Page 29

Shiri

T hree days had passed and no other signs of the demons, which made me even more anxious. We still weren’t sure that the concealment spell Tari had used on Thebes had hidden us from the demons. No telling what counter spells the demons could conjure to reveal the castle, though my sister had checked on Abyssus, Cyrene, and Dunhull, pleased to find they were safe and intact. Her magic had grown by leaps and bounds. Yesternight, she’d visited us by creating a vortex in the sky, showing no signs of fatigue after arriving.

Drae was making slow improvements, though he was still distant, except when we were making love. It seemed like the only time I could reach him and help heal his soul. Ever since retrieving Drae from the abyss, my soul felt like Ember’s frayed old straw doll, barely held together at the seams. I hid my pain well, though. My mates had enough stress. I wouldn’t add to it.

I repressed a shiver while pushing dark thoughts of the abyss from my mind. I smiled at Drae as we drank tea on the terrace breakfast table, a cool breeze blowing through my hair as I inhaled the pungent smells of the ocean. Though I preferred the piney and floral smell of the Abyssus gardens, the salty air was preferable to the stifling heat of the abyss.

The morning sun struck Drae’s chiseled features with soft pink and gold ribbons. The lines around his mouth and eyes had deepened in just a few days. His smile was usually too tight to be anything but forced, and his eyes still had a haunted darkness. Oh, how I wished I could drive away his demons.

He rarely spoke, just sat on the terrace while staring at the sky, though I didn’t pressure him. I had faith his soul would heal in time, and I would be by his side through all of it. I just wished there was something I could do now to drive away the shadows.

Nikkos and Blaze kept their distance from their brother after he snapped at them a few too many times, which meant they also had to avoid me, since I wasn’t about to leave Drae. Though I didn’t blame them, their distance only made me feel more isolated. They had risen early and gone to the ramparts with Malvolia and my parents, leaving me alone with Drae and that chasm between us.

To make matters worse, my magic had waned ever since Drae had woken up with that cloud of depression clinging to him like a shroud. Each time he sulked or stared out at the sea, that vacant look in his eyes, I felt a little bit more of my magic slipping away, the incessant buzzing in my veins turning to a slight hum. I supposed it made sense that my magic would wane, since it fed off my mates’ love. Drae was too depressed to love even himself, much less me. Despite my best attempts to restart his heart with tender lovemaking, he was still distant, the shell of the Fae he’d once been.

I spun in my seat at the sound of Wolfy’s loud bark and children giggling. The girls were already helping themselves to tarts on the server while Tari strode up to me, kissing my cheek before sitting beside me and helping herself to tea and biscuits.

“Good morning, sister.” She cast Drae a wary look. “How do you fare?”

“Rested,” I said, bristling at her appraisal of Drae. Give him time , I projected to her through thought. He will come around.

She flashed a pitying smile. Of course. I just worry for you both .

He will heal , I reassured her, my thought coming out more forcefully than I intended.

I’m sorry, sister. She grasped my hand, giving me a reassuring smile. I know he will.

I gave her a curt nod. “How far are the dragons?”

“We should reach The Tribus Point by tomorrow night.” She sipped her tea with a groan. “Oh, this is so much better than the swill at camp. Any signs of the demons?”

“No.” Nervously chewing my lower lip, I cast my gaze to the clear blue skies as Freya and Enso flew circles above us. “They’ve gone suspiciously silent.”

The girls let out excited squeals, throwing themselves against Cassandra’s legs when she came into our suite, clutching that cursed book of demon spells to her chest. She always had her nose buried in that book, and I worried she’d become obsessed with it.

Cassandra hugged her grandchildren and sons, the book pressed between them. Finn set up the girls with plates and juice at a table inside our chamber before he and his brothers followed Cassandra outside.

Helian pulled out a chair for his mother at our table. “How goes your interpretation of the book?”

“Very interesting.” She set the book in the center of the table, thanking Finn as he poured her a cup of tea. “There are two ways demons can enter the Fae world. The first is the way you’re used to. Naraka demons, which are possessed Fae, can infect other Fae with demons through saliva and blood.”

