CHAPTER 27

OSRIK

I load chunks of stone into the catapult and let the pieces fly, making sure I obliterate as many bodies as fucking possible.

At first, the guard tower to my right was practically bursting full of pieces of debris. Small enough for me to load into the catapult, big enough to be heavy as shit.

When we got the signal from Ryatt and readied the trigger, I waited inside the guard tower, attention fixed on the sky for our timberwings.

The rest of the men stayed crouched down along the wall, making Cliffhelm appear empty. We needed to draw the fae's eyes to the threat at the iron forest so that the big veins of rot could hopefully bleed them out.

And it worked. This crazy ass plan of Ryatt's fucking worked.

The second we saw the rot tearing open the frozen ground, my men started launching arrows at whatever fae got within range. There was a group of them who tried to split off and race for Cliffhelm when the ground started to give way, but we were ready and easily picked them off.

And I keep launching the catapult. Arms burning, muscles straining, sweat dripping down my skin just as much as the shitty snow. It's not just the stones that are heavy, the whole fucking catapult is. It's meant to be a three-person load, but we can't spare two more men. So I do it myself. Launching, then re-aiming the arm and setting the trigger again with gritted teeth before loading another piece and launching into another group of fae.

I enjoy that part.

I don't fucking enjoy when someone comes in and threatens us. I won't stand for it, no matter how bad the odds are.

Before I shoot off the catapult again, movement catches my eye far in the distance. White wood on white snow, pulled by creatures with flaming feet.

That's a sight I didn't fucking expect.

Fire claws are pulling Red Raid ships, and they're cutting off the fae who are running back toward Fifth Kingdom. I watch nearly a dozen of the ships slide right through their contingents, and the flames from the fire claws spread through the army, seeming to burn them where they stand.

Down the wall, the soldiers I have with me let out cheers and whoops of victory. Then, timberwings— not ours—start dropping down from the clouds and roar. I stare in surprise, watching as one of them takes a shit mid-flight, and I see the splatter from here as it lands on some of the fae.

Fucking amazing.

The men laugh as I yank off my helmet to wipe the sweat off my brow, and I can't help but smirk too. I don't know how all this help just swooped in, but what could've been a suicide mission just turned around to become a fucking victory.

With the ground splitting and now the added defense, we're winning.

Everything changed so fucking fast. Not a half hour ago, things looked bleak as shit.

"They're getting their asses handed to them!" one of the men shouts.

Then one of the men beside me calls out, "Captain!"

Jerking my attention, I look where he's pointing below the wall. I follow his line of sight and realize what he's seeing. There's a rift, and it's stretching fast, heading straight for us.

" Shit ." My helmet drops to the ground with a clang.

We knew there was a risk of the splits making it to Cliffhelm, but Ryatt tried to plan it so that wouldn't happen. Tried to hone our soldiers' magic so it was far enough away. But clearly, now that Slade's rot has been unleashed, it doesn't want to be leashed again.

I feel all the blood drain from my face when I realize that the crack isn't going to stop spreading. And it's not a small fissure, either, it's big.

Then the wall starts to shake.

I lift my head, bellowing as loud as I can. " Get off the fucking wall !"

My roaring order makes the men scramble from their stations and start racing for the stairs. I yell at them to move their asses, counting each of them, attention snapping from them to the rift heading toward our cliff.

There are three men left when it reaches the base. The ground jostles so hard I nearly get tossed right over the side. The men almost topple too, but they catch themselves while struggling to keep running for the stairs.

Then the wall fucking snaps .

One of our soldiers isn't fast enough. He goes careening off the split, and the rest of the wall starts to give way.

" Run !" I roar.

The other two haul ass, but the wall is sinking, and it drags another soldier with it, his scream soon cut off. The last man nearly falls too, but I leap forward, fist closing around his arm. I yank him up and haul him toward the stairs with a forceful shove. Then I jump down the stairs behind him just as they start crumbling beneath my fucking boots.

