76. Greyland
SEVENTY-SIX
GREYLAND
I had never seen so many people go down so easily. The soldiers were slaughtering the humans in one go, sometimes more than one dropped at a time. There was so much blood it felt like we were bathing in it.
They were hacking into them, cutting them to pieces. I had to fight my composure as I kept seeing flashes of Lilia’s parents.
And the ones that weren’t slaughtered were burned to ash. Others drowned. Some had the air taken from their lungs and were writhing on the ground until they collapsed.
They were compelled to not fight back. I knew they were because no one in their right mind would just stand there and wait for their end, but that’s what was happening. They didn’t do anything to stop it.
It was intentional, just another ploy to convince our kind that humans were weak.
The eldest Luxian Prince managed to shield out the army and trap them inside for a couple of hours. It worked… until it didn’t.
Now the sun was up and reflecting against the bay. There was grass when we arrived yesterday morning, but it was all gone now. Either stomped away from the thousands of boots that kept marching over the courtyard or buried beneath layers and layers of blood.
It was becoming difficult to navigate, to not trip over the bodies that were piling up. And the stench…
Lilia was with me, not by her choice. She was taking every opportunity she could to try to weave through the massive amounts of bodies to get away from me. And as much as it killed me, I couldn’t blame her. She was pissed when she found out I was using my illusion on her.
I shouldn’t have done it. It was cruel to make her believe she was fighting when in reality she was attacking nothing.
After the battle in Tennebris, someone had seen her “fighting” and made a comment that the air would be terrified to see her coming. I tried to deflect, telling her everyone just needed a laugh. A slap across the face later, and I knew that didn’t go over well.
So now here we were, actually fighting , and it scared the living shit out of me. I didn’t know where that left me.
Lilia glowered every time I cut in front of her. But I didn’t care. I still took out whoever was coming before they got to her. At this point, I just wanted her alive. She could hate me for it all she wanted. She already hated me for everything that happened in school…
Kallon was trying to portal the humans to some hut, but without Scottie’s powers, it was taking too long.
The rest of us were fighting throughout the courtyard. We were spread out, trying to do the same thing—protect the humans, take out the soldiers, and not die.
“Kallon!” A voice screamed over the chaos.
“KAL!” I faintly recognized it.
Again. “KALLON!”
It was echoing across the courtyard, and I looked up in time to see Tezya sprinting through the Luxian soldiers. He wasn’t using his powers. But he was fighting through whatever poor soul came his way. Fighting wasn’t the right word for it—he was slaughtering whoever came at him without even looking.
Dovelyn came running up to him, more flustered and out of breath than I’d ever seen her before. “What happened?”
I noticed a shimmer go up around us as the eldest prince erected a shield. I honestly was so impressed by his power. I knew air users made shields, but the strength of Arcane’s were insane. No one could penetrate it.
I relaxed for the first time since coming outside. I hadn’t realized how stiff my body was. All the areas that were throbbing suddenly felt all consuming.
But I didn’t think the youngest Luxian Prince even noticed his brother’s shield.
He was covered in blood. His entire abdomen was drenched in it. He had a burn going up his right arm, a dagger sticking out of his calf, and more bruises and cuts than I could count.
“I need your help,” he panted to his sister. “I need you and Kal to come with me right now—”
“Is the King dead?” Arcane asked, his voice was quiet, but even with all the fighting still going on, we could hear him.
Tezya nodded his head a fraction, like he couldn’t be bothered with answering, even though it was a big fucking deal if he actually killed the King of Lux or not. He didn’t even turn his head to look at his brother. Just nodded like it was nothing. Maybe he was in shock.
I looked at him more closely and realized he was shaking. His eyes were red-rimmed and swollen—
“Brock?” the princess asked, but Tezya cut off her.
“He’s fine. We need to leave now—” He was out of breath, and I half wondered if he ran all the way here. I had no idea where the Goddess Temples were, but judging from his appearance, it couldn’t have been close. Tears welled in his eyes and dread spread through me as the prince’s emotions clicked. “Help me. Please! ” He turned to Kallon who hadn’t spoken yet.
A sinking pit formed in my stomach. My brother wasn’t here. He could have teleported the prince, but he didn’t.
I took a step back. I knew Lilia placed her hand over my arm, but I didn’t feel it. Peter stilled next to me as he shifted back into his Advenian form. The guy had been smiling while fighting this whole time, but now his grin was wiped off his face.
“Who is it?” Peter asked, the color drained from his face. “Which one—”
Peter was friends with Scotlind and Sie, and neither of them were here.
“Both.” He was shaking. I might have been too. “We have to leave right fucking now !”
“Tezya, slow down. What exactly do you need?” his sister asked.
“Fly us to them. They’re too far away. Then, Kal, portal them to Tennebris.” I could see the frustration on his face. He was speaking a mile a minute.
He needed them to go to Tennebris—where the healers from Brighta were.
“Have Brock heal them—”
“He fucking tried,” he yelled, cutting her off. “But they’re both dying. Their injuries are…” He paused, letting out a shaky breath. “Please. Brock is trying, but it’s not enough. They won’t make it unless we get them to the healers, and they needed them a fucking hour ago!”
