Page 105 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

ARA

A horn cleaved the air.

Our men surged toward the spell’s border, forming into their proper ranks as Auryna’s army poured over the hill. We stood on opposite ridges, elevated above what would be the battlefield, a mere half mile between us.

They came in swaths of thousands, clad in armor and armed to the teeth, helms gleaming purple beneath the night sky.

Rogue leaned down and whispered, “I’d say that’s about a two-to-one ratio.” The ghost of a smile pulled at his lips. “Statistically, the best odds we’ve ever had.”

I glanced up at him, worry gnawing at my gut.

He slid his hand into mine and kissed the ring he’d given me—the ultimate sign of our vow. Our marriage. “Forever doesn’t end tonight.”

With that, we waited on bated breath. Adonis broke through the front lines, the dagger at his hip gleaming a brilliant blood red. Severance’s storm’s eye didn’t glow, but Sacrifice pulsed with a deeper, richer red.

A gasp of horror rippled through our ranks and settled in my gut like spoiled meat. He strode ahead of his army with a spear, something impaled on it.

Shouts of outrage sparked among Fae. The human men stirred.

Adonis walked to the center of the basin and drove the spike into the ground with enough force to break through the frozen ground and rattle the head that crowned it—Godrick’s head.

I turned and retched.

He stared into nothingness, his hair matted with blood or mud. It covered half his face, too.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t cry.

I couldn’t even blink.

Mother’s wail pierced the air, broken and sharp. I spun to her as she swayed on her feet, then sprinted toward what remained of her father.

I snatched her a second before she stepped over the spell’s border. She thrashed and screamed, breaking free of my hold, but Drakyth caught her.

Adonis gestured to Godrick’s mutilated face. “So, he is with you.”

His ranks dissolved into unease, eyes darting, heads swiveling.

“I don’t take insurrection lightly, and well, he was human and inciting a revolt. Can’t have that…” He turned his head to the soldiers behind him. “Can we? Agitators and deserters both receive the punishment they deserve.”

His men turned to stone, a solid wall of bodies.

Two dozen Puer Mortis prowled around the edges of Adonis’s army.

“No wonder they haven’t abandoned him,” I whispered. “They can’t.”

Rogue stiffened, his chest heaving. “Where are Delphia and Thana?”

I shook my head, scanning the many faces perched at the edge of the cloaking spell, then turned to check those behind us. “I don’t know.”

“I may not be able to see you, but I know you’re there, and you know what I want!” Adonis roared. “Is this not enough for you? How many must die before you hand yourselves over? How many lives are you worth? One hundred? One thousand? Two? Ten?”

Silence.

He barked out a laugh and threw his arms wide, turning to his soldiers.

“Behold, the infamous King Rogue Draki. The Unworthy. The Unwanted. The Coward King of Ravaryn, still hiding behind his spelled wall like a frightened child.”

Our army thrummed with fury, weapons drawn and awaiting Rogue’s command, but still, he held.

“If you cannot be brave enough to surrender,” Adonis said, unsheathing his dagger, “then I’ll just smoke you out.”

He dropped to one knee and raised Sacrifice’s twin. The bloodstone’s red flare caught the attention of every predatory creature at its command.

Rogue lunged forward a step. “What?—”

He drove the blade into the earth. The ground pulsed and cracked in every direction. Shadows poured from them with the dry clatter of bone, knocking and scraping until a shape took form.

A skeletal creature loomed, taller than the oldest pine trees. Black smoke swirled, threading through cracked ribs and jagged bones, spilling from its sockets like a living shroud.

It stood motionless, silent. Wisps of shadow drifted into the icy breeze, darkening the night all around it.

“This doesn’t need to see you.” Adonis rose to his feet. “It senses fear, and like Puer Mortis, it’s not limited by mortal magic.”

The creature flickered and appeared a few feet closer.

Silent. Utterly silent.

If it’s like Puer Mortis… “It can cross through the blood oath’s border. Doran did.”

Soldiers froze, not even daring to breathe. I clamped a hand over my mouth, sweat rolling down my spine despite the frigid air.

