Chapter 34 #2
The chosen battlefield is the wide expanse of fields and the frozen lake that lie just outside the castle’s northern edge, and it is filled with soldiers.
Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, so many I can’t possibly wrap my head around it.
We have an impressive number of our own forces, of course, but seeing the Alliance’s army in lines spread out before us, a sea of armor and weapons and bodies, is truly something to behold.
“Is the lake solid?” Killian asks, his mind working as he wonders the same thing I do: why here?
I reach out with my Gift and nod. “Frozen completely. It can hold the weight of our men.”
He’s mirrored my Gift, but he can’t do nearly as much with it as I can, not yet.
Killian nods and scans the battlements and ramparts, archers lining them with bows at the ready.
They can’t possibly reach our men from there, but once we get closer, they’ll rain those arrows down upon us like a summer storm.
-They’ll try- Killian tells me. Between my ice, Isolde, and all of the Gifts Killian is mirroring, the arrows won’t get near our lines. I smile at him and the twisting unease in my chest eases a bit. We have more power than they could possibly imagine.
“How many Gifteds among them? How many abominations?” Dessa asks, her voice hard and calculating, the voice not of my friend who likes to steal my clothes and likes Abrasian chocolate as much as I do, but the battle-hardened Captain and famed archer of Duskthorne.
The sun glints off of the silver medallions woven into her warrior brads, the rings in her brows and ears.
“A handful of Gifteds. I can block them, no problem.” His lip curls in disgust. “A good many more abominations.”
I recoil, bile rising in my throat. They’ve stolen Gifts from that many people? I thought—hoped—it would only be a few, that the process would be too difficult or too demanding. But apparently not. And how many of them have more than one stolen Gift? How many Gifteds have died because of them??
The bile recedes as white-hot fury rises, filling every inch of me. Frost covers my skin, the temperature dropping around us, and Killian gives me a look that’s part pride and part feral lust.
-My warrior queen,- he rasps inside my mind, reverent and desirous and so incredibly sexy that I have to fight to keep my expression even. -The things I’m going to do to you when we finish this...-
-You’ll want to borrow from Harlon again for the things I have in store for you, Commander, I promise you that...-
He makes a low growling sound and I try to hide my smile.
“We all know when you’re saying filthy things to each other inside your minds, just so you’re aware,” Math informs us and I whirl to him, gaping. He shrugs and everyone around us bursts into laughing fits.
“I should have left you in Helios,” I grumble, but can’t fight my own smile.
I shake my head and turn back to the awaiting army in front of us, scanning the lines for flaming red hair.
No, she would never be down in the trenches with the soldiers, I remind myself, so I shift my gaze upward to the ramparts.
She’ll want to watch, I know it, but she’ll be somewhere completely fortified.
I look to the north tower, the slitted windows overlooking the lake and the grounds, and I swear I see a flash of red.
We have a quick discussion laying out our plans and then, we ready ourselves.
“I still say there should be a horn or something to signal—”
A battle cry ripples through the Alliance’s army and then they’re charging forward.
We’ll have to make it through the fields before we reach the lake, and then the castle walls.
I steady myself, knowing it’s going to be a long, long day, and call up my power, my palms tingling as ice coats them, ready and waiting.
“Hold!” Killian roars, holding our men in place all around us. As much as I want to be on the front lines, I’m farther back for now, upon another rise of my own making so that I can assist in these first waves of attack. Then, we’ll join the real battle.
Soren shifts beside me, fangs and claws bared. Watchful. Ready.
“Almost...” Killian says, watching. “Almost...” He wants to let the first of their lines make it across the field before I stop them, something about too many bodies crammed in the back of the fight and bottlenecking and other things I didn’t understand.
“Now, Thea!” he yells and I unleash my Gift.
A wave of ice rears up in front of the lines advancing towards us, soaring forward and sending them sprawling and tumbling.
I don’t encase them like I did on the tundra, but they crumple and scream as the force of running into a solid wall of ice destroys them.
