Chapter 58

It had been a while since Cleo found herself in full armor. She wasn't going to chance it, though, not when Kav and Malik were on their way...and she was pretty sure she was going to kill them on sight.

And Addie Merlo, also known as the Lady in White.

Betrayal ate at her stomach, knowing they were on their way with the one female who could take down her whole kingdom for the empress she served. Cleo didn't care about the rumors of what happened between her and Sophea. The Krahzaran ruler had done too much damage to Cleo's life, threatening her kingdom, taking the lives of her sister and grandfather.

Once she secured Arloerin again...Cleo had already made the decision that she was going to take this fight right to Sophea.

"I've known you practically all our lives, Cleo," Urell said to her then as they walked side by side through Arloerin. "And I know that look."

She paused in her steps, finally realizing they were further into the city than she realized. She'd been so caught up in her own thoughts, her own vengeance that she spaced completely out. She didn't entertain him with an answer as to what her look conveyed, though.

"Is the city secure?" she questioned.

Urell gestured to the street around them, his own armor gleaming in the sunlight. "Secured," he stated.

Why did she even ask? The streets were barren for the first time in who knew how long. Her people were all locked up in their homes, windows closed, curtains pulled over, huddled in interior rooms. Guardsmen patrolled every street, weapons at the ready for any threat that might come. Even Ollyn was keeping an eye out from above, circling the perimeter of the city and waiting for Cleo's cue to come to her.

"And the patrols outside the gates," she went on. "Have they seen anything? Any sign of Kav, Malik, and Merlo?"

"You're calling her Merlo now?"

"I'd much rather call her something else, but I want to save it and say it to her face. Trust me when I say she'll be the first my shadows go to."

Urell pointedly looked at the shadows that ringed around her, ready to strike at a moment's notice. "Don't you think we should...hold off on the threats until she's able to talk to us herself? I mean, she seemed genuinely happy while she was here from what I heard. Everyone fell in love with her."

Cleo bit back her growl. "Trust me, I know and heard it nonstop. It was annoying as hell."

"And what about Kav? If he's on his way here with her, he has to trust her to some degree, right?"

"I'll be having a few words with the male myself." She crossed her arms over her chest, leveling a glare at the orc. "Now, can you please continue on and make sure all patrols are going where needed? I'd rather not leave even the smallest of areas unwatched."

Urell paused for a few long moments before nodding. "Got it."

She needed to be alone, to gather her thoughts and try to focus on the threat they faced. Turning her back to him, she started back down the street in the direction of the main market square. Dozens of guardsmen passed her, bowing their heads to their queen yet keeping their focus on everything around them. Whispered voices sounded from inside homes and a wave of tension rolled over her kingdom.

Cleo hated it. Absolutely hated it. She was supposed to keep them safe. Arloerin was supposed to be the most secure kingdom in all of Laria and yet now...

The weight of all of it came crashing down on her then. Knees all but giving out from under her, Cleo sat down hard on the ledge of the large water fountain that was centered in the middle of the square. Head in her hands, her eyes closed as she tried to focus on breathing and keeping her shadows at bay. They were restless, knowing something was coming, someone was coming.

A black nose poked its way between her arms, the fuzzy head of a familiar leopard brushing against her chin. Shamira always knew when Cleo was upset, just as her bonded mage did, too.

"How did I know I'd find you alone when you should have someone with you?" Janan's voice asked before she could even lift her head.

Scratching Shamira under her chin as she kissed her nose, Cleo looked up to her. Even her second was dressed in armor, which she'd hardly even worn before since there was no need to. Janan, of course, could hold her own in a fight when training, even using her magic when needed, but it still sent a shock through Cleo to see her poised and ready just as she was. She never wanted to be in the middle of things, not with her traumatic past.

"You don't have to be out here, you know. You could keep watch of the palace," Cleo told her.

