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T he roving hills at the base of the mountains, yet just beyond where the forest ended, was the perfect battlefield. There were no large bodies of water nearby, but the Southerners had the very earth beneath their feet to their advantage.

The entire host of the North was a blur on the near horizon, difficult to see by just the light of the moon above.

Where the hills met the forest, I stood with Byn and Teagan, watching as they approached.

Quinn was readying her soldiers—Laurence and Eden included—while Chess readied the trokavs.

Atlas and Lychen stood, waiting, behind us—further in the trees to hide their large forms.

I still had no clue where Byn had sent Drayven, but I had come to trust him enough to know that wherever he sent the spy, it must have been worth not having him on the battlefield today.

Teagan, standing on the other side of Byn, was murmuring to herself, counting the rows of soldiers coming towards us. Between the ones marching on the earth below us, and the ones in the sky above, there must have been thousands. Tens of thousands, if the Stars were against us today.

One of the largest hosts the North had gathered in decades.

My stomach was leaden, my chest tight with worry radiating from the male standing next to me.

We didn’t get to talk further once Teagan found us, but from his firm grip on my hand, I was hopeful that what I said got through to him. That we truly are a team, one unit.

And the extra ring on my right hand weighed as heavy as my crown. The ring, full of poison and housing a small spike, was my absolute final option if things didn’t go our way today.

Today would be my father’s last day, one way or another.

His rule could go on no longer.

“Our soldiers will be waiting for your signal,” Teagan said to Byn, having finished counting—dread now clouding her soft yet strong features.

Byn shifted, his armor clinking quietly.

The three of us sprinted back to the campsite to don our armor and weapons before heading here—to the edge of the forest. I had my usual dozen daggers, my sword Elaera, a bow and quiver of arrows, and my mother’s dagger all strapped to various places on my body.

I knew Byn and Teagan had just as many weapons on them, too—if not more.

The three of us were the first line of defense between our army and theirs.

“I know,” Byn responded to Teagan solemnly.

We stood on that hill for what could have been minutes or hours, watching as the army of children of the sky marched and flew into Southern territory, some flying on the backs of their griffins.

Just when I could see the deadly expression of one male on the front lines, and the sweat beading his brow, Byn took a step forward.

Then another.

He walked until the trees barely provided him cover anymore, then paused.

That was when he made his move.

He leaped straight up into the air, then came crashing back down to the earth, falling into a crouch as his fist struck the rocks and dirt below.

And the earth shuddered .

Originating where his fist hit, a crack formed in the ground, spearing forward rapidly, straight toward the awaiting army.

The males before us paused as they heard the earth groan, crack growing.

Then the screams began, as the earth opened and began to swallow them whole.

They tried to scatter, to run, but the rip in the earth only grew. Some tried to fly, but then Teagan was there next to Byn, using the roots in the earth to wrap around their ankles or torsos, dragging them back into the depths of the sprawling chasm that was still rapidly spreading.

Each one who tried to escape was pulled deeper in, and their screams echoed as they fell.

Without warning, Byn lifted his fist, breaking his connection with the rip in the earth, and the ground once again groaned as it snapped shut, like the maw of a giant beast.

Crushing each and every male inside, now entombed in the ground below permanently.

And cleaving the Northern ground army right down the middle.

Slowly rising to his feet, Byn panted, then stumbled a step. I picked my jaw up, which had fallen due to the display of incredible power just displayed, and closed the distance between myself and my husband. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, leaning into me as he steadied his breathing.

“That was… incredible,” I murmured to them both.

Teagan shot me a proud look, while Byn smirked. Disentangling himself from me and standing on his own two feet again, he said, “Now the real fun begins.”

** *

After Byn’s display of power—which had been the signal our army was waiting for—the battle horn was sounded, and the South ambushed the North in the dead of night.

We most definitely took them by surprise, their shock and grief palpable in the air from Byn’s strike, but to their credit, they didn’t back down.

They simply raised their shields row by row and braced themselves.

They didn’t bother trying to close their lines where Byn had split the earth, likely from fear of him doing it again.

So, as our army pushed forward, battle cries sounding the air, they speared toward that crack in the North’s defenses. If we could get past the grunt men at the front and could reach the weather and lightning wielders closer to the middle and back, we’d have a better chance at besting them.

The clouds above were already being molded by the weather wielders, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before we were all fighting in horrible conditions.

We positioned our fire wielders on the front lines to best combat the air wielders we were confident the North would place at their fronts. After all, they’d simply be fanning the flames.

As for me, we decided my main mission today was to get close enough to my father to take him down once and for all.

When discussing what my role would be today, it was deemed I didn’t have enough training yet to fight in the army itself.

I’d been trained, yes, but to fight as an individual—not within the army lines. So, I was taking a different approach.

As for the topic of taking my father down, I advocated for Dimitri. That he’d be a better ruler—that he was more reasonable than our father, that he actually had a heart . That he was somebody we could negotiate peace with—for true peace this time.

Byn had objected to me taking this mission on, of course. But the Valwain functioned on votes, and he was overruled. I knew he just wanted to keep me safe, but the rest of the group seemed to understand that I was the only one who stood a chance at being successful.

Part of me wondered if I should feel worse than I did about plotting to end my own father’s life.

But if we were being honest, I was angry at him.

I believed I had been for a long time. For never being a true parent to me, for never being what I needed him to be, for the neglect and different forms of abuse he had inflicted on everybody in his life.

I supposed I would simply have to hope that anger was enough to push me to follow through. And if not that, then the fact that Byn and everybody else was counting on me to do this would.

The result, we hoped, would be worth the pain I'd feel afterwards.

But one step at a time. First, the issue of Father and getting close enough to him to strike.

I flexed my wings wide, almost ready to take off and join the frenzy of war—which Teagan and Byn had already taken their places in—when I tilted my head to the side to glance at my wings again. It still startled me, seeing my white and silver wings covered in soot to look a drab gray.

We didn’t light many fires while taking cover in the forest, but the one in the main war tent had been large enough to produce just enough soot and ash to coat my wings.

One thing about the Northern army was that their ground troops were always more organized than their aerial ones. It could be difficult with different wing spans to create concise, orderly rows and columns, so that was where we decided to plant me.

Though it was brought to the attention of the group that my wings by themselves might give me away, since Dimitri and I were some of the only ones with dual-colored wings in the North—hence the soot. Now, my wings better resembled those of Aurora’s.

Along with that, my bright, white hair was tightly braided back, easily hidden in the shadows of my oversized cloak so that it wouldn’t give me away, either.

Just when the battle before me began to grow less organized, I pushed myself off of the ground and into the sky above. I had a bow in my hands already, so it was easy to blend right in with the group above that was firing arrows towards the Southerners below.

With my ability to see well in the dark, I could already see clouds forming a storm overhead—definitely courtesy of the weather wielders my father brought.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one who could see well in the dark—all of the North could.

I tried not to focus on the falling bodies on the ground below as I plucked an arrow from the quiver slung across my back. I stuck to the edge of the group of Northern archers, so it would be easier to slip away when the time came.

Using the opportunity that came with aiming at a target—which I always seemed to miss—I studied the battlefield below and around me, full of wielders, griffins, and Titan Wolves alike.

The winged males near me whooped and cheered every time they hit their target, and I couldn’t stop the dread that pooled in my stomach each time. Did they hit anybody I knew?

I fired, continuing to intentionally miss, and readied another arrow as I continued to scan both the ground and air for specific movement.

I had fired six arrows, each one missing their mark, when I finally spotted what I’d been looking for.

The Northern army messenger, weaving between soldiers.