Page 93 of Night Meets the Elf Queen (The Elf Queen #4)

VALEEN

T he killing, the death, the screams—it all seemed endless. Metal clanked and rang out as weapons clashed. There was so much screaming, whether for fury or sorrow, her ears could bleed from it.

There was a ferociousness amongst the elves she hadn’t witnessed before.

Their beautiful faces were twisted in rage.

Their graceful moves suited for dancing were used to kill.

Elves moved faster and were more agile than the other mortal races.

This was their land, and they fought harder because of it. Their families were too close.

In her own mind she thought of Aunt Evalyn. If they got through, she could die hiding under the floor of Nerium Oleander. That couldn’t happen.

The roars and crashes of the dragons were as loud as any thunderstorm. The flashes of color from their scales glimmered in the sunlight and might have been beautiful if this wasn’t war, if blood and death didn’t fill the skies too.

Win, we must win . All their lives, all the fighting to remember, Hel’s sacrifice of four hundred years of sleep, the cursed pale ones who terrorized the land, all the consequences and hopes for the future came down to this one moment in time.

She swung Zythara and Soulender, only seeing ways to kill. She lost herself to it. Cutting through armor with ease, slicing open throats and arteries.

Blood. There was so much blood. Crimson splattered across her armor, her skin. The warm wetness became unnoticeable.

The minotaurs and giants hit hard but went down harder.

Catapults with giant boulders crashed into the magical wall. They broke against it, raining boulders and rocks below. Dragons took turns knocking their tails and blowing fire against it.

More than once the wall’s iridescent rainbow shimmer faded in spots, and each time her heart stuttered.

But it held. Nothing had gotten through, not arrows nor beasts.

“Hit the wall harder!” one of the enemy commanders shouted. “Take it down! We must take out their archers!”

The gods and goddesses of the council and their allies were somewhere in the back of their armies, watching the battle. Maybe after Eliza and Lennox went down, they retreated or maybe they waited for another reason.

It didn’t matter, she would get to them eventually.

Valeen moved like a night wind, going from shadow to her solid form in a breath. Her vines wreaked havoc, tearing through flesh, wrapping up monsters and men.

Explosions from Hel’s magic went off all over the battlefield. Thane cut through enemies with precision and speed. Anything in his path went down.

Against anyone else it would’ve been over already.

The sun had moved halfway across the sky, but the enemy kept coming like waves crashing against a battered ship.

Valeen didn’t tire, not with her immortality, but the elves did. Even with their valiant hearts and desperate desire for victory, they grew weary. Their swings were just a little slower, their groans more frequent.

At a faster rate they fell. It seemed like an endless number of enemy soldiers came from the back to replenish their dead.

We need to get the elves inside the wall, Valeen thought. They needed to rest.

An elf in silver armor beside her hit the ground, falling against her boot.

His brown eyes stared up at her as he let out one last breath.

A Raven in black went down on her other side.

Spinning, she cut the throat of the green ogre who’d bludgeoned him.

With a spray of dark-blue blood, it clutched at his neck and fell forward.

“Lady Lightbringer,” one of the Ravens shouted. “The giant! Take the giant!”

A frost giant, blue as winter oceans and as tall as the tallest oak trees, stamped its thick ice-block feet. It spread ice over the grass and the fallen. Its long, thin arms became spears, jabbing and swinging. It laughed when it caught an elf and sent him flying.

It was lethal, but slow.

She took off, sprinting right at it, ducking under its swing and ran up its back.

With a jump she hacked down and smashed Zythara into the crown of its head.

Its ice body cracked and splintered then the entire giant shattered.

Backflipping off, Valeen landed in a crouch behind it, letting the bits of ice roll around her toes.

The few Ravens who’d seen it, cheered and swung harder, cutting down the enemy faster.

“Back inside!” Thane’s voice carried through the chaos. The elven archers rained arrows down, but it wasn’t enough. There were too many of them.

Valeen slammed her fist to the ground and a wall of her black vines shot up, barbs grew to act like bars in between the stalks, and her dark-purple lilies sprayed a mist of poison. It gave the elves a moment to retreat inside the safety of the magic barrier.

But their axes hacked at her stalks, chipping away at them until they fell like trees. Enemy soldiers chased after them roaring and screaming.

