Page 112 of When Storms Ruin

“I won’t get in the way,” she protested, slamming her fist down on the table and rattling the figurines.

“You wouldn’t do it intentionally, butshe is your daughter,” I replied, my voice tight.

“As are you,” she countered, raising her chin. “I understand what needs to be done. I will not let her continue to terrorize this realm, or the ones I love any longer.”

I nodded, holding her gaze. I could see where I got my stubbornness from.

“Then it’s decided, you’ll join us. But make no mistake, I am breaching the castle to kill Donika, not capture her.”

“I understand,” she replied, her voice cold.

“The same goes for you,” I told Zion, turning my gaze on him. “If you are a hinderance in any way, if you stop me from taking her down—”

“I won’t,” he replied, his eyes sad as they held mine. “I have seen firsthand what Donika has done. I have already turned my back on her. The little girl I raised has been dead for a long, long time. I am ready for what is to come.”

I gave a curt nod and turned my attention back towards the map.

“So we will have five to ten of our fastest, strongest, witches breach the castle with me. The remainder of our forces will meet hers out on the battlefield here.” I pointed towards the open plains at the bottom of the hill The Stone Palace resided on. “What do you think our final numbers are?” I asked.

“It’s hard to say without confirmation from Isaac, but I would have to say we are just shy of twenty-five hundred men and women ready and willing to fight. We lost close to a third of our forces in the battle at Prins.”

I swallowed hard, bile rising in my throat. We had estimated Donika had at least five thousand men, maybe more.

“So, the tide of this battle will depend on me,” I replied with a deep sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose with my fingers.

If I could infiltrate the castle and kill Donika before we lost too many of our soldiers on the battlefield, we could take Akra. If the battle raged on between our forces, we would lose.

“No pressure.” Tess laughed, giving me a gentle nudge.

Puck came into the library then with a tray of food and drinks, and we swarmed him as if we hadn’t eaten in days. It had been almost a week since we had been bound, but the feeling of Nik’s ember in my core was still something to get used to.

As he moved towards the door, further away from me, I could feel it in my bones. I knew exactly where he was without even glancing up from the map. It was as if we were magnets, always aware of where the other is, but pulled together no matter what.

I raised my eyes to him, and he shot me a knowing glance over his shoulder, as if he, too, felt the distance between us now. When we had bound ourselves…I had no idea the effect it would have on us.

I could study the map until my eyes glazed over and my face turned blue, but the odds were not in our favor. If a group of us couldn’t breach the castle and kill Donika, we would lose this battle. It would be years and years before we could rebuild a force big and powerful enough to move against her again, and most of us would likely need to retreat to the mortal realm to escape her.

I threw my head back, shaking my hair out behind me. Staring at the map for so long was beginning to give me a headache. Or maybe it was the fact that we were walking into certain death.

I still had a knot in my stomach about our forces facing down Donika’s creatures born of dark magic. We had faced the Araneoch before and had seen what a force they were. I had only seen the Noctani in my dream walking, and a chill ran down my spine at the thought of their fangs and their black, lifeless eyes.

She was sure to surround herself with Noctani to protect her, and they could siphon my magic if they got too close. They would need to be dealt with first, they were the biggest threat to us.

My hand moved involuntarily to touch Stormslayer tucked against my thigh, and I closed my eyes against the feel of cold steel. I would need to carry throwing knives and a sword as well, which meant Nik and I had a lot of training to do.

We hadn’t set a date to move against her yet, we had to wait for Isaac to return. He had been gone just over a week and he hadn’t left a note, we had no idea when to expect him back.

I wanted to move against her sooner rather than later. The anxiety building up to this would threaten to undo me, and I didn’t want to lose my nerve. I had killed Shades in the battle at Prins, but this was different.

This was mysister.

I had been imprisoned by her, tortured by her, and still a pit formed in my stomach at the thought of what I had to do. What Imustdo. Not only for myself, but for all the Shades in Istmere.

As long as she lived, she would never stop killing innocents. Murdering Stormshades. Controlling people and mutilating them with her black magic. She needed to be stopped once and for all.

Nik returned to my side with a slice of something that appeared to be pizza, which he offered me. I shook my head, the taste of bile still raw in my mouth.

“No thanks, I can’t stomach anything at the moment.”

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