Chapter 44

44

T he bitter cold of the depths of winter in the Iron Realm drove me and Zuriel to train indoors, in the arena beneath Ryza Citadel. The familiar walls greeted us as we lit the tall chandeliers where my cousin had first taught me to fly. We faced each other, magic swirling around our swords. It had been too long since I’d completely depleted myself, and I itched for a serious spar.

“You’re not going to read my mind to defeat me, are you, cousin?” I teased, stepping cautiously to the side and trying to bait him into striking.

A sly grin crinkled the corners of his icy blue eyes. “Where would the fun be in that?”

“Winning?” I quipped, feinting a strike and flinging magic from the end of my blade.

With a grace and ease I could only dream of, he sidestepped the ball of white energy and fired back with one of his own. It dissipated over my shield like smoke in the wind, and I used the opportunity to ready my swords for a strike. Lunging forward, I popped the protective bubble of my own making, only to meet air when I swung.

Snapping my head up, I barely managed to roll and dodge Zuriel as he dropped down from above. “You have more than magic and swords at your disposal, Izidora. Use them.”

Calling on my wings, I tucked them tight against my back so they wouldn’t interfere or leave me vulnerable while still getting accustomed to fighting with their weight. We ducked, dodged, and struck out at one another in a flurry of activity before I disengaged, panting.

Pretending I was studying him for an opening, I snaked my magic toward Zuriel’s mind, slipping inside it and pushing heavy, sluggish emotions on him. He blinked slowly, his movements growing lazy, before he snapped back to awareness and shoved me from his mind.

We’d practiced the magic often enough since I’d awoken that it was as easy as breathing, and the signals that I was delving through his mind were easily detected. But secretly besting him through my empath magic wasn’t my intention.

Having him mentally off-balance allowed me to strike with less chance that I’d get caught with an errant blow as I tried to close the distance between us. A combination Ruslan had taught me recently came to mind first, and as Zuriel offered up the intended slash, I slipped under it, then pivoted on the ball of my foot and landed a hard kick across his abdomen.

He grinned, whipping to the side and forcing me backward with a series of rapid, light strikes. I tried to hold my ground, but his momentum carried him forward, and my hurried parries did nothing. Sucking in a breath, I cleared my mind and forced a wall of white magic outward, the impact stopping his advance and allowing me to dance away and regroup.

“Very good,” he praised, rolling his shoulders and lifting his sword.

His next attack was so fast I nearly missed it, and on pure instinct I shot into the air, tucking my legs and allowing him to pass beneath me. I landed heavily, bracing myself against the mat before throwing another blast in his direction, trying to knock him to the side. He blocked it, sending the magic right back to me. A ring of white fire burst around me, protecting me from further attack while I righted myself.

Panting, I lifted my swords, the gems encrusted in the hilt glittering beneath the thousand tiny lights overhead. “Who would guess that only a few months ago I could barely walk the length of this room?”

Zuriel shrugged, holding a teasing smile to his lips. “You’ve worked hard to recover. You’ve never let anything stop you, cousin. I didn’t expect you to stay weak for long.”

A laugh slipped out and I found myself grinning widely. Warmth blossomed in my chest as I realized once again I’d proven to myself and others that I was not a victim of my circumstances, and I would do whatever it took to overcome them. “I am a survivor. Always have been, always will be. People can underestimate the beautiful bloom, but my thorns are sharp and I have no qualms about stabbing people with them.”

As if to prove my point, I danced around Zuriel, throwing my sword out lazily as a distraction before following it up with a kick to his calf. The Angel returned one to my ribs, knocking me off balance, and I stumbled backward, scrambling to lift my sword. But Zuriel was fast and had thousands of years of fighting experience, and it wasn’t long before my back was against the wall and the tip of his sword pointed at my throat.

“I yield,” I said, but there was no bitterness to my tone. I couldn’t expect to truly win against such a skilled fighter when I had scarcely a year of training on my own. Everything Zuriel did was meticulously planned, and what he allowed me to do was a test of how I would react to whatever Kazimir decided to throw my way. My deepest held desire was to slice into Kazimir’s skin and watch his lifeblood coat my blade, and Zuriel knew that as well as anyone, if not more.

He relaxed his arm, then tossed his sword onto the mat some feet away. “I want to work on one other thing with you.” He gestured for me to follow him.

