Chapter 75

The Oscura Clan howled wildly ahead of us, a tide of Wolves in both shifted and Fae form, Rosalie as a silver Wolf diving into battle at the front of the wave, leading the left flank of our army into war just as I knew Seth was doing with his pack to the right.

We were attacking in a trident formation across the span of our entire army, the two enormous Wolf packs, bolstered by every Wolf under our command until they were thousands strong, making up the outer prongs. Geraldine's Starfall Legion made up the central point of attack. The aim was to punch three brutal paths through our enemy's frontline. Once those three paths were embedded deeply enough, the rest of our ranks would flow through them then turn their attention to the soldiers who had been caught between those spikes. Then we would crush them by coming at them from both sides before plunging the trident forward again.

Lionel's army had the numbers on us which meant we needed to out-manoeuvre them. It was a brutal, dangerous tactic, placing those who fought in the spikes of the trident at high risk as they punctured the enemy line, but with our best warriors fighting in the most hazardous points of attack, we were hoping it would pay off. But that meant Seth was out there in that mass of churning, fighting bodies, and no matter how good my eyesight was, I couldn't pick him out among the bloody battle, making my chest tighten with fear.

Orion shifted from foot to foot at my side as the two of us held our ground, rooted to the spot while the battle raged before us and our warriors dove into death without us.

"This is torture," he snarled, his hand on his sword.

"Just a little longer," I agreed, my fangs snapping out as I palmed my Phoenix fire daggers.

I bounced on the balls of my feet, running my tongue over my fangs and trying not to let my mind linger on the friends I had out there in the thick of all that horror. I could see Max, standing on a pillar of air near our front lines, shielded with magic while he boosted the confidence of our army and set terror into the hearts of our enemies.

"They're out there fighting this war," Darius rumbled from behind me, and I turned to look at him as he slowly took his war axe from his back and weighed it in his hand. "But we're the ones who have the task of ending it."

"If we can find them," Orion muttered, his eyes never leaving the battlefield, the clash of bodies creating a deafening roar of noise which was hard to divide into the various blasts of magic, collision of weapons and screams of the dying.

"Big if," I agreed, scanning the lines of Lionel's army and coming up blank. "Any ideas?" I asked Darius.

He raised his axe and pointed over the heads of the army, past the flaring magic and advancing Nymphs, beyond the sky filled with flying Orders and all the way to the hulking green castle which clung to the largest mountain in the distance.

"My father will be watching from there," he said in a low voice. "His queen…" His eyes moved over the ranks of Fae and Nymphs swarming towards us, his brow furrowing. "She's no great love of his; just another weapon to wield. If he's had any say in it, Lavinia will be out there somewhere, waiting to pounce. Brute force is his favoured form of attack, so she will likely reveal herself as soon as his ranks begin to waver."

"The trident has broken through," Orion pointed out.

From our position on the higher ground towards the rear of the army, the shape was indeed becoming clear, those three points of attack driving deep through the enemy lines all at once. It could have been seen as random. Or perhaps Lionel would believe that it was two parts of his army which had broken through our lines instead of being lured into the trap of our trident.

A grim smile lifted my lips.

"Geraldine's tactics are fucking masterful," I said, my eyes seeking out any sign of a white Wolf in the right flank of the army again, but they were too far away, too caught up in the chaos of war and no doubt too bloodstained to make identifying anyone from this distance possible.

We fell silent, watching over the battlefield just like the mountains which rose up all around it, creating this basin of bloodshed for the fight to be contained within. As I glanced at those sheer and rocky slopes, I noted how impossible desertion would be for pretty much anybody in this unforgiving place. The mountains couldn't easily be climbed, and the land was so barren that anyone attempting it would be making themselves a target if they tried. Only the flying Orders stood much chance of escaping, but as I took in the carnage ripping through the sky, I doubted any of them would be able to get free of that mayhem to attempt it.

To our right, a line of Fae stood before the medic tents, rows of beds laid with pristine white sheets already being filled with Fae who had fallen in battle but hadn't quite succumbed to death yet.

