hasn’t fucked up enough that I can put him back in it yet,” she explained, shrugging when my face scrunched up. The war drums sounded, signaling the mages had grown tired of waiting. “Call in the oath, Synthia.”
“I don’t know how.”
“Destiny, I suggest you start explaining how it works before we end up losing Faery, and Danu rolls over in her grave. She was such a drama queen,” Erie snorted, still measuring the heads of the creatures that stood opposite of us on the battlefield.
“Synthia, repeat after me.” Destiny held my hand, and I dropped the other, turning to listen as the warriors behind us coughed. “I, Synthia, Daughter of Danu, claim the oath that was owed to my mother.”
“No,” Erie interrupted. “Call in all of them, because the war won’t be finished when this fight ends. If I am to be here and fight with you, I need to be able to say I had no choice.”
“I, Synthia, Daughter of Danu, call in the oaths you owe my mother, Mórrígan.” I stared at Erie as she lifted a delicate brow.
“Mean it, Synthia. We’re out of time to be fucking around. The Mórrígan. Not Mórrígan.” She bristled as if I should know the difference.
“I, Synthia, Daughter of Danu, call in the oaths owed my mother by the Mórrígan. Heed my call, and fight beside me, Goddess.”
“My fucking pleasure,” Erie said, skipping away.
“Wait, where are you going?” I asked, watching the craziest of crazies skipping barefooted toward an entire army of mages. My eyes widened in worried as creased my forehead in confusion. “Erie, where the hell are you going? That isn’t the plan!”
“To fuck shit up, duh,” she chuckled. “Fódla, Banba, to me now!” she shouted above the drums.
I watched as Erie’s sisters appeared before her, vanishing the moment she stepped through them. She cracked her neck, approaching the army without a shred of fear. I turned, studying Destiny and the way she stared at Erie with a look of worry.
I looked back at Erie, watching the redheaded warrior close the distance between her and the giant that marched toward her. He carried a wicked-looking club adorned with spikes that he was swinging back and forth. Erie started to run forward, materializing twin swords in her hands right before she reached him. Stabbing the blades into flesh, she used them to climb the giant, slicing his throat, sending his body into a flip. Erie landed on the giant’s back. She opened her mouth, and a large unkindness of ravens began to flood from it.
I blinked as my mouth opened and closed. Because that wasn’t freaky? No, it made perfect sense for the tiny redhead to open her mouth and release hundreds of ravens from her lips. Right? Right? You couldn’t make this shit up, not where she was concerned.
“Did she just throw up ravens?” I asked, turning to Destiny, who smirked, her worry gone the moment the birds slipped from Erie’s lips. I blinked, watching her to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.
“She’s the Mórrígan and the Goddess of War. She is an army within herself, and those are her Raven Guard. She can only call them if she blesses a victor of the battle. She’s blessing you, Synthia.”
The battle line moved, and I stared down at where the fae were itching to be allowed to fight. “Hold the line!” I shouted, and then listened as my words echoed down the wall of fae that stood between the mages and the castle, circling the entire stronghold, guarding it. The back was less protected, but enough fae were defending it and would sound warning us should an assault be tried from any other angle. “Hold the line!” I shouted again. I turned to Icelyn and smiled. “You’re on; freeze the ground and drop the temperature.”
Ice formed across the ground, forcing the mages back as it crawled up their legs, trapping them to the land with icy claws. It forced the mages closer together, and Erie was mowing through them with ease.