I flipped to my other side, everything in me relaxing when I saw the big wizard—Mr. Baree—standing between Hazel and the crackling yellow magic. It collided with his shield with a thunderous crash, but he didn’t even flinch.

Hazel’s blue eyes almost seemed to glow in the twilight as she stood behind Mr. Baree, her hands convulsively tightening on her katana’s hilt.

This strategy was perhaps hardest on her—mentally speaking. Although physically, that might soon be true, too.

A fae noble managed to push his way through Mrs. Yamada and Mrs. Clark.

Hazel threw a dagger at him—probably provided by Josh—but missed by a mile. “We have a runner!” she shouted.

The fae noble made a dash for me, but before he could reach me, Celestina was there.

She picked him up off the ground as if he were a child and tossed him back into the fray.

“Thanks, Celestina!” Hazel shouted.

Celestina winked. “Don’t mention it!” She slipped back into the fight.

Queen Nyte chuckled as she slithered up to Ira and leaned on his shoulder. “I see what’s going on. You can’t use your little wizard friends to attack us when we’re in such close quarters, can you?”

It was true. If any of the wizards attacked the fae monarchs, it was almost impossible for them to avoid hitting me.

I ignored the gibe and rolled to my feet, glancing at the sky for an indication of how much time we had left. Night had almost fallen—only a sliver of the sun hovered above the horizon. Soon the wizards would be fighting blind.

I needed to end this now.

“Face it, Drake. Your numbers are too low to beat our forces, and unless you send some wizards in to be slaughtered, you can’t catch us.”

Yeah, we’ll see about that.

I removed my dagger from its sheath in my jacket, then attacked.

I was on them in the blink of an eye and started with elbowing Nyte in the throat—she seemed the more dangerous of the two with that harp of hers.

She gurgled and hit me with her harp. It radiated so much magic that smashing it on my shoulder gave me a bad enough zap that my fingers twitched.

Ira pulled back, preparing to stab me. Unfortunately for him, I got my dagger between his wrist and the elongated hilt of his sword, then twisted it.

It bit into his wrist, and he loosened his grasp on the weapon with a cry.

I dropped my dagger and plucked the sword from his fingers. I gripped the naked blade in my hands, wincing when it cut into my skin, but smashed him in the gut with the hilt, making him double over.

I applied my knee to his head—which hurt a lot less than kneeing his armor—and he collapsed.

I chucked his sword across the field and kicked my dagger a few feet away so he couldn’t grab it.

Nyte recovered around then. I heard her strum the first note before I whirled around and grabbed the harp by its intricately carved frame. It felt like I was holding a live wire, but I doggedly held on—this was my chance.

Ira was gurgling somewhere on the ground. I nudged his shoulder with my foot, then put a foot on his chest and pushed, pinning him in place like a bug.

The magic from the harp was starting to haze my vision, so I lashed out, grabbing Queen Nyte by the throat with my free hand.

She kept one hand on her harp and scratched at my wrist with the curved nails of her other hand, but I had them both stationary and in place.

Using every ounce of my vampire speed that I could muster, I let go of the harp and grabbed her wrist, holding her arm high above her head so she couldn’t strum the instrument.

I exhaled, relieved.

“You think you won?” Queen Nyte sneered. “You can’t hold the both of us long. We’ll break free before one of your underlings is able to come help you.”

“Hazel,” I called.

She trotted out around Mr. Baree’s shield and slowly approached us. “This is your last chance, Queen Nyte and Consort Ira,” she said. “Surrender now.”

Queen Nyte spat at Hazel. “You think we’d accept your demands? You overestimate your own skills, wizard. If you harm us, you’ll hurt the Eminence.”

Ira was grabbing at my shoe, trying to force my foot off him.

In a few seconds he was going to succeed. “Do it,” I said.

“My offer is your last chance,” Hazel said. “Surrender now, or die.”

“We’d never choose a wizard’s mercy,” Ira sneered as he almost succeeded in pushing me off. “Our bones will shatter before we surrender to you. You ought to be preparing yourself, because we will destroy your House!”

I could tell the second the honor and valiance that drove Hazel took over. She blinked, and the blue of her eyes was darker, her face showing no regret as she stabbed her katana into the ground. “Very well, you’ve made your choice.”

I grinned savagely, and Hazel started to gather magic to her.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Hazel

I opened myself to the wild magic that stirred the air, and it flooded me—almost painful in its enthusiasm.

