curls and bright blue eyes that swirled like his, but in the same shade of Olivia’s. A tiny tail slipped from Alannah’s hold as we took in the teeny horns at the top of his son’s head. Little black wings unfurled from his back as Ristan watched.
“I can’t do this without her,” he sobbed brokenly, dropping to the floor beside Olivia. “I need her. I can’t do this alone.” He didn’t move toward the child, didn’t look back at him as he pulled Olivia’s body against his, rocking it silently.
“You’re not alone,” I said, slipping through the blood to sit beside him. My arm held his as I stared at him. “You’re never alone, Ristan, we’re with you. We are all with you forever.”
“Prepare the bodies for burial, and then alert the other courts of what occurred here,” Ryder stated, his tone cold and empty. I turned to gaze up at him, and he winced, taking in the damage to my face. “I want the Blood King and Dark King here to prepare to launch an attack immediately.”
“Adam is the Dark King, and Liam is the Blood King. Three kingdoms fell to Bilé.”
“Four Kingdoms fell,” he stated, moving to where Sinjinn held Savlian’s shaking form. “We murdered thousands of them, and yet they had enough to reach here and initiate an assault. Why wasn’t the tower secured?” he asked, accusation burning in his tone as he glared at me.
“It was secured. I locked the door myself. They were all in here, cornered, where Bilé found them and lay waste to them as they used their bodies to defend the nursery. I fought Bilé’s men outside the gates and secured the castle. I had troops placed around the entire fortress to alert us should anyone try to gain entrance during the battle. We fought them, we won. I thought we’d won.
“The alarm sounded, and then a nurse threw Fury out the window. They started throwing babes out the windows to save them while Dristan and Sevrin held the room, blocking the door,” I sobbed. “Bilé wasn’t supposed to reach inside. We expected him to be fighting you. I did everything you told me to do, and I lost. We’re losing this war because he is a god, one my mother invited into Faery. He is immune to the wards, unaffected by the magic in this world. He’s the fucking God of Death, and I’m not strong enough to fight him.”
“You’re not alone,” Lucian said. “You have us.”
“You have me, and I’m War,” Erie said. “The problem isn’t strength. You’re fighting the man your mother trusted with all of her secrets. Danu built this world for them, their own fucking oasis. They abandoned her people to create a new world, and she built Faery for Bilé. You have to stop thinking in terms of saving this world and consider letting him have it. It may have been your mother’s home, but it was his too.”
“I can’t walk away from this place. My mother told me to fight for it.”
“It’s not worth fighting for if you lose everyone to keep it. What do you plan to do when you have no one left to share it?” Erie asked.
“We need to bury the dead,” Ryder said. “We have new kings to crown and plans to make. I’m done fucking losing. It’s time we fight them head-on. It’s time to call in all favors owed, all oaths. If we have to, we will leave Faery to the monster who wishes to claim it. I won’t lose any more family for a piece of land, Synthia. I didn’t kill my father to lose my brothers. I murdered Alazander to save Dristan’s life, and now that seems utterly worthless, doesn’t it?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
I sat numbly on the chair beside Ryder, who watched the remains of our family and friends being placed on the pyres. He didn’t speak, but then what the hell did you say at a time like this? We’d lost epically, and the mages were probably celebrating right now.
They were willing to throw bodies at us, allowing their armies to be slaughtered to hit us in