Page 122 of Fate and Flame
“Is it now though? Who does the Marsh Court belong to? Coro didn’t have an heir.”
“I suppose that will all be decided later. Autus likely thinks it’s already his.”
“Do you think he’s—What the fuck is that?” I jerked up, squinting my eyes to the horizon.
Fen leaned forward, yanking Cal to the side and pressed his heels into him.
“Autus’ soldiers,” he said. “A small brigade. We’ve got to get our army to the border.”
“Why would he do that? I thought he wasn’t moving yet.”
“They’re small enough that they might not be detected. He’s testing us.”
I felt the rigidity of his posture and that call to battle began to creep over me. I wanted down. I wanted to stand before them and destroy them. But something better came to mind. “I have an idea.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
His heart raced against my back. The adrenaline and push to save his people drove him. We made it back to the castle bailey in half the time it had taken us to fly out to the border. Fen launched himself off Cal and was running before we could even lock down a plan. He knew what he was doing though.
Greeve and Gaea appeared as soon as the alarm sounded.
“What’s wrong?” Greeve asked, shoving the tail of his shirt into his trousers. His lips swollen.
“Send an urgent message to Kai in the sea and then find Fen, Autus has a group of soldiers headed for the border.”
He was gone on the wind.
I raised an eyebrow at Gaea.
“What?”
“Straighten your shirt, G. We’ve got to go.”
She didn’t bother, just clutched my hand. “Where to?”
“Umari.”
The world disintegrated into a thousand pieces. The ground fading away as we spirited. Within seconds we were standing near the oasis. We ran, sounding the alarm until the sky was filled with dark draconian fae, riding their beasts, screaming into the air and flying toward the border.
“To the battle, then?”
“No, they can handle the battle, we’ve got somewhere else to go. But we need to change into something warmer.”
She shook her head and crossed her arms. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
I rolled my eyes at Fen’s echoed words. “Did I miss a secret family meeting? My ideas are always genius. Just trust me.”
She grabbed me and we spirited to her room, which was actually Greeve’s room, apparently. There were weapons strewn about, his leathers tossed over a chair, and only a small pile of clothes that belonged to Gaea.“Here,” she said, shoving layers of long furs into my hands. “Put these on.”
“Where to?” she asked after we were both dressed and nearly sweating in the clothes.
“How close can you get me to the Western Gap?”
“Volos?”
“That will do.”
The shock of cold ripped through me as we landed. A blizzard blew so relentlessly I could hardly move. Gaea gripped my hand again, and the winds became tolerable, but the visibility was still a joke.
