Chapter 23 #2
Swamp zombies poured into the grand hall in an undead wave. From the docks below, they rose in ranks, clawing and fighting their way through people, some armored in remnants of drowned uniforms, others half-melted, but all moving with one will — Amelia’s.
Water and ice and darkness and stars bounced and hit against people and walls and the undead as Amelia tried to make her way toward Eira. The night’s chosen had hidden herself well in the darkness and her allies knew how to protect her.
Chaos ignited, and Amelia turned to give orders to the undead captains.
For one precious moment, the guards at Finley’s side looked away, reacting to the explosions of magic all around them and bursts of flame coming from Alvis.
Finley drove her elbow into one, twisted from the second, and ran.
Her legs screamed in protest — she hadn’t eaten properly in days — but her mind surged ahead.
“What do you need, Captain?” At Finley’s side appeared Bastian. The dwarf who had taken the helm more times than she could count when she needed it most. Relief swept over her. She wasn’t alone in this. The Mystic’s crew was right there with her as they always had been.
“The weapons Amelia has,” Finley answered as she dodged a piece of flying debris. “There’s a sword, a dagger, and a bow and arrow. We need all three, but if we can get even one away from her that will be a help. She cannot have all three. Do you understand?”
Bastian nodded as though this was another simple order on the ship. He remained still through the chaos. His eyes never left hers. “Consider it done, Captain.”
“Good. And protect Princess Eira, Minister Rose, and Princess Myra. We need them.”
”I’ll not let them come to harm.”
They parted ways and Finley bolted through the grand hall, darting between shots of ice and water, and tried to adjust her eyes to the darkness with only bits of stardust to light the path. She didn’t look back.
Where was Rafe?
He wasn’t anywhere to be found in her brief glance at the crowd. She hoped it was just so he could stay away from Rose and before his curse took over.
People screamed and yelled at the sudden attack of the zombies and the power radiating from Amelia.
A woman knelt beside a collapsed guardsman, sobbing.
Finley’s heart hammered as she veered past them.
She could already hear the clash of steel on steel.
The soldiers Cadeyrn trained had mobilized fast, but it wouldn’t be enough.
Not with her new stolen magic and fury that none of them had prepared for.
Finley didn’t know what she would do to get the Shadow Slayers away from Amelia.
She only knew she was already too late. Smoke curled into the sky like dark silk, thick with magic and burning wood. Screams echoed through the mountain city — some human, some not.
Finley climbed through the rubble of a collapsed bench, blood trickling from her temple where debris had clipped her. Her legs were streaked with ash, her hair tangled, her vision swimming. She wasn’t sure when she’d started crying — or if it was just the smoke stinging her eyes.
She’d plumaged and fought and killed, but she wasn’t a soldier.
But deities help her, she was going to fix this.
A massive boom shook the castle walls. Something had torn through one of the towers and Finley’s heart jumped in her throat.
If it was Ai’s tower, she would rip every one of them apart limb from limb with her bare hands.
Magic shimmered like heat haze above the rooftops, distorting what little light Eira hadn’t erased — and then bursting outward in streaks of emerald fire.
She looked up just in time to see Rose, perched atop a crumbled outbuilding, hurling a spear of vines into a cluster of undead.
She was flanked by forest guardians — dryads, ogres, all cloaked in green warpaint — moving like a whisper through the chaos.
Their chants rose, old and primal. Rose glanced down and caught Finley’s eye.
She couldn’t get to Eira yet, but Rose was the next best thing.
Finley punched and clawed her way to the Minister. “She killed Dusan!” Finley yelled over the cacophony of chaos. “She killed him and took his magic, and she has all three Shadow Slayers.”
Rose’s green eyes grew wide as she drove a sword through a zombie and pure fury washed over her face. “Where is she?”
“I think she’s trying to get to Eira,” Finley answered.
A brief look of indecision came over Rose, but she must have decided to trust Finley because she tossed her a sword which Finley caught with ease, and side by side they slashed their way through the melee toward Eira.
Rose was an incredible fighter. She moved with the grace and swiftness of a dancer, and if she wasn’t Eral’s minister, Finley would have tried to convince her to join the crew of The Mystic.
Cadeyrn and Cal fought back-to-back, holding the main line as the swamp zombies surged in waves.
