Hailey could see them coming, a terrifying number of fairies right behind the shimmer. She summoned her magic and cast night vision on the soldiers, allowing them to see in the darkness. The soldiers gasped as their eyes adjusted. Hailey began to chat the word of power. Keeping the spell in place or this many soldiers required her to constantly be drawing on her power. “euphrone conspectus Taivalon buccellatum,” she said over and over.

Isabella was chanting her own words, but Hailey had not time to focus on them or on what she was saying. The fairies in front of her flew back and were pushed into the shimmer. They would have to fight and struggle back through. Hailey glanced down the line of men, hoping that they were holding their own. Fleeing would not do them any good. Aaron’s men swiped at the fairies with their iron swords. One of them even held a pan. A fairy clanged off of it and puffed into mist.

Clever, she thought. It would be easier to hit them with the large pan that with a sword. Another held a bucket. One held a shovel and they were all swinging as fast as they could manage. “euphrone conspectus Taivalon buccellatum,” Hailey chanted.

Aaron stood behind his men, keeping an eye on them. A fairy flew past one of his men and Aaron swung at it with his sword. She wondered why he had taken that position until one of his men began to follow one of the fairies. He dropped his sword, grabbed the man and slapped him across the face and shoved him back into line. She could not hear what he said to him, but Aaron did not look angry, just determined.

The man shook his head and swung at the next fairy that came at him with renewed vigor.

“The men on the edges are starting to lose their vision,” Isabella chided her.

Hailey continued to chant, concentrating only on the task at hand.

“You’re trying too hard, Isabella told her. “Don’t try to force the magic, let it flow through you. Like the river, you are not forcing it to go the way you want it to, you are directing its flow.

Hailey thought about that, panic rising in her chest as she thought of the men on the end who were fighting side by side with men that they could barely see. She shoved that thought out of her head and thought only of the magic, only of letting it flow through her. Something inside her, something that had been holding on tight, let go and power flooded into her.

Hailey gasped. No wonders Isabella was so much stronger than she was. It was exhilarating and terrifying. She felt that at any moment, she might be swept along with the magic, unable to control it or herself ever again.

Isabella only smiled. “Better,” she said.

Hailey could feel it now, the connection to the river, the way the cold power flowed through her, and how she could direct it, not force it the way she wanted it to go.

Men around her were still screaming and dying. Isabella turned and ran, and Hailey watched her, wondering what she was doing.

A fairy led a man into the shimmer nearby and he was instantly attacked. Blood spattered the front line, and some of them flinched back. Then a severed arm was thrown back onto the ground in front of them. A white faced man turned and ran but no one followed him. The men just stepped closer to one another.

She glanced back to where Isabella had run, still holding the spell, still giving the men the ability to see.

A monstrous shape pressed against the shimmer, and Isabella stood her ground before it. The men behind her stepped back, giving the mage plenty of room to work.

Euphrone conspectus Taivalon buccellatum,” said Hailey, feeling her heart thunder in her chest. They would not survive this battle without Isabella. She could see that now.

A massive mouth lunged out of the shadow towards Isabella, mouth open and ready to strike. It had to be a word.

Hailey’s stomach clenched. If fairies were weakening the shimmer enough to let worms through, the kingdom might not be able to stand. She had forgotten about all of the other creatures that lived in the forest.

The warg lunched at Isabella, snapping and clawing at her. Then she did something that Hailey didn’t expect. She stepped into the shimmer. Hailey’s breath caught in her throat, but as the jaws of the beast opened wide, Isabella threw a fireball into the gaping maw. A howl of agony hurt Hailey’s ears and she could see the men cringing back, but when Isabella returned to Hailey’s side, they fought that much harder, swinging and crushing fairies in their path.

The men stood panting. The fairies stopped coming. Hailey glanced along the line, but there were none in sight. What had just happened? Weak cheers went out among the men in a few places. No one knew if the battle was one or if the fairies were regrouping behind the lines.

Aaron felt useless. He had dragged Gavin back to the line. He was a young man, too young to be facing down fairies and who knows what else. He stood his ground and kept a close eye on his men. And then there were no fairies, nothing for him to worry about.

