Fae Reckoning (Royals of Embermere #5)

26. Death to the False Queen! All Hail the Dragon Queen!

26. DEATH TO THE FALSE QUEEN! ALL HAIL THE DRAGON QUEEN!

ELOWYN

The cabin wasn’t yet visible behind the trees when I first sensed something had changed while Rush and I were gone. Einar’s massive legs came into view first, blocking much of the house and the clearing that surrounded it. We rounded his legs, then his tail, which was thicker than my entire body—and then I saw what was different. I couldn’t help but.

Our companions had taken my request to ready for the upcoming battle seriously. Of course, I would have been shocked if they hadn’t; it wasn’t as if they weren’t as aware of the magnitude of the threat against us. But not only were they bustling about, readying supplies, checking on each other and sharpening weapons, but they had company.

Lots and lots of company.

Where they might have found so many fae to ally with us in such short time, I had no idea. I stuttered to a stop. “What…? ”

Rush’s step hadn’t even hitched in surprise. He’d continued past me until my hand, interlaced with his, tugged on him. He turned back toward me. “You alright? What is it?”

“What is it?” I repeated incredulously, apparently loudly enough that those on the other side of Einar’s legs and tail heard me. Immediately, they passed on news of our arrival, and soon anticipation buzzed along the clearing, into the woods on the other side of us. So many fae waited that the open space Einar left us wasn’t sufficient to accommodate them all.

Creatures and people of all shapes, sizes, and colors faced us. I recognized some of the types of fae from the stands of the arena when I’d fought in the Gladius Probatio. There were several hardened-looking fairies who were approximately the size of goblins, if not a tad smaller, whom I’d learned were called numenits . And several of the smallest fairies I’d encountered yet in the Mirror World, parvnits like Zafi—or MISOs—hovered in a tight-knit swarm near the numenits. Creatures with bodies resembling twigs and wings that looked like leaves in autumn flew beside the fairies.

There were foxes, cats, and snakes mingling with people who shared similar features: squinty eyes, pointy noses, and sharper-than-ordinary teeth; shrewdly conniving looks, twitchy noses and ears, and continuously tilting heads, as if they were hearing sounds the rest of us didn’t; some with slitted pupils and elongated necks. They were changelings, I guessed—feethles, sneakles, and whatever the snake changelings were called; I still knew so little about the world I was fighting to rule—their creatures closer to the surface than usual thanks to the tension they must be feeling.

Other animals, which I suspected were magical creatures instead of their wild counterparts, gathered with them. I spotted a pair of pitch-black bears with long tails and vicious claws; three wolves with fur so silver it shone beneath the many lumoons; hogs with lethal-looking tusks; rabbits with fangs and three fluffy tails; a handful of turtles who were Saffron’s size and walked on their hind legs, their shells protecting them front and back and appearing armored; and myriad other furry, scaly, and clawed creatures I’d never seen before and had no name for. Many of them were probably changelings; others might have only the one form.

Many more, perhaps an entire dozen, of the giant ranucus were lined up beside Bertram, who stood beside Azariah, Bolt, and Ivar’s horse. Ivar’s steed stood more easily on his injured legs, suggesting Edsel had found the time to heal him while Rush and I were absent.

For the first time possibly in my entire life, I discovered myself speechless. I pulled Rush’s hand, drawing him closer. It was ridiculous to feel nervous and self-conscious at their presence, to concern myself with anything at all beyond taking down the false queen and living to see the next day. But every single set of their varied eyes were on me. And their looks … despite the fact that the new fae could scarcely be more different fr om each other, their expressions were similar: reverence, awe, and the scariest of them all—hope—as they regarded us.

No, not us . Their attention was fixed on me .

Gripping Rush’s hand harder, I was in the process of seeking out familiar faces—I’d just found Reed and Roan—when the pitter-patter of dragon-like feet rounded the demolished back of the cabin. Goblin after goblin after goblin skidded into the corner of the clearing around the recovering fae captives, then piled up against each other when there wasn’t room for them all. There were dozens of them if not a hundred. Pru stood at their fore, her slim shoulders and back straight despite the heavy dragonling she cradled in her arms. Said dragonling got one glimpse of me, scrabbled out of her grip, and bounded without care over the fae laid out on the ground who couldn’t afford to take any more damage. When he pushed off of Lisbeth’s thighs, she wheezed, and Ivar shot to his feet from where he’d been sitting next to her.

