Page 45 of Reigning
The walls shiver with the noise of the world outside, but the inside…is silent.
“What’s happening outside, Aggie?”
“I told you I brought friends.” She lifts her chin at that, and the large man at her side smirks down at her, his palm slipping to the small of her back. “I brought…a lotof friends.”
My brow lowers, and she smiles more.
“Linden’s army was ready. He wanted to wait and plan and plot and waste so much time after Ellise’s attack.” She rolls her eyes at that. “I told him that’s what she’d expect. She’d never expect retaliation within twenty-four hours.”
Her words settle into my mind as another booming sound shakes a brick right out of the wall. It clatters to the floor and lets in even more of that growing sound of viciousness from outside.
Oh no.
We saved Minden from a war.
And brought it here to Attika.
Sixteen
Crimson Snow
Bindingsunlight crawls across the horizon. It beams against the snow, intensifying the wafting gray smoke and slashing colors of crimson that now cover the white landscape. Men and horses, blades and armor dot the ground for miles and miles. Enormous winged dragons shadow over us, swooping down with fiery exhales and snarling teeth. Flashes of magic blaze so bright it’s all I can see through the smoke.
I can’t tell if it’s mage magic. Or demon.
Dragons from the quiet village of Valencia, mages from the coast of Warf, and an army of demons and mortal men from Minden battle the astounding numbers that make up the queen’s guard. A single moment of numbness passes over me as I stare out at the fight I brought the people I love the most into. Panic slices through my chest, and it stings even more with each frost-bitten breath I take.
The brooding man who obviously loves Agatha so much storms right into the screaming battle, and the way the old woman follows in his footsteps shows how completely fearless she is in this moment. Agatha walks away from the castle doors, down the snowy, dipping valley, right into the heart of the slashing swords without even flinching.
I’m stunned, still taking it all in.
A warm hand slips into mine. It’s the calmest touch within the storm of a war that I’m looking down on. My mother doesn’t glance my way as she holds my hand in hers. She squeezes hard, and her shoulder presses to mine before she speaks so quietly I barely hear her.
“Our time of hiding is over.” And then she lifts her chin, releases my hand, and lets the smoke drift across her slender body as she disappears into the mass of the battle.
Chaos is already striding after her. I think he knows how important she is to me. I think Chaos knows more about me than I do sometimes. The sunlight reflects the beautiful colors that shine along his forearms as dark scales crawl across his bronze skin little by little. He looks back at me with hardened eyes, determined, fierce.
Destructive.
I keep my attention locked on his alluring eyes until he’s completely gone. I stiffen my spine and hate how easily the smoke steals him away.
A roar growls through the clattering calls of war. Screams of pain and screams of anger mix together among the shaking sounds of magic and clashing metal. Thousands of crimson eyes shine out within the fog and debris.
“I’ll stay with the mages.” Kain looks to Rime and then Sin, and a moment of confusion drifts into me until I remember what he went through.
He can’t shift anymore.
He can’t use the one weapon he’s had his entire life. I suddenly want to shield Kain the way he seems to want to shield me during all of this.
Rime and Sin glance from the alpha to me, and they both have such similar looks in their eyes right now it’s startling. Rime’s cold attention isn’t vacant or angry. He seems completely worried, terrified about what might happen if he walks away from me.
And he shares that identical look of fear with Sinister.
Sin pulls me to him in an instant, his body pressing to mine just as his lips skim along my jaw in a quick kiss of reassurance. “I’ll find Ellise. I’ll send you a signal. I’ll find her, and we’ll meet there.”
He says all of that, but all I really hear him say is…he’s leaving. Going out into all of that annihilation.
Alone.
