Page 67 of Realm of Crows (Wings of Ink #5)

Fifty

Ayna

Myron isn’t there when we return to the camp, neither are Royad and Tori, but Kaira is still sitting on the cot where we left her, eyes gleaming with tears as she watches us approach from the edge of the battlefield.

“You did it.” Staggering toward us, she throws her arms wide open to embrace Clio, Silas, and me all at the same time. Even the grumpy warrior doesn’t object.

“Erina is dead,” I give her the short version, my hand resting on my ribs where the wound is closing too slowly.

“The projections are all gone.” Kaira beams.

We saw that from the side of the field, as we saw Cezux approaching from a distance, and the silver and black swirl tearing through the Tavrasian armies.

That’s how I know Myron’s exact location.

I want to go to him, but Ephegos is still alive, and he can’t find both of us in one place, no matter how our odds have changed when it comes to winning this battle.

Without defeating Ephegos, we’ll have won nothing, and all those thousands of lives will have been shed in vain.

“We need to set a trap.” I more think it than say it, but Kaira responds without delay.

“Whatever you choose to do, I’ll be right there with you.” The fact that she’s speaking to me through the mind link tells me she’s recovered enough to face whatever it takes to win, but the exhausted expression on her face says it’s not enough to survive it.

“What’s the plan?” Clio brushes back Kaira’s braid, assessing the Flame head to toe and coming to the same conclusion I did, the slight crease between her brows giving it away.

I don’t have one, yet, and that’s what scares me most. “Anything that will lure Ephegos out.”

Silas raises a dark brow. “You’d think the bastard would already have found Ayna by now, you know, with her excessive display of insane magic.”

The praise in his words falls flat with the dread of Ephegos knowing exactly where both Myron and I are through our powers and not having come for us. “What is he waiting for?”

“To get both together?” Kaira suggests, sitting down on the cot and tightening the straps on her leathers. “If he kills Myron, you’re his, according to Shaelak, but I doubt he’ll let any opportunity slide to make you watch.”

A shudder of terror runs through my entire body, making it a challenge to keep the grasp on my dagger still in my hand. The other one is safely sheathed at my hip, ready to be drawn to stab the traitor Crow in his stone-cold heart.

“What if we find him first?” Silas studies me from the side with alert, black eyes. “We’ve slaughtered I don’t know how many Crows and Flames. There can’t be many left, and Tavras is no longer able to fake their numbers. We now know exactly what we’re facing.”

I huff a laugh. “That’s a first.”

“Silas is right.” Clio sits down next to Kaira, handing her a piece of chocolate from the small stack at the head of the cot.

Kaira takes it and nibbles on it with the enthusiasm of someone who doesn’t have an inch of space in her stomach.

“We know Tavras is being squashed between Cezux, the rebels, and Askarea. We can see the lines thinning as our own troops carve through them. Ephegos must see it, too, wherever he is. He must see he’s losing this battle. ”

“And knowing him, he’ll make a last-ditch effort to get what he’s been truly after all along,” Silas adds, nodding at every word the Fairy Princess is laying out.

“And what is that?” There’s so much hope in Kaira’s eyes as she stares up at the warrior—so much fear—that I want to wrap her in cotton and ship her back to the palace in Aceleau. But we need her. No matter how drained she is, we need her mind to make whatever we are planning work .

“Yes, he wants power. He wants Eherea, and perhaps the world. But if he can’t have that, what it falls back to is revenge.

” Silas flips his axe in one hand as if readying to throw it across the field at an invisible target.

“As long as he gets his revenge at Myron and you, he’ll come back for the rest when the time is right.

He has proven his patience waiting for the right bride—one whose suffering will destroy Myron. ”

Silas is right. Ephegos saw a chance to hurt Myron and took it. He won’t let slip the chance at killing the Crow King he once called his friend.

“All right, how do we lure him out?” Because that’s what it comes down to in the end.

Clio and Silas share a look that makes me wish I hadn’t asked.

“We place you and Myron at a point we can defend well.” Clio’s gaze wanders to the edge of the forest behind which Erina’s dead body is rotting. “Herinor has the task to find Myron and bring him to Ephegos, but what if we can make Herinor bring Ephegos to Myron?”

Kaira’s eyes brighten at the mention of Herinor’s name, then dull with a heart-piercing sort of despair.

“And when he comes with his loyal Crows and Flames…” Clio continues.