“Careful where you step, you nasty little vermin, or I’ll throw you on a spit, roast you crispy, then eat you drizzled in a sweet, golden wine sauce,” he seethed.

I glowered at him. So did many of our new companions. Rush growled.

I didn’t realize Ivar had it in him, but he grimaced, contrite. “I’m still adjusting,” was all he offered by way of apology, but for the others it was enough.

Their attention returned to me as Saffron bounded off Bolt’s back, then a ranucu’s, and flung himself into my arms as if he hadn’t seen me in a year, not a mere hour. I stumbled backward from the impact even though I’d been braced for it. Rush was there to steady me with a frown at the little dragon who forgot he was a growing boy who’d soon be too large for anyone to carry.

“Hi, my sweet boy,” I cooed, kissing the soft golden scales of his crown. It was habit, yes, but it was also to avoid the demand of so many fae. Saffron purred deep in his throat, a sound like a saw grinding through wood.

Sensing my discomfort, Rush wove his arm around my waist beneath Saffron’s tail and announced in a loud, clear voice: “Thank you all for coming, and so quickly. I assume you’re all here to join the fight against the false queen?”

A chorus of assorted aye s, growls, snarls, hisses, neighs, croaks, and yips sounded in the affirmative.

“Then we thank you all the more. We fight as one in the light! We fall divided in the darkness!”

Those who could chorused the sentiment with a steadfastness that sent chills quaking through my body.

“Together we will march on the palace of Embermere and bring death to the false queen,” Rush called out.

“Death to the false queen!” someone yelled, and others repeated the call.

“Is this everyone who’ll be joining us?” Rush asked Hiroshi, Ryder, and West, who’d moved to stand beside Roan and Reed.

Where was Xeno? I scanned the crowd for my friend and didn’t find him—likely still up in the trees keeping guard, then. I hadn’t seen Zafi either. I searched the gathering another time—no MISO, not even among those of her kind.

“Word is still spreading throughout our many networks,” Hiroshi replied with an encompassing swivel of his head that implied every group there was continuing its recruiting efforts. “And we’ve sent discreet word to the noble clans that we attack at daybreak of the third day.”

“The third day?” I exclaimed, sliding Saffron to my hip to better see everyone. “We can’t wait that long. She could find us by then.”

“She indeed might,” Hiroshi said. “But we need to give our allies time to travel. The Mirror World is vast. Even employing magical means, three days is barely sufficient time. Everyone who arrived while you were absent was already close.”

“He’s right,” Rush interjected.

“We need every ally we can gather in that time,” Ryder added. “This will be our only chance to defeat the false queen. We need to lean into the element of surprise. If she has the chance to organize her own forces, her retaliation will be brutal.”

“Her retaliation will already be brutal,” I said, but then relented. Three days to gather an army was already too little.

“What of your map?” Larissa asked.

She sat beside Ramana, who’d gathered enough strength to lean against a tree without support. The scarlet glow of her eyes was gone, and the dark veins that snaked visibly below her skin were rapidly fading. Most indicative of her recovery was the burgeoning determination in her stare. It was only a glimpse at this point, but I could already see it: the grit to do whatever it took to see justice delivered to the Mirror World. Once she was at full strength, Ramana would be a valuable ally. She nodded at me, and it was only then that I realized I’d been staring. I nodded back, then faced her sister.

“My map’s gone,” I told Larissa. “We tried”—my cheeks flushed but I persevered—“but it didn’t activate.” Raised among dragon shifters who made no qualms about nudity or their appreciation of sex, at times with multiple partners, I wasn’t particularly shy. However, neither was I in the habit of talking to a large audience about my sexual activity. “We’ll have to find the fae she’s been draining another way,” I concluded, my failure heavy on my conscience.

“Talisa believes you were going to claim their power for yourself. She wouldn’t leave them alive long enough to risk it,” Ivar said, sounding detached and matter-of-fact. Perhaps that was the only way to survive close service and quarters with Talisa all the time he had. “She sees you as her greatest impediment to full control over the kingdom.”

So I had failed them…

“With no way to find them, it’s better that they died,” Ivar continued .

