Chapter Twenty-Five
Nikhil’s entry into the Haven at long last was far from ideal. He preferred having clearer foreknowledge of a battle before diving into the fray, but there had been no opportunity to take stock, and there was no time to waste.
The water of Gaia’s Falls sent them rushing forth for several dizzying seconds before they emerged from a river somewhere in the middle of a dense forest. The sounds of fighting were distant, but unmistakable, and the second Lukas and Iszak appeared, he sent them to scout. The dense flora in this realm made it clear dragon flight would be a challenge, but a turul’s true form was smaller and more agile.
By the time his lieutenants returned with whispered reports of the status at the Source, more of his army had arrived and were forming up, with Calder and the other Thiasoi satyrs in their full primal shift and ready for blood.
But one of the satyrs was missing.
“Where is your father?!” Nikhil snapped, scanning the army for sight of the satyr who led this particular squad, and whose influence he needed most to rally whatever nymphaea still survived to fight.
Calder’s jaw clenched, his lips pressing into a hard line. “He followed the River farther downstream. Mother needs him now more than we do. His presence will restore her to full sanity so she can aid the fight.”
“And has he reached her?”
The satyr’s eyes narrowed. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not eavesdrop on my parents’ reunion. Trust that they will join us when they’re ready.”
Nikhil ground his teeth. Now was not the time for heartfelt reunions. But then he remembered Nereus had been held Meri’s prisoner, tortured for nearly as long as Nikhil had been under her spell, taken from the woman he loved and forced to believe she was dead. He didn’t begrudge the pair their moment, and if Nyx’s recent behavior was any indication, the Dionarch wouldn’t waste time with sentimental dawdling while there was a war to be won and a Source to reclaim.
His tension eased and he laughed softly. “Fair enough. We won’t need their help until it’s time to deal with Meri. Our first task here is to neutralize Meri’s army. Kill or capture.” He turned to look at Iszak, Lukas, and the other squad leaders and lifted his voice to be heard above the noise.
“Evie has taught you the song she sang that chased the darkness out of my mind. We hope it will have a similar effect on the soldiers Meri controls. If they surrender after hearing the song, take them prisoner. If they still show signs of corruption and control, kill them.
“Her army is concentrated around the Source, and they are ripe for an ambush. Turul squads from the air, dragons from the ground, we will fan out and overtake them. It should not take long with our numbers.”
Turning to Calder again, he added, “The very second we’ve retaken the Source, find your parents. Meri’s body is with them. Once her army is neutralized, I intend to be the one to bury my blade in her heart and end this once and for all.”
Calder swallowed, his face contorting in a grimace. “Understood, but we need to be prepared for anything. We don’t know how long she’s had control of the Source or what she may have done with that power. Numa reported an unusual resilience in the Ultiori soldiers who attacked them in the Sanctuary. Nothing short of dismemberment or being charred to ash by dragon fire will take them down.”
Nikhil nodded, Calder’s concerns validating his own. The turul song was their hidden weapon, though untested in this battle he recalled with perfect clarity the moment when Evie had used her angelic voice to push the black corruption out of his mind. Meri’s hold over him had ended that day for good, but the brutal destruction he’d wrought had still tainted his soul. For that he still must atone, and to complete his redemption that required he finally face the woman who had used him as her puppet for so long.
“Kill them, if we must. Use dragon fire if necessary. The men she commands are as much her puppets as I was once. I would have them freed before harming them, if at all possible. We cannot take the time to discover which are truly loyal to her and which are merely under her control, but the turul song will make it clear enough in the thick of things.”
He cast his gaze around at the army filling the forest and the clearing near the shores of the river, extending all the way to a sandy inlet flanked by vine-covered cliffs. The majesty of this place had been corrupted, and even though it was not his home, he recognized Calder’s fierce, protective urge to get on with the business of ejecting the enemy once and for all.
Nikhil had once felt the same about Belah’s kingdom along the Nile. He would have given anything to protect that place, but had trouble seeing it now, knowing that he’d contributed to the corruption in the end. He could save the Haven and the Sanctuary, and preserve the two realms from further corruption.
“We are ready,” Iszak said. The wind swirled in his eyes and sparks crackled across his skin. Beside him, his brother Lukas stretched his wings, already half-shifted and ready to fight. The pair of brothers embodied the kind of loyalty Nikhil valued most in his soldiers, but his instincts warred with his aptitude for war. They had become as dear to him as Belah, who moved up to Nikhil’s side and clasped his hand in hers.
He had just as little inclination to see the two brothers fly into battle as he had for Belah to fight, yet he knew better than to deny them the chance. They were his family, his blood, and so recently discovered that he had the strongest urge to protect them lest he lose them too soon.
After millennia of a blood tie with a creature he now reviled, he cherished the purity of the love he had found—first his reunion with Belah, then discovering that her two new mates were not his adversaries, but viewed Nikhil as merely an extension of the woman they loved. And finally … perhaps the most potent tie of them all … discovering that the daughter he had always longed for had been within his reach all along.
“We are with you, my love,” Belah said. “Together, we will win.”
Taking a deep breath, he turned to face her. “Yes, ‘Iilahatan. Together, we will. And when this place is purged of Meri’s evil, I plan to spend some serious time teaching your other mates how best to satisfy you.”
“I, for one, am ready to work up an appetite,” Lukas said. “There’s something in the air here that makes me horny as fuck. Not sure I like mixing that feeling with the need to make some heads roll.”
“Channel the lust into the battle,” Nikhil said. “If you are as skilled with a blade as you are with your cock, this will be a quick fight.”
Lukas frowned, opened his mouth to retort, then closed it again. “I think that was an insult, but I’m not really sure. Watch out, or I might need to prove myself to your ass again.”
Iszak bumped his brother’s shoulder with a fist. “Don’t forget who’s boss here, brother.”
With a chuckle, Lukas gave Nikhil one last look of wicked promise. “Oh, I know who’s in charge of us, Iszak. All three of us belong to her, and he’d better not forget it.”
Then the pair launched into the air with eager calls to the wind. Thousands of other turul followed, shifting and rising above the rest. They took to the air in a tight formation, leaving scant room between their wings as they soared upriver and into the fight.
“To me!” Nikhil roared to the remaining throngs of dragons and the handful of humans who had joined their mates. They remained only partly shifted, the five huge satyrs dwarfing the smaller human shapes the dragons remained in for now.
At Calder’s command, the satyrs broke into a dead run, drawing swords crafted of gleaming translucent material that looked like ice. The turul’s song began ahead of them, filling the entire Haven and the satyrs’ battle cries rose in haunting harmony.
When his vanguard attacked, Nikhil followed, reaching the line of battle swiftly and diving in, his blood hot with elation over finally being on the right side of a war for the first time in an eternity. The difference this time was that the woman whose honor he fought for stood at his side, resplendent in her conjured armor of deep blue leather, her talons and horns shining with the blood of their enemies. This was a side of his little beast he’d never seen, and was further proof of how much he had underestimated her all along.
One by one, the Ultiori soldiers fell, many simply collapsing to their knees and repenting as the turul song affected them. Others fought on, their bloodthirsty rage unaffected by the purging music that surrounded them. The dragons made quick work of them with talons and fire, until nothing was left but the charred remains and rows upon rows of Ultiori prisoners bound and kneeling to await their final fates.
The battle was coming to an end. With a nod of acknowledgment from Nikhil, Calder met Assana and the pair of them peeled off and left to find their parents. Gavra and Aurum and their other mates followed close behind.