by L. V Russell
Black flooded his eyes. “Really? Do you think I had not noticed?”
Laphaniel slowed his horse, remaining close, one hand still lingering on the hilt of his knife.
“I was just—”
Cole cut me off with a snarl, his horse nickering. “Perhaps you think I’m lost, Queen of Seelie? Or that I am leading us around these forsaken rocks for the sheer fun of it?”
“I didn’t mean…”
“Would you like to lead us? Have you not noted how winter is creeping in earlier than it should? Which leaves the Mourning river impassable, too cold to swim across, and the ice will be too thin to walk upon. Do you even know where the Mourning River is? We could go up through the Northern Caves, but the Cleavers dwell up there and would likely take all our heads. Oh, not yours though, they’ll use you for breeding. Or, what we could do is stay on this fucking path, which is passable and should only delay us by a few days.”
“Point taken,” I said, shrinking beneath Cole’s furious gaze.
“I don’t take the safety of my men lightly, Seelie Queen,” he said. “Or yours, for what it’s worth. I choose the path we take.” He held a hand up, cutting off Laphaniel before he could speak. “Do not question me. The safest path is the one we are on.”
A screech tore through the air, cleaving the world apart, shaking the ground even before a great shadow soared over us.
My mare rose, an awful sound escaping her mouth. She bucked, striking my face with the back of her head, and pain exploded behind my eyes, then up my back as I struck the unyielding ground.
I whipped my head up, just in time to see curving talons pluck up my terrified horse like she was a grape. Around me, the earth lifted with the force of gigantic leathery wings beating against the sky. Pieces of rock slammed into me, the world suddenly filled with nothing but the sounds of chaos.
My mouth opened, not a sound slipping through as I remained frozen, head tipped back to stare dumbly at the skies. They ripped through it with a hideous grace, bodies long as jet planes, the rippling midnight scales drinking in the violet light. Teeth flashed, so did the talons. Red dripped from the claws.
Dragons.
They were dragons.
I found my voice, raw and desperate. “Laphaniel!”
A plea and a question.
I couldn’t see anything. Dust whipped around me in a choking smog. Glamour pulsed at my fingertips panicked. The threads wouldn’t still, wouldn’t allow me to work them into anything but a frenzied tangle.
“Laphaniel!” I screamed his name.
“Get up!”
Cole grabbed my arm, hauling me onto the back of his horse. It bucked, and claws scraped inches from us. So close…too close. I felt the heat from the scales, could smell the fire beneath the armour.
Cole kicked sharply, tugging on the reins to turn the petrified beast around. I clung to his waist, cringing into his back. A head snapped down, serpentine and massive. A maw opened, teeth longer than my arm glinting against a mouth of never-ending black. Foul breath hit us, hot and stagnant.
Terror bubbled in my stomach, erasing everything else out. Everything. I could taste Cole’s fear. Sharp and real, hitting me in waves until there was nothing left. Nothing at all.
Warmth trickled down my legs, I didn’t know if it was sweat or…I didn’t care.
Cole slammed the reins, again and again. Teeth clashed beside us, talons gouging chunks of earth up, missing us by a breath. Cole forced the horse to zigzag, his head bowed over its neck, my own body pressed tight to his.
Blackness lashed out, razor-tipped and swift. A guttural rasp followed the spray of blood, and the horse buckled forward, collapsing over itself, drawing both of us beneath it.
Something cracked. For a merciful moment, the world stopped.
Cole landed on top of me, his body heavy and limp. I could feel the warm, sticky mess of his head pressed against mine. Agony shot down my shoulder, my neck. Everywhere.
“Get up,” I breathed, tasting blood on my lips. “Please.”
I tried not to look at the remains of the horse or the way the massive teeth had ripped through it with such ease. One bite, and it was gone.
“Cole.” The word shuddered from my mouth. The knight groaned, gaze vacant as he lifted his head. Bone gleamed through the knotted curls. His eyes rolled back, body tensing before convulsing beside me, every movement sent blinding pain over my broken bones.