“How can you say that?” West accused in a snarl after a quick glance at Ramana.

With an equally unsentimental arch of his brow, Ivar faced West. “We’re talking about the survival of an entire realm here. We’re about to head to war . There will be casualties.”

Our allies shared apprehensive looks.

“With an enemy like Talisa, there’s no avoiding the losses. All we can hope is to weaken her as quickly and as severely as possible so we can end her reign for good. That means we can’t allow her to drain anybody any more than she already has. We have to cut off all access to her sources of additional power. If that means letting them die, then that means letting them die.” Ivar gestured to the fae recovering around his sister. “They’ll all be like this. So wasted and frail that if they were capable of making the choice they’d likely prefer death and the peace of the Etherlands over continuing after this.”

West jutted out his chin. “Is that what you’d say about your sister too? If we hadn’t found Lisbeth?” Changing his tone to mimic Ivar’s clipped one, West said, “She’s better off dead?”

“Don’t you dare threaten Lisbeth,” Ivar said with a clenching of his fingers, of his jaw.

“I wasn’t,” West said. “And your response is answer enough.”

Rush interjected: “What we do or don’t want regarding the captives doesn’t much matter. We don’t know how to find them, and we can’t scour the Mirror World searching for them. We have to choose. We either take on the false queen or we try to save perhaps a few dozen captives, at most.”

As more heavy silence ensued, with obvious lament flashing across his moonlit eyes, Rush added, “I don’t want to accept a single additional loss to those we’ve already suffered. But without Elowyn’s map, we have no easy way to find them.”

I assumed our new allies didn’t know anything about my map or what it had done, but none of them appeared surprised at the mention of it. It seemed our friends had been adept at imparting information as well as expanding our numbers.

“If we don’t attack the false queen soon,” Rush went on, “she’ll figure out what we’re up to.”

“If she hasn’t already,” Ivar said. “She’s sharp as my cutlass.” He narrowed his eyes at Rush. “Which you still haven’t returned to me.”

Rush frowned at him, before looking at me. “We leave them, just for now … agreed?”

I scowled and bit out, “Agreed. Just for now. Ivar, the dragons in the dungeon beneath the palace … are you the one who chained them with that shadowy magic?” I expected him to show at least some remorse.

He didn’t. “Aye.”

“Can you unbind them?”

“Aye, but I’ll need to be down there with them, and Talisa has an illusion in place to prevent anyone but her and the pygmy ogres accessing the lower dungeon.”

“We found it,” Rush said. “I presume it allows Braque through as well, since he’s the one who created it.”

“Mm, him too.”

I couldn’t decide if Ivar’s omission of the royal alchemist had been intentional or not. He’d sworn a blood oath, but was that enough to trust him?

“Speaking of the wall that’s bespelled to appear solid,” Rush said. “Millicent is dead.”

Stunned by the unexpected news, I blinked repeatedly. “She is? How?” It wasn’t as if I liked her—there wasn’t much to like. But she was a survivor willing to do whatever it took to curry Talisa’s favor.

“The wall sliced her head off,” Rush said bluntly.

My gaze zeroed in on Reed’s. When Talisa exiled Millicent from court, he’d shared the stables with her. I didn’t guess Reed had liked the haughty, condescending, prickly female much either, but it was still shocking to think she’d been alive and well when we last saw her, and now … she wasn’t.

“My brothers,” Rush told Hiroshi, Ryder, West, and Roan. “We also lost Gadiel.”

Sorrow swept across the warriors like a stiff, arctic wind, leaving their faces drawn.

“How?” West asked.

Rush patted his sheathed dagger where it hung along his thigh in a silent response all the males appeared to immediately comprehend. Their smiles were sad, regretful.

Ryder sang out, “May the memory of Gadiel, visdrake of Magiarantos and, much more importantly, a good, honorable male, who loosed an arrow at the false queen and would have hit his target if not for someone intervening.” He, West, and Roan glared at Ivar fiercely enough that they conjured the imagery of said true-flying arrow. “May Gadiel’s memory live forever! May his essence voyage to the Etherlands to find peace with his ancestors!”

“May his memory live forever,” many chorused, and I found myself saying the words along with them. “May his essence voyage to the Etherlands.”

