Page 136 of The War of Wings
Oh, thank the fucking Saints.
A thunderous roar erupted from Rixa’s throat as she decimated the Occulti surrounding me, reducing them to piles of soot and glowing embers. She landed hard in the sand, her wings stretching and flexing as Nell slid from her back.
“You okay?” she called over the sound of chittering and screeches, her eyes moving between me and where Gehenna and Tyrak coasted twenty feet over the beach, burning through Occulti like paper.
My head shook as I looked her up and down, assessing. “No. Are you?”
“Not even close. But I want to live, so let’s kill this motherfucker.” Her smile deepened.
“Why are you here? How did you know–”
She raised her brows and looked behind me with a nod. I stumbled backwards as a mass of people broke through the trees. And not just any people —mypeople. And atop a horse at the very front of the charge, riding beneath my banner, was King Laion, with Ludovicus at his side.
Chapter 54
Petra
The forces clashed in an explosion of swords and shields, fangs and flames. I watched in awe as armored soldiers charged into the fold, all here for one reason.
Ludovicus… He’d revealed himself. He’d swallowed back his fear for the better of the realm, and I swallowed back tears at the thought.
The ground shifted beneath my feet then, a narrow chasm cracking the shore open. Sand spilled in as soulhags crawled out, immediately launching their assault on the Occulti.Yes.All this time, they’d been waiting for the right moment. They were the things of nightmares, and somehow almost as beautiful as the drivas.
Rixa’s neck swiveled back and forth, clearing out Occulti as I stared at Nell. “Laion and…Ludovicus,” I stammered. “He came out of hiding?”
“Prince Vic has returned. The people of Nesan are thrilled their Lost Heir has been found,” she said with a smile. “We started marching three days ago. Where is Adorex?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but the words clogged my throat. Nell and I ducked low as another driva swooped low overhead. But before it could bank and head back our way, Gehenna shot in from the right, her jaw closing around the base of one of its wings. The sound of tearing flesh was the most beautiful music I’d ever heard as Gehenna ripped the wing from the enemy’s body.
“Take Rixa,” she said as soon as the driva’s body hit the ground. She reached for the sword at her hip, flexing her hands as she found a comfortable grip. “I feel like cutting down some demons.”
What a Saints damned badass.
Without a second thought, I was on Rixa’s back, patting her neck as soon as I found my seat, adjusting to the slightly different feel than Adorex. “There are crossbows!” I called up to her as I spotted another one just visible in the still hanging fog. How the fuck were the Occultistillmarching down the beach? How many could there possibly be?
A low growl sounded in Rixa’s throat as we soared above the shore, my head whirling as I tried to take everything in. There were only a few of Malosym’s drivas coasting over the demon horde, and Gehenna was handling them with ease.
My hand flew over my mouth when my eyes landed on the mass of soldiers marching here from Araqina. The army reached almost to the horizon, thousands upon thousands uponthousandsof people marching under different banners, wearing different armor, but holding the same allegiance.
From this vantage point, the soldiers on the beach seemed to be making progress against the horde. A few of the soulhags were tearing a pathway through that rivaled the drivas’ fire. But as large as my army was, I could see where it ended. Malosym’s… I couldn’t. The Occulti just kept fucking coming.
Light flashed over the foggy ocean, but it wasn’t the familiar blue I was looking for. It was a split second of orange from within the fog, followed by an ear-splittingboom.
A cannonball sailed high over the fray, arcing through the air and landing hard in the sand. The smile that split my face was almost painful as a golden-yellow sail cut through the fog, its intricate crest one I didn’t recognize. I didn’t recognize the crest on the group of three blue-sailed warships beside it either, or the deep violet of the one beside them.
Thank the fucking Saints, I thought to myself, my eyes narrowing on the crowded decks of the dozens of ships emerging from the fog launching cannonballs toward shore. Toward…us.
My eyes narrowed as I took in those crowded decks, those dark-haired, translucent-skinned figures that lined every single ship.Fuck.Malosym had taken the fleet we’d built.
Kelpies, kelpies, kelpies!I thought, hoping they’d be listening now. And sure enough, they emerged from the waves like the miracles they were, the thunder of their hooves over the water resonating in my soul. Immediately, one of the warships tilted, its mast slamming to the water before it capsized.
But the sheer number of Occulti ships was staggering as more and more broke through the fog. It seemed for every ship the kelpies took down, two more replaced it.
As if reading my mind, Rixa veered left, fire bursting from her jaws as she soared over the line of ships closest to shore. I winced when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a spear launch through the air, on a straight path to Gehenna’s head. But she banked at the last second, Tyrak leaning to accommodate her movement. The spear narrowly missed its mark as she unleashed her flaming fury on the crossbow.
By some fucking miracle, we were holding our own right now. We couldn’t really advance when the opposing force was seemingly infinite, but we weren’t being pushed back.
And just when I thought we almost had a handle on it, like maybe we wouldn’t be completely decimated before I found Malosym, the rest of the drivas arrived. And they weren’t alone.
