in blood and his shirt had a tear across the chest, but she couldn’t see any damage to his skin.
Cindy continued to look around and flinched when a huge boom of thunder filled the sky, as if attempting to prepare her for the next shock—one she hadn’t seen with the seer sprites because she’d already been running to meet Nissa. She saw the king of the warlocks, lifeless, with his mate flung over his body. Lilly was weeping. Her daughter and grandson were in the hands of the enemy, and now the man she loved was gone.
Cindy couldn’t let her eyes stay on Lilly and her mate. The pain so obvious in the woman’s shaking shoulders was too much to bear, especially with the added anguish of what she’d seen happen to Alina. Cindy looked up into the night sky and saw dark, angry clouds moving in as lightning flashed down from the heavens. The ground shook with the force of the bolts. A moment later, the rain began. First, heavy drops fell sporadically, but in a matter of seconds, she was caught in a downpour. Then the rain morphed into small circles of sleet, which continued to grow larger. Cindy held her arms over her head, trying to protect herself from the painful ice.
There were grunts of pain around her, but no one moved. Not until Cindy saw Cyn and Elle pushing themselves, slowly with grimaces on their faces, to their feet. Adam was the next to stumble upright. All three of the fae held up their hands, and the pounding sleet froze in midair. There were a few other fae that clambered to their feet and joined the first three. The wind didn’t stop, nor did the thunder or lightning. But at least they weren’t being attacked by the skin-damaging sleet. When Cindy turned back to Peri, she knew that what they were experiencing was the physical manifestation of the high fae’s grief. The torment going on inside of her was so great that she wasn’t able to keep it contained. Cindy’s heart clenched painfully in her chest for what Peri might be feeling.
As she watched the high fae weep over her great loss, Cindy couldn’t help but wonder if the Order had already won. Would this be enough to take the fight out of the pack? Perizada, high fae and ambassador to the wolves, had been brought to her knees, literally. Would she be able to stumble to her feet as her comrades had? Would she be able to set aside her battered heart and rally their troops again? And if she couldn’t, what would happen to the world as they knew it?
Cindy saw Lucian settle beside his mate and then he howled. Cindy felt his pain in the mournful sound. She felt the hole inside of him as she realized that he’d suffered too. Vasile, his brother, was gone. The alpha had fallen the second his mate had. Cindy watched as Peri reached for Lucian’s hand and squeezed it tightly, even as she kept Alina wrapped in her other arm. A chorus of howls filled the night. One by one, they added themselves to the lamenting cry, which kept going like a train thundering into the night. A beloved mated pair, their alphas, were gone.
Peri finally lifted her head. The storm her power created raged around her. Thankfully, it was filtered through her mate, the Great Luna bless him. He’d no doubt saved the lives of their warriors. When she looked up, she saw drops of sleet frozen in the air, like sparkling clear stars come down from the sky. Her eyes shifted. Elle, Adam, Cyn, Nissa, and Riven held the frozen rain in place. The strain of the effort was clear on their faces. Her gaze moved past them, and she took in the destruction she’d caused. It was nothing compared to what the Order had done. And it was nothing compared to what she would do because of their crimes.
She heard footsteps and turned her head to see Gavril carrying Vasile’s body. Gravril’s eyes were filled with tears, and his jaw was clenched as though he was trying to hold back his emotions. The man’s back was ramrod straight, and his chin was held high. But as he lowered the fallen alpha to the ground and carefully laid him next to Alina, his head bowed, and he whispered in their native tongue, which Peri knew well. “By your great sacrifice, you have earned your