but I was still disoriented from the head blow.
“Not so powerful now, are you?” Edgar jeered as I backed up, trying to regain my composure.
Finn was now in my peripherals, fighting two of Edgar’s men, and even though his chest was bleeding and something had scorched his forehead, he appeared to be holding his own. Glancing the other way as Edgar advanced, bodies lay scattered on the ground from both sides. Edgar’s team had the experience, but whoever Finn had called upon seemed to have the drive for survival. Sometimes, that was more important.
“Are you ready to concede?” Edgar taunted and lashed out, but I dodged out of the way. “If you do, maybe I’ll let you live and use you to lure King Zephyr,” Edgar called out as he moved closer.
My moment of rest was over, and I kept my wings pulled in close for added protection as I moved in, knowing I couldn’t afford to let him get another solid hit on me.
Let’s finish him, the darkness drawled.
For the first time in a while, we were in agreement.
“Nobody will be conceding today,” I replied as I slyly pulled the grenade from my side pocket and lunged for Edgar.
His eyes widened at my move. Clearly, he hadn’t expected me to come in for a more hands-on attack, but I was done playing games with him. It was time to see just how many times this asshole could come back to life.
His right arm couldn’t move much, but his hand still produced magic I needed to be leery of. So, when I was close enough, my hands latched onto his shoulders, and I spun around behind him, pushing his head forward as far as it would go and dropping an elbow to the base at the same time that I shoved the grenade down his armor.
I would have rather sliced his stomach open and let the mini-bomb go off inside him, but hopefully this would be just as satisfactory.
Edgar grabbed hold of my wing and jerked me back around to the front of him. My wings cut at his hands, but he didn’t seem deterred by the blood pouring from his grip on me.
“Not so fast,” he snarled as he managed to tug me even closer back to him.
A sliver of fear trickled through as I fought against his hold that didn’t seem to be letting up. I had no idea what was in the grenade and really didn’t want to be within the blast radius. I cleared my mind and let instinct take over, trusting myself to know what to do.
My arms reached down and snagged one of the daggers from my boots. Without hesitation, I raised the blade and slammed it into his neck, cringing as his blood spurted all over me, but it had done the trick. His left hand released me in an attempt to staunch the blood flow, and I jerked out of the right one.
Edgar’s hand glowed red as he tried to close up the wound I’d made while I backed up. Finn was close and breathing hard, so I pumped my wings several times, sending him and his opponent tumbling several yards away.
My eyes stayed on Edgar’s, and I heard the click of the grenade at the same time he did. “What did you do?” he hissed.
I raised my hand, wiggling my fingers. “Here’s to hoping I never see you again.” Then, I wrapped my wings around me to avoid as much of the impact as I could. Though, I still peeked through my feathers to see the proof that the grenade actually did what I needed it to.
Edgar’s body shook, and the ground began to quake until fissures appeared in the dirt. All the fae I could see from my spot began flying for the sky except Finn, Edgar, and me. I would see this through until the very end.
First, Edgar’s armor started to crack until golden light shone through from the inside. Then, that same light beamed from his eyes and mouth.
Holy hell, why hadn’t I known I had this? It would have been more useful on the king.
Then, for the finale, Edgar exploded just like I’d hoped, and I tightened my wings around me to avoid the metal of his armor from slicing my skin open. The blood and gore, though, I wasn’t so concerned with.
Momentary silence settled over the farm as Edgar’s army took in their leader being blown to bits. After what felt like minutes, chaos commenced once