51. The Broken But Whole
CHAPTER 51
The Broken But Whole
ALIA
M orning dawned sooner than any of us wished. With the rising of the sun, our enemy unfolded from the forest, slowly coming forward, their numbers designed to strike fear into the soul.
Half-man, half-beast rogues lined the forest edge, their lips peeled back to show pale teeth, many already dripping blood from their maws. Mages gathered behind them, some with balls of lightning and fire in their hands and others with eyes that glowed with an eerie power and massive, ugly vines teeming with purple bruises and red thorns snaking to them from the forest.
There were hundreds of both rogues and dark mages marching shoulder to shoulder, with more emerging behind them.
My Reds and enforcers were lined according to rank just outside the edges of the last buildings that marked the borders of the tribe. Years of peace had made the tribe complacent that there were no defensive walls in place, and that may yet be our downfall.
“What are they waiting for?” Elder Vera asked, her eyes on the wide array of beings on the other side of the clearing merely two hundred or so feet from us.
“They wish to put fear into you before the battle begins. A fearful army is a battle won,” Shen said, his hood pulled up on his head and his eyes glowing golden in that darkness.
As badly as I hated admitting it, he was right. Worse than that admittance was the fear on my people’s faces. They knew the capabilities of these creatures. They knew what was in store. This was no empty threat.
We Reds were assassins not knights. We struck in the dead of night. We used time and predictability to our advantage. We attacked when a mage was depleted and under their curse. We killed when a werewolf was sick with wolfsbane.
We were no match for magic in a field where the opponent had every advantage.
“Surrender the puppy, Aurelia, and I will only kill you, your family, and the elders.” That voice sounded familiar. Then I saw her. Dressed in gold with a leaflet of glorious golden Ambrose flowers upon her brow, my grandmother stood in all her glory on the far side of the plain. “Or, should my people turn back to my ways, I will consider sparing you all.”
“You side with werewolves and black magic and spout lies. There is no surrender. Better to die knowing you did what was right than to live with the guilt of innocent blood,” Elder Vera said, clenching her longsword in her fist as her blue eyes flashed with determination.
If my eyes pricked with emotion, I said nothing. I only gave the woman a tiny smile and a nod.
“We have much to atone for, little princess, but we will stand by you as we do so. Or we will die trying,” Elder Pulma said.
The others beside us stood straighter at his words, as if they’d lit a fire beneath them.
“Speak, Little Red, let them hear your voice,” Shen encouraged. My heart shivered in my chest at how I knew him and felt him. All of him.
From the way any hint of smoke made him cringe because of how many bodies he’d burned when covered in blood to the way his heart sang in its freedom and laughed in the face of him having choices . His darkness broiled like an angry maw of shattered dreams, but instead of it becoming his greatest weakness, he used it as his greatest strength. He conquered that darkness with forgiveness and gave his pain a place to be, a place to find freedom. His darkness was not the darkness of an abyss, but the soft velvet of a night sky—a backdrop to help others find their place to shine. But when those stars were endangered, he was the raging blackness of the abyss, a terror to any who betrayed those he loved.
I turned back to the massive army four times the size of my own and every bit as skilled in war. Maybe moreso. “But… I don’t know what to say. I’m just a girl. Why should they listen?”
His eyes softened. “Do you not know? You are of light and strength, bringing forth change wherever you tread. It is not your Gift which makes you special, it is you who makes the Gift you wield precious. You are the one who saved a unicorn-dragon, you are the one who freed a werewolf bound to his shame, you are the one who empowers the regular people to think outside of the fog of their knowledge and seek wisdom beyond what they have heard. You change lives not with your Gift, but with your kindness. Go, be the leader they need , and I will be there to support you when you come back, battle weary but victorious.”
He winked, his eyes bright and free and alive. I reached up through the shadows of his hood and touched his face. He leaned into my touch with a tiny purr rumbling in his chest. “Thank you. Come.”
He blinked open his eyes, raising a single brow. “Wha?—”
I didn’t let him finish. The mating mark sent a shiver up my spine, warming when my hand met his. I tugged him along.
I may be the matriarch of the Reds, but I was also mate to a stinkin’ Alpha werewolf and bond to a dratted dragon. It was time to be seen for who I was, regardless of what people thought of me.