Another shared look with Reed told me he was also noting how no one offered Millicent the same honor. Aware through Rush that she’d spied on me for Talisa and intentionally directed danger my way, I wasn’t in the mood to afford her an extolment she hadn’t earned.

“We’ll also need to amass weapons,” Rush said. “Ivar, how many does your expanding trunk hold?”

Ivar was back to sitting beside his sister, whose face had a healthier color than before. “Enough for each of us to have just one. Maybe.”

“We’ll need a lot more than that.”

“The goblins can help with that,” Pru said.

I smiled at my friend. “Your magically kickass sewing kit?”

“Something like that.” Then she winked.

Pru—timid, meek, frightened-for-her-life-of-the-false queen, it-will-be-off-with-our-heads Pru—freaking winked .

I beamed at her—and whatever goblin magic secrets she insisted on holding on to. Pru’s unfolding mysteries were a wonder to behold. “Yeah, Pru,” I said with a laugh. “That’s the way.”

All goblin eyes, especially those of her granddoody, who bustled among the recovering fae, pinned on her. She blushed a deep green, the color of the blood that ran beneath her normally ashen skin.

Rush chortled, then released my waist to face me. “I recommend we travel some tonight, make a little progress before we stop to rest, in case the false queen thinks to look for us here.”

“Oh, y-y-eess,” Azariah said with a hitch that resembled a whinny. “Away from where she’ll look.”

Rush looked at me intently. “Do you agree?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“Because you, my mate , are the queen the land itself has chosen to lead us.”

Shifting Saff to my other hip, I reminded him, “Which makes you the king.”

“Aye, it does. But not of the bloodline. Only you carry the blood of Elven King Spiro of Faerie and of Elven Prince Borromeo of the Mirror World. We will rule as partners, certainly. I will be at your side always to help you however I can and you wish. But ultimately you will always be the most powerful. It is your magic, your essence, that the land seeks to speak through.”

“Well, uh.” I harrumphed. “Okay…” Was I really up for the responsibility of ruling an entire realm? At least I was guaranteed to be a better queen than Talisa fucking Zafira Tatiana, ri ght?

“All hail the dragon queen,” someone shouted in a squeaky voice I didn’t recognize.

Every single one but Rush, it seemed, repeated the prompt. A cacophony of creature calls conveyed the same, though I didn’t understand their nuances. Then, in a sweep of those gathered, people and creatures alike bowed to me. Rush’s ensuing grin was bright enough to match the swirling luminosity of his eyes, the slow crawl of glowing tattoos across his neck and jaw.

When he spoke, his voice was husky and proud: “All hail the dragon queen.”

I shifted from foot to foot. “Ah, thanks? But I’m not the ‘dragon queen.’” I laughed nervously.

“Don’t be daft, lass,” Roan’s unmistakable gruff said on a chuckle. “Ain’t none more connected to the dragons than y’are. Ye’re the perfect dragon queen.”

Rush’s smile stretched wider, prouder. “Absolutely.”

“Um,” I said, but then glanced down into Saffron’s cute, lovable, little dragon face. I couldn’t deny the obvious evidence of my relationship to the dragons, and that was without glancing up at Einar, or considering the sapphire-blue dragon I’d spoken with in the palace’s throne room.

You choose the path of your destiny, Einar’s deep, unhurried voice said as it slunk into my mind.

I’m not a dragon queen, Einar, I said in a final protest.

You are if I say you are. His statement fluttered like a victorious banner for several seconds before he added, You are not a Fuerin Mother. Only fuerin can fill that role. But you were strong enough to push me from your thoughts earlier. If you are to be a mortal queen, then you are to be one of the fuerin.

How could I argue with that?

You cannot, Einar said with undiluted arrogance. Queen of the fuerin, lead your subjects to victory!

That easy, huh?

Huuuuh. Huuuuh. Huuuuh , was his enigmatic response.

So I steeled myself for the seemingly insurmountable task before us and called out, “Thank you all for your faith in me. I will treat it with the utmost respect.” Then, looking to my first companions, “What will we do with those who are too weak to travel with us?”

“I’ll stay with them,” Larissa said.

“She shouldn’t stay alone,” Xeno said immediately, making me spin to find him a mere few feet behind me, as if he’d been guarding my back. “I’d stay with her, but Wyn, my place is at your side.”

