Arthur, Finlay and I picked around the contents of the battlefield, looking desperately for survivors. The stench of death reeked into my nose. The crows were already feasting, plucking out eyeballs and flesh. I checked another body, but the soldier beneath me remained unmoving.
The sun was starting to set over the horizon. In hardly an hour, it’d be dark.
“There’s no one alive out here,” Finlay said in frustration as he stepped away from the body of a sorceress.
“Aye,” Arthur agreed lonesomely. He’d been kneeling by the corpse of a young soldier, who hadn’t responded to his attempts to wake him.
“We keep looking.” Each body that I came across was just as still as the last. With every corpse I approached, I was horrified that I might find the body of a friend, though I was relieved… and guilty… to find no faces I recognized among the dead.
This was my greatest failure as king. There was no greater dishonor.
An alicorn trotted out of the fortress, a large cut on his flank. He tossed his head before transforming, clutching his bleeding hip.
“You all right, Theo?” Arthur asked.
“I will survive, though I’m sorry to say the rest of my alicorns did not,” he said heavily. “The arrows did us in.”
There were wingbeats from above. I looked upward. Alexei hovered down, changing into a man as he landed on his feet.
“It’s a good thing I’ve found you,” Alexei said. “I was certain all of you were gone.”
There was silence, until Finlay asked, “Do you have a report?”
“General Bani is dead,” Alexei said reluctantly. “Most of our army died when the tunnels collapsed, and the other battalions couldn’t keep up. Our forces scattered in different directions once General Bani fell. I attempted to control them, but most fled into the woods. They’ve abandoned us.”
The last hope I had for a revival was dashed away. There was no saving Dolinska from Gabby’s forces now. We couldn’t fight them without an army, and ours had gone missing. The humiliated soldiers who’d survived were probably retreating back home, to Dolinska.
What they’d find when they got there. They’d be forced to surrender, or flee the city. There’d be no other option, once Gabby overtook the palace.
Would she take pity on the soldiers who survived? No. They’d be executed, for allying with me. Gabby showed no mercy.
Dolinska was most certainly lost, and our army had been vanquished. I’d lost all hope to defend my country. There was no longer any doubt which monarch would rise to rule the nation.
The war was over. We’d failed to protect the fae.
Gabby had won.
“We should’ve seen this coming,” Alexei mused.
“But we did not,” Theo said desperately. “We’ve failed.”
No one had to be told what had happened. Gabby’s plan was perfectly clear to everyone.
All was quiet, until Arthur suggested, “Perhaps the people will rise up. Maybe we can count on the citizens of Dolinska to fight her off.”
Alexei gave a brisk nod. “I will fly to Dolinska, and report back on what I see there.”
“And I will go with you,” Theo added. Both men transformed, and took to the sky.
I prayed they returned with good news, but at this point, I was in too much despair to hope.
We continued our search for survivors again, until a black dot appeared in the sky. Stefan trailed down, landing with a heavythudupon the earth. He was bleeding heavily from several cuts on his flank, but luckily, he was alive.
“General Davor got away,” Stefan growled, stomping his foot into the dirt. “I have failed to avenge my mate’s broken heart.”
“You are not the only one who did not succeed, my friend,” I told him lowly.
Stefan transformed back, and roamed toward me. His expression grew cold as he took in the bloodstained snow, the mangled corpses. “I see the gods were not on our side.”