"Your grandmother is," she answered as she sat down beside her. Reaching over to take her hand, she tried to ease her tension and anxiety by just being there. It slowly started working, just as it always did. "I ran into Urell. He said you were here."

"Don't even know how he knew that since I left him a little while ago."

"He always has your back and will always know where you are, just like I do."

Cleo's lips curled into a small smile as she looked down. Shamira still had her large head cradled in her lap, looking up at her with wide, intelligent eyes.

"Are Kav and Malik almost here?" Janan asked her then. "Have you gotten anything about where they might be?"

The distance from Arloerin to Krahzara always made their bond stretch until his presence was just a whisper in her mind. Now that she knew he was getting closer, she was able to focus more, get more from him than she had since being home. The only thing he was thinking about was her, though. How he needed to get to her, to protect their kingdom, and to tell her a secret he'd only just learned about himself yet could barely think about and was still completely shocked by. She knew that secret without him even having to think about it – that the Lady in White was none other than Addie Merlo.

They had to be not even a half hour's ride outside the city, though they were going much faster than on horseback. Cleo could only get flashes of what he was seeing, everything still hazy in his mind. She could see the blue skies above him, the rolling green hills below. He was...flying on Odanth. No, that couldn't be.

Until she realized he was gripping the back of Malik's jacket to hold on.

And staring at the back of a blond head in front of his brother, her white leather gleaming in the sunlight.

"They're close," Cleo whispered to Janan then. "He's with them. Malik and Merlo."

Janan hesitated only a moment at how her tone changed when saying the latter's name. "Why do you automatically hate her? Like I told you before, in those brief moments when I saw her and when we spoke, she was kind."

"A trick, I'm sure."

"Cleo."

"Janan."

Her best friend heaved a sigh and pointedly rolled her eyes. "She can't be all that bad if Malik and Kav are with her and trust her."

"She's an assassin."

"As far as we know, she's only killed those who absolutely deserved it, wiping the scum of this land away with barely a flick of her finger. And you're a queen who has done absolutely anything needed to keep her kingdom protected, including taking care of those who aimed to harm it and your people."

Well, she had her there.

Cleo sat up straight, turning toward her. "What do I do?"

Janan smiled slightly, though she was still hesitant. "You hear them out once they're here. Just know I will be right beside you, just as I always will be. Urell, too."

Giving her hand a slight squeeze, she nodded as she moved to stand.

And just as she did, her shadows locked around them.

Janan noticed immediately, dark brows pulling together. "What's wrong?"

Cleo whirled, eyes narrowed and scanning every street that converged at the square. Several dozen guardsmen continued their patrols along them, keeping watch on the people who huddled in their homes and back rooms of shops. But as she looked, the usually cloudless sky was covered in dense black clouds that rolled in from every direction.

Almost immediately after she saw them converging, Cleo sent her shadows outward, billowing until they created a dome over the entire city. Every guardsmen paused in their steps, looking up to watch.

But Cleo was still too late to keep the enemy out.

Then a sound she hadn't heard in twenty years rang out like sirens through every street. A screeching so loud even Ollyn was roaring overhead.

They might have been heard, but no one ever saw the oskurreia come out of the darkness until the first of their poisoned blades went right through the chest of a guardsmen to Cleo's left.

Then another on her right, whose head completely disconnected from his body with one clean swing.

And even more as they drew their own weapons and whirled on them to fight.

"On your guard!" Cleo shouted the following second.

She was too late for one patrol, their blood running down the cobblestone, splattering against the walls and windows of surrounding buildings.

Chaos rained down all throughout Arloerin, the shouts of guardsmen as they went at the dark creatures with enchanted weapons with the ability to taken them down in a flurry of ash. Cleo sent up every prayer of thanks she could to Lyv, even though she was a world away, for teaching it to her in case she were to ever need it. She did now that her kingdom was under attack just as Escarral had been all those years ago by creatures they thought they got rid of for good.

She wasn't going to let everything fall into ruin around her.