I peeked at Rush, who frowned, tutted, then finally told my friend, “Thanks, Xeno. Glad to have you helping me keep her safe.”

Xeno’s eyelids lowered partially. “It was my job before it was yours.”

“I know.”

I waited for more. When it didn’t arrive, I hurried to ask, “Will anyone stay with Larissa and the convalescing fae to help keep them safe? Edsel? ”

“Not me, girly,” Edsel answered. “There’s not much else I can do for them now that someone else cannae do just as easily. And I ain’t gonna miss my chance to see justice befall the false queen.”

“Very well. Then who?”

A few of the ranucus croaked in what I assumed was a volunteer effort. A handful of goblins also said they’d remain with them.

“Excellent, thank you. We’ll make sure you’re safely hidden far enough away from here to avoid detection. Do we have food to leave them?”

“There’s enough grain and meal in the sacks and crates inside to feed them for a year,” Reed said. “It won’t be tasty, but it’ll do.”

“Then all we have left is to claim our weapons. Pru? Ivar?”

They nodded, Ivar with far more reluctance than Pru, whose eyes now shone with a resolve they never had before.

I swallowed. “Then we march on the palace—wait. How long will that take?” I asked Rush. Fuck, how was I supposed to lead them when I knew so little about life in the Mirror World?

“From how lush it is here, and how parched the outskirts are, we figure that if we walk steadily for half of the three days, we’ll arrive by dawn of the third, well enough rested.”

“Alright,” I said with pursed lips. The icy fingers of dread crawled along my neck, making me twitch.

Everyone continued to wait as if anticipating my dismissal or a final order or … something. What, what did they want from me? I’d been raised a servant, not a queen, among brutal, crass dragon shifters to boot.

But then it came to me. It was what the royal guard had so courageously shouted to the crowds in the stands of the Gladius Probatio’s arena before he was sucked into the devouring pit conjured by Braque’s potions.

I threw back my head and yelled, “We bring down the queen before she’s the end of us all. We fight as one in the light or we fall divided in the darkness.” Then I snapped my stare, now fiercely determined, back down to scan my audience. “So let’s damn well fight in the light and rip the shadow of darkness from this world forever.”

I’d expected some kind of civilized chorus. What I got instead were wild, savage, feral howls—from the people as much as the creatures.

I’d never before in my life howled, not even when the dragons and shifters of Nightguard had made all sorts of animalistic sounds that had made me feel left out.

Once more I tipped back my head, intending to try a howl. What emerged instead was a motherfucking ROAR .

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: Evil Awaited Us, It Watched and Plotted, Our Opponent Was Worse Than Nightmares

~ Elowyn ~

News of my newly minted role as the dragon queen and the realm’s savior— yikes —spread rapidly. As we advanced toward the palace, sticking to the thick cover of the woods as much as possible, fae of all sorts emerged from the trees and skies to join our ranks. Sometimes it would be one or two creatures. Others, an entire clan of goblins or feethles or numenits or changelings or something else I’d never seen before would arrive to seamlessly merge with our steadily increasing numbers. Despite the unmistakable presence of Einar swooping overhead in plain view, no more dragons appeared. I feared King Erasmus the Bloody had truly decimated them until none existed in the wild save Einar. It made me wish the king were still alive so we could punish his sins along with his daughter’s.

Before setting off from the cabin, we relocated Talisa’s former captives farther into the woods, where there were no signs of visitors. Several goblins incinerated the body of the unknown deceased male. They conjured fire that was so sudden, and burned so hot and ferocious, that the man’s body broke down to ash and a few clumps of bone in mere minutes—without a single puff of smoke to betray our location. After that display of power, Rush visibly relaxed, as did West and Ivar, all of whom were reluctant to leave behind their loved ones. Larissa and the others would be safe enough until we returned for them, especially once we drew the false queen’s attention to us—and no doubt we had. Even with our efforts not to announce our presence, Talisa surely had spies everywhere. There was little chance our movements had gone unnoticed, especially with a giant dragon keeping pace with us.

As I’d been doing since Dougal first delivered me so rudely to the royal palace, I was going to make the best of every disadvantage. It helped, of course, that we had little choice. At this point there was as much risk in delaying as there was in attacking without complete preparation. No matter how we spun it, we’d be going up against a formidable monster with self-proclaimed immortality.

