I wouldrule.
Chapter Twenty
Liam blinked,and then outright stared, when I strode into the throne room with Silverclaw swinging from my hip. I had my shoulders thrown back and my head held high. Finding Marin’s message for me had given me a burst of confidence that I’d sorelyneeded.
“You look so much like Marin.” Liam’s eyes dropped to the weapon. “Where did you get that sword? And thoseclothes?”
“All of this was my mother’s. She left it forme.”
I didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t need to. The moment in the cavern had been for me and me alone. It was something I would take with me forever, the knowledge of how far my mother had gone to protect me from the horror of this realm. In the end, she’d known she couldn’t protect me forever, but still she’dtried.
“Any word from the scout?” I asked Kael as I strode down the red strip of carpet to the step just below the dais that held the silver throne higher than the rest of the expansive room. For a moment, I bowed my head and closed my eyes, sending a silent thought to the former Queen. And then I ascended the stairs, twisting to perch on the edge of theseat.
Kael’s eyebrows were at the top of his head as he slowly paced down the carpet. Liam, Finn, and Rourke were just behind him, their expressions as shocked as his. But they didn’t argue with my choice to take the throne. No one did, not even the cluster of Winter Hunters who stood toward the back of theroom.
“My Queen.” Kael bowed his head, and then met my gaze with his glittering black eyes. “The scout hasn’treturned.”
I frowned. It had been at least anhour.
“Liam?” I turned to my Summer mate. “How do you think we shouldproceed?”
“I’ve spoken with the Hunters here. We plan to form a defensive position along the battlements. There are two flanking towers with arrow slits near the front gates. We should be able to hold back the Dark Fae with this approach until the Rebels return from the Autumnlands.
Should be able to, but there was no guarantee. Still, I gave a nod. It was the only option we had fornow.
“Okay, everyone get into their positions.” I stood from the throne and began to descend the stairs, but Liam stepped in front of me as Idid.
“You should stay here, my love. Out of sight and behind the safety of these stone walls,” he said in a whisper. “The King of the Dark Fae will be looking for you. He wants to see youdead.”
“And that’s precisely why I’ll be on the battlements will everyone else.” I lifted my chin to meet his fiery gaze. “The King is coming here for me. I won’t hide while everyone else fights for me. I won’t hide when these fae might die forme.”
I stepped sideways and strode past Liam. This time, he didn’t try to stop me. Probably because he realized I wasn’t going to back down. With a deep breath, I made my way down the thin carpet, so red that it felt as though it was a trail of blood leading to the wintry evening outside those thick woodendoors.
When I pushed out into the cold, I shivered against the wind, shielding my eyes at the thick fog of snow pelting down from the slate gray sky. One thing was certain. As powerful and as intimidating as these Dark Fae were, they’d made a serious error in judgement attacking the Winter Court in the middle of a snowstorm. We had the advantage. They weren’t from these lands. How would they cope against thecold?
We’d soon findout.
There were maybe a hundred of us, if that, but we took up our stations on the battlements nonetheless. To the left of the front gates, there was a covered battlement where the best rangers would aim their arrows. I took up space on the other side of the gate, on a long stretch of battlements with crenels. Liam and Rourke tried to talk me out of this, of course. If the Dark Fae decided to use ladders to scale the tall stone wall, they would focus their efforts on this section of the castle. But I insisted on being where I was needed the most, and that was here. On either side of us were the flanking towers with more rangers hidden inside, the tips of the arrows pointed through the thinslits.
We were ready for the Dark Fae. Or as ready as we would ever be without the back-up of the Autumn, Spring, and SummerCourts.
Even though there were a hundred of us, the battlements were tensely silent as we waited for the arrival of the Dark Fae. Our scout still hadn’t returned from his mission, a sure sign that he’d been caught spying on ourenemies.
In my mind’s eyes, images began to flash before me. A field full of blood. Bodies piled high on every side of me. Dark fae cresting a distant hill. Smoke filling the sky. I blinked and stepped back from the wall, trying to make sense of what I’d justseen.
They were the images from my dream, and yet...I stared at the hill in the distance. It was the very same one from my dream. There were no bodies. No blood had beenspilled.
And yet...that definitely was thehill.
The massacre happenedhere.
“Something’s wrong,” I whispered, pushing away from the wall to rush down the stone stairs. I wasn’t certain where I was going, but something inside of me urged me forward. I needed to get to the back gates of the castle. Something was there. Somethingwrong.
Deep down in my gut, I knew we’d beentricked.
And when I threw open the back gates, I soon found outwhy.
The Dark Fae who had stalked me on the mountainside stood on the other side of the gate, aiming an arrow right at my throat. Three others had joined him. They’d surrounded me in an instant, swords heldhigh.