Cal had taken a gash to the leg, but kept swinging, his tattoo glowing red as it tried to give him strength and healing.
Cadeyrn yelled orders at his soldiers between strikes, covered in blood, his fighting leathers taking hits and falling apart.
A scream cut through the battle. One that made Finley pause.
Finley turned and saw Myra. Her friend’s shield arm trembled as she stood over a fallen soldier near a broken colonnade with Alvis at her side.
A wall of flames surrounded them cast by the prince as she tried to bring the soldier’s soul to rest. Tears ran down her soft cheeks.
The castle shook again, and debris hit her shoulder. She buckled but didn’t fall.
There was no clear path to Eira. No safety. No certainty.
Just war.
Finley ducked low and kept moving, dodging between benches and broken flower arrangements. Bodies littered the marble. Some still moved. Most didn’t. Her boots skidded on blood as she turned a corner — and nearly ran straight into one of Amelia’s rotting soldiers with a shattered jaw.
It lunged.
She fell backward, instinct flaring. Her hand clutched the nearest object — a broken spear tip — and drove it upward into the thing’s throat. It hissed. Not in pain. Just recognition. It knew her. All of them did.
Rose outstretched her hand, and Finley grabbed it, scrambling up, and kept running, heart hammering.
The wedding altar was a smoldering ruin.
And at the center of it all, standing like a queen in a realm of nightmares, was Eira.
She was radiant in her fury, her hands glowing with the cold blue light of Luana’s power, cutting through zombies with grace and grief.
Her ebony hair had come loose, wild around her face.
Blood spattered her silver wedding gown.
Her hands blazed with ice, and around her, the dead fell with every step she took.
She wasn’t retreating. She wasn’t hiding.
She was the eye of the storm.
Finley stopped for one breathless moment and watched her — awe and guilt and longing crashing together in her chest.
Then the wind shifted.
And behind Eira, walking through the shattered throne hall, calm as dusk, came Amelia.
Water splashed around her feet and pulled the sword out of its hilt.
With a burst of adrenaline, Finley surged forward, her own borrowed sword drawn.
She might not be able to kill Amelia with a common blade, but she could cause damage. “Eira! Behind you!”
The starlit princess spun to find her stepmother in all her sorceress glory.
Gleaming blue and green scales shimmered in the light of Eira’s stardust, and Alvis’ flames, and the water circling her in magic orbs.
Eira raised her arms and ice swirled around her hands.
But they were all too late. Amelia’s new power made her swifter than any human could possibly be, and she swung.
Then, another person ran forward and jumped between the sorceress and princess. An ear-piercing scream echoed through the room as the magical weapon tore through flesh. A male grunt of pain followed, and Finley realized who it was.
“Father!” Rose screamed from next to Finley, so close to her face it made her ears ring.
King Brennan held his stomach as Amelia pulled the sword out, a wicked glint in her blue eyes.
It wasn’t the person she was aiming for, but it was a victim she’d been wanting from the beginning.
Eira stood there with her jaw dropped open as her father collapsed.
She moved forward and caught him in her arms and together they sank to the ground.
Rose pushed past Finley and ran to their side.
Finley gripped her sword, releasing an enraged battle cry as she charged Amelia.
Her cousin looked at her with a sneer. “You’re fine at running a ship. But keep out of the wars.”
Amelia spread her arms wide, and all at once the undead army stopped, halting in their tracks as though they were all controlled by whatever power she now held. “Bury your dead. When next we meet, either you’ll follow me or join them.”
With another sweep of her arms, water splashed across the great hall and she and the zombies vanished as though washed away with the tide.
All was silent for a moment, save for the sobs of Eira and Rose as they held their father. Finley wanted to leave them, to give them privacy, but she couldn’t look away.
“Father, please, stay with us,” Rose begged.
The king was as white and pale as the marble floor. He reached out to his daughters and spoke with a fading hoarse voice. “My girls. My sweet girls.”
Eira swept her hand over his mussed black hair. “We’re here, Father.”
Myra, Alvis, Cadeyrn, and Lord Phillip surrounded them. The marquis knelt next to the princesses, and tears fell from his eyes to his lover’s face. Then, there was nothing but the faint murmur of Myra chanting the ancient ritual for his spirit to go to peace.
King Brennan was gone.