I watched as a man was tossed over the heads of our fighting warriors by a gust of air magic. A chain of Fae caught him and threw him to the next person in line while blood gushed from a wound to his side, dripping on the Fae who made up the rear ranks.

He was deposited in one of the beds and Mother Dickens hurried to his side, closing her eyes as she pressed her hand to his wound and deftly stitched the skin shut. Another healer tossed a blood-replenishing potion to her, and she offered it to the wounded Fae who quickly gulped the lot down.

"Order?" she demanded while syphoning the blood from his wound into a vial and stoppering it, no doubt for use by any Vampires in need.

"Sphinx," he replied, moving to stand.

"Not so fast," Mother Dickens said, taking a book from beneath the bed where I also spied a mirror, a golden goblet, and many other items which could restore the magic of various Orders.

He took the book and promptly started reading, his eyes scanning the page so fast it was hard to believe he was reading at all. Other injured soldiers were transported into the tent, healed then offered ways to replenish their magic, a pair of Pegasuses wheeling away quickly into the clouds above.

After a few minutes, the soldier announced that his magic had been refilled, dropped the book on the bed, then took off towards the battlefield with a cry of, "For the True Queens!"

"That guy deserves a medal," I muttered, the itch in my limbs growing more desperate with the desire to follow him into the melee.

Orion nodded but Darius had just taken a step forward, his body lined with tension as he watched the battle where those three prongs of attack had dug further into the enemy lines.

"Now," he breathed and as if they'd heard him, the warriors in those three sections of the army suddenly turned their focus from advancing to cutting into the enemies caught between them.

As they sliced into them, more of our warriors were able to pour into the space created between the prongs of the trident and within several brutal, too-long minutes where I hardly dared draw breath, they ripped a whole section of Lionel's army out of existence and reformed the front line as if it had never been fragmented.

"Fuck yes!" I whooped and Orion yelled out in victory too while Darius just grinned like a demon.

"Look, your shadow bitch didn't like that very much," he said, raising a hand and pointing towards the rear of Lionel's army where a plume of dark shadow had just lashed the air, revealing the location of our target at last.

The three of us glanced at one another. From this moment we likely wouldn't find out anything of each other's fates until this was done. We couldn't even use comms during this fight having discussed the possibility and realising that they could be intercepted. Any information we passed between each other could be used against us or even potentially used to pinpoint our individual locations. It wasn't a risk we could take. We'd all done the mushy goodbye shit this morning when our whole group was together, before the bloodshed began. So we only nodded at Darius before Orion and I turned to one another and let the coven bond have its way with us at last.

The world blurred as the call of the hunt drove deep into my veins, my fangs aching with the need for blood as we raced through our army and shot deep into the ranks of the enemy at high speed. We tore along the churned-up ground, my pulse thundering in time with my sanguis frater's, like we were becoming an extension of one another. I gave in entirely, my vision overlaying with Orion's as our foes began to react to our presence within their midst.

A big fucker with a silver helm fashioned with Dragon horns lunged for Orion and I was there in a flash, whirling on him, blades slicing the backs of his knees. He threw his head back in a howl of agony and Orion ripped his throat out with his bare teeth, his blood spraying the surrounding Fae. The two of us were gone again before his body even hit the ground.

I swear I could taste that blood on Orion's lips, and it only made my own thirst sharper despite my magic reserves being full to the brim. But I had always thrived in the thrill of the hunt and there was nothing in the world which could compare to hunting in a coven.

We sped between Lionel's ranks, ducking and weaving around most Fae before they even noticed our passage, ripping into the few who were able to lunge for us, but it didn't take long for them to send reinforcements after us.

The enemy Vampires came in a rush of motion, their fangs bared and blades drawn. Within seconds, we were surrounded by our own kind, the advantage of speed lost to us and our advance towards Lavinia stalled.

My fangs tingled at the challenge as eight of them surrounded us, working as a unit, but not as a coven. My smile was all feral as my gaze doubled over, Orion's focus meeting with mine. I shot my attention to the blonde asshole to my left, selecting the target of our next hunt and wordlessly, we lunged.