“Ready yourselves,” Rogue ordered. “Shields and weapons up. Magics at the ready.”

I spun toward Mother. Drakyth released her as I grabbed her by the shoulders. “Go back to the nurses’ tent.” When she didn’t immediately move, I screamed, “Now!”

She flinched, lifted her skirts, and ran.

“It’s a wraith!” a female shouted. “Afraid of light. Destroyed by fire.”

Rogue called out, “Kaelin!”

She sprinted to his side, eyes tracking the wraith—or attempting to. It flickered across the field, there one second, gone the next, barely disturbing the tall grass as it moved.

“Are the dragon spears dipped in the wildfyre oil?”

“Yes, dipped and docked in the scorpions.”

“Prepare to fire with the best archers. We cannot afford to miss.”

The creature grew impossibly large as it neared, the scent of death wafting over us—rotten flesh and still water.

The scorpion wagons were lined up behind us. Archers climbed onto the platforms, Drakyth claiming one of them.

Iaso ran over, the satchel at her hip clanking with a crate of glassware. She flung it open, revealing a row of round bottles, each one stuffed with rags and filled with an oily, green liquid.

She handed two to me and two to Lee. “Wildfyre bombs. They will raze whatever they land on to the ground, so use them wisely.”

They were smaller than my palm, the glass thicker than a window, not likely to shatter in my pocket. I curled my fingers around one and tucked the other away.

The creature’s stench hung like a suffocating smog. A few men vomited, more gagged.

“Ready,” Rogue said.

Nearly ten thousand men waited on bated breath.

“Now!”

Rogue’s Bloodsworn charged forward, the heavy footfall shaking the earth. The human lines trembled and caved in on themselves. More shields took their place to hold the line, but weak links made for a weak chain.

For the first time—but certainly not the last—a look of fear crossed Adonis’s face at the sheer number of Fae. He disappeared among the sea of men.

The wraith materialized and swept its spindly arm across the battlefield, scooping up half a dozen men. Its jaw unhinged to open wide, but fire exploded from one of the soldier’s outstretched hands.

Balls of flame struck at the wraith in rapid succession as those from Blackburn surrounded it. The wraith screeched and dropped the men in its hand.

Rogue’s plume of fire slammed into the beast and hurled it back a few paces. With a roar, he urged it harder, hotter. It burned white-hot as it rammed at the wraith.

The men and women on the field ducked, arms raised over their heads. A heartbeat later, the shock wave of heat hit us and blew the hair away from my face.

The wraith writhed with an ear-splitting shriek until Rogue’s well tapped out. As his fire ceased, a rush of icy air swept in, and the creature continued its rampage.

“Archers!” Kaelin shouted. “On my count!”

Rogue swayed and stumbled.

I shoved the wildfyre bomb into my pocket and lunged forward to catch him as his eyes rolled.

We sank to the ground, my fingers fumbling with his sheath until I felt the familiar weapon.

Taking his hand, I closed his fist around the storm’s eye in my original dagger.

“I imbued it with more energy before we left Asha’s. Take it.”

He nodded weakly, and veins of white began to climb his forearm.

He sat straighter, but it wasn’t enough. His face was too ashen, his movements unsteady.

No…

“Fire!” Three spears soared overhead.

Rogue’s attention snapped to them. He threw a hand out, and brilliant green flames swallowed the spearheads.

Two missed the wraith, catching only wisps of smoke, but the third struck its shoulder and exploded.

High-pitched screams pierced the air.

It swiped a hand across the battlefield and grabbed whoever it could—human or Fae, it didn’t matter. They turned to mist in the cavity of its unnatural mouth, and the creature swelled in size.

I cursed under my breath. I had to get this fucking shackle off. We needed more—more light, more power, more energy.

A flaming bird circled the wraith’s head to distract it from the Fae at its feet. The phoenyx dipped and dived, slicing at bone with burning claws.

Another plume of fire slammed into the wraith—Edana’s.

“Bow four, now!”

