Page 114 of Oath of War
‘You will, darling. You will,’ he said confidently. ‘My dear Rowena will take care of your resistance. She’s become quite skilful in manipulating minds after practising for so long on Alaric.’
Just fucking perfect. I thought I’d planned this encounter from every angle, but as ready as I was to face the Lich King, I didn’t realise he had a psychotic dreamwalker with the ability to control minds on such a scale.
As if summoned by my thinking of her, Rowena appeared, dragging Valaram by the scruff of the neck.
Valaram’s eyes were still glassy, but I caught the quirk of his lips when he saw me looking, and my jaw tightened. The proud fae mage—reduced to a slave by a cheap mind trick. Or maybe not so cheap.
Sweat beaded Rowena’s forehead, and even if I knew little of psychic spells, it was clear she was struggling to maintain control.
I felt a pull in my core. A crisp, refreshing caress as sharp as my fae. My time playing the docile, powerless mage was ending. I reached for the aether just as Valaram jerked in Rowenna’s grasp, and I froze when I saw her knife against his neck.
‘Continue fighting me, and you will die. Submit, and I may let you live,’ she said, drawing a thin line that barely cut the skin, but the pain brought more clarity to Valaram’s gaze.
‘The only woman I would submit to will make a whistle of your bones,’ he rasped, looking at me.
A roar shattered the sky, and both Vahin and the Zmij clashed above our heads, their bodies contorting in savage battle. Suddenly, something fell from the dragon’s back, plummeting towards a tower’s high roof and my heart sank. If Ormond had jumped off the saddle, the situation must have been dire. Was that why Vahin had blocked his feelings?
The portal shimmered again, and a basilisk3 rolled out. The lizard’s body thrashed on cobblestones, the creature spraying a liquid that burned through the stone floor, and I instantly dropped my gaze.
The former chancellor rushed in, skidding to a halt in front of the beast. ‘My lord, the Dagome army is in the city. We weren’t able to hold them back.’ The basilisk hissed, and the entire power of its stare fell on the chancellor’s face.
‘Kill it!’ Cahyon ordered a golem as he pointed to the beast, but it was too late for Dagome’s former advisor. His face paled, mouth opening in one final cry as he clutched his chest and dropped like a felled tree.
Alaric took advantage of the moment to step from the shadows and cast a spell aimed at the portal, rattling the bones.
‘What? She said you’d died!’ Cahyon screamed, oily death magic forming in his palm.
Alaric didn’t budge. The bones rattled louder as he chanted, the arch slowly crumbling. With each loose bone and vanishing sigil, uncontrolled aether lashed out, turning the air into a blizzard of ash and debris.
‘Why can’t you just die?!’ Rowena’s scream fused with the sound of the splitting portal. She had her eyes on Alaric while the blade in her hand glided effortlessly across Valaram’s throat.
‘No!’ I shouted, slamming my hand on Cahyon’s chest and pushing him away from me, but I wasn’t close enough to Rowena to stop her. Red blood sprayed across the floor as pulsing black energy spread from the Lich King’s hands, shooting towards Alaric. My fae’s eyes widened, and he looked at me with bitter regret but didn’t stop his spell.
As I created an impromptu shield to counteract Cahyon’s spell, the portal crumbled and fell. Its magic smashed into me, a perfect maelstrom of destruction. Time stopped, wreckage and blood suspended in the air as crimson aether surrounded me.
‘Old Martha says hello.’ I sneered, staring at Cahyon’s shocked expression as I let portal’s power flew through me and unleashed the inferno.
1.Zmij /pron:z-as in English:vision -me-j/— a powerful demigod associated with water and marshlands. Manifesting as a three-headed viper with immense wings, a zmij can be summoned from the Void between worlds through the offering of a woman as tribute. Once bound by a pact, a zmij will defend a city until its own demise, after which it is reborn in the void, awaiting the next call.
2.Psoglav (s.)/psoglavs (pl.)— a grotesque demon with a human torso, the legs of a horse, and the head of a dog adorned with iron teeth and a single glaring eye in the centre of its forehead. Dwelling in shadowy caves or a perpetually dark land brimming with gemstones but devoid of sunlight, psoglavs are infamous for their insatiable hunger for human flesh, favouring the taste of fresh corpses.
3.Basilisk— a beast with a serpent-like body, fatal venom, and a deadly stare.
Fuck, that hurts.
I bounced off the roof like a rag doll, feeling the impact in every inch of my body. My ribs cracked as I hit something else, trying to slow my descent, but I used it to twist around and grab whatever I’d collided with.
‘Shit!’
My legs whipped around while I clamped my hands onto the cold object. It took a moment to focus, my arms straining, until I realised what I was holding onto. I was face-to-face with a grinning gargoyle, my life depending on the strength of its stone fangs.
Jumping off Vahin’s back mid-flight was one of the stupidest things I’d ever done, but it was necessary. My dragon was fighting the Zmij with unyielding ferocity, and I realised I was more of a burden than a help. He’d received too many injuries protecting me from his enemy’s venom-laden fangs, so I had to give him the chance to fly freely without worrying for my safety.
This entire battle had been a clusterfuck of epic proportions from the very start. Whatever plans we’d made were scrapped the moment Annika entered the city. I was riding Vahin, watching as she disappeared behind the gates, when the Zmij attacked, the rest of the monsters following suit. Reynard had organised the ground forces, but all I could do was draw a sword and direct my riders to where I saw an opportunity.
My fight never came, and now I was dangling from the roof, watching as Cahyon led Annika towards the strange-looking portal.
After several attempts, I contorted my battered body enough to catch the edge of the highest window with one boot, and then, praying to All-Father, I threw myself forward, barrelling into the light frame and crystalline glass with all my strength.
