jaw to bite down on Drake’s shoulder. The Night Captain twisted out of its reach and brought up his blade. The Dawn soldier on the back of the beast rammed into Drake, and they rolled on the ground littered with shards of glass. The lizard whipped its spiky tail into another Night knight. The knight pierced the monster’s lower middle with his blade. It bellowed with pain and rage, its tail sweeping the warrior off his feet and tossing him out the window. The knight screamed as he plunged from the top floor, soon to meet his demise.
Two branches of my vines shot out, one branch wreathed in thorns bashing at the beast and binding it despite its angry struggle, another acting as a rope and reaching the falling knight’s ankle just in time, pulling him up. As soon as the knight landed by the window inside the hall, my vine let go of him. He shot me a grateful look before thrusting his blade into a Dawn soldier about to stab a Summer knight.
I scampered toward Drake as a Dawn Fae gripped his throat. Then, suddenly, a spare dagger materialized in his hand, and he jammed it into the Dawn Fae’s ribcage and sliced upward. The sound was terrible and disturbing, and the Dawn Fae stilled, blood gushing out of his mouth.
In the midst of the brutal battle, many of our warriors fell as well. Yet I had no time to grieve for them.
Three Dawn soldiers surrounded me, their swords thrusting toward me. They should be my people, guarding me—their true queen, but they posed as my enemies and tried to kill me.
My eyes burning, my vines and thorns launched at them. I slashed Netherbane back into the gut of a Dawn Fae behind me while whirling like the wind and burying my other blade into the neck of the Dawn soldier on my left side. A blade jutted out of the chest of the Dawn Fae in front of me before he could cut me. His pale blue eyes widened, and he dropped to his knees, revealing Dad towering behind him. Dad gave me a nod and a grin as he yanked out the blade from the enemy soldier’s back.
I grinned at him, a bit savage under the circumstances. “Thanks, Dad.”
“Duck!” Drake shouted at us frantically.
Dad and I crouched, and Drake’s dagger sailed over our heads and bit into a dark mage’s throat. A cold draft caused by the flying blade ruffled my hair. The mage dropped in a heap, his eyes bulging with disbelief and denial. Well, it happened, dude.
His killing spells that were aimed at my father and me misfired and fizzled out.
There were so many deaths in the hall, but I couldn’t allow myself to dwell on it. Then a shot of anxiety and fear invaded my every cell at the thought of the safety of my mates. With Dad and Drake watching my back again, I allowed myself a moment of luxury to seek out my kings.
Brigantia’s black magic ripped into Rydstrom, forcing him to stagger back, rage distorting his face.
“Surrender to me, Night King. Be my consort, and all will be forgiven,” Brigantia said, power swirling around her in a blend of smoke and light.
I’d learned about her plan in Rowan’s castle. As soon as Rydstrom caved, she’d force the other Fae kings to submit to her. She’d then claim to be the prophesied queen, and Elfame would be hers. Her ambitions wouldn’t stop in faerie—she was set to conquer the human world as well.
“I’ll never be yours, Brigantia,” Rydstrom said viciously, his Night power pushing forward and knocking her back a pace. “I have a mate, and it’s always been Ileana Evelina, even before she was born.”
“What about your beloved Lady Catlin?” Brigantia snorted. “You’d throw her away like that after being devoted to her for over a century? Will you watch me cut her up and send all the pieces back to you? I’ll allow you to keep her as a concubine if you become my consort king.”
My heart stuttered at her disclosure. Catlin was one of the Night King’s dark secrets. Adele had once mentioned that Brigantia held Rydstrom’s beloved as a hostage in her Dawn Court to keep him at bay and prevent him from being with any other woman unless it was the queen herself.
The Night King laughed chillingly. “I never had a thing for Catlin. For a century, I pretended to care about her, to be besotted