Page 85 of Night Meets the Elf Queen (The Elf Queen #4)

Alehelm, Pricilla, and three other gods he didn’t know closed in around them. He only knew they were gods by the signature subtle glow to their skin. The sign of immortality. He didn’t have any weapon that could kill them, Valeen did.

The golden cuffs dangling in Pricilla’s grasp taunted him. “You can surrender, Hel. You don’t have to die today.”

Mathekis nodded at Hel. “Go, Lord.” With his sword raised high, he charged. The god next to Pricilla threw out his palm and insects swarmed Mathekis, covering him in seconds. He screamed, clawing and batting to get them off. Then he fell to the ground and went still.

Fuck this.

“You must have forgotten who I am.” He drove his fist straight to the ground; the dirt, grass, and trees within a twenty-foot radius gave way and started falling into a pit.

Hel’s wings ripped out from his back, and he rose up.

The gods who’d surrounded him scrambled to get away from the crumbling earth, crawling and clawing to grab hold of something solid.

“THANE! You gave me your word!” he shouted as he broke through the tops of the trees.

Swiftly unscrewing the top to the crystal, he marveled only a moment at the silver essence swirling inside.

“You are mine,” was all he whispered, and it pushed through the opening and hit him in the chest. A thud, thud, thud, pounded in his ears as the power flooded through his blood.

A light burst across his vision like a blazing star then slowly faded.

Everything was louder, brighter, and more colorful.

A hot pulse poured out from his core to his fingertips, to the top of his head and down to his toes as if he was coated in warm honey.

He held his hand in front of himself— his skin had a new subtle glow to it. His magic hummed with a new intensity. He threw his head back and started laughing. He’d forgotten how it felt to be so powerful, unstoppable.

If the battle was lost, he was going to take out as many as he could, and no one could stop him.

THANE

Phantom shifted and danced side to side nervously beneath Thane.

He stomped and tossed his head, ready to charge into battle.

On his right, Fennan twisted the reins in his hands.

To his left, Piper kept looking at him. The screams and battle cries echoed through the forest and across the open plane between them.

Swords clashed, metal rang on metal, beast fought beast. It was pure chaos the likes he hadn’t seen in such a long time he’d forgotten the intensity of it.

He’d watched the exchange between Hel and Pricilla, watched the charge.

Just like Hel said he would, he pissed her off enough to draw her army out.

Beneath his Raven-winged helmet, sweat slid down the side of his face.

Thunder clouds boomed to the east, rain poured but the sun still peeked through.

The light reflecting off the pink-tinged trees created a red haze. That or all the blood being spilled.

“They are losing this battle,” Piper finally said.

“We want the pale ones to die,” Fennan said calmly.

“So you brought us here for what?” Piper growled. “To watch a slaughter and then have them march into Palenor?”

Thane remained silent. The pale ones fought as fiercely as he’d ever seen them.

Teeth sunk into throats and guts hung from mouths.

There wasn’t any part of him that felt sorry to watch them die.

Only that Hel was waiting. Having their master amongst them gave them a zealousness they didn’t have before.

He watched several of Pricilla’s army turn into a cursed creature, a minotaur, a handful of feline shifters, even a dragon. Even if they were killed, it was alarming.

“THANE! You gave me your word!” Hel’s voice cut through the chaos, cut into his heart. He shot up above the trees, hovering on great white feathered wings, then a bolt of light burst out from him. An invisible wave rocked the ground…

“What was that?” Leif asked, leaning forward in his saddle. All the horses neighed and stomped at the disturbance.

“Hel just became a god again.” Thane smiled slowly.

“Then he can’t be killed.” Fennan patted his horse’s neck. “All the more reason we should wait until the pale ones die.”

“But he could be captured,” Piper added. “You said those cuffs the goddess has can bind his magic.”

“If they can get them on him.” Leif sounded proud of Hel.

“We wait.” Thane gripped the saddle horn to keep his hands from trembling.

He didn’t want to wait. His mind said to charge in, but his gut said to hold.

If Pricilla couldn’t get to Hel, she’d go for Palenor and draw him away from her fortress, but the timing had to be right, or he’d lose more than half of his Ravens and he wasn’t willing to do that.

