Page 82 of Queen of Ever

‘Stay close to me,’ I said, taking her hand.‘Tell me if your magic starts to turn on you and take too much of you.If you feel dizzy or vomit or—’

‘Tarian,’ she cut in, ‘I’m a grown woman.Trust me to take care of myself.I managed it just fine before you rocked up and turned my life upside down.’

‘You weren’t trying to defend a rebellion against two fae legions then,’ I muttered as we walked the sloping path to that central chasm of the den, where Sylara was divvying up her forces into groups, delegating different sections of the tunnels.The reverberations from above were louder here, rattling clumps of rock and earth from the curling walkways rising up the chasm, scattering the ground with debris.The vibrations resonated in my chest like a drumbeat.

‘How are your wards holding up?’I asked when we reached her.

She shook her head.‘They’ve already fallen.I don’t think we have much longer before they break through.I want to group the two of you with Cassian to watch the northern tunnels.We suspect that might be where they’re going to break through first.’

‘Good.We set up a lot of defences there yesterday,’ Imogen said.

‘What’s your plan if they overwhelm us?’I asked, skipping past optimistic assertions that we were going to win.The chances were slim.

‘We’ll fight to the death,’ Sylara said evenly.‘If we surrender ourselves, it’ll be only for a mass execution.There is no plan if they overwhelm us.’Her gaze flickered between us, resting on me.‘I know that won’t be your intention,’ she continued, lowering her voice.‘I know you’ll want to get Imogen out before it comes to that.I only ask that you take as many of those we’ve locked below as you can.If they wind up in the hands of the High Fae…’ She trailed off, but she didn’t need to finish.I knew what cruelty would await them.

‘Alright,’ I said, thinking of all the children locked in Imogen’s diamond-coated cavern.‘We’ll take who we can.’

She nodded, something settling in her expression.Resignation, maybe.I had the sense that she was prepared to lose this fight.I drew Imogen away from Sylara before she could get it into her head that she had a way to change that.We followed Cassian and a handful of others that included Ethan up the chasm and then down another tunnel, this one frequently interspersed with the doors of residences, all standing empty now.The air felt unsettlingly still, the only sound that of our footsteps and the distant rumbling from the assault at the surface echoing through the walls.

Cassian turned back to us as we reached a junction, his features grim.‘The traps we’ve set will buy us some time and might catch them off guard, but they’ll be on us soon after they’ve been sprung.Our best chance is to keep them divided.They can only fight us in small numbers in the tunnels, but if they make it to the central chasm they’ll unite and we’ll be done for.Throw whatever you can at them to make them scatter, just try to stop short of a total collapse.’

Almost punctuating the end of his words, the ground shook with a violent tremor as a deafeningcrack!split the silence.Streams of dirt poured down from overhead, chunks of rock hitting the floor beside us as I yanked Imogen in close, the two of us ducking low.

‘That’ll be the first barrier,’ Cassian said as the floor steadied again.‘They’re in.’

‘You should have left us to the defences.If all yours are like that, they won’t need to get past us.The whole cave system will collapse,’ Ethan sniped, shaking his hair free of debris.‘God, you’re a real—’ Imogen drew near him, briefly touching his arm before he could continue, shaking her head when her friend met her gaze.

‘The friendly fire probably isn’t necessary,’ she said.‘Save it for the real enemy.’

Then we reached a crossroad between this tunnel and another and I caught the sound of movement, faint but unmistakable—soft footfalls, and the low murmur of voices.

‘Stealth,’ Cassian whispered, pulling back into the mouth of the other tunnel, drawing his blade.

A sudden crash reverberated through the tunnel, followed by a surge of magic that left an acrid smell to the air and a bitter taste in the back of my mouth.Out of the darkness ahead, the first of fighters appeared as dark shapes moving through the shadows.Two of the others with us rushed them with a scream, blades drawn, and immediately a wall of wind tore down the tunnel, howling as it centred on the two lesser fae, pinning them in the eye of a hurricane that knocked them both from their feet, tearing at their clothes.Grit pummelled my cheeks as a High Fae solider—Unseelie, dressed in black leathers and a steel breastplate bearing a crescent moon wrapped in thorny vines—strode forwards, hands still raised he wielded the wind.

