LOGINKael's Pov The assault came the morning after the parley. I had expected it. After the Changeling came to the gate and Elvanya refused it I knew we were not getting another day of the same slow siege. The parley was the last patient thing it was willing to try and now it was done being patient.Twenty thousand warriors hit all four walls at first light. Not the rolling waves we had been managing since the siege began. Everything at once from every direction with no rest between pushes and the Changeling on the northern line using stolen power directly against the wall structure itself. No replacement catapults needed. It was doing what the catapults had been doing and it was doing it better.I was on the northern wall when it started. I stayed there."It is targeting the wall from the inside out," Eldric said from beside me. His wards were up and fully extended and the air around him had pressure to it I could feel through my boots.
Elvanya's Pov The white flag came to the northern gate two mornings after Lira told Kael about the scout. A single rider came forward under it carrying a sealed message. The message was addressed to me by name in handwriting that looked close enough to Morgana's to make my skin go cold.Lira brought it to me unopened.I read it twice before I set it down."She is asking for a parley," I said. "And she wants me specifically. Not Kael. Not Lira. Me.""Yes," Lira said."Then I will go," I said.Kael was out of bed by this point and moving carefully but he was moving. When I told him what the message said he went very still in the way he did when he was working to keep his face neutral."You are not going alone," he said."Twelve guards and Lira at the gate," I said. "Not outside the walls. At the gate. I will speak to it through the bars.""It wants you close for a reaso
Kael's Pov Lira told me about Morgana while I was still in bed. She sat in the chair beside me and laid it out plainly and watched my face the whole time she did it.I listened to all of it and then I said "How certain is the scout.""Certain enough that he came directly to me and asked to speak alone," she said. "He did not tell anyone else before he told me. That is not a man raising a false alarm.""No," I said. "It is not."I tried to sit up and Elvanya put her hand flat on my chest and looked at me without saying anything. I stayed where I was."Morgana was exiled," I said. "She left the kingdom. We stood at the road and watched her go.""We watched someone go," Lira said. "Whether that someone was actually Morgana is the question we should have been asking sooner."I thought about that. I thought about the dark magic Eldric had been tracking from the first morning of the siege. Organ
Lira’s PovKael was awake and his fever was gone but Matilda pulled me into the hallway before I could go into his room and she was direct about it the way she always was when something important needed saying quickly."The fever is gone but the poison did real work on him before Luna cleared it," she said. "His body still needs time to finish what she started. Two full days minimum before he goes anywhere near the wall. Three would be better.""He is going to try to get up before that," I said."Yes," she said. "That is why Elvanya is sitting in that chair by his bed and why I have told every guard on that door that nobody brings him his armor or his weapons under any circumstances."Fair enough. I left them to manage Kael and went to the command room and sat at the head of the table and started working.First thing was walls. I sent for Brennan and he came in within minutes and laid out the full damage picture
Elvanya's Pov The knock on my door came before dawn and it was hard and urgent. I was already sitting up before the guard on the other side finished his first sentence."The king is down," he said. "Arrow wound. Matilda is already with him at the eastern gate."I grabbed Luna from the travel crib and ran.Kael was on the floor just inside the gate with Matilda kneeling over him and two guards holding torches above them so she could see what she was doing. There was blood soaked through his side and on both his hands where he had grabbed the arrow shaft. His face was pale and his eyes were shut and he was very still."How bad," I said."Bad enough," Matilda said without looking up. She had both hands pressed hard against the wound. "The arrow is out but I need him inside with proper light right now."We carried him to the nearest room with a bed and got him onto it and Matilda went to work immediately
Kael's Pov I made the decision that night sitting alone at the table with the candle burning low. Holding the walls was not going to work. Every day we held we lost more men than we could replace and the Old Guard still had the catapults and as long as they had those the walls were going to keep cracking. I had run the numbers three times since talking to Lira and they kept coming out the same. We had maybe four days before attrition made the walls impossible to hold properly.So I was not going to wait for the walls to give way. I was going to take the catapults away from them.I called Lira in first and told her what I was thinking.She did not say anything for a moment. She looked at the map on the table and then at me. "You want to take warriors outside the walls at night and attack their camp directly.""Yes," I said."That is a very large risk," she said."Sitting here while they knock the wall
Elvanya's PovThe sacred chamber was cold and dark and it smelled like old stones and dried herbs that Eldric kept in jars along the walls.I sat on the floor with my back against the wall and listened to the sounds of battle happening somewhere above me and it sounded distant but I knew it was clo
Kael's PovI was helping Elvanya stand when a massive wave of power hit me through the bond and it nearly knocked me off my feet.Something was wrong and the power was different from before and it felt wild and out of control."Stay here with Eldric" I told
Elvanya's PovI woke up slowly and everything hurt and my head felt like someone had been hitting it with a hammer and my body ached all over.The bed under me was soft and familiar and I smelled Kael's scent on the pillows and it was the first thing that made me feel
Elvanya's Pov Kael's eyes flashed silver and I could see his Lycan rising to the surface and his hands were shaking with anger."You what" he said and his voice came out low and dangerous."She was forced" I said quickly and stepped closer to him "Kael please listen to the whole story before you d