I absently nodded. We already knew that.

Tari leaned toward her. “What is the second way?”

Her eyes hardened, and I tensed, fearing she was about to deliver bad tidings.

Cassandra flipped open the book, pointing to a dog-eared page with strange symbols that none of us could interpret. “Through a portal made with powerful magic, probably the same one that had been created centuries ago by a human witch.”

“Is it like the fleshy portals that open when I cast out demons?” I asked.

She nodded. “Very much, only the demons have somehow figured out how to keep this portal open. If they pass into our world this way, they will be in their true demon forms, the Infernals. The good news is, Infernals can’t infect Fae through their blood or saliva. Megaera is an Infernal. She came in through the portal and is still in her Lamatsu form.” Then she paused, leveling us all with a stony look. “If you can close the portal that Megaera used, she will be sucked back into hell.”

“Then, that’s what we must do.” Tari tapped her fingers on the table. “Do you know where the portal is?”

“Possibly.” Cassandra grimaced. “I suspect it is in Megaera’s lair beneath the Periculian Mountains.”

“There’s another.”

I gave a start and Tari stiffened when Arabella walked onto the terrace in a flurry of flowing purple, shimmery skirts that complemented her lavender eyes. Malvolia’s seamstresses had been hard at work ever since the future Dutchess of Windhaven had become the queen’s honored guest. Though she claimed to have gotten over Helian, Lady Arabella always found a way to appear when he and Tari visited, her hair in a perfect coiffure and just the right amount of rose to her full lips and high cheekbones.

“What?” Cassandra slammed the book shut and twisted in her seat. “Where?”

“Peloponese.” Arabella’s longing gaze drifted to Helian before she faced Cassandra with a stoic expression. “Beneath the castle.”

Tari shot eye daggers at her nemesis. “How do you know this?”

Arabella folded her hands in front of her, eyeing Tari from beneath thick lashes. “Because my father and Selig took me to it. We used it to summon the Indus worm.”

Helian pointed at her with an accusatory finger. “We knew it was you who summoned the worm.”

The rose on her cheeks deepened as she batted pleading eyes at Helian. “You’ve no idea the control my uncle and his demon wielded over me.”

Helian let out a derisive snort. “I know the control you also tried to wield over others.”

“Enough.” Tari stood, her tone stern as she stared down her mate. “If we can’t come together and leave the past behind, the demons will surely win.”

Helian gaped at my sister, then promptly snapped his jaw shut. “You’re right, darling.” He kissed the top of my sister’s head while glaring at Arabella, who quickly averted her gaze.

“So, is there a way to close these portals?” I asked Cassandra.

“It’s a spell,” she said, “similar to the one you used to cast demons to hell.”

“Let me guess.” Helian rolled his eyes. “It has to be closed by a white witch.”

Her expression turned sympathetic. “Exactly.”

“Can either of us do it,” Tari asked, “or does it have to be Shiri?”

“A siren isn’t needed,” she answered. “Just a witch with powerful magic.”

I shared a look with Tari, wondering which one of us would have to do it. I didn’t want my sister near that portal, though I feared it would have to be her, since her magic was now much stronger than mine.

“Can we do it from here?” Helian’s question was more a plea than anything.

“No.” Cassandra frowned while tapping the book’s leather surface. “You must have the portal in your sights.”

Helian and Ash swore.

“I doubt Fachnan’s dungeon is accessible after the flood caused by the blast,” Ash said. “The castle dungeon is deep underground. It has to be filled with mud and debris.”

I’d almost forgotten about that flood. Though it had only been a few weeks ago, it felt like a lifetime since Tari and I had met on that battlefield, and the northern waves had breached Peloponese’s seawall. Still, we couldn’t take the chance that the portal was buried. What if the demons had already uncovered it? “Are you going to teach us the spell?” I asked Cassandra.

Her eyes lit up like starbursts as she leaned toward me. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Flora

Thebes

The next day

Anxiously pacing the ramparts, I squinted against the waning sun. No signs of this demon army and no signs of my daughter and the dragons. What if something had happened to them?

