39. Finnian

THIRTY-NINE

FINNIAN

The battlefield stretches before us, an expanse of green dotted with trees, the hills framing the valley, and the shimmering lake lying in wait. We’ve prepared for this moment, every move planned and rehearsed. Now, it’s time to put that plan into action.

Over the past few days, Taryn worked hard to teleport large obstacles on either side of the army’s path leading up to where we plan to fight, gradually decreasing the width they have for their formations. We also dug out holes along the edges of the valley and placed cauldrons of water in them, then camouflaged them with a sparse layer of brush.

During the battle, Taryn will be able to use them in various ways. She can make the water boiling hot and then manipulate it into a powerful stream to burn and stun the opposition, or she can create fog to provide cover for any of our people who might need it.

Cathal is in position on the hills with all but thirty of his warriors, who are down here with us for the frontal attack. We’re all here except for Connor who’s tracking their progress in wolf form, so we’ll know when to make our final preparations.

Taryn stands beside me, fierce determination in her eyes, which is all I can see through her golden helmet. After a lot of back and forth, we found a compromise that satisfied my need to ensure she didn’t have the spear’s sole target on her back and her need—and right—to be on the battlefield with the rest of us: we’re all wearing the customary Ember armor that makes us indistinguishable from the Néit warriors.

Since Taryn learned she’s in possession of the One True Power, she’s been hesitant to open herself up to her magic any more than she already has. Of the few times I convinced her to try, it immediately overloaded her. She yanked it back each time and slammed the door shut. Not even adding more rope to her body helped her feel like she could contain and control it.

Last night, as we were lying in bed, I could tell something was weighing on her. When I asked her what it was, she told me she finally realized the difference between the two times she’d lost control of her powers.

“The first time wasn’t from me using the magic. It was a result of being overwhelmed as the Power transferred from my mother to me,” she said, her voice pensive. “But the second time…gods, Finn, the second time was so much worse. It was the day I found Dmitri. I knew I had to get him out of that place, but we were vastly outnumbered. So I opened the door to my powers, hoping it would give us enough of an advantage to escape.”

I didn’t know what she was referring to about where Dmitri had been, but I wasn’t going to interrupt with questions. And as she said before, it’s not her story to tell. I held her tighter, encouraging her to continue with what she wanted to share and reminding her I was there for her.

“I decimated everything around us. Structures, livestock…people.” The hand she had resting on my chest curled into a fist. “Most were evil, but some were innocents, like Dmitri. Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. It looked like a nuclear explosion, everything flattened and turned to ash.”

She turned her face up to look at me, past hurts and future concerns swimming in her eyes. “I’m so grateful you’ve helped get me to where I can use a portion of it safely. But that’s why I can’t access it fully. Because I wouldn’t only vanquish the enemy. I’d vanquish everyone .”

“I understand,” I told her. “And I won’t push you to do more than what you’re comfortable with. We’re going to win this battle by using our combined strengths and strategy. We’ve got this.”

With her worst fear allayed, she snuggled in closer to my side and fell fast asleep. I, on the other hand, was up all night worrying about my worst fear—the vision I had our first night in Faerie of her being killed by Edevane.

I fought with myself on whether to warn her about it, but ultimately, I’m afraid of speaking it into existence or causing her to lose her focus worrying about something that hasn’t happened.

I’ll keep a close watch for any details I saw in the vision and do my best not to stray too far from her during the battle. Other than that, I’m praying like hell that everything we’ve done to prepare, including her wearing the Ember armor over her rope harnesses, has been enough to alter events in our favor.

“Our scout’s back,” Conall says, nodding to where he spotted his brother.

Sure enough, Connor’s loping over from a small copse of trees, his massive body covering ground quickly. Just before he reaches us, he magically shifts back into his fae form, jogging the last few steps.

“Taryn’s bottleneck worked,” he says with a grin. “They’re down from walking fifty astride to around twenty or so. They’re just over the rise, half a mile away.”

