Chapter 27

27

M uch to my dismay, Desmond managed to find over two dozen soldiers who could perform the moving spell. I, unfortunately, was one of them.

Clenching my teeth around the words, I cast a net of thought around me, willing those assigned to my group to join me as we crossed distances in a blur. In three days, we’d managed to move tens of thousands of soldiers, horses, and equipment to the border, and with each successive spell, my apprehension grew.

I didn’t want to destroy the Crystal Realm.

But I had no choice, not when Kazimir was watching my every move. I felt like an island in the middle of the sea, alone in my thoughts and feelings and adrift in my purpose.

Sweat soaked my hair as we reached the day’s stopping point, and without a word to my group, I stalked away. My knees banged the ground beside the large lake, and I dipped my hands into its cool waters, bringing them to my face and splashing it as I tried to calm myself. Over and over and over, I repeated the process, trying to cleanse myself of whatever it was that wanted me to abandon my friends.

“Can I join you?”

I whipped around to find Vadim standing there, a hand stroking his long beard as he examined me. His long hair was tied into a knot on the top of his head, though after a day’s worth of travel it was almost as messy as my hair. Wet drops from the black strands landed on my face as I nodded, then returned to the bright blue waters of the lake.

I sat back on my haunches, resting my elbows on my knees, and just stared into the distance.

Vadim settled beside me, heaving a long breath before rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “I’m worried about you, brother.”

Without bothering to look at him, I asked, “Why?”

“You’ve always been the quiet, sensitive one, but I don’t think I’ve heard you speak more than a handful of words in the past few days.” He picked up a rock and tossed it into the lake, the smooth stone skipping across the surface before sinking somewhere in the distance.

“And?”

“And my point exactly. You want to be anywhere but here. Is it Liliana? Or something else?”

The irony of Vadim trying to talk about my feelings for his sister wasn’t lost on me. “I do miss her. I was hoping to see her in the Day Realm…” I trailed off, hoping he’d believe my lie about my sullen mood and not that I didn’t want to slaughter the Crystal Fae.

“But she wasn’t there.”

Vadim selected another rock and loosed it across the water. I watched it hop and sink before responding.

“Yep. And we left in a hurry.”

Please go away.

“Why weren’t they there, do you think?” he questioned, and I didn’t need to ask who he meant by ‘they.’

“By my guess, Izidora likely still sleeps, and neither of them wanted to leave her side.” I shrugged, toeing a few rocks until I found one I wanted. Grabbing it, I hurled it across the lake, where it landed with a plunk.

“Which means we are doing the right thing by preemptively attacking now. Ruslan’s focus will be divided, and we’ll have an easier victory, with less bloodshed.” Vadim’s reassurance fell flat for me, because, like everyone else, he only came up with logic that suited our current situation rather than the other way around.

And no one seemed to remember the prophecy either.

The words repeated themselves automatically in my mind, just like every time I thought about it these days.

“The ones that are part of all will be born under a full moon

Her white light will fill the land

But her mates darkness will rise

Kings will fall

Rivers will run with blood

There is a choice

Follow the light

Descend into the dark

The harrowing pass decides it all”

There were no harrowing passes in the Crystal Realm – only lakes and giant willow trees, glaciers and towering pines, and sand and ocean toward the coast. This campaign was pointless. What were we destroying, really? Vineyards? The Crystal Fae were the most peaceful. They didn’t want war. They wanted to sip wine and lounge lakeside.

I said nothing, and eventually Vadim sighed and rose to his feet. “There’s always room around our fire for you, Endre.”

He hesitated for only a moment before walking away. I chucked another rock into the water, wishing I could take my anger out on something other than these rocks and this lake.

Dawn broke over the horizon, and my horse shifted nervously beneath me. Tension bled through all our mounts, as if they knew that many of them would die this day. The soldiers on foot around me held their breath, waiting for the sword or axe to fall and end their lives. I’d never been to battle before. Fates, none of us had. The last ones in északi took place before my parents were born.

