Page 24 of A Fate of Blood and Magic (Fated #2)

Chapter

Ten

ELIAS

It took longer to reach the compound than I had initially anticipated.

Hayden and I had to bend space several times to get everyone as close to the compound as I would dare.

Thankfully, the nyxx were able to travel through the snow they formed out of and made it to our meeting spot long before I bent space with the last of our small army.

Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t convince Brenton or Everly to stay in Niev.

While George wasn’t pleased with my decision, he stayed at my command because we needed someone I trusted to handle the affairs I couldn’t while I was away.

And selfishly, I needed him close to Teddy to protect my pregnant mate should trouble arise.

With Hayden’s and my magic somewhat spent from bending space so many times, we waited until well past midnight to make our move. I reached out to Teddy one last time to see if she’d managed to press her magic through the realms. She hadn’t.

There had been something peaceful about braiding the threads of our magic together the previous night. A sense of solace I still desperately needed. It was the only thing that kept me together after witnessing my mother fall apart once again.

For a moment, one foolish moment, I’d thought the joy her empathic magic had picked up on would lift her enough so she could join us. So she’d want to join us in celebrating her first grandsons.

I forced myself back to the present. “Okay.” I ran a hand over my stinging face, focusing on the billow of white smoke that blew from my mouth.

Guardians, the cold in the human realm, took some time to get accustomed to.

“Once we step out of the forest, the lirio can no longer camouflage us, but with the humans’ poor vision, especially in the dark, we should be able to reach the compound doors before we’re seen.

Finley and I will kill the guards standing watch.

” I pointed toward the six guards standing atop a high platform beside the wall doors. They each held rifles and shields.

“You can’t just kill them.” Sebastian held his arms close to his chest, tucking his gloved hands beneath his underarms, but I noticed the way his muscles ticked in fear.

I gritted my teeth, taking my time to roll my shoulders and stretch my neck even though it did nothing to loosen the knots beneath the surface of my skin. “What would you have me do?”

“N-negotiate with them,” Sebastian stammered out. “You can’t . . . they have families, people who love them.”

“As do my fae who you helped abduct.” I summoned Finley forward, purposely ignoring Brenton and his impending reaction to my next words. “Her intended is among the tortured fae. Maybe I should leave the fate of your people to her.”

Finley’s fingers sparked with her red magic, her silver eyes turning so white, they appeared translucent. A sense of foreboding seemed to vibrate in her every limb.

He put a trembling hand to his face and used a single finger to brush his chapped lips. “Have mercy, Elias. I beg of you.”

I smiled, flashing my elongated canines while I made sure to keep my tone free of emotion. “Have mercy?”

He stared up at me, and his throat quivered when he swallowed.

My jaw tightened along with my fists. “Your betrayal saved your family. Is that not what you wanted?”

“You can’t . . .”

“Should we have brought tea for these negotiations?” Although Brenton’s words came out as a tease, I was certain the wrath written on his face mirrored mine. “Perhaps we can hold hands and talk about our feelings.”

I inched closer to Sebastian, my nostrils flaring at the overwhelming scent of his fear.

“We came here with one purpose. We will free my people and lay waste to anyone who tries to stop us. Your actions will dictate whether you see your wife and children again. Stay here, and don’t utter another word. ”

He took a retreating step back, right into Everly’s chest. Her canines gleamed as she glared down at him.

“Once we breach the compound, the lirio and nyxx will join us as our first line of defense,” I continued. “We should anticipate the humans’ guns shooting iron bullets.”

Alastor nodded to his fae while they held a private conversation in their minds.

I held my breath in my lungs for a few beats before I stepped out from beneath the tree line.

Finley walked beside me with the others following, while Alastor stayed behind with his fae.

While the lirio and nyxx were intimidating and ruthless, they were also large and conspicuous.

Right now, we had the element of surprise, and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as we could.

If fate was on our side, we’d be able to kill the soldiers standing guard and enter the compound without anyone noticing.

As we slowly approached, the scent of iron grew more potent, as did the smell of the humans hiding behind the material.

