Chapter 2
KAELERON
Iroared through the black whirlwind of a teleport that tore at my strength like sharp talons ripping through soft flesh, landing before a seelie soldier on the other side. I raked my black claws down the chest of his inky-blue tunic, cleaving open his skin before he knew what had hit him.
Shadowy talons hovered over my gauntlets, leaking from the metal and leather that struggled to contain them.
Talons I had not possessed until that dreadful moment here in the Forgotten Wastes—a moment that flashed before my eyes again as I heard her scream, as I turned to see a ghostly image of her held aloft by a spear of blue crackling light that pierced through her shoulder, far too close to her heart.
Something struck me hard, pain erupting in my side despite my onyx armour, dragging me back to the present in time to duck beneath the blade another soldier swung at my head.
I growled and kicked forwards, the sand beneath my boots vibrating with my rage as I slammed my shoulder in the male’s stomach, lifting his feet from the ground.
The pommel of his sword came down hard on my back but it did not even slow me.
I stuck the claws of my gauntlets deep into his side, curling them around a rib to hold him in place as I reached for my sword with my other hand.
I drew it in a fast arc as I leaped backwards, sweeping it across his neck as he had wanted to do to me, sending his head toppling to the sands that swirled around me as my comrades appeared one by one.
My sister raced towards me as I plunged deeper into the thick of the seelie scouts, knocking swords aside as they came at me, cutting down any who failed to block my blade.
“Kael,” she barked and then she was on me, breathless as she punched through a taxing teleport to land against my back, pushing me down towards the glittering sands as two seelie scouts who had been behind me were sent flying by her shadows.
Scouts who might have cut me down if not for her intervention.
I shook her off me, snarling as I kicked off again, my teeth sharpening as my nails lengthened into claws.
Pain ripped through my limbs as I pulled magic to my fingertips, denying the dampening effects of the sands.
I would bathe my hands in the blood of these seelie for daring to venture into unseelie lands.
They were not of the Summer Court, but they would pay as if they were.
I would rip them limb from limb, would drench the sands of the Wastes with their blood.
Blood I would feel on my skin.
I cast my sword aside and tore my gauntlets off as that dark hunger rose within me, freeing my black-tipped fingers and inch long claws.
Shadows flickered over them before disappearing, tearing from the sands beneath the soldiers instead.
Several of them were not quick enough to dodge the sharp shards of shadow that burst upwards, and I grinned as they were skewered, as the shadows turned to tendrils that wrapped around their limbs like vines to hold them in place as they frantically tried to break free.
These fiends were the reason she was gone.
Gone.
My shadows tore one male apart while I carved another up with my claws, relishing his howls of pain as he desperately fought me, as I buried my fingers and shadows deep into his flesh and pierced his bones to hold him in place.
It was this male’s fault she was gone.
Had left me.
The clearer part of my mind that lingered amidst the whirlwind of my rage whispered that she had not left me. I had pushed her away. I had made her leave.
I had foolishly set her free.
Because I could not keep her caged.
No matter how fiercely I had desired to keep her with me.
“Kael!” Jenavyr struggled to keep pace with me, grunting as she battled the scouts with both her sword and mine now. “Stop.”
I growled over my shoulder at her, because no part of me could stop and she knew that. These seelie needed to be eradicated, the quicker the better. In the short time we had been preparing a battle plan in the war room their numbers had doubled.
Challenging the small army I had brought with me.
In this land where the magical cataclysm that had obliterated all life lingered in the sands, dampening our magic, being outnumbered was tantamount to a death sentence.
There was no waiting. There was taking advantage of the surprise attack I had launched, pressing that advantage we had over the males before they all rallied and reformed into regimented groups rather than scattered individuals.
I teleported to another solitary male, leaving the one I had been fighting to crumple to the sand.
Immense pressure ripped at my limbs as I pushed through the dampening field of magic, draining me, and I stumbled as I landed, colliding hard with the male.
He rallied faster than me, his blade coming down hard on my left arm, clashing with my armour as he leaped backwards and raised his hand, sweeping sand up into my face with magic.