From his position, hidden in the thick wood that circled Pricilla’s fortress, he could see the fighting diagonal to him. Many dragons circled above but most of them had landed and marched into the fight on the ground.

“ Thane . The portal is right where they are fighting.” Piper had her sword in hand. “Palenor could be in danger.”

“You hate the pale ones. We have wanted this curse gone all our lives. Now you’ll watch it happen.”

“I may not like Hel, but you told him we would be there to fight. They aren’t the enemy right now.”

“And we will attack when I say.”

She threw her hand toward the battle. “We can attack the rear and box them in now.”

“If you don’t want to follow the commands of your king then go back home!”

Piper winced and turned away.

Prince Ronan, covered in silver dragon scales, stepped in front of Thane. “We don’t have the numbers to fight her once his army is wiped out. If we wait much longer, she will overwhelm us too.”

“I am the god of war ,” Thane barked. “I know what I’m doing. No one moves until I say!”

Foot soldiers still ran out from inside the fortress and if she had more than those five gods or demigods with her, he hadn’t seen them yet.

Gods and goddesses were worth ten of a good mortal soldier.

They didn’t tire and they didn’t die, though they rarely fought.

They’d rather have mortals do their bidding.

Time seemed to pass slowly. Minutes felt like hours. In the air, Hel shredded through a dragon like it was wet paper, straight through its chest and out its back. Once he hit the ground bodies flew up in the air by magic or his sword.

Pricilla and her ilk walked through the field, killing pale ones with ease. Though they kept their distance from Hel; they wanted to get him alone. But Thane would not leave him alone.

The moment he’d been waiting for finally happened; the flow of Pricilla’s army from inside the gates stopped.

Now he’d seen her final number. It was still twice what they had, but no matter.

“Ronan, take her archers, burn down her catapults. Piper, Fennan, Leif, with me.” He turned to Piper, “If we had not waited for all her army to come out, they would have boxed us in.” Thane raised his sword high and turned around to his Ravens and the dragon army.

“I know we have always fought against the pale ones but today they are our allies. They will not attack because a greater enemy threatens our land. This army of giants and minotaurs, of creatures you have never seen before, would come for our homes, for your children and your wives, and destroy everything. We stop them here. For Palenor!”

Their echoing cheers drew Pricilla’s eye as they charged into the open.

Phantom thundered over the grass. Armor clanked in a steady rhythm.

Ronan took his beast form, followed by his dragon soldiers, and they soared for her fortress.

Fire arched through the air, their talons slashed, breaking stone and sending bodies flying.

“Turn! Protect the rear!” Pricilla wailed. “Protect the fortress!”

Bones crunched under Phantom’s hooves. Thane brought his sword down across a man, then the god of war lived up to his name. Everything in his path fell by blade or by magic. He boiled blood with his power. He hacked and stabbed, only seeing red. It didn’t matter if Pricilla outnumbered them.

A half-shifted dragon covered in crimson scales ran up on Piper.

He launched himself from Phantom and tackled him to the ground.

Mud splattered across his face while they rolled and fought for dominance.

Thane managed to gain top position and pushed the point of his blade closer and closer to the dragon’s throat.

His enemy screamed, trying to dig talons into Thane’s armored forearms. Dragon scales were nearly impossible to push through with an ordinary sword, but Ronan had brought weapons that could.

All his Ravens had them, and so did he. The dragon’s arms shook, so did Thane’s, until the blade-point pierced his scales and he gurgled blood and went limp.

“Thane, behind you!” Piper smashed her shoulder into the minotaur coming up on him, then ducked under the axe and shoved her blade straight through his heart.

Thane nodded his thanks and rose up to fight. Leif and Piper fought back-to-back now. Screams of battle, cries for help, and roars from dragons became background noise.

Then he spotted Hel. Gore and blood smears covered him.

He was nearly as good as Thane with a sword but favored his magic.

The enemies dropped dead around him, legs breaking, necks snapping.

With a stretch of Hel’s hand, a bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and burnt a troll to ash.

It had been millennia since they fought together like this.

Thane fought his way to his side and Hel smiled over at him.

“About time you showed up. I was beginning to think you’d abandoned me. ”

Hel’s army was a quarter of what it was and dwindling. “I’m here, as I said.”