Page 94 of Sidhe (The Incubus Saga #3)

“Yeah, and technically it’s Aloysha not Jim, and me not Walter, but I need you guys there too.

You’re the ones I trust most to help where others can’t.

Gwen was practically giddy with the thought of getting you as her right hand.

You wouldn’t want to disappoint her,” Nathan finished with as warm a smile as he could muster, considering he could still feel the approach of Malak deep in his soul, warning him that time was very short.

“I don’t want to leave you,” Sasha said as if the mere thought wounded him, “I can’t. I won’t . Not if it’s the last time…I…” and then Sasha trailed because that wasn’t a thought he could finish. He looked away, flushing as if just then feeling the many eyes on them.

If Nathan thought it was the best route then he would have Jim and Sasha at his side in a heartbeat, but it wasn’t the best or the smartest. Even if he wanted to give in, say, ‘okay, baby, stay with me, stay by me through all of it,’ he couldn’t.

He had to be a leader. And leaders didn’t always get what they wanted.

“I need you to do this, Sasha.” Nathan dropped his forced smile, wanting to reach for Sasha but needing to be strong.

“This is important. This is how it has to be. I’m pretty sure things are gonna get nuts fast, and then who knows who will end up where anyway.

I’m counting on you guys,” he turned from Sasha to Walter and Jim, “to decide if and when the horsemen need to switch groups or whatever else. We only get to use each of your powers once, and that has to count.” He looked to Alex as well, watching from the Gatehouse doors.

At last he looked again to Sasha. To his relief, Sasha gave a tight nod, much as his agony over being separated from Nathan showed clearly on his face.

Nathan couldn’t let Sasha pull him in for a final kiss or embrace this time, not today.

He wouldn’t be able to think of anything else if he allowed that.

So he turned away, grabbing up weapons for himself and heading to the tallest point on the lawn to watch the fields.

There were shadows in the distance, visible even with the land still covered in darkness, illuminated only by the lights from the Gatehouse thanks to Serileth’s return, and various other fae lighting up the fields.

The soldiers further out began to scatter and create a defensive line.

It was starting.

Jim

“So I take it the term ‘horsemen’ is a relative thing,” Cam said to Jim as they neared the front lines.

Jim smiled. “We thought it might be a bit too tacky on horseback.”

It was an amazing thing, being able to laugh in the middle of the apocalypse, but somehow they managed.

“I’ll bet,” Cam said, but it was about that time that the others around them, many of whom were still in human form, began calling out in warning. The dark fae were coming in fast.

Jim and Cam reached the twins just as Oberon joined them.

He was still in his human form as well, but he seemed to glow, emanating light that was almost too brilliant to look at in his armor.

And yet he wasn’t the leader in this camp.

That right fell to Aloysha, who stood at the front with the others from the High Council as if Oberon were merely another soldier in their ranks.

“We have no time,” Aloysha called out to Jim. “Your presence is welcome, Changeling, but do not get in our way. As one of these supposed horsemen, use your weapon well, but save its true power for the moment when there is no doubt in your mind that it is the right time.”

Aloysha was already transformed, with so many bright shades of green, his horns impressive, his wings massive around him.

Jim nodded in understanding.

Calling the transformation of the rest of the incubi and succubae extraordinary was a vast understatement. It happened so fast, the remaining members of the High Council being the catalyst that was quickly followed by all the others—and there were so many.

“They are beautiful , aren’t they?” Oberon said, a near whisper clearly meant for Jim as the only other amongst them besides a few fae throughout the camp who wasn’t currently sporting leathery wings.

Oberon’s expression was one of deep regret, and Jim remembered how the light fae had shunned Sasha’s people in the beginning, forcing them to create their own kingdom when they might have gladly lived together.

Today, if they won the war, that could all change, and a new age for the Veil could be ushered in, not just the saving of mankind. It was more than enough to fight for.

“They’re here!” someone shouted.

Jim was the only horsemen without a weapon—he was his own weapon, he thought, as he touched the ring on his right hand; a changeling, the first in history that had come into his power and mastered it without losing any sense of self.

He could only hope he lived up to whatever Nathan believed of him.

Cam and the twins on either side of him had transformed as the others had, and Oberon glowed with a power that seemed immeasurable as his human guise fell away in kind.

He was still mostly humanoid like all fae, but he seemed like some great archangel suddenly, with eight wings, four on each side, sprouting from his back, a bright feathery contrast to those around him.

Upon his face a silver mask added to his armor, which Jim thought more fitting of Puck, like some malformed combination of comedy/tragedy masks in theater.

Jim felt small beside him, beside all of them, but Nathan was counting on him; Nathan believed in him.

He let his palms fill with electricity, strong and pulsing, a bright blur.

He fired before anyone else thought to attack, meeting his mark on a dark fae even from a distance that shouldn’t have been close enough.

The blast caught the fae full in the chest. This was only the first wave.

Jim could see Solrin far in the distance commanding them. These first few minutes had to count.

It was a clash of light and darkness like an explosion when the two sides finally met.

Jim summoned red light runic traps in a great arch in front of him, catching dozens in his wake and freezing them in place for his fellows to attack.

But for every fae that froze, ten more rushed on past them, and Jim could only hold so many.

The dark fae didn’t stop to fight unless they had to. They were fast. They were without fear. They rushed onward to reach the lines further back, uncaring to how many of their brethren fell.