‘How sweet,’ he drawled.‘They think they’re going to fight us.’

He wasn’t even looking at me when I hit him.Was too busy gloating to be on his guard.The wisps of destruction magic leapt from my outstretched hand and hit him between the shoulder blades.He screamed as it ate into his flesh, the wind immediately dying.I didn’t stay to watch him rot.Behind him, the rest of his squad were advancing, some fighting an onslaught of thorny vines ripping out of the ground, grasping at ankles and calves as Imogen turned the floor to a nest of adversaries.Cassian was already among them, blade flying, Ethan close behind him moving with surprising stealth and speed, wielding a weapon like he’d been raised to do it.Which, given his history, he probably had been.

Sharp pain drove into my shoulder.With gritted teeth, I ripped the arrow out of my flesh from where it had lodged in a flash of white-hot pain, before turning on the male with the bow.I ducked his next shot, struck the one after with magic as he and two other archers tried to scramble down the opposing tunnel.It happened in an instant; he was running, then all at once they were falling as the ground vanished beneath a misplaced foot, triggering a magic-disguised trap set over a pit of spines.The screaming shredded my ears as I approached the edge of the pit, looking down to see where they’d fallen.One groaned as he tried to sit up around a spine that had pierced his leg, another twitched around the merciless thorn sticking through her stomach.A third had somehow avoided impalement, and recognition flashed across his face as he looking up at me.

‘You,’ he spat, red-tinged spittle flying.‘Turning on your own.You traitor.’

I knelt to the rim of the pit.Said nothing as I summoned magic to my hands.Put them out of their misery.Seemed more charitable than leaving them impaled.When it was done I was on my feet, running back towards the junction in the tunnels.There were bodies on the ground, some lesser fae, some unseelie.Ethan and Cassian stood fighting back-to-back now, barely holding off the wave of soldiers that kept breaking against their blades.I couldn’t see Imogen.Panic snapped through me.I plunged back into the melee, ducking an ice-tipped spear as it whizzed past me, ice spreading where it embedded in the wall.Too many soldiers ahead, pushing past us, forcing Ethan and Cassian back.Magic churned in my hands as I fixed on a broad, helm-clad soldier bearing down on me, arms raised in a scream.I swerved, slammed a hand into his chest, the pulse of destruction immediately devouring his breastplate, eating into his flesh as I spun on the next one, shooting a pulse of destructive energy out at another.It went wide, hit the wall.Cracks appeared, spreading up the wall like spidery fingers, webbing out over the floor until the floor was eroding, becoming a hole that would swallow us.But Imogen was suddenly beside me, planting her hands on the floor, creating anew what I had destroyed, fortifying the floor and the wall.

‘Come on!’I had a hand on her arm, pulling her to her feet as Ethan and Cassian broke formation, running back down the passage.There were too many of them.We couldn’t hold them off.Imogen stumbled after me, blade drawn now, and I drew mine as we fell back.I wasn’t a damn swordsman.But the more magic I used, the worse my control.Exhaustion would weaken my aim.Already, my head was beginning to throb, and there was a slight tremor to my hands.I’d bring the tunnel down if I kept trying to fire from a distance.

A beam of blinding white cut through the rebels from the adjoining tunnel, hitting one of our allies.She shrieked, falling to her knees, burned from the inside out.Imogen jolted towards her, grabbing her arm, tugging her out of the beam.But she was already dead, slumping to the floor as flames licked around a charred hole in her stomach.

‘That’s a Seelie trick,’ I yelled, standing over her as those before us held the line.‘They must have breached another entrance.’

‘We’re not going to hold them.’Imogen’s eyes were wide, terrified.Shouts of relief joined the clashing of steel, and Marietta was surging past us, hair flying, plunging into the conflict with a flurry of swordplay I would never have suspected she could brandish.She moved as quick as lightning.And she’d brought reinforcements, more rebel warriors handling spears and blades.In another flash, light seared a path through the fighters, eliciting a new wave of screams, charring flesh.

‘Move further back.’I pulled Imogen to her feet, ducking as a volley of arrows soared overhead, finding targets behind us.‘I need to get the light wielder.’

‘I’m not just going to hang back and let others die!’

‘No, you’re going to reinforce the walls.’

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