“Any sign of the dragons?” I asked Marius for at least the tenth time while he scanned the skies.

“No, not yet.”

I nervously chewed my nails. “Where could she be?”

I worried for Tarianya more so than I worried for Shirina. Not because I loved her more, but because she’d always been more fragile than her sister. It wasn’t long ago Tari had forgone eating and let herself waste away while obsessing over plotting revenge because she’d thought her mates had been killed by Fachnan. Even if she survived this war, I feared it would crush her spirit, especially if one of her mates perished.

Grasping Marius’s hand, I squeezed, for I knew far too well the feeling of trying to survive with a shattered heart. My heart did a backflip when he squeezed my hand back, a sparkle in his eye. I should’ve been happy Marius was alive, but my dark thoughts took me to Derrick, whose soul still hadn’t recovered after being demon-possessed for over a week. He was alive, and he seemed well, but the mate who returned to me was a different Fae, so subdued and serious, rarely smiling. Even now, he remained in our bedchamber, refusing to come with us to the ramparts to watch for Tari. I wondered if I’d angered the goddess by my treatment of Shirina, and this was my punishment, cursed to have only one mate love me at a time.

“Don’t worry.” Marius kissed the top of my head, his lips lingering long enough to make me melt into him. “They will be here soon.”

I rested my head against his shoulder as he wrapped a wing around me. “How do you know?”

“The gray witches,” he whispered, nodding in the direction of the witches. “They’re calm.”

I surreptitiously glanced at the witch called Lady Veronica, who stood apart from a cluster of gray witches, as if she’d been touched by the plague. My sister had banished Veronica until recently, though Malvolia still treated her like a pariah and forbade her from attending court. Opposite the gray witches, Lady Cassandra, Gadea, and Lady Arabella stayed close to the queen. The four of them bent their heads together, murmuring.

“Or else, they’re good at hiding their panic,” I said. I didn’t trust gray witches. Supposedly, they saw the future, yet most of the time, they kept their visions to themselves. Something about them being afraid of causing chaos if they manipulated the future. It was all dragonshit. The gray witches could’ve prevented the Black and Crimson Tides had they only spoken up.

I gave a start when a horn sounded. One blast, meaning to be on alert. Usually, it signified an approaching courier. It could even mean the dragons had been spotted, though I saw nothing in the horizon, except for one winged figure flying erratically toward us.

I quickly strode over to my sister. “Who is it?”

She scowled at the figure as it drew near. “It appears to be Lord Geoffrey Frensia.”

“Our cousin Felicity’s mate?”

“Yes.” Her scowl deepened as black smoke leached from her fingertips. “He wouldn’t dare return here after he’s been banished!” She motioned toward her archers. “Shoot him down.”

I tensed when the line of archers raised their bows, aiming for the firemage. “You would kill our cousin’s mate?”

Malvolia’s lips pulled back in a snarl. “That mate tried to poison your daughter.” She paused, tapping her chin. “Oh, wait. It wasn’t Tarianya, so you don’t care.”

Rage clouded my vision as I raised my fists. “You dare!”

Marius jerked me back as snakes of Malvolia’s smoke slithered toward me.

“Your Highness!” One of the mages standing on the tower above us called down. “He carries a child.”

When I gave my sister an accusatory look, Malvolia signaled to her archers. “Hold your fire!”

A few minutes later, a grimy firemage with tousled auburn hair and torn trousers clumsily landed on the ramparts, carrying a winged boy who appeared a few years older than my grandchildren.

“Lord Geoffrey!” Malvolia stalked toward him like a dragon about to pounce. “I thought I told you never to show your face in my city again.”

The mage set the child down and bent over, clutching his chest. “My Queen,” he said between heaving breaths, “demons have overtaken the northeastern coast.”

“What?” Her eyes widened before she shot the gray witches an accusatory glare. “When?”

He wiped sweat from his brow. “Two nights past.”

Malvolia crossed her arms, impatiently tapping her foot. “How many?”

