Now that I was standing, I could see the other end of the plain more clearly. A growing crowd of soldiers had formed on Mortremon’s side of the gray flags, gold-plated armor shooting blinding rays toward us as it caught the midday sun.
This was what the king was so worried about, Mortremon rallying to attack.
“Since you failed to do as I asked, I think it’s time I made my second wish,” Terym said, stepping out from behind his guards and drawing my attention from the gathering forces. I was shaking my head before he finished speaking, my promise to Eleanor ringing in my ears.
“Very well, you give me no choice,” he said in an eerily icy tone.
A familiar aggrieved shout rang out, and I turned to see General Lenek tugging a squirming Eleanor through the sea of Torglea soldiers. My stomach twisted at the malicious grin covering his face. She thrashed but couldn’t escape the iron grip he held on her arms.
Bastard.
“Stop! What are you doing?” I shouted, running toward her. He needed to let her go now.
Terym raised a hand—halting me after only a few steps. He had orchestrated this. Ordered Lenek to get Eleanor and bring her here. My gut churned and my chest tightened. He held all the cards, and he knew it.
Hefuckingknew it.
One word from him, and Lenek would hurt Eleanor. Could kill her.
After everything I sacrificed, all my worst fears were coming true. She had been the best way to manipulate me from the beginning. The first mistake I’d made all those months ago by not fleeing Toreshire when we had the chance, had led to this moment with my baby sister at the mercy of true evil.
A smirk slashed across Terym’s face when he saw the realization dawn on my own, sending my heart to my stomach and my breathing into short pants. “If you don’t do as I say, your sister will receive your punishment.”
General Lenek towed Eleanor toward the stairs of the platform, a whip in his other hand. Fear gripped my heart in a vise, and I struggled to inhale my next breath.
Terym knew he couldn’t physically hurt me, not with my clear protection from not only the sentient army but Shade as well. He wouldn’t risk their wrath, so he moved onto the next best thing.
Where was Harkin? Surely, he would stop this. He wouldn’t allow them to hurt her.
I searched the men, but all I saw was a sea of blue, his distinct orange missing. We were on our own.
Lenek’s boots thudded on the timber stairs as he hauled a still-struggling Eleanor atop the platform.
They were going to hurt her.
Fuck. That.
“Only those who haven’t sought death but still felt its cool embrace shall offer themselves to him.” The quote left my lips on a breath, so low only the magical beings could hear. After realizing Eleanor’s obsession, it had been fitting to choose a verse from The Tale of the Eniferium, a story our mother had told almost every night. My words unlocked the still soldiers, and the sentient army shifted again, drawing their weapons as they had when I’d fallen.
Chaos erupted, Terym’s men echoing the movement, several stepping forward to attack. The sentient army responded without my commanding them, feeding off the desires in my chest to attack them all.
To stop them from hurting my sister.
They started across the dead, grassless ground toward the Torglea army.
“Stop!” Eleanor’s demand rang through the clearing, every soldier halting—even the sentient ones who had barely made it to where I stood out in the open. Hazel eyes bore into mine, commanding me. “I will bear this punishment.” Her words were strong. Fierce. That of a true queen.
She had captured the attention of all.
Eleanor tugged free of Lenek’s grip, then walked toward the nearest pole of her own volition, raising her hands so the general could fix them in the shackles above her head.
Using a knife, he sliced through the back of her dress, exposing her skin, and I stepped forward on instinct. Eleanor’s head shake halted me in place, and I could do nothing while Lenek swungthe whip in the air a few times, rolling his shoulders like he was warming up.
Gods, I didn’t know what to do. A battle waged within me. My need to protect fighting with the realization that my sister was right. Her earlier words echoed in my mind. It wasn’t just about her or me. It was about thousands of innocent lives, a decade of ongoing war.
The many faces of Yinora’s villagers flashed in my mind, their exhaustion and pain and hopelessness.
If Eleanor could be strong, I needed to be as well. I owed it to her to be, not just because she was my sister, but because she was also my queen, even if she didn’t know it yet. My eyes locked on hers, drawing strength from the determination blazing within them.
