* * *
R ick froze, his gaze strafing the crowd around him until he found us. I raised my hand. He wove through the throng of people on the street and slipped past displaced cobblestones.
“Damian, is everyone back?”
“They’re headed this way with Graybeard.”
“How long?” Ranger asked. “Stacy has been preaching some ridiculous bull shit.”
“Is that why your so-called soldiers opened fire and injured commoners?” Nixie asked. “It’s disgraceful.”
“You mean the protesters?” Ranger shook his head. “You have to understand, I think these morons hate the protesters as much as they hate their enemies.”
“What are you saying?” I asked.
“I’m saying they’re not referring to them as civilians anymore, but as the Devil’s prophets or some such shit.”
I clenched my fist and cursed. “And what good will it do bringing the others back here?”
“When they left to help you, the rumor is they were running away from the damage they caused with their own hands.”
“What about Casper and the others? The unit we helped?”
“The soldiers they saved,” Nixie said. She didn’t pull punches, and she didn’t dance around the point. “If Graybeard had not been there, far more would have died. Both the wounded and the defenseless.”
“We can try to sort this out now that it’s over,” Rick said. “I’m due for a debriefing. I have to go.”
“Ridiculous,” one of the soldiers walking behind Rick muttered. “She’s one of those witches that attacked us. Why is she walking around free?”
I didn’t see the rock until it smacked into the side of Nixie’s face. She grunted and held a hand up to the cut above her cheekbone. “Who?”
I found the cluster of men. And I started toward them, Nixie beside me, before Rick held out his hand.
The Ranger stalked over to the men.
“You like that shot, Ranger,” the largest of them said. Rick said nothing, he simply struck the man with blinding speed. The soldier gasped and grabbed his neck before collapsing onto the ground.
“We do not fire on our own allies, be it with bullets or stones, so listen now. This is not over. Pull your shit together and make ready.” Rick spat on this ground beside the man. “If you have a problem with it, you can have a big chicken dinner instead.”
The two remaining hecklers stayed silent. They looked at the man on the ground, still working to breathe normally, as Rick walked away.
“God damn new recruits,” Rick muttered. His eyes widened, and he took a hesitant step backward, and then another. “What in God’s name is that?”
Nixie and I turned to find a shadow looming over the river; the titanic form of a dark-touched harbinger walking beside a towering translucent figure.
“That’s a sentinel formation.” Nixie frowned. “It’s a calling card of the queen.”
“That’s why she cut the earlier attack short,” I hissed. “Now Nixie is here without the force of her people.” I turned to Rick. “Do you still have the daggers? The bullets?”
“I … I don’t know,” Rick said.
“Casper had them before,” I said. “And some of her soldiers. Find her, find Casper’s unit, and get to high ground.”
“Make for the shop,” Nixie said. “Our best hope until Alexandra reaches us is the cu siths.”
“Aye,” Angus said, settling in on Nixie’s shoulder. “I’ve seen a cu sith take down more than one water witch in my day.”
“Run,” Nixie said.
I didn’t question it further. Angus and Nixie knew more about the history of the cu siths and the water witches than I likely ever would. I knew they’d been used in the Wandering War, and I knew they were heavy ground troops in that conflict. But as we dashed down the rough brick sidewalks, and the heads of the harbinger and the sentinel peaked above the rooftops, I worried what any of us could do against that force. I choked the doubt down and focused on my footing. Nixie could sprint for hours, while I didn’t have that luxury.
The harbinger roared, the wailing cry of a dark-touched turned into a basso howl. The few commoners who were still standing on the streets turned and fled. Some dove into storefronts and restaurants. I hoped they were only gathering a few essential items before leaving. I feared what the coming battle could do to my city, and I promised myself I would do anything to keep these people safe.
* * *
I hadn’t even managed to get the front door open before Bubbles shouldered it wide. The cu siths’ fur bristled, and they stared down at the river front. Our enemy was close enough now I could see they stood in the center of the river. That they had such height, beyond the depth of the water, was a terrible sight.
“Why one?” Angus said. “Why one harbinger?”
“They’re territorial creatures,” Nixie said. “It’s not uncommon for them to attack one another. Though I would’ve expected it to attack the sentinel.
I cursed. “Look at the sentinel’s shoulders. Do you see them?”
“Dark-touched,” Nixie said, surprise plain in her voice. “What is this? How is the queen controlling them?”
“There has to be a dozen of them. Bloody hell, how are five of us going to slow that down?”
Nixie splayed her fingers across her breastplate, and said, “Get your armor.”
I dashed into the shop, throwing the closet open and pulling out the vest with “Cub” embroidered across it. Hugh’s gift had saved me more than once, but as I flattened the Velcro straps, I remembered a weapon that might give us far more of an edge than the cu siths.