“Look at me,” I hissed through the darkness slipping over me. I choked on a sob. “You need to get up.”
My bones ground together. I clung to consciousness by a thread.
“Can you move?” The voice didn’t belong to Laphaniel, but Faolan. He crawled closer to me, body pressed close to the ground. “I can’t carry you and Cole…my orders are to keep you safe.”
“I can’t run…”
“Don’t run.” Faolan dragged himself closer, face caked in blood and mud. “If you’re still, they can’t see you, if you move slowly…”
“Please don’t leave Cole,” I said, and he glanced between us, face tormented and terrified, wanting to choose him over me. “Please.”
Faolan gritted his teeth. “Walk straight ahead, keep to the trees and the rocks. There’s a dip…there’s a slope, and it leads to a cave. Don’t run.”
Tears slid down my cheeks, a gasp ripping from my lips as I forced myself up. With a hand tight around my middle, I took a step forward and braced myself. I took another, then another and another. I dared a glance, I needed to.
It rested too close to me; its head tilted back to scent the air. Great horns protruded from its plated head, smaller ones lined at its neck and throat. Yellow eyes shone bright and alert from hooded lids, while steam rose in waves from its slitted nostrils, hissing when it struck the frigid air.
It rose, stretching its enormous wings, so it blotted out the sunlight. Red glowed from its throat, scales becoming like molten ore as it spun its head around. Heat smacked against me, slamming me with the stench of decay upon ancient breath, a promise of death.
Faolan swore, grabbing my arm, so I barked in pain. “Use your Glamour, quick!”
“I don’t know how…”
“Imagine a protective bubble around us, glittering and real…now…do it now!”
Faolan yanked me close as if he could shield me if I failed. I pulled upon the skittering pieces of my Glamour, weaving them tight, feeling them fray the more I pulled.
Seconds. I had seconds to drag the flickering bubble around the three of us before flame erupted from the gaping jaws and flooded towards me.
The heat was unimaginable. Sweat pooled and steamed from our skin, the flames licking up high, burning blue, charring the ground to nothing. It burned up the air, crackling along the fragile knots of my bubble, splitting it.
I held onto it, aching. Everything aching.
“Move!”
The bubble shattered around us, and I sucked in a lungful of air at the same time Faolan did. I choked on the oily smoke, unable to see anything in front of me. Faolan’s hand clamped around mine, hauling me forward. His other hand stayed tight around Cole’s legs, the unconscious knight hanging limply over his shoulder.
I heard a screech but saw nothing through the curling black smoke. We ran, and the sounds of raking claws followed us. The earth boomed with each footfall, the wind crying out at each flap of mighty wings.
The ground finally dipped, the entrance to the cave appearing behind a scattering of scorched trees.
“Laphaniel.” The word rasped past my lips, nothing more than a guttural whisper as I saw him race forwards. He crashed against me in an embrace that reeked of smoke and sweat, lifting me into his arms without a word.
Others passed us to grab Cole, hauling him into the cave. Someone caught Faolan and dragged him forward and away from the crashing jaws that missed him by a breath.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Rocks crashed around the cave entrance, teeth and claws tearing down at them, the ed
ges glowing red as scorching breath growled around it.
“Get back into the tunnels!” Faolan bellowed. “Make up a bed for Cole, hurry.”
The others rushed by, all dirtied, bloodied, limping.
“Is he alive?” Oliver’s cropped silvery hair was coated in ash.
“I don’t know,” Faolan answered, glancing at me in Laphaniel’s arms, and his hands tightened around me, fingers gripping into my shoulders. My husband had yet to say a word to me.
“Is anyone else hurt?” I asked, cringing away from the furious shrieks thundering from behind the cave mouth.
“Liam,” Ferdia began, leaning heavily against his twin. We followed him down and down into an antechamber deep within the cave. Skittering light danced from above, shards of sunlight peeking down from crevices high up to scatter over the crystals embedded in the stone. “The beast lifted him from the ground, the talons went straight through him and his horse.”
