Etched in Stone: Twilight Court Book 9

by Amy Sumida

  But then the dead bodies began to heal. Every fallen golem got back up again; no matter how injured they were. Just as with the broken clay pieces, their fleshly parts pulled back together again. It was a shock, but our armies kept fighting.

  “Find Lana!” I shouted. “She must be here somewhere.”

  “And she won't be anywhere high,” Daxon reminded us of her fear. “Look for her in a hidden, low location.”

  “But, Seren,” Bress tried again, and was once more cut off; this time, by Raza.

  Raza roared and burst through his clothes as he transformed into a crimson dragon. Other roars answered him as his cousins and King Chiwen transformed as well. The land dragons took to the sky and breathed fire down upon the Golems while Chiwen slithered rapidly across the ground; crushing every enemy in his path. Raza called out to his cousins, and they circled before they split; flying off to search the area.

  Then the ground began to rumble, and I was tossed to the grass. The Royal Guards rushed forward to surround my ground-based men and me as clods of dirt flew through the air around us. Golems were crawling out of the ground; emerging from hidden pits with robotic focus. Horses climbed out after them; taking the steep inclines with an ease that seemed unnatural. Even the noises they made were wrong; strident whinnies and low snorts in timbres I'd never heard a horse use.

  Then the eerie sound of stringed instruments began to drift across the battlefield. The musicians were striding through the fighting, with dancing acrobats somersaulting behind them, and strongmen showing off their skills by tossing the acrobats into the air. This made clear to me—more than anything else—that these were mindless creations. They may bleed, but they didn't die, and they didn't have rational thought.

  I got to my feet as I gaped at the bizarre display, but the clash of weapons brought me back to reality. The Golems were surrounding us; our Guards already battling them back with magic and might. Conri's howl pierced the air while Rodaidh pulled weapons out of his skin and tossed them at the enemy with deadly precision. Desmond had transformed into a massive canine, and Killian suddenly rose behind me; shifted into a monstrous snake. I already knew Killian's plan, so I wasn't surprised when he lowered his head to me.

  I crawled up onto his flat skull so he could lift me high enough to give me a view of the war. It was chaos. Our armies were full of battle-honed warriors—some of them thousands of years old—and many were used to immortal enemies. It took a lot to kill a fairy, and they often healed mid-battle and went right back into the fray. But this was different. These soldiers fought like machines; never holding back or hesitating in an effort to protect themselves. And even beheading didn't stop them. At least with fairies, once you removed their heads, they weren't getting up again.

  Golems were a fey creation, but I gleaned from Raza and Daxon's minds that they were seldom used, and for this very reason. We were facing the fairy equivalent of a nuclear bomb; so powerful that everyone was afraid to use it. Everyone except a crazy bitch like Lana Clach.

  The stomp and roar of another army were nearly lost in the cacophony already spreading across the land. But this army crested a ridge—becoming a dramatic silhouette against the late-day sun—and made themselves known. The howls and growls of shapeshifters rent through the shouting of sidhe and the cackling of hags. Winged fey—including harpies that the Gorgons must have missed—burst into flight in a spray above the force gathering above us. Lana had regrouped, and it looked as if the remaining ex-monarchs had brought their people to assist her. They covered the entire ridge and then stopped.

  “What the fuck are they waiting for?” I growled.

  Then a contingent of Golem soldiers broke away from the rest and marched up to Lana's army. They formed a shield before the fairies and set their weapons before them menacingly.

  “The bastards aren't going to fight,” I whispered. “They're just here to watch and maybe finish us off.”

  We'll see about that, Raza's voice boomed in my mind.

  “Get those ugly birds!” I heard Medea shout.

  The Gorgons were in their natural forms; dreadlocks now dreadful locks of tiny snakes that hissed and lashed out at anything that got close enough to bite. The women seemed taller, but that may have been the tusks, horns, and wings that were now adorning their bodies. They leapt into the air—claws extended and eyes starting to glow—as they headed for the army on the ridge.

