Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
WOLFE
Istood at the edge of the battlefield beside Pyrion, looking across the battlefield.
We'd come too close. We'd come to losing everything.
But we survived.
The endless tide of demons and winged-beasts had ceased when the necromancer got taken. Their bodies had either dissolved into ash or mist.
All that was left behind now were the scars of war.
Everywhere I looked, warriors moved amongst the fallen, tending to the wounded and carrying the dead with the reverence they deserved.
There had been losses. With war, there always would be but today I thanked the gods Garrick wasn’t among them.
He was wounded badly, but we got to him on time to give him the proper treatment.
Alaric and Kaem had taken him back to Vyrenth Hollow to recuperate.
The air no longer reeked of corruption. The oppressive tension that had hung over Kazavania had lifted with the Deathless.
The world was quiet again.
Footsteps approached from behind. "You look like a king who finally remembers how to breathe."
A smile found its way onto my face before I even turned. "Viktor."
The vampire lord joined me, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield.
"You came," I said looking him over. His men hung back in the distance with their horses.
Viktor shrugged as though coming here had been the most obvious decision in the world. "It wouldn't have been in my nature to sit back and do nothing." A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Besides...You rather looked like you needed me."
I smiled briefly. "Yes." I followed his gaze to the wounded who’d been given a chance to survive. "We all did."
For a few moments neither of us spoke. We simply watched the wounded being tended to while dragons landed amongst the survivors.
"I hope this hasn't caused contention with your king," I said eventually.
Viktor smirked. "Don't concern yourself with him." He folded his arms. "Something rather... useful fell into my lap recently. Something His Majesty never cared for. So I called in a favour."
Translation- he blackmailed him. I wondered what the hells he could have found to make the vampire king agree to him joining forces with the Fae.
"I owe you my deepest gratitude."
"You do, Young Nightblade." There wasn't an ounce of arrogance in the words. Then his expression softened. "I suspect this may be where our paths part."
The thought saddened me more than I expected. "Then it's been a privilege knowing you."
Viktor inclined his head before his attention shifted past me toward Elariya. She'd just finished speaking with Arielle and Bastian and was making her way over.
“My queen,” Viktor said with a dip of his head.
“Thank you for coming.”
“My pleasure. I trust your idea worked."
She smiled. "It did. Were you in my head in the hall of mirrors? Did you nudge me?”
Viktor regarded her for a long moment before the faintest smile touched his lips. "I did nudge you, but the idea was all yours. So please give yourself the credit you know you deserve.”
She smiled on hearing that. “Thank you. For everything.”
Viktor bowed again, then glanced toward the gathering Fae kings who were looking toward us with curiosity.
It occurred to me that I might be the only Fae king to forge a genuine alliance with a vampire house. Agreeing to co-exist like they had for centuries was not the same as being brothers in arms during war. Perhaps I really was beginning to change things.
"I should leave before they start believing vampires and Fae have become friends."
I laughed. “Haven’t we?”
"I believe there are some exceptions and you are one of them King Nightblade."
King Nightblade.
That was the first anybody had ever called me that.
Viktor extended his hand and I took it without hesitation. "Take care."
"And you, Young Nightblade."
He stepped back, raised two fingers to his temple in a casual salute, and with a single command to his riders, the House of Thagar disappeared before our eyes.
I turned back to Elariya.
She’d told me what happened between her and Thayden. Her courage had left me reeling.
I could honestly say, I couldn’t have done this without her.
“My queen.”
“Yes, my King.”
“I was right.” I smiled.
“About what.”
“You were the thief.” She knew exactly what I was talking about. When we first met, I thought she’d stolen the ring. But she took so much more than that.
“What did I steal now?”
“Me. All of me. My heart, mind, body, and soul. You took every piece of me. But I want you to keep them.”
Her face brightened and she leaned in to kiss me. “Thank you. I will guard them with every piece of me.”
I pulled her close and pressed my forehead to hers. “Let’s go home Ziyka. Let’s go home.”