“Okay,” I responded, placing my swords beside his and walking to the center.

Zuriel’s white feathered wings flared wide and lifted him off the ground. He hovered in the air above me, and I had to crane my neck to look up at him. “Use your magic to pull me from the sky,” he instructed, inching higher.

I quirked a brow, then tapped into the crystal wrapped in white fire and moonlight, allowing the crystal to flare with blackest of black colors – a necessary step to controlling another’s movements. Not one that I hesitated to do any longer. The heady thrill of the dark power thrummed in my veins, and I closed my eyes momentarily, savoring it, surrendering to its call.

Then, I snapped my eyes open, a wicked smile spreading across my face. I spilled more blackness into the crystal, then attacked. Willing Zuriel to return to the earth by imagining a tether around his ankles, sweat rolled down my temples. He only continued to rise. I pushed more magic into my will, gritting my teeth. His ascent slowed, then ground to a halt. But his feet remained firmly in the air.

“Why isn’t it working?” I huffed, dropping my hold and using my sleeve to wipe at my face.

“Because I am resisting you. Kazimir’s binding magic might see you coming and fight with yours, like it did before. You need to be prepared for that.” Zuriel flapped once, twice, sending a breeze across my heated face.

“Right. I’ll try again,” I said, steeling my spine and readying for another attack. Images of Kazimir choking me in the stables of Ryza flitted through my mind.

If I beat him then, I can beat him again.

I tried not to let my mind wander to our last encounter, where I’d failed to save myself.

Never again.

That was why I called on the darkness again, willingly entering it and offering it loving caresses. Sucking in a breath, I released the air slowly, focusing on my magic. More dark emotions rose, until I brimmed with fury, and rage, so raw and powerful that I thought I might explode if I didn’t release them.

My attention snapped to Zuriel, and I unleashed everything I’d stored at him, willing him to crash into the ground. He dipped, nearly halfway, before righting himself. “Better. Add more fuel to your power.”

I allowed my hatred of Kazimir to fill me, the heat starting in my toes and traveling to the top of my head. My muscles tensed as they flooded with adrenaline, and I forced myself to focus on channeling that into what I wanted my magic to do. With a scream, I threw everything at the Angel, and he plummeted to the soft mats, landing with an echoing smack.

He dusted himself off, then leveled a serious gaze on me. “Remember what you did just then. Keep it close for the future. You will need it,” he said cryptically, and once again, I felt like he knew something I did not.

With his mind reading abilities, I was certain he knew many things no one else did.

I can’t believe he kept this a secret for so long…

“I think that’s enough for today,” he stated, interrupting my thoughts.

I kicked myself as I remembered Ruslan reminding me to come to the war council meeting today. “Yeah, we’ve got to get to the war room,” I commented, retrieving my swords and sheathing them in their pretty scabbards.

We made the trek up the spiraling stairs, away from Rares’s chaotic workshop that bustled with Félvér day and night as they assisted in making potions or tending to the herbs needed to make them. The halls of Ryza were busier than usual with the cold driving more indoors, but we managed to arrive at the new war room just in time for the meeting.

Zuriel and I slipped inside, joining Ruslan, Drazen, Liliana, and the others around the massive table covered in maps and battle plans. A few more trickled in behind us, and I took my place at Ruslan’s side. Once everyone was gathered, he began.

“We were surprised and out-strategized before. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen again. While I don’t think the Night Fae will move until winter is over, we can’t be certain. The time to plan is now.”

“How are we supposed to plan when Kazimir is insane?” Drazen grumbled, surveying a map of the Night Realm.

“His madness does present a problem. It makes him unpredictable,” Ruslan commented.

“But he has Viktor to help with his military strategy,” Liliana piped up. “He’s the best strategist the Night Realm has ever seen, and Kazimir knows that – trusts him with that. He’s unlikely to go against what Viktor says.”

Ruslan turned his attention to my best friend. “And what would Viktor do?”

Endre’s input would have been valuable to this question.

But Ruslan still didn’t trust him – rightfully so.

Liliana’s brows dipped as she thought. “Trying to enter the Iron Realm directly is a mistake – everyone knows that. We have the advantage here, with the high peaks, especially with the threat of avalanches as the snow falls thicker every day.” She paused, running her fingers absently over the paper in front of her. “Viktor would either wait out the winter or return to the Day Realm for a second assault. Try to draw us out because they cannot penetrate the Iron Realm.”