“She killed it!” Someone called out. “She killed the warg!” The cry went down the ranks of men and then a tired looking Isabella stepped back out of the shimmer. Aaron felt a knot at the back of his shoulders loosen. If Isabella really was on their side, they might be able to win this battle, even with the wargs. His stomach tightened at the thought, though. Wargs were not something that they had planned for. Aaron hoped that Derrick had a plan to deal with those. You could not expect one mage to take out every threat to the army.

If there were wargs, was there anything else. The cheers that went up here and there among the men were only half hearted. No one knew if the battle was finished or only started.

He saw them then, fairies lining up again on the other side of the shimmer. Their glow made them easy to spot when you know what to look for.

“Prepare yourself, men! The fairies are preparing another attack!” he yelled as loud as he could manage. His message was relayed down the line of men, as if his voice had an echo. He pointed to the mages next to them. “They are the magic, we are the steel!”

He stood behind his men, so he could not see their expressions, but from the stances that they took, they were ready for the next wave. He smiled a grim smile. They were not done here.

But the fairies didn’t come. Hailey could see them, just past the shimmer. Maybe they all had to push together to get through. It would make sense, but she had never seen fairies fight like this before. She had never known that they could battle like this, as an army. She wondered how many of them there were left and how many of them had died. They disappeared when they came into contact with iron, so it was impossible to tell how many of them had died. Part of her felt a little sad about that. The forest without the fairies didn’t seem right, but she would do what she could to kill them anyway. They were trying to destroy her country and she could not let that stand.

Aaron was shouting then, and she turned to look at him. His jaw was set in grim determination.

When he had finished what he had said to his men, another voice rang out among the men. This one was female though, and had to be Gillian. “Hey, one arm, it’s good to know that you’re still alive.”

He grinned, “It’s surprising that your dainty self made it out of that alive!” He shouted back. “Did the men around you protect you?”

Gillian laughed. “It sounds like we need another bout on the practice ground! You’re the dainty one!”

Aaron laughed, too. “After I take down more fairies than you, I’ll be happy to duel you.”

Hailey finally understood their relationship. She spotted Gillian in the crowd, grinning at him. She gave him a nod of respect.

Hailey had had nothing to worry about this whole time. Aaron had never been in love with Gillian. She treated him like she treated the other men, with respect and laughter.

“Focus, men!” Derrick cried and the men all turned to face the shimmer.

Hailey began to chant, as she had before, flooding the field with a green glow that would allow them to see.

The shimmer began to blink again and a wave of fairies washed over them. The men swung their weapons against the creatures, battling them into non existence. Hailey focused her energy again, reminding herself to let go, to surrender to the power and let it flow through her.

Again, she felt the iciness of the river flow through her veins. It was a sensation she didn’t think she would ever get used to. She opened her eyes. Men screamed. Some of the were led into the shimmer, where the wargs waited to snap them up. It was not a fate she would wish for anyone, but for now, she was relieved that the wargs so far were not able to pass the line. She could see one of them pacing its eyes glowing yellow.

Something behind the shimmer was humming, building to a crescendo. Isabella stood her ground, rather than running for the warg, and Hailey was relieved to have her by her side. Still, panic rose within her as she realized she had no idea what was going to come through the shimmer next. The noise was louder and louder until a single person stepped through. Then, as quickly as the fight had begun, the fairies retreated to just inside the shimmer.

“Don’t chase them, men! Hold the line!” Derrick shouted.

The woman who had stepped through the shimmer came closer, but the fairies stayed where they were.

Hailey glanced at Aaron. He was looking between the woman who had just stepped out of the shimmer, then back to Isabella. His head swiveled as he looked back and forth.

Hailey did the same. The did look similar, not exact. The dresses were definitely not the same, but the other one looked familiar, looked exactly like Isabella had on the day that she had taken the young mage out of the kingdom. She looked healthier than Isabella did, not so thin or so ragged and she carried herself with an air of superiority. This was the enemy that Isabella had been talking about, the one who had been pulling strings in the kingdom for years.

She glanced at her ally and saw a mixture of fear and determination on Isabellas’ face. Hailey wondered about everything she had heard about Isabella then. Was she the one to curse the child? Had she stolen away even one mage from this kingdom? Hailey didn’t know and part of her wondered if Isabella knew as well. She had said that her memories were confusing, that she had been trapped and unaware of even her own surroundings. Maybe she hadn’t done anything to hurt Taivalon.

The one who wasn’t Isabella smiled, or maybe it was barring of teeth. Then, with a single word, the fairies were on them. “Attack!”