  The Harpies broke formation when they saw their hated enemies and launched themselves forward to meet the Gorgons. Harpies weren't immune to the gorgon stone-stare, but they had learned how to avoid it, and so they flowed forward in spiraling paths with eyes trained on leathery-gorgon wings instead of their faces. The gorgon magic went wide; hitting golems below, who looked up to see what was happening above them. But the Golems were already enchanted statues, and the gorgon magic didn't work on them. I grimaced when I saw that, and then flinched when I lifted my eyes to see the ferocious fight above our battlefield. The Gorgons and Harpies had just become useless to both sides. They were here for one reason alone; to get their hands on each other.

  Then I felt Raza's triumph; he had found Lana amid her army. I grinned as my beautiful, red dragon swooped down; batting aside flying fairies to snatch someone from the ground. Lana's shrieking confirmed it was her. Then Raza surged straight up into the sky as Lana screamed even louder. Suparnas and winged sidhe chased after Raza, but Hana and Kaden swirled around his tail; batting fairies from the sky like ping pong balls. The rest of Lana's army—including her golems—couldn't do anything to help her fight a dragon and her own fear of heights. Lana couldn't turn Raza to stone, or she'd fall, and she couldn't free herself from his grip for the same reason. All she could do was scream as he carried her higher and higher.

  Raza's excitement burst through my veins as he reached the limits of his flight and then released Lana. She plummeted with a bloodcurdling shriek, and I held my breath as I waited for her to hit. But a breeze suddenly caught her as lighting flared across the sky and struck Raza. I felt his pain as the electricity surged through his body, and as Lana ceased to scream, I began to. Raza tumbled in the air as I fell to my knees and cried out in pain and horror. But Hana and Kaden shot up to catch their cousin, and they held him between them—their wings slapping the air powerfully—until Raza could fly on his own.

  Once Raza was safe, and we both were free of the pain, I breathed out a sigh of relief and searched for Lana. She was floating safely to the ground; to a clear area within the middle of her army and their shield of Golems. The other ex-monarchs were there, as well as Lana's lover, but it wasn't one of them who had saved her; that was a fairy who I hadn't expected to see on Earth, much less on this battlefield.

  “Storm magic. Holy shit, it wasn't the harpies. And he tried to tell me,” I whispered as I started frantically searching the battlefield. “Bress!” I shouted for my cousin and finally found him leading our army toward Lana and her savior. “Bress, no! Stop!”

  Bress barreled through the Golems like a possessed man; even more effective at mindless might than they were. Body parts flew through the air on arches of blood, and the call of “Twilight” roared from the throats of our soldiers as they cut a swath toward Lana.

  I didn't have to tell Killian my plan; he simply started to move. His massive snake body curved over the line of our knights and the golems they fought before taking me across the war. He parted the battle like wheat in a field while I cast walls of burning thorns between the Golems and us. We reached Lana on the heels of the Twilight Army.

  But Bress had already used his air magic to fly over the barricade and come face-to-face with one of our enemies; his father.

  “You traitor!” Bress shouted as he lifted his sword.

  “Stand down!” Conn Dealan shouted to the fairies around him, who were moving in to attack Bress.

  Then Conn flung out his hand, and lightning flashed out of it. Bress went rolling backward; crashing into the backs of Lana's fairy army. They barely
spared him a glance as they sent magical attacks out over the heads of the Golems, toward my twilight soldiers. But Bress had a very similar mór to Conn's, and he simply absorbed the electricity created by his father's magic. Bress stood up and sheathed his sword as he stared Conn down.

  “I thought you were different than Moire,” Bress tossed out his hand, and his father was knocked over by a rumbling storm cloud. “I thought that you actually loved me. I can't believe I've been so foolish again.”

  “I do love you,” Conn growled as he stood. He batted away Bress' magic and glared at his child. “But this is important, Son. This decides the fate of Earth. It should belong to us, not the humans.”

  “Why do you care?” Bress growled. “You have a home in Fairy; you don't need this world.”

  Then a hazy light started to fill the clearing, and Conn spun toward Lana in horror.

  “No!” Conn shouted.

  Lana's eyes started to glow, and she focused that deadly stare on Bress. Bress had one second to glance at the magic streaming from Lana before he was turned to stone. A moment, and it was over. Conn shouted in misery and ran to Bress' statue.