And yet, here I sat, atop my mount, waiting for the signal to begin wielding my axe and magic to kill, to maim, to destroy.

Across the open plain, the Crystal Fae wore stoic, stern expressions, hands gripping spears and archers shielding magic wielders behind them. On both sides, large bodies of water provided all the material they needed to work with for anything they couldn’t conjure we had a few tricks of our own to deal with their elemental magic.

Kazimir rode his dark horse down the front line of Night Fae soldiers, shouting orders and words of encouragement, all the while allowing black to creep into his eyes and blot out the emerald color that was as familiar as my own peridot.

We were only miles from Vlisa, the capital of the Crystal Realm, and yet I did not see King Airre doing the same for his soldiers.

Did he think he would win so handily that riding out to battle was unnecessary?

“...show them how powerful the Night Realm is and that we are not so easily banished! We are not swayed by pretty words and pretty gifts. We are fierce, vicious, and independent. We are the true Fae of this continent!” Kazimir finished, eliciting a resounding roar from the infantry.

Returning to the rear of the guard, he plucked a stag’s horn from Vadim’s outstretched hand and lifted it to his lips. The trumpeting call was more akin to a death knell as it rang out across the land, signaling the start to a war that would bring északi to its knees.

Gritting my teeth, I dug my heels into my mount’s sides, driving him forward among the rest of the cavalry. Kaztar and I raced along, shouting orders for our males to break off in various directions and clash with the Crystal Realm’s soldiers from an advantageous position.

The sun was momentarily blotted out as a thousand black wings beat together, our archery unit better suited for their task from the sky. A volley of arrows from the Crystal Fae attempted to take them down, but in perfectly rehearsed unison, a silvery shield encompassed them, sending the arrows bouncing off and down onto the field below. Their returning fire was rapid and precise, cutting down nearly half of the Crystal Realm’s archers on the first attempt.

The skies had their advantages.

The magic wielders behind the Crystal Fae quickly brought water from the lakes and created an icy barrier for them, tiny holes appearing in the shield just in time to fire an arrow before closing over again. Night Fae plummeted from the sky as they traded back and forth, some with enough force to crack the ice and reveal a warrior hiding beneath. They were shot down without hesitation.

Kaztar and I peeled off in different directions, trying to surround the foot soldiers and herd them into a group so our infantry had an easier time picking them off. But they were either clever or prepared by a seer, and any time we began pushing one way or another, they’d cut across, move forward, or move backward.

The sun rose higher in the sky.

I passed Viktor locked in battle with three Crystal Fae, his heavy strikes making him slower than the lithe bodies surrounding him. One circled out of his periphery, and without thinking, I yanked on my mount’s reins and kicked him in Viktor’s direction. Drawing a dagger from a sheath strapped to my thigh, I grasped the blade and threw it end over end toward the Fae whose blade was arcing toward Viktor’s shoulder.

It sank into the space between the Fae’s shoulder and neck, dropping him and slowing the momentum of his strike. The blade glanced off Viktor’s shoulder guard, and he whipped his head around after he dispatched the other two.

“You’re welcome,” I said. We locked eyes, acknowledging that I’d just saved his life, before I spurred my horse on. He returned to the fray, cutting his way toward his father who fought a few lengths away.

Mine was in the very back of the company and out of the battle, thankfully, managing the healers we’d brought with us.

Another pass around the foot soldiers brought me back to Kaztar, whose horse had a large gash in its side and was struggling to walk. His blade dripped blood, but he looked otherwise unharmed. “You okay?” I shouted over the clang of blades.

“Yeah, but my horse is not,” he called, angling the injured animal toward me.

I leaped from my mount and rushed to Kaztar. Placing my hands on the sweaty hide, I willed the gash to close, and tendrils of silver magic swept from my palms across the horse’s skin, knitting the flesh back together. The stallion tossed his tangled mane, letting me know he was good enough to continue the battle.

