“Did you get any rest?” I asked, my voice still filled with sleep as I looked up at him.
“No.” His eyes never met mine. He observed his fingers roaming through my hair instead of meeting my gaze.
“You should have gotten some rest.”
“I couldn’t sleep.” His voice was low, and his shoulders sagged.
“Baron—” I sat up, stopping him, forcing him to look at me. “—you sound as if we’ve already lost.”
“Ember is powerful, Shay. We’ve seen what they are capable of after what they did to Heavensreach. They destroyed an entire race just to kill one Sky Elf they felt was in their way.”
“We can’t just cave. We have to try and fight.”
“We will.” His voice graveled through his chest before it broke. “But if things go amiss…”
“Baron, don’t—” He silenced me with his touch as one of his hands came up to cup my face.
“Shay.” His eyes pierced mine, his features growing more serious. “I will watch this world fall before I lose you.”
I turned my cheek into his hand, kissing his palm. “You won’t lose me.”
“You’re right. I won’t allow it.” Heat reddened my cheeks as my lips curved up at his sincerity. Something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Specks of darkness fell from the sky through our window. I looked at Baron,brow already furrowed, realizing what was happening. We both quickly got up and gathered our clothes. As Baron prepared himself, so did I. I shimmied my thick hips into my tight leathers, laced my daggers to my thighs and across my chest, and strapped my sword to my side. I placed my bow and arrow on my back. We both looked at each other when we were done, our faces strained, ready for war.
As we stepped outside, other warriors were already getting into their positions, some still restless from a night of no sleep. Black soot slowly blanketed the ground like the first snow of winter. The warships that burned through coal were so close now, you could see them lined against the orange glow of the horizon. The charcoal stench rained down like a cloud of terror, foreshadowing the destruction before it fully arrived.
Ember was encroaching on our shores, and they were thirsty for blood.
Chapter Six
The metal tang of ships as they ground against our shores hurt my ears until they came to a screeching hold. Baron left me with a kiss before he joined our warriors on the ground. I took aim from one of the taller trees. I’d always been best with a bow. Drawing it up, I focused on where the blackened ships sat, sinking into the sands. I waited for their spiked point at the tip of the ship to lower, revealing its insides where Ember fae soldiers would march down from onto the water’s edge.
The creak of the metal pulled my attention to the ship in the middle of the five sitting on our island. As the metal tip lowered, I tightened my grip on my arrow, preparing myself for what was to come. As the door thudded on the beach, a single set of footsteps echoed against the ore. A woman came walking out, her hair as black as the soot falling from the ships she sailed from. Her skin was paler than I expected. Her black boots were laced above her knee. I could barely tell the difference between her boots and pants as they matched perfectly. Her top waslower cut with a fitted jacket over top with accents of bloodred along the sides of her torso and sleeves. She walked out, calm and alone. Confident in every move she made. Calculated. Unafraid and deadly.
As the doors opened on the other ships, Fire Fae soldiers came out in a single file line. They joined her, all of them stopping a few feet behind her, waiting for her orders to strike.
I watched as her murky amber eyes scanned the wood line. Her eyes looked as if they matched the color of all the blood she’d spilled against innocent soil. She huffed, almost as if she felt bored.
“I believe I’m looking for Baron.” She spoke loud enough for any fae to hear. “Or is it Shay I should ask for? Where I’m from, women have, oh, what’s the word…” She hummed to herself as if this were some sort of game. “Sway, with authority.” A few tense moments passed, and she tapped her forefinger against the hilt of her sword like she was growing impatient about nothing exciting happening yet. Baron stepped out from the tree line, his stance tense as the woman’s posture shifted toward him. “Ah, you must be the great Baron, the Dragon Slayer of Espien. I’ve heard good things.”
“Cut the shit. Who are you, and what do you want?”
“Oh, you’re brave, and cute.” Her lip curled to the side as Baron bared his teeth. He took a step in her direction. The soldiers all turned in complete unison as their arms caught ablaze with bright-red fire, and my heart fell from my chest. I hoped Baron would step down. He stopped in his tracks as the woman continued. “I see being on an insignificant piece of land, word must not travel here very well, so allow me to introduce myself…I’m Valla Corvus, Princess of Ember, Commander of Armies, but you can call me Val.” She walked nonchalantly. Every step she took closer to Baron made my heart skip and my stomach recoil. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.” Shedid a small dip of her head before continuing. “I’m feeling kind today, so it is simple, really. You can either leave willingly and let Ember claim this land, or you can decline and burn.” She looked him up and down, lifted a single brow as smugness leaked from her pores. “I’ll even give you a few moments to decide.”
Baron looked down at her, Valla’s height right at the center of his chest, but this woman wielded power as if just one glance could set the universe on fire at her command. Baron’s chest heaved. I watched him fight the urge to strike her down where she stood, but he knew the soldiers would attack relentlessly. He tore away from her gaze and turned back to the woods to find me. I threw my bow to my backside and slid down the tall tree. Baron was tense, his words fast, “Shay… what do you want us to do?”
“We have a dragon’s heart, remember? I say we fight.” He shook his head, knowing just how outnumbered we were. Just the rows of soldiers from five ships outnumbered us. We’d be fighting two to one with no elemental bending abilities. It sounded like a death wish. But at least we’d be fighting for our homelands instead of running. Osparia was going to war, and we would have all faced this fight eventually. Baron’s eyes met mine. “Our people know the stakes and want to fight because this is their home. We have to try.” Baron huffed a breath, and I glanced back at the rows of Ember soldiers.
Val had unsheathed her sword, crossed her legs, and lightly leaned against it as she glanced at her nails, uninterested. Her confidence just made anger scorch through my veins. How she felt she could just show up and take whatever land she walked on. Her firm conviction of victory, I guessed, taking Heavensreach, made her cocky, or maybe she had always been this cunning. Baron signaled the archers to aim for their marks, and I saw a small curve of Val’s lips in the distance, almostlike she craved the violence of war, the thirst for blood, the destruction from the very flames she wielded.
The moment Baron moved, the sounds of arrows whistled through the air. Fire erupted into a tall wall in front of the soldiers from a flip of their wrists. Some arrows made it through before the flames licked up from the sands, the fatal hits of the arrows piercing the few Fire Fae soldiers straight through their hearts, giving them no time to recover and heal before their chests stopped heaving and death found them. Their blood slowly seeped into the sand, staining it, marking this place for war.
Val stepped through the flames right before the wall fell behind her with her sword drawn and her eyes wild, thirsty for devastation, like a leech needing blood to live. She rushed forward with her soldiers as our warriors broke through the tree line, swords drawn, daggers flying. The sounds of metal and tearing flesh filled the air shortly before the crackling, snapping sounds of the roaring blaze of flames danced across the land.
Ember fae had no restraint as they whirled fire from their fingertips. Burning flesh and ash assaulted my nose in the wind as I ran into battle. I pulled my bow back with three arrows, shooting three enemy soldiers straight through their chests with deadly precision before throwing my bow and grabbing for my daggers across my chest. Sweat beaded my brow, and my clothes stuck to my curves as sweat soaked through them.
One by one, I watched people I had grown up with over the years fall before the blades and flames. Each of them took Ember soldiers with them to death, but they still outnumbered us, no matter the loss they took. I threw my daggers across the battlefield one by one. They hit their marks, sinking into a chest or a neck. I was sure to not give the enemy enough time to restore themselves. I could hear Baron calling for me throughthe depths of the roaring flames, but I had set my sights on one person.
Val.
