Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Sy
The sign carved into the enormous black tree swayed in an unnatural wind: Underhill! Enter At Your Own Peril!
Once upon a time, Barbie had been a magic eater, forced by Ruin to drain power from the lands and feed that motherfucker until we finally escaped. Now we stood here as protectors, leading a parade of heirs into its heart.
We passed through aspens, cedars, and pines. Plants with leaf colors that had no names moved aside for us. Thorny shrubs parted without being asked; the forest could shift like that. Shadow beasts howled in the distance, kept at bay only by Underhill’s will.
The heirs bantered, laughed, and punched each other playfully. War was coming, and our hearts were heavy, but we never forgot to live a little, even when danger threatened to choke us.
Silas swaggered as if he owned the place, apparently forgetting that Underhill admitted the heirs only as Barbie’s guests.
One wrong move, one perceived insult, and the dark forest would teach him a hard lesson.
Then Barbie would have to plead with Underhill for his release.
The heirs had grown on me, but I recognized all their faults. Privilege was in their blood.
“Can’t believe Underhill’s become our pal,” Silas said, swaggering forward.
“Only because of Barbie,” Cade corrected. “Our little mage is rude, but her heart is in the right place.”
The other heirs chuckled at the tease. I knew Silas and Louis still craved me, and Cade cared for me, grateful I’d yanked the Fury curse from him. But none of them teased me the way they did Barbie. Not that she was a good sport about it.
The scent of bitter orange and dense pine resin drifted on the breeze. Underneath it all was the burned taste of wild magic. A shower yesterday afternoon had made the scent thick and heavy.
We emerged into the clearing by the lake, and even I had to stop and stare. The training field stretched larger than I remembered, a perfectly flat expanse surrounded by trees that formed natural stadium seating.
“Did Underhill make this for us?” Louis asked in awe. He’d been wary of Underhill ever since it punished him for hunting Barbie.
“Yep,” Barbie said. “My pal knows we need the space to train.”
The wild magic purred. It loved Barbie but considered me a rival.
This was our first official training session and our last chance to prepare before we prevented the world from ending.
The heirs had mapped battle strategies until my eyes crossed.
One-third of each kingdom’s forces had arrived at the academy, all except the official fae army, though Rowan’s growing rebellion more than made up the difference.
Every student had been given a choice: fight or flee.
Half had chosen to go to war with us. The ones seeking safety had been portaled home.
“Positions,” Cade called out.
The heirs would practice channeling their power through Barbie, and she would blast the Shriekers into oblivion, just as they had in the last battle. They just needed to coordinate more effectively and know when to stop, preserving their energy for the bigger fight to come.
Killian wouldn’t be joining this particular exercise. His job was different: to keep Ruin occupied while the rest of the heirs dealt with the Shriekers.
A demigod dragon versus an alien god.
Barbie’s face was pale, her lips bloodless. My sister was clearly worried sick for her mate. I just hoped her breakfast—and she had eaten a lot—wouldn’t make a reappearance. The smell would make me wrinkle my nose.
“Let’s go!” Rowan shouted, earth and air magic already swirling around his hands. He was practicing harder than anyone.
The heirs formed a half-circle behind Barbie, and power snapped in the air, everyone itching to channel their energy into her—Louis’s cold, brutal vampire air; Silas’s devastating water element; Rowan’s fae magic that could shatter the earth; and Cade’s precise, furious mage fire and metal.
They were all eager to see how Barbie would twist their combined powers into a magical atomic bomb.
“On three,” I called. I wasn’t practicing destructive power with them. I wasn’t a channeler, but I liked to play the active coach. “One, two—”
The heirs unleashed their power before I could call “three.” Barbie arched her back as if drunk. In a way, she was, intoxicated by the raw energy. She no longer siphoned power against her will, but that didn’t mean she didn’t enjoy it.
Her dark flame roared to life, feeding on their offerings, growing into something that could crack open the sky. That was her role. She threw up her hands, and the firestorm erupted upward—the reason for this vast training field, to ensure not a single flower in the forbidden forest was harmed.
“Shit,” Cade breathed. “That would erase an entire company of Shriekers.”
Silas and Louis moved to high-five each other, then realized who they were about to touch and slammed on the brakes just before contact.
Killian shot a concerned glance at Barbie but looked away before she could call him out for being overbearing.