“Thousands,” he answered, his voice cracking. “We are all that’s left of Maiden Rock.”

I clutched my throat, thinking of my cousin Felicity. She’d been just a toddler when I’d last seen her. Now she was no more. Yes, I’d been angry with her for how she’d treated Shirina, but did that mean she deserved to die? I smiled down at the frightened child with the smattering of freckles and wide eyes who clutched the mage’s leg. He must’ve been their son.

“Does the demon mistress lead them?” Malvolia asked.

His shoulders slumped, his haunted eyes reflecting his crushed spirit. “I-I couldn’t tell who led them.”

“What else can you tell me about the army?” She didn’t bother hiding the impatience in her voice as she waved away a servant who approached Geoffrey with a bucket of fresh water and an empty mug. “Do they have any weaknesses?”

“They can be blown back by wind.” He visibly swallowed as his eyes filled up with tears. “Felicity was able to push them back before...” His voice trailed off as he swiped tears from his eyes. “They are ghouls that fly as shadows and destroy everything they touch, turning all to ash.”

“Fly?” I blurted.

He nodded. “Many are winged. Some walk. Some slither like snakes.”

“Elements,” I breathed, my knees quivering with fear. “We are all doomed.”

“No,” the child said, a strange confidence in his voice for one so young. “The white witches will save us.”

Malvolia sneered at the child. “I doubt even my nieces can stop an army of shadows.”

“They can.” The child lifted his chin, his bottom lip quivering. “I have seen it. They will defeat many waves and many kinds of demons.”

“My son is a powerful seer.” Geoffrey protectively squeezed the boy’s shoulder. “He warned us about the demons. If he says it, then I have faith it will come to pass.”

“But we have only Shiri,” I said, looking from Geoffrey to the boy. “Do you know when my other daughter and the dragons will arrive?”

The boy nodded. “When the last tree falls.”

The last tree? Did that mean the ghouls would flatten the expansive forest surrounding Thebes? Hundreds of thousands of trees?

“I must leave you now.” The wildness in Geoffrey’s eyes startled me. “Please keep Teddy safe, and he will tell you what he sees in his dreams.” He fell to his knees, jerking Teddy into his arms, a sob escaping his throat while he held the child tight. “Darling boy,” he murmured while stroking the child’s messy hair. “I’m so sorry. Please be brave.” He kissed Teddy’s head, his lips lingering as tears streamed down his face. Then he stood and marched toward the edge of the ramparts.

“Where are you going?” I called at his back. I hoped he wasn’t fool enough to leave his child to go fight demons by himself, for it was a suicide mission without Tari to help us.

“To join my mate and brother,” he called over his shoulder without breaking stride.

“They live?” Marius blurted.

“No,” he said, giving Teddy one last mournful look before fluttering to the top of the closest turret.

A scream died in my throat as I watched him fall backward off the turret, his wings as limp as windless sails. Firemages hollered, diving after him, and I thought I heard a faint splash as he fell into the violent northern waves on the other side of the wall.

I turned toward Teddy, who peered up at me with a knowing gaze, far too stoic for a child so young, as if he’d known his father was going to die this day.

My heart broke for the child to have lost his family in the span of a few days. When tears formed in his eyes, I knelt beside him, taking him in my arms. He clung to me, crying harder.

I looked up at Marius, sending a plea through our bond. What do I do?

He hovered over us, snapping open his wings to block the view as mages hauled Lord Geoffrey’s water-drenched and limp body over the wall.

Just love him , he answered.

I nodded. I can do that. That’s when I realized this child had been sent to me by the Elements. Though he was a distant cousin, I was his closest family now. Loving him wouldn’t atone for the way I’d treated Shirina, but I refused to let this child grow up unloved too.

* * *

Shiri

I STOOD ON THE RAMPARTS with Blaze and Nikkos, scanning the forest bordering the city’s southern wall after our cousin Teddy, the unusual orphaned child that my mother and Marius had taken into their care, had warned us that the monsters were almost upon us. I still couldn’t believe that his parents had perished. Though I hadn’t cared for Felicity and her mates, I still mourned their deaths, especially now that Teddy would have to grow up without parents. The child was so precocious, too, telling us about the waves of demons that would attack next. I just hoped we survived them all.

