former heir of Midnight, Tyr Evenfall. You may not like it, but you will obey. Any man seen killing unjustly will be reported to me and tried for the same war crimes as our counterparts." I searched the room, meeting the eyes of every Fae brave enough to raise his head. "We are not monsters," I told them. "We are Fae. We are warriors."
Silence echoed in the wake of my announcement and one by one, each Fae stood back and brought their right fist up, clenching and slamming it against their chest as a sign of respect. I nodded to them, an acknowledgment of their bravery, of their sacrifice thus far and future sacrifice if our war should need it, though I prayed to the Gods, we wouldn't.
"Go," I ordered. "Replenish your magic. Train and rest. We will leave for Norune Castle within the next two days. You have until then to prepare."
The men dispersed and I sighed, already feeling as if I were another hundred years older. "You spoke well," a familiar and welcomed voice said.
Turning, I offered Orion a small smile as he approached. "How is your recovery?" I asked.
He nodded. "I'll be well enough to travel with you when you go to this castle," he stated, stepping up to the table alongside me. He remained quiet for a moment and then he spoke again. "This is the beginning of the end," he said. "When the King is dead, and my brother, we will have won the war that has plagued us for decades."
"We should feel celebratory, shouldn't we?" I asked sardonically.
Orion's dark eyes rise to meet mine. "No," he replied. "It's understandable why you wouldn't. In war, there are no true winners. Only victors. We'll attain our victory."
I watched him curiously and sympathetically. Of all of us, he had given the most in this war. Few people truly knew of the horrors he had endured on the battlefields. The scars that coated his body were messages—remembrances of what he had suffered. Lifting a palm, I grasped the shoulder closest to me.
"When Tyr is executed," I let the words linger on the edge of a whisper as I spoke them. He and I both knew that there would be no other outcome. When Tyr was captured, regardless of whether or not the Queens would demand a trial, he would die. We couldn't allow any other conclusion, not after all Tyr had done. "We will be here for you—Sorrell and I—as we have always been."
Orion stiffened under my hand and moved so that he shifted out from beneath it. "I will kill him myself," he said suddenly.
"No, Orion." I began to shake my head, but before I could utter another word, a blast of darkness rushed out from beneath the cuffs of his shirt, startling me back. I reared away as smoke darker than the inky blackness of night seeped from beneath his clothing. His neckline, his pants legs. Soon enough, he was shrouded in it. Covered completely as the smoky darkness clung to his frame, wrapping it's disturbingly lifelike tendrils around his body until he appeared to be drenched in a cloak of his own making.
Darkness.
Shadow.
Cold, quiet, fury.
"I will end this," Orion announced. "Once and for all."
My lips parted, but no words emerged. It was all I could do to stare back at him, watching as the magic he usually kept contained was unleashed. A lesser man might have run. Perhaps it made me the same as a lesser man to admit that, in that moment, I feared him. I feared the ferocity in his tone, the wildness in his eyes that I hadn't seen since he'd first arrived at the Court of Crimson—silent, cold, and seemingly unfeeling. He'd been nothing more than a boy, afraid to love, afraid to care for anything, and far too broken.
He didn't need me to fear him now. He needed me to be with him. To help him. To center him. Mindful of the pain the shadows could cause, I stepped closer rather than away. I reached into it, grasping at his shoulders and shaking him slightly to get him to look at me.
"Together," I rasped as the skin over my knuckles and hands began to prickle. It was as though a thousand tiny needles were being driven into my flesh over and over again. I gritted my teeth and bore the pain. He had endured far worse. "We will get him and the King," I said. "And we will do it