Sinister Secrets Book. 3

❅Chapter 26❅

Nicola capered us back to the human lands, further back from the fighting than we had been previously. I tried hard not to lose my insides once more.

Not much had changed - fae were slashing at each other with blades of ice and steel, their eyes glazed over in a hatred that belonged to Mab and her enemies.

"Are we too late?" Nicola asked, her eyes scanning the fight. I let my eyes wander over the rolling hills to the large mass of black and brown that slithered towards us. They were closer now, so, so much closer. My heart pounded to the sound of their footsteps in the distance. They were easily a few minutes out.

Our army had broken through most of Mab's army - the wicked fae of her court. The Aubrey Knights were turning out to be an issue. As my eyes grazed the field below, all I saw was gold and silver coming together with a clash of swords. Summer fae, shorter than the winter elves, had more muscle behind their blows. But the Aubrey knights where lean and limber, even in their thick armor. They danced around the blades that came at them, almost as graceful as Foster.

"You taught them well," I mumbled.

Foster came to my side, taking my hand. "I had no idea it would have been such a double edged sword in doing so."

Nicola shuffled beside me. She walked to the small girl that stood on the peak our high hill, her brown eyes glazed in a menace I only understood when I let the darkness take control.

"Are you ready?"

Ash looked at Nic, her face stuck in some stoney expression. "For Spring," she said.

I watched Ash step forward, her bare feet silent on the soft grass. The air around her seemed to shimmer. I held my breath.

It started with the flesh on her arm, it began to sag, as if too heavy. I watched it peel away and fall to the ground below silently, revealing a patch of green-gold scales beneath. And she began to grow. The small girl transformed, her limbs shedding human skin and growing, snapping as her body transformed from human to reptile.

Bones snapped as joints were pushed and rearranged, and a wailing cry erupted from her throat as long, spiraling horns burst from her now long, narrow skull. Her eyes changed, turning golden, the pupils shrinking into long, narrow slits. I stared on in awe and claws, sharp and black, popped through, slicing through the earth like butter as the dragon clawed against the pain.

There was one last ripping sound, followed by a soft whisper on the wind - a sigh, almost - as her wings burst free, the bat like membrane stretching wide, casting the world below her in a sickly shadow. Ash tilted her head back and roared.

"For Spring," the dragon says, Ash says, again. I try not to be started at the deep, rumbling voice that tumbled from the dragon's throat.

And then she soars. Her wings snap, the thick membrane stretching as it catches the air in a grand demonstration, and she launches herself from the ground.

Cries, some of victory, some of fear, leak from the war below, over the hills to where Nicola, Foster and I stand.

I feel Foster's eyes on me, and I turn. He knows. Deep down, I do too. The Guardian of Spring was a last ditch effort to hold off the battle, to buy our troops some time while we searched the Bairfell palace for my mother.

"Let's go," he says, and without complaint, I follow.

* * * * * * *

As Foster slashes a path through the mass of bodies below, I run behind him, picking off the winter fae he didn't see, coming at us with wails and angry eyes.