Page 43 of A Flame of the Phoenix (An Heir Comes to Rise #6)

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Nikalias

N ik kept his back pressed to a wall in the shadows, only curving his head around the corner to scout the street in Fenstead. It was thanks to Lycus they’d made it this far so efficiently despite the dark fae that crawled through the kingdom. The Fenstead general navigated them through inconspicuous routes to get them to the heart of the kingdom.

He could see the castle from here. Its tall spires still stood as a proud beacon of grace despite the darkness that smothered these once prosperous and peaceful lands.

Nik’s soul yearned to get there, and he hoped with every fiber of his being that Tauria was within her castle, waiting for him.

“Is that…?” Lycus let his thought trail off, then the general slipped out of hiding, darting across the wide street and into a narrow alley.

Nik swore, having no choice but to follow him.

He had to jog after Lycus, whose attention had latched onto something. No— someone , considering their chase. Nik only wished he would confer his motives. When Nik heard signs of a struggle, he picked up pace, skidding around the next corner of the back-alley paths he’d lost sight of Lycus in.

Nik drew his sword, but his mind prepared to breach the assailant Lycus was engaged in a struggle with. It took him a second to distinguish the general from the other male clad fully in black, hidden by mask and hood, like them. The pair were of similar build and fought with hands alone.

Before Nik had to intervene, Lycus’s hood slipped down as he threw the assailant over his shoulder, ending the fight. Nik advanced, pointing his sword at the assailant’s chest for extra measure.

“Old age is getting to you, Lord Berron,” Lycus commented in far too friendly a manner, and Nik suffered emotional whiplash.

Lycus pushed up from pinning the male down with a knee on his chest, then his hand reached down in offering.

Lord Berron’s dark brown eyes shifted warily to the tip of Nik’s sword.

“He’s a friend. A trusted adviser of Tauria’s father,” Lycus explained.

Nik wasn’t so quick to trust. “And where does his loyalty lie now, after all this time?”

“With my queen,” Berron answered with a hint of irritation that his allegiance was being questioned.

Nik reluctantly sheathed his sword, and Berron was helped up by Lycus.

“You look like you’re in hiding,” Lycus commented.

“I have been since the kingdom fell. It’s been a long century, but by Gods, is it a relief to see a familiar face. Another strong pillar in Fenstead’s primary defense.”

Lycus and Berron’s hands clapped together before they pulled each other into an embrace. Nik began to relax. He trusted the general would know if Berron was being untruthful.

“You could have fled to Rhyenelle with us. There we rebuilt a strong army. Not the numbers we once had, but our soldiers have been training tirelessly, knowing their objective would be to reclaim this kingdom someday.”

“Yet you come alone,” Berron said, careful with his bitterness. The lord’s eyes skimmed over Nik. “And so does the King of High Farrow. So I assume you have not come to aid us but to take our queen, who has only just returned.”

Nik said, “Tauria is here?”

Berron nodded, and all the tension that had been growing in Nik the whole journey to Fenstead didn’t deflate—it sharpened into determination as he cast his sight up in the direction of the castle. He couldn’t see it from the high walls of this alley, but Tauria was so close it took everything in him not to abandon all strategy and reason to march right through the front door to get to her.

“You’ve made contact with her?” Lycus asked.

“She made contact with us,” Berron said.

Nik’s attention was gripped wholly. “Tell us everything.”

“Best if I show you first,” he said.

Berron led them carefully, and Nik put his complete faith in Lycus that they weren’t letting this fae lead them into a trap for Mordecai.

They headed underground through a drain. Nik was familiar with this type of labyrinth, considering he’d used such passages to leave his own city in High Farrow many times while his father was king.

At the end of a wide cylindrical tunnel, Nik could see the column that expanded vertically. They stepped onto a metal balcony and stared over the expanse. It was a hideout. Many fae were littered around the stacked balconies, and on the floor below.

“There’s been a rebel movement all this time?” Nik concluded.

“We’ve been growing our numbers slowly since the monarchy fell,” Berron informed him.

Nik’s chest swelled with pride for the resilient people of Fenstead. He knew Tauria would have been awestruck to have seen this, and that only inspired his need to see her more.

“What is Tauria’s plan?” Nik asked. Because there was no chance she’d seen this beacon of hope and hadn’t started conspiring.

They’d come to get Tauria away from Mordecai’s clutches, but Nik knew Tauria would not leave now without gaining back Fenstead.

“She’s been getting as many of the rebels into the castle walls as possible, posing as staff. Once we have enough allies within, we stand a chance of taking back the castle at least. Had you come with our army, we might just have stood a chance at pushing the dark fae out of the kingdom town by town.”

Nik exchanged a look with Lycus. The general said, “We didn’t just bring Fenstead’s army. We have legions of High Farrow and Rhyenelle forces too.”

Berron’s eyes bulged. “Then what are we waiting for? We need to set positions, alert Tauria, and…”

Everyone stilled, hearing the disruption at the same time. It was a noise that stood every hair on Nik’s body. The snarls were distantly familiar. Then the scent…

“Dark fae,” Nik said in horror. “The most vicious and beyond humanity of them.”

