Page 50

W hen I stepped down from the dais it disappeared behind me, returning to the throne room in Akra. Magic pulsed through my veins, excitement pushing my heart to beat faster. The crowd parted as I walked among them, towards the front of the group.

Zion had done well when he had stepped into Isaac’s shoes. He rallied a force I could never have imagined in my wildest dreams. As the crowd parted for me to pass, they dropped to their knees, bowing their heads before their true queen.

It was the first time I had felt like a queen in earnest. I was the daughter of Osiris, heir to the throne, and this army was mine . I led the troops through the docks of Prins, towards The Shadow.

The streets were empty.

The shops boarded up .

No laundry hung from the balconies of the town homes here—no taverns had patrons spilling out of them.

Prins was quiet.

We approached The Shadow as an army and descended the steps. I noticed more and more Shades leaving their homes to join our force. Shades were spilling out onto the streets to join us, to march against Donika.

With my magic bound and an army at my back, I had never felt so powerful. When we made our way out of The Shadow and the merchant district of Prins was behind us, we stopped to rest before the plains of Akra.

Donika wouldn’t be able to see our force from here, but if she still had spies in the city—which I’m sure she did—she would know we were coming.

We set up camp outside of the forest before the castle, pitching tents and starting fires to cook food and keep the troops warm under the frosty night air.

Summers in Istmere truly were unpredictable.

As I helped Nik set up our tent, I saw someone join Annelise and Amiyah out of the corner of my eye.

It was Fleur, the woman from the tavern in Akra.

The one who had given me a free meal when I had been battered and bruised, after I had escaped the house of Noctani I was being held captive in. The one who wore the glamour.

She shot me a wink before disappearing into the crowd.

Even the most unlikely of folks had joined our force in the end.

I still couldn’t believe we had managed to sway Alastir into battle after they had tried to get him to join the resistance for over a decade.

Donika would surely be surprised when she saw him at my side when we stormed the castle.

She likely hadn’t seen him since the day she murdered my father.

We had each pitched our tents and retired for the night, excitement stirring the air and making sleep an intangible thing.

I lay beside Nik on the bedroll he had laid out for me, surrounded by the resistance.

I had never felt so safe, despite the construction of the tent being questionable at best. Nik had tried his best, but we all had our weaknesses.

As if reading my thoughts Nik threw his head back against his makeshift pillow and laughed. “What can I say, building tents isn’t my strong suit.”

I quirked a brow at him. “I thought you were good at everything?”

“We are safely out of the cold night air… are we not?” he asked, pulling me against him.

I buried my face in his neck, running my fingers through his hair.

“I wish you could be with me tomorrow.”

He sighed heavily against me. “Me too. It isn’t too late to change the plan—”

I cut him off with a deadpan glare. “You know why we have to be separate. It’s the same reason Zion and Annelise have to be separate. The binding doesn’t only bind our magic… it binds our lives .”

Nik nodded. “I know, I know.” He ran his hand along my shoulder blade, rubbing the muscles that had formed into a knot there. “I just wish I could be by your side, that’s all. I hate to be apart from you.”

I sent a wave of warmth down the bond and Nik tilted his head to gaze down at me. “You’ll always be with me as long as we are connected,” I told him. “It might not be words… but you’ll know if I’m ok.”

The corner of Nik’s mouth raised in a half smile. “The moment it’s over you’ll come find me?”

I nodded against him. “Of course. Or you’ll find me. The moment it’s over.”

We still had the obstacle of the immortality spell not being broken to contend with, but we had all decided that was a bridge we would cross when we came to it.

Annelise had assured us she would figure out a way to transfer the spell, though she hadn’t any luck with that yet.

I didn’t want Amiyah taking it on herself merely because she was blood.

I didn’t want anyone else to be linked to that sliver of Donika’s soul.

I didn’t want her to take down anyone else in her desperate attempt at immortality.

The only solution I could live with was capturing one of Donika’s drones and allowing them to bear the burden.

I knew I needed rest, but sleep eluded me.

Nik offered to add a sleep spell to my skin, but I refused.

I didn’t want to risk being groggy in the morning—I needed to be at my sharpest. It was the middle of the night before I finally fell into a fitful sleep, and only a matter of hours later woke to the clatter of the rising camp.

Nik and I assembled our packs and deconstructed his poor excuse for a tent.

We stashed our packs in the forest, needing to travel lean from here on out.

Once we made it onto the plains of Akra before the castle we would split off, Nik towards Donika’s force on the open fields, me towards the mountain pass.

Zion had introduced me to the resistance members who would accompany me into the castle, and I was confident in his choices.

A few of them I recognized from the battle at Prins, and I gave them my thanks for offering to travel with me into the secret passageways.

Our task would be simpler in a way, but also more dangerous.

We knew Donika would have a contingent of Noctani protecting her, and we needed to avoid them stealing our magic at all costs.

We still had one antidote we could use, but we had no plans of using it today. We didn’t have the time, and we couldn’t take the risk. We needed to bring down Donika and her army as quickly as possible—before the casualties stacked up.

The camp became eerily quiet as everyone packed their things, preparing for battle. The sun had barely risen and cast the camp in a pink glow. I wasn’t sure if it was an ominous sign from the Mother or merely a coincidence.

“Red in the morning, sailors take warning,” Tess breathed at my shoulder, her hand on the hilt of the sword at her waist.

I glared at her. “Thank you for that, Tess.”

“I’m just saying,” she replied with a shrug, backing up with hands raised.

