Page 86 of Night Meets the Elf Queen (The Elf Queen #4)

They fought side by side after that. The cousins who were more like brothers. They’d betrayed and hated and fought each other, but in the end it didn’t matter. Hel’s enemies were Thane’s enemies.

Momentum was on their side until horns blew all across the battlefield. Horns not of his or Hel’s army but from another army coming over the horizon. Crimson flags with a white flame at the center rose high into the air. The goddess of fury.

“We cannot win this battle,” Thane breathed. He whirled in a circle, finding his Ravens were too scattered. They’d lost all formation even if he could get them back into lines, Eliza brought another thousand or more.

A Raven right beside him took an ax to the chest and went down. Ronan and his dragons clashed with the enemy in the sky. Their numbers were even but Eliza had other winged fighters, riders on hippogriffs and griffins, and even men with feathered wings.

“Hel, we have to go back.” He raised his sword and pointed it south toward the woods where the portal was. “Retreat!” Thane bellowed. “Raven’s retreat! Ronan! Get your dragons back to the portal!”

Fennan carried the message, “Ravens retreat!” and soon others were shouting. The signal gave Pricilla’s forces a boost in morale. They fought harder and chased his retreating soldiers.

Eliza ordered a charge, the incoming battalion roared, their feet thundering.

Hel jerked Thane by the collar of his armor. “I’ll hold them off. Go!” He shoved him in the back.

Thane stumbled forward but turned and pointed at him, “You better come back, Brother!”

“I will,” he smirked.

With a whistle, he ran. Phantom hopped over bodies and galloped to Thane. Mid stride, he leapt on. He glanced back as Hel swung his electric-blue sword furiously. “Keep fighting!” he commanded his army. “Fight to the very end! Bite them, turn them!”

The pale one’s rage intensified. Entrails hung from mouths, blood oozed between their teeth and from their blades. They didn’t touch any of Thane’s Ravens or Ronan’s dragons on the ground as they retreated.

Hel was sacrificing his army to save them…

With his Ravens riding and sprinting with him, and dragons landing all around them, they rushed into the woods. Thane smashed his hand to the portal, “Take us to Palenor,” he commanded. It opened in a swirling pool and his soldiers sprinted through. “Get back inside the wall!”

Thane peered through the trees, his heart pounding, his breath rushing in and out.

Hel raised his arms and called down a wall of lightning bolts that hit the ground and cut across the field, stopping Eliza’s charge.

Some of her fliers crashed into it and went down. He could only hold that for so long.

“Faster!” Thane waved his arm in a circle to get them moving.

The lightning wall dropped, and the charge resumed. The pale ones caught behind it rushed forward.

The last of his Ravens and dragons went through and the last pale ones fell. Hel was surrounded, bodies flew from magical blows, and he fought fiercely but he was alone. The enemy charged for the portal now, for him.

“HEL!” Thane hopped off Phantom and pushed him through the portal and sprinted for him. Starborn trotted up to the portal and went through. “HEL!” He swung at the first soldier to reach him, cutting up the belly and through the throat. One down…

He kept swinging, ten down.

Two giants standing twenty feet tall came up on either side; he dodged a blow and cut the back of the left’s heels. The beast toppled with a screech. He narrowly missed the blow of a club and then hacked at the back of the giant’s knee, buckling him.

He raised his sword to clash with a man when a hand gripped his arm, and he was suddenly pulled into darkness.

Pressure crushed every inch of his body, then he stood outside the portal in the unnamed forest. It was quiet here.

No charging enemies, no rain or thunder.

Only the backs of the last of his soldiers marching toward home.

He bent over, grabbing the tops of his thighs, dragging in breath.

Hel let him go and placed both hands on the stone portal. “Don’t let anyone else come through.”

A moment passed. “There is a goddess requesting access,” it hissed.

“No!” Hel growled. “Do not let her through.”

“I cannot refuse her.”

“You can’t refuse me either!”

Thane pushed his palms against the rough surface. “Do not let her through.”

“She will come through another way,” the voices said.

“That will at least buy us some time,” Hel said. “This is our land, not hers. Do not let her through here.”

The portal went quiet, dormant. They both backed away and waited for movement, but it didn’t come.

Worry gnawing at his gut, Thane turned to Hel. “The next closest portal is the Brightheart Forest. It gives us not even a few hours.”

“Then we better hope Valeen and Katana finished that sword and that it worked.” Hel grabbed Thane’s collar and jerked him closer. “And you fucking idiot, I tried to send Mathekis to tell you that Atlanta wants Katana back. He asked for her in the negotiations. He’s here.”