Since the start of the battle, my heart had screamed at me to take up my magic, to protect those I loved.

Now, it was finally time.

Queen Nyte must have been able to tell I was filtering magic through my blood, because she stiffened.

“You’re going to use magic and hit your ally?” she demanded.

Blue magic crested around me like a wave, glowing brighter and brighter as it transformed into crackling lightning that flickered wildly in a mad dance at my feet. “Yes,” I confirmed.

“You’ll kill him!” Ira shouted. He was clawing at Killian with frantic panic, but Killian was able to keep him down.

My wizard’s mark—powered by the sheer amount of magic I was daring to build—burned my cheek with such strength it stung. “Actually…I won’t.” I smiled, delighted I got to be the one to deliver the bad news. “You see, my magic can’t hurt him.”

Queen Nyte turned ghostly white, and she shifted her gaze to Killian.

He smiled at her…a wizard’s mark identical to mine surfacing on his skin one beautiful flourish at a time.

“You drank from her.” Ira stopped struggling, frozen in his shock. “You drank her blood, and now you’re immune to her magic.”

“But you never—you can’t!” Queen Nyte strained, trying to pull her neck from his grasp. “You don’t trust! You’re the most paranoid monster alive!”

Killian laughed. “Do you see, now, where you made your fatal mistake?” His eyes glowed a frightening red, the kind that stirred fear deep inside your soul. He leaned close to Queen Nyte and snarled. “You shouldn’t have underestimated what the love of a wizard could do.” He abruptly broke off and roared to our joint forces. “Formation, protect!”

As one, the wizards and vampires moved back together, falling into a tight cluster sealed off entirely by my family’s blue magic shields.

“No,” Queen Nyte thrashed. “That’s not possible! You’d never drink from someone! Never!”

I was holding in so much magic it felt like I was on fire. My limbs ached from the concentration of magic, and my fingers were starting to go numb.

“This can’t be! Never, you’re too soulless to do it!” The queen of the Night Court and her consort struggled to get free, and when Killian’s red eyes met mine I unleashed my magic.

It was like a lightning storm went off.

Gigantic bolts thicker than cars struck the battlefield, sending frozen chunks of turf and dirt flying as it struck deep into the earth.

Bolt after bolt hit Killian and the two fae monarchs, shaking the earth and splitting the air with deafening rumbles that vibrated in my gut.

The air was so heavy with the electric tang of my magic, I could barely breathe. It was physically heavy.

And still I poured more and more magic into my attack, which was getting hard to control because there was just so much. I had to cling to my sword to stay standing upright.

Killian was a black blob in a sea of white lightning. A few of the magic-unleashed bolts actually went wild, striking the area around Killian and me.

One struck our forces, but my family’s shields held strong.

I knew Nyte and Ira had to be dead, but part of our strategy was to use this moment to scare the rest of the Night Court into submission. And it seemed like it was working. As I poured more magic out, the Night Court forces scattered.

When I started to see white—not because of all the lightning, but because I was getting really lightheaded, I finally stopped.

My wizard mark pulsed with pain, and it was hard to stand. But when I blinked the fatigue from my eyes, I saw Killian—unruffled and perfect, with the exception of his torn sleeve—standing in the crater my magic had created.

Queen Nyte’s and Consort Ira’s bodies were at his feet, and for a moment I was sorry it had come to this.

But we had spared so many lives of innocent fae with this strategy, so while I was sorry it had happened, I wouldn’t regret what we’d done.

I twirled around, and as we had planned, Felix, Josh, and Gavino had singled out the highest-ranking noble present. (It wasn’t a hard job—his helmet had extra flourishes and a glowing circlet of magic etched into it, the perfect shining beacon.)

“Adept, Eminence, we have found the fae in charge after Their Majesties,” Felix said.

I was glad my wizard mark still burned with the leftover magic from my attack, because I didn’t think I could summon even a single flame of magic at the moment, but I wanted my mark out as a reminder.

“Do you, as a lord of the Night Court, accept our mercy on behalf of your brethren and admit defeat?” I asked.

Momoko—standing off to the side—threw a couple more lightning bolts, which only raced across the sky but still made the fae grimace.

“We do,” the fae lord said.

Killian raised an eyebrow. “You do what?” he specified, his voice icy cold and dangerous.

“The Night Court admits defeat and surrenders!” the fae lord quickly replied.