The smell of blood hit me before anything else, the low moans exaggerated by the cavernous room, so they echoed misery and pain around us. Candles had been hastily stuffed into alcoves, giving off jittery light that barely touched the corners of the cave. The walls glittered with the unsteady glow, dancing off the sharp-edged jewels embedded in the rock.
Laphaniel carefully set me down on my feet, and I took a step forward, regretting it instantly. He kept a hand at my back, staying close. Beneath the sweat and the stench of smoke, I could smell the fear swarming him, the panic mingling with dizzying relief that left him speechless. Because it wasn’t me lying on the cold floor.
Liam lay sprawled on the ground, black hair sticking to his face, the feathers threaded through it, limp and broken. His mouth hung open, pale lips murmuring words that no one could make out; dribbles of red slipped from one corner.
His armour had been shredded like it were made from tin foil, exposing a mess of ragged fabric and torn flesh, and most of what was supposed to be on his insides…no longer was.
“A scratch,” he rasped, blood splattering his lip. He made to move his hand over his stomach, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of him feeling his guts, so I reached for him instead. His hand curled tight around mine, the skin cold.
“Can you save him?” I tilted my head to look at Oliver, who crouched nearby, his hand squeezing Liam’s shoulder.
“What do you expect me to do?” he growled, blood shining against his teeth. “Shove his stomach back in and sew him up?”
I glared back. “Yes.”
Oliver’s face softened, but he shook his head, reaching up to wipe at the blood spilling from a wound on his forehead. “War has casualties, your Majesty.”
I clutched at Liam’s hand, refusing to look at the pool of blood seeping from beneath him. The knight drew in a long, shuddering breath, the sound hissing through his teeth before his lovely blue eyes clouded over and he stilled. There would be no ancient magic to bring him back.
Someone, I didn’t know who, gently untangled Liam’s hand from mine and set it upon his ruined chest. Above me, they murmured a few words beneath their breath, a fragment of song I had no place knowing. As one, they each drew a sole black feather from their cloaks and placed it upon him.
Looking closer, I could see gaps between the feathers, some of them were bent slightly as if many fingers had reached in and plucked them out, a feather for each fallen.
“You need to lie down,” Laphaniel said, breaking his silence. “You won’t heal unless you sleep.”
I took in the bloodied knights around me. “I can’t. I need to do something useful.”
“Teya.” My name was a warning on his lips. I stared him down.
“I’ll rest when everyone is settled.”
“There is nothing for you to do. We can’t move Cole, and you can barely walk, let alone ride. Get some sleep and heal.” His hand came up to cup my face, eyes bright. “I thought I’d lost you.”
The crack in his voice ensured I wouldn’t argue. We had come too close…so close to losing each other. With a small nod, I allowed him to help me down upon a hastily made bed. Blankets were piled up upon the cold floor, a bag used for my pillow.
Cole lay on a similar heap of blankets at my side, unmoving.
“What do you want us to do?” Fell asked, stripping cloth into clean bandages while Ferdia inspected the gore around Cole’s head.
“What?” Laphaniel looked up. The Unseelie knights were looking to him, their faces expectant.
“Cole is unresponsive, your Queen can barely keep her head up—as king, you are next in line of command. What would you have us do?” Oliver said, taking a breath before he added a forced, “Your Majesty.”
“Find clean water,” Laphaniel said after a pause, not moving from me. “Food, if you can get it, obviously don’t go outside. Do you two know what you’re doing?” Fell and Ferdia nodded, barely glancing at him while they carried on working on Cole. “Treat any other wounded. Treat the remaining horses before they die of shock. Someone needs to get rid of the body.”
There was a silence, tense, and short-lived.
“The body?”
Laphaniel stood. “Yes, will that be a problem?”
“The Unseelie burn their dead,” Oliver growled, “Liam deserves a funeral fit for a knight of the Unseelie, he died for your Queen.”
