Page 10 of A Kingdom of Destruction

Her chest rose and fell, ribs constricting and pressing in tighter and tighter with every inhalation.

“This was too easy.” Stone loosed a breath, the strong lines of his cheeks taut. “It lacked the ferocity of previous attacks.”

Aven wordlessly slid her dagger back into the side strap on her thigh and searched for the last place she’d left her sword. “They seemed almost willing to die,” she replied quietly. “Did you notice that?”

Stone swallowed hard and answered, “Yes, I noticed.”

“The killswereeasy.” Sure, many of the fae put up a fight, but it did not feel the same as a normal ambush.

Generally, in those situations, the invading army did whatever it took to be victorious. She’d made her first kill within ten minutes and not through any sort of terrifying skill or last-minute save.

Her men had been shocked and yet the tide remained in their favor throughout the fight. For what reason? There always had to be an explanation. The fae were not usually this easy to kill.

“Perhaps it was a suicide mission,” she murmured for only Stone to hear. Her fingers trembled on the base of the wand and she leaned heavily to the side. “The fae were basically already here waiting for us.” The sense of smugness at finishing off the group of attackers faded and concern took root instead.

“Why?” Stone asked. “To distract us? To keep us in this clearing?”

His words ignited a panic inside of her. “Yes.” The word exploded in a rush. “Yes, exactly right, to distract us.”

Why else would they have fallen so easily?The fae never intended to win. They wanted to keep Aven in place?—

“Grab your weapons. Forget the rest.” She raised her voice to address her men. “We’re heading back to the capital,immediately!” The terrible sensation in her gut told her what she needed to know—they’d been played, maneuvered out here on purpose.

4

They were too late.

She arrived with one of the other battalions, the men bedraggled and the commander chosen to lead them missing in action. The others, she was told, had not been heard from since they headed out the previous night.

The field in front of the citadel had become a mass of blood and magic. The Mourningvale army stretched far into the depths of the greenery, breaking whatever stood in its way. None of their shields kept the swarm at bay, and the solid iron grates meant to keep the city gates impregnable had fallen.

Aven’s knees locked, bile rising in her throat. The fae must have brought every single man and woman in their army to take the castle. She thought her people held the high ground, yet opposing forces overwhelmed them.

Grimrose was at a disadvantage.

“My family. We have to get to the castle.”

She barely had time to utter the words before a fae with a blade in hand sliced at her. Words became impossible. Aven didn’t have it in her to speak, yell, or issue another cry to rally her men.

They would have broken apart and scattered if Stone hadn’t taken up the slack and forced her soldiers to form a barrier between them and the fae. Every one of her men became a physical blockade with their shields and swords, wands and guns.

Magic colored the air, making every inhalation stuffy.

Aven somehow made it to the gate, the bent and twisted iron churning her stomach. The carnage inside?—

Guards had been impaled on magical pikes, keeping them vertical and facing out to the field as a warning for anyone who dared come inside the city. A full-scale attack… yet the soldiers around her fought as a single unit. They were unfaltering in their protection of her, and she was too far gone into worry to care. Not when her limbs were burning and her magic runes were somehow, miraculously, holding out among blasts of magical power meant to destroy them.

Should any of her men fall, she would be vulnerable because it was impossible for her to maintain her logic. Her family had been left with minimal protection, so certain had Aven and General Hunter been of their victory. A mistake. Ahugemistake.

On the battlefield, she was usually a machine. She was just as soulless as anyone else in the business of death. Today, seeing plumes of smoke curling up from the castle parapets, she lost her mind.

Stone and her men pushed the fae, gained a few feet forward, only to be battered backward time and again.

Screams tore through her system, striking her like a physical needle in her ear. Fae soldiers descended on commoners and nobles alike.

So many bodies lay on the ground, some piled on top of one another as though the citizens had tried their best to protect their families, only for all of them to be cut down. Aven saw an opening between two soldiers and launched herself into thespace, leaving Stone and the others swearing behind her. She cut her way through the enemy and aimed for the doors to the castle. Those massive oak doors had stood for a hundred years, more, silent sentinels heavy enough to need three men on either side to open them.

The stench of burning flesh grew stronger.

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