“Forward!” Killian yells and our lines rush onward behind my wave of ice. It wipes through hundreds of men before I have to let it turn to powder and fall harmlessly to the ground, but our men are there in its wake, swords and axes and hammers drawn and raining down blows on the stunned army.
Just as it had the first time we faced the abominations, the battle turns into pure chaos and I can’t seem to see enough of it, my eyes darting too many places too quickly.
Storm clouds form overhead, blocking out the sun, and thunder rumbles ominously.
Lightning streaks downward, the ground exploding in sprays of snow and dirt and blood, screams ringing out as soldiers are burned or thrown aside from the blast. Again and again.
“Fucking abomination,” Killian growls, narrowing his eyes.
He uses his mirrored telekinesis to throw the woman aside.
He may not be able to block them, but he can still feel them, still pinpoint where and who they are.
I send a wall of snow onto the soldiers at the far left flank, Killian flings more soldiers, and Dessa and the archers let arrows fly.
Just when I think that things might be easier than I thought, things turn from chaos to pure insanity.
More abominations let lose their stolen Gifts and I can’t keep track of everything happening. The ground beneath us shakes violently, opening up in some places; more lightning rains down; violent winds thrash; pelting rain joins the lightning; soldiers in our lines turn to fucking stone.
“Fucking hells!” Math yells. I turn to Killian, eyes wide and heart hammering.
“What do we do?” I ask over the din.
“We fight,” he says, jaw set and sword singing as he unsheathes it from his back. I nod and he rushes for me, pressing his lips to mine in a rough, soul searing kiss, before pulling away, waiting. Despite everything I smile, knowing this is going to be something for the ages.
An unholy screeching roar fills the air, making almost all of the soldiers cower, looking to the skies in confusion and terror.
A moment later, Isolde sheds her camouflage, her black scales shining in the dark skies as lightning flashes again.
Cries ring out as she soars over the battle, screams of terror and shock and panic.
Some of the Alliance’s forces actually flee, breaking ranks and running in all directions.
Isolde circles back to us, tucking her wings and dropping like a stone towards Killian.
She flares them again and levels out just as she passes over our heads and Killian leaps.
She catches him in her talons in a graceful, fluid movement—one they’ve practiced for countless hours over the last few weeks—and tosses him upward.
He flips in the air and lands on her back, clutching her ridges and settling into the spot between her shoulders made for him.
“Holy fucking hells, that was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen!
” Tristan calls out, whooping, and I see Jonathan and Kendall hoist their weapons upward in triumph.
All of our soldiers roar in delight, their king and commander and the symbol of their kingdom soaring into battle above them.
I can practically feel the burst of strength it gives them, bolstering their resolve.
They continue their war cries, sprinting forward into the fray with a new vigor.
-Showoff,- I say through the connection to all four of us.
-Jealous!- Killian calls back, and I can hear the utter excitement and joy in his voice.
They soar closer to the castle, and I brace as Isolde inhales deeply, a stream of blue fire erupting from her gaping maw and incinerating hundreds of the enemy within seconds.
She must rest between bursts of fire, otherwise I’m sure she would gladly lay the entire battlefield to waste in a matter of minutes and we could call this day done.
More of their forces turn and flee, desperate to escape that azure inferno, that death carried on sleek, midnight wings. Beautiful.
Tristan turns to me now. “Shall we?” he asks and I nod, ready to truly join the fight. I form my sword of ice in one hand, my other palm ready to wield my Gift.
“The mountains do not move!” Dessa calls, nocking another arrow and readying to cover us as we enter the fray.
“And the dragons do not yield!” I yell back, finishing the battle cry she and Killian made up when they were children.
She grins and winks, blows a kiss to Tristan, and then I’m running and everything is a blur.
I don’t think as I throw myself into the melee, don’t think as I plunge my sword through a man in forest green armor, don’t think as I do it again, and again, and again.
