The woman carrying her child was just ahead of me. I got around her and grabbed her shoulders with both hands. She pushed forward against me, her tear-streaked face suddenly close to mine.
Then Kiegan was there.
One precise, sharp hit and the woman went down, safe, his arms taking her weight before she could fall wrong, the baby in her arms now wrapped in his too.
We looked at each other for one beat.
He ran to bring her to safety.
I was alone again. Ahead of me, Bismyth had formed a line; no one else would pass them. But there were still those who were already walking toward the dark surf, behind the line.
How long could this go on? If we attacked the Fae contingent, then it would be open war. If we did, how could we stop the Fae’s punishment?
We were not going to be fast enough.
I knew it. Fear knew it. Bismyth knew it, working as hard and fast as they could, and it wasn’t going to be enough.
I saw the older man ahead—closer to the water than anyone else, almost at the wall, almost at the gap in the breach—and I ran.
I didn’t reach him.
He walked into the sea without breaking stride, and the water came up to his knees, his waist, his chest.. I splashed into the water, but it was too late. His head sank, and I could not find him.
I kept moving back toward the beach.
A little girl was coming toward me. I picked her up, though her legs kept moving. Dairen appeared from somewhere and took her from my arms without a word, already turning, already carrying her back.
Coming toward us, over the mortals, were two dragons. Smoke curled around their faces, obscuring them; they were coming for the Fae. Fear must have ordered the attack. There was nothing else to do.
The woman with the baby was still walking.
I ran for her.
And somewhere in the running, between one step and the next, I understood.
This was the queen’s punishment for refusing her offer.
She couldn’t touch me. So she was touching everyone around me.
This was what my choice had cost. I was watching people die for it anyway, and I couldn’t stop it.
It had been the right choice. But I would pay for choosing myself, for choosing freedom.
The dragons dove, belching flame. There were all eight of them now, standing at the edge of the water. Tay stood beside one of the Fae. I could not see his face.
I dared not run to my brother. I grabbed another mortal and wrestled him back from the edge of the sea, pushing him down the beach. He did not fight me, but he didn’t stop pushing forward, either. As I struggled with him, I looked back for the dragons to incinerate the Fae.
One of the diving dragons shifted in midair. He tumbled over and over, his body slamming into the surf.
The shadows moved. The Nightwalkers moved in on him. Shifters ran toward them, and it was a matter of who would arrive first.
The other dragon was diving. The man pushed past me and made it into the surf. I grabbed my knife in one hand, hilt gripped to harden my knuckles, and punched him across the temple. He kept walking. He could not be stopped.
The other dragon fell to earth like a shooting star, smoke and flame clinging to them for a moment before it extinguished. She plunged into the sea.
The Fae were still singing their beautiful, terrible song as mortals walked past them into the sea.
The Fae looked unmoved. They were watching the chaos with the composure of people who had never in their lives had reason to be anything else.