“Don’t stop there!” I barked. “Again!”
“Give us a minute,” Louis protested.
“Shriekers won’t give you a minute,” I shot back.
“That’s my girl,” Rowan said, his voice full of pride. In his eyes, I could do no wrong.
“Slave driver,” Silas muttered, but he flicked his wrist, ready for another round.
I made them run through the drill again and again, barking instructions. “That was less jarring. Good. Heirs, pay attention. You need to give a moderate amount of power without losing yourselves to Barbie’s hunger. B, you mustn’t take more than you need, or you’ll drain them dry.”
“Who made you the authority?” Barbie barked at me.
“I can see every aspect of your magic!” I retorted.
“Listen to Sy,” Cade chuckled. “Her heart is in the right place, too.”
“We’re unstoppable with Barbie joining us,” Louis bragged after the fifth round.
“We’re powerful,” Barbie corrected. “We can send the Shriekers to kingdom come, but it isn’t enough to take down my father. We need something else.”
“What else?” Silas asked.
“I’ll have to talk to Isis,” Barbie said. “You want to go in with me to the Red Room? Anyone?”
Silas’s face paled.
Just then, Bea appeared at the edge of the clearing, covered in soot and looking exhausted but triumphant. “We’ve done it. Here’s a blood-forged weapons that can kill Shriekers.”
She held up a sword that hummed with latent power, its black metal glinting with runes written in our mixed blood.
“How many have been forged?” Cade asked.
“Close to a thousand now, Your Highness,” Bea replied.
Every house had sent their blacksmiths to assist her.
“How many can we expect by week’s end?” Rowan pressed.
“Ten thousand, I hope,” Bea said.
Cade nodded in approval. “And we have an extra eight hundred demon blades from the arsenal in House of Chaos.” Killian’s foresight had paid off—he’d scavenged those weapons after the demons joined our cause in the last battle.
He’d never trusted Lilith and never planned to rely on her.
“We’ll stand a chance, even if the enemy outnumbers us ten to one.
First, we blast the Shriekers with magic channeled through Barbie, then our warriors cut down the rest.”
“Good practice,” Bea said. She hugged Barbie briefly, then hurried out of Underhill to return to her work.
Killian remained apart from us, engrossed in his own special training. I wondered what it involved.
“Can we go back to the part where I’m not allowed to fight?” I asked, crossing my arms, bored and pissed. “Because it’s bullshit.”
“You’re the last drop of old magic,” everyone chorused in unison, clearly having rehearsed this argument.
I was sick and tired of hearing that.
“I can shield the entire army! I can literally grow back limbs.” I looked around hopefully. “Anyone want to volunteer? I need the practice.”
No one volunteered, not even my mate. One day, we would need to talk about his trust issues.
“Come on, just a finger? A toe? I’ll grow it right back, I promise.”
“Sy, you need to understand that we can’t afford to lose you,” Barbie chimed in, as if she were the mature one. “If we fall—”
A sudden panic choked me. “You won’t fall! Not on my watch.”
“Let’s think about winning then,” Louis offered with a grin perfectly designed to charm ladies. “And what happens after we win?”
“We celebrate. What else?” Silas said.
“And then what?” Louis pressed. “What if one of us grows too ambitious?”
“Then we kick your vampire ass,” Cade said pleasantly.
“I was speaking of Silas.” Louis nodded toward the wolf king. “Look at those glowing amber eyes—all ambition.”
“Speak for yourself, bloodsucker,” Silas growled. “You try to undermine me at every turn, and you always fail.”
“Call me cynical.” Louis spread his arms in a theatrical gesture.
“You took your crown by force. Killian did the same. And since Rowan returned from the fae court, every ounce of him vibrates with violence, especially when anyone gets near Sy. I might follow suit and challenge my sire just so I can stop fearing him. We’re all born killers here.
What stops us from turning on each other? ”
“Love.” Cade smiled dreamily. “Brotherhood. Our blood bond and vows.”
“All of which can be broken,” Louis countered.
“Then we all go after the first one who breaks them,” Killian called from his training spot.
“How about we survive the apocalypse before planning the betrayals?” I suggested.
“Fair enough,” Rowan conceded. “Shall we continue training? Or perhaps try some hand-to-hand combat for a change.”
“Let the ladies join. It’ll be more fun,” Silas proposed, a mistake he regretted instantly.