“Thanks, Endre,” Kaztar said. “Domi would have killed me if I came home without him.”

I snorted, since his wife would have undoubtedly followed through on it. “She loves her horses more than you.”

“That she does,” he grinned, scanning the area behind me for threats. “Watch?—”

But the rush of footsteps had already reached my ears before Kaztar spoke, and I whirled around, axe already swinging. It sank deep into the chest of an approaching Crystal Fae. He clutched at the wound and fell to the ground, spluttering blood with a wet cough. Another swing of my axe delivered the swift death he deserved instead of the slow, painful one he would have experienced from a wound like that.

All shadows disappeared from the battlefield as the sun peaked in the sky.

“Let’s end this,” I told Kaztar, striding away and throwing a leg over my mount’s back.

We took off in a gallop to assess the battlefield, scanning for opportunities to break apart their lines. The archers had been dealt with, the icy shield only protecting the magic wielders who took turns shooting the flying archers from the sky with spears of ice. They had started to understand the tactics of their opponents, and one by one, flew to the back of the line to exchange their bows for swords and drop to the ground to battle with magic and sword against the barrier and those behind it.

“Over there!” I shouted to Kaztar, pointing toward where Vadim and Viktor were fighting with their fathers in the center of the field, bodies piling up around them as they danced with their swords.

We turned in unison and cut our way through the fight toward them.

“I thought you’d never show up!” Vadim shouted with a laugh as he cut a deep slice into a Crystal Fae’s leg.

“Need a break?” I replied, throwing another dagger into an oncoming soldier.

“Fuck no,” Vadim shot back, kicking the legs out from beneath one opponent and sending him flying into another.

“Haven’t you heard? The great warrior Vadim can fight for days on end with no breaks, no water, no food. In fact, he needs no food to survive,” Kaztar teased, slicing into an opponent who was running by with his blade.

Erik snorted and wiped the sweat from his face with the back of his hand, taking a momentary break from the chaos around us with the addition of my blade and Kaztar’s. “Us old males on the other hand–”

High Lord Adimik never got to finish what he was saying. Blood dribbled out of the sides of his mouth as he looked down at his chest, where an icy spear protruded, the tip pointed in my direction. My mouth dropped in shock, and Viktor released a furious cry. “Father!”

“Viktor watch out!” I screamed, throwing up a shield over both of them just as another icy spear flew in our direction.

“Fuck! To our left!” Vadim shouted, silvery magic bursting from him just in time to block three successive ice shards.

“Hold it!” I ordered, joining my magic with his and forming a barrier around as many as we could manage. The icy assault persisted, banging like a drum and forcing us to pour more power into maintaining our safe position.

Viktor dropped to his knees in front of his father, holding him by his shoulders and repeating, “It’s going to be okay.”

But Erik’s eyes were already growing distant, and a river of red dripped from both corners of his mouth.

“Endre! Help me,” Viktor begged, but I knew there wasn’t enough healing magic in the world to save him, especially not on a battlefield where we were under attack.

“There’s nothing we can do,” I whispered, but my voice still sounded like screaming through the cacophony of battle.

“No, no, no,” he cried, cradling his dying father against his chest.

“Son, tell your mother I love her… when you see her. It was… my honor to battle beside you,” he wheezed, using the last of his air to convey his feelings for his family. Then, he slackened, going utterly limp in his son’s arms. Hot, angry tears tracked through the blood and sweat on my face, leaving two lines of grief.

We’d already lost so many.

“I can’t hold for much longer,” Vadim rasped, his hands shaking as he held the connection to the magic fueling the shield.

From my position atop my horse, I looked between Viktor, Vadim and his father, Kaztar, and the battle around us. “Viktor, take my horse and your father’s body to the back. We’ll hold the line.”

With a numbness that only comes from loss, he ripped the ice from his father’s chest and heaved him into his arms. I hit the ground with a thud, then held my mount steady as he draped Erik across. Viktor’s sage green eyes were nearly as empty as his father’s as he took the reins from me and turned the horse in the opposite direction. He said nothing as he departed, as heartbroken as I’d ever seen him.