“Excellent, we’ll be ready,” I say. “You and Conall head out and stay hidden until the last of them pass the point we discussed. Then close ranks and tear them apart from the back while we attack from the front.”

“Copy that.” The brothers don’t waste time, both shifting mid-stride. They’re a blur of motion as they head in opposite directions to circle around to the back of the valley.

“Okay, my turn,” Taryn says, raising her hands palms up. She’s preparing to cast an invisibility spell so the Lights have no idea we’re here. As soon as they’re inside our designated battlefield and we attack, the spell will break. She’s not able to keep hundreds invisible unless they’re holding still, but by the time they can see us, it’ll be too late.

“Wait.” I sheath my swords and grab one of her upturned hands, leading her away from the group.

“Finn, what are you doing? I have to cast the spell.”

“I know, I just want to talk to you quick.”

Stopping us once we’re a decent distance away, I face her and remove my helmet.

She follows suit and shakes out her curls. Gods, she’s fucking beautiful. Beautiful and brave and badass. And mine. Staring up at me with those lavender pools framed by thick lashes, I suddenly wish we were anywhere but here.

Within minutes we’ll be fighting for our lives and for the subjects of Faerie. We’ve made primary plans and contingency plans and backup plans to the contingency plans. But there are no guarantees that we’ll all come out of this unscathed. In fact, odds are good some of us won’t come out of this at all.

And if these are my last private moments with Taryn, I need to make them count.

Raising my free hand, I cup her face and caress her cheek with the pad of my thumb as I burn every detail of her into my memory. Emotions knot into a fist pressing behind my sternum, and I have to fight against the hot pricking of moisture behind my eyes.

“Taryn, you are…” I struggle to find the right words, because mere words can’t explain how I feel about her. Still, I try. “You’re my everything , little sun.” Her features soften as she places her hand over mine, holding it to her cheek. “And I need to ask you?—”

Her eyes widen, and her fingers press against my lips. “Don’t do that.”

I pry her hand away and frown. “Do what?”

“The thing where you ask something now because you’re afraid you won’t get the chance to later. Don’t do that. You can ask me whatever it is after we kick Edevane’s ass.” Her features firm up with steely resolve. “ After . Got it?”

One side of my mouth curves up in a small grin, helpless to stop it when she proves again and again why I love her. Raising her hand to my lips, I place a chivalrous kiss to the backs of her knuckles while holding her arresting gaze. “ Ponyatno, solnyshko. ”

“Good. Now, let’s go. It’s time to kill a king,” she says in a menacing tone, echoing the words she spoke after sending her father off to Mag Mell. It’s a reminder of how personal this is for both of us. He keeps attacking the people we love and getting away with it.

It ends today.

“Time to kill a king,” I repeat with murderous fervor.

We head back to the small cadre of warriors, placing our helmets on as we reclaim our places in front. “You ready, D?”

The bogatyr turns to me, his eyes already red with bloodlust. He grasps my forearm firmly and repeats the vow he made to me the night we rescued his sister. “ Kogda ugodno, gde ugodno, chto ugodno. ”

It’s a heavy moment between us that says so much more than those three simple words can convey. We’ve been through a lot together over the last year, and our bond of friendship is closer to that of brothers now, seeing as the most important person to us is the same fiery female we love more than our own lives.

I answer back in the genuine spirit of brotherhood. “Whenever, wherever, whatever.”

We nod at each other, then I draw my swords and call out, “Positions!”

Everyone readies their weapons at my command. Those of us on the low ground with our iron swords, and the warriors on the high ground form bows and arrows made of their violet fire.

I nod to Taryn, and she begins whispering the incantation that will hide us from Edevane’s sight. Less than a minute after we’re concealed, the first line of Light Warriors crests the rise, marching with disciplined precision. Another three minutes and the valley is half-full.

Dmitri crosses his iron swords and drags one blade over the other, speaking to the approaching enemy as though they’ll hear him in their subconscious. “I am D’Yavol . I will bathe in your blood and claim your souls for hell.”

