Page 97 of The Blood Queen

“To arms!” Kitty screeches, stabbing her tiny sword in the air.

Alyth exhales hard and screams, “To arms!”

It ripples through our ranks. Drawing attention from the Red Caps, yeah, but more, it’s infusing us. Infusing Alyth. I see a brightness in her, a final spark of encouragement, of hope.

Her eyes meet mine again. A hundred unspoken things. A lifetime of wants and wishes.

She plunges on without another word.

I tear after her, our exhausted horses ripping through dry grasses and leaping stone fences. Our army scrambles to follow, a mess of horses and foot soldiers, everyone making for the stone.

Ahead of us, the High Blade’s army’s doing the same, only the bulk of them stop heading for the stone. They’ve started to turn.

For our army.

All except for a group that marches straight for the stone. At their head is the High Blade in burnished gold armor, chin back and red hair gleaming in the afternoon sun.

I heave myself faster, coming alongside Alyth.

We won’t get to the stone before the High Blade.

“Alyth—” I reach for her, not sure what I’ll do.

We gotta pull back. Let our army fight off the High Blade, maybe cross over and distract her so we can slip past. We can’t best her in hand-to-hand combat, but our allies can distract her, and that’s more important right now. That’s the whole reason we gathered allies to help, because there are some pieces Alyth and I can’t play on our own, some moves we can’t make.

Alyth realizes the same obstacle with a frustrated cry. She slows, her horse coming to a prancing halt, the stone still a ways up the hill.

“Damn it,” Alyth says, fogging the air with gasping exhales, face red in exertion. “Damn it!”

“It’s not lost yet,” I reassure her.

The group with us stops. “We can distract her,” Kitty offers.

“Will the Seelie Court destroy the Caiy Stone portal?” the Green Lady asks. “Why are they not defending it?”

“They won’t destroy that one. It’s the most powerful one in Scotland, and killing it would mean the fae would imprison themselves in their own realm,” Alyth says grimly. “I hope… Surely they’ve prepared to fight on the other side.”

The Green Lady considers. “It could make for a good choke point. Only a few Red Caps can go through the portal at a time. If they are prepared, they would have a strategic advantage.”

“But how will we get through, then?” one of the other brownies asks in a small voice.

“We fight!” Kitty stabs the air. “If they attack us, they are enemies. We fight!”

Yes. We fight.

Only it won’t be so much an attacking bloodbath as using myself as a shield.

I don’t make eye contact with Alyth as I nod at Kitty and her brownies. “You’ll get on through, don’t you worry. Leave it to me.”

“Samson—” Alyth starts, but beyond her, up the hill, yards off still, the High Blade has reached the Caiy Stone.

I’m aware of it happening at the edge of my vision. It slows though. Slows to a strange sort of pause, my brain trying to connect why it’s wrong. Something’s off.

She’s not going through the portal.

She’s just standing there. In front of the stone. Looking at it, her head cocking left, then right.

Her hand lifts, palm out toward the stone, and she turns that same considering look on her hand.