“Ready?” I finally said to Vadim and Kaztar, gripping my axe in one hand and a jagged dagger in the other.

Vadim managed to nod before dropping the silver shield from around us. It was like popping a soapy bubble, and the cacophony of sound assaulted us as quickly as shards of ice flying from desperate Crystal Fae. They were losing, badly, and they knew it.

The sun began its daily descent.

The four of us held the front line, succeeding in pushing back the Crystal Fae until they were nearly even with the edge of the lake. Though, it was no longer the bright blue hue the Crystal Realm was known for; no, it was a deep scarlet, only broken by the bodies floating lifelessly along its surface.

Vadim roared, channeling his rage into his blade and slicing down three opponents in quick succession. High Lord Nikolai, Vadim’s father, fueled himself similarly, and by the way he clenched his jaw, I knew he was just as upset as the rest of us. But there was no time to mourn on the battlefield – that was only available in the aftermath. With renewed vigor, we pushed forward, fighting to make sure that those who died on our side did not die in vain.

A gust of wind blasted across the battlefield, carrying on it the words ‘retreat.’

The Crystal Fae did not hesitate to race away as their leader gave them permission to escape their certain deaths.

The four of us stood and watched them flee, instructing our soldiers not to follow. They’d fought well and earned the reprieve. Besides, we needed to regroup and decide what our next steps would be. Exhaustion filled every part of me as adrenaline fled my veins, and my limbs were nearly impossible to move as I trudged back to our base camp.

Kaztar, Vadim, Nikolai, and myself were covered in blood, and I had no idea how much of it was mine. There was no use trying to rinse in the lakes either – not with their current color.

Barrels had already been cracked to celebrate our victory by the time I reached the healer’s tent. My father worked furiously over his patients, barking orders at assistants, shouting for clean bandages, wisps of silver assisting him for a more serious case. I stood for only a moment at the entrance before deciding to let him work and speak to him later.

The sun neared the horizon.

In the war tent, Kazimir, who looked cleaner than anyone else in our camp, Viktor, Vadim, Desmond, and several others were bent over a map of the Crystal Realm.

“We should chase them down, finish the job, then take Vlisa,” Vadim was saying, gesturing to locations on the map that were out of my field of vision.

I wasn’t going to be party to this.

Backing away slowly, I tried to slip away unnoticed. But Kaztar had already seen me and offered a victorious smile, and Kazimir beckoned me forward. “You were brilliant, Endre. Great job out there.”

“Thanks,” I muttered, busying myself looking elsewhere so he didn’t see the mixed emotions in my eyes.

They continued their discussion while I trudged forward and took a spot between Viktor and Vadim. “I agree, Vadim,” Viktor said, rubbing the side of his dirty face while he thought. “Now is not the time to let them come up with another plan. We must strike while we have the advantage. We should wait until nightfall, when our magic will be at its strongest. It will help refuel us as we raid Vlisa.”

“How many did we lose?” I asked, seeing as no one else seemed to care.

“Not even a tenth of the army. Most are still chomping at the bit to continue the fight,” Vadim grinned wolfishly, as though the father of one of his closest friends hadn’t just fucking died .

We all coped with grief in different ways.

I tuned them out as they continued to debate how to proceed, nodding at the appropriate times. I wanted nothing more than to find my tent and collapse onto my bedroll, but it appeared that was not an option. What I could do was find something to eat, so I excused myself and went in search of a fire that would have a cook or two providing hot meals for the soldiers.

After accepting a steaming bowl of stew and some bread, I scarfed down the food, hungrier than I thought. I returned for a second helping before deciding I’d had enough if I didn’t want it all to come up in a few hours’ time. Fighting was much easier on an empty stomach – especially with what Kazimir was asking me to do.

