THE TIDE CHANGES QUICKLY
WREN
Ishould’ve known that things were going too well. I should’ve known that between learning how to wield my magic, falling in love with Gabriel, and my sisters coming back, too many good things were happening at once.
I should’ve been on the lookout, knowing that something bad might happen.
But even if I had been paying attention, even if I had assumed all the good things in my life would soon end, I don’t think I would’ve been prepared.
Not for this.
King Andreas Bloodthorn looks as evil as ever, and he’s standing next to a blond man I instantly know is the crown prince.
He’s tall, like Gabriel, but that’s where the similarities between the half brothers end.
The king and his son are made of hard, cruel edges.
Even if I didn’t know that the king is responsible for Gabriel’s scars, I’d hate him for the way he looks at the world as if he owns it.
There isn’t much time for reflection, though. Not here in the middle of a battlefield. And that’s what this forest, with all its thick brown trunks, glistening green leaves, and lush springtime foliage, has become.
It’s so incredibly loud that all the noises mingle together into one cacophonous clamor.
Or maybe it’s just me. There is a roaring in my ears that echoes the hammering of my heart, and panic has been crashing through my veins since I first laid eyes on the king.
When Gabriel ordered me to stay by his side, I would’ve laughed if panic hadn’t been coursing so swiftly through my veins. As if I’d do anything else. I want to fight and use my magic for good, but I’m not fucking stupid.
Gabriel and Theon are standing on either side of me, their swords drawn and bloodied. Ten minutes have passed since we first arrived here, or maybe twenty? Time is a blur.
Mist is on Gabriel’s other side, and together, we’ve all joined in defending the barrier. Them with their weapons, and me with my magic.
The gap is wide enough that the king’s soldiers keep funneling through it, but the barrier remains in place. Soren and Jasper are here, along with other Marked Ones, but no one can get close enough to the net to repair it.
Myreth’s army has forced the rebels into a defensive position, and it’s hard to feel like this is anything but a losing battle.
Sweat beads on my brow as I reach into my well, drawing up magic and lobbing it at the king’s soldiers. For every one who falls, two more seem to take their place.
How are there so many soldiers? More so, how did they find us?
Questions for another time when the entire community isn’t at risk. We must hold the soldiers back and give the others a chance to flee. I know there’s an escape route from the camp—Skyler told me about it—but it’s not frequently used, and it will take time to get everyone to safety.
For a while, the rebels stand strong. Alaric arrives with more reinforcements. The fighting continues.
There is just so much going on. The raven has disappeared, but every so often, I think I catch sight of it in the sky high above me.
My heart thunders as I pull up more magic. More, more, more.
“Duck, Wren!” Gabriel’s shout grabs my attention, and I obey, moments before a sword slices through the air where my head had been.
My Hunter cuts my would-be killer down, then his hand finds my arm, drawing me to his side.
“Pay attention,” Gabriel grits out, worry flashing through his eyes. “I can’t lose you.”
I nod. “Sorry.”
He’s right; I need to focus.
There’s no more time to chat as the battle pulls us back into its fray.
There are injuries but not as many as I might’ve expected, which seems like a good thing. At the very least, it isn’t bad.
I listen to Gabriel, follow his directions, and while the soldiers keep coming, they don’t advance. My well is brimming with magic, and my Mark is warm. Gabriel is the picture of power beside me as he wields his sword with a strength I can only dream of one day possessing.
For a time, it seems as though we might be able to push the king’s soldiers back long enough to patch the net.
But then things shift. The tide changes quickly between one breath and the next.
Gabriel is fighting with a soldier, the clashing of their swords lingering in the air, and I happen to glance up as I gather more magic in my palm. My brows furrow as I look past the broken net, past the soldiers, to the place where the prince and king were standing.
Only, the king is gone. He’s vanished, but I know I saw him. The crown prince is on his own, holding a sphere of scarlet magic and looking utterly undisturbed by the scene unfolding around him as if this situation were an everyday occurrence.
And then he tilts his head and looks directly at me. Our eyes meet, and the flame I’m holding sputters, then dies.
Crown Prince Severus’s lips curl into a wolfish smile—cold and dark, it’s like looking evil in the eyes.
A glimmer of scarlet shines in his eyes, and his stare is everything wrong with this world, everything that Gabriel is not.
