Chapter 63
Elodie
We donned our extra weapons and raced out to the battlefield, dodging the chaos in every part of the castle as we went.
An alarm had gone off mere seconds after we spoke to Leigh and Gael, and now everyone was scrambling for weapons, including some of the heavy artillery we’d held back the first day.
I made a mental note to address it first thing tomorrow, when everyone was fresh. In wartime, there was no break. Not really. There was fighting and readiness. Anything else was not acceptable.
Perhaps I could work with some of the Alphas on the systems we’d used as maidens to stay prepared? It was something to discuss with Valens later, at least.
My wolf noticed the pixies before I did. They were small—about the height of a man’s forearm—when in their flying forms, and highly magical creatures. They were a blur of sparkly colors, and if you didn’t know better, it would be easy to write them off as too cute to be dangerous.
When they were all together, they basically looked like a glittery rainbow cloud. Something that would make a kid Bence’s age ooh and aah with wonder.
But in reality? They had viciously sharp teeth and claws, and their glitter fucking burned anywhere it touched bare skin. It wasn’t quite acidic enough to cause permanent damage in small quantities, but it was damn uncomfortable, and the more of it you got on you, the more damage it did.
There weren’t too many defenders on the field ahead of us to face the ODL enforcers that had returned with the pixie horde. So when we raced down the hill, there was a whole wide field of enemies to choose from.
“Left or right?” I shouted as we ran, noticing both flanks were trying to collapse in on our first line of defense, surround them, and decimate them before backup could arrive.
But defenders were streaming steadily out of the castle now, and I knew Valens and I could hold the line until more arrived.
“Go right. They’re in trouble,” he called back, veering that way as he drew his sword to help our early responders.
I followed, whipping out my staff and immediately twisting the shaft to separate it into two short swords. Pixies were small and fast, not large and lumbering. Flexibility was my best option given how many of them there were.
Especially as they swarmed in a cloud around eye level, swooping up then diving down from overhead to attack. The extra reach of a staff wouldn’t do me much good.
I spotted a wolf in trouble—absolutely crawling with pixies, and a vampire ganging up on him—and executed a running slide to his left before launching myself into an aerial flip.
It was a little awkward with two short swords instead of the butterfly sword I’d practiced the move with.
But the effect? It was devastating. When I landed, it was with the wet squelch of dead pixies under my feet.
I noticed twinkling silver anklets on all of them, and grief tried to choke me.
Did these pixies even want to fight? I scanned the uniformed vampire as I took him on, leaving the less harried wolf I’d come to rescue to keep leaping and dragging pixies out of the air.
There was no silver on the vamp that I could see, and after I beheaded the fucker, I quickly patted his corpse down, searching the pockets of his ODL uniform.
No mind-control device that I could find, which meant he was here on orders from a higher up, not because of mind control.
Unfortunately for the pixies, it didn’t matter who was or wasn’t under a device’s control. As long as they were attacking, we had to defend ourselves, or they’d kill us. Although, if we could capture a few, Valens could try again to free them.
If we ever got a long enough break in the attacks to try again.
As much as I hated to fight an unwilling enemy, within minutes of joining the battle, every exposed inch of my skin stung from their glitter, and my eyes and nose were running from so much of it hanging in the air. The only benefit was that the enforcers weren’t faring much better.
I wouldn’t consider them easy to fight, because they were well trained and still had superior numbers. But they were making mistakes because of the discomfort, and that created opportunities to take them down.
I did, without hesitation. Enemy after enemy fell beneath my blades, until they began to blur together.
Someone had removed the injured from the field since last night, and someone had also dealt with the bodies. I didn’t know who, but as I leapt and rolled and dove and sang my battle songs as I wove through the field, I appreciated them.
Other maidens’ voices began to twine with mine as I stuck close by Valens, leaping and dodging together through the field to protect the pack in any way we could.
There was also the boom of large-caliber weaponry firing from behind us, and the occasional satisfying impact as the line of defenders on the castle walls took aim at large clusters of our enemies.
Some hits were more effective than others, and it was clear they had magic wielders shielding some of their forces.
We still lost people.