I ran up the stairs, skipping one with each stride, and hurried to the wall at the end of the library. I slid the trunk out and popped the latch, digging for the thick leather scabbard. I grabbed a black leather sheath as well, and frowned at the Key of the Dead and the splendorum mortem. The dagger I’d once used to kill a god.
I hesitated, and then slid the sheath for both the daggers onto my belt before securing it beside a thick iron buckle.
I hurried back to the front of the shop, and Angus stepped away from me as I exited. “What is that? The power, by the gods, I can feel it rushing off you.”
Nixie frowned and laid her hand on my forearm. “You can’t. You can’t use that on the dark-touched. We don’t know if killing one of those with one of Mike’s weapons will break his oath, and end his life.”
It was a terrible thought, that our most powerful weapon might only be used at the cost of one of our closest friends. I cursed. “If it becomes a matter of saving thousands, or taking that risk, I don’t know that I can say no.”
Nixie’s hand fell away. “I understand. But you must not use that casually. If Nudd realizes you still have it, he will bring his army down on you all at once.”
I looked away for a moment. “Let’s just try not to die today.”
“The power is not just coming from you,” Angus said. “It’s the cu siths. They’re drawing power from the nexus.”
“Will the queen sense it?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Nixie said. “I don’t have much experience with blood shields. The fact so few people know of the nexus tells me it is effective. But if Angus can sense it now, I don’t know what will happen when the fireballs pull on it in earnest.”
“Shit,” I spat. “Let’s move.”
“Now this is a battle,” Angus shouted, an edge of joy in his voice that made me somewhat concerned for the fairy’s sanity.
“What are you talking about? We have no plan, no allies, no backup, and we’re probably going to die badly.”
Angus launched himself off Nixie’s shoulder, and exploded into his full-size form, sending a rainbow of fairy dust across the ground. “As your people say, ain’t it grand?”
I exchanged a glance with Nixie. “He’s lost his fucking mind.”
“We’re still running headlong into an army. I’m fairly certain we’ve all lost our minds.”
Bubbles chuffed. And then she barked, only the sound didn’t stop. The bark grew into a thunderclap, and the cu siths’ fur began to glow. I hadn’t seen them draw so much power since Stones River, when we’d been victorious over the Destroyer, but we’d paid with Carter and Maggie’s lives.
Peanut’s booming voice joined Bubbles’s bark, and the cu siths grew into a glowing green comet. I couldn’t hope to match their speed, and neither could the fairies. The thunderous howls became the snarling, gnashing teeth of creatures unhinged.
“Nixie,” I huffed, unbuckling the belt at my waist.
She glanced over. “I hardly think this is the time.”
I laughed and pulled the sheath for the splendorum mortem off my belt before re-securing the Key of the Dead.
“If something happens, like what happened to the Old Man? Just take care of it.”
She took the dagger from my hand and frowned before nodding. She hooked the sheath into a heavy latch in the armor on her thigh.
“It won’t come to that.” She stared at me hard, the light from the cu siths becoming a blinding green sun. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
We crashed onto the riverfront about the time Bubbles and Peanut crashed into the harbinger.
“For Cassie!” Angus howled. The fairy shot forward as though he’d been launched from a cannon, his wings tight as a sword lanced out at one of the dark-touched perched on the shoulder of the sentinel.
The sentinel turned to us, the shadow of one hundred eyes flashing throughout its body, as I came to understand what the sentinel was: one massive creature formed from a platoon of water witches. I slid the focus out after I flipped the pepperbox into my left hand.
Light bloomed from the side of the harbinger, and I could just make out the shadowy forms of the cu siths inside that light; tearing, biting, and doing enough damage to draw the thing’s attention. The harbinger’s progress stalled, and it turned to face the ever-growing cu siths attached to its side. It swung one mighty claw, but before it crushed the cu siths against its side, Bubbles and Peanut launched off and latched onto its arm, their claws cutting deep furrows into the harbinger’s flesh as they rocketed toward its shoulder.
Angus circled back to engage another dark-touched, and he wrapped himself around the thing’s neck, stabbing into its eyes over and over. The dark-touched nearest him got a claw in his thigh. The fairy yelped, and then all hell broke loose.
Two rounds from the surviving tanks cut into the sentinel. Fiery explosions lit the inside of the creature before the water witches scattered. We went from having two enemies facing us to hundreds. The water swelled, and I had little doubt of what was to follow. The undines would create the wave, and if what Nixie had said was true, the queen’s attack would not be so precise. She would scour the city from the face of the earth, leaving only the dead in her wake.