We rode into Vlisa with a trail of fire and blood in our wake. The Night Realm’s soldiers tossed torches into buildings along every outlying town between our camp and the capital of the Crystal Realm, and villagers who joined up with the retreating army were slaughtered alongside them. Those who fled were allowed to race away, because our target was Blire Palace, where King Airre and Queen Immonen were no doubt watching our advance. Their palace was beautiful, with a strategic advantage of being able to see for miles in every direction, but that night, the only thing visible was red.

The crystal palace reflected the color of the water, and the once ethereal structure looked more like an omen as we approached it. Residents of Vlisa had already taken refuge – either outside the city or in their homes. I cared not, so long as they weren’t in our path. The streets were barren, save for the remaining Crystal Fae soldiers, who took one look at the advancing army and retreated to the palace courtyard.

Kazimir split the line of the Night Realm’s army as he rode to the gates. “Surrender and no more harm will befall you!”

King Airre appeared behind a dozen rows of soldiers, his white hair disheveled as if he had been pulling at it while he watched us destroy his realm. “You will pay for this!”

“From where I sit, it looks like I have already won. Who will make me pay for this? You?” Kazimir tipped his head back and laughed, an obnoxious, grating sound designed to intimidate but only serving to irritate me.

The king of the Crystal Realm punched the side of his palace, before turning to converse with someone out of view. “Fine. We surrender. On one condition.”

“Name it,” Kazimir shouted with a wave of his hand.

A stone settled in my stomach because I knew what King Airre would ask for, and had no doubt that Kazimir would not hold to his promise.

“I want my mate to live.”

And there it was.

“Done,” Kazimir replied. “Open the gates.”

They swung inward noiselessly, and Kazimir guided his mount through them, followed by the rest of his nobles. The sea of Crystal Fae parted for him, quickly cornered and surrounded by our own soldiers.

Kazimir dismounted, handing the reins to Kaztar, and King Airre stepped from within the doors of his palace and into the night. He threw up a smattering of floating lights, the rest of the Night Fae adding to them so the space around us was nearly as bright as day. No one wanted to miss what happened next, and it made me sick.

Slowly, the rest of the Crystal Realm’s male nobles trickled out, mothers clutching children to their chests as if they could protect them from what was about to happen. Blire’s inner halls were lined with witnesses, and I only hoped that some could find away to escape this place and tell someone, fucking anyone, what had happened.

King Airre knelt on the ground, lifting his ceremonial sword and dipping his head in deference to Kazimir. Then, he spoke the official words of surrender.

Air caught in my throat as I watched the scene unfold in slow motion.

Kazimir accepted the blade, and in one smooth motion, drew it and sliced through the neck of the king of the Crystal Realm. A shriek like nothing of this world shattered the shock around us, and Queen Immonen burst from within the palace, helpless as her mate’s head hit the ground. She fell at his side, a sob wrenching free as she grabbed at his falling body.

She never managed to close her hands around his tunic. Her long, platinum hair fluttered to the ground, mixing with her husband’s as the mates joined each other in death.

Bile rose in my throat, and it took all my focus to breathe slowly through my nostrils and keep the contents of my stomach down.

Beside me, Vadim and Viktor were stone-faced, not even flinching as two Fae we’d spent considerable time with were mercilessly slaughtered. Only Kaztar had the decency to glance away from the scene and gather himself.

The Crystal Realm’s nobles stood in utter shock, blinking and unable to speak as the blood of their monarchs pooled at their feat. Kazimir cast them a dismissive glance before addressing his army.

“We have won a great victory on this day. The Crystal Realm is ours!” A roar rose up from the soldiers, riding the high of their victory. Then, he turned to the Crystal Realm’s forces. “Anyone who will pledge loyalty to me here and now will keep their lives. Otherwise, you will be executed.”

A fucking tyrant.

The thought crossed my mind before I even realized it, and in that moment, I knew that staying in the Night Realm was no longer an option for me. I had to get out, I had to find Liliana, and I had to save the rest of my friends from Kazimir’s madness.