“Taryn’s bottleneck worked,” he says with a grin. “They’re down from walking fifty astride to around twenty or so. They’re just over the rise, half a mile away.”
“Excellent, we’ll be ready,” I say. “You and Conall head out and stay hidden until the last of them pass the point we discussed. Then close ranks and tear them apart from the back while we attack from the front.”
“Copy that.” The brothers don’t waste time, both shifting mid-stride. They’re a blur of motion as they head in opposite directions to circle around to the back of the valley.
“Okay, my turn,” Taryn says, raising her hands palms up. She’s preparing to cast an invisibility spell so the Lights have no idea we’re here. As soon as they’re inside our designated battlefield and we attack, the spell will break. She’s not able to keep hundreds invisible unless they’re holding still, but by the time they can see us, it’ll be too late.
“Wait.” I sheath my swords and grab one of her upturned hands, leading her away from the group.
“Finn, what are you doing? I have to cast the spell.”
“I know, I just want to talk to you quick.”
Stopping us once we’re a decent distance away, I face her and remove my helmet.
She follows suit and shakes out her curls. Gods, she’s fucking beautiful. Beautiful and brave and badass. And mine. Staring up at me with those lavender pools framed by thick lashes, I suddenly wish we were anywhere but here.
Within minutes we’ll be fighting for our lives and for the subjects of Faerie. We’ve made primary plans and contingency plans and backup plans to the contingency plans. But there are no guarantees that we’ll all come out of this unscathed. In fact, odds are good some of us won’t come out of this at all.
And if these are my last private moments with Taryn, I need to make them count.
Raising my free hand, I cup her face and caress her cheek with the pad of my thumb as I burn every detail of her into my memory. Emotions knot into a fist pressing behind my sternum, and I have to fight against the hot pricking of moisture behind my eyes.
“Taryn, you are…” I struggle to find the right words, because mere words can’t explain how I feel about her. Still, I try. “You’re my everything, little sun.” Her features soften as she places her hand over mine, holding it to her cheek. “And I need to ask you—”
Her eyes widen, and her fingers press against my lips. “Don’t do that.”
I pry her hand away and frown. “Do what?”
“The thing where you ask something now because you’re afraid you won’t get the chance to later. Don’t do that. You can ask me whatever it is after we kick Edevane’s ass.” Her features firm up with steely resolve. “After. Got it?”
One side of my mouth curves up in a small grin, helpless to stop it when she proves again and again why I love her. Raising her hand to my lips, I place a chivalrous kiss to the backs of her knuckles while holding her arresting gaze. “Ponyatno, solnyshko.”
“Good. Now, let’s go. It’s time to kill a king,” she says in a menacing tone, echoing the words she spoke after sending her father off to Mag Mell. It’s a reminder of how personal this is for both of us. He keeps attacking the people we love and getting away with it.
It ends today.
“Time to kill a king,” I repeat with murderous fervor.
We head back to the small cadre of warriors, placing our helmets on as we reclaim our places in front. “You ready, D?”
The bogatyr turns to me, his eyes already red with bloodlust. He grasps my forearm firmly and repeats the vow he made to me the night we rescued his sister. “Kogda ugodno, gde ugodno, chto ugodno.”
It’s a heavy moment between us that says so much more than those three simple words can convey. We’ve been through a lot together over the last year, and our bond of friendship is closer to that of brothers now, seeing as the most important person to us is the same fiery female we love more than our own lives.
I answer back in the genuine spirit of brotherhood. “Whenever, wherever, whatever.”
We nod at each other, then I draw my swords and call out, “Positions!”
Everyone readies their weapons at my command. Those of us on the low ground with our iron swords, and the warriors on the high ground form bows and arrows made of their violet fire.
I nod to Taryn, and she begins whispering the incantation that will hide us from Edevane’s sight. Less than a minute after we’re concealed, the first line of Light Warriors crests the rise, marching with disciplined precision. Another three minutes and the valley is half-full.
Dmitri crosses his iron swords and drags one blade over the other, speaking to the approaching enemy as though they’ll hear him in their subconscious. “I am D’Yavol. I will bathe in your blood and claim your souls for hell.”
I give him a brief sidelong glance. “Remind me never to piss you off, Romanov.”
The tension in the air grows heavier as they near the point of no return. Fifty feet. My muscles are vibrating with unspent adrenaline. Thirty. They’re so close I can see the color of their electric green eyes. Fifteen feet. The eerie howls of wolves about to hunt echo in the valley.
“NOW!”
The Néit on the hills unleash a torrent of fiery arrows into the center of the Light Warriors. Explosions of flames erupt in their midst, throwing their formation into disarray and engulfing some of them in powerful fire magic.
Dmitri and I charge forward with our group, swords raised, meeting the Light Warriors head-on. The clash is immediate and brutal. Swords clang against swords, and the air is filled with the sounds of battle. I parry a strike aimed at my head and counter with a swift slash, feeling the satisfaction of my blade connecting with flesh.
I spare a quick glance over my shoulder to check on Taryn. She’s in her original position and dialed-in, using her newfound abilities to fight from a distance. “Finn!” she shouts at me.
I turn around just in time to see one of her stockpiled boulders appear in mid-air and smash into the chest of a Light Warrior about to remove my head. When he’s gasping for air on the ground, I follow him down and slice through his neck with the dagger on my hip, his arterial blood spraying my armor.
There’s no time to thank her for the save as I see a warrior next to me, his sword raised and ready to slice me in half. I thrust my dagger into his belly, and when he bends over from the pain, I grab him behind the neck and flip him over me onto his back before delivering a death blow between his eyes.
Shoving to my feet, I push farther into the fray, slicing through the enemy as I go. I hear the vicious sounds of screaming fae being torn limb from limb by the Woulfe brothers and know their idea to handle the rear of the formation was a good one.
“Where is Edevane?” Dmitri growls as he cuts down another opponent several yards away, his bloodred eyes scanning the battlefield.
“I don’t see him,” I reply, thrusting a sword through a Light Warrior’s chest, then kicking him to free my weapon. “Probably waiting until most of the work is done. He’ll show himself eventually. Stay frosty.”
Cathal’s warriors continue to rain down fire from the hills, their precision devastating. I see clouds of fog hiding our injured and boiling water hitting opponents with the force of a firehose. The Lights are skilled, but without their own magic, they’re no match against the Fires.