“So you think we should send reinforcements to the Day Realm?” Drazen asked her.

Zuriel interrupted before Liliana could reply. “What about how they moved away so quickly during the last battle? Desmond could not have done that alone.”

“Zuriel has a point,” Rares said from somewhere I couldn’t see. I hadn’t realized the old Mage had even entered the room. “Desmond always thought that Mage magic wasn’t tied to blood since it is potions and spoken spells. But I didn’t have the time to study it with my other priorities. He must have figured out a way to teach the Night Fae.”

A threatening rumble reverberated in the room as Ruslan braced his hands on the table and glared at his Mage. “Do you mean to tell me that all this time, we had another option than the tunnels or relying on the handful of Mage Félvér to move about quickly?”

“Well, technically it's possible, yes. Magic is everywhere in this world, though each magical race can only pull on certain strings of it,” Rares's voice grew small as Ruslan’s commanding presence expanded. Pressing my lips together, I smothered a smirk as the old Mage quaked beneath my mate’s wrath.

“You’ve finished giving the permanent ability to shift to those who need it?” Ruslan questioned, and Rares nodded. “Good. This is your new priority. If you can’t figure out how to contain Kazimir’s binding magic, figure out how to get my people the fuck away from him.”

The room was poised with tension on the verge of breaking, so I sent soothing emotions in all directions, doing my part in shifting the conversation back to more productive topics.

“So, when and where should we station our troops?” I asked.

“If we’re going off Viktor’s strategy, the Day Realm,” Liliana declared, tapping the map with her finger.

“And why aren’t we going on the offensive?” Drazen challenged. “We could use the advantage of the Iron Realm – the impenetrable mountains – to enter the Night Realm and slaughter them during the winter when they won’t expect us to come.”

“If Desmond has taught them how to move through space, what’s to stop them from bypassing them altogether?” Zuriel added.

Fuck, he had a point.

My heart beat a staccato rhythm, breath catching in my chest at the idea of Kazimir popping into existence in front of me when I least expected it.

“I won’t let that happen to you,” Ruslan spoke mind-to-mind.

“But what if it does?”

Panic clawed up my throat as unbidden images of that possibility played out in my head.

Ruslan knew better than to placate me. “Then we will fight him off. You are powerful enough to destroy him with a single thought. Just because he caught you off guard last time doesn’t mean he will again. You’ve been training so hard, and I have no doubt that you will end his miserable existence the next time we meet him on the battlefield.”

Side arguments had broken out while we conversed mentally, and Ruslan growled a sharp command to silence the room. “The forces will remain in the Iron Realm until we know what the Night Fae’s next move will be. Going on the offensive could lead us right into a trap. It’s better to be ready to react than to make the wrong move.”

“But that’s what happened last time, and we were ambushed,” Drazen argued, looking to his commanders for support. They nodded their agreement.

I tuned out the volley of new arguments, not knowing enough about battle tactics or strategy to add much else. These males were all educated in the art of war, though only Zuriel, Xorrek, and Gozzak had real battle experience. Liliana remained intently focused, and I wondered where she had left Endre. Ruslan had tasked her with ensuring Endre remained within the lines Ruslan had carved with his acceptance into the Iron Realm. Catching her eye, I jerked my thumb over my shoulder, hoping she understood I wanted to talk when the council concluded. She nodded, then returned her attention to a heated argument between Drazen, Zuriel, and Ruslan.

“... and spies will hopefully give us more insight into their plans,” Drazen finished.

“Fine,” Ruslan agreed. “Rares, while you’re figuring out how to allow non-Mages to use spells to move, give some thought to how our spies can communicate more effectively, like we do with Katrina now.”

“Yes, My Emperor,” he responded immediately, admonished and ego bruised.

He probably didn’t like that Desmond figured out something instead of him.

After an update on our numbers and training, we were dismissed, some choosing to linger in smaller groups to discuss specifics, while others hurried from the room, on to their next task. I hooked my arm through Liliana’s and we entered the quieter halls of the citadel. I waved at Ruslan over my shoulder, letting him know we’d talk later.

“Where is Endre?” I asked my friend as we strolled toward the tower that held our apartments.

