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Scarlett. You did it, Love. Pull it back before you give it all.

No panic. No worry in his voice. Just a soft command that grounded her.

That called her home.

When she finally managed to blink her eyes open, she was on the ground. Sound was muffled, but there was no screaming. No sounds of battle. No seraphs in the sky, just a black dragon circling above them. Cassius and Sorin were hovering over her, but a feline was also there.

Amaré was perched on Sorin’s shoulder, and when she turned her head, she realized they were all there. All of the spirit animals were gathered around her. Some pacing. Some laying down.

“Did it work?” Her voice sounded weird.

“Did it…” Cassius glanced at Sorin before he looked back at her. “You don’t remember?”

“Remember what?”

“Scarlett, you…” Cassius dragged a hand through his hair. “You dragged me all over the battlefield. We appeared next to each one of the spirit animals, and they… They shifted to their human forms, and the two of you decimated everyone within range that our people were not shielding.”

“They shifted?” Scarlett asked, trying to push onto her elbows to see them.

“Briefly,” Cassius said. “It was as if your power gave them the ability to hold the form long enough to help before they were forced back to their animal forms.”

Sorin was dragging a blade down his forearm and reaching for her hand, and she yanked it back from him. “No. You have to be drained.”

“Not as much as you would think,” he replied, reaching for her hand again. “You need it more than I do.”

She didn’t like it, but she let him slice her palm, a shudder rolling up her spine when his flames melded into her own gifts. “Drake and Callan?”

“Safe,” Sorin said with a soft smile, brushing back hair from her brow. “Being tended to.”

“And the mortals?”

Sorin hesitated a moment. “There were losses. Mortal and Fae. You know that with war, but we saved as many as we could.”

“It would have likely been worse if there had been Maraan Lords here,” Cyrus chimed in, appearing over Cassius’s shoulder.

Scarlett was fairly certain her heart stopped. “What did you just say?”

Cyrus gave her a quizzical look. “That if the Maraan Lords had been here, the losses would have likely been higher.”

“None of the Maraans were here,” Cassius repeated slowly, dread filling his eyes as they connected with Scarlett’s.

And the obviousness of this now was like a slap to the face.

None of the Maraans were here.

This battle was the biggest one yet. There were more forces here than there had been at the Wind Court or the Earth Court, and more Night Children had been sent. Roderick had been present at the Wind Court when the only battle was over a Citadel. This had been a massive raid through Windonelle to attack the Fire Court, and none of the Maraans were here? Knowing they would be facing her and Sorin? The Avonleyans? The Fae Royalty?

And while Alaric’s forces had certainly been killing innocents, they had seemed to be singularly focused on one thing. Getting to Callan and Drake and keeping them alive.

The most ironic thing was, Alaric had made this exact move before. She’d caught it then. When he had sent Night Children to distract them at the Fire Court border while he had been about to infiltrate the Night Child territory to search for the then-Contessa. She’d met Tarek there. This time, she might have realized it too late.

This entire battle had been a distraction to keep them busy and their focus elsewhere.

And it had worked.

Chapter48

Callan