“We crush him.” My grin is real—the grin of a female who knows she might be going to her death.

“Myron needs to be all right with this,” Kaira points out, her expression glazing over as she establishes the mind link and relays the gist of our plan to Myron, Royad, Rogue and Tori, who are still locked in battle somewhere amidst the mingle of blades and limbs, too far away for us to see from our place at the edge of the camp.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice.” Myron’s response drifts into my mind, and I could fall to my knees just listening to the midnight magic that is his voice. “It doesn’t matter if Herinor agrees; this might be our only chance of luring Ephegos out.”

“Very well, then,” Tori joins the conversation. “See you by the forest.”

“There is a small area where most of the battle has died down,” Rogue notes, showing us a spot through the mind link, where the left wing of the Askarean army has cleared most of the field.

When I turn my head to take a look at the real thing, brown-clothed rebels have joined the battle, and the gap between the fighting and the forest is littered with bodies.

“Perfect.” I bite back the ache in my chest at the lives lost to this war, the rebels facing trained soldiers at the edge of the battle. Gods, I hope Andraya and Pouly are safe. But there is no safe place on a battlefield, and we all knew what we were getting ourselves into. “Take us there.”

Holding out her hands, Clio stands up, and Silas, Kaira, and I hold on to her.

“It’s been an honor fighting alongside you, Queen of Crows,” Clio says with an incline of her head and a tear at the corner of her eyes. “And you, Silas and Kaira. There’s no one I’d rather die beside.”

I know why she isn’t using the mind link to tell us this—I wouldn’t want my mate to hear such goodbye’s either .

“No one is dying.” Defiantly, I shake my head, taking Clio’s hand so she can site-hop us out. “Except for Ephegos.”

I’m well aware this might be a lie, but I force it out anyway.

“Now let’s go.”

When we hit the ground again, Myron is already standing there, armor blood-splattered, and black power coiling at his fingertips. Royad, Rogue, and Tori are flanking him, their swords drawn and ready, and their powers visibly simmering in their free hands.

I want to run to him, throw my arms around his neck, and kiss him until I’m breathless from something other than the constant ache in my side, but there’s a good chance Ephegos is already waiting nearby, ready to attack.

“I love you,” I mouth to my mate, sending a wave of everything I feel for him through the bond.

My palm flares with starlight for a heartbeat as he responds with a springtide of his love, and I can’t help the tears springing to my eyes.

Not now, I tell myself. It’s too early to cry.

“You are right about that,” Shaelak notes in my head, almost making me drop my dagger where I stand a good twenty feet away from the male I can’t live without. “Premature tears won’t help anyone.”

“Like you care,” I spit at the god in my mind, forcing the rest of my family out of my head. This conversation isn’t meant for anyone but me. “You won’t hesitate to sell me to Ephegos if he fulfills your bargain.”

Shaelak’s laugh echoes through my entire body, making the hairs stand on the back of my neck. “I’m not eager to see you fail, Ayna. I’m merely waiting for things to play out the way they are supposed to.”

“By putting obstacles into our paths at every turn? By taking away everything we’ve fought for?”

“Don’t forget your place, Ayna.” The thunder in Shaelak’s voice is anything but comforting, but I steel my spine, enduring the rumble through my bones. “You are my progeny, and I want to see you live. You will live.”

“Just not with the male I chose.” A bitter taste fills my mouth. “You’re ready to take him away from me.”

“You’ll live with the male most fitting to lead the Crows to greatness, Ayna. It is not up to me who that will be.”

It’s hard not to roll my eyes at the god who has done nothing but make our lives miserable.

Shaelak picks my thought from my mind. “Don’t forget the eternal life I granted you. And the powers, of course.”

“I don’t want eternity if I’m bound to Ephegos.” I don’t bother telling him I’m not planning on surviving this battle if Myron dies.

I’m ready to hurl words I’ll regret at the god who created the Crows as Kaira’s voice pierces through the shield I erected around my mind. “Ayna!”

The moment it takes me to blink back into reality is enough for me to draw up my power and ready it to fly at whoever is attacking. When the field comes back into focus, the others are already fighting, liquified rock zooming past me at the line of tall, broad males coming for us .

“Crows,” I think at the others.

“And Flames,” Silas adds as a ball of fire hits the ground before his feet. “ Ephegos saved most of them for when he finds you and Myron.”

With a cry, I send a wave of silver stars flying across the field to where more than a hundred opponents are waiting to destroy us.