I tried not to let myself check each face to see if I knew them.
I didn’t feel pain in the pack bond, not that I was experienced in sussing that out since our connection was still so fresh.
I could feel Valens in my chest, the bond between us bright and strong despite us not having bonding bites yet, and that drowned out pretty much everything else.
It was intense, getting flashes of his feelings in this battle, unlike the last one. I did my best to block them out, focus on the next enemy.
There were so many. The last battle, we’d been prepared, but this sea of attackers felt endless and on the verge of overwhelming.
We’d held the flank as we set out to do, and now the field was full to bursting with people from both sides.
But… we weren’t pushing them back as we’d done so steadily last night.
It wasn’t until Valens’s own pain sliced through the middle of my chest with the vicious burn of a razor blade that I froze, nearly made a deadly mistake with the enemy I fought.
Gritting my teeth through the agony, I lopped off the lesser fae’s head and spun wide, desperately searching for my mate.
I found him a dozen feet away, on his knees with his head bowed. I ran full tilt and skidded to a stop at his side. Somehow, there was a tiny bubble in the middle of the onslaught, with all the nearby enemies engaged with another wolf. Dropping a hand on his shoulder, I finally looked down.
All the blood drained from my face when I realized that his pain wasn’t physical. It was emotional.
Henrik lay dead at my feet, his face a gory rictus of pain, eyes staring blankly at the clouds scudding by overhead.
“I’m so sorry.” I choked out the useless words, at a loss for what else to say.
“He fought bravely.”
“Yes, he did.” I reached down, sliding his eyelids closed as I whispered a passing prayer to the Goddess on his behalf. “May he race through fields of golden sun with those he loves for eternity.”
Valens made a strangled sound, looking up at me with red-rimmed eyes. A new enemy approached, a warlock with both hands raised as he began to weave an offensive spell between them.
“I’m sorry, Brute, but we have to keep fighting,” I called over my shoulder as I charged forward, putting myself between him and the warlock, buying him a scant few extra seconds to grieve.
I dispatched the warlock as quickly as I could, Valens back on his feet and by my side by the time the warlock fell. I didn’t ask if he was okay, because I knew he wasn’t. He was thinking of Bence, crying in the bunker with his dead grandmother’s body.
Thank the Goddess we spoke to Leigh. She’d take care of him until we could get back to comfort him. It was hollow solace in the midst of what would be great grief when the battle ended, but it was all I had.
I fought with renewed fury, slashing through every enemy who dared lift a hand against me. It wasn’t the healthiest of coping mechanisms, but I poured my grief and rage out with every body I felled. But no matter how I fought, no matter how many Valens cut down with the same vigor, more came.
Unlike yesterday, tonight was just treading water as the pixie glitter slowly stung my eyes and burned my skin, I accrued nicks and cuts with greater frequency, and by the time the moon rose and fled across the sky without a break in the constant battle, my exhaustion was beginning to wage war against my muscles.
Valens appeared at my side, sword fighting with a vampire, talking over his shoulder between thrusts. “You need a break.”
“Are you kidding me? Look around, there are no breaks!” I jabbed my staff at a lynx shifter, but he dodged neatly, taking a swipe at the back of my calf that landed. I hissed in pain through my teeth, taking a second stab.
He yowled when my blade sank in, surely nicking a rib at least.
That’s right, fucker.
“Yes, a break! If they don’t retreat again when the sun comes up, we’re going to have to rotate out with fresh fighters. You gave Brielle too much energy last night, so you’re still depleted. You need to leave the field, rest for a few hours.”
The lynx took that moment for a running leap toward my face, fangs and claws extended toward my eyes and throat. I blocked him sloppily at the last second, my reflexes definitely showing the effects of exhaustion.
But I was too stubborn to just quit while others continued to fight and die all around me. Others like Henrik, who couldn’t afford to die. Could any of us, really? We were at a disadvantage because for every mated wolf they killed, two of us died.
So I leaned on my training, falling back on the most basic of moves I could do in my sleep. No fancy flips or rolls or spins. Thrust, parry, leg sweep… They were simple, effective strikes. Valens stuck closer to my side, but didn’t insist I leave the field.