Page 113 of A Legacy of Wrath and Reckoning

Thralls’ screams mixed with soldiers’ cries and the clash of weapons, the dirt beneath their feet already drenched in blood and littered with bodies. At such close proximity, very little magic had been expelled by any of the Fae soldiers in her unit, and she silently cursed how badly they’d all estimated Ranon’s numbers as they moved through the streets, the ruined city in disarray around them.

Zylah spared a thread to find her brother, pride swelling in her chest as he effortlessly took on two thralls before moving on to the next. She might have had the advantage of being Fae, but Zack had been the King’s Blade for years, trained and honed his skill constantly, and that had never been more evident to her than it was now, following the path he cut through the thralls.

The first vampire appeared, a vanquicite blade in hand. Zylah evanesced through the fray to nullify the weapon, a small stab of pain pressing at her temples as she reappeared behind it and drew her sword. The male stood no chance as she pivoted, slamming her blade into his gut and twisting until it pierced the monster’s heart.

Fangs bared, black, empty eyes wide, the vampire hissed out its last breath. But Zylah was already shoving her boot against its knee to yank her sword free, just as another two vampires rounded a building onto the street. She didn’t evanesce to them, only nullified their weapons as three Fae soldiers surrounded them, her heart a beating drum in her chest and her back already damp with sweat.

Part of working together meant being strategic, and that strategy involved the humans focusing on the thralls and the Fae focusing on the vampires, but that could only work if the vampires didn’t possess vanquicite. A group of humans rounded on a vampire, and though they weren’t impacted by the vanquicite weapon it held, Zylah tugged at the blade’s magic regardless, another pulse of pain squeezing against her temples. Should the vampire cut them down, it would only be a Fae it came upon next.

You can’t break all of it.Holt’s thoughts were strained from concentration; there were far more vampires on his side of the palace district.

If every Fae soldier is dead by the time we get to the palace, the humans are as good as dead, too.Another thrall swung at her with nothing but its clawed hands, but Zylah narrowly evaded its grasp and shoved a dagger into its eye. The creature screamed and reached for its face, giving Zylah the opening she needed to take its life.

Holt’s frustration flared at her reply.Raif is still with Nye.

It could still be a trap.

She felt his agreement, ducking just in time to evade a thrall careening into her from its duel with a soldier. Zylah sucked in a breath, refocusing her attention on the vampire still fighting the humans. She evanesced to the monster’s side, slashing her blade across its neck and moving again before watching it fall.

Despite the chaos, the casualties, they were making progress, their unit advancing street by street as they’d planned, the white stone walls of the palace already in sight. With fewer thralls and the streets widening the closer they came to the palace, the Fae became braver about using their magic, the hum of it almost overwhelming Zylah’s threads and urging her to snap them in tight.

Between the evanescing and the vanquicite, there was the ever pressing need to conserve her magic, or her sight would be too greatly impacted. Though she’d taught herself to ignore the shadows in her eyes, without her other sight, she would be at a serious disadvantage, so every time the urge to use more magic tugged at her, she ignored it.

The others are in position, Holt told her as Zack led the soldiers to their way point at the palace walls. Here the units had been instructed to split, to swarm the palace grounds as a second wave of soldiers remained in the streets beyond. Another strange feeling danced over her skin and she cast her gaze to the sky as the red hue from the blood moon intensified.

“Zylah, come on!” her brother half hissed from his place at the foot of a rope ladder, soldiers scrambling up more ladders on either side.

Zylah took Zack’s hand, evanescing them to the other side of the wall and crouching low amongst the bushes with the rest of the soldiers. This part of their plan relied on her threads, and as she let them unspool across the entirety of the palace grounds, magic signatures lit up one by one like fireflies. Cloaked vampires. Hundreds of them, countless vanquicite weapons among them.

They weren’t just outnumbered. They were walking into a slaughter.

Chapter Fifty-Six

Fourgroupshadmadeit into the palace grounds, or what remained of them. Zack’s, Nye’s, Holt’s, and Kej’s. Zylah couldn’t help but feel a sense of injustice that Raif and Rose had made it when there had been no update on Rin and Arlan’s whereabouts, or if they were even still alive.

Soldiers slumped against the wall, hidden by the thick tangle of overgrown bushes lining the perimeter, though it wouldn’t be long before they were detected. Many were wounded, companions applying bandages, faces battered and bloody, a mix of black blood and their own.

There’s too many of them, she told Holt. Zylah would bet money on it that Ranon had amassed his most skilled vampires in anticipation of an attack, which meant they likely possessed magic, too. And too many of their soldiers were injured.

She resisted the urge to heal the soldiers nearest to her; though none were fatally wounded, the need to be strategic about the use of her abilities matched her desire to help. But it didn’t stop her from assessing her brother for injuries.

“I’m fine, Zy,” he muttered as he caught her gaze, handing her a water canister. She wanted nothing more than to take him far away from the city, to take everyone she cared about somewhere safe. But none of them would stand for running. Neither would she.

It was the desire to put an end to everything Aurelia had started that quelled her fears, to seek retribution for all that Holt had endured. For the tyranny Aurelia and her father had unleashed onto Astaria.

No sign of the priestesses,Holt told her, his urgency to find Aurelia and Ranon matching her own.

From what little they knew of Ranon’s rituals, he always required priestesses, and if there were none in the palace grounds…Raif lied.Of course he had.He’s with you?

I don’t think it was an outright lie; rather that Aurelia and Ranon have kept him in the dark. But I’m not letting him out of my sight from here.

Zylah trusted Nye, had witnessed firsthand the Fae’s battle skills, but her faith in Holt was unparalleled. She relayed every bit of information to her brother, taking in the way he silently issued instructions to the soldiers, humans and Fae, his hands forming gestures to direct them.

“I’m not glad for the circumstances, but I’m glad I got to see you like this. Leading them. It suits you,” she whispered to Zack as she continued to let her threads assess the movements across the palace gardens, searching, counting. Just because Raif feigned disbelief at Aurelia and Ranon’s whereabouts, didn’t mean they had to believe him. Deceiving others was something Zylah felt certain the vampire could achieve in his sleep.

Zack’s eyes shot over her ears, her weapons, and he grinned down at her. “I’m glad I got to see you like this, too. Watching you back there, you were incredible.”

“You shouldn’t be watching me. I have magic; you don’t.”

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