Page 71 of Our Vicious Oaths
Malachi held his own against Rishaud once, even wounded him, she reminded herself in order to break free of the dread that wouldn’t serve her well in any way. Fear was a weakness, especially in warfare.
However, she had no hope of quashing the grief that gnawed away at her too. The low number of kongamato fliersthey’d face off against should’ve washed her in relief. But the fact that there’d be any at all was the very thing that made her stomach lurch. She was bound to the vow she’d given Malachi regardless, and by extension so were her Nkita, but to pit war serpent against war serpent, flyer against flyer, Aether fae against Aether fae … those deaths would haunt her every time she closed her eyes. Just placing her Nkita and their own kongamatos in this position would eternally haunt her. It was a risk she thought she’d mitigated by turning the vassal kings to their side. Her stomach churned more violently at her failure and the additional Aether blood that was about to be spilled.
Malachi’s hand brushed against her arm. It was a comforting, intimate gesture that she leaned into and drew strength from, all while marveling at the fact that the many revelations and confessions they’d shared in his bed meant they were really committed to doing this. Moving forward like a wedded pair of high monarchs in earnest. Despite the dire situation, a sense of solace enveloped her, and this time she didn’t ignore the sense ofrightnessthat stole over her. She seized it and clung tight, letting it and Malachi’s touch bolster her further. Whatever devastation the battle brought, she wasn’t facing it alone.
“This is a war I stoked, not you; let me bear the sole blame of whatever Aether lives are lost,” Malachi said quietly against her ear as if he knew what she’d been thinking. “Your thoughts are clear in the wrinkle of your brow,” Malachi said in answer to the inquisitive look she gave him. His large hands cupped her cheeks, his thumbs met in the center of her brow and smoothed away those wrinkles. Then, he dipped his head and kissed her. It wasn’t the voracious, demanding,hungrykiss that usually set her aflame. It was thorough and slow and—in typical Malachi fashion—it underscored a point. “I release you from your oathto fight this coming battle. And in case you need any additional proof of my intentions toward you and our future child, let this be it,” he said against her lips. “If you desire it, I’ll give you the location where Trystin will be headed. Take your Nkita, and your war serpents, and our babe, and go be—” His hands still cupping her cheeks flexed. His jaw ticked as if he was going to say more and forcibly severed whatever it was.
Go be safe with our babe!
The plea that sounded in her mind was more of a tortured, ragged growl that knocked into her with the force of a battering ram. She sucked in a breath. Looked at Malachi with wide eyes as her Marking burned. She touched two fingers to it, her head spinning. Those words hadn’t been some inner voice of her own guessing at what Malachi might be thinking. She knew they’d been his actual thoughts from the way he gazed back at her with eyes just as wide and startled as hers.
“Is that something else the Markings are known to do?” she whispered.
“It is as tethers between two individuals grow stronger,” Malachi confirmed.
Her head continued to swim from the revelation, but that sense ofrightnessstayed with her over them becoming more closely, more inextricably, linked. However, she didn’t have time to wonder at where she and Malachi had started out and where they’d ended up. She’d allow herself to get all sentimental after the battle. For now, she looked to Leisha, who stood across the table and held her sister’s gaze, making sure they were still on the same page about the decision Kadeesha had already made and discussed beforehand with her squadron when she’d alerted them to the likelihood that came along with the impending attack.
When Leisha nodded in the affirmative, Kadeesha told Malachi, “I’m not going anywhere, and I do not accept being released from my vow. You held up your end, now I will hold up mine. Me and my Nkita will stay and we will fight.”
“You don’t have to offer that for—”
“It isn’t foryouor out of a sense of an owed debt,” she told him. Okay, maybe it was partly for him because when she thought about him possibly perishing, her heart stopped dead in her chest. But it was also about something far greater. “Rishaud has formally laid claim to Aether lands and its faefolk. By every recorded law that would be recognized by the folk of the Six Kingdoms, in order to reverse Rishaud’s claim and truly become the Aether queen, I must be on that battlefield. I must fight and take back the Aether throne, even if I am fighting against the folk of my own court.”
Malachi nodded in understanding. “Then that’s all there is to say, and I am glad to have our own war serpents on our side.”
The enormous oak doors to the war room groaned open. Everybody standing around the table pivoted toward them. Shadows raced to meet whoever was intruding since guards had been positioned outside with strict orders not to let anyone inside. Alongside Malachi’s assault, his Cadre formed void blades in their hands. Kadeesha manifested a ball of aether fire and Leisha held a pair of newly acquired battle axes—ones made of the precious onyx and steel alloy that made Apollyon blades so infallible and lethal—that she’d gotten from the palace’s armory.
It was only when they saw who walked in that the warriors in the room stood down: Zayvier, wearing black battle leathers, and Samira, clothed in purple flying leathers, marched inside. Neither looked happy. Zayvier held his own void blade in hisright hand. It was a gleaming black claymore. He shot seething glares at Malachi, Dedrick, Shionne, Jakobi, and Kiyun. “You are all out of your minds if you think I’m not fighting this battle and that you’re shuffling me off with Trystin instead.” The Apollyon male spoke with a reserved tone that was in stark contrast to the death glares he gave Malachi and the others.
And that glare was nearly identical to the one Samira leveled on Kadeesha and Leisha. Samira held a glittering black shortsword in her hands. “I am not running off to wherever the Apollyon civilians are headed,” she told Kadeesha. “I am your third and whenever you go to battle, my sole place is at your side.”
Kadeesha looked her sister over before speaking. Although any words she might’ve sputtered would’ve immediately gotten clogged in her throat. Tears pricked her eyes. She’d let them fall later after the battle. She hadn’t been able to justify carving out the time to make it to the infirmary, but Samira was standing in the war room awake and whole and healed and strong enough to be furiously staring her down and holding weapons.
