Chapter 11 Faolan #2
They didn’t seem to feel or see. They just attacked, all drawn to the same target, using their numbers to overwhelm. It was like they were being guided by magic. Something had to be controlling them.
I’d stayed out of discussions as much as possible when we rescued Kol and delivered him back to Nyx.
They wanted to know everything we had seen and heard, and they went over it all again and again.
And I willingly told them everything I knew.
But as for the rest, I didn’t want any part of it.
If I’d been involved in the discussions, I’d have been drawn in further than I already was, and that was not going to happen.
So I only knew the basics of these creatures and what they were capable of.
I wished for the first time that I had soaked up all I could learn.
I knew something had gone down with some dragon named Octavian, and Nyx had said he was a necromancer.
They knew he was behind the undead, though to what extent no one knew.
But to control this many undead would take the kind of power never seen in all the Twelve Kingdoms and beyond.
It was too much magic. Any normal fae or dragon would burn themselves out keeping this going for any length of time, but the undead didn’t falter.
And no one could be doing this from too far.
It cost as much energy to wield magic from a distance as it did to expand it.
The source of the magic had to be close by, and we needed to find it.
I scanned the scene. Around the palace, it was carnage.
Undead in states of burning were climbing over their smoldering brethren.
Further out, around the bay, they swarmed, moving inland towards the palace and attacking everything in their path.
It was a writhing carpet of destruction.
But there in the midst of the chaos, one fae stood out to me.
He was deathly still, and now that I saw him, there was no unseeing it.
He wasn’t one of them, but neither was he alive per se. His eyes were clouded over as if he himself was being controlled by magic. Could he be the transmitter? Could Octavian be somewhere safe, using fae to amplify his control? It didn’t matter. He had to be someone important.
I flew over, scouring the masses below, desperately looking for any other fae like that.
Someone stood still, untouched by the undead and trance like.
There. Another stood on the road to the palace, and once I was attuned to what I was searching for, I started to spot more.
A pattern formed. There was a web of them, and in my gut, I knew if we could take out these transmitters, Octavian—or whoever was controlling these monsters—would be cut off.
It was the only hope we had.
If this didn’t change the tide, we’d lose this fight.
I couldn’t imagine the devastation such a loss would cause, and how it would affect the King's opinion on Nyx. I didn’t think it could get worse, but then it occurred to me.
If we had to retreat, we’d lose everyone in that hall—Kol, the prince, the princes’ betrothed.
I couldn’t allow that to happen. I couldn’t let her die.
Everything in my body revolted against the thought.
I would go to the Goddess before I let a hair on her head be harmed.
I also refused to acknowledge what those feelings meant as I flew over one of the statue-like fae and blasted him with fire. He didn’t so much as twitch while he burned under the flames.
Standing firm among the swarm, he remained in his trance.
What the fuck?
I broke off and circled back around, searching my mind for any advantage I could use against an unknown force.
It came to me. The elemental magic of my home was the power to wield the air. And if these fae were not undead like the creatures they controlled, then they were alive and therefore needed air to survive.
I beat my wings and hovered low, getting as close as I dared. I had no idea what I was doing, but it had to be worth a shot. I drew on my element, calling to the oxygen around me and feeling that connection with it. Reminding it who I was and where I had come from. We were one.
When I felt it respond to my call, I acted, focusing in on the vacant fae beneath me and—more importantly—on the air in his lungs. I snatched at it, pulling with all my might to command it away from the creature.
The fae gasped.
It was working! He was reacting to my attack.
I gritted my teeth, extracting air from the space around him. Using all the force I dared without over-extending myself to push every molecule away from him.
The fae shuddered and fell to his knees, gasping and clawing at his throat.
But that wasn’t all, he blinked, eyes clearing and the trance breaking.
He opened his mouth in a silent scream, but it was too late for him.
The air around him was mine, and I deprived him until he shook and flailed in the last throes of life he possessed.
Around him, the undead changed. They were still a clambering sea of evil, but they scattered like cockroaches in the light.
As if someone had turned off their direction.
They were no longer fixated on the palace and instead roamed without aim.
I doused them with my fire, trying again to burn them, but it only scattered them further.
I turned, barking a command to Nyx with a head tilt that indicated I needed his dark fire here. He flew in, breathing his darkness over the scene and burned up all the undead that were no longer under the control of the trance.
Fuck me, it had worked!
I let out several roars and took off for another of the transmitter fae, stealing their air and their life from them before moving on to the next. Nyx and Zaria flew in my wake, incinerating the army of undead left to flounder on their own. It was working.
I flew over the palace, horror dousing my veins with ice when I saw undead crawling within the walls.
I knew if they were inside, then she was potentially under attack.
I spotted the fae on the top of the wall controlling those on the hunt in the palace, and I took great pleasure cutting off his air supply.
I bellowed a roar to Nyx as the fae fell from the battlements, and he joined me over the palace to stem the flow of undead.
I had no idea what was going on inside, but we still had too many to defeat out here to go in and find out. Screams of fae reached my ears, and my gut pulled.
They were inside.
Close to her.
I roared my objection, beginning to descend into the fray, but then dark fire erupted from inside the palace.
Kol was with her.
It would buy time.
But would it be enough?