Craig and I sat in the kitchen through the rest of the night, and when the first lights of dawn broke over the horizon, we tossed the empty bottle of grog aside and cooked ourselves up some sausage and eggs for breakfast.
We’d ranted about how unfair the world was, about his father and mine. About where we were now and the horrible realization that we could still fail.
He confessed he loved Kate and I confessed that though I did too, after what happened, I didn’t think I could ever feel as strongly for her as he did. Too much had happened I worried I’d never get over.
Kadin’s murder broke something inside me, showing me how cruel the world really was.
Once this was all over, I would be busy rebuilding Gregornath anyway, and aiding my people with their new futures. There would be no time to spend with Kate, or even Craig, for that matter.
If you all live, you mean, I thought darkly and suddenly, I wasn’t hungry.
We just tucked into eating, discussing our plans to speak to the council again and let them know we were going to revote on the Kate issue when bells rang out.
Suddenly, Craig cursed and was out of his chair in a blink, me right behind him.
We sprinted into the courtyard to see Luca helping a mud-caked rider dismounting and staggering forward.
“Sire! They’ve come, the enemy! They’re here!”
“And the others? What about the others at the breach?” Craig asked, holding the man up by his shoulders. “Answer me!”
The man gulped, shaking his head. “Dead… they… they killed them all!”
“Damn it,” Craig snapped, lifting his head. “Nora! Get him inside and to safety. Send for Tristan. Tell them the enemy is here.”
She bowed her head without argument and holding the rider up with his arm over her shoulders, she maneuvered him toward the doors.
Craig yelled out orders like a true king, and his soldiers burst into action making ready for the attack that was soon to come. T
he breach was only a few hours’ ride away, which gave us very little time to get ourselves in position.
Craig told me to get my armor on and get the shards from Lucy.
“I thought you said we couldn’t use them?” I asked.
“They might help,” he said with a shrug. “I’m willing to try anything at this point. Aren’t you?”
There was no arguing that point, so I nodded and took off to find Lucy. She reluctantly handed over the shards until I swore to her I would not let anyone kill Kate.
Her gaze held mine for a long moment before she nodded.
“I knew you’d come around,” she whispered, patted my cheek in thanks, and was off again.
Greyson and the other witches and sorcerers right behind her.
As I raced for the stairs, the shards clutched in my hand, I willed Kate to sense me somehow, to know we were still fighting for her.
My nightmare appeared before me, but I growled and shook my head. It wasn’t going to happen. I was not abandoning her. I put everything I had into those shards and nearly ran into a wall when they burned suddenly warm in my palm.
“Kate?” I stared at the few pieces as they hummed with power. “We’re here, Kate, and we’re going to save you, I swear it.”
The shards continued to hum but did nothing else. It would have to be enough.
By the time I dragged my leather armor on, donned my daggers and sword, and made it back to the courtyard, the iron gates sealed and locked, Craig was decked out in his full battle gear, the new Executioner blade already in his hand.
There was no talking, just the quiet clank of weapons being prepared, and arrows being dropped in buckets along the top of the wall. The catapults were cranked back, and for the first time ever, I wished modern technology worked within the realms. Guns and artillery would be extremely helpful right about now, but anything from the human world was always disrupted by the magic here. None of it worked the way it was meant to.
I took my place beside Craig, and together we marched up the steps to the top of the wall over the gate and waited, peering into the distance.
“Tristan and his men will be here soon,” he said quietly.
“Think it’ll be enough?”
“Gods no,” he admitted with a bitter laugh, “but if it buys us time to get Kate, get her back to who she’s meant to be, it’ll be worth it. The three of us are the only ones who can stop this. We need her to end this war.”
“I know, I just wish we didn’t have to lose so many.”
The wind blew the tall grasses across the plain, almost making it look like we stared out over a lake instead of a field. Beyond, the forests remained silent and dark.
I wasn’t sure how much time actually passed before we heard the first horses neighing, and the sounds of wagons and catapults being dragged closer and closer.
Craig’s grip tightened on his sword, and he stepped closer to the edge of the wall.
Luca frowned behind him, Nora at his right, but said nothing.
“They’re here,” Craig whispered. “Ready the men.”
Nora raised her hand out of the corner of my eye and I watched as the archers along the walls readied their bows, and the few dragon warriors left capable of fighting shifted in the courtyard below. Swords were drawn, and it was as if everyone held their breath together.
When the first plagued walked out of the trees, a chorus of growls started around me, including Craig.
But the only thing my eyes focused on was Kate.
I sucked in a breath as a flare of deep sadness and pain hit me hard, and I moved closer to the edge of the wall, peering at her.
She rode on a horse beside Cassius and Allis, Executioner at her back and that gauntlet holding her new shield on her left arm.