  “He's my son!” Conn shouted at Lana. “I saved your life, and you kill my son?”

  “He was going to kill you, you idiot!” Lana hissed.

  “No; he wasn't,” Conn snarled as his hand filled with lightning. “Damn you, Lana. I did this for him; to have a kingdom to give my son, and now, you've taken him from me. He's all I had left!”

  Conn lifted his hand, but Lana was too quick; she cast out her magic once again and struck Conn. Bress' statue became entwined with his father's. Conn stood petrified into his protective pose—hand outstretched—a second too late to avenge his son.

  I leapt down from Killian's head with a screech as Kill began snatching up fairies, poisoning them with his bite, and tossing them over the battlefield.

  “Incoming!” Killian shouted as a man went flying.

  The ex-monarchs focused their attention on Killian; sending all manner of attacks his way. Kill dodged a few, but most were meeting their mark. He faltered under blows of wind, rock, and water. The only relief was the fire attacks; they didn't bother him. In fact, he fought back with his own flames. Fire rained down around me in columns; Killian directing his flames to avoid me. His fire wouldn't have hurt me anyway, but it would have burned away my clothes, and he knew that I had no desire to fight naked... again.

  The burning rain sent the airborne members of Lana's army fluttering off; to be destroyed by dragons. Raza and his cousins were adding a rain of blood to Killian's fire; all from Lana's fairies. The dragons roared and spun as they avoided magical bolts and kept up their savagery.

  On the ground, the Twilight Army was fighting valiantly; assisting Killian further by tossing their own magic into the mix while simultaneously fighting off the ever-recuperating Golems. Lana's living soldiers were forced to focus on the twilight fairies instead of their prince and princess; freeing up Killian and me to take on the ex-monarchs and make our way to Lana.

  Not having to deal with Lana's entire army was helpful, but Lana still had over thirty fairies standing between us; fairies who had been strong enough to rule undergrounds. Killian's fire rain could only be used in bursts, and half of his attention went into defense. I sent out walls of burning, thorny vines to tumble over the fairies and entrap them, but they were bursting through with their own powerful magics.

  Water gathered and spiraled around me. My thorns would burn anywhere—even underwater—so this wouldn't have been a problem, except they weren't trying to put out my fires directly. They knew enough to go after the source; they were trying to drown me. As the water closed in around me, I pushed back using air magic; creating a bubble for me to breathe in.

  Killian was being buffeted by cutting winds and bombarded by sharp stones beside me. The attacks were so fast and so vicious that we couldn't help each other. The best we could do was fight our own battles and try to stay alive. Kill was taking a beating; blood starting to seep from between his scales and around his fangs; where the devious ex-monarchs were focusing their attacks. Fury and fear were boiling up inside me—or maybe it was him; it was hard to tell with our new bond in place. Whoever felt them, the emotions reached an exploding point, and Killian let out a resounding screech. As his frustration boiled up, a wave of magic burst out from his sinuous body... but it wasn't his own.

  The Tromlaighe flared around us; hitting half of the ex-monarchs and sending them screaming to their knees. It was startling enough to make the rest of us pause and stare. Even Killian gaped at what he had done, but he quickly recovered and slashed out at the fairies while he had the upper hand. As they cowered in fear, Killian bit and tore; removing heads to spit out over the battlefield like the shells of sunflower seeds.

  I started to smile as I reached inside myself for the magic that I hadn't realized I could access. I knew I could feel the other men, but I didn't know that I could draw upon their power. This changed everything.

  With a roar, I channeled Raza. Fire spewed from my mouth in great bursts. The fairies before me stumbled; too shocked to act. I was nearly to Lana, and I stalked forward eagerly. But then Gareth, Lana's lover, rushed me. I met him with equal frenzy; leaping up to grab hold of his chest as I sank my fangs into his neck. My dragon claws slashed at him mercilessly until I had reached his poor, manipulated heart. Poison spread in black lines down his throat as I tossed him aside, but it didn't matter; I had cleaved his heart in two.