“He died for your King,” Laphaniel replied, staying calm. “Are you really going to burn him in this cave? With nowhere for the smoke to go, we’ll all suffocate. If you are suggesting we leave him over there, until we are ready to move out, then it’s going to get messy. We won’t be going anywhere for a few days, and it’s humid in here.”
“He deserves better.”
Laphaniel stepped closer to him. “Life doesn’t care what we deserve. Dispose of the body before it draws the rats in.”
“And if that body was your wife?”
Laphaniel closed the gap between them, and I swore I could feel the barest echo of his Glamour flare up. “Then, I would no longer need any of you.”
“You would allow Luthien to take the crown?” A nasty smirk lifted the side of Oliver’s mouth.
“Yes, and I wouldn’t lift a finger while she tore your world apart.”
“All this because you love her?” Oliver pointed a finger at me, shaking his head as if he found the very idea unfathomable. “You’re a fool.”
“I’ve been called worse.” Laphaniel shrugged. “Dispose of the body. Mourn another time.”
Oliver didn’t reply; a snarl slipped from his lips before he stormed off. I didn’t fail to notice how he was the only one who spoke up, the only one fighting for his friend’s dignity. The others understood that Laphaniel was right. We couldn’t afford to honour the dead, not when it was so hard to take care of the living.
A strange sense of order quickly descended over the cave, and water was fetched from a trickling stream that ran through the tunnels, small silver fish were caught within the waters, and beds were made with the last of the supplies that had survived the attack.
A hush settled over us, whispered voices echoing around the dim cavern. Injuries were cleaned and dressed; burns wrapped. A tribute was made for Liam. Then quiet.
Laphaniel remained close to me, eyes darting around the cave at the knights as they settled to get some rest, to Cole at my side. Assessing, organising, leading. I squeezed his hand, and he looked down at me, a tired smile on his lips.
“You have no idea how thankful I am that you’re no longer quite human,” he said, bringing my hand to his mouth. “That your bones will heal tonight.”
“Your bones won’t do that anymore.” Fear gripped around my heart. “If you break, I won’t be able to put you back together.”
“I didn’t break, Teya.” His voice was soft, sounding a little too far away. “Stop talking and go to sleep.”
My eyes closed as blackness set in, a heavy force just too compelling to ignore. It brought with it the promise of a painless sleep, and I could fight it no longer.
The last thing I saw before I gave in completely was the broken form of Cole as he foamed at the mouth, shaking violently against the folded blankets that made up his bed.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I stirred to darkness and hushed whispers, the shadowed edges of the cave lit up by candle stubs that did little to expel the smothering pitch. One flickered beside me, illuminating a cup of cool water.
The pain lingering in my body was nothing but a distant throb, a stiffness in my neck and ribs, nothing more.
Turning my head on the bundle of a lumpy bag that was my pillow, I turned to face Cole. The left side of his face was unrecognisable, even in the dim light. One eye remained swollen shut, a mess of livid bruises raged against his skin, and where once there had been a finely pointed ear, nothing but raw and bloodied flesh remained.
His eye flickered open, a moan slipping past his split lip as he moved his head, his gaze locking onto mine.
“Hey,” I whispered, reaching a hand across to his bed. “Don’t try to sit up yet.”
He stared at me for a moment, then down at my fingers holding his.
“Can you squeeze my hand?” I asked, but he slumped back and didn’t move again.
“We found nightstar flowers growing in one of the tunnels,” Laphaniel said, appearing beside me, placing a few more candle stubs in the alcoves above my head. “It’s the same herb found in Goodnight Kisses. We’ve given Cole a fair amount of it, so I doubt he will be making any sense for a while.”
I sat up slowly, stretching out my limbs. “Will he be okay?”
“He stopped fitting a few hours ago, and his wounds are clean. We’ll be able to tell more when the nightstar wears off.” Laphaniel settled beside me, then traced the lingering bruises on my skin with a gentle finger. “How are you feeling?”
I shifted so I could lie against him, breathing him in, hating the way he smelled like dragon fire and blood, of stale sweat and fear.