Valeen whirled to find Presco. There were so many bodies on the ground in different armor, so many dragons and beasts laid dead left for the vultures to pick at, it was like looking for a seashell in a sea full of them.

“Presco!”

She finally managed to spot him in his human form, crawling toward the wall. Shoving her sword in the holster, she ran, jumping and hopping over bodies, both alive and dead and made it to him.

“Valeen,” his voice was hoarse, but he sounded relieved. His tan tunic was stained with blossoms of blood and dirt, his shoulders still had deep gashes, but his scales were closing back together.

“Hold on, I’ll get you inside.” Presco was impossible to carry in his dragon form, but he was still heavy as a human.

Using all her might, she dragged him. He grunted and hissed in pain, but it was better than dying.

With her personal shield surrounding them, attacks and arrows bounced off.

But they still jeered and stuck out their tongues.

“Come out, goddess, give us a taste.” The ogre with big yellow tusks and a loin cloth licked the shield.

“Alright, have a taste.” A black vine shot up out of the ground and pierced straight through his open mouth and out the back of his head. The others around him took a few steps back.

Once inside the magical dome, she moved Presco to sit up against the stone wall.

Holding his side, he pressed himself against it.

“Go. I’ll recover.” He reached into his pocket and pulled a small silver vial.

“I have a healing potion I’ve been working on.

It works for smaller injuries, we’ll see what it does for me now. ”

“Are you sure? I can find Hel to heal you.”

“No, I’ll be alright.” He winced, and took slow deep breaths.

Biting the top of the cork he pulled it with his teeth and tipped the bottle back.

He grimaced. “I need to work on the taste. And it only works on dragons at the moment but in the future…” Right before her eyes the gouges and cuts closed.

“Win this battle, my queen. I know you can.”

She nodded and lightly gripped his shoulder. “I will.”

With a quick check she found Hel, Thane, Fennan, and Leif inside. All the living elves stood in the protected region, staring at the monsters that savagely fought against the magic wall. When the enemy got too close to the shield, Thane and others stabbed through it.

Some of the dragons on their side had flown back inside as well. But the battle raged on in the sky.

Ronan dropped in and shifted just before he hit the ground and caught Piper in his arms. “I need to fight with all I can, and I can’t with her.” He set her on her feet and silver scales rippled across his body.

“Ronan, wait!” Piper cried just as he shot back into the sky. “Come back!”

Fists beat against the invisible wall. Axes crashed into it. A frost giant hit it with a blast of ice, and it spread up and around but didn’t get through.

“We need something big. Really big.” Valeen glanced back, finding the peaks of Castle Dredwich. As long as the sword held, and as long as she and Katana lived, it wouldn’t break… she hoped.

The few small but new black spots in the iridescent sheen made her stomach turn.

She watched Ronan fly higher and clash with another dragon, all teeth and claws and snarls.

Ronan ferociously ripped a chunk out of the red dragon’s shoulder.

The scaled meat dropped to the fighters below.

His back talons raked across the belly leaving long gaping lines.

He thrust his head, driving the horn on his snout into the other dragon’s eye.

The beast let out a shrill throat noise and retreated backward.

Ronan went in for the kill—but another came up behind him, with teeth bared and a sword for a tail.

“Ronan, behind you!” Piper wailed.

Dax shot up from below directly in between and the enemy dragon’s sharp tail stuck right into Dax’s chest.

“No,” Valeen breathed. Her heart dropped and kept falling when Dax let out a half roar half cry and clutched at his chest.

“Dax!” Ronan whirled, leaving his back open and his opponent sunk his teeth in. He bellowed, swung his boulder tail, crashing it into both the attacking dragons, and hooked his paws around Dax’s arm. The two of them tumbled into a downward spiral.

Piper screamed and bolted for him.

“No, Piper!” Fennan wrapped her up from behind. “You can’t go out there! You’ll never make it to him.”

She smacked and bucked to get away from Fennan. “We can’t leave him!”

With a boom , Dax and Ronan hit the ground. Without thinking about consequences, Valeen sprinted through the wall into the chaos. She held up her palm, conjuring her shield—its brilliant light shone. It had held against dragon fire, it had held against swords and demons, it would hold now.

The war drums beat with each step. The terrible screams of the monsters and enemy warriors sounded far off as she focused solely on getting to Ronan and Dax.