Debris shoots through the air, and right as I slam to the ground on the balls of my feet, there's another loud crack, and the guard tower starts tipping like a falling tree.

It's going to flatten us.

The soldier I yanked with me stumbles, but I grip his arm again and keep him upright. "Go!"

The ground shakes so much it feels like the whole cliff could give way any second, and that thought fills me with fear colder than this fucking snow.

Rissa .

I race past the armory, barking out orders for the men to keep running, to push harder, to go faster.

"Don't stop!" I thunder as the ground thunders back, and I can hear more of the cliff toppling behind us.

Then shadows appear, and I look up to see timberwings overhead. They start swooping down, the soldiers on the saddles trying to grab for my men and yank them up. When there's another crash, I look over my shoulder and see the armory starting to fall too.

All of Cliffhelm is going to turn to rubble. I need to get to Rissa now .

One timberwing comes down in front of me, but I ignore the soldier on its saddle and keep running for the barracks. When I reach the door, I practically rip it off the hinges as I call her name, looking around frantically.

But she's not here.

She's not fucking here.

A terrified bellow rips from my throat. " Rissa !"

Where is she? Where the fuck is she?

Fear slams through my chest so hard I can't think. What if she was next to the wall when it was falling? What if she already got fucking crushed? I turn and start to run, heading back the way I came, but the ground is splitting, opening up—

"Osrik!"

I snap my head around, and there she is, racing toward me from the stables. Her yellow hair whips around her pale, terrified face as we run for each other.

She's too close to danger.

I hear another crack of ground, and a man screams. Rissa leaps for me. My hands shoot out and I catch her, and then I turn and run as fast as I can, just as the stables beside us start crumbling.

Her body jostles with my pounding steps, but I try to outrun the rot that's tearing through the earth. Because I'm not going to let it tear through her .

No fucking way.

Around us, snow splinters, and crevices start to sink in with corroded soil and a stench so foul it turns my stomach. My pounding steps take us to the end of Cliffhelm's outer fence, and I leap over the stacked bricks. When my feet land on the other side, I keep going, tearing ahead, my heart pounding and blood pumping so loudly I can't hear anything else. I'll keep running all the way back to Brackhill if I have to. I'll keep her safe.

I have to keep her safe.

But her voice suddenly pierces through my panicked brain. "Osrik!" She pinches me on the side of the neck hard enough to yank my attention, to realize I've run a really fucking long way. "The shaking stopped!"

I skid to a halt in the snow, breath panting heavily. Turning, I look around to see the rest of our soldiers have already stopped, everyone facing the way we came. Above us, timberwings circle.

We all wait, watching, but the splits don't spread, and the ground stays still and quiet.

Rissa's right. It stopped.

Thank. Fuck.

"You can put me down now," she says after a few more minutes, her voice shaky. Her body shaky too.

"Absolutely fucking not."

She doesn't argue, and her hands still clutch the back of my neck. I'm pumped through with so much adrenaline, fucking reeling with the aftermath as I note who's still here.

Who's still alive.

As more minutes pass, timberwings start landing beside us, and we all stare at the crumbled remains of Cliffhelm and the split-apart landscape below that's littered with bodies from the battleground.

"We're alright," Rissa murmurs to me, her body finally easing off from the shaking.

But all I can think of is how I couldn't find her.

When she squirms again, I finally relent and set her down. Then I glare at her. "Stay in the barracks. That's what I told you," I snarl. "I told you ten times to stay in the fucking barracks !"

Her eyes narrow and she fists her hands on her hips and looks down her nose at me. I don't know how she manages it with me towering over her, but she does. "Don't you speak to me like that. I am not a child, nor am I one of your soldiers you can order around."

"No," I say, taking a step forward. "You are my woman, and if I'm going to keep you safe, during a fucking battle , then you have to listen to me!"

She's got a scarf wrapped around her neck, and she's bundled up in a thick leather and fur coat, but it looks like her temper is keeping her plenty warm with the way her cheeks flare red. "I did stay in the barracks," she retorts. "Until the ground started shaking. Then what did you expect me to do?"