When we were a few steps from the compound wall, Sebastian’s voice cried out in warning.

The wind picked up on his shout and drove the words toward the compound.

Just as his screaming died, a red flare of light shot from the tree line to the sky.

I growled at how this worthless male betrayed us as easily as he had his own kind. Two lirio barreled toward us, moving so swiftly I barely saw them as they ran past us.

Flashing lights and blaring alarms peeled from within the compound walls, and as the guards on the wall pointed their rifles at us, I let my anger consume me and sent out that rage in a wave of magic that reduced the guards to ash.

In a taunt, their remains floated down and settled on the snow before us.

It did nothing to quelch the stench that wafted from the ashes.

More guards replaced those I’d just killed. Before us, the nyxx grew like snowy mountains. They used their mighty fists to topple the platform on which the humans stood. The hulking footsteps of the remaining lirio raced behind me, getting closer.

“Do what you must to kill as many as you can,” I told Finley .

She nodded, her eyes turning white as she slipped into her primal instincts.

With the lirio in front of us, I ran toward the compound door and summoned my lethal magic again. Within a few beats, the door turned to dust.

Humans stood ready for us, pointing a large cannon where the door once stood.

The lirio lumbered before us, taking multiple gunshots.

Just as the cannon exploded, Alastor threw a protective barrier around me.

While it shielded me from the blast, the shot erupted on several of his lirios, killing them instantly.

Fire spread around us unnaturally, clinging to the nyxx.

The flames danced atop the nyxx, making the snow they formed from melt.

The fire that consumed them was different from any I’d seen.

It was hot enough to burn but lingered against the nyxx, killing them far too slowly.

When Alastor struck a wailing nyxx, I sent my destructive magic to several other nyxx to quicken their deaths and ease them from their suffering. Brenton also used his smoke magic to ease our new allies quicker into death.

While the majority of the soldiers fired upon us, the civilians ran with their distressed shrieks trailing them. Whether the soldiers were untrained or simply afraid, many of their bullets hit humans—children and women.

My gut twisted, hating the sight of younglings dying, but it couldn’t be helped.

The moment the humans abducted my people, they declared war upon us. And sadly, in war, the innocent usually suffered the most.

The few shots whose aim was true speared the lirio.

Savages in their own right, the lirio continued to fight despite the iron piercing their skin, spreading the poison into their blood.

They tore through the humans, separating their limbs from their bodies.

A head rolled to the ground, the human female’s unseeing eyes pointed at me the way my father’s had.

Mercifully, either someone turned off the alarms or the device broke, because now all that remained were the cries of battle.

A fiery thread of red shot from Finley’s hands, sweeping over those in the compound before it struck the bloodied snow.

In an instant, every uniformed soldier collapsed to their death.

I noticed several of the fallen soldiers wearing similar iron chains around their necks, just as Sebastian had.

Being around the material affected my energy, but I continued moving forward to do what I must to bring home the abducted fae.

Finley heaved in unsteady breaths, and when she leaned forward to rest her hands on her knees, Brenton went to her side. He rubbed her back as she took lungful after lungful of air. As I stepped away to address the suddenly still crowd, I heard Finley vomit and the way Brenton tried to comfort her.

I cast a massive barrier around the running people. Unable to see it, they bounced off the hidden wall when they reached it, and varying emotions warred across the features of each individual’s face. When they faced me, it was through wide-eyed terror.

Although rage burned through me like wildfire, I waited for the humans to calm down enough so they’d be able to hear me.

“No further harm will come to you if you show us where my fae are being kept.” My voice resounded over the crowd.

The people looked at one another, some murmuring while others remained silent.

I wasn’t sure if the confusion on their faces was real or dramatized.

Sebastian had said his wife hadn’t known about the fae being abducted, but after witnessing how little I could trust him, I wasn’t sure if I believed him.

I grabbed the closest person, a child only a few years older than Javier. I gripped him with an arm across his chest while I drew my canines closer to his neck.

“My people.” The veins in my neck pulsed hard. “You will tell me where they are, or I will kill every single person here.”