I raised my own hand, flame swirling easily in my palm. “Have you so easily forgotten that I control the weather now?”

“That’s right!” She patted me on the back hard enough that I took an involuntary step forward. “Powerful Stormshade and all that. ”

I rolled my eyes at her. Leave it to Tess to try to lighten the mood.

Though it was quiet, the atmosphere wasn’t grim at camp.

We were on the precipice of something, and the waiting was the worst part.

This could go one of two ways, and the anxiety was palpable in the air.

I had expected the quiet that had descended to bring with it a sense of calm, but it was the opposite.

Electricity was a tangible thing, permeating everything and everyone.

As an army we bled into the forest under the cover of the rising sun. There was no way to hide our forces now. I gripped Stormslayer in my fist as the sun rose before us, reaching up into the sky to illuminate the marching resistance below.

Nik and Tess were at my side, the others fanning out behind me.

An army of leather clad Shades in brown and black, willing and ready to take back what was rightfully theirs.

As we approached the tree line, a feeling that we were being watched settled over me.

I turned behind me to gaze at Kenna, and she wordlessly shifted into a crow and took to the sky.

She called out overhead as she swooped over the trees, towards the iron spires that rose in the distance.

The Stone Palace appeared formidable from here, its black points reaching up into the morning sky.

It was surrounded on the mountain by civilian homes, who would have the perfect view of the battle should they choose not to join in the melee.

Kenna came back in a whirlwind of feathers and claws, landing abruptly on my shoulder. She tilted her head to the side, one call escaping her narrow beak.

Donika was waiting for us .

I gave her a curt nod, and she pushed off my shoulder, taking flight once more.

I pulled on the magic in my core, allowing it to drift down my arms and out of my fingertips. The sky darkened with magic overhead, inky clouds swirling angrily against the pink dawn sky. It was only a matter of moments before the light was swallowed whole and we were plunged into the dark.

I moved forwards, casting the plains in darkness as I emerged from the trees, my gaze immediately latching onto Donika. She stood on the same balcony I had seen her on the last time I had been dream walking, where I had left the token as a magical tether should I ever need to come back.

Her army was fanned out beneath her, a sly smirk on her lips that I could see even from this distance. I couldn’t wait to wipe it off her face with my blade.

Thunder cracked loudly overhead, the ground beneath us shaking.

Some of her forces appeared rattled, glancing between one another as I funneled more magic into the storm than I ever dared before.

They had never seen storm magic at work—they had never seen a Stormshade without iron shackles, cowering in the Stormvault.

But I wasn’t any Stormshade.

I was a Stormshade of the Kotova bloodline in all her glory, bristling with power, and the storm that roared above us was mine .

I stepped across the threshold of trees and onto the open plains of Akra, the storm raging deafeningly overhead.

Lightning coursed through the sky, sending torrents of dirt flying.

Rain began to pour down overhead, and I turned my face towards the sky, a smile across my lips.

I pushed the storm outward, expanding it.

I could see Annelise out of the corner of my eye, her hand raised to the sky, her own magic intertwining with mine.

I narrowed my eyes at Donika from across the field, allowing lightning to streak through the sky dangerously close to her balcony. I tilted my head to the side, watching.

Waiting.

I knew Donika would make the first move, and she did. With a nod of her head dark figures shot out from the back of her army, gaining speed quickly from the left and right.

Araneoch .

She cast her gaze back down towards me for one more moment before spitting over the edge of the balcony. She turned, her black cloak wafting behind her, as she disappeared into the castle.

So predictable.

So cowardly.

I moved to follow but Nik grabbed my wrist, holding me back. Now was my time to move, and I didn’t want to lose my window. My mind was only focused on one thing right now—vengeance thrumming powerfully through my blood.

That was, until Nik shot a sensation so hot down the bond it threatened to scorch the grass I stood on.

He gripped the back of my neck and brought his mouth down to mine, tasting me one last time.

My lips crushed against his, my fists gripping his leather jacket with my arm that held Stormslayer crushed between us.

He kissed me so fiercely, sending that heat down the bond the entire time, claiming me in front of everyone.

When he finally broke apart from me I was panting, my lips swollen and red. My skin was flushed from the magic he had marked me with… as was his. I hadn’t even realized I had been sending just as much magic back down the bond the other direction towards him.

The thunder exploded overhead, the storm descending into a deluge of rain. Raindrops fell from the angry black sky, kissing my cheeks as I held Nik’s glacial blue eyes with mine for one long moment.

Finally, he dropped his hand from my neck, taking a step back.

“I love you.” His voice was gruff. Raw. Unfiltered emotion pouring through the words.

“I love you, too.” My own voice was ragged in return.

As much as this felt like a goodbye, I would make damned sure it wasn’t one.

My only consolation was that if I went down during battle—or if he did—we would go down together . I shook my head to clear the thought. I wouldn’t entertain that kind of negativity. We would come out of this victorious.

There was no other option.

I committed to memory the exact shade of blue that glimmered in his eyes. The texture of that golden hair I loved to run my fingers through so much. The freckles that bridged across his nose. The strong jaw that my fingers had already memorized the feel of .

He gave me one last reassuring smile, that dimple creasing his right cheek, before he shifted into his wolf form. He nodded his head once towards me, human blue eyes surrounded by a mountain of coarse black fur. My gaze lingered on him for one more moment before I turned away from him.

Away from the resistance.

Away from my friends and family.

Towards the very person that had threatened to take it all away from me.