If my people rejected me because of that, then so be it.
Ran?
You ’ ve finally decided, have you, Two-Legs?
Are you certain they ’ ll be ok?
You think silly two-legs will be the death of us after all we ’ ve survived?
This will open a bag we can ’ t reseal.
Sometimes you need to open things before they spoil.
A grin spread across my face. She was right.
Then come. Let us show them why they shouldn ’ t mess with our family.
A loud cry came from the woods. It was the cry of an eagle hungry for blood. It was the roar of a fierce and powerful lion staking a claim on their territory. It was the whoop of a sister coming to join her family, as at last I took my rightful place without fear of showing her and my mate off to everyone.
The rogues across the way, who were straining against their bonds, were now watching the sky and whimpering in terror.
My people took a collective step back as a lithe creature erupted from the trees beside us and burned the sky with her breath, painting it a flaming red and gold. Bones cracked and popped from beside me, then Lycus nudged me with his nose. I set my hand on his head, absentmindedly rubbing the itchy spot behind his ear that he couldn’t reach as he patted his back foot on the ground. Over the bond, I could sense him and how different he was from Shen. Lycus was a puppy at heart. A dangerous puppy who was content when he merely had a full belly and someone to curl up with beside a fire. He didn’t love death, but he could meet it better than any other warrior I’d known.
I loved him. The timeless being in my soul curled around me, a warmth growing over the bond I was just getting used to.
Ran stretched her wings out upon the flares of wind, her tail curling behind her and showing off every bit of her glorious form. She released a second cry as her flames dropped behind her, highlighting her pearlescent scales and massive, silver wings. She curled her body, shooting down from the sky with the speed of a hawk zoning in on its prey.
Ran was nothing if not dramatic.
With the grace of a gazelle but the power of an elephant, she landed by my side. I was flanked by an Alpha werewolf the size of a bear on my right and a dragon the size of an elephant on my left. I felt tiny.
Then a little pup scampered from the edge of the forest, screeching to a halt and ramming into Shen, who curled his tail around the pup. Fenbutt looked up at Shen with puppy worship and his tongue hanging out of his mouth.
What was he doing here? The pup was supposed to be with my family as they escaped through the hidden passageways. He released a pop that made Lycus gag.
“My people,” I began. “We have long fought for a world of peace. A world where dangers did not abound around the corner. We fought for a place where innocents could rest. We bore that burden so the next generations would not have to go through what we did. What we did not understand was that in our zealousness, we turned our ire on those who were also innocent. We failed. But at heart, we were still trying to do what was right. We only fell astray.
“Now, we have a chance. A chance to change the future. A chance to take our choices into our own hands. A chance to look past what was to embrace what is . I will fight with my life to protect the innocents in this city and beyond. Will you, my people, my tribe, my very family, join me this day?”
A low beat began to build. My people pounded their fists to their chest in a steady salute. A commitment. A promise.
“My people!” I roared above the gaining beat that nearly drowned out my voice. “This day we fight! This day, we fight for humans, shifters, elves, and mages! This day, we take back the choices that were taken from us and we choose . This day, this day our lives become our own and we take back what was ours all along. FREEDOM! ”
My shout was drowned out as the thumping was mixed with a steady chant.
“ Power ab intus, tutela omnium.
“ Power ab intus, tutela omnium.
“Power ab intus, tutela omnium.”
Power from within, protection for all.
It was repeated. And then they changed.
“ Power ab intus, tutela omnium. Choices sunt potentiae quaeramus. Damnum potestate sui exitium honoris. Honor sui, honor arbitrium, honor Vita Fons, honor Auctorem, honor vita. Tutela omnium, fides tribui, vita magicis.”
"Tutela omnium, fides tribui, vita magicis.”
"Tutela omnium, fides tribui, vita magicis.”
I thumped my fist against my chest, raising my voice to match theirs. And if my eyes watered from the dust shaken from the earth by our voices, then the only ones who knew were an Alpha werewolf, a gassy puppy, and a unicorn-dragon.
I turned back to my grandmother. Her face was set in her stoney visage, her lips pursed in a thin line while disappointment was clear in her gray eyes. The sound of her voice didn’t travel this far, but her eyes and mouth were easy to read.
“Kill them.”
The rogues were released.