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

49. Veyka

49

VEYKA

Arran was lying to me. I added it to my list of grievances to punish him for later. We would survive to have that argument.

“We need to scout ahead,” I told Lyrena, fighting at my back. “Can you grab my arm?”

“Arrrggggh!” Lyrena cried out, her back leaving mine, pushing me back with the momentum she needed to charge forward. A heartbeat later, she was back, her breath coming in uneven gasps. She stank of the black souls the succubus expelled; we both did.

“Scouting?” she managed between breaths.

My chin stabbed an uneven nod as I parried, swinging Excalibur wide across the gut of the very same succubus she’d driven back with her flame seconds before.

The monster dropped. Lyrena swallowed hard. Her smile was more of a grimace as I grabbed her arm. “Let’s go.”

It was the hardest thing I’d ever done. Whenever I fought, whether it be sparring in the training ring or facing the first massacre of Baylaur, my mind descended past thinking into a place of visceral control. But in that place, I could not reach Arran.

Our bond was emotional. It appeared that if I shut down my emotions, then that part of my heart that belonged to him, that allowed us to communicate as if we were one soul split into two bodies, that was also blocked.

How was I supposed to kill and feel at the same time?

The human woman’s screams echoed through my mind.

My husband.

I shoved Excalibur through what had once been the heart of a human adolescent.

I can still see the eastern cliffs. The succubus are thinning here , I told Arran.

Grabbed Lyrena’s arm. Through the void.

Two of the monsters converged on me. One latched onto my arm, sinking its sharpened teeth into my thick leather armor. But I couldn’t bleed. I swiped for my dagger, dragging it across the knuckles to get the succubus to release me. But succubus didn’t feel pain. I rammed the dagger into its throat instead. I didn’t let go, not when every amorite weapon was precious. The succubus reeled backward, taking me with it, bringing the second one down atop me. I pulled my knees to my chest, only to be enveloped with flame. Lyrena ripped the succubus off of me. I sprang to my feet and drove Excalibur into its gut in two coordinated motions.

There are so many of them. You need to send more forces toward the center , I told Arran. Maybe he would follow my suggestion; maybe it made no sense at all and he’d know better.

Grab Lyrena’s arm. Through the void.

Women screaming and screaming and screaming. My husband.

The sea was wilder now that we’d passed the center of the Spit. The Crossing. Whatever the fuck it was called. From this position, I could just see the cliffs in either direction through the now steady rain.

Lyrena fought at my side, but all the succubus around me were on the ground. Where—how? There were no terrestrials. Was the sea swallowing them up? How could that be? Did the monsters drown? We should have started pushing them into the sea months ago.

“We need to go farther,” I yelled to Lyrena. But the wind and the rain stole my words. Or was it the roaring of the sea?

The waves attacked the edges of the narrow strip of land, vicious and driving. A torrent of water spiraled upward, then plunged down, taking a succubus with it. How—

I don’t understand.

I felt Arran’s jolt. I hadn’t meant to say that. I reached for Lyrena, halfway into the void already. My fingers touched her wrist—but there was nothing there.

The world spun around me, a second of darkness and then a burst of gray and clouds. I was alone. I’d left Lyrena behind.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Arran. Lyrena and I are separated.

But I was not alone.

I was surrounded by strange blue creatures. And directly in front of me were two faces I’d thought I would never see again. Two males whose faces could only mean my death.