Page 196 of A Queen This Fierce and Deadly

Madinia stripped out of her cloak, revealing armor of her own.

“I’ll take that,” Margie said, handing us each a waterskin as she took Madinia’s cloak, throwing it into one of the tents behind the barricade.

Margie handed us each a piece of bread and an apple. She couldn’t be on the battlefield, but she was determined to help in her own way.

The food and water did help.

Madinia’s eyes met mine. “Get our people home.”

“I will. Be careful.”

With a nod, she was gone, striding toward the battlefield.

“Where’s Jamic?” Demos raised his voice.

“Here.” Jamic immediately appeared at his side. Compared to the rest of us, he seemed rested, and I could almost feel his power curling through the air like smoke.

“You need to be ready,” I told him.

“I am ready,” he said gravely. There was something strange about the look in his eyes.

Tor appeared by his side. “I’m ready too.”

“We get this done, and then we strike,” I said.

At this very moment, our people were filing out of the caves, gathering at the edge of the forest. At our signal, they would run for their lives.

I waited, my heart pounding erratically as I stared at the peninsula.

Movement.

Rivenlor appeared first, his head popping above the sand, as if he’d been buried beneath it. Tor was standing close enough to me that I felt him jolt as Rivenlor was followed by Sylphina, Gavros, Tymriel, and Ysara.

Grief clawed at my chest. But each of them had known the cost of such power. And they had been insistent.

As one, the elders turned to face Regner’s army. They linked their hands, their lips moving as they channeled an ancient magic.

Demos’s voice thundered from the forest behind us.

“Go!”

The hybrids slipped out of the forest. A few of our soldiers carried children, holding them close as they sprinted across the sand. The elders had warned us that this kind of power wouldn’t last. The power to hide this many hybrids from the Eprothans would take all they had to give.

Thousands of hybrids, tripping on the sand, making it to their feet, hauling children and the elderly, carrying the sick.

Tymriel dropped to his knees, before slumping to the ground. The others clutched his hands and kept chanting.

Gavros dropped next, followed by Ysara.

My heart leaped into my throat, and I prepared to freeze time. Some of the hybrids were only halfway to the tunnel.

Vicer appeared, carrying a child in each arm, his teeth bared in a feral snarl. Behind him, the hybrid soldiers we’d left to guard the caves were carrying others, all of them hurtling toward the elders.

Sylphina keeled over. But the elders still clasped hands, continuing to chant. Only Rivenlor remained standing, and even from here, I could see his body quaking.

I sucked in a deep breath. Using the last of my power here could leave us with no way to kill Regner. But I couldn’t watch hundreds of hybrids lose their lives when the elders could no longer keep chanting.

A howl sounded, followed by several others.

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