I hadn’t wanted to leave Drae in our bedchamber, but, as usual, he’d been in a sour mood. His depression had been negatively affecting my magic, draining me instead of refilling my well of power. That was the last thing I needed with legions of demons at our door. My heart ached at the thought that Drae would never be able to drive the darkness from his soul.

There was a stillness in the air that reminded me of the eerie calm before a storm. Even the pressure in the air felt like it had dropped, causing my head to ache and my breathing to turn shallow. Foreboding washed over me, and I knew evil was coming.

Malvolia had called back the firemages, ordering the skies cleared as we hid behind the facade Tari had created and prayed the demons couldn’t find us. Most of Malvolia’s personal army stood along the ramparts with us, and the rest waited on the beach for the signal to attack. The citizens of the city had been moved to tents on the other side of the castle along the wall that bordered Windhaven. Not ideal, but I feared nowhere would be safe once the giants reached us.

The walls began to rattle. It was just a slight buzzing at first, enough to make me uneasy. The foundation beneath my feet trembled as if the very earth was about to split open. A crack rent the air, and the first tree fell, followed by another and another.

My heart pounded a thunderstorm in my ears. The demons were upon us, and there was still no sign of Tari and the dragons.

More trees fell, flattening around us, as if crushed by an invisible fist. I smelled the decay before I saw the first giant, dragging a club behind him as he stared vacantly at the portion of wall Tari had left visible. His eyes glowed demon red, and he was missing the skin on the bottom side of his face, sinew and decaying bone exposed to the elements.

I clutched Blaze’s arm with a gasp. “Dear Goddess, the giant is undead!”

He cursed before signaling to the others.

More and more undead giants appeared, some missing limbs and eyes. All of them smelled of decay as they mindlessly attacked the wall that was only slightly higher than the tallest troll. They wouldn’t be able to climb it with their decaying bodies, but I feared they’d eventually be able to smash it.

“Can’t you control the giants with your siren?” Malvolia asked.

I shook my head. “I can’t control anything undead.”

Malvolia tossed her hands in the air. “Then, what good is your siren?”

Mother wagged a finger in Malvolia’s face. “Don’t you speak to my daughter that way!”

She gave my mother a stony look, then crooked a smile. “Coming from the woman who derided her daughter for her entire life.”

Mother snarled like a cornered animal. “At least I never tried to kill her!”

I felt like a pawn in their verbal war while they continued to hurl insults, their hatred for one another more powerful than their love for me. If only they could channel that hatred into their magic, we’d win this war for sure.

“Enough!” Marius cried, stepping between them with a scowl. “This isn’t helping.” He turned his back on them, facing me with a kind smile, pity reflecting in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

I shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

He swallowed, anger flashing in his eyes. “You will have to hit the giants with your black magic.”

More giants had come, attacking the wall with grunts and groans, their eyes crossed with confusion, the smell radiating from their corpses making me nauseated. “That’s a lot of giants to kill.”

“I know.” Marius squeezed my hand. “They haven’t seen this part of the city yet. We won’t attack unless they find us.”

“And when they find us?” Malvolia asked, the bitterness in her tone reflecting the darkness shrouding her soul.

Resolve stiffened my spine as Blaze and Nikkos grabbed my shoulders, their love infusing strength into me. If only I had Drae’s support, too, my magic would be unstoppable. “Then we hold our ground and take down as many as possible.”

Malvolia shook her head. “That won’t be enough.”

A hush fell over the crowd when a giant finally smashed one corner of the wall. One giant tried to squeeze inside, but his big head was too big to fit. He cried out moments before another giant pushed him through the crack hard enough to pop off his head. More portions of the wall crumbled, and the giants stumbled over their headless friend while piling into the city.

The color drained from Marius’s face. “We must pray Tari and the dragons reach us in time.”