30 ONE TERRIBLE, VIOLENT SONG

“FORM THE LINES!” A call went up. Around Bree, the army shifted, the warriors and their mounts moving to obey.

The captain who’d been escorting Bree to Mor cast her a distracted glance. “Stay back … our queen will deal with the chief-enforcer later.” The male then strode away, no doubt in search of the elk or stag he’d ride into battle.

“The High King is here!” The news traveled swiftly, excitement rippling over the army waiting before Cannich. The Shee warriors’ eyes gleamed, while trow and powries chattered and whooped, and the hill-tribe warriors shared eager glances and violent grins.

Bree watched the captain go, her heart lurching into her throat.

Just like that, they’d been given a reprieve.

It must be now.

They wouldn’t get another chance. Whipping out a knife, Bree twisted in the saddle to find that Cailean had anticipated her. He was standing close, bound wrists upraised. Their gazes glanced off each other as she freed his hands and sliced away the rope from around his neck. An instant later, he’d vaulted up behind her.

Wordlessly, she passed him her hunting dagger and one of her fighting knives.

“Go!” he growled in her ear.

Bree didn’t need to be told twice. Drawing her longsword once more, she angled Feannag right, plunging into the lines.

Getting through wasn’t easy, for the crowd was dense. But Bree angled the stallion toward the nearest edge of the press of warriors, which ended around twenty yards from the woods.

Steel swiped at her as some of the Shee warriors realized she was trying to flee. A few tried to stop her, but Feannag was already charging past, weaving his way through the ranks of elks, stags, rams, mountain goats, and fae hounds.

Eventually, Bree had to slash her way out. She felt Cailean’s body shift and twist behind her as he wielded the blades she’d given him. The sharp tang of pine and campfire filled her nostrils then. He’d summoned his earth magic. Usually, the smell would have made her pulse lurch, but she was too distracted to care.

A powrie sprang forward, steel blade slashing. It stabbed at Feannag, aiming for his chest. Jump! Bree touched the stallion’s mind just in time, and he leaped high, clearing the imp and the goat it sat upon.

And then they were through and galloping toward the tree line.

Crouched over Feannag’s neck, Bree cut her gaze left, back toward the South Road, where the High King’s army gathered speed now. A roar went up, crashing over the meadows.

And the Shee force thundered forward to meet their foe.

The collision of both sides—bodies, shields, and blades—rang in Bree’s ears as Feannag reached the trees.

“They’re following,” Cailean grunted.

“How many?”

“Around half a dozen. All Shee.”

A flash of white appeared to her left then. Tivesheh.

Bree’s heart lurched. Come closer! The stag obeyed, and an instant later, he was running alongside Feannag, shoulder-to-shoulder. Nimbly, Bree swung a leg over the stallion’s withers and flung herself onto her stag’s back. She and Cailean would be able to fight more easily on their own mounts.

They flew through the trees, Feannag and Tivesheh’s hooves churning up the bed of rotten fallen leaves. The land rose, climbing to a hill. And when they reached the top, the trees drew back.

“We can’t outrun them!” Bree shouted to Cailean.

“Then we’ll make our stand here.” Cailean pulled Feannag up, the tattoos that covered his arms flaring silver in the morning light. He gripped both the blades she’d given him, controlling his stallion with his thighs. Feannag swiveled on his powerful hind legs, rearing as the first of the Shee burst from the trees upon a brown stag.

The warrior had drawn his longsword, a feral light gleaming in his obsidian eyes. Five more Shee streamed onto the hilltop after him.

They met them in a clash of steel that rang through the trees.

However, shortly after they engaged their pursuers, Cailean leaped down from Feannag’s back, continuing the fight on foot. Bree followed moments later, and soon they fought back-to-back as the Shee formed a ring around them.

Sweat slid down Bree’s spine as she struck, parried, and feinted. Curse it, these six were good.

A vicious snarl announced Skaal’s arrival. Bree hadn’t seen the fae hound as they’d fled through the woods, but like Tiv, she’d been watching and waiting. All the same, Skaal’s attack surprised Bree. Fae hounds were protectors of Shee barrows. Her people had always had their loyalty. But not this hound.

And with Skaal’s help, they turned the tide against their attackers.

A short while later, the twitching bodies of the Shee who’d pursued them were scattered around the clearing.

Breathing hard, Bree and Cailean’s gazes fused. Her ears strained, trying to pick up the sound of anyone approaching from the north. But she caught nothing except for the roar of the unfolding battle that rolled over her. Even from this distance, it was overwhelming.

Straightening up, she looked through the gap between the trees where Cannich and the land beneath it were visible.

Black smoke billowed from within its high stone walls. The Uplands capital was aflame.

Cailean stepped up next to his wife and watched the battle unfold. The splintering of wooden shields, the scream of iron against steel—and of iron against iron too, for the hill-tribe warriors had turned on their own people—and the roars of fury and agony assaulted his ears.

It all blended into one terrible, violent song.

Cailean’s already pounding heart lurched.

Moons earlier, he’d have been in the thick of things, slashing his broadsword through the press of Shee and their allies. He’d have defended the High King with his dying breath.

But that man had died, and another had been born. One that was no longer Talorc mac Brude’s dog. Just as Bree had turned her back on Mor.

They were both down there amongst the melee—the Raven Queen and the High King—and they’d likely face each other in the end.

He tore his gaze from where silver and black surged against each other, like two seas meeting, and looked back at the smoking fort. His gut twisted then. He couldn’t believe Cannich had fallen to the Shee. The ‘Jewel of the North’ was being destroyed, and there was nothing he could do about it.

At least Enya got out .

Aye, she had, although his sister was the least of his worries right now. His skin prickled as he continued to watch the fort burn. With Cannich taken, the northern Uplands would belong to the Shee.

Talorc mac Brude had to win this battle. If he didn’t, the delicate balance of power between their races would shatter, and they’d all be up to their necks in shit. And where would his allegiance lie then?

There’s much about you that’s good.

The night before, he’d hated himself, but his wife had pulled him free of the mire. Gods, he wanted to be the man Bree saw—wanted to make his life mean something half-decent. She thought he was loyal, steadfast, and protective, yet so far, he’d left nothing but a legacy of violence and death.

“What now?” Bree asked then.

Cutting his attention away from Cannich, he raked his gaze over her, checking for injuries. However, despite a shallow scratch to her cheek, she was unharmed.

His fierce Shee wife stared back at him, her eyes glowing. There was no mistaking the challenge in her stare—and Cailean would answer it.

“Yesterday, I discovered that the High King has brought his family north with him,” he replied. “They’ll be following the main host, traveling with the baggage train and rearguard most likely.”

A nerve flickered in Bree’s cheek. “Lara and Mirren are here?” she whispered.

“Aye, and the queen consort too.” He paused then, as screams from the battle below rent the air. “The High King has spent years amassing his armies, but I’m not sure it’ll be enough to defeat the might Mor has rallied … not with her new allies. We need to warn the rearguard and get the High King’s family to safety.” He paused then, his gaze fusing with his wife’s. “I care what happens to Lara too,” he said softly. Indeed, he’d always respected her, and after she’d partnered him at blood-letting, a bond of sorts had formed between them. “I’ll not see the princess, or anyone with her, come to harm.”

Bree nodded, her jaw setting in a determined expression he knew only too well. She stepped back then and moved toward where Tivesheh waited with Skaal and Feannag. “Let’s go and find them.”