Drakyth’s spear traced a burning arc across the sky, flaring emerald. The phoenyx vanished, just in time for the bolt to pierce the wraith’s hollow eye socket.

Black smoke sank to the ground before the bones started to collapse. Toppled and falling from nearly two hundred feet, they crashed down in a cloud of dirt and ice.

Beyond that, green light roared behind Auryna’s front lines. The two spears that missed the wraith had struck something, and they burned fast and bright.

Drakyth leaped down from his scorpion and started ripping off clothing. “It should have been me that went into the damned camp!” His words grew garbled as his teeth lengthened, pupils slitted. “You will not die in vain, Godrick! Do you hear me, you old bastard? You will not!”

Down to his undergarments, Drakyth’s shift ripped from his Fae form—a wingless dragon with black scales and blood-red armored plating down his spine.

He bellowed a bone-rattling roar and bounded forward.

Then, a glowing soul chased after him.

“I hear you, you damned fool!” Godrick screamed, sword in hand. “The entire realm hears you!”

I blinked once. Twice. Shook my head.

As I turned to check the rest of our dwindling group, the horrendous clatter started again—scraping and knocking. Darkness whirled. Shadows thickened. The blackened bones rebuilt.

The wraith rose with another scream.

“Oh, Goddess,” I breathed.

Iaso held Rogue upright outside of the blood oath’s border, her eyes molten. She steadily poured power into him as she eyed the creature.

My gut twisted.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked her, then glared at him. “And do not tell me I’ve stepped on your damned foot again, or your magic’s well is depleted, or any other bull shit. Where are you injured, and how bad?”

Rogue shook his head, but Iaso lifted his shirt.

A two-inch cut beneath his ribs oozed blood. Not a cut. A jab.

Rogue was stabbed.

“Iaso is helping.” He stepped away from her, but the color drained from his face.

My ears rang. “But I watched you heal Godrick’s neck in a single breath…”

Neither of them said a word.

That was worse than any response they could’ve given.

“No,” I snapped. The wraith moved in flashes of bone and smoke, swallowing another handful of men. “No, get this fucking shackle off of me now! The blood oath will heal you, and we need more light—more power.”

Iaso’s expression stayed flat, but tears welled in her eyes, illuminated by her golden irises. “It needs to come off.”

“How will you remove it without a key?” Rogue shuffled to my side, a hand braced over his abdomen. “It’s spell-bound iron, so it can’t be disarmed by magic, and we don’t have the damned key. There has to be a locksmith here, or hell, a common thief. We just have?—”

“Rip it off,” I said to Iaso.

“Do not rip it off,” Rogue shouted. To me, his voice turned soft, nearly pleading. “We have time to find a lockpick. You don’t have to do this—don’t make me watch you do this.”

My throat and eyes burned. “Don’t watch, love.”

“Are you sure?” Iaso asked.

I gave her a sharp nod.

Rogue tried to intervene, but Lee appeared, hands bloodied, expression grim. He tossed his sword to the ground and dragged Rogue away. “We need our king and queen. We can’t have either of you while that cuff remains.”

Rogue was too weak to fend him off. His fire sparked—licked at his fingertips. He blistered Lee’s forearms, but Lee ground his teeth and held.

Rogue begged Iaso not to do this.

Pleaded with me to find another way.

Threatened to scorch Lee to bones and ash.

Iaso curled her fingers around the metal, tilting it enough to inspect the intricacies. It was a thick iron cuff, laced with spikes designed to tear through muscle and sinew if removed—the matching manacle to the collar he forced me to wear in the dungeon.

It was meant to render the captive’s hand unsalvageable, but I had Iaso and a damned strong blood oath.

I could handle a bit of pain to be free.

Someone grabbed my shoulders from behind to hold me in place.

Nerves coiled in my gut. My heart pounded in my throat.

Another hollow screech?—

The wraith tore through the field in a blur of bones and teeth and shadow, leaving gaps in the ranks where it attacked.

I turned to Rogue, his gaze burning into mine.

With a shuddering breath, I said, “Do it.”