Chapter 29
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
We emerged from the suffocating darkness, marching straight out into bright sunshine. I blinked, waiting for my eyes to adjust. Gah, too bright.
Donovan squeezed my hand. Voices floated around me; they seemed to be coming from above my head. My brain tried to filter them as I listened.
“No, the light is good. The rogue vamps hate light. It will take out a good chunk of their forces.”
“We’ve got vamps on our side, though. The Ancient ones. Those blank-faced fuckers hiding underneath the Pyramid of Doom.”
“Yeah, but they also have banwyn on their side.” Ah, I recognized that voice.
“Banwyn don’t like bright light, either, and there’s far more of them than there is of anyone else.
It’s best if we make the whole course as bright as possible.
It will irritate the crap out of them, and they won’t be able to focus on any particular target.
” The voice became thoughtful. “But the Ancients will be frustrated at having to stay under the pyramid. It would be delicious, but not actually very efficient for the battle. Hey, Judy. Do you think you can make a black-out course over on the west field, in between the mud pit and the shock pyramid?”
“Good idea.” The woman’s voice was deep. Another berserker. “The Ancients can hide in there and they’ll have more room to maneuver. Now, demon, we just need a little something more for the shifters...”
I opened my eyes slowly, letting them adjust. A small wood tower with a ladder appeared just in front and to the right of me, an observation deck.
To the left, two dozen or so giant purple creatures gathered in a loose circle, stretching.
Next to them, a little way away, a handful of middle-aged women sat in a circle on a patch of grass, sipping tea.
Beyond the observation deck, a flat, grassy surface lay before us, about four football field’s worth of space with a sharp drop at the very edge. There was nothing on the field, and I couldn’t see anything beyond it. We must be at the top of the realm like we planned.
The air smelled faintly like woodsmoke and fresh sweat. I took a deep breath, adjusting to the vibrations of the berserker realm, while trying to calm my pulse. Everything about this place pushed me into action.
A million things could go wrong today. It was the biggest challenge I’d ever faced.
“Chosen.” Donovan squeezed my hand again, and moved it to my chest. “I feel your heart race.”
“Because I’m terrified,” I mumbled.
“Deep breaths, Susan.” Bronwyn and Cress strode out of the portal behind us. “We can only do our best with what we’re given.”
What if my best isn’t good enough?
Bronwyn waved at someone over my shoulder. “Mom’s coven has already set the ward, halfway across this field, just like we planned, so you’ll be safe up here. I’m going to go and say hi.” She tugged at Cress’s hand. “Come on, honey. Come and meet my mom.”
Cress’s eyes widened, and her whole body went stiff. Bronwyn dragged her away.
I was too scared to laugh. The very idea of staying up here, behind a ward, while dozens of creatures were slaughtered on a battlefield below me—it made me want to vomit.
“I shall go and make ready for battle,” Fionn grunted, heading to warm up with the berserkers.
Donovan held out his hand, I took it, and we climbed to the top of the observation deck.
A woman in brown sweatpants, a brown knitted jumper—unraveling on one side and trailing wool—and brown bushy hair turned around and smiled. “Susan! You’re here.”
I hugged her. Her jumper scratched me. “Thanks for coming, Hashleigh.”
“Of course we came. I couldn’t believe it when we got your message.
We’re useful. It’s the best thing that’s happened to the brethren.
Like, ever.” She beamed at me. “The rest of the gang are down on the lower levels, hiding out in camo gear on the edges of the course. They’ll make sure the Devourer’s army is thinned out by the time they get up here. ”
“They’ve already started coming through.” The big purple woman with dark braids standing next to Hashleigh—the one she’d called Judy—pointed down. “You got here just in time. The Devourer’s army is pouring out and assembling on the hell-plain, like we planned.”
I swallowed. “Good.”
Judy lowered her voice. “They keep coming, though.” She bristled and grew bigger, channeling her anxiety into her muscles until she resembled a giant purple ball.
“It’s more than we thought. We don’t have enough.
We’ve only got forty berserkers down there and a handful of vamps to thin the army. If we had more time…”
It was too late, and I didn’t want any more people dying today.
He was coming.
Candice climbed up the ladder. “We’ll rise to the challenge,” she said firmly, fist-bumping Judy. “Are you ready?”
“We’re almost done. Those little demon bastards have actually been really helpful in giving some tips on how to change our courses to achieve the ultimate challenge. I actually can’t wait to get down there and train.” She bared her teeth. “We are going to smash next year’s Ultimate Strong Games!”
