As I circled around, an outlier the size of a house smashed against the wall of dirt, breaking through and gnashing its jaws at the king.
“Without King Chalir, the fae army will fall,” Darian noted grimly. “Their forces are already weakening.”
I eyed King Chalir as he and his soldiers faced off the monster. The king was shouting as the fae battered the creature with magic, and King Chalir lifted his arms, yellow fire shooting out and engulfing the creature. The outlier toppled, but the smaller outliers rushed forward, the demon dogs leaping through the hole in the dirt wall and charging at the fae.
If the fae army falls, what hope do the rebels have?
I stared at the soldiers. I waspart fae, and I couldn’t watch them be slaughtered. I veered closer toward them, snorting smoke as I flew.
“Are you sure about this?” Darian yelled, and I roared in response.
Some of the fae soldiers turned their attention to me as I drew close, but I banked left and right dodging their fire and wind magic. As we neared the ground, Darian jumped from my back, landing on an outlier as he joined the fight. Another massive creature crashed through the dirt wall, and I swooped down, flapping my wings to slow my descent as I grabbed the outlier with my talons and closed my teeth around its neck. When the beast was down, I let out my fire, incinerating rows of advancing outliers.
Seeing what I was doing, the fae stopped attacking me, but they watched me warily as they focused their power on the other outliers. Darian and I continued to fight, and soon the fae were shouting and battling beside us. When the last outlier at the back of the army fell, I shifted back into my human form.Please, please don’t let this be a bad decision.I grabbed two discarded fae swords from the ground and held the blades up in front of me.
All right, Raine. Now what?
King Chalir lay bleeding from deep wounds to his leg and chest, but a cloaked figure bent over him, and I watched in surprise as the king’s wounds closed, healing over. The cloaked figure stood and walked toward a wounded soldier close by, and I frowned at the way their jaw sparkled as they moved.
I watched as the cloaked figure started to heal the soldier, but at the king’s command, the fae soldiers circled, closing in on us.
Yep, definitely didn’t think this through.Darian stood tall beside me, his blades in his hands. He opened his mouth, preparing himself to sing.
“Wait,” I whispered.
My siren closed his mouth, not questioning me.
King Chalir studied us thoughtfully. “And we meet again. The monsters who tried to assassinate my son,” he said, but his words didn’t hold the venom they had during our last meeting.
I didn’t miss the way he said, “tried to”. Does that mean Prince Azaren is alive?I would have smiled if the fae weren’t looking at me like I was one of the outliers they’d just killed.
“The monsters who just saved your lives,” I countered.
King Chalir frowned. “Monsters none-the-less.” Yellow fire lit up his arms, the flames licking at the air.
Scales started to automatically ripple over my skin, but I stopped myself from shifting. I could handle the heat, but Darian was a different matter. Still, I had to try and talk to him.
“That’s right, we’re monsters,” I replied as the fae closed in around us. “Andwe’re fae.”
“You abominations arenothinglike the fae,” King Chalir spat.
“You’re wrong,” I said, lifting my chin. “Queen Izla created the curse using a part of herself. A part of her fae magic. And that magic is now in us. It’s in all monsters.”
King Chalir laughed, and his top lip curled. “Turning into grotesque beings isn’t a sign of being fae. Whatever magic my sister used, it was an ancient dark magic that has long since been forbidden in the fae realm. I loved her dearly, but my sister’s curse was a betrayal to her own kind.”
As we spoke, the cloaked figure behind the king healed a soldier before walking over to another grievously wounded fae.
My brows slammed down. “You don’t get it. We’re on the same side. The only real monsters are Warrick and King Adrien, and the outlier creatures who have no control over their new forms. The only way we will all survive this is if the Katakin rebels and your fae army combine forces.”
“Combine forces?” King Chalir looked offended. “We’re still thousands strong.”
“If you don’t listen, you’ll die,” Darian added.
“Agree to peace,” I said. “Let us fight together to get rid of Warrick and the outliers. Then we’ll have time to squabble over the terms of a treaty.”
The fae soldiers crept closer, their swords pointing our way.
King Chalir sneered. “You think I should listen to you simply because your monster is the biggest? Because you helped defeat some of the monsters your kind created?”
