Chapter 25 #3
“The halflings from the human realm have overstayed their welcome,” Ilia continued.
“They will have twenty-four hours to leave of their own accord, before my guard will be forced to escort them out. Once balance is restored to our sacred lands…” Ilia couldn’t stop himself from smirking as he finished with, “The Mellhawn Gates will be destroyed, keeping humans out of our realm once and for all.”
The reporters, thankfully, were not satisfied with that conclusion. Even as Ilia waved politely and started to wander away from his podium, a flurry of questions followed him.
“What about the halfling-inclusive mating bonds?”
“How do you plan to destroy the ancient gates?”
“What exactly made Queen Ada change her mind on this issue?”
But Ilia didn’t give a shit; he just left. He didn’t need to defend this decision or question the support of the fae and nereids. In his mind, it was done. That gave us less than twenty-four hours to kill Ilia, free Drustan, and release the whismerric sirens into the safety of Lyndoruun.
What none of us were expecting, though, was the grunt that came from Caelena’s office door. All of us turned around to see who had entered, not realizing that Sergei had left the door open when he barged in with his laptop.
“Ilia must be stopped,” one of the siren mothers said. “He cannot do this.”
“We’re working on that,” Caelena assured her.
“We need more Hyvenmerians to help overwhelm Ilia enough for us to take him down. But the fae and nereids aren’t willing to help other than being a landing pad for refugees.
In the meantime, Ilia’s men get closer to us every passing day, so our main priority has been finding a safer place for you all to go—”
“Let us go and fight, then,” one taller siren mother responded, producing a knife from a sheath on her hip and pointing it at us.
“You all cannot fight every battle of ours for us.” She smirked with her words, flicking her wrist to twist her knife this way and that.
“I have years of pent-up rage inside of me, ready to ignite. Let us end this nonsense, once and for all.”
I widened my eyes and cautiously backed away from her. “For sure.”
“Ilia is done terrorizing our children,” a third siren mother spoke, hands balled into fists. “He must be stopped. With the prophesied on our side…” She gestured toward Audrey, who stood tall with her acknowledgement. “Surely, Tynara will grant us her favor.”
“Ilia won’t stop,” Caelena muttered.
“He won’t,” I agreed.
All of us stood in heavy, unbearable silence. The reality of what needed to be done weighed on us all like the mountains we hid under.
“It has to be now,” Audrey announced reverently.
“Everyone else is on the move with Fergus. We have to take him out now. Though I need to make this clear…” Audrey lifted a finger to everyone in the room, “If there is an opportunity to take down Ilia without killing him in cold blood, I’m going to take it.
I am not eager to take a life, like others…
” her words were cutting, and even though she wasn’t looking at me, I still received the acknowledgement she intended, “But a message must be sent. Ilia is not the ruler of all of Hyvenmere. It doesn’t matter who guards the Fjellenheim Mountains, who the prophecy is about—not one single Hyvenmerian has the authority to do what Ilia is about to do.
If we don’t act now, and the fae and nereids allow Ilia to see this plan through, it will set a very dangerous precedent that might be impossible for Hyvenmere to come back from.
Ilia can’t be so wasteful with siren lives if they happen to be whismerric, and he cannot destroy the Mellhawn Gates.
Hyvenmere already knows what it’s like to experience such an imbalance, and keeping the gates open and encouraging relations with humans has only proven to even the scales. Just as the goddess herself desires.”
“The sooner Ilia is defeated,” Liam whispered.
“The sooner innocent children no longer have to live in fear.” Audrey finished.
Those seemed to be the words that made everyone come to a resolution. We all agreed we had to go do what needed to be done. I felt my own call to go to the city of Lydhavn, one I had no desire to speak aloud because, in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter as much.
But Drustan was held captive. Mentally tortured by his own father, after surviving years of lethal torture in the Gravhune.
He was in pain, and he was in danger. I didn’t like that.
I couldn’t continue with the knowledge of Drustan in that state.
The reasons why, I didn’t like and weren’t significant enough to voice, but I knew that if we stormed Ilia’s estate, I would go out of my way to find Drustan and free him.
Caelena caught my gaze across the cavern with a knowing look in her eye.
It’s natural for you to feel drawn to him, Caelena spoke in my mind.
I know, I admitted, I don’t know what to do about it. But I am. I can’t find it in me to fight it right now.
Caelena dipped her chin and replied, Then don’t.
It took only a couple of hours to gather all the women who were willing to fight, which was more than I expected.
They coordinated with each other, determining which children would be in the care of which mother, should the worst come to pass.
I helped everyone load up on knives and weapons and helped other siren women pack away first aid supplies.
A woman was zipping up the pockets of her tactical pants when a handful of items fell out, so I knelt down next to her to pick them up.
“Here.” I handed her the gauze and tape, and a handful of tiny matchboxes.
“These won’t all fit.” She pocketed everything but three matchboxes, then looked at me and the jeans I wore. “You can take these.”
I wasn’t wearing tactical gear. Just jeans and boots, and a long-sleeved shirt. Audrey wanted to lyskift me back to our realm, and I told her to fuck off and let me join. She grumbled but accepted that I wouldn’t let her do what she was about to do alone.
“Thanks.” I pocketed the matchboxes. “What’s your name?”
“Martha.” She shook my hand after we both stood up. “And you are Vanessa.”
I grinned at her. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m honored to know you, Vanessa.” Martha gave me an appreciative smile before her eyes hardened. “I’ll do my best to protect you.”
I laughed at that, “I’ll be okay, don’t worry about me.”