Chapter Forty-Four
Castor Aegaeon
“Move!” Daxton roared as Valencia swiped through the air, but I was already tucked into a roll, sending my blade through the skull of one human soldier before spinning and finding the next.
Gods, these humans were like roaches. You killed one, and then another ten took the fallen one’s place. Gravely outnumbered was the understatement of the century.
A premonition flashed, and my sight blackened. Time always moved differently when my gifted sight pulled me under. I could witness a scene unfold over minutes or even hours, when reality took less than a second to pass outside the confines of my magic.
Seeing our deaths at the teeth of a garmr, I spun on my heels and threw an ice spear into the beast’s neck.
The creature skidded to a stop at our feet before its body hit the ground.
Its legs were splayed out as its haunting sets of red eyes locked in a lifeless stare, midnight blood drenching the earth at my feet.
“Well done,” Daxton said.
A rhythmic rush of air pulsed the tips of my sensitive ears. Powerful thumps rippled like a living heartbeat through the wind as my eyes darted toward the clouded sky. My breath caught in my chest as a massive horde of harpies gathered like a dark storm cloud.
“Daxton, look,” I said, pointing toward the southern peak along the valley.
“I see them.” To his credit, my brother’s expression remained unchanged as his silver eyes turned to the skies.
I, on the other hand, had to force my jaw to close. There were hundreds of them…
“Where is Adoh—” I didn’t have time to finish the thought as the neighs and wingbeats of our own aerial forces sounded in the skies.
Adohan and Idris surged forward astride their pegasi, the thunder of beating wings shuddering through the air as heat shimmered off fire-wreathed swords and spears. Behind Adohan, Skylar wheeled in her phoenix form, her blazing feathers shedding embers that crackled against the wind.
I should have sighed in relief at seeing Adohan’s inferno cutting a blazing path through the sky, but the moment the pegasi took flight, another tremor slithered down my spine. My gifts took control and pulled me under once more.
I swallowed as I took a knee in the soaked grass to focus on the premonition.
“Castor?” Daxton’s voice dropped as he stood protectively over me, his blade slick with blood. “Stay with me.”
“I am,” I lied, slipping into a premonition.
The battlefield shifted like a living thing as it morphed into a time that had not yet come to pass.
Ice curled up my arms as I waited to see what would unfold before me.
Sound drowned out first, swallowed by a ringing pitch, so high it felt like my skull was splitting in two.
Then the colors bled out until only darkness remained—an endless sea of death sprawled before me.
Well, wasn’t this just peachy?
Blazing white flames roared across my vision, devouring everything in its path. At first, I thought it was Adohan or Skylar’s flames, but this? This was wrong. It burned too hot, too hungry.
A streak of blue cut through the swirls in a violent array, parting to reveal two figures caught in the collision of the flames.
Their silhouettes twisted within the inferno, swallowed by a vortex of searing light.
Through the haze, I could see their mouths open, screams soundless against a blizzard of fire.
“Daxton?”
My heart stopped, recognizing my brother entangled in the flames. I tried to reach for him, but my hand passed through the vision like mist on a sunless day.
Then came the shadows. They poured from the edges of the blaze, stretching in from a darkness too deep to be natural. They crawled up Daxton’s legs, spiraled around him until they entwined in the second figure clutched in his arms.
Then the flames burned hotter—brighter somehow. Blazing in a blue brilliance that forced me to shield my eyes.
It was almost as if light and darkness were in a standoff.
My brother screamed, “Do it.”
His voice echoed in my vision as the flames surged one last time in a blinding, deafening burst, with Daxton vanishing in a spray of white-blue light.
Gone. He and the second figure were gone.
“No!” A scream tore from my throat as the battlefield snapped into focus. I looked up, and Daxton stood before me, alive. Thank the gods he was alive.
He reached out and gripped my shoulders hard enough to bruise. “Castor! What did you see?”
My breath came in shallow, ragged bursts. “You. And…” I shook my head, unable to disguise the tremor in my voice. “You were lost in flames and shadows.” I didn’t dare say more without concrete evidence. We were in the middle of a battlefield after all.
Daxton’s face hardened, not with fear, but with a determined look. “Was Skylar—?” He paused, swallowing hard. “Was Skylar there?”
“No,” I said at first. “Well, I don’t know… There was a second figure with you, but they were cloaked in shadow.”
Before Daxton could speak, the sky above us erupted in chaos.
High Fae riders streaked across the clouds on their pegasi, each mount a blur of muscle and feather and raw power.
Their wingbeats boomed like thunder, stirring the battlefield below with gusts of wind fanning Skylar’s flames into a furious spiral.
And tearing through their ranks was the horde of harpies, grotesque monsters that I would gladly give all my finest wines to be rid of.
