We’d survived the first assault easily enough, but I knew not to get too comfortable. Thousands would cross, though the tiny bridge would slow them down, forcing them to come in smaller groups. If they kept up this pace, we might yet have a chance.
Another group of beasts charged off the bridge. Fenella nocked an arrow and shot one in the eye. Other archers did the same, and none missed. The pile of the dead was quickly growing, their large bodies forming a wall of protection between us and the bridge.
“This is going better than I expected,” Fenella said with a wicked laugh. “Dumb beasts are just following orders and can’t seem to make smart decisions about when and how to attack. Let them keep on coming.”
I frowned. It did seem too good to be true, almost as if the gods were hoping to distract us from something else. Heart pounding, I looked up at the city, where the humans were taking refuge in the tower. Surely the gods wouldn’t know where we’d hid them.
As if sensing my unease, Silver trudged toward me after another wave of beasts had passed. It still felt impossible he could be here like this, wearing his joint eater form. He looked so much like Midnight it hurt to look at him.
“What is it, Tessa Baran?” he asked in his rattling, papery voice.
“Can you go check on the city? I have a bad feeling.”
He huffed, and the gust of his exhale blew back my hood. “No. I swore to stand beside you, and that is what I must do. If you wish to check on the city, I will go with you, but I will not gowithoutyou.”
More beasts stormed across the bridge, but Kalen’s archers quickly stopped them. Everything was under control here, at least for now. Swords would not be needed until the fae started to cross. That might be soon, but…where were the gods?
“Nellie, stay close to Toryn. I’ll be back in a moment.” I turned to Kalen. “I’m going to check on the city. It doesn’t feel right that the gods haven’t attacked us yet.”
His eyes narrowed. “By yourself?”
“Silver is going with me.”
“I don’t like it. If they’re in the sky, they’ll see you, especially if you have a towering tree walking beside you. I don’t hear anything coming from the city. No screaming. No clanging of steel. Nothing. If the gods had focused their attention there, we’d know about it by now.”
Frowning, I gazed up at the hill, taking in the glittering gemstones that shone even now, lighting up the battlements. Everything seemed quiet and still. I just couldn’t shake that sense of dread creeping across the back of my neck.
Against my better judgement, I stayed put. The moments stretched by. Beasts continued to swarm, rush after rush, in an endless deluge of blood and guts. The towering pile of bodies stretched from one end of our small unit to the next, so high it now blocked our view of what was coming.
Rain still poured from the sky. I was so wet that I no longer remembered what dry felt like. Mud was up to our ankles, sloshing every time we tried to move.
A body fell from above. It splatted into the mud before us, the neck a ruined, mangled thing. The head landed only a second later. Mykon’s unseeing eyes stared back at us. Ruari’s brother. I pressed a shaking hand to my lips.
“The gods attacked the battlements like Tessa feared,” Toryn said grimly. “And now they’re here.”
Kalen shifted his body in front of mine. He readied his sword as seven gods landed on the mountain of bodies, their feathery wings free of the rain that plagued the rest of us. Andromeda was in the center. She wore steel plate and a crown embedded with glittering tiger-eye gemstones. It was a statement, a symbol that nothing we could do would stop them. Whatever magic we could find in this world, they were far greater than all of it. And they would crush us beneath their boots.
Hastily, I pulled my hood back over my head. She hadn’t yet noticed me. I wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.
I dragged my gaze away from Andromeda. Sirius and Perseus stood together on her left side. They were armed, but their expressions were downcast. Callisto crouched on the beasts, her hand pressed to the flank of the one nearest to her. She looked different now, with short dark hair and a smaller frame, but her crimson eyes were the same. Orion, Pollux, and a silver-haired woman—who I guessed was the God of Storms—were facing the other way, their focus on the bridge.
That was our only warning.
Forty-Eight
Tessa
Dozens of fae rushed up the pile of bodies from the other side, joining the gods on the makeshift hill of dead beasts. They raised their swords in celebration when they set their sights upon our sodden, blood-drenched unit. The rain hushed, slowing to a drizzle, but only for them. It remained a downpour for those of us in the mud.
Andromeda suddenly frowned and looked behind her. Then she motioned to Pollux, the god who’d taken over Caedmon’s body. He nodded and took to the skies while Andromeda turned her attention back to us. I cocked my head. What was that about?
“Kalen Denare,” Andromeda called out. “The dreaded Mist King of the shadow fae realm. I have come to offer you a deal.”
Kalen raised his voice to be heard over the roar of the rain. “There is no deal you could offer me that I would take.”
She smiled. “You love your people, do you not, king of the shadow fae?”
Kalen didn’t answer. He merely stood there gazing up at the gods, his face impassive, though his white-knuckled fist around the hilt of his sword showed his true emotions.