“Are they still alive, Tezya?” Kallon’s voice was soft, gentle, but I didn’t miss what she was insinuating. She thought Tezya was delusional, trying desperately to save something that was too late. Maybe it was…
“Barely.” His voice cracked. “Please… the more time we waste here, the less of a chance they have. ”
“Okay,” Dovelyn said, and I could have hugged her. “I’ll fly you back to them.”
He turned toward Kallon. It wouldn’t matter if Dove flew Sie and Scottie back. They needed the healers in Tennebris…
“Kallon,” Tezya’s voice broke and sobs wrecked him. “Please help me. I can’t… I can’t lose her… Please.”
“Do it,” I pleaded along with the prince. “Sie’s the only family I have left…”
I didn’t care how close to death he was, if there was any chance of my brother surviving, they had to do it. The Fire Prince’s silver eyes slid to me. It was so quick, I couldn’t read the expression on his face.
“Please,” Tezya choked. “Please, Kal. They’re dying.”
“Raeya…” Kallon murmured, and I knew she was hesitating. I entered her mind, erasing the hundreds of soldiers from view. But in reality, even with the King dead, we were still fucked. The soldiers didn’t stop fighting, but she didn’t need to know that. I used my illusion to make it look like they were backing off, like news of the King’s death was spreading.
“I’ll be fine,” Raeya said, squaring her shoulders. “Rainer is with me.”
The curly-haired Luxian stepped forward, and I hadn’t realized how similar he looked to Raeya until he put his arm around her shoulder. They had the same dark skin, the same smile and mannerisms. “I won’t let anything happen to her, Kal.”
“Okay.” She was still hesitant, but she stepped up to Raeya and grabbed her face in her hands. “Stay with Rainer, I’ll be right back.” Then she bent down and kissed her.
Someone projected a command across the courtyard ordering—no compelling—the humans to start using their weapons against themselves. The voice made my skin crawl .
I wished energy weaponry worked in reverse. That a Tennebrisian could vanish a weapon instead of create one because one by one the humans started slitting their own throats. Some turned their swords around and plunged it into their stomachs. The ones that were lucky enough to lose their weapons started searching through the dead bodies, looking for a fallen blade.
“We have to take out Athler,” the eldest prince said. Tezya, Dovelyn and Kallon weren’t even gone two minutes and all hell was breaking loose.
The Luxian soldiers, not having to split their time between the humans anymore, focused solely on us. I just barely took out the Luxian who charged Lilia and almost killed her. We were getting overwhelmed.
She had sweat pouring down her forehead, her pale blonde hair was sticking to her cheek. I could feel blood running down my own. I lost my eye patch at some point during the fight, and my stitches ripped open—it hurt like hell.
“The serum I made, there’s two parts to it. One’s a drink. It gives the person compulsion. The other’s a vapor,” Arcane said as we watched more and more humans kill themselves. “Whoever takes the serum can control anyone exposed to the vapor. The only way to stop this is to stop him. Athler and my father were the only ones who had access to my research.”
“How do you propose we do that?” the mortal with purple hair asked as she swiped her dagger across a Luxian’s stomach.
“I never create anything without first making an antidote,” Arcane said as an arrow slammed into a shield he erected. “I made a reversal for the mass compulsion in case this ever happened.”
“Your lab was destroyed,” Rainer called as he punched a Luxian in the gut, sending tendrils of lightning scattering around him. I felt heat at my back and knew someone else was using fire .
“What I need isn’t in my lab. It’s in my room.”
“And how are you going to get close to him?” Rainer challenged, fighting back to back with Raeya.
“His powers can’t get through my shields.”
“So you get the serum close to him and the compulsion the humans are under will go away?” the mortal questioned.
“Essentially, yes. I’ll leave my siblings to figure out what to do with Athler when they get back, but we need to stop the compulsion or all the humans are going to be dead.”
If they get back… If Scotlind dies, the Fire Prince won’t be functional anytime soon. Honestly, maybe never again.
I pushed thoughts of my brother out of my mind because if something happened to him, I didn’t think I’d be either. I couldn’t think about it, couldn’t imagine losing him too.
“I’ll go with you,” the mortal girl said, and it was still shocking as hell that she was human. I couldn’t believe it with how well she fought, how she wasn’t scared of anything.
I didn’t want Arcane to leave. Maybe this made me a selfish dick, but I didn’t care about the humans. I only cared about one girl, and without the eldest prince’s shields, it was going to get harder to protect her.
There were times when I couldn’t, where my fucking lack of an eye left me blind on that side, and I didn’t see a soldier charge Lilia. If it wasn’t for Arcane’s shields… I didn’t want to think about it.
The guy wasn’t a great offensive fighter, but defensively he was phenomenal. He seemed to pay attention to everything and everyone around him. Whenever my sight of vision lacked, one of his shields would be there, but now he was leaving the battlefield.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were spreading ourselves too thin, and that maybe it was exactly what this guy Athler wanted.