Queen of Blood and Vengeance (Secrets of the Faerie Crown #4)

46. Evander

46

EVANDER

“This is taking too long.”

“Armies do not move fast.” Especially ones that were so skittish around one another. But at least there had been no more physical altercations. The columns marched side by side, one robed in flowing white and pastels, the other draped in colors of the sea that matched their pale blue skin. The elementals had even agreed to give the Aquarians preference when passing through the rift.

That was what had slowed them down. They had to walk through it one at a time. The only other option would have been to split their forces between the two nearest rifts, the one in the northern dunes and the one nearest to Skywatch—the one they’d used. But Mya was not going to split them up when she’d just scared everyone into getting along.

They were scouting ahead of the small army. The bedraggled human messenger remained back with Agravayn and General Ache, who grilled the poor man for every detail as they formed their battle strategy.

Mya walked silently at his side, keeping up easily despite the fact that she had to use her least favorite form of transportation —her legs. She was stunningly fast in the water. Evander had accepted early on in their relationship that he’d never be able to keep up with her underwater. That powerful tail of hers was made for those depths in a way he never would be, at least in his body. In his soul, he knew exactly where he belonged.

Wherever she was.

The pale winter sun reflected off of the Split Sea to their left, the undulating golden plains of the human realm to the right. In Annwyn, they were covered with sand. He’d never seen the Barren Dunes, but they were supposedly a death trap. No water, no plant life or game. Just endless red-orange sand. By comparison, the knee-high pale gold grasses felt welcoming. But it was impossible to miss the direction of Mya’s eyes… ever to the left. To the sparkling sea.

“Was sealing the sea a mistake?”

Evander blinked in surprise, wondering if he’d imagined the question. How long had it been since he’d had a sip of water?

“Are you questioning a decision? After it has been made?” He’d watched her agonize over the decision—and many others. It had only taken watching her rise to power and rule the Aquarians for Evander to realize he never wanted to wear a crown.

But when she made a decision, she did not waiver. She moved to the next and the next, ever steady. Evander reached for her hand, only to have it swatted away.

“I am not infallible,” Mya said through pursed lips.

“You had me fooled.”

“Husband.” Another swat.

He took it readily. His eyes continued to scan the horizon, the sea, the plain, for any sign of the succubus horde. But the scenery was deceptively peaceful. He took the opportunity to slide his arm around her waist and pull her closer. Once the battle was joined, he might not see her for hours. “Why do you ask?”

Mya dropped her head to his shoulder—the only sign of exhaustion she’d shown in the last few days, and only because they were alone.

“If I had not sealed the seas, we wouldn’t have had to go through the rift.” The Aquarians wouldn’t have, but the elementals would still be land-bound. But he did not interrupt. “General Ache would be there already. None of this ridiculous land crossing.”

Evander tightened his hold on her waist. “If you had not sealed the seas, General Ache might not have any soldiers left to command.”

The sea was too temperamental. Rifts opened unpredictably amid the shifting ripples of light and energy. The Aquarians would never have made it out of the water. They would have died defending their home, until the succubus overran them entirely.

He did not say any of that. Mya understood better than he did the benefits and costs of sealing her people into just one side of their home. She’d used the power vested in her as Queen of Aquarians to hobble an entire facet of their water magic, changing the very nature of the sea itself. She believed that when this was over, she’d be able to free it once more. Evander prayed to the Ancestors and any other deities who might be listening that she was right.

They continued in silence. Mya spent so much time in the minds of others, he knew that she sometimes struggled to know her own. These moments of quiet were essential for her, without the demands of others pressing in on her.

Once, he’d abhorred silence like this—inaction.

He, too, had not known himself. Only what others expected and wanted him to be.

Now, the silence did not scare him.

And he hated that just a few minutes later, he had to break hers.

He released Mya’s waist, drawing his short sword. She wasn’t armed, but by instinct she took a step closer to the water. She could dive into it or draw from it, Evander reminded himself. She could protect herself.

“There it is.” He pointed ahead, to where the rolling slopes surrendered to a continuous rise. “Over that bluff we should see the Spit.”

“They call it the Crossing here,” Mya corrected him quietly. But her eyes were not on the rise he’d pointed out. “I have never seen it from this view.”

Not the land—but the sea.

They’d walked along its edge for the last hour, but here she could see clearly where it separated from the land, stretching out toward the horizon. Logically, he knew that the other half of the continent lay on the other side. But from where they stood, the sea looked beautiful and endless.

“How far behind us are the troops?” Mya squinted as she spoke, her eyes focusing on something he could not see.

“An hour or two. Agravayn’s forces will push in from the west, while General Ache leads from the sea.” They had not given him any more particulars. His task was to assess the disposition of the enemy—the succubus horde that had attacked the humans who’d taken up residence on the Spit in the last several months.

There had been no sign of the darkness as they crossed the plains. No ruined bodies—not the skeletal black monsters that the succubus became once they’d inhabited a body long enough, nor the eviscerated remains of their human victims. The absence was almost eerie. How many humans were on the Spit, that they could keep the horde occupied for so long? The humans could not possibly be holding them back. Did that meant that succubus were… feeding?

Evander suddenly wished he’d remained back with the army to hear the human’s report in full.

But Mya had begun to move. Up the bluff, her steps steady despite the miles they’d walked. She reached the apex—the sound she made sent a knife of fear straight into Evander’s gut. A terrible gasp. A keening. Mourning.

He closed those feet between them in seconds.

If he made a sound to match Mya’s, he did not hear or notice it.

“You asked if sealing the sea was a mistake.”

He should have known. He may have never fought in a war—he’d been a Goldstone Guard, not a solider. But he understood what it meant to be outmatched. He’d fought against the succubus enough to know that even joining forces with the elementals, they were fighting a war that they were destined to lose. Their enemy did not tire. They did not retreat.

Below them, the bluff dropped down in a sheer cliff face. The natural barrier was the reason they had not seen any destruction. Evander could just make out the trail down, but it was winding and narrow. He could see why the succubus had not bothered to scale it. There were plenty of humans to feed on below, on that narrow strip of land that stretched out like a finger into the Split Sea until it disappeared into the distance.

Or at least, there had been.

As far as he could see was darkness.

Evander reached for Mya’s hand. “No, I don’t think it was.”