"Stay. In. The. Barracks!"

She scoffs.

Scoffs .

I've had men three times her size cower when I yelled like this, but not her. And deep in my gut, I know I'm crazed with anger right now because if she'd gotten hurt or killed, I would have lost my mind.

So I try to take a deep breath to calm my shit down. "I told you our plan, Rissa. I explained that you might feel some shaking."

" Some shaking?" she spouts off. "This wasn't some shaking, Osrik! It sounded like the entire earth was cracking open!"

"That's because it fucking was!"

"Well, excuse me, Sir Army Captain , that I decided to not simply stand around and let the building collapse on me," she says snappishly. "I went outside so I could see what was going on."

I pinch my nose between my thumb and finger, like I can squeeze some reasoning into her pretty fucking head. When I take a breath and drop my hand, I look her in the eye. "You could have died . I went to the barracks to find you, and you weren't there. I thought you were stuck in a pile of rubble and buried ten feet in the ground somewhere."

Her blue eyes flash. "I saw the wall and the guard towers start to fall. The ground was shaking so hard I couldn't even stand straight. But I wanted to see where you were. I needed to make sure you were okay too, you giant oaf!" she yells, her fiery tone lashing at me with accusation.

The retort I was about to spout dies on my tongue. We stare at each other, both of us breathing hard, still exhaling out our panic.

After a second, a sigh leaks out of me, poked through with the holes in my chest from where the fear clawed into me.

"When I came down here and couldn't find you…" My own admission grates out between us. "It scared me to fucking death."

She pushes out a sigh of her own, her anger loosening. "I'm sorry for scaring you."

"Are you going to start listening to me?"

"Yes. Sometimes. When it seems like the right thing to do. And if it suits me."

I grind my teeth. "At least you're fucking honest." I pull her to my chest. My pulse is still fucking pounding, but holding her helps. Reassures me that she's okay.

"Soldiers died?" she asks quietly.

I pause at rubbing her back. "Yeah."

"Is it difficult for you?"

I see a flash of the soldiers' faces as they fell into the breaking wall. Hear the sounds of them screaming…

"Every fucking time," I admit with acid burning my gut.

Rissa looks up at my face, her voice softening. "I really am sorry that I wasn't in the barracks. That I made you panic."

"I'm sorry that I yelled." I curl my hand around the back of her head and pull her in so I can lean down and kiss her. "You can't scare me like that again."

She hums. "Well, then you know the solution for next time, don't you?"

"What?"

"Simple. We don't separate. You should've had me with you on the wall," she says breezily.

I blink at her. She must be joking.

When she continues to look at me, I shake my head. "Yellow Bell. I'm not bringing you up on a fucking fortress wall to throw catapults into a fae army ."

She leans away with a frown. "And why not?"

Fucking hell. This woman.

I shake my head in frustration. "You don't go onto the actual battlegrounds. I'm not arguing with you about this."

"There's nothing to argue," she argues. "We stay together. We don't want to worry about each other, so that's what's going to work best for us."

I mutter under my breath about this difficult, frustrating, beautiful fucking woman of mine. Who absolutely will not be going on the battle lines.

For fuck's sake.

"Anyway, I'm not hurt, so that right there should prove something," she says before dragging her blue eyes over me. "You, however, are an absolute mess ."

Glancing down, I only see a few minor scrapes and slices on my bare arms. "I'm good."

"You're not good . You're covered in dirt and sweat and blood."

"It's really very normal for him, love," Judd says, sidling up beside us.

"Don't call her love ," I growl.

"Yeah, don't call me love ," she snips, giving him a look of disgust that instantly makes me feel even better than good .

Judd grins. "Wow. You two are made for each other."

"Of course we are," we both say in our own irritated tones.

Then we share a look, and now that my adrenaline is calming and telling me she's okay, all this rushing blood and hormones want to do something else.

Judd clears his throat, looking between us. "Uh, right. Before this takes a turn…I just wanted to warn you that Queen Kaila and her brother Manu are here."

