53. Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Two
Archer
“So you lost the fire demon and angered Vithenna to the point that she destroyed the barrier?” Father practically roared.
Seated at his side in the war room, Briar looked concerned.
Originally, I’d assumed it was because she worried for her own life and comfort, but the looks she kept casting between Father and myself had me wondering if maybe, deep down, she was remembering our childhood together.
Once, we’d been closer. Before Mother had died, Briar hadn’t been so self-absorbed, consuming her time with lovers that fed her ego and every luxury to enhance her beauty.
Did she feel bad about how hard Father was on me?
Was she maybe worried for Rainsong—for more than just herself?
“The phoenix shifted into her demon form and escaped,” I ground out. “And Vithenna has chosen to punish Emberglade with the undead army because we are usurpers. The land hasn’t accepted us, and the gods haven’t either.”
Father’s orange eyes narrowed.
“Father,” Briar cut in, “we don’t have time to toss around blame. We need to prepare for battle.”
“A battle it sounds like we can’t win.” Father frowned. “The goddess has made up her mind. How does one fight a deity?”
I considered my curse, the blood bond, and my prophecy.
All the ways the gods had already meddled in my life despite having supposedly left the earth behind in favor of their immortal plane.
“Vithenna said if I kill Isoria, she’ll call off her army and release the revenant souls on to the afterlife. I have to find her.”
Standing on either side of me, I could feel Lily and Owen tense.
They’d tried to argue with me in Vithenna's temple once Isoria had escaped, but there hadn’t been time to waste.
We’d rejoined the waiting guards, mounted our houses, and rode hard through the night to circle around the revenant army’s path and reach Rainsong before them.
It didn’t make sense. Had Vithenna stolen memories of Lily and Owen growing sympathetic toward fire demons?
Had Isoria manipulated their emotions too?
“That could take days if she flew off in Phoenix form. Help prepare the city for the attack,” Father said. He hesitated. “And then…if you can get away, start the search. It could be our only hope.”
The sheer number of revenants taking shape on the northern horizon was both unnerving and infuriating. How many had Emberglade lost? How many more would we lose before the battle’s end?
And what if it never ends? came a darker thought, one I refused to fully entertain. I’d hunt the demon down and find her. I would put an end to this horror.
I glanced at the moon glowing over the city, bathing everything in silver light.
A full day had passed with scarce little time to rest and refuel before Lily, Owen, Cliff, and I had been out with the soldiers and border guards, preparing our weapons and forming our ranks.
The revenants had waited. While our Emberglade magic was strongest at night, so was the revenants’ powers.
Now, watching the revenants march toward us, I turned to my friends. “Maybe we should be spread out—we have more experience fighting the revenants than anyone here,” I suggested. “We could help at different points of the invasion.”
“No, we fight this battle the same way we fought the other ones,” Lily declared. “Besides, it’s better we’re at the front so we can defend those behind us and keep the revenants from pressing into the heart of the city.”
Cliff, reunited with his four jaguars and Clay, who was prepared to help the great cats in battle, nodded. “We’re stronger together, Your Highness. Maybe we can hold them back so they don’t overrun the city.”
Owen’s expression was grim but determined. “If this is to be the end, there is no one else I want to face it with.”
I looked around, noticing Grey nearby with some of his fiercest guards. He locked eyes with me, dipping his chin in acknowledgment. “We follow you to the end, Your Highness.”
Chills erupted along my skin. They weren’t looking to my father and his orders—he had opted to stay further back in the city, anyway. They were looking to me.
It was up to me to save them.
I turned as the approaching rows of revenants began to spread further and further, so much so that I feared their numbers had grown.
What if they’d pressed into the jungle on either side of Rainsong and were surrounding us?
I glanced at Owen, whose tense expression revealed he was likely wondering the same.
“More must have joined those we passed on our ride back,” Owen said. “There must be thousands.”
