Rise of Fire (Reign of Shadows #2)(69)

The soldiers panicked, crying out and breaking formation as dwellers materialized out of the dark. The creatures’ sawing breaths formed a humming fog on the air. For some reason they stood in a perfect, uniform line, gazing at the army of scattering men, waiting, it seemed, for something.

The dogs whimpered and broke, running away, wise enough to know their odds of survival were poor. Tebald’s and my father’s commanding officers shouted, trying to whip the men into some order. The soldiers attempted to form their own lines, lifting up their shields and swords in readiness. Several started shooting arrows into the tide of dwellers as if that would make a difference with an army of creatures this size.

I watched, laughter bubbling up from my chest, indifferent to any threat to myself. I looked back and forth between the two kings who had wrought so much damage. My father must have sensed my stare or heard my laughter. His wild-eyed gaze found mine.

“The day won’t be a total tragedy,” I called to him. “Not if both of you die.” I could almost imagine Luna smiling over this. My satisfaction ebbed as pain constricted my chest. Luna.

My father and Tebald shared terrified expressions as the reality of this moment sank in. Then they looked at me with hatred in their eyes, as though I were somehow responsible for this. I wished I had been.

I faced the line of dwellers again, finished running, ready to accept my fate.

The line of them broke, parting at the center, revealing a yawning hole in the darkness. Something stirred, moving out of the dark chasm like a ripple in water. A figure came forward, step by slow step.

Luna advanced, stepping forward. She was covered in blood but looked unharmed. She stood abreast with the line of dwellers. None moved toward her. It was almost as though she were one of them, accepted, embraced.

Suddenly she flung her arms high above her head.

I blinked, trying to understand what I was seeing. With that single motion, the dwellers on either side of her unleashed themselves, charging forward with more speed than I had ever seen from them. The earth shook beneath the storm of their stampeding weight.

Stunned, I watched in awe. They more than accepted her. They obeyed her. She was in control of them. She was queen.

Luna moved with them, walking almost elegantly through their haphazard charge. She made her way to me, finding me as chaos broke out all around us.

I pulled her into my arms, holding tightly amid screams and whistling arrows and clanging of swords. “You’re doing this?” I whispered against her cheek.

She nodded, burrowing her face into my neck, her lips forming a wordless whisper. Yes.

I smoothed a hand over the back of her head and made a comforting hushing sound over the volley of noise around us. “You saved us. You’ve saved us all.” She may, in fact, have just saved the world.

As men dropped all around us, I spotted my father through the sea of dwellers. I glimpsed his stricken expression, the flash of his teeth in an agonized scream the instant before he went under a mob of feeding dwellers.

My arms wrapped harder around Luna. We clung to each other through it all, until the last body fell and the last cry sounded.

Then everything was still.

She lifted her for head from my neck and turned her face out, assessing the carnage in the sudden ring of silence. Dwellers stood as one and looked to her, waiting patiently, toxic feelers at their face whispering on the stagnant air.

“Go,” she whispered to them, and then louder, gaining courage. “Leave us.”

They obeyed, slipping back into the night like fading ghosts.

Silence draped over us. I stroked her face, staring down at her in the darkness, feeling shaken and overcome and in awe of this girl . . . this queen who I held in my arms. The queen I loved.

“It’s over,” she said.

“No, Luna.” Trembling, I pressed my lips to hers in a long, lingering kiss. This wasn’t the end. “It’s just the beginning. Finally. We can really begin.”





EPILOGUE


Luna


I STOOD AT the balcony of my bedchamber, listening to the sounds of the unrelenting night. The dwellers were quiet this evening. They were quiet most of the time now, even when darkness blanketed the world. They were quiet because I willed it.

Ever since I’d destroyed the dweller queen, I’d felt a connection to the creatures. A connection, I learned, that was reciprocal. They waited for my bidding, following my commands. I was their queen. Their alpha. They wouldn’t harm me or anyone else I didn’t wish them to harm. As long as they were in proximity, I could influence them.

After the dwellers destroyed Cullan and Tebald, Fowler and I returned to Lagonia for a short time to apprise Chasan of everything that had transpired. By the time we left him, he was fully dedicated to his role as the new king of Lagonia. As we traveled, I’d felt the presence of dwellers more keenly than ever. Out of sight, but always there. At my back, in front of us, beneath, in the ground, like blood flowing under my skin.

“Come. It’s time. Everyone is waiting.”

Turning, I faced Perla with a smile. I approached her, but before stepping into the ermine-lined cloak she held out for me, I embraced her, inhaling her familiar scent. I had missed her so much—a fact I did not fully realize until she and Sivo were returned to me.

“Ah, sweet girl.” She patted the back of my head, where she had coiled my hair into an elaborate arrangement of tiny plaits. “This day has long been coming.”