My head snaps over to him. " What ?"

He points at me. "But you can't kill him. Slade gave them a pardon, remember?"

"You see Slade here?" I retort with an angry growl. "It's their fault Rissa almost died. So I'll kill them if she fucking wants me to."

I look down at her expectantly. I told her to give me a name, so I wait for her to part those pretty lips and say it so I can fucking end them—

She shrugs. "All is forgiven."

I have to do a double take. "Ex-fucking-scuse me?"

Rissa gives me a scathing look. "We're in the middle of a war, Captain . Stop threatening people on my behalf, because we don't have time for that. The queen is obviously here to help. Even I know we have to be politically sensitive about these things. Correct?" she asks, and Judd nods in confirmation. "There. See?"

"No, I don't fucking see," I bite out. "I want to kill them for what they did to you."

She rolls her eyes. It makes me hard as a rock because that's what this infuriating woman does to me.

"Well, too bad. You can't," she says.

I'm going to have to talk to her about letting me kill people for her. Later.

After I fuck her in whatever building still stands.

Someone cries out, pulling our attention away. We look over just as one of Queen Kaila's guards dumps an injured fae soldier off the back of his timberwing. He screams from the impact, trying to roll upright in the snow.

The three of us exchange a look before we make our way over. Ryatt steps closer and looms over the fae and says something I don't catch.

The fae shakes his head. "You think this will stop us?"

"I think we did stop you," Ryatt tells him.

The fae's laugh is raspy. "This won't stop the fae from taking Orea. The Stone King has been planning this for years . He'll make sure this world is ours, and your species is too weak to stop him. This isn't a victory. It's just a setback."

"Look at where you are, and look at where I am," Ryatt snarls. "Oreans aren't weak. Our land was rid of you once, and we'll make sure we rid you again like the infestation you are."

The fae laughs again, but this time, blood bubbles up from his throat. He chokes on it, and then his eyes bug and he tips over onto the ground, his sputtered breath cutting off as he dies.

Rissa presses herself against me, and I put my arm around her protectively.

Everyone stares at the dead fae, and his words repeat in my ears. This won't stop the fae from taking Orea.

Queen Kaila walks over, breaking the silence as she looks at her men. "We're leaving. Ready yourselves."

Ryatt snaps his attention toward her. "Leaving?"

"Yes," she says, already striding for her timberwing. "You heard what he said. The fae aren't going to stop. I fulfilled my part of the bargain with your king. Now I'm going back to my kingdom where I can defend my land and ready for the next onslaught."

"We've just had a victory here," Ryatt argues. "We need to press our advantage."

Queen Kaila arches an imposing brow at him. "I helped at Breakwater Port, and at my brother's insistence, I helped here as well. But I don't see your king anywhere, Commander," she says with a pointed look. "I fulfilled my promise."

Before she can step away again, Manu comes forward and mutters in her ear. She gives him a sharp glance, but then the two of them start whispering heatedly back and forth.

I glare at Manu, my hands tightening into fists, my teeth grinding. He looks a lot better now than he did in the dungeons.

I should've knocked his teeth in.

"Stop it," Rissa hisses with a jab of her elbow to my side.

I look down at her, and she arches her brows at me in challenge.

Yep. Fucking hard again.

"Fine," I grumble.

When Kaila and Manu turn and walk back over, Kaila's face has hardened. "My brother and advisor has suggested a different course of action," she clips out, clearly unhappy with it, though her eyes move to Ryatt. "Third Kingdom will aid Orea."

The relief in Ryatt is obvious as his shoulders loosen. "Thank you, Queen Kaila," he says with a tip of his head.

"Don't thank me," she says harshly, brown eyes darting to her brother. "Thank Manu." Her guards gather around her as she tosses her black braid over her shoulder, her silver chest plate covered with frost. "Now let's discuss a plan, Commander, and we'll see if we truly can save Orea."

"We can," Ryatt says nobly, and I have to hand it to him, he sounds like a hero through and through.

And right now, Orea really needs a fucking hero.