Page 68 of Songs of Retribution

Weapons.Weapons that could cause a level of destruction we didn't understand. We hadn't even come up with a plan to face the Amentium cannons and now this. I'd felt safe with the dragon, but if my father possessed their minds, could turn the force of their fire onto our soldiers, I didn't know what we could do. Lennox and I could use ice, but we'd drain our magic, then the cannons would shoot. God, we were doomed.

Sai released a breath, as if he'd followed the trail of my emotions and my hopelessness had settled into him. A sinking feeling that this was all for nothing plummeted into me as we drifted into the dark.

* * *

The new camp was in the shadow of Kali’s caves next to the Alegre city’s ruins. We’d arrived the night before when Margo approached me as I stepped out of my tent. She dragged me away. Sai frowned, a question in his eyes, but I waved him off. If it was another siren, I might appreciate his intervention, but Margo was almost a sister to me.

We stepped through the milling war camp, and she pulled me up a hill where we could see the Alegre city’s broken remains. Now burnt and charred, the city had once been full of colors if it was anything like the underground version in the caves. An eerie stillness lingered around the space. It was full of ancient blackened buildings, their remains like cracked shells of what once was. Of what we might all become soon.

"We have a problem." Margo was uncharacteristically serious, her brow bunched.

"With the sirens?" I tried to keep a groan out of my voice. I didn't have the energy to spare for the group I wished I could rid myself of.

"No, much more serious. Soldiers have left through the night."

"What?"

She shook her head. "Eldrick was discussing it with Lennox and… Lira, I think we're in trouble."

I didn't know how to tell her we'd been in trouble for some time. Elisa had spent the last day working with the Amentium and found no way to connect to its magic or subdue it, there was an army filled with stolen and dangerous powers ready to destroy us, and no one was coming up with strategies to deal with it.

A tap of magic stole me out of my panic.We're having a meeting. You'll want to attend, I think.

Okay.

"Sai is calling me," I said. "There's a meeting. Listen, can you convince the sirens to stay, do you think?" Luz had determined that most of the sirens in my group were loyal enough to me.Not loyal, they'd said,but loyal enough.The group planned to use their magic to help us. I wasn't sure if they would follow through, but it was part of the only hope we had.

"Oh, they're not going anywhere." Margo perched her fists on her hips and smirked at me.

"Why?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I told them that if any of them abandoned the cause, you'd drain their magic and kill them."

"What? Margo, I wouldn't do that!"

Her smile grew. "Yeah, but they don't know that. Good luck at your meeting." She walked away before I could reply.

I wanted to scream in frustration. Great, I was now compelling others to use their magic against their will by threatening them, just like my father.

I marched glumly to the tent where the leaders gathered and found Sai who stood next to Lennox and Shaan. Sai curled an arm around my waist without breaking his attention from the others in the room. The Maharani stood next to the Alegre King who'd left the caves along with a few dozen of the highest-ranking soldiers in his army to help with strategy.

But the faces within the space were grim. Eldrick stood in the corner, and even he looked tired and discouraged. It was like we all played through our inevitable loss on loop until it stole our hope. The Maharani met my eyes, and I pressed my hands together and offered a partial bow. She nodded, a small smile touching her lips before it fell away again.

General Daksh narrowed his eyes. "Nearly five hundred soldiers gone overnight."

"They're afraid," Sai said. "Rumors of the dragons and the magic stealing metal have us all uneasy."

Daksh inclined his head but glared at Lennox. "Nearly all the soldiers who abandoned are Seelie."

Lennox's lips thinned, and he lowered his face. It was true then. More Seelie had joined us, but if we'd lost almost five hundred that meant most of those and some of the initial joiners had left. They believed we wouldn’t succeed.

"What information might they return to their king?" General Daksh asked.

"They weren't spies," Lennox said carefully. "Afraid, yes. Cowards, perhaps. Luz tested the intentions of every one of them." Lennox gestured to Luz who stood in the corner near Eldrick, assessing the room. Their expression made me swallow and press my face to Sai’s arm. They picked up on emotions that had them tensed and appearing ready to draw a weapon.

Wind blew in, fluttering the tent flaps.

Lennox brushed a strand of hair out of his face. "Plus, we've had Alegre troops in the camp. If they'd suspected anything off with the Seelie troops, they would have reported it."

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