With Janan and Shamira beside her, Cleo unsheathed her sword, gripping it so tight her knuckles went white, and sent her shadows out around them, protecting them as much as they could. Worry clawed at her throat as soon as she saw Janan's own weapon. She'd never been in a fight like this, only trained for one. Even Shamira's frightened eyes looked up at her, knowing she would protect them both against anything.

Cleo reached out, prying one hand from Janan's weapon to grip it tight.

Before every oskurreia close to them cut through and slaughtered every guardsmen in their path to the square, their blood-red sights on Cleo.

Her mind blanked as soon as the first one was within sword-length...

She was using both blade and magic to destroy any one of the dark creatures that came close.

And did so without any hesitation.

Cleo and Janan stood back to back with Shamira circling them both, swords swinging, magic pulsing around them, and taking down every dark creature that even came close. The ones that converged on them didn't have weapons, not after Cleo took care of them. They still slashed out at them with talons glinting in the darkened sunlight. Cleo's shadows wrapped tightly around them but couldn't kill. Not when they were already the shells of the dead. The enchantments on their weapons helped with that as ash flurried around them every time the blades connected with black, leathery skin.

It wasn't until Janan cried out that Cleo broke from her trance, but it wasn't because she'd been hurt.

Because it was Shamira, who had jumped in between her and the dark creature that stalked toward her, was caught in its crushing grasp.

The leopard screamed out just as Janan did, their connection making her feel her pain just as she was, and she crumbled to the ground as soon as a sharp whistle sounded through the square.

Every dark creature left standing immediately froze as the shadowed darkness continued its crushing advance. Janan threw herself over Shamira, whose every breath was pained, and sent a surge of healing magic into her. Cleo was going to cover them both, even though everything had stopped around them.

"You have to get her out of here," Cleo ground out through her teeth. "I can get you out of here."

Janan looked up at her, tears streaming, and shook her head fiercely. "No..."

But she nodded once, surrounding her and Shamira in her shadows without warning, sending them back to the safety of the palace.

Leaving Cleo all alone.

No, not alone.

Because another figure stepped out of the surrounding shadows, a male she'd seen before with a handsome face and a smile that seemed all too innocent for the human he made himself seem to be.

His onyx eyes were what gave him away.

"So, we meet again, Cleo Lucerra Brandt," the young man who called himself Fin said, clapping his hands slowly. He surveyed the space around her, noting every pile of ash of where a dark creature once stood. "My creatures seem to hold no strength over you, do they? You're just as strong as I knew you'd be, especially being the daughter of Corliss and Meron."

Cleo's shadows immediately lashed out at him without getting too close, her fingers tightening once more on the hilt of her sword. "Who are you? What are you?"

Fin smiled again, onyx eyes glowing. "Now where would the fun be in that if I told you everything about myself at the start? Don't you want to talk about you?"

Dark magic glittered in his hand as he held it out beside him and an obsidian bolt, larger and sharper than the creatures' spears, appeared in his grasp.

Her heart hammered at the sight of it, especially when he took a step forward.

"Your mother and father, though," he continued as he began to circle her. "They fell right into my trap without even knowing it in the beginning. I had to ensure you and your sister would be born with dark magic, didn't I? And your mother...she had such a curious mind and was wicked smart, just as you were. She never figured it out, though. Never figured me out, not until the very end. They tried their best, Corliss and Meron, to find a way to beat me in Palrion, and yet they couldn't. They couldn't even hide you and Adeena from me. I've always known you two were here in Laria."

"My sister is dead," Cleo growled out. She didn't know why she told him. He didn't deserve to know.

Fin raised one brow. "Is she?"

Her hammering heart immediately stopped, vision tunneling until she couldn't see a thing.