I slash and parry and block blows, just as I was taught in The Seventh.
I spin and throw blades of ice, my blood singing and burning in my veins.
I duck as Soren leaps over me to sink his claws into a man’s chest, cutting through his armor and leaving it in silvery ribbons coated with blood.
I have no idea how to know whether we’re winning or losing or gaining any ground.
Isolde lets more fire burn, but I know that will stop soon, once our forces get closer to the castle.
Killian won’t risk us getting caught in the flames.
We fight and fight and fight, everything becoming a dull ringing in my ears as my soul soars and instincts I didn’t know I had take over.
I remember everything Killian and Dessa taught me, every lesson given to me by Kendall and Jonathan and Tristan, the other lessons from long ago that still serve me, the ones given to me by the first person in this world to truly love me.
Tobias’ voice sounds through my mind as I whirl and kicking one man on my left while plunging my sword into another on my right.
You are meant for greatness, sparrow. Never stop fighting.
The abominations are still wielding their stolen Gifts but we’re doing our best to combat them. I reach into the clouds above with my own Gift and turn the rain to snow and divert the flakes away from the fight and over the castle instead.
“Much obliged!” Kendall calls as he buries an axe into a man’s throat. “I hate fighting in the damned rain!” He’s off then, after another enemy. Over and over, the dance continues.
My arms are screaming after what feels like it must be hours later, though I’m sure it hasn’t been very long at all.
Isolde has taken to the ground, she and Killian are ripping through the Alliance on the lake.
It’s difficult to see much of anything, a wall of bodies surrounding me on all sides, but Isolde towers high above everything, her fangs bared, jaws snapping, arrows bouncing harmlessly off of her scales.
Some of the abominations are still wielding, but many of them seem to have stopped.
Thankfully someone was able to take out whichever one was somehow turning people to stone without touching them.
Great fucking Makers. I wish I could see them all like Killian can, know who to target, but I don’t want to distract him by asking him to point them out.
More blood coats my blade. More bodies fall. Soren roars and rips a woman’s arm off before she can stab Math in the back.
-Thank you,- I breathe, heart in my throat.
-Your family is my family, daska. I will defend them with my last breath.-
Math meets my eyes and nods, and we keep pushing forward amid the chaos.
“Are you having fun yet, princess?!” Dessa calls from behind me now. I glance over my shoulder and see that she’s exchanged her bow for sword with gleaming stars etched down the blade. Her braids are coated with blood, her face and neck splattered with it, but I don’t think any of it is hers.
“Oh, a jolly fucking—” I scream when I’m hit in the chest by a war hammer, so hard I go sailing backwards.
I can barely breathe, the air ripped from my lungs.
My armor holds, thank the Makers, but fucking hells does it hurt.
My chest burns and I think a rib or two might be cracked, and my head swims for a moment from the pain.
“Thea!” Dessa yells, battling a man and a woman in crimson armor as she tries to get to me.
I blink as the man above me raises his hammer again. I throw out a hand and a heartbeat later he’s frozen solid—just before Soren clamps his jaws around his neck and tears his head free. His frozen body remains upright, thick, sludge-like blood oozing slowly down his gaping neck.
-Are you alright??- Soren demands.
-What the fuck is happening over there?!- Killian barks through all of our minds. I gasp for breath, my ribs burning, but the pain is manageable.
-I’m...fine,- I grit.
Dessa is there a moment later, yanking me to my feet none too gently.
I clench my teeth, but nod, telling her I’m alright.
That’s all we have time for, pushing forward once more.
The abominations Gifts slowly stop working and I assume that Killian and Isolde are responsible.
Though I can’t see him, I know he’s using his mirrored Gifts: speeding through the ranks faster than any other human can possibly run; pulling weapons from hands with the magnetic ability; throwing opponents aside with his telekinesis.
I smile, knowing in my heart that we can do this, we can win.
That’s when a wall of orange fire engulfs our entire right flank.