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My power wouldn’t work against them, but I prepared myself for that. I didn’t need my power to drop these monsters to the ground.

They would all die, just like they did the last time they came for us.

Every single one of them would die.

“You shouldn’t be out here,” Serefin spoke when he found me. “Go inside. You’ll be the first target they aim for.”

“There’s no way I’m letting my own soldiers fight this battle without me.”

“There is, brother,” Serefin sheathed his sword and grabbed me by both of the shoulders. His eyes were frantic as they scanned my face. “I know you want to fight with us. I know that more than anything. But you’re no longer a prince. You are ourking. We need you alive more than we need you fighting beside us on this battlefield.”

My first instinct was to shrug him away and tell him he was wrong. But that slightly desperate look in his eyes made me pause. I had only seen Serefin desperate like this a handful of other times.

I needed to stay alive, yes, but I also had no plans of dying. “I can’t sit inside the castle while you all fight the war that I brought on, Serefin. I can help.”

“Then help. But only when you can. You can’t do anything against the deadlings that the hundreds of men you brought here to fight can’t already do. We have the men. We have the weapons. Go inside and wait for the real fighting to begin.”

“You want me to wait for the Paragon to arrive?”

Serefin nodded. “That’s when we’ll need you, Mal. And you sure as shit better still be alive.”

I shook my head. “If you need me–”

“We won’t need you, Mal. As much as I would love to fight by your side, we have more weapons and soldiers than anyone. We have traps set up in the forest and we have blocked the castle doors. Nobody’s getting past that gate.”

He was right. This was no surprise attack. We had spent weeks preparing the land around us, reinforcing every weak spot and creating as many obstacles as we could for potential attackers.

“Fine,” I said. “But at the first sign of trouble, I’m coming to help.”

He seemed to relax a little then, finally letting my words sink in. If it meant this much that I would stay out of sight for a while, I would oblige.

“Now go find your sister and Jade,” Serefin suggested. “Because we both know there’s no way they took your orders to stay put.”

I laughed before turning away from the battlefield.

The soldiers I passed on my way inside did not look the least bit concerned.

Determined. Ready. Preparing their weapons and moving their bodies.

Those were the soldiers I trained. Those were the soldiers I could trust.

Jade could trust them, too. Trust them to protect her with their lives. Because that’s exactly what we were all doing here today, laying down our lives to protect Jade’s.

I walked through the front doors of the castle just before my men boarded them closed. Serefin was right. The odds of her and Adeline doing what they were told and staying hidden in the dungeons were low.

I made my way toward Adeline’s bedroom. It was a start.

The heels of my boots clicked on the stone floor as I walked. The castle was now barren, emptied out and turned down as if nobody lived here at all. The servants would be hiding in the tunnels, along with the few women and children that lived here.

I hated that there was no better option. If anything were to go wrong, everyone would be sitting ducks in here.

Which only increased the pure desperation I felt to win this battle. To crush our enemies.

“King Malachi,” a strange voice called after me. I spun around in the darkening hallway to find none other than Jade’s father walking after me.

His clothes were worn and ripped. Saints, had the maids not given him enough changes of clothing? He walked slowly, but did not stumble. His usual blood-rimmed eyes seemed clear now. Focused.

On me.