All around us, soldiers muttered and exchanged worried glances. Their growing fear was palpable, awakening the curse inside me as their emotions empowered Mortius. I could feel the chasm in my chest crack open, threatening to drag me into an endless void.
“Stand your ground!” General Starblood shouted, walking down the line of soldiers and brandishing his sword. “Fear is your enemy. This army can be defeated, just like any other!”
He lifted his blade into the air, and others began to follow suit, rallying their courage. “Fight for your loved ones! Your kingdom! For life!”
“For life!” they chanted, the united voices so loud the sound reverberated in my chest.
Drawing a deep breath, I joined their shouts until the air was filled with cries so loud, it momentarily drowned out my doubt and fear and left me with a warm burst of hope and energy. But my curse wasn’t gone, quickly chasing it with renewed misery and anxiety.
For death, I thought wryly.
All too soon, the revenants were upon us.
Their shadows arrived first, slamming into everyone around me like a stormy wave over a beach, trapping them in agony.
Lily was ready, summoning flashes of light that pushed back the writhing darkness, drawing Owen from its grasp so he could wield his water and answer the revenant attack with a wave of his own.
I plunged into the fray, slicing at the shadows with my blade.
Their cold crept through me, chased by pain that lanced into my bones.
Shrieks of fear and misery sliced the air as nearby soldiers tried and failed to stop the press of darkness from advancing.
I paused near a male trying to summon his magic as beads of sweat lined his brow.
He’d already lost his sword, perhaps from the shadows coalescing into finger-like shapes or maybe from dropping it in surprise when the pain had first wracked his body.
“Take this,” I told him, drawing the spare knife I had sheathed at my belt and pressing the hilt into one of his shaking hands. “And find a better weapon as soon as you can. The shadows are like living things. You can cut them!”
I continued toward the next fae, spreading the information and trying to boost morale so they’d fight back.
I kept going until the next figure I charged toward wasn’t alive, but something from a nightmare.
A revenant that appeared to have died a gruesome death or had been gone longer than the others.
Somehow, the poor body had risen anyway.
The flesh still clinging to its bones was decaying and grey.
It turned to me, baring its teeth and revealing an empty eye socket on one side.
My stomach flipped in revulsion.
Despite its appearance, it was as swift and agile as the others, moving past me toward a soldier behind me—Lily.
Water rippled through the air, dark and poisonous, the revenant mimicry of Owen’s magic, but not toward me.
Toward Lily. She lifted her hands to summon her own magic as Owen came to her side, forcing the water away.
The revenant snarled, shadows forming around it.
With a roar, I swung my blade and removed the revenant’s head from its neck.
In a blink, we were surrounded by more undead, all clamoring toward my friends and fellow soldiers. Lily kept working to banish the shadows, but more and more soldiers were falling. Dying.
Slowly, my immunity around the revenants began wearing away.
More began noticing me, directly charging me or sending shadows my way.
I kept fighting, kept influencing them to turn on each other rather than on my fellow soldiers.
But it couldn’t stop the influx of destruction and death.
More and more blood soaked the ground. More and more bodies littered the battlefield.
I could sense the despair cloaking our army, so heavy it was like a tangible cloud mingling with the revenant shadows.
Soldiers I’d been fighting alongside were now attacking me, the gory wounds that had claimed their lives betraying their new status as revenants. My throat tightened each time I saw one. As our numbers fell, theirs only continued to grow.
Even worse, we were losing ground, being forced further and further into the city. Darkness cloaked our buildings. Citizens cowered behind their closed doors, but we couldn’t keep all of the revenants from storming inside homes, taking anything and anyone they and their magic could devour.
Exhaustion consumed me as I assessed our dwindling numbers, all while the revenants continued to increase.
We’re losing.
I swallowed thickly, Vithenna’s words taunting me. Guilt was a wretched, jagged sword deep in my soul. If I didn’t manage to hunt down Isoria, and soon, I would never stop the tide of undead claiming my kingdom.