Page 87 of Fae Reckoning

“By the Ethers,” Hiro exclaimed on a swift, grief-tinged moan. “Tula … I hadn’t even recognized her, what with…”

Compassion prevented him from describing the sight of my second cousin. Her body was whole, her head firmly on her shoulders, but her eye sockets were hollow, dark as shadow, her face pale and cadaverous, as if her essence had been sucked from her like a beverage through a straw. She was paper-thin skin stretched taut over a skeleton. There was no sign left of her easy smile or her twinkling eyes.

“Fuck,” Ryder said. “That’s just…” Without turning to look at him, I knew he was shaking his head to dispel the shock. My brothers had known my second-cousin well. “So, so wrong,” he settled on.

I gulped, my thoughts leaping to gratitude that Larissa and Ramana were safe and far, far from here.

A thunderousboomshook the stone walls and floor, rattling glass in their panes high up along the walls. One at the end of the hall shattered with a loudpop, and then a musical tinkling as shards rained down to the floor. Like true thunder rolling through a deep valley, the shaking continued, fading slowly.

“W-what was that?” Azariah asked, practically stepping on Bertram as he pressed his weight against him.

El grimaced. “If I had to guess, I’d say Einar’s joined the fight. That could either mean our forces are about to win and he’s helping deliver the final blows, or…”

She didn’t finish her thought. None of us needed her to. Einar might be rushing to aid our allies in a last-ditch attempt to pull victory out of their asses.

Elowyn eased between me, Xeno, and Ryder. I had to forcefully resist my instinct to tuck her back behind me in relative safety. My fingers twitched around the grips of my dagger and sword. I stepped forward to stand beside her instead.

The walls stilled their shaking as she tilted her chin upward and squared her shoulders. She called out, “I am the true queen of Embermere, chosen by the landand its magic. You shallnotattack us. You will let us pass unharmed, and in return, when the fight is over, I will do my best to free your essences from the prisons of your bodies so you may pass on to the Etherlands.” Her gaze slowed across Russet Sterling, who’d done his best to behead her in the arena. “Or the Igneuslands, depending.”

The undead only moaned louder, rocked harder.

“Isaid, stand down,” commanded Elowyn—my mate, my queen.

Millicent was first to bare her teeth and hiss, ringlets framing what had never been a pretty face, even in life, despite objectively pleasing features. The others took up the hiss as if it were a call to arms. Millicent snapped her teeth continuously at us. Her head wobbled in her hold from the fevered movement; her fingers tightened around it like claws.

“That’s…” Reed swallowed loudly. “I won’t be forgetting that sight anytime soon.”

“I hear ya on that, brother,” Roan said, leaning his ax on the floor to tighten the bridle around his head. “Don’t think I’ll be forgetting enough o’ this for a long time to come.”

“Mmmhmmm,” said Ryder.

Millicent hissed so vigorously that spittle sprayed from her mouth.

I lunged and slashed at her with my sword. Despite her solid appearance, my blade swung through her without disturbance, save for a brief shudder of the image, which wavered like a cloud before coalescing.

“So weapons don’t work,” Ryder said. “Fucking great.”

“Hiro, try turning her head into a flower or something,” I suggested.

“My power only affects the physical form of living beings.” But he’d already closed his eyes to focus. After several seconds, he shook his lavender head. “No. Nothing. She’s impervious to my magic.”

Millicent hissed some more, spittle dotting her chin in fat drops. The ringlets framing her face shook with her fury. With a cringe, I crouched so my gaze was level with her detached head, careful to maintain a body’s length distance between us.

“Now that’s something you don’t see every day,” West muttered.

“Let’s hope we never do again,” Reed said.

“No shit,” Xeno commented.

“Careful, Rush,” Elowyn said. “Is it safe to go into the mind of the dead?”

“Probably not.” I was going to try anyway.

I willed myself into Millicent’s mind. Though her eyes never wavered from mine, there was nothing to find. I straightened. “Her autonomy’s gone. She has no will of her own, no thoughts of her own.” I shook my entire body to dispel a lingering cold that had tried to take hold of me.

Ryder spun to face everyone in our group. “Who else has something that might work? My illusions will be useless.”

Heads shook in the negative while the undeadcontinued to hiss, rock, or moan eerily. Necromancy was so profoundly forbidden that no one even referenced the dark art of old. I for one had believed no trace of it had remained in Faerie, where the elves had clamped down on its use with threats of capital punishment.

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