As I’d also been doing since my abrupt arrival in the Mirror World, I was playing the false queen’s game by her rules on her gameboard. No one, not even Rush or Xeno, neither of whom allowed me out of their sight, bothered to reassure me with empty platitudes. There was no, Everything will be fine, you’ll see . No, We’ll kill the false queen and every one of us will survive . We all understood these were very possibly the final hours of our lives.

Hundreds of us presently hid amid a final stretch of trees and brush, the last of the dense foliage before the outskirts of the royal city and its parched, dying earth. Once we left the forest’s camouflage, there’d be nothing to shield us until we reached the palace. I hadn’t forgotten how many sets of curious eyes had peered out from the meager huts that housed the common folk of the outskirts as Dougal delivered me in a royal carriage all those months ago to simultaneously the worst and best experiences of my life. Just like back then, we’d be watched the entire way.

With hands never far from our weapons, or tails twitchy and ears perked, we traversed the many hamlets, walking brazenly down their dirt roads, daring anyone to defy us.

No one did. In fact, our ranks swelled with fae of an astounding array of colors and varieties, none of whom appeared to be trained as warriors, but the false queen’s subjects who’d had enough of her shit.

By the time the palace came into sight at the top of its isolated hillock, as if it and its inhabitants were immune to the malcontent that affected everyone beyond its boundaries, my skin crawled as if overrun by invisible worms. We’d awoken when the moon was still high in the sky to arrive at the palace itself with the dawn. But the villagers had obviously been anticipating us.

So who else was expecting us?

I no longer minded the protective posturing of Rush and Xeno as they walked on either side of me, their heads swiveling, jerking toward any and all unexpected sound. While I’d done my best to get some rest during both nights of our journey, I wasn’t sure either of them had slept at all, their watchful gazes rarely straying far from me. Rush tried to convince me to ride Bolt to conserve my energy, but I’d declined. What sort of queen would I be if I forced everyone else to walk while I didn’t? It would have been too like what Talisa would have done .

The little dragonling was the only one content to accept a ride. Saffron started to slide down my back, probably because he was snoozing. Tucking my arms around my waist and under his haunches to change things up for a bit, I hitched him farther up before scanning the horizon in the lightening sky. I’d been expecting an attack practically since we set out—hell, since the false queen first tried to kill me in the arena, when Lennox had stabbed me in the back when no one was looking.

“It’s too still,” I murmured, loudly enough that not only Rush and Xeno would hear me, but also Ryder, West, Hiroshi, Roan, and Reed, who walked with Ivar among them. At first, they’d positioned Ivar with us to keep a close eye on him. But then the advisor began regaling us with every secret of Talisa’s he knew. What information he provided was at once too much and not enough. It did, however, prove two irrefutable facts: the queen was even more brutal than we’d realized, and she’d stacked every single fucking odd against us. “Way too still,” I added with a shudder of my crawling-with-worms skin.

“I couldn’t agree more,” piped up a squeaky, high-pitched voice that made Saffron answer with his own yip of surprise and climb my shoulders until the only place to go was to perch on my head. Tsk ing at the goofy, skittish boy and guiding him down from my shoulders, I whirled on Zafi, whom I couldn’t actually see.

“I don’t like it at all,” she added from somewhere behind my left shoulder. “It feels too easy.”

“Ya, it does,” Roan said, sounding just as troubled. “Makes me bollocks itch.”

“Tell me about it,” West grumbled.

I was craning my neck, seeking out the little MISO. “Why are you invisible?” I asked of the pocket of air from where her voice had last sounded.

“Uh, ‘cause there’s a murderous false queen out there who wants to suck our blood and eat us while we’re still kicking and screaming? Duh.”

I longed to laugh and tell her what an absurd notion that was— the false queen isn’t gonna eat us, silly! But when it came to Talisa fucking Zafira Tatiana of Embermere, I wouldn’t put anything past her.

“Uh-huh. And ?” I pressed the MISO. The threat Talisa posed wasn’t new; Zafi’s behavior was. “You’ve been invisible since the parvnits arrived. Why?”

A buzz told me she’d flown closer to my ear. She whispered but our friends would likely still hear. “I already told you.”

“Mmhmm.”