I flinched away, closing my eyes to shield them, saving my sight but leaving myself open to his follow up attack.
The point of his sword sliced through my armour, and then my left side just below my ribs.
A growl ripped from me as pain burned hot through my veins, sweeping outwards from that point, and I grunted as he yanked the sword out again, the force of the action making me stumble forwards, towards him as he grinned at me.
And I saw the air shimmer beyond him, and more Evening Star Court seelie stepped out into the Wastes.
A portal.
They had managed to manifest a portal in the Wastes.
A wave of forty males marched towards me as I gripped my side and blood spilled between my fingers.
I glanced at the ring I wore on my other hand, at the pale stone that glittered with shades of aurora, lovingly held by twin moons.
“Saphira,” I whispered as awareness rolled through me, as I realised I had made a fatal mistake in separating from my sister, in letting my anger get the better of me, controlling my actions.
I looked at the male as he swung, his bloodied sword aimed at my head as words warbled in my ears.
“By the frozen god of the north. With your eyes cast winters bite. With your breath, speak shards of ice. With your heart, still all before you. With your spear, swirl frost and flame.”
A great wall of ice rose before me, the hairs on my nape rising as magic swirled around me and the air chilled. My stuttering breaths fogged before me as I stared at the barrier between me and the seelie who had been about to claim my head.
Screams rang out on the other side of that glittering wall as cracks slowly spread across it, chunks of blue ice tumbling from it in places as those fault lines met and joined, becoming deep fissures.
Something slammed into it with a harsh thump and it shattered, exploding into glittering dust.
The male tumbled past me, blood spraying from a gash across his throat that was blue around the edges, and my gaze flicked from him to the soldiers that had come through the portal.
A white-haired male dressed in silver-and-white armour cut through them with a pale blue blade that glistened in his icy grip.
Rhyn.
The Winter King danced through the males, chilling any who dared to get too close with a simple touch to their arms or chests, slowing them and making them easy work for his blade. Wherever he struck, their skin froze around the wounds, their blood turning to icy sludge as it tumbled to the sands.
Rhyn glanced back at me, blue eyes bright as they landed on me for a heartbeat before he spun and sliced through the neck of another soldier, bringing their number down to fewer than thirty.
I shook myself back to the fight, shedding fear and thoughts of Saphira, focusing back on the seelie who dared breach the borders of unseelie lands, that look from Rhyn all I needed to rally my strength.
Because I was damned if I would let him coddle me, or view me as weak and in need of protection, when I was one of the strongest among the kings of the unseelie.
As he had, I summoned my strength and the connection I shared with Lucia, with the lands beneath my boots and the goddess who had created them, my eyes slipping shut as I felt the ancient roots of this world twine with my veins and the magic that flowed through them.
“By the wrathful god of the west. With your breath, release mist and mire. With your heart, spill sharp poison. With your blade, sever all between you and eternity,” I whispered, feeling the power building in those words as I focused on them, as I strengthened that connection between me and the lands in a way I rarely did.
But here it would be safe.
Here where the magical fallout dampened my powers.
That power surged through me and my sword appeared in my grip, summoned to me through my shadows as they writhed around me, as they snaked along the blade to darken it to black.
Tendrils of shadows raced ahead from me as I ran for Rhyn, all focusing on one male—the one closing in on the unguarded back of the Winter King.
As the male went to strike, my shadows launched at him, twining around his arms to pull them down, halting his attack.
His head turned towards me, his eyes widening as he spotted me.
He tried to turn, but my shadows held him firm and sank into his skin, darkening it.
He jerked, entire body quaking as they burrowed deep, as they flowed through his veins, and when they reached his heart, he stiffened, a soundless cry leaving his lips as his mouth opened, and shadows spilled out.
Rhyn swept around behind me as I reached him, cutting down a seelie behind me as I gutted one before me, striking him down before moving to the next male.
“You were not foolish enough to come alone then.” There was an amused edge to those words as Rhyn pressed his back to mine and we fought in tandem, defending and attacking as one. “Although I suspect I too am in for an earful from my second in command.”