As he said it, the rumbling snarls grew from the passages, and the first cries came from a few levels above them as they infiltrated the space.

“Did you lead them here?” A woman came rushing toward them, accusation outlined harshly on her face.

“Of course not,” Lycus snapped.

When her eyes fell on him, recognition relaxed her expression.

They didn’t get a moment to converse further as dark fae dropped from the balconies and spilled in from the tunnels at all angles. The force of them was terrifying. Nik had only seen one this savage under his library in High Farrow. It had bitten Faythe and nearly killed her.

Nik’s sword sliced through the onslaught of them, but there were many. Too many. They were completely overwhelmed and wouldn’t hold out long. It was hard to believe these creatures were once ordinary fae. The attempt to Transition them must have gone horribly wrong to have stripped them of sanity and morality.

He needed a plan. These were all Tauria’s people, which meant they were his , and they’d remained hidden and ready to fight for decades. To see them all be slaughtered now so quickly and brutally would be a tragedy that would break Tauria.

“Where is the main water system?” Nik yelled over the chaos.

Berron answered, his voice distorted from the fighting, “Two floors up, in the east vault.”

“Everyone needs to prepare for an evacuation. Keep fighting, but get close to an exit.”

Nik’s blade drowned in black blood to get to a tunnel opening. He took a slash of claws to his arm and narrowly avoided fangs that snapped close to his thigh. Nik raced through the passage and climbed up the ladders that took him two levels up. He would have to flood the tunnel system and hope most of the rebels could make it out before the thrashing of water.

He found the giant wheel that would release a catastrophic amount of water, but there was no other way to wipe out so many dark fae. Nik heaved, but the metal, so long dormant, barely turned an inch. He kept trying, aware of the hisses and snarls growing louder, heading toward him.

Come on. He chanted for momentum, but it wasn’t turning fast enough. He would have to leave it and fight soon, and with the velocity that carried through the passage, he didn’t know if he would get another free moment to try again.

Nik strained and groaned, pushing the wheel with everything he had. A small stream of water trickled from the circular opening, but there was a long way to go. He focused everything on it, growing that stream that began to spray his face. Shadows grew down the tunnel ahead. He wasn’t going to make it.

Then the resistance lessened, and Nik’s determination surged. Because Lycus had joined him, and together, the opening crawled open faster. Water sloshed under their feet, and then…

“Hold on tight!” Nik yelled. Lycus lunged for the nearby ladder to hold onto it as Nik’s next push unleashed the force of the trapped water.

The dark fae who raced savagely for him were all swept away in the brutal current. Nik’s body was dragged, but his hands held desperately to the wheel.

Lycus reached an arm toward him while keeping purchase on the ladder. The water level was rising up to his knees. Nik reached back, only skimming his fingers, but on his next try he threw more momentum out. Lycus gripped his arm, pulling him toward the ladder. As soon as Nik could grab it, they scrambled up it.

Nik followed Lycus’s lead until they found a way out. The roaring of water still echoed in his ears as Nik leaned his hands on his thighs, catching his breath.

“Do we need to shut off the water?” Nik asked.

To his relief, Lycus shook his head. “It will lead back into the rivers around the valleys. These tunnels were designed to help with flood control, but there hasn’t been a river break in centuries.”

Nik straightened, scanning the eerily quiet streets with dread.

“Did any make it out?” he dreaded to ask.

Had he just drowned dozens of his own people?

It was Berron who answered, hobbling over to them. “As luck would have it, most of the rebels had already left the underground. Tauria called action tonight. Tallia, one of our leaders, managed to swiftly eliminate the dark fae within the castle, and the instruction was for the rest of the rebellion to be let inside to strengthen the force for when the retaliation would come, but…” Berron paused to skim a look toward Nik.

“Where’s Tauria?” Nik asked immediately.

“Mordecai took her. She’s been spotted in the middle of their war camp, which has expanded to stretch across the entire valley over the decades.”

Nik’s rage boiled. He turned to Lycus. “Ready our forces.”

“We are a little over half the number that sits on the valley hills,” he argued.

Lycus was thinking logistically, strategically. Nik only knew his mate, the queen of this damned kingdom, was behind, held in the midst of the enemy camping on their doorstep. The mockery was enough to drive him mad, and the thought of anyone hurting her threw his caution to the flames.

“It’ll create enough of a distraction for me to slip in and get her out. Then you call a retreat,” Nik reasoned.

Lycus’s expression firmed. He exchanged a look with Berron to mull it over. “That could work, but I need you to understand you’re all but asking our soldiers to walk into slaughter.”

“For their queen and kingdom, that is their pledge. As their king, I will be the one to ask it of them.”

Lycus didn’t disagree nor argue.

Nik looked up at the moon and felt Tauria within it. He always did. He just needed her to hold on a little longer before he came for her.