Still, he spoke. "Your sister has the power over death, which is my domain. She defied me, even as a little four-year-old sorceress who barely knew anything about her magic. Found her and your grandfather's way back from the land of light and shadows. Good thing I had control over another who kept her in Krahzara, bound by dark magic with no way of getting away. And she's still under the empress's control, though she allowed her to see just what her life would be like here in Arloerin for a few weeks."

No. No. Her sister was dead. Adeena had been gone for so long and wasn't ever going to come back. "You're lying."

Fin's other brow rose. "Am I?"

Though the creatures surrounding them were frozen and waiting for his command to move, more were going through the city, the screams and cries of those they killed ringing out amongst the sound of metal clanging against cobblestone.

Cleo needed to get out of there, to get higher up so she could take out the remaining dark creatures from above.

Ollyn. She needed Ollyn.

Her dragon was still circling, raining fire down and destroying every oskurreia he could.

A distant roar had him looking east before he returned the greeting with his own.

But one sharp whistle from Cleo had him diving for her.

He stopped just short of landing for her to climb into the saddle, sheathing her sword on her back in one fluid motion.

And vaulted back into the sky, climbing higher and higher until they were well above the city.

What brought them down was the bolt from Fin's grasp that he flung with an immense amount of strength, which tore through Ollyn without any difficulty, piercing the membrane of his wing before lodging right into the joint just inches away from Cleo.

Ollyn's roar of pain and fear as he began to plummet to the ground below. The sound of the wind rushing past her, his roars, the tearing of his wing even more than it already was had Cleo doing the same. The dragon tried his best to control their decent but with no use, not when he only had one wing and no way of moving the other.

The ground came up faster than she could comprehend.

And the booming sound of Ollyn's impact rattled the entire kingdom of Arloerin.

Having not been properly strapped in, Cleo was immediately flung from the saddle. She could hear her body smack against the cobblestone before she tumbled over and over, bones breaking, skin slashing. As soon as she stopped, she was looking skyward at the dark clouds that continued rolling overhead. Her leather and armor was in tatters, her sword clattering and skidding feet away from her, and her golden eyepatch was lost in the fall.

She couldn't breathe.

Couldn't cry out.

Not even when her magic immediately went to work healing every injury her body had sustained.

Until Ollyn's roars of pain and the screeches of the dark creatures nearing their impact spot in the middle of the market square jolted her back into herself.

"Ollyn!" Cleo screamed as she managed to roll onto her stomach, pushing up to her knees that immediately buckled beneath her. "Ollyn!"

Her dragon was roaring, stumbling, trying his best to yank the bolt from his side with his teeth with no success. His frantic silver eyes met Cleo's as soon as she was close enough and he would have incinerated her had he not realized it was her. She still held up her hands as she approached, her tears streaming as she saw blood gushing from the wound.

"I need to get it out of you, Ollyn. I know it's going to hurt, but you've got to let me do it," she told him, her voice shaking.

The dragon whimpered as he slumped to the ground, lids drooping.

Cleo's hands wrapped around the obsidian bolt and yanked as hard as she could, but it didn't budge. The only thing it seemed to do was cause him even more pain.

"Come on!" she screamed as her tears blurred her vision and she tried again with no luck.

The screeches were getting louder, closer. Fin was nowhere in sight, though the darkness he'd been surrounded by was still there. Cleo yanked on the bolt again, Ollyn's roar was joined by another above, and her name was being yelled by so many voices then she didn't know where all they were coming from.

What she did do was stop her attempts at removing the bolt from Ollyn, slowly spun around to face the hoard of oskurreia that were running in her direction, and unsheathed her sword ready to die for her kingdom.

The first three that made it to her were gone in a flurry of ash the next second.

Another two followed a few moments later.

And every single one after that...well, Cleo was taking no chances with stopping as she continued to cut and slash and impale every single dark creature who even got close to her and Ollyn.

Those voices calling her name were getting even closer, the sounds of metal hitting the blackened bodies of the creatures following their advance, until she could see them all surrounding her.

She had no idea where they'd come from, but they were there.