“You can come.” I nodded at Luk, his chest easing down.
“What?” Ash gaped at me. I shot him a look.
“He’s going, Ash.” Conversation over.
Warwick snickered, his head shaking as he tucked another blade into his boot, then tugging on his jacket. “Let’s go.”
Opie and Bitzy leaped into the small bag on my back carrying extra ammunition, rope, flashlight, and duct tape. Some would call it a thief kit, though Warwick suggested it could be used later when we got back.
The five of us strode down the hallway, the place swarming with movement and energy. You could taste it on your tongue—the adrenaline and magic. Everyone was dressed like us, preparing for tonight’s assignments.
Not much consideration was given to Istvan or HDF, though I felt a slight tug of guilt thinking about this group attacking Killian’s palace. Not that he couldn’t handle it. I knew Sarkis’s army was only sending a warning. My feelings for Killian wouldn’t allow me to put him in a box like my uncle or Warwick did. I spent time with him, saw the real man. He wasn’t bad or good... He was a leader with flaws, but also greatness.
“X!” Birdie’s voice called out, her white-blonde hair hidden by a black knit hat, her tiny figure almost outweighed by the massive blade attached to her back. Maddox, Wesley, Zuz, and Scorpion stood next to her.
“Too bad you aren’t going with us. I’ll pop in and say hi to your old comrades at HDF.” She grinned at me.
“Yeah, send my love,” I replied dryly.
“We are... it’s called distraction.” She winked at Warwick as the group headed for the exit.
Scorpion paused in front of me. “Be careful.”
“You too,” I replied.
“If you need me...” He tapered off, growing a smile on my face.
“I know where to find you.”
His head bobbed, his gaze going over my shoulder, down the hallway toward the temporary holding cells.
I knew what was down there. Who was down there.
My thoughts went to Caden and Hanna. “Who’s watching them?”
“Some trainee who has no idea what he’s up against,” he scoffed.
“Surprised you’re letting someone else take watch.” I lifted my brows.
He scowled, appearing like he didn’t understand my meaning. “She’s just a fucking human.” Scorpion walked away without another word, jogging up the stairs and out of the base.
“Brexley.” Andris moved to me, his expression tense with worry. “Be careful tonight.”
“We will.” I swallowed, taking in my uncle’s face. He felt like home to me. So much more than my real uncle.
Pulling me into a hug, he kissed my temple. “I love you, Drágám. You are everything to me. Happy birthday.”
Then he was gone, giving orders and moving around the room.
My throat thickened, tears burning the back of my lids as I watched him disappear down the hallway. My gut twisted with a deep fear, fluttering panic around my stomach as if devastation was swinging down on us like the scythe of death.
Energy danced on my skin, wrapping around my bones, the smooth laps of the water contradicting the anxiety moving around me.
The stolen boat glided down the inky Danube. The night was crystal clear, seeing in the darkness my billowing breaths and prickling my nose and cheeks.
Sailing through the city, tension knotted my muscles. The air was crammed with tension. We were on the cusp, the moment before the storm, where all was still quiet, but it pulsed with anticipation and power. Killian’s palace bloomed with light, and I swear I could feel him, standing on his terrace, his eyes finding me through the dark.
“Relax, princess,” Warwick growled into the back of my neck, his heat around me, while he stood at the back end of the boat, steering.
Blowing out, I trained my gaze back on the river, trying to calm the thumping in my chest. The farther away we drifted, the darker it became, emphasizing the enormous golden moon in the sky, glimmering off the water.
Twenty years ago, I was born under the same moon. The same moon when the two realms became one on this night, fae were discovered to live among humans, and the world flipped over.
It was strange to think I was being born somewhere in Budapest, maybe even in the cottage, and at the same time, I was there in the war too—felt the blood ooze between my toes, smelled the dirt and sweet acidic fragrance of the magic dissolving and burning, and saw the bodies and experienced death.
“You smell it, Fishy?” Opie looked back at me from his perch on boat rail, Bitzy next to him. Neither had been on a boat before and were awed by this new experience.
“I smell the Danube.”
“No, adventure, Fishy.” His eyes sparkled. “And possibly dead bodies, but mostly adventure!”
I scoffed, my gaze dipping to the water. From the pictures Andris showed me, there were many bodies hidden underneath the dark inky waters of the Danube.
The boat curved around a bend in the river.
“There.” Ash pointed.
Following his hand, I spotted a crumbling old stone castle on the hill like a headstone, marking the graves of so many lives lost in the soil around it.
Warwick steered the boat toward the shore, beaching it on the embarkment. Opie and Bitzy jumped in my pack. My lungs struggled to keep even while we disembarked, the knot in my stomach coiling tighter. My boots landed on the shore, and prickles skated up my spine, coating my skin in goosebumps.
Death.
Dead didn’t mean nothing or emptiness. It hummed at the edges, desperate to feed, thirsty to taste. Life was death’s drug, its addiction, its craving to feel again. And I could feel them coming to me as if I was the gateway. Nausea swept over me, my lids closing, trying to swallow down the bile.
“Brex.” Warwick grabbed my arm. The moment he touched me, the sickness dissipated, allowing me to take a full breath.
“Shield yourself.” Ash was on my other side.
Nodding, I pushed back at the dead, the ghosts drenching this land, coming to me. A light in the dark. A beacon. The source of its need.
“There’s so many,” I whispered. “Too many.”
“You do not bow to them, Kovacs,” Warwick rumbled in a mandate, his hand squeezing mine before he let go. “Make them bow to you.”
They crashed into me the moment he let go, waiting at the barrier like hungry savages.
Gritting my teeth, I slammed down my walls. “No!” I screamed in my head. They pushed forward, my form bowing over. “Get back!” There were so many; they just kept coming. I felt myself throw up, my body swaying.
“You are their commander. They bow to you!” Warwick demanded of me.
With a bellowing cry, I dug deep and shoved back at them, power thundering off me. “You do not touch me!”
I thought I heard thunder crack in the clear sky, a flash of light.
The ghosts tumbled away, an unseen barrier going up around me, protecting me. It was something I understood I couldn’t lower for a moment here. The dead possessed this area, claimed almost every inch.
Spitting out the vile taste in my mouth, I took a staggering breath, pulling myself up.
“Holy fuck.” Ash blinked at me in awe.
“What?” I peered at Kek, Ash, and Lukas.