Page 36 of Realm of Crows (Wings of Ink #5)

Twenty-Five

Herinor

“Three.” Myron finishes counting.

The building shudders under the force of magic clashing with magic, and from the sound of steel being drawn, I can tell they broke through the shield.

“Six Crows,” Kaira keeps whispering. “Where are the other four?”

Clio is vomiting again, Astorian sitting beside her feet on the floor, back against the dresser and head resting on his knees while he breathes through his own nausea.

I have the faint impression he’s going through more than just the effects of the drug, but with that enigmatic bastard, one can never be too sure.

“Maybe they fled with Erina,” I suggest. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the coward bolted.”

Kaira nods, but I see it for the hopeful gesture it is. She wants to believe that we will all be fine and it wasn’t a huge mistake to come here, and I want to tell her it wasn’t, but I’d only lie to myself. We didn’t kill Erina. We didn’t learn anything about his plans or Ephegos’s whereabouts.

Yes, we’re all alive and considerably unharmed, but that’s about it.

With Clio and Tori affected by the magic-nullifying drug, there is no way they can site-hop us out of here, and we can’t carry them back in our bird forms. That leaves us to take the conventional mode of transportation and hike north.

It’s not what I signed up for, but Ayna came up with the plan.

Who am I to question her? I’ve misjudged situations often enough to get myself into a life-long deal with a traitor Crow that prevents me from being of much use to my king and queen.

Another crash and a shout carry down the hallway.

“Should we go help?”

I stop Kaira with a hand on her shoulder before she’s at the door, steeling myself for the burning look she’ll surely give me when she turns around. “Myron ordered us to stay, so we’ll stay.”

Instead of her usual fire, frustration and defeat cloud her brown eyes as they lock on mine when she faces me. “It doesn’t feel right. What if?—”

“Don’t even think about the ifs .” It’s easier to say than do, but it’s the best advice I have. “Myron will call for us if they need us. ”

“Listen to him,” Clio seconds my statement, a thing I might have sworn a few days ago would never happen, but the most recent events seem to have brought all of us closer, even the ice-spitting Fairy Princess and me, the traitor.

“How long do you think it will take for the drug to wear off?” I ask in return.

Clio shrugs, still a bit green around the nose.

“Doesn’t matter,” Astorian responds for her. “We need to get out of here as soon as we’ve cleared the building and are sure no one will be following us.”

He’s right. Staying here isn’t safe—especially with Erina having gotten away. If Ephegos and the troops they projected onto the battlefield are nearby, we might run into more trouble than we can handle.

That reminds me?—

“How do those projections work?” I’d been meaning to ask that before, but when Jeseida’s estate was the only time Erina used that trick, it wasn’t as important as it is now, when they seem to be able to project entire armies.

“However they do it, it messes with our planning,” Kaira nods, pacing in front of the door. Her braid bounces against her back with each agitated stride, and her eyes sparkle with anger and concern. “We can’t possibly distribute the troops we have access to when we can’t rely on what we see.”

She’s got a point there.

“It’s an ancient technique,” Astorian says with a sigh. “Before Eherean mages became extinct, some people with access to really strong mages used it to communicate over distance. ”

Why the male has never bothered to tell us this before is beyond me, but I am not in the mood to call him out for it. Right now, my focus is on anything Myron sends down the mind link and on making sure Kaira remains within sight, where I can protect her.

“Anything in particular that is needed to project an army somewhere?” the Flameling asks, eyes on the door and attention on the mind link.

“They would need an enchanted artifact; something small but powerful is enough to conjure projections.” This time it’s Clio speaking, elbows braced on the dresser as she rests her head in her hands.

Amazingly, both fairies are already purging from the drug despite the high dosage. This must be a newer version of it, something hitting with full force but not lasting long once it enters the target’s system.

“But armies ?” Kaira prompts, making her next round in front of the door.

“I mean, there is no guarantee any of the forces we see on the battlefield are real. We can’t thin our troops and risk being outnumbered, but we also don’t want to overman individual posts and risk lacking soldiers in other places. ”

“Spoken like a general,” Astorian notes instead of answering.

Because there is nothing to add, other than, “We need to find out what it is and destroy it.”

Clio gives me a dark glance. “So you’re finally catching up.”

I requite her quip with a brief baring of my teeth before focusing on Kaira’s pacing once more .

“Erina left in quite a hurry when we ambushed him earlier. Maybe he left the artifact behind.” She is about to open the door when I leap in front of her, blocking her path.

“I said, we’re staying here until Myron tells us otherwise.”

Kaira incinerates me with a gaze. “Careful, Herinor. One might think you are not so much obedient as you are afraid.”

Two thoughts shoot through my head at the same time, and I pray to all the gods of this world, known and unknown, that she can’t hear them.

First: I am afraid. Not of fighting more of my own kind but that they will magically use Ephegos’s bargain against me. Second: She said my name.