“In my room,” she grumbled, glancing over her shoulder to see if Drazen was following. He and Ruslan watched us disappear into the spiral stairwell, and our bond saddened with the distance. Once we were out of earshot of the Dragons, she whispered, “I haven’t gotten off since we’ve been back. I’m so horny I could die.”

I snorted a laugh, squeezing her arm in reassurance. “You won’t die from lack of sex. What’s stopping you?”

“Babysitting Endre. How am I supposed to sneak off with Drazen if I have to constantly keep an eye on him?”

“Don’t you want Endre?” I questioned.

“It’s complicated. As much as he said on the battlefield, my heart still hurts. I don’t want this to be some sort of trick, you know? We fuck, I say something I shouldn’t, he runs back to Kazimir.”

Using my empath magic, I felt the depth of her confusion, mistrust, and hurt. But mixed in with it was love and lust, and with the mix of emotions swirling inside her, I couldn’t blame her for keeping both males at arm’s length.

“Ruslan doesn’t trust him either.”

“I know. Which only makes me feel guilty about not trusting him too. I mean, I do to some extent. I just can’t let myself be vulnerable like that with him. Not now.” Her words faded from existence, leaving the stairwell silent except for the light pad of our feet against the stone.

I understood her sentiment. Not when war was out there and there was no certainty of who would be left standing at the end of it.

We reached the landing that held our apartments, and I guided her into the one Ruslan and I kept at the citadel. The sentries nodded to us as we slipped past, and a fire was already roaring in the hearth.

Snagging my favorite blanket from the pile beside the fire, I wrapped it around myself and settled on the closest couch, snuggling into its warmth. I leaned my temple against the back of it, waiting for Liliana to settle across from me.

“I know I said this last year, but we need to escape this dreadful cold and spend time on the beaches of the Day Realm,” Liliana laughed, tucking her feet up under her after kicking off her boots.

“If we win this war, next year we will,” I promised, grinning widely. I wanted to explore the far flung parts of the continent more than anything, but other priorities pressed in from all sides, nearly making me explode with anxiety.

Not wanting to allow Liliana to change the subject from what I knew she really needed to talk about, I pressed on from my earlier line of questioning. “What do you want from them?”

Liliana tipped her head to the side, mirroring my position. “I’ve said this a dozen times, but I want to be chosen. For me. Because they see who I am deep down and love every bit of me, like Ruslan does for you. But,” she released a heavy sigh, “I also want a male that can force me to submit to them. I’m strong, I’m a fighter, and I’m wild. I don’t want someone to tame me. I want them to show me they’re powerful enough for me to trust they’ll take care of me.”

“That makes sense,” I reassured her. “Why not tell both of them that?”

She shrugged beneath her blanket. “Because I just want them to do it, you know?”

“If I’ve learned anything since being out of chains, it’s that I have to say exactly what I want and how I feel if I want my needs met. Ruslan does a good job of anticipating them now that we’re bonded and he knows me, but unless you suddenly become mated to one of them, you’re going to have to use your words.” I sneaked a foot out from beneath the blanket and nudged her leg playfully.

Liliana grinned in response. “Well when you put it that way, it seems so easy.”

“When it comes to emotions, it's always easier said than done. Trust me, I’m an empath,” I snickered.

She rolled her eyes in response. “Okay, fine. I’ll talk to them. But I’m going to practice on you a few times first.”

Clearing my throat, I deepened my voice to mimic those of the males. “Oh, Liliana, all I want to do is force you to your knees and make you suck my cock.” I barely finished the words before we both doubled over in hysterics.

My abdomen was sore by the time I came up gasping for air, tears blurring the form of my friend across from me. We both swiped at our eyes, coming down from the moment.

“Fuck, I needed a laugh like that,” she said.

“Me too. It’s been too tense and too stressful around here.” I scooted across the couch and hugged her tightly, swaying as she wrapped her arms around me in return.

“But everything will be okay, in the end.” She gave me a tight squeeze and broke our embrace.

“In the end,” I sighed, returning to my corner and wrapping the fur tightly around my shoulders. The logs in the fire popped and crackled as a large one burned out completely, sending a hint of smoke into the air.

With how fickle the Fates and the Goddess were, I sincerely hoped it wasn’t an omen of what was to come. Liliana and I sat in silence, staring at it, until she finally decided she couldn’t wait any longer to return to Endre. I bid her goodbye, but remained wrapped up in my thoughts, wondering when and how this war would end.

Would the pain all be worth it in the end?