“What? It’s true,” she protested, a little too fervently as the road grew smoother, now lined with tall, ornate, stone pillars—capped with fading, long-dead dragon heads . I gulped at the shockingly gruesome sight I’d seen only once before, when Dougal abducted me.

Zafi continued: “I just like being invisible, that’ s all.”

“Really…” I deadpanned.

“Really. Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I? It’s a cool skill, isn’t it?”

“That it is, lassie,” Roan answered, proving they were hearing her just fine. “Wouldn’t mind making the whole lot of us invisible right about now.”

“By the Ethers, I’d be down,” Ryder said in that same wary tone we’d all been using for days.

I glanced back at where I guessed Zafi was and, around Saffron’s knobby arms, narrowed my eyes in her direction. She didn’t cave. I looked forward at the road, then back again with an even squintier stare.

She groaned. Next came a slap as if she’d thrown her tiny arms in the air then let them fall against her thighs. “ Fine , okay? Fiiiiiine.”

Scanning the long road up to the palace, I waited.

Another quick buzz put her so close to my ear I felt her breath tickle as she hissed, “So they didn’t kick me out, okay? Is that what you wanna hear? I left . But only ‘cause they were really mean to me ‘cause I’m not special like they are. They don’t want me around, so why should I be? You’ll let me live with you at the palace once we kill the false queen, won’t you? So I don’t ever have to see any of them again?”

“Parvnits live at the palace,” Rush pointed out.

“But none from the Nerotti Forest, I’ll bet.” But the little fairy didn’t sound so sure. “It’s too far away.”

His attention scouting our surroundings, Rush shrugged. “Don’t know about that. There’ve always been more pressing things to worry about whenever I’ve talked with any of them.”

“Well, I don’t want them to see me,” Zafi announced with finality, sounding so petulant I had no trouble conjuring an image of her with her arms crossed over her chest, her diminutive wings buzzing behind her in a blur, her acorn hat threatening to topple. “And you can’t make me,” she concluded, though she didn’t sound so certain about this either.

“I was a servant in Nightguard,” I told her, fully aware of the many ears listening in. “I know what it’s like not to be appreciated. To feel lesser because of how others treat you.”

“You weren’t a servant, Wyn,” Xeno said.

I smiled at him. “To you I wasn’t. To Zako I wasn’t either. But tell me that’s not how Malessa saw me?”

Xeno only frowned.

“Exactly.” Then to the area above my left shoulder, I said, “Stay invisible as long as you want. Just let me know if you want me to back you up when you kick bully ass.” How I might back her up without becoming a bully myself when the parvnits were as slight as hummingbirds, I had no idea. But for her, I’d figure it out.

“Us too,” Roan said to some murmured agreement from the others.

Zafi didn’t say another word about it, though I didn’t miss her quiet sniffle.

All at once, the incline became steep and the land to either side of the road lush and verdant in sharp contrast to the grays and browns of Embermere’s neglected outskirts. Vast fields of grasses crawled toward the palace, stretching wide as the land climbed, until a moat carved a circle from the earth, which those of us who lacked wings would have to cross via the single bridge that offered passage to the structure’s main entrance. On the other side of the moat, precisely manicured gardens covered the rest of the distance to the palace, which with its many stories and cantilevered towers squatted ominously atop its steep hill. Its many cheery blue roofs and the red and blue banners that flapped gaily from every turret weren’t enough to detract from the true nature of what the palace concealed.

Evil awaited us. It watched and plotted. The knowing skittered across my already crawling skin as our army climbed steadily up the road, exposed on all sides.

Thanks to fairy messengers who’d come and gone during our trek, I knew that every other drake and drakess, from each of the Mirror World’s eight clans, had sent all of its warriors. Everyone in the Mirror World seemed to understand that this was our last—and only—stand. They awaited our approach on the other side of the palace, the side I’d not yet seen. We were the distraction meant to pull the false queen’s attention away from their numbers, far greater than our own.

Rush clasped my hand while I reached out to Einar, who’d only left us once to feed, and even then his absence had been brief and he hadn’t traveled far.

See anything from the false queen? I asked him as his shadow, muted and soft, stretched long in front of us. The sun was rising at our backs.

No, nothing.

And our allies?

In position. Their front lines hide in many trenches.

