I nodded once, bile rising in my throat as my gaze went back to her. “Keep her alive.”
“And Dante?” he asked carefully.
I tore my eyes off the bubble, resolved. “I don’t care,” I said honestly. “If he dies during this, then I’ll mourn for those who needed justice. But he stopped being my brother a long time ago.”
And it was a truth I’d struggled to come to terms with. He wasn’t my brother anymore. Never really had been. I’d just been a pawn for his power play. But never again.
97
Rowan
Each breath I took in was tinged with bile and blood. I barely spared a look back at Adrian as I ran into the fight, praying to Nyx he could take care of himself.
Especially because Ivy couldn’t.
My fellow bond mates were barely keeping the other creatures from getting to her. They thought if they could cut her down, their false king would win.
But they were trapped in a power struggle I wasn’t even sure we would be able to interrupt, and it fucking terrified me. Seeing her standing almost chest to chest with Dante, the stupid skull trapped between them as they fought for control in their silent battle, had me moving closer.
I pulled a dagger from my side and shoved it into the back of an enemy soldier, grunting as they dropped to their knees. The hit wouldn’t kill him, but it was enough pain and shock to keep him from fighting against me cuffing him and letting him fall to the ground.
In the distance, where Greer used to hold parties and dances, the earth rumbled. The grassy planes to one side of the giant, stone courtyard split open where Xerxes fought against a tide of new soldiers. More than we could have anticipated.
Nine of us against the onslaught of mages, shifters, vamps,and Fae coming from the damned forest and surrounding structures meant certain death. Even if Xerxes could hold them back with the barrier of rock he built with his power, there were still other ways they could reach us.
Well,werereaching us.
The sky filled with Fae who could fucking fly, and from the palace came more brain-dead soldiers.
Fuck me.I shook my head as I took in the hundred or so Aither Fae swarming us. They were a force on their own, the Aither Court. There was a good fucking reason why they were the holders of a prison kept only in their realm. And their warriors were specially trained for uprisings.
Well, they should have been trained to also not turn against their fucking Queen. Instead, they were leading another wave of attacks against us.
The demon king appeared beside me, eyes on the sky. “We need to protect our mate,” he said, sounding way too fucking grim.
“Don’t you think that’s what we’re doing?” I asked, finally tearing my eyes off the sky and turning to the rest of the battle. Elias had one of the wolves by the throat, but the other was tearing at his back. Maeve snapped the neck of a vamp and dropped him with a trained speed that not only kept him alive, but cuffed and out of commission. Orion was on several Fae with his shadow blades showing them exactly why they should have feared him before, and Thor…
The bear was still protecting the children and agents from rabid shifters.
“You think you could jump them out?” I asked, turning to Rhadamanthus. “We don’t need to be worried about hostages right now, and we need Thor fighting.”
The demon king pressed his lips together but bowed his head, though his red eyes flickered to Ivy. “Gather the mate circle around her. We cannot let them reach her—orhim.”
I nodded, but the sound of a horn had us both pausing. “What the…”
It shouldn’t have shocked me, and yet relief poured through me at the sight of the Elysian demons. One by one they appeared with their own army in tow. The generals I loved to hate dove into the battle without a word, swinging battle axes and swords like their lives depended on it.
Even though it most definitely did.
Then the winged demons from House Wrath appeared on the horizon, taking to the storm like they were the real threat. Aither might have been warriors, but I had no idea if they could really hold themselves against Wrath.
“They knew to find us—that war was upon us,” Rhadamanthus said, whipping out his own twin swords from the shadows around him as another Elysian demon appeared, this time with agents. “We may still win this fight.”
I watched as more creatures flooded the palace, not just our agents or the army we’d formed in the Underworld, but creatures from all around Avalon. Shifters from the surrounding packs closed in on the approaching army from the forests around the Queen’s Road, appearing on the grass Xerxes had torn apart, entering the fight without need for command. Witches and vampires appeared along the upper bridges and balconies, summoning magic and diving into the courtyard to fight.
“Never should have doubted them,” I said, more to myself than to the demon who was already rushing off to defend our mate. The words felt like a reminder for Dante, who probably thought they wouldn’t dare fight him, but more for me—for our team.
The creatures of Nyx did have some fight left in them. They were strong enough to defend themselves. For weeks, we thought we would be working within the parameters of the demons, with their armies. But the witches, shifters, and vampires could defend themselves.
