were two more brothers, no doubt lying in wait to support Agravayn.
“You haven’t learned anything. You’re the same self-centered princess.”
Fucking Evander.
Ancestors. I’d managed to forget his existence for the last few months. Gwen had told us that communications stopped coming from the estate belonging to Gawayn’s brothers on the edge of the Split Sea. But with the liberation of the survivors from Baylaur, then the settling of those from the mountains into Eldermist and reaching the terrestrial army…. Evander had been a blip unworthy of my attention.
Until now, when he stood before me gripping a short sword and sneering at me, hate shining out of his dark eyes.
The feeling was utterly, completely, and overwhelmingly mutual.
“I always knew you wanted to kill me, Evander. I did not realize that by ridding myself of you, I was sending you into the arms of the traitors lying in wait in my own kingdom.” But it was a mistake I could rectify now, quickly. “You finally have your wish. Kill me.”
It would give me the ultimate pleasure to put him down.
The battle around us ebbed. The screams died away from the urgent sounds of imminent death to the longer groans of agony that belonged to the wounded. By sheer numbers and luck I was not going to question, we’d defeated the succubus this day.
There were carcasses behind the two traitors. Human and succubus. Which meant they’d fought their way across the bridge. Were those blue bodies as well?
Before I could follow that line of thought, another male appeared, wading through the carnage to stand between Agravayn and Evander.
“The killing is done for today, Majesty.” Gaheris—the most reasonable of the brothers, after Gawayn. Or so I’d thought. I could remember with perfect clarity the day they’d stood beforeme shoulder to shoulder in the throne room of the goldstone palace.
I’d been amused and intrigued to meet Gawayn’s brothers. Before their brother murdered my handmaidens, tried to kill me, and aided the female who’d orchestrated Arthur’s death.
I had been horrified when they’d described the children gone missing from their shores. Had that, too, been a lie? A ruse to rob me of my Goldstone Guards?