The purple monsters warming up below us raised their fists and roared. “Ultimate Strong Champions!”
Their cheers faded slowly. “If we survive,” Judy added quietly.
Yeah. If we survived this.
I walked to the edge and looked down.
It took a second for it to make sense in my head.
Like Faerie, the landscape of the berserker realm didn’t always abide by the laws of physics.
It was more like I imagined a flat-earth conspiracy theorist would describe the world—it just dropped off at the edge into nothingness.
But this place wasn’t disk-shaped. Instead, the berserker realm seemed to be made of giant platforms.
Four huge fields lay in a terrace formation below us.
The bottom one had to be at least three miles down from here—square-shaped, mostly gray and rocky, and tilted so that one side was much lower than the other.
It was ringed on three sides by an endless blue sky.
I could see flashes of purple flames in the bottom corner of the platform, and what looked like an endless stream of bodies pouring out.
Connor’s army. My heart skipped a beat. Despite the fact that they were funneling out of the portal at the lowest point of the hell-plain, forcing them to quickly climb upwards through sharp rocks to make room for more, the stream of bodies didn’t stop.
Not wanting to look anymore, I wrenched my eyes away, focusing on the next platform, just above the bottom hell-plain.
That one was mostly green, though it wasn’t square but curved around in a strange way.
I could see what looked like classic obstacle course challenges dotted along the curved platform—a giant pyramid structure, a long trench with coils of razor wire on top, swinging ropes over stretches of water.
As I watched, a section of the platform blinked out into darkness. Judy had made the black-out course.
The third platform—the one just below us—was harder to see. It appeared to be covered in thick, fast-moving gray clouds. Every now and then, a flash of lightning lit up the clouds. That must be the wet-weather course.
Hashleigh pointed. “We’ve adjusted the weather to annoy as many of their people as possible. There are some scorching patches down there, along with some seriously water-logged obstacles.”
I let out a shaky breath. “Good.” I frowned. “But where..?”
Donovan tugged my hand. “Behind you.”
I looked. My brain wanted to show me the summit of a mountain, or at the very least, the peak of the hill, since the bottom of the berserker realm was below us. Instead, a thin sliver of sandy beach went upwards instead of downwards and gave way to lapping waves.
The ocean was above us. Six feet above, to be precise. The water stretched upwards with no horizon, just disappeared into nothingness.
It gave me a headache to try to make sense of it all, so I turned back, and focused on the little black dots pouring out of a bright purple circle at the lowest point of the berserker realm.
A hoof tapped me. “It’s done,” Cecil whispered. “They’re ready.”
I nodded, turned, knelt, and hugged him tightly. “You’re the bravest creature I know,” I mumbled in his big ear.
“The sexiest, too.”
I pulled back and wiped my cheeks. “Now go home,” I said, my voice louder. “Get your fuzzy butt back through the portal and out of here. If you see Nate and Eryk, tell them to hurry up.”
He clip-clopped back from me. “You got it, boss.” He turned and bowed to Donovan. “I’ll have Violet turn the drawing room into a great hall for you. Huge fires, barrels of ale and suckling pig on a spit, ready for the great warriors return.”
Donovan placed a huge hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, my friend. Now go. Be safe.”
Cecil winked at me and trotted away.
The gray, rocky platform was almost filled with bodies now—there must be at least two thousand men down there. I squinted, and an old echo of dread squirmed in my belly. A memory—no, a premonition. The army I’d seen in the Under. Twisted, angry faces. Bared teeth. Vicious gleams in cruel eyes.
Two thousand, against… How many? Fifty? Sixty?
They were here, and they were coming to kill us all.
The purple flames flashed brighter for a second, and smaller dots came streaming through. Below me, I felt the collective prickle of anxiety as the berserkers registered the giant swarm of banwyn invading their realm.
Candice swore under her breath. “I can’t even look. Oh, good God…”
A thrum of electricity pulsed through the air. Goosebumps rose on my bare skin. I looked down; I was still wearing my silk dress. Cecil had deliberately left me in it.
Connor was here. I couldn’t see him, but I knew it. He’d come just as I knew he would, ushering his banwyn before him.
Showtime.
I reached into my clutch and pulled out the high fae spark stone—blazing green and shining so brightly. I waved it over my head.
There was a second of silence. Then, screams hit my ears, and the sea of bodies surged forwards.
They were coming.