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They parted to let Nenya through, though.

Gradually, the shouts died down as she knelt a few inches from the charred remains of the wall and drew a small silver knife. Alves shrunk away from her. Only Edored remained, standing two feet behind her with his arms crossed, his rigid posture a clear message not to try anything funny as long as he was around to stop it.

Nenya slashed the knife across her left forearm without a moment of hesitation, leaving a single sharp cut behind.

On my shoulder, Alyra winced.

Nothing seemed to happen for a moment or two. Then Nenya lifted her head a fraction, lips moving, and Edored darted forward without warning, jumping over the invisible line that had killed fourteen others before him.

Tared gulped, grabbing Lyn’s shoulder in a panicked reflex.

But his cousin stood and kept standing, turning back to the ranks of alves with a dramatic flourish and a broad grin of triumph. Next to him, Nenya sat hunched over in the grass, more and more blood trickling down her wrist and palm – gods help me, how long could she keep bleeding, if that was what it took for us to cross the line alive?

‘Time to move,’ Agenor grimly said, as if he’d read my thoughts.

There was no need for commands. At the foot of our hill, the first alves were already pouring through the gap in the wall, charging into the fields with drawn swords and howls for revenge. The vampires marched in after them. The fae and the winged half of the phoenixes took to the air to cross more swiftly, and within minutes, the first nymphs had reached the breach, too, following their allies onto the trampled grain fields beyond.

Creon unfurled his wings beside me, holding out his hand to me.

And it was in that moment – with over half of our army past the blood mark and the remaining part well on its way to joining them – that the first swarm of black-clad fae burst from the nearest warship, eclipsing the morning sky in less than the time it took to cry out a warning.

Chapter 34

There was no wayto turn back.

Even if wecouldhave reached the alves in time, there was no chance we’d have persuaded them to give up and wait for better chances; worse, with the crowd that was still pressing to make its way through the breach in the wall, the ones who had already crossed had little choice but to keep moving forward. Farther towards the city. Farther towards the hundreds, no,thousandsof fae launching themselves from the ships, like a flock of hungry carrion birds …

‘Are we going in?’ Creon sharply said beside me.

Into the tightening noose. Into the cage that would soon click shut behind us.

But the alternative …

Stand here, unable to reach the brunt of our army, while the Mother’s forces slaughtered them like animals? They didn’t stand a chance to win. All they could do was win time forme, and what would be the use of their sacrifice if I wasn’t even there?

‘We’re going in,’ I breathed.

His wings swept out while he was still hauling me into his arms.

Alyra screeched and soared after us, a flash of silvery white as she shot past us and over the invisible line of the blood mark. Beneath us, nymphs were still pouring through the gap in the wall. I caught a single glimpse of Nenya between their writhing bodies, still kneeling in the grass, head drooping dangerously; Edored crouched behind her now, hands on her shoulders, holding her upright as she bled and bled and bled.

She would survive, wouldn’t she?

He wouldmakeher survive, wouldn’t he?

Before us, the fae army was now growing into a solid wall of wings, obscuring the golden morning light, casting unnatural shadows over the meadows and fields. The alves were still storming forward. The vampires and phoenixes had slowed down, waiting for orders. The nymphs were fanning out behind them, and the first humans were now making their way through the gap in the wall as well, back onto what should have been homeland to them.

A blur of fire shot past us. Lyn’s voice – ‘To that hill!’

Creon changed course.

We landed on a small elevation just within the wall, the gentle slopes covered in cow parsley and nettles and the occasional scraggly pine tree. Lyn was already there, eyes flaming. Agenor followed a moment later, Rosalind in his arms; I caught sight of Tared between the nymphs, and of Alyra hovering a little farther over the battlefield, looking for eyes to sink her claws into. Thefirst alves were half a minute away from clashing with the fae army and showed no sign of slowing down.

The fae, on the other hand … they seemed to be waiting for something, hovering black and ominous over the city and the fields.

‘Let’s hope Khailan has the sense to get the archers in position,’ Agenor muttered next to me, scanning the field with flickering eyes. ‘Those orchards – the nymphs may be able to use the trees. Winged forces—’

Something howled, farther out in the fields.