“Hell yes, your place is beside your sisters,” Leisha grunted. She didn’t rush toward Samira either and lose it over seeing their sister standing upright. But the rigid set of Leisha’s shoulders told Kadeesha that the need churned inside her to break down in relief the same as with Kadeesha.Later. Wewillsurvive this battle, she silently promised them all,and reunite properly later.
Just one more vow she meant to uphold.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
SHE AND MALACHI STOOD IN A FIELD THAT WAS ALMOSTtwo miles away from the palace. The army of one hundred thousand strong that Malachi had been preparing to invade Hyperion lands with was spread out behind them. As Malachi had briefed her during the war council session, it consisted of void battalions whose members wielded shadows as their primary weapon and non-magical auxiliary regiments that consisted of archers, spearwielders, slingers, swordwielders, and cavalry atop massive black and gray mountain horses. Each of the auxiliary soldiers held weapons forged of onyx and steel at the ready. The archers had strung bows with arrows that glittered black from nock to arrowhead. The deadly points of the spearwielders’ long, narrow weaponry were a luminescent black as well. So were the various claymores, scimitars, battle axes, and swords held by the infantry. Even the slingers hadn’t loaded their catapults with normal boulders. Instead, they’d used black spheres that were thrice the size of Kadeesha’s head. She hadn’t stopped gawking at the sheer size of the Apollyon army since they’d assembled in totality behind their king. The Aether Court boasted about a hundred and fifty KongamatoFlyers and thirty thousand infantry, and it was widely considered the largest among the southern dominions, which had always kept her father in an advantageous position above his fellow vassal monarchs. The Six Kingdoms’ armies combined, Rishaud’s included, maybe surpassed Malachi’s numbers by only fifteen or twenty thousand. That difference meant squat when clashes between immortals imbued with magic came into play. One exceptional magic user with a particularly deadly talent could take out thousands of enemy soldiers in less time it took to draw a full breath. And that said nothing of runes being weaponized.
Still, the breadth of faekind that was about to embark on this chaos was staggering. Especially consideringnoneof the military reports she’d ever seen in regards to the Apollyon forces had cited a number that even came close to the true multitudes. Malachi, and Nychelle before him, had done an exceptional job concealing the full might all these years. The Apollyon royals hadn’t simply rebuilt their court to its former strength; they’d soared past it. Malachi had, oh so arrogantly, tried to tell her. Now she got why he’d had that level of confidence to pull the stunt that he had at her marriage ceremony with Rishaud: The Apollyon king truly was prepared for the fight he’d picked. The knowledge madeherfeel a hell of a lot more confident about the coming battle when Rishaud’s army came into view on the horizon. Leisha, Samira, and the rest of her squadron circling overhead kept Kadeesha calm too. As did Zahzah, who stood at her back, her long neck protectively curved over Kadeesha and steam spewing from her snout. When the squadron of Aether flyers Rishaud had brought with him dropped into view a heartbeat later, Kadeesha stiffened and Zahzah’s agitation hurtled down their bond.
The Hyperion king will die painfully!Zahzah thundered. Kadeesha’s chest ached at the anguish in her voice.
We don’t need to kill them, she projected to Zahzah. She made the decision right then and there.Disseminate the information to the rest of our squadron that the aim with any kongamato or flyer is to neutralize them as a threat. Only use lethal strikes when unavoidable.
Zahzah’s presence faded from her mind and Kadeesha knew her war serpent was doing as she requested.It is done, Zahzah let her know a brief spell later.Let’s hope we achieve what we aim.There was something in her voice that concerned Kadeesha; Zahzah sounded more remorseful than she ever had before.
Kadeesha could understand that contrition, because it echoed her own.
Rishaud’s army held back from breaking into an advancing offensive push, maintaining their steady march as they neared. And at the fore was Rishaud. Kadeesha had no doubt that he was a king who’d lead his soldiers into war heading the charge. But his presence at the front of the armies was about more than that—it was the same reason she and Malachi stood out front and center too. Every aspect of fae society—even war—had been erected by their ancestors atop pillars of customs and etiquette and rules. One of those ancient customs dictated that the monarchs of opposing forces needed to formally parley first before moving toward full-out battle.
Similar to Malachi, Rishaud was clothed in fighting leathers and ceremonial armor. The latter consisted of a metal breastplate and shin and arm guards that blazed gold. A fiery sun, the central emblem in the coat of arms of the Hyperion Kingdom, was emblazoned in the center of his chest, all while golden flames that drew on the power of the sun blazed around him, limning his frame. Sticking close to their liege, two males atop white steeds flanked Rishaud. One was a soldier clad in the white-and-gold uniform of Rishaud’s court, holding awhite-and-gold banner that bore the royal coat of arms. The other was the high cleric who’d stood as the officiant of their interrupted wedding and whom Rishaud would need to bear witness to the parley. A generous portion of the remaining soldiers fanning out behind the two males wore white and gold, but Kadeesha spied many contingents whose uniforms were the colors of the vassal dominions. So many were clad in purple and black that her stomach clenched.
The menacing shadows that clung to Malachi danced around Kadeesha as well by the time Rishaud was a mere few paces away to parley. Except for the banner holder and cleric, he’d left the rest of his army about twenty yards behind.
Malachi waved his own cleric who’d act as witness for the Apollyon side forward. The female who’d presided over Kadeesha and Malachi’s ceremony the former night moved into place at the Apollyon king’s vacant side. Malachi then wasted little energy sizing Rishaud up for a second time. He simply raked a look down the length of the male that told the Hyperion king he was unimpressed. “I am pleased you’ve finally stopped hiding behind projection runes like a coward and have presented yourself to die early,” Malachi said as casually as if chatting about the weather.