Since I can’t lie, I don’t say anything at all, merely leaning against the door and staring her down.

The longer we hold each other’s gaze, the more the fire of fury turns into a smoldering heat, reminding me of how she kissed me behind the statue last night.

How her slender curves lined up with my body when she leaned into me.

The way she fits into my arms like she was made just for me.

A rosy blush rises from beneath the collar of her leathers, spreading across her cheeks and nose until I think she’ll do as she did in the protective shadows of the night and throw herself right at me.

Not that I’d object. An unfamiliar sensation is brewing in my belly, and it has little to do with the memory of what we did—that was chaste compared to all the things I’ve done with females before—and more with not wanting to hide how much I want her.

Folding my arms, I cock my head and listen. “They’ve been gone for a while. Can’t be long now. ”

The noise of combat has faded, and footsteps are moving outside the door.

I’m not the only one to notice. Despite having been hit by the drug, Clio and Astorian turn toward the door.

“Ayna?” Kaira probes through the mind link, probably not wanting to alert whoever is out there that we’re in here, even when it won’t matter if it’s Crows. My shield isn’t strong enough to keep all sound confined to this room, and Clio and Astorian certainly aren’t any help right now.

“We’re on our way,” Myron’s voice echoes in my head. “We’re all right.” Like he read those questions from our collective minds, he tells us what we need to know.

But if they are still on their way… Who is in front of this door?

“Stay where you are,” I warn them.

I don’t tell him that the missing four Crows and Erina might be lying in wait in front of our door, because the last thing I need is to put my king and queen in any more danger. I have already done enough.

“What’s wrong?” Royad prompts. “Whatever it is, you’ll need reinforcements.”

“Just stick your nose out into the hallway and tell us what you see,” Kaira prompts.

I hold my breath for five heartbeats, waiting for Royad’s assessment, and when it comes?—

“Shit!”

“What do you mean, shit ?” Kaira demands while Clio and Tori seem not to hear any of our silent conversations, the drug still too heavy, locking down any of their powers.

It shouldn’t be long before they hear us again, though.

Kaira and Ayna communicated in Erina’s palace when the queen was drugged, but never when it was this fresh.

“I mean the innkeeper lied. There are more than twenty soldiers here. Unless the sixteen we slayed just came back to life.”

“They didn’t,” Silas grumbles, sending us an image of the room they’re in, six dead Crows scattered across the floor. Blood is dripping from their wounds, pooling on the floorboards before disappearing through the cracks.

“Then these are either projections, or somehow, twenty new Crows just appeared out of nowhere.” I want to laugh at Myron’s assessment, but the dead-seriousness of his tone makes it hard to think of anything other than what could happen if I ran into the wrong Crow.

“Whatever the case, get ready to fight.” I can almost feel him prepare to charge into battle.

“And by everything that is holy, get Clio and Tori out of harm’s way. ”

I have no idea how to achieve that with the limited space available and our only exit blocked by more enemies. I’m not certain they are stable enough to climb out the window, let alone what is awaiting out there.

Throwing a glance out the square opening, I scan what’s visible between the inn and the seam of the forest: brown winter ground, old hoof prints, and wheel tracks leading along the narrow path toward the trees.

The shadows are getting shorter with the sun’s ascent into the sky, allowing for fewer places to hide.

And most importantly, no soldiers are visible out there, Crows or otherwise. Good.

“Can you climb?” I whisper at the two fairies and decide it’s better to try to mend them later if they slip and fall than keep them here for their certain death.

Before either of them can respond, I roll on.

“Apparently there are another twenty Crows in the hallway, or Fire Fairies, and they are eager to break into this room. Since you can’t fight, you need to hide.

” I jerk my chin at the window. “Find somewhere to disappear until we either defeat the new attackers or we’re all very pretty, very dead corpses.

” I don’t give them time to object. “Either way, you shouldn’t stay here if you want to survive, and we can’t have any liabilities in here if we want to win. ”

To my surprise, the two fairies scramble to their unstable feet and creep toward the window.

Kaira opens it for them while I take a defensive stance in front of the door. If those bastards decide to barge in this very moment, someone needs to take the first hit, and it sure as Hel’s realm won’t be Kaira or a defenseless fairy.

“Be safe,” the Flameling murmurs to Clio and Astorian before they awkwardly heave themselves over the windowsill to find footing on the ledge below the windowsill. “We’ll find you after we kick their asses.”

She waits for them to disappear before closing the window again and taking up position next to me.

“Clio and Tori are on their way to find a hiding spot until this is over,” Kaira informs the others through the mind link, earning quick words of thanks from Ayna.

“All right, then we can attack.” It’s the only warning Myron gives us before Hel’s realm breaks loose in the hallway, and the floor shudders as the rest of my court clashes with whatever is waiting in front of this door .

A nod at Kaira is all it takes to confirm she’s ready. So I send out my power through the door Kaira is opening and throw myself into battle.