Ritalia scoffed. “Enough of your petty arguments! None of you warriors truly understand the threat here.” And then, Ritalia’s voice snapped like a whip as she said, “Hunter!”
Lancaster’s body tensed, a growl slipping through his lips.
“Beautiful,” she observed. “Now, enact?—”
“NO!” And it was Santorina’s voice that sliced through the queen’s attempt to command a bargain from Lancaster. Santorina’s throw of a blade that drowned out the queen’s orders. With her injured wrist, her aim was off. The weapon soared inches away from Lancaster’s heart and over his shoulder.
The male merely stared at her—at the Queen of Bounties who would have taken his life rather than allow him to call on his bargain—his dark eyes pools of intensity.
The cavern erupted, a dozen fae soldiers bursting from their glamoured positions along the walls and diving toward Rina. Warriors swept before her, meeting their blows. Engrossian axes whirled through the mix. Clashes and scrapes of metal drowned out the bargain order Ritalia tried to enact, and Zanox and Dynaxtar launched into the air above it all.
Rina spun and shoved me toward Sapphire. “Go, Ophelia! Tolek, go with her!”
Tol pulled me toward my pegasus, her blood-streaked wing now blessedly healed thanks to the Angellight.
“We can’t leave you!” I yelled.
“Alabath, we have to,” Tol argued, shoving me onto Sapphire. “Youhave to!”
“You’re the only ones who can finish this!” Celissia added as Tol hopped up behind me.
“We can help here!” I called over a shoulder.
But I met Rina’s determined stare. She gave me one tight-lipped nod, the certainty behind it saying more than words ever could.
They would do this. They would defend the mountains against the fae even if it meant their lives, while Tolek and I flew on to finish the task assigned by the Angels.
And it was Rina’s and Celissia’s shouts of encouragement—a human born to slay fae and an Engrossian with sorcia blood—pounding in my ears in time with Sapphire’s hooves as we sped down the tunnel, their voices shouting the hopes of the warriors.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Tolek
The ragingclashes of the battle faded as Sapphire sped toward the theater buried deep in the mountains—the location the sphinx had hinted at.
One Ophelia and I had been to before.
“Do you recognize anything?” Ophelia asked as her pegasus wound through wide tunnels, following either instinct or memory.
“Not a damn thing,” I admitted. The last time we were this deep in the mountains was when she’d come to rescue me and we were heading back to Damenal. I’d been riding the high of her appearance while battling off the nightmares the Mindshapers planted in my head. I’d been distracted, all the while only caring about the fact that she was inching closer toward me.
As I wrapped my arms tighter around her waist with the din of fighting melting behind us—and my prayers to the Spirits echoing for our friends’ safety—it struck me that the last time we were here, I’d never thought this version of us was a possibility.
Now, those magenta eyes gazed at me over her shoulder, and I shut out the thoughts of the fae and the Angels.
I would do anything for this girl. Slaughter any Angels or gods or queens that tried to touch her and place their heads at her feet. Carve my heart from my chest if it was my blood she needed, bow to any title she claimed, and offer my hand across any realm.
I ducked to kiss Ophelia’s shoulder, and for one fucking moment, I wanted to freeze every eternity right here. Soaring through the mountains on the back of her pegasus, with those eyes on mine.
“Vincienzo?” Ophelia asked.
I blocked out all those desperate wishes and assured her, “Sapphire knows where she’s headed.”
As the words left my mouth, Sapphire dove. I gripped tighter to Ophelia and tightened my thighs around the pegasus’ body, my stomach dropping. She swooped through an opening and landed in the center of a familiar cavern, steps carving the rounded walls on all sides but one.
Dismounting, Ophelia and I both looked up. The ceiling was a dark mass above, impossible to tell it was open as it stretched into the heart of the mountains. “Not what I expected,” I commented.
“No,” she agreed, shaking her head.