But there was something different about her.
“Craig,” I whispered, as my knuckles turned white from gripping the stones before me so hard.
“Do you feel her?” he asked, hopeful.
I swallowed hard, wondering if it was a fluke, but then the shards grew hot in my pocket where I’d tucked them away, and that same sadness reached for me again.
“You were right, she’s in there… but she’s losing the fight. If we don’t break his hold now, we won’t get another chance.”
Forrest…
Each time she whispered my name, it was another blow that threatened to send me crashing to my knees.
She was fighting tooth and claw to get free, but even her dragon was trapped.
All along the wall, demons and dragons shifted on their feet, leather armor creaking as they waited. The plagued army filled the field in mere minutes, but Kate and Cassius rode on until they were barely fifty yards from the front gate.
“Such a warm welcome,” Cassius yelled with a smirk at us. “I must thank you, Craig. Now then, where is Raghnall. I expected him to be a bit more… happy to see me.”
I kept my face carefully blank as Craig did the same.
It appeared Cassius was not all-knowing.
“I’m afraid he is indisposed,” Craig finally replied with a shrug. “Being killed will do that to a plagued I hear.”
Cassius’ smirk turned into a sneer, but it was Kate who gave her head a little shake, her hands fidgeting around the reins of her horse.
“Raghnall is dead?” Cassius shouted.
“That he is, which makes me the new king and you see,” Craig went on, “I don’t exactly accept those who have come to slaughter my people. Your best bet is to turn right around and go back to that cursed world. Leave us be.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Why don’t you both come down here and the four of us can discuss things in person.” He grinned at me, and I glowered right back at him.
The man who murdered my father was so close and, yet he wanted to speak to us under a banner of truce, for a few moments at least.
Craig stepped back from the wall and turned to me. “Can you control your anger if we go down there?”
“Why? We both want him dead.”
“Yes, but he still has control of Kate and Allis is down there with an entire army ready to attack. Chances of our surviving if we strike while we’re down there, alone, are very slim, my friend.”
Letting Cassius slip through my fingers was the last thing I wanted to do, but Craig was right.
“I will not kill him, at least not yet. You have my word.”
“Sire, no,” Luca growled. “You cannot go out there alone.”
“We’ll be fine, Luca,” Craig assured him. “But, if something happens to me, you are in charge.”
Luca exchanged a glance with Nora, but she looked at a loss for what they could do to stop their king.
“As you wish, sire,” Luca sighed and bowed his head.
“Forrest? Shall we?”
We waved at Cassius and Kate, and I saw them dismounting before they disappeared from sight as we left the wall and waited for the gate to be opened enough for us to slip through.
Craig gave the order for them to seal it behind us, to the dismay of his soldiers. They gave in, and when it sealed behind us, I began to doubt this plan of ours.
We moved through the tall grass together and stopped when we were fairly close to Cassius and Kate.
The latter glowered at us fiercely, but she seemed off. As if she wasn’t even sure why she was there.
“Now then, isn’t this better?” Cassius said with another grin. “No more yelling.”
“If you want to discuss terms then name them,” Craig stated.
“Ah, yes well, what I want is for you to leave Boshen to me and my commander here.”
Craig burst out laughing, and I inwardly groaned when Cassius face visibly darkened.
Craig’s smile was cold. “Is that all? You just want me to uproot everyone and what, move to another realm? That’s not going to happen, and you know it. Not without a damn bloody fight.”
“You see this army behind me?” Cassius pointed over his shoulder. “They will overwhelm your walls and kill everyone inside. Is that what you want?”
As Craig and he bantered back and forth, I watched Kate.
I pushed my mind toward hers, recoiling at first when I was met with so much darkness and hatred.
Forrest… I can’t… I can’t see…
I heard the words in my mind and sensed the pain eating away at her.
You have to fight, I whispered to her in my mind, no way of knowing if she could hear me or not. Fight it! You are stronger than this, Kate, stronger than him!
Kate blinked furiously and took a half-step back.
Cassius and Craig immediately fell silent when she growled, and smoke trailed out her nose.
“Katherine?” Cassius snapped.
“Fine, I’m fine,” she said, but then she growled louder, and I took my chance.
Unsure if it would work or not, I rolled all my emotion for her, and those of Craig’s, into one massive thought and reached out to her, willing her to embrace the connection that existed between the three of us.
My ears felt filled with cotton and my vision blurred while the rest of the world fell away.
All that remained was Kate.
She gasped the same time I did, and we both fell to our knees in the dirt.
She grimaced in pain as Cassius spat curses at us both.
“You will never get her back,” he seethed and spun around, throwing his arms to the sides. “Destroy them! Destroy them all!’
Craig grabbed my arm hard as I glanced up in time to see the entire plagued army charging at us across the field.