Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Shadow Court
Daire
“Is every member of the featherglass safely on their way through the portal?” I jump onto Aurelius’ desk in his study, delighting in booting his papers flying like leaves in a storm.
After all, if my plot succeeds today, then Aurelius will never need to work on them again.
I reach forward and grab one of Maximinus’ guards, who have fought us all the way from the dungeons, before smashing his forehead against the corner of the desk with a resounding crack.
Once, then again.
His blood spills over the remaining papers in a crimson pool.
Brilliant.
The guard crumples to the floor.
I dance on top of the desk. I am on a high, twirling with my wings out.
All around me is chaos and death.
This is the world of the Unseelie, the dragon’s order finally overturned.
Joy thrills through me.
When Elatha spins next to the desk, however, she isn’t dancing. Her eagle wings are like blades. A guard screams as she slashes the edge of her wing across his throat, slitting it open.
“Those who have survived. Those who have fallen, may their souls fly with the Shadow Gods.” Elatha wipes a tear of blood off her cheek.
Then she carves a tight arc with her sword, before stepping inside a dragon’s reach and driving her sword through his chest. When he buckles, blood dribbling from his mouth, she rests her foot against his crotch to wrench her sword free.
Our gazes meet.
“We’ve done it.” This feels like a dream, a blood-drenched one but still, a dream.
“Not yet. Don’t get cocky, Thorn.” Elatha points her sword at me.
Finally understanding how deadly a fae truly is, two guards rush Elatha at once.
Everything around me beyond Elatha is a blur, but I can hear and smell the blood, battle, and death.
Elatha presses back against the desk, before burying her sword into the first dragon’s stomach.
Then she rakes her claws against the second one’s face.
When he stumbles against her with his hands across his mauled face, she whacks the weight of her wings against his shoulders, driving him to his knees.
Then she drags her sword out of his companion’s belly and stabs it into the back of the second guard’s neck.
I have missed fighting with the ferocious constable in my army. We have battled for years by each other’s sides, and Elatha has been forged from desperation into a dirty fighter.
Like me. And Lanlin.
I unsheathe my bronze daggers.
Lanlin leaps elegantly to stand next to me, balancing on the surface of the desk.
We share a fierce grin.
I have always wanted one of my mates to fight with me like this, on the same side, rather than as enemies.
I wished that they would respect my skills.
I was tricked once that Lanlin respected mine, but he had only been testing me.
It feels different this time.
Is it too dangerous to hope?
Moths circle Lanlin like pale fog. He is using it as a battle tactic to hide in, until he attacks.
He’d be impressive at guerrilla warfare. He’ll fit in well with my army.
Lanlin bursts out of his moth fog to wrap his shackles around the throat of a passing guard. He drags the dragon backwards.
The guard chokes, terrified. He scrambles at the chain.
Courteously, as if we’re at a ball, Lanlin inclines his head at me. “My dear, would you like to do the honors?”
“Careful, Sin. You’ll have me confusing murder with foreplay.” I grin as I stab my daggers into both sides of the guard’s throat.
The dragon howls, when I wrench my daggers out again.
He flails, as blood spurts in a scarlet fountain.
I straighten. “Pretty.”
Lanlin’s eyes are glowing and wild. He licks a droplet of blood off his lips.
I am surprised by the jealousy that stabs through me.
He should only enjoy my blood.
I feed him.
Lanlin drops the guard and pounces on another one, ripping out his throat.
It is frightening to fight without all my senses, but Lanlin has kept me close to him, guiding me.
I didn’t realize in Sheut just how much Lanlin’s support meant to me, when I had been totally blind.
He gives me what I need without me having to say a word.
“Little Bug,” I call. “Stay by Ela.”
My stomach swirls with anxiety that I can’t tell what is happening to Bai.
During battles in the Unseelie Kingdom, I trained Bai to serve as my personal attendant. I kept him at my side and as safe as I could.
There was no way to keep any of the children away from danger or the dragons’ attacks.
Shadow Dragons will kill any fae, young or old.
Teaching Bai how to fight was the best way to protect him. Yet he would either shadow me during battles or sometimes, Elatha.
I have never been so relieved that he was working as Elatha’s personal attendant on the night that my army was ambushed and I was captured in Rune Forest.
“Can you see a little ladybug fae? How is he doing?” I ask Lanlin, trying to sound casual. Then I listen hard. “Huh, he may be singing.”
Lanlin tilts his head. “Is he important to you?”
I hesitate. “I raised him.”
“Then he is family to me as well, dearheart. I look forward to meeting the new member of my pack. I give my oath that I shall protect and cherish him as I do you.”