  Although the sight did nothing to Lana or her cold heart, it rallied one of the remaining fairies, and he sent a streak of magic toward me. The light of his power created shadows, and I flung out a hand to catch them with Tiernan's Shadowcall. With a flick or my wrist, I turned the shadows over the magic and doused it before it reached me. Not only that; I sent the darkness surging back toward the ex-royals.

  Suddenly, the path was cleared. Killian and I had conquered every ex-ruler but one. Bodies littered the grass around us; broken, burnt, and beheaded. Despite the proof of our power—and the corpse of her lover—Lana laughed as I strode forward; focusing her stare on me calmly. Her gray eyes began to lighten and then glow, and I had a moment of doubt.

  But Killian struck out at Lana before her magic could manifest; forcing her to evade his forearm-long fangs and the breath of Shadowcall seeping from his mouth. I slashed out with my iron sword, and Lana lurched back again. We put her on the defensive; sending her tumbling into the circle of her soldiers; arms flailing wide. As she steadied herself on her own people, she tossed them toward me.

  “Give me a shield so I can kill this bitch!” Lana shrieked.

  Lana's army faltered; the inner lines abandoning the fight with Twilight to help their leader. Killian struck out at them, but there were too many for him to catch. If they gave Lana enough room, Kill and I would be stone in seconds.

  Then Raza roared in my head; The helmet!

  I flinched; feeling the weight of my mistake. In my rush to get to the battle, I had left the helmet in the van. But as soon as I had the thought, my lovers had it too. One of them was smug; having been warned by Alexis just minutes earlier that I would need the helmet.

  I felt Daxon's approach before I saw him. Riding on the back of a stolen golem horse, Dax galloped through the enemy ranks without his Elite. In his hands was the silver Helmet of Invisibility. As soon as Dax was near enough, he tossed the helmet up to Killian. Kill caught it with his teeth and then dropped it in my waiting hands. Just as Lana's stare settled on me, I put on the helmet and disappeared.

  Lana shrieked in frustration and narrowed her eyes as she tried to see the outline of my glamour. Her eyes widened when she realized that it wasn't there; she couldn't see me at all. As Killian struck out viciously, I used the paths he cleared to edge around Lana. Lana panicked; backpedaling into the wall of her soldiers as her gaze darted around her frantically. She pushed her fairies aside as I stalked her—weaving through them to protect herself
—but her golems stood firm. If she wanted them to move, she had to command them to do it.

  “Get out of my way!” She shouted.

  The golems began to shift aside, but they were too late.

  “Goodbye, Lana,” I called out a second before I beheaded her with my iron sword.

  Sometimes the simplest technique is the best. It felt good to kill Lana Clach with my extinguisher weapon. It felt just. I stepped back as Lana fell forward; blood gushing out of her neck to pool around her body. As soon as her head hit the ground, another hum vibrated through the air, and the Golem Army froze.

  “Ding dong, the bitch is dead,” I said as I pulled off the Helmet of Invisibility.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  The remains of Lana's army looked around the battlefield with wide-eyed apprehension as the Golem Army trembled from the release of Lana's control. I was about to call over the Extinguishers to help me arrest the fairies when the Golems shivered back into action. Swords swung, and arrows flew as horse hooves pounded, and that creepy music began all over again; this time, even creepier. Their motions were erratic and wild; like malfunctioning androids. My jaw dropped as the Golems struck out at any living person within their reach; no matter what side they were on. Without Lana to lead them, they had no discrimination, no direction, and no one to tell them to stop.

  “Raza!” I shouted; forgetting that he would already know my thoughts.

  Raza was above me before I finished calling out his name. His cousins were with him, and Hana carefully grabbed Bress and Conn while Kader fought back the Golems. I watched with relief as Hana carried my cousin and his father to safety. Bress wasn't a golem; Danu couldn't heal him if he were broken.

  Once Bress and Conn were safe, I called for the armies to fall back. Tiernan and Daxon relayed my command to the Underground Prince, Tiernan got the Hunters, while Killian went to spread the word to the Witches and Extinguishers, and Raza reined in the Unseelie. I retreated with the Twilight forces, and the Golems gave chase. But I wasn't trying to run away; I only wanted to get our people clear enough for us to begin long-range attacks.