Page 86 of The Curse of Gods (The Curse of Saints #3)

Aidon didn’t need the knock on the door to wake him. He’d been up for hours, his gaze fixed on the crown molding above his head as he counted Dauphine’s breaths. She was curled into his side, her naked body warm against his, her breath soft as it tickled the side of his neck.

He kissed her forehead as a steady drumbeat started from outside.

The signal to assemble.

“Is it time already?” she murmured into his pec as she buried her head there.

“It is.”

Dauphine lifted her chin, eyes wide and shining with rare vulnerability. “I’m afraid,” she breathed. “I’m afraid that this is all the time the gods will have granted us together.”

Aidon’s gaze traced her face, soaking in her beauty. And then he kissed her, deep and long, the drums keeping time with their beating hearts.

“Fuck the gods,” he whispered as he pulled away.

He would be damned if they continued to take from him.

***

Liam stood on the Wall of Dunmeaden, his brows drawn together as he tried to see down the stretch of land that stretched toward the mouth of the town. It was too dark to see much, the sun having not yet risen above the horizon. But he knew what would be coming.

Lines and lines of Kakos soldiers, marching straight through Dunmeaden. Liam could feel the palace towering over him, a formidable shadow at his back.

Protecting him. Protecting them all.

He’d chosen this place purposefully. Fighting with the Wall and palace at their backs gave them the advantage. Liam knew this stretch of land better than anyone, save the Athatis.

He and Lena had spent years racing each other across the rocky paths, through the heart of the city and up to the curving Wall and beyond it to the palace grounds and gates.

This was the right choice. He knew that.

Azul stepped up to his side, his head nudging his hip, as if to reaffirm it as well. He scratched the space between his bonded’s ears, willing his breath to stay even and calm.

His people were counting on him. He would not fail them.

Mathias’s horn pierced through the quiet, a single long note that seemed to hang, suspended in space and time.

Liam sucked in a deep breath.

“Incends!” he called out. There was a pause. And then…

Flames flickered to life on either side of him, spreading down the Wall as the Incends lit their torches and flaming arrows.

It continued to spread, out and down and forward , first across the Talan army at the base of the Wall, and then the Trahirians, and then the Midlandians and the Milsaions.

Forward and across and forward until the entire hillside was ablaze with light.

“Caeli and Auqin at the ready!” he called out to the Visya waiting at the selected points on the Wall. He heard the telltale whirring of the magic they’d practiced for days in the courtyard.

“Hold!” he commanded, his gaze fixed on mouth of the town.

The sky began to lighten, illuminating the space in a soft gray. Azul gave a low growl, his ears pinning back as he stared at the city.

“Good boy,” he murmured. To the Caeli and the Auqin, he yelled, “Send!”

His gaze cut to the sky, where he could just make out the small clouds the Visya sent over their army. Slowly, those clouds floated across the across the field, where Liam could just see a dark line of troops moving toward them.

“Hold!” he called to the Visya. He pushed their labored breaths from his mind, their grunts fading behind the pounding of his heart as he waited.

“Come on,” he urged. “Come and fight, you cowards.”

But Kakos stilled on the far side of the field, their lines stretching back into the city.

Liam’s jaw locked as he bit back his frustration. They were out of reach from their archers.

It wasn’t ideal, but…the Auqin and the Caeli would not be able to hold out forever.

Just before he gave the call, Aidon stepped up beside him, Dauphine with him. “What the hells are you doing here?” Liam demanded as he glanced at the king.

He was supposed to be at the higher part of the Wall, with Aya.

But Aidon strung up his bow, his movements quick as he said, “Getting the party started.” He drew back the string, one eye closed as he sought his target. He paused, his eyes opening and cutting to Liam, as if waiting for the order to stand down.

Liam gestured for him to continue.

Aidon grinned as he called his power forward to light the tip of his arrow. “Here goes nothing.” He glanced at Dauphine. “Ready, darling?”

Dauphine’s hands tugged in, as if she were summoning the wind. And then, as Aidon loosed his arrow, she sent a gust right along with it, sending the arrow sailing across the field.

It landed pointedly right in front of the first line of Kakos troops.

A loud yell rose up from the mass of Kakos soldiers as they poured into the field.

Liam grinned, his fingers tingling where they gripped his sword. He tugged it from its sheath, the blade catching the firelight as he gave the final anticipatory command.

“Caeli and Auqin, release!”

The clouds above the Kakos soldiers opened up as the Caeli and Auqin sent every last drop of tonic pouring down upon them.

***

An almighty roar rose up from their soldiers as they took off across the slope, backed with howls from the Athatis scattered throughout them.

Josie let out a shout of her own as she sprinted just behind the front lines, Aleissande and Cole on either side of her.

They met the Kakos army in the dead center of the field, the two armies slamming together, a deadly symphony of raging magic and clanging metal echoing across the mountains.

Arrows whizzed overhead, lit by the Incends and directed into the further lines by the Caeli, and all the while shouts filled the air, the chaos of battle so thick in Josie’s lungs that she thought she might choke on it.

She saw a flash of Aleissande’s golden hair in her periphery, and there was Cole, sword swinging with precision, but the Kakos force was too strong, too numerous, for her to do more than send up a silent prayer that they would be safe.

And yet…there was no one to pray to. No gods who cared about their people would allow this.

Josie grunted as she thrust her sword into the neck of an approaching shoulder. She yanked the blade out, whirling to dodge the blow coming from behind her.

She cut down the soldier, and then another, her blade slicing through the air so quickly that she wondered if it hadn’t fused to her arm.

The ground was firm beneath her boots, the grass dead from the lack of rain. It made it easy for Josie to move, to pivot, to cut.

The tonic, it seemed, had done its job, for she’d yet to feel the almighty power of an affinity brush against her.

Josie locked swords with a Kakos soldier, their blades meeting again and again. His hits were hard, his movements designed not to injure, but to kill, a burning rage lighting up his eyes as a frustrated shout tore from his throat.

The sound died on a gargle as Cole appeared and put his blade through the man’s neck. The man hit the ground with a thud, his blood staining the grass red.

“Easy enough,” Cole chirped. A laugh fell from Josie as she panted, but Cole’s words settled uneasily in her. Her sword found another mark, but this time, she kept her attention on her surroundings.

From what she could tell, Kakos was fighting with both sword and affinity, but their armies were evenly matched. And while the tonic was supposed to have given them the advantage, there hadn’t been nearly enough of it to take down all of Kakos’s Visya or…

“The Diaforaté,” Josie breathed, her head whipping from side to side. She’d faced those monsters before. She knew what their power was capable of.

This was not it.

“Where are the Diaforaté?”