Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Sy
War bells shattered the morning air, each clanging strike hammering against my ribs. These were not the gentle chimes for classes, but the deep, brutal gongs that tolled for only one thing: death was coming to Shades Academy.
“Move! Move! Move!” Cassius’s voice barked above the clamor as warriors streamed from every doorway. There was no panic in their ranks, only a lethal, practiced efficiency.
I stood frozen in the courtyard, watching the heirs and their generals forge order from chaos.
House banners snapped in the wind—Chaos’s rampant dragon, the shifters’ howling wolf, the vampires’ eternal flame, the mages’ massive raven, and Rowan’s rebellion flag, hastily stitched, a silver tree blazing on a field of black.
For the first time in centuries, all five Houses stood united.
Live alone, die alone. Stand together, win together.
The math churned in my mind. Bea’s exhausted team had forged just over a thousand blood-weapons. With Killian’s eight hundred demon blades, that made fewer than two thousand soldiers who could truly kill Shriekers.
We were sending them against two hundred thousand.
Those weren’t odds. That was a massacre waiting to happen.
Rowan looked back once, his silver eyes finding mine across the distance. A lifetime of words and a promise of love passed in that single glance. Then he turned, his shoulders squaring for war.
“Sy!” Barbie’s voice snapped me back to the present. She jogged over in full armor inscribed with runes, her golden curls braided tight against her skull, war paint slashing across her cheeks. She looked every inch a goddess of war.
“Tits up, Barbie,” I called.
“Fuck tits,” she shot back ungratefully, grabbing my arm. Her grip was iron. “You. Will. Stay. Behind.”
“You’re not the boss of me,” I said, lifting my chin. “Not anymore.”
“For once in your life, listen,” she snapped, her eyes blazing. “If you die, all hope for Mist of Cinder dies with you. This realm falls. The mortal world will become a wasteland too without the magic realm to tether it. Everything ends. Do you copy?”
“I do not roger!” I protested. “I can help. My light can shield—”
“Not this shit again.” She shook me so hard my teeth rattled, and I shoved her off. “I’m going to war in seconds. You will vow to stay behind the Veil with the healers. You won’t be useless. You’ll use your magic to heal the wounded. But if we lose, you retreat to Underhill.”
The weight of her command crashed over me. My knees buckled. If we lost, it meant a future without Barbie and Rowan. They would never retreat. This was their last stand.
It was our last stand.
But how could I go on without them?
“I hate this, Little Bob,” I whispered, the words thick with unshed tears.
“We can’t all get what we want,” she replied, her voice stripped of its usual fire. “And don’t call me Bob. Just stay. Behind.”
With that, Barbie turned and rushed toward the Veil where the heirs were gathering.
Flags snapped in the harsh wind.
“Form up!” Silas roared.
“March!” Cade bellowed.
And with those commands, the heirs and kings led their army through the shimmering barrier of the Veil, out of the academy grounds and into the mortal world.
I stood frozen, watching them go. My sister. My mate. My new found family.
Less than two thousand against two hundred thousand.