I give him a brief sidelong glance. “Remind me never to piss you off, Romanov.”

The tension in the air grows heavier as they near the point of no return. Fifty feet. My muscles are vibrating with unspent adrenaline. Thirty. They’re so close I can see the color of their electric green eyes. Fifteen feet. The eerie howls of wolves about to hunt echo in the valley.

“ NOW! ”

The Néit on the hills unleash a torrent of fiery arrows into the center of the Light Warriors. Explosions of flames erupt in their midst, throwing their formation into disarray and engulfing some of them in powerful fire magic.

Dmitri and I charge forward with our group, swords raised, meeting the Light Warriors head-on. The clash is immediate and brutal. Swords clang against swords, and the air is filled with the sounds of battle. I parry a strike aimed at my head and counter with a swift slash, feeling the satisfaction of my blade connecting with flesh.

I spare a quick glance over my shoulder to check on Taryn. She’s in her original position and dialed-in, using her newfound abilities to fight from a distance. “Finn!” she shouts at me.

I turn around just in time to see one of her stockpiled boulders appear in mid-air and smash into the chest of a Light Warrior about to remove my head. When he’s gasping for air on the ground, I follow him down and slice through his neck with the dagger on my hip, his arterial blood spraying my armor.

There’s no time to thank her for the save as I see a warrior next to me, his sword raised and ready to slice me in half. I thrust my dagger into his belly, and when he bends over from the pain, I grab him behind the neck and flip him over me onto his back before delivering a death blow between his eyes.

Shoving to my feet, I push farther into the fray, slicing through the enemy as I go. I hear the vicious sounds of screaming fae being torn limb from limb by the Woulfe brothers and know their idea to handle the rear of the formation was a good one.

“Where is Edevane?” Dmitri growls as he cuts down another opponent several yards away, his bloodred eyes scanning the battlefield.

“I don’t see him,” I reply, thrusting a sword through a Light Warrior’s chest, then kicking him to free my weapon. “Probably waiting until most of the work is done. He’ll show himself eventually. Stay frosty.”

Cathal’s warriors continue to rain down fire from the hills, their precision devastating. I see clouds of fog hiding our injured and boiling water hitting opponents with the force of a firehose. The Lights are skilled, but without their own magic, they’re no match against the Fires.

The battle rages on, grueling and intense. Dmitri’s swords slash in silver blurs. The twins continue to shred through the back, the rust-red fur on their heads and chests now matted and nearly black with blood. The enemy’s numbers are dwindling, but there’s still no sign of Edevane.

I kick a guy in the side who’s swinging a saber toward Dmitri. The blade still catches him in the arm, but I knock the Light off-balance enough that it doesn’t do more damage than that. Dmitri recovers and attacks quick as a viper, sinking his deadly fangs into the guy’s neck and ripping out his throat before dropping the lifeless body to the ground.

Taryn shows up on my other side and joins the close combat, using her short swords like they’re an extension of her body. “This doesn’t feel right,” she shouts as she ducks a strike and sweeps their feet out from under them. “We’re winning too easily.”

“ Da, sestra . Like lambs to the slaughter.”

They’re right, something’s wrong about all this. I thought he was just waiting to make his move, but— A cold dread settles over me. He was never waiting.

“This is a distraction! A way to keep us busy while he goes after what he really wants.”

Taryn’s eyes widen with sudden realization. “My mother.”

“Fuck!” I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming.

“Finn, we have to go to her!”

Cathal, who at some point joined the fight on the low ground, shouts, “Go! Save the queen! We’ll finish this!”

I nod in affirmation, then give a shrill whistle. “Connor! Conall!” Their heads raise up, ears perked. “On me!”

Taryn and Dmitri have already shed their armor suits to allow for maximum speed, and I do the same. Then the five of us take off at lightning-fast speeds across Tír Tairngire toward the city of Ildathach , the Summer Palace, and Edevane.