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“Do you remember the evacuation plans you were told when you first arrived here, Eileen?”

The woman nodded, her voice trembling as she said, “Y-yes, your Majesty.”

He smiled encouragingly, not letting her see his own dread rising up. “It will be all right,” he said, as more screaming rent through the air. “Go to your assigned area and help where you can.”

She nodded, and he watched as she hurried away, personal effects left forgotten on the ground. As soon as she was out of sight, Callan turned and ran towards the screaming. The further he went, the more mayhem he found. People were in utter panic. Men and women were yelling at one another. Children were crying. He ran past them all to the screams of terror. He hurtled over makeshift fire pits, grabbing weapons wherever he could find them as he ran. A knife left out here. A dagger near a guard post.

But when he finally cleared the trees at the edge of their camp, he came to a standstill.

It was a bloodbath.

There were soldiers and seraphs as far as he could see. It had to be the entirety of Windonelle’s armies and hundreds of seraphs. Here. To crush any hope. Men and women Callan had been training these last weeks were fighting. Or trying to. They were nothing in the face of this. Seraphs with fire magic were setting tents ablaze, while those with earth magic were simply creating holes in the ground, swallowing people whole.

Juliette and Arantxa were in the sky on griffins, their beasts managing to evade attacks as the two Witches battled against a horde they would never defeat.

He saw Drake across the way, struggling against a group of seraphs keeping him separated from the fighting. They weren’t trying to kill him. They were trying to detain him.

Which meant they were here for Callan too.

To keep their Maraan Lords alive.

The seraphs spotted Callan at the same moment he pulled the vial Scarlett had given him from his pocket. He tossed it onto the ground before him, crushing it beneath his boot and watching the shadows swirl up. Then he swiped up a sword from one of the fallen men nearby, tightening his grip on the dagger in his other hand. He did not have armor or leathers on. It made it easier to move as he let them come to him, forcing them to expend that energy to initiate the fights. He leaned into their attacks, causing them to jerk back to avoid fatally injuring him as he parried blades and dodged attempts to detain.

Scarlett should be here by now.

That’s all he could think as he sliced at the whip of vines that had been wrapping around a wrist. He ripped the vines free at the same time he dropped to a knee to avoid the reach of yet another seraph while he thrust his blade up and into the seraph’s gut. It hadn’t taken her this long when he’d been facing Veda.

Maybe she couldn’t come. Maybe she was stuck in her own battle. Maybe she was fighting for another kingdom right now. Maybe she couldn’t come, and they were left to defend their own as they had been from the very beginning.

But he wouldn’t let them take him. He would go down fighting beside his people, giving as many as he could time to get away. If he went down, he took Mikale with him. It would help. That in itself would be a victory for them. Scarlett would fight for his kingdom, even if he were no longer here to rule it when this was over. They had Tava. She would care for Eva, and she would rule as the queen she had been for years now.

The screams continued to echo around him as he drove his dagger into the chest of a seraph. It wouldn’t kill him though. It wasn’t shirastone, and there was no fire to keep the being down.

So Callan kept fighting beside his people as the sun sank lower in the sky, knowing he would not see it rise, and he hoped Tava would forgive him for breaking his promise to her.

Chapter47

Scarlett

No.

That’s all she could think when she saw Callan’s shadows. The shadows that were her summoning from him because something had gone wrong. Very, very wrong.

Tomorrow. They were going there tomorrow. She just needed one more day. One more day, and everything would have played out perfectly. The game would have been over.

One more day and—

“Scarlett,” Sorin repeated, drawing her from her spiral.

“We need to—”

“Sorin! Scarlett!”

They all turned at Eliza’s voice as she came rushing towards them, Razik with her.

“Eliza? What has happened?” Sorin asked.

“We just received word. Alaric is attacking in Windonelle. The entirety of his forces. They are coming here. For us. For the Fire Court. Burning everything in their path as they move.”