Joy swells in my heart. “Thanks, Bat.”
“I can tell that you have been teaching him your ways. Amidst the brutal fighting, the child is singing, fluttering around the room, and slashing the dragons in the guts with his dagger.”
I glow with pride. “He does take after me.”
“I believe that this new pack is going to be trouble.”
“How did you think that it wouldn’t be with me in it?”
When I hear the sound of heavy footfalls outside in the corridor, I stiffen.
More guards must be streaming through into the study from the corridor, despite our attempts to barricade the room, but only the four of us remain to hold them back from the North Tower.
Can we take them all, and clear out these bastards before Freya returns with Aurelius?
Wren won’t be able to keep the portal open for much longer.
It takes immense amounts of magical energy for him to create a portal between kingdoms, even amplified by the dark magic in the North Tower.
Only a mage as skilled as Wren could attempt it. He’s my true secret weapon.
Yet I know him well enough to know what he wasn’t telling me, when I visited him in the barracks — creating this portal could kill him.
Even attempting this shouldn’t be possible. I downplayed Wren’s magical strength to Freya.
Even the Druids didn’t understand where Wren gained his level of magic. They treated him as harshly as they did, I have come to think, because the arseholes feared him.
What he was.
And that they wouldn’t be able to control him as he became older.
Isn’t that why both Aurelius and Lanlin have been mistreated?
Because of their power? Because people have wanted to control them?
“Are you ready to take out these bastards?” I mutter to Lanlin, as the room crowds with new dragons, trampling over the corpses. “We must protect Bai and have each other’s back, aye?”
Lanlin’s unflinching gaze meets mine. “Forever, my dear.”
My chest warms.
I haven’t fought this closely with anyone since my Frost Clan with Ciara.
Can I truly have that again?
My smile becomes cold. “Then let’s bloody rebel.”
I turn together with Lanlin to face the advancing guards, before we launch ourselves off the desk at them in a whirlwind of sharp bronze, feathers, fangs, and claws.
I howl in rage and exultation.
I lose myself in the fight but never lose Lanlin at my back.
To my surprise, however, the sound of the battle, the clank of swords and cries of pain, increases outside in the corridor.
By the Shadow Devils, who has joined the fight?
“Iggy!” I hear Bai call, excitedly. “You’re here.”
“I’m sorry that we’re late,” Ignatius replies. “I have brought the other cadets. Good job, Bai.”
I arch my brow. Then I sheathe my daggers.
I grab Lanlin’s hand, dragging him back to the desk. Then I lean against it casually, listening as Ignatius and his cadets slaughter the remaining guards with an ease that impresses me.
Maybe Bai is right to hero worship Ignatius.
He’s come through for me.
I doubted that Freya was right to trust that he would plot against his own cousin and kingdom.
Aurelius doesn’t know how close my friendship has grown with Ignatius, however, after our time together in the academy.
Ignatius helped to save my life after the brutal whipping that I suffered. The time that Freya and I spent together with Ignatius in those weeks bonded us.
I have been whispering in his ear ever since.
I knew that he would become a pivotal player for me.
Aurelius doesn’t understand that Ignatius has grown close to the featherglass, including Bai, railing against the unfairness of the fae being held as prisoners.
Bullies, when confronted with true tyranny, are often converts to justice.
Luckily, Ignatius has been converted to the cause of the featherglass.
Plus, Aurelius still finds it hard to read people because he barely understands his own emotions.
He has no idea how strong Ignatius’ ambition is. I clocked it, however, the moment that I met the poor, upstart fae.
I have promised that Ignatius won’t become a secretary in my kingdom, but rather, a noble at my court with his own private army in the cadets.
Aurelius has forgotten that I truly am a king in my own right.
He’ll regret that.
When Ignatius’ own Omega was charged with treason, when he was entangled in treason himself, I’d struggled not to laugh.
Didn’t Aurelius wonder why Ignatius had been so bloody forgiving? It’s not like Ignatius is a soft Alpha.
“Over here, Iggy.” I wave at him. “You too, Bai.”
I peer as Ignatius slowly appears through the blur of shadows around me, panting as he climbs over the piles of bodies, holding his bloody sword.
He glances at Lanlin nervously, before smiling at me. “Sorry I’m late. War has taken to the air with her dragon rider. She’s patrolling the city. We had to keep to the shadows to avoid her.”
I pat his shoulder. “You’re here now.” I sniff, scenting the Omega who is hanging back behind him. I jerk my thumb at Aquila. “You’ve forgiven him then?”