Alright, not every barrel. I’ll admit that was a stretch.
“On your feet,” Daxton said, hauling me up. “We need to keep fighting.”
As we fought off the onslaught from the ground, the creatures above plunged in savage arcs, claws outstretched to eviscerate their prey, their piercing shrieks rattling my bones.
Their wings beat with brutal strength, each downward stroke hurling violent gusts that battered us below as they slammed into our riders in midair.
“Up here,” Daxton said, breathing heavily. “We need to recall our lines and reform our defenses.”
Thank the gods for the slight reprieve. I’d take it.
Adohan’s war cry drew my attention to the skies as Daxton rallied our forces.
Fire streamed from his blade in an arc so bright it left an afterimage burned across the sky.
His pegasus banked sharply, narrowly avoiding a harpy’s talons, and Adohan drove his flaming sword straight through the creature’s chest. It ignited from the inside out before plummeting to the ground with a trail of ember and ash in its wake.
Idris followed close behind her mate, spear whirling in a halo of heat.
Her mount slammed its hooves into a harpy’s face, caving bone, before she impaled another that had dared latch onto the saddle.
The creature shrieked, writhing, then went limp, and Idris kicked the corpse free with cold precision.
My stomach twisted as a loud screech pierced my eardrums. My eyes darted toward the source of the sound, widening in disbelief.
More harpies surged from the southern peak, their shadows falling like a plague across the valley. The numbers were overwhelming. Hundreds darkened the sky, their forms blotting out the sun as they descended on our riders.
Daxton cursed under his breath. “We’re losing too many.”
I stood, ready to jump back into the fight. “The winged monsters just keep on coming.”
Adohan swooped down toward the valley with one harpy on his flank and another diving swiftly after him in our direction.
“Adohan!” I shouted his name, but he didn’t turn, my voice drowned out in the roar of battle.
He wrenched his sword free in time to block the strike, flames bursting along the shaft as he shoved the creature back. But the other was closing in.
“Dax!” My brother turned, but I didn’t know if he would be fast enough to help.
A blazing stream of fire appeared, and Skylar intercepted the attacking harpy. Her wings flared out in a torrent of blinding flames as she shielded Adohan’s side.
She turned toward us. I barely had time to brace before the phoenix slammed into the earth beside us in a burst of embers.
The impact sent a shockwave through the ground, heat rippling over my skin.
Feathers of flame scattered across the dirt before curling inward, collapsing into a swirl of molten light.
She shifted, and Daxton was immediately at her side. Skylar wavered, nearly collapsing as Daxton handed her a vial with a healing remedy, exhaustion clinging to her like a second skin.
Daxton pulled her into his chest as she drank the vial. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” she rasped, shaking her head. “Just drained.”
But her eyes… Gods above, her eyes glowed with a fire that would never burn out.
She looked between us, breath shuddering. “Listen to me,” she said. “They’re coming.”
“Who?” Daxton demanded.
Skylar’s stare narrowed, her expression turning grim. “The nalusa falaya.”
My blood went cold. Fuck my life.
I swallowed hard. “Are you sure?”
The answer came before Skylar could respond. A scream tore through the battlefield, nothing like the harpies’ shrieks or the garmr’s roar. This was deeper, ripping through the air with a resonance that rattled my very soul. A sound that didn’t belong to something of this world.
Skylar’s hand dug into Daxton’s arm. “Positive. The towers… They’re not just for the archers, as we thought. Minaeve is shielding them with her magic. Inside…” She paused, taking a breath. “Inside, I think there are portals.”
The ground trembled under our feet. The low, vibrating hum made the hairs on my neck rise. And then, the towers split open, revealing swirling gates of magic as nalusa falaya, numbering in the hundreds, came pouring out.
Daxton’s blade lifted as he stood by his mate. “Castor…”
“Yeah?” I said, tilting my head toward my brother and Skylar.
They glanced at each other in a way that told me they were speaking directly into each other’s minds.
“Skylar and I need to go. Find Gunnar and Shaw. Hold the front until we return.”
I spun around so fast I swear the world tilted. “I beg your royal fucking pardon… What?”
The screams intensified. Dozens this time, echoing through the valley like a chorus of nightmares. My heart stuttered at the thought that this fight was turning a deadly corner.
Skylar’s voice dropped, her brows narrowing. “He said we need to leave.”
“You want to repeat that?” I asked, my chest rising and falling in rapid succession.
Skylar stared me down, her eyes blazing with amber fire. “Daxton and I need to leave.”
My brother stepped to his wife’s side and placed his hand on the small of her back.
I clenched my fist, shaking with rage. “You two are out of your fucking minds! What do you mean you—”