A Shade of Vampire 41: A Tide of War(49)

Nothing but your arrogance, mighty Sherus. The fae have long believed themselves the superiors of all other supernatural beings—you trick and manipulate, you squabble among yourselves over the immense riches of your planets combined. It is your home that I choose as my seat of power, your home where the greatest of the fae bounty lies in your precious stones of fire, your home where my children will once again grow and prosper, annihilating all that would stand in our way.

I fell silent at his words, and Lidera stopped her struggling.

“It’s not true,” she whispered pitifully.

But it had been.

Perhaps not now, with our less than easy alliance with the other planets, but I knew the reputation the fae had within some of the other dimensions. That we had managed to garner such hatred from one species—whatever the entity and its shadow was—surprised me. But perhaps it shouldn’t have.

“You are hardly one to cast judgment on us,” I spat out.

I don’t pretend to be your moral superior—I just wish to destroy you.

Jenus grinned.

“Guards!” I called out to the fae armies. “Seize him!”

They rushed toward him, spears held aloft and their armor gleaming. Jenus knocked them away like insects, sending them sprawling backwards with a slight move of his hands, like they were a minor inconvenience.

“Sherus,” Ben warned me. “Don’t send more of your men to die. We need to wait till the others arrive—remember; defend not attack.”

He repeated what Derek had said to each group before we left Nevertide.

“He’s alone,” I hissed, “it’s our chance.”

“No—I don’t think he is. Can’t you feel it?” Ben replied, looking anxiously up into the clear skies. There wasn’t a cloud in sight—the only feeling I was experiencing was rage, directed at the repugnant creature standing at the doors of my home as if he already owned it.

“No,” I replied firmly. “His arrogance has clearly gotten the better of him. If he thinks he can defeat us all single-handedly, then let us give him that opportunity!”

“You are too hasty!” Lidera cried. “Ben’s right. I can feel something—and so can she.”

Lidera pointed at Queen Nuriya. She was standing some way off from us, her face the whitest I’d ever seen it and her large, almond-shaped eyes fearful. She was looking up into the open sky, her eyes seeming to see beyond the hues of the planet’s atmosphere into the black abyss we’d just come from.

“The planet of the stones,” she whispered, her voice dry. “It has awoken.”

The soft blue of the sky ruptured violently. The shadow army broke through the barriers that had been set up around our planet and started to spill out over our heads, casting the light in an inky black.

Queen Nuriya was right, the shadow was larger than I believed possible. The stones must have cracked as the ones in Nevertide had, releasing an army which would contain millions—not thousands.

What say you now, king of the fire fae? Will you beg for my mercy before the day is done, or will you die like the rest of your kind, believing till the last breath is ripped out of you that you could defeat me?

“Prepare for battle,” Ben commanded, ignoring the voice of the entity. “Focus on Jenus, not the shadow. When he dies, the rest will follow.”

I drew my sword, yelling for the armies of the fae to assemble.





Tejus





As soon as we landed on the planet of the fae, with Corrine’s help, we were immediately thrust into the mayhem of the battle. There was no time to be terrified at the sheer size of the shadow that had descended on the land. I swung the sword of Hellswan in every direction, each time making contact with the ashen armies.

“Hazel, stay with me!” I shouted to her, making sure that we were battling side by side. What did almost petrify me was the lack of any location that could be considered ‘safe’ or at least out of harm’s way. If things got difficult, there would be nowhere for Hazel to escape to. The shadow was everywhere.

Dragging Hazel with me, I saw the figure of Ben ahead. He was thrashing wildly at the mists. His roar of rage seemed to drown out everything else. Ash and Ruby followed behind us, and I was glad to see them there. It felt right that if this was the last battle with the entity and its armies—as I hoped that it would be—I would be fighting beside my emperor—the only one of us, really, who had cared about whether or not Nevertide survived. I owed him loyalty, and the protection of my sword.

“Tejus,” Ben called out, seeing us approach. “We need to get you to Jenus. Last I saw of him was by the entrance to the fae castle, but he was swallowed up by the mists. Do you think you can call on your brother?”