It’s darkness and violence and a threat of something so terrible I can’t put a name to it.
A raven’s caw comes from above me, and the new bond in my chest writhes. Concern that doesn’t belong to me but is a mirror to my own floods through me. Something is wrong.
I know it like I knew the girls would be in trouble at the Winter’s Eve Ball, like I know my own name. I am desperate to escape the prince’s awful gaze, and yet for the longest moment I cannot.
I’ve never felt more like prey than I do now. As if one wrong move, one wrong breath, will allow this predator who shares blood with the man I love to destroy me.
My entrapment feels like it lasts for an eternity, but in reality it only goes on for a few seconds. But by the time I break the prince’s gaze and look away, it’s too late. My knees knock together, and my center of balance shifts.
Only, it’s not just in my head.
It takes a moment for me to realize that the ground itself is quaking. The trees are shuddering, and leaves are quivering. Everything is moving. Trembling.
Breaking.
Shouts come from all around me. Gabriel calls my name. Someone roars. All I can do is stare at the net, that shimmering barrier, as everything shakes.
Another heartbeat, another breath, and the world shatters.
There’s an explosion beside me. Behind me. All around me.
Everything goes red, then white, then dark.
There’s a ringing in my ears, and it’s so loud I can barely hear myself think. It is shrill. Deafening. All-consuming.
Seconds pass. They are both endless and over in the blink of an eye, eternal and barely-there. And when my vision clears and refocuses, nothing is as it was.
The rebels are moving. Running. Fighting. Swords clash and mouths move, and they should be producing sound, but I can’t hear them.
I can’t hear anything.
The part of me that spent years taking care of injured animals knows that I’ve been wounded, but I can’t think about that.
A hand clamps down on my arm, and I scream before I realize it’s Gabriel’s.
He’s looking at me, panic in his eyes that I somehow feel inside myself, as he yells.
A command? A request to leave? To fight?
I don’t know.
I point to my ears and shake my head. “I can’t hear you,” I shout. The words don’t reach my ears, but his eyes widen, so maybe he understands?
There’s no time to wonder. A soldier charges towards us, brandishing a bloodied sword. Gabriel releases my arm and raises his weapon, meeting the attack head-on. Their weapons clash, and the resounding silence is as loud as a clap of thunder.
Gabriel looks over his shoulder and shoves me back, bellowing a command. Even though I can’t hear anything, I know he told me to run.
And maybe it’s the panic coursing through my veins, or maybe it’s because there is nothing but deafening silence in my ears, but I stagger back. I move away from the worst of the battle and try to pay attention to my surroundings.
A distracted warrior is a dead warrior, Birdie.
Gabriel’s voice echoes in my mind, the lesson one of the first he taught me when I was learning how to defend myself. Those weeks in the woods when it was just the two of us seem so long ago.
He was right, though. Distractions do kill.
Taking a deep breath, I force myself to pay attention and assess the situation. I can’t let panic overwhelm or distract me. I must stand my ground so I’m not a burden to Gabriel or anyone else.
Turning slowly, I assess the battlefield in a way that I’m sure would make Gabriel proud. The fight is unfurling around me, and there is so much blood and death that my chest aches. Whatever advantages the rebels might’ve had, whatever ground they’d held earlier, is gone.
The battle is even worse in the quiet.
Protectors and Enforcers rush towards us, endless waves crashing against a helpless shore. The net is torn and in shambles. There are more gaps—so fucking many of them. The blast, whatever it was, ripped the barrier apart. I know in the depth of my being that what I told Gabriel earlier is true.
Like the previous attack at the mountain, this is my fault.
There is a tightness in my chest that makes it hard to draw breath as I stumble through the battle. A flicker of steel catches my attention, followed by a warning pulse in my chest.
Without thinking, I yank magic from my well and throw it at the oncoming soldier. They fall to the ground, a gaping hole in their chest.
There is no calm to be found in the fact that I defended myself. No peace. There is just so much blood.
I stumble away, but everywhere I look, there is more death. The battle is in front of me and beside me and gods-damned behind me.
This is my fault.
More soldiers. More magic.
More loss of life.
Eventually, the ringing in my ears dims. Sound filters back to me slowly, and it is horrendous. The serenity of the forest is gone as if it never existed.
Death is the only thing that reigns here.
The quiet emptiness was better than this. Anything would be.