Rush, who’d by now learned to read the signs of my silent communication with the dragon, asked, “Everything good?”

Warily, I nodded.

He pursed his beautiful lips, the ones I’d kissed at every opportunity whenever we stopped to rest, but said nothing. He didn’t have to. We were all surely thinking the same thing: it was too quiet, too easy.

“It’s gotta be a trap,” I breathed, as if saying it any louder might make it true.

“Yup,” said Xeno with a flex of his shoulders that told me he was contemplating a shift soon.

Danger, though we couldn’t yet see it, was close.

“There’s nothing better we can do though, right?” I asked of all of them, even though I’d asked the question many times as we’d walked, considered—and ultimately dismissed—every suggestion, no matter how farfetched.

The drakes who walked with me had trained in the military defense of their clan territories all their lives—even though, in the end, the only true enemy any of the clans had was their royal ruler. According to the drakes, the palace’s defenses were bolstered on every side, the false queen locked within them. Azariah had checked to confirm on the hour, every hour. If we wanted to get her, we had to go to her.

“Nothing but to take her head-on,” Ryder said. “There are enough of us that she can’t take us all out. Some of us’ll make it to her.”

Some of us . My throat dried instantly, and I fumbled around Saffron for the small canteen hanging from my weapons belt. Rush passed me his before I could unlatch mine.

I smiled nervously. “Thanks.” I drank but my thirst remained; what truly ailed me wasn’t something so easily quenched. I sensed her now just as I’d sensed her before. She waited as we drew near—a spider in her web anticipating her prey, her pincers eagerly clicking together as she salivated at the meal to come.

It wasn’t until the hundreds of us in our ragtag army had crossed the bridge and the snake-infested waters of the moat beneath that she sprang her trap. With all of us in her vast gardens, which spanned a couple of square miles, the bridge drew up behind us with a quiet hiss of magic. It pulled shut with a loud clang of finality.

There was no going back now. As history would later record it, the assault on the False Blood Queen Talisa Zafira Tatiana by the Dragon Queen Elowyn Xiomara Ashira had begun.

Now, Einar, I said, immediately telling Saffron, “You’ll be okay, boy. Be good for Einar. He’ll take care of you.”

Saffron was in mid-protest, as I’d known he’d be no matter how many times I’d explained what was going to happen, when Einar’s claw, as big as my body, plucked the dragonling from my back—causing my friends to dive out of its way—before the dragon beat his enormous wings and rose back into the sky. Rubbing around the fresh gashes along my shoulders thanks to Saffron’s panicked grip, I frowned with the premonition that this was just the first of innumerable things I’d have to do that I didn’t want to before the sun set on this day.

Rush grabbed my hand again, brought it to his lips, met my gaze. “May the fortune of dragons be with you, my love. I look forward to embracing you once this is all over.”

Wanting desperately to say something deep enough to be lasting, or important enough to survive centuries of memory, I locked up. Sure, Zako had trained me to fight, and yes, I’d trained relentlessly, honing my skills like a blade. But this was battle—true, life-or-death battle. My opponent was worse than nightmares, and everyone I loved would be at her mercy along with me. My heart stuttered and stumbled as all I could do was hold Rush’s eyes as they swirled and shone like the moon. His tattoos lit up, and I followed their twists, turns, and thorny vines as if it might be the very last time I ever traced their path.

I knew I should say something to him—my mate, the man I’d grown to love so dearly in such a short time I could scarcely fathom what a long life with him might be like, how magical. Likewise, I knew I should say something to our friends, and to those I didn’t know by name but who’d chosen to take the ultimate risk for what was right.

I had nothing. My throat was as barren as the outskirts.

So I put all my love into my eyes and I gazed at Rush until unshed tears blurred his handsome face. Halfway through, I blindly clutched Xeno’s hand, and squeezed until he had to know how much his friendship meant to me, until he knew I’d meant it when I’d told him I loved him too.

And then, finally, long before I was ready—because, fuck , I’d likely never in my entire life be ready for what was to come—I nodded. Just once.

That was it. In my heart, the battle had begun.

And as if the false queen sensed me as much as I did her, it was in that precise moment that arrows rained from the sky with their telltale singing whistles. The first of the many screams to come arrived, announcing the newly dawning morning to be a bloody and terrible one.