Page 70 of Crown of Wrath

Just thinking? Or worrying? “They’re going to try to convince us to fight them all. You know that, right?”

“I know. We can’t win that, can we?”

I want to tell her I can’t let her go to a fight like that. She’s not well enough. Her body is still struggling to fight for more than an hour. This is going to be constant for hours or maybe even days straight if there is an actual small army. During the Shattering, it took me almost twelve hours to fight my way through to Brenna. And I had help. I had people to clean up behind me.

This will not be like that. “I don’t think so. I don’t think you have the endurance for that fight.”

“It’s different from fighting the Nothing,” she says. “That was simple. Maintain a constant pressure and don’t let it touch you. This, though… this is complicated. Crossbow bolts and flying High Fae are so different. There are so many things to keep in my mind, and a single mistake…”

I nod to her. “We need to hear the specifics, but Maeve, we should probably rethink our approach.”

There’s a pained look in her eyes, but she nods to me. “Then let’s go talk to Aric,” she says.

Chapter 36

A single High Fae is stronger than a hundred untrained humans. A single High Fae royalty from a Great House is worth more than a thousand. With training, though? Six humans can bring down a High Fae from the Lesser Houses. Fifty can usually bring down one of the lesser nobility. Do not attempt to fight the Conduits or their heirs. No number of humans will win that fight. Only a Priest will have a chance against them.

~Sir Alistair Hawkings, Magical Combat for Humans

Maeve

We’ve had several run-ins with Aric’s small council at this point. Most of them stay quiet, but Sir Alistair Hawking is not.Ever. I know that I’m young. I don’t have the experience to make kingdom level decisions, but Cole has more experience than this entire council put together. He’s successfully fought wars with Immortals, and he’s successfully manipulated the most important people in the world.

So, when he gets that look on his face that means he wouldreallylike to choke the life out of the twenty-five-year-old man, I tend to agree with him.

“We should mobilize the entire army and march on the Fae,” he says nonchalantly, his legs propped up on the table as he leans back in the chair. It’s like he’s talking about a trade deal rather than possibly marching thousands of men to their deaths. “There are only five hundred of them. The scouts were sure that there weren’t any more hiding. There will be casualties, but five hundred of anything will die to five thousand archers.”

“Not High Fae. Especially trained House of Steel soldiers,” Cole seethes. “They will all die. Five hundred Steel soldiers could kill every human in your kingdom.”

The rest of the small council looks grim, but Alistair laughs. Aric glances from his Master of Defense to Cole, the Prince of the House of Flames, someone who’s killed hundreds of High Fae. “How do you know that?” he asks.

Cole smiles and says, “Because I could do the same, and five hundred House of Steel soldiers would give me pause.”

Alistair shakes his head. “There’s no way you could defeat my armies by yourself. You couldn’t stop a thousand arrows or beat a full cavalry charge. I’m sure that you could win any skirmish against humans, but you don’t even wear armor, Prince Cole. A stray arrow would eventually take you down.”

Cole smiles at Alistair, and I’m reminded of the times that he terrified me when I first met him. “That you believe that a human arrow would have any effect on me is how I know thatyou’re not nearly qualified to make decisions for a kingdom when it comes to dealing with High Fae.”

He takes a step toward the table, the smile on his face curling up higher, and I can see the heat waves beginning to pour from his body. I can feel a single emotion flowing through our bond. Pure joy. An emotion he’s perfected over the years.

It explodes from him in flames as he becomes the inferno. The carpet under him bursts alight, but thankfully, the stone underneath it doesn’t burn. The rest of the small council runs, and I get a glimpse of what it looks like when the ten most powerful men and women in the kingdom become terrified.

“Do you truly think that an arrow would hurt an inferno?” Cole’s voice says over the roar of the fire as he steps closer to Alistair. Everyone else has moved to get out of Cole’s way, but Alistair stayed, his eyes narrowing. He’s sitting up straight, his eyes on the walking fireball, but he hasn’t left his seat.

“Steel would,” he says.

It’s as though time slows down, just like when we’re in a battle, and I hear Cole’s voice through our bond. “Don’t interfere.” A command. Not because he outranks me or because he’s demanding it from me. It’s a battle command from the most experienced person in the room, and I trust him.

“Are you sure?” Cole asks, and Alistair draws his sword. It’s a functional sword, unlike the bejeweled side swords that the rest of the men at the council wear.

As a credit to the young man, he doesn’t waver as he holds the blade out. Aric tries to get him to put the weapon down, knowing that angering someone like Cole by threatening him could have him lash out at everyone here.

Both Alistair and Cole ignore the king, though. It’s two warriors facing each other down. “Step back, or I’ll take this as an actual threat,” Alistair says through gritted teeth. I know instinctively that if Cole had been anyone else, he’d have alreadycut them down for threatening him. King Aric didn’t put an idiot on the small council, but he doesn’t understand High Fae, and he certainly doesn’t understand Cole Cyrus.

And Cole steps forward. His hand moves as fast as if he were in a fight, and he grips the blade hard enough that when Alistair tries to pull it away from him, he can’t. Molten steel drips from his finger to the stone at their feet, and Alistair’s eyes open wide. “Are you sure that your steel would hurt me?”

“But the cage?” he stammers. “The stories. Even you said that High Fae are weak to steel.”

Cole lets go of the sword and steps back, the inferno disappearing and leaving him smiling in front of a fire on the rug. He lifts a hand, and the flames are extinguished in an instant. “Steel pulls our power, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to win a fight by swinging a sword at a High Fae. Especially House of Steel soldiers.”

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