Jim rushed ahead to rejoin Cam and the twins. There was a fae with them now as well, all glitter and light. It was the pixie, Serileth, but just as Jim spotted her, he saw her go down, jumped by several dark fae and torn apart before he could think to yell for someone to help her.

He was too far left to make a play for Solrin once he spotted him again amidst the chaos.

If he didn’t intercept him now, Solrin would make it to Sasha and Gwen’s group all too quickly.

Jim considered leaving the others and going for Solrin, but all it took was one look at Oberon and he knew he couldn’t go—not yet.

The first thing Jim did was take control of the dark fae closest to him, just to see if he could, if Solrin’s power would even let him in, and when it worked, he sent them back into the line to attack their comrades.

Cam smacked Jim supportively on the shoulder at his success.

Not wanting to risk branching out too thin, however, Jim took additional dark fae only one at a time, successful again and again at twisting them to his control.

Successful until a dark fae with green mottled eyes started rushing him.

This dark fae was not swayed even when Jim pushed at the bastard with TK— sidhe .

But Jim was Awakened; he had the power if only he believed and focused hard enough, even against the most powerful sidhe. Solrin’s power had to be bolstering them.

Rather than try again to use his mind, Jim held out his hands, igniting them with blue lightning that burned and crackled as soon as his hands pressed to the rushing sidhe’s chest. It screamed.

Jim focused every bit of energy he had. In a moment, the sidhe might as well have never been there at all, because it burst into a puff of ashes.

Jim gasped. He’d never done anything quite like that before, not even to the Dryads so long ago that he had reduced to kindling. He looked to the ring on his finger. Death and his pale horse, indeed.

But Jim was meant to be a beacon of light—Life, not Death. He had people to protect.

He stared for only a moment, awed at the ashes that remained, before joining the fight once more. He killed dark fae after dark fae easily with his powers, sending even more off to kill for him as he took control. Everything was working out just as it was supposed to.

Right until Jim saw Solrin again, far away now but close enough for Jim to notice when the white-haired traitor turned and saw him, saw what Jim was doing, and quickly stole the power right out of Jim’s hands.

The next thing Jim knew, he had lost all of the dark fae he had been controlling, and worse, several incubi and succubae around him started to shake their heads, hazy, before finally being taken over by Solrin too.

Jim called out to the others still of their own mind to watch out, just as Cam rammed into him from the side in a blur of bronze and took him down like being struck by a car.

It was happening too fast. Solrin could control so many more at a time than Jim could, and without any effort, without having to focus on them for more than a moment.

Jim struggled to get out from under Cam, who was so much stronger than he should be.

Jim was strong too, but he hated the thought of having to kill his way out of this.

He had to find the strength to beat Solrin’s power back.

The bastard was already moving on, closing in on Sasha, and if they didn’t come up with some way to stop him, they were going to lose half their army before they had even begun fighting.

Sasha

Sasha watched with wide, frightened eyes as the dark fae army quickly overtook the first camp. They would soon be upon him next. Solrin would be upon him.

A snarl formed on Sasha’s face at the sight of him—Solrin, traitor, hypocrite .

Sasha wasn’t a fool. He knew that the chaos in the ranks of his people was because Solrin was turning them to his power, and Jim was struggling to keep up, to even fight back.

Solrin was the one they had to stop. Solrin was the one who needed to fall, even if Nathan had still been adamant he could be saved.

Shiarra squeezed Sasha’s shoulder, smiled at him when Sasha turned and met his aunt’s eyes, but by then it was already time.

Sasha was both seal and incubus for this group, but even as he brandished the weapon crafted just for him in this fight— the sword of War, of Peace —he changed into his true form and flexed his claws around the hilt.

Right in the middle of the dark fae that were rushing them, the land suddenly shifted, becoming rockier and uneven so that most of the enemy fell, tripped, and stumbled. Sasha knew it was Gwen’s doing.

She was a sight, fully revealed as a true fae, as if she was made of everything beautiful about the Earth.

The mask upon her face, like armor, was that of an androgynous Green Man with leaves that might have been sprouting from her very head.

She fought with breathtaking cruelty, calling on the elements against their enemies.

But she was not enough on her own.

Sasha leapt into the air and dove for a dark fae. It was easy for him to tear into the creature’s flesh with his sharp, black claws, and slice with the blade of his sword. Solrin was closer now, and Sasha knew just where that bastard was headed.

Shiarra, taking out dark fae of her own with deadly precision, called after Sasha when he took to the air again and went for Solrin directly, but Sasha wasn’t listening.

Solrin was the one that mattered. Solrin was the one Sasha needed to stop.

He didn’t realize that it wasn’t entirely his own will pulling him forward…

It was so easy, flying over the battle, over the many dark and light fae to where Solrin was calmly walking through it all as if nothing could touch him.

Sasha had to take this chance, pray he could catch Solrin by surprise.

Without their leader, these dark fae would be nothing but fodder.

So Sasha flew on, fast as he could, straight for that pale, scarred skin and white hair.

He was almost upon Solrin, so close he could taste the victory of it, when Solrin’s head turned and looked at him.

The red on black eyes shocked Sasha right out of the sky. He fell. And when he rose up again, he was no longer in control of his body.

Nathan saw it all happening, every last bit of it, as he prepared for the fight that would soon reach him.

Walter, Lindsey, Charis, and several seals were at his side.

He would not let the lone thought that was plaguing him cloud his mind.

He would not heed its call or admit that its taunting had merit.

He would not believe what he knew, deep down, to be true.

That they were losing .