Empire of Storms
Page 116

Eight against five hundred.
Fenrys quickly tied back his golden hair. “We divide it up, take them out. Before they can get close enough. While they’re still in the air.” He tapped his foot on the ground, rolling his shoulders—as if shaking off the grip of that blood oath roaring at him to hunt down Lorcan.
Aelin rasped, “There’s another way.”
“No,” was Rowan’s response.
She swallowed hard and lifted her chin. “There is nothing and no one out here. The risk of using that key would be minimal—”
Rowan’s teeth flashed as he snarled, “No, and that’s final.”
Aelin said too quietly, “You don’t give me orders.”
She saw as much as she felt Rowan’s temper rise with dizzying speed. “You will have to pry that key out of my cold, dead hands.”
He meant it, too—he’d make her kill him before he let her use the key in any capacity beyond wielding the Lock.
Aedion let out a low, bitter laugh. “You wanted to send a message to our enemies about your power, Aelin.” Closer and closer that army came, and Rowan’s ice and wind licked at her as he tunneled down into his magic. Aedion jerked his chin toward the army approaching. “It seems Erawan sent his answer.”
Aelin hissed, “You blame me for this?”
Aedion’s eyes darkened. “We should have stayed in the North.”
“I had no choice, I’ll have you remember.”
“You did,” Aedion breathed, none of the others, not even Rowan, stepping in. “You’ve had a choice all along, and you opted to flash your magic around.”
Aelin knew very well that her eyes were now flickering with flames as she took a step toward him. “So I guess the ‘you’re perfect’ stage is over, then.”
Aedion’s lip curled off his teeth. “This isn’t a game. This is war, and you pushed and pushed Erawan to show his hand. You refused to run your schemes by us first, to let us weigh in, when we have fought wars—”
“Don’t you dare pin this on me.” Aelin peered inside herself—to the power there. Down and down it went, to that pit of eternal fire.
“This isn’t the time,” Gavriel offered.
Aedion threw out a hand in his direction, a silent, vicious order for the Lion to shut his mouth. “Where are our allies, Aelin? Where are our armies? All we have to show for our efforts is a Pirate Lord who might very well change his mind if he hears about this from the wrong lips.”
She held in the words. Time. She had needed time—
“If we’re going to stand a chance,” Rowan said, “we need to get into position.”
Embers sparked at her fingertips. “We do it together.” She tried not to look offended at their raised brows, their slightly gaping mouths. “Magic might not last against them. But steel will.” She jerked her chin at Rowan, at Aedion. “Plan it.”
So they did. Rowan stepped to her side, a hand on her lower back. The only comfort he’d show—when he knew, they both knew, it hadn’t been his argument to win. He said to the Fae males, “How many arrows?”
“Ten quivers, fully stocked,” Gavriel said, eyeing Aedion as he removed the Sword of Orynth from his back and rebuckled it at his side.
Returned to her human form, Lysandra had drifted to the edge of the bank, back stiff as the ilken gathered on the horizon.
Aelin left the males to sort out their positions and slipped up beside her friend. “You don’t have to fight. You can stay with Manon—guard the other direction.”
Indeed, Manon was already scaling one of the ruin walls, a quiver with unnervingly few arrows slung over her back beside Wind-Cleaver. Aedion had ordered her to scout the other direction for any nasty surprises. The witch had looked ready to debate—until she seemed to realize that, on this battlefield at least, she was not the apex predator.
Lysandra loosely braided her black hair, her golden skin sallow. “I don’t know how they have done this so many times. For centuries.”
“Honestly, I don’t know, either,” Aelin said, glancing over a shoulder at the Fae males now analyzing the layout of the marshes, the flow of the wind, whatever else to use to their advantage.
Lysandra rubbed at her face, then squared her shoulders. “The marsh beasts are easily enraged. Like someone I know.” Aelin jabbed the shifter with an elbow, and Lysandra snorted, even with the army ahead. “I can rile them up—threaten their nests. So that if the ilken land …”
“They won’t just have us to deal with.” Aelin gave her a grim smile.
But Lysandra’s skin was still pale, her breathing a bit shallow. Aelin threaded her fingers through the shifter’s and squeezed tightly.
Lysandra squeezed back once before letting go to shift, murmuring, “I’ll signal when I’m done.”
Aelin just nodded, lingering on the bank for a moment to watch the long-legged white bird flap across the marsh—toward that building darkness.
She turned back to the others in time to see Rowan jerk his chin to Aedion, Gavriel, and Fenrys. “You three herd them—to us.”
“And you lot?” Aedion said, sizing up her, Rowan, and Dorian.
“I get the first shot,” Aelin said, flames dancing in her eyes.
Rowan inclined his head. “My lady wants the first shot. She gets the first shot. And when they’re scattering in a blind panic, we come in.”
Aedion gave her a long look. “Don’t miss this time.”
“Asshole,” she snapped.
Aedion’s smile didn’t reach his eyes as he strode to fetch extra weapons from their packs, grabbing a quiver of arrows in either hand, slinging one of the longbows across his broad back along with his shield. Manon had already stationed herself atop the wall behind them, grunting as she strung Aedion’s other bow.
Rowan was saying to Dorian, “Short bursts. Find your targets—the center of groups—and use only what magic is necessary. Don’t waste it all at once. Aim for the heads, if you can.”
“What about once they start landing?” Dorian asked, sizing up the terrain.
“Shield yourself, attack when you can. Keep the wall to your back at all times.”
“I won’t be his prisoner again.”
Aelin tried to shut out what he’d meant by it.
But Manon said from the wall above them, an arrow now nocked loosely in her bow, “If it comes to that, princeling, I’ll kill you before they can.”
Aelin hissed, “You will do no such thing.”
Both of them ignored her as Dorian said, “Thank you.”
“None of you are being taken prisoner,” Aelin growled, and walked away.
And there would be no second or third shots.
Only the first shot. Only her shot.
Perhaps it was time to see how deep that new well of power went. What lived inside it.
Perhaps it was time for Morath to learn to scream.
Aelin stepped up to the water’s edge, then leaped onto the next island of grass and stone. Rowan silently came up beside her, meeting her pace for pace. It wasn’t until they reached the next hill that he angled his face toward her, his golden skin stretched taut, his eyes as cold as her own.