Infinity

trees and they…” A tear slid down her cheek. “They laughed.”

I closed my eyes and swallowed, trying to force down the lump that had formed in my throat. “Oh, Mer,” I whispered.

Dryads were psychically linked to the things that came from the ground. The trees and the flowers and the plants that we ate. They mourned for every leaf when it fell. Mercedes had told me once that they felt the passing of everything, and now my best friend had been trapped in a forest fire, forced to feel that pain as everything around her died.

“We’ll find them,” Winston said. I turned to see him behind me, his shirt still in his hand and his eyes snapping with blue-black fire. “And when we do, I promise you, I’ll kill every single one of them.”

“Win?” Mercedes looked up at him and then pushed forward so she could wrap her arms around him. “I want to go home.”

“I know, Mer,” he whispered into her hair. “As soon as we solve this…”

He looked over at me, his eyes wide and filled with pain. When we’d first come here, I’d promised to find a way home. I’d sworn to them, and then, the first chance I’d got, I’d backed out on that promise. I’d trapped all of us here, and now—because of what I’d done—my best friend had lost the new family she’d made for herself as well.

“As soon as we end this,” I said quietly. “I’ll find a way to get everyone home. I promise.”

“Your Majesty—” John said from beside me.

“Rhys, call up the army,” I said, not skipping a beat. “Send men to all the villages to gather troops. Anyone they can spare. Rouse as many men as you can and bring them here. Get them into fighting condition.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” He nodded once, curt.

“Allie,” John started again, but I just ignored him. He was the one who had pushed this peace treaty, and the instant Bavasama was out of my sight she had broken her word, attacked the dryads, almost killed my best friend.

“Win.” I turned to look at my boyfriend. “The War Council of the Dragos is coming. I sent for them while you were shifting. I need you to persuade them to commit every single dragon warrior to the aerie and the defense of Nerissette.”

“The warriors are yours.” He squeezed Mercedes again and then let go of her, letting Rhys comfort her instead. “I will make sure of it.”

“Allie,” John said, sterner this time, and I turned to look at him.

“Bring me an army.” I kept my eyes on his. “So we can end this once and for all.”

“They just laughed as it burned,” Mercedes said numbly. I turned to watch as the two remaining members of the Nymphiad stepped forward to take her from Rhys’s arms, encircling her in their own. “I don’t know what to do. It’s gone. They’re gone. All of them. They’re gone.”

“Shh, Sapling.” Aquella soothed her as Boreas patted her back. “Shh, come with us, and we’ll help you prepare the rituals.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Mercedes said, her voice sounding empty. “I’m the only one left. They’re all gone, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.”

“We’ll help you, Sapling,” Boreas rumbled as he and Aquella led my best friend away. “Just trust us to help you now.”

I watched as the two nymphs helped Mercedes stumble away, their heads bent low over hers as they half carried, half dragged her between them. Winston tightened the grip of his fingers on mine, and I looked over at him again. He looked as lost as I felt. Rhys face was blank as well.

“Raise an army,” I said quietly, my eyes still fixed on my best friend’s hunched back.

“You’ve signed a peace treaty with Bavasama,” John said. “If you raise an army, then it will be seen as an act of war.”

“Good.” I swallowed. “Because it is an act of war. And you want to know something?”

“What?”

“I wasn’t the one who broke this peace treaty,” I said. “She already did that. I’m just the one who’s got to figure out how to make it right.”

“You can’t.” He shook his head, his free hand clutching the hilt of the sword on his hip, his knuckles white. “There’s no way to make this right. War will not make this right.”

“Then what would you have me do?” I snapped.

“We can send riders to detain your aunt before she reaches the border. Demand reparations. Find out if this is some rogue element of the army who is refusing to honor her peace agreement.”

“These weren’t rogues,” I said, my voice shaking as I pulled my hands free from both John and Winston. I looked at Rhys. “This was my aunt, showing you what she thinks of peace. Now, raise an army. That’s an order from the Golden Rose of Nerissette. Your queen.”

“Allie?” Rhys asked, watching Mercedes as the other two nymphs led her farther away.

“You once asked for my permission to chop a man to pieces for insulting her.” I kept my voice low, and he looked over at me, his eyes angry. “Now I’m giving you a country full of them. They killed her people in front of her. Her family. I suggest you make sure your sword is sharp. I have a feeling you’re going to be doing a lot of chopping before we make it to the Palace of Night.”

I stepped away from the three men and started toward the empty plain where the mermaid’s pool had once been, before my aunt’s army had burned it to the ground and the mermaids who had lived there disappeared. We had a memorial for the missing mermaids planned for the space but nothing had been finalized yet. Right now it was just an empty field where nothing could grow. I wished Talia, the queen of the mermaids, were there. She always knew what to say to give me strength.

“Allie!” I turned to see Winston chasing after me. “Allie!”

“What?”

“What are you planning? Our army is exhausted. We aren’t prepared for another long siege. We don’t have the soldiers or the weapons.”

“I’m not planning a siege,” I said. “I’m not going to fight her into a truce. This time there is no surrender that doesn’t involve me taking over my aunt’s throne and banishing her to the Bleak.”

“Allie—”

“No!” I threw my hands up between us. “No! I’m doing this. I’m ending this now.”

“But—”

“I’m ending this because I’m sick of it, of her. I’m fed up. Done with spending my nights pacing the floors, waiting to hear that you died. That Mercedes was killed or you were attacked and I was never going to see one of you again. I am done being afraid of losing the only people I have left. So I’m taking my army across that border, and I’m going to let my aunt feel what it’s like, the fear and the worry of knowing your people are under attack. The dread that comes from waiting to hear that the people you love are never coming home to you.

“I’m going to surround the Palace of Night, and when it finally falls, I’m going to take her crown, and I’m going to drag her to the top of the tallest tower and make her watch as her lands burn. Then I’m going to lock her in the nothingness between worlds and watch as Kuolema and the rest of the Dragons of the Bleak rip the flesh from her bones.” I paused for a beat. “You want to know something else?”

“What?” His voice was deep, and he flicked his eyes up to stare at me, not bothering to hide his sadness.

“I’m going to enjoy every single second of it.”

Chapter Six

Later that night, long after an almost silent dinner where we all barely ate, I found my best friend sitting in the back of the formal gardens next to the large Silver Leaf Maple that she’d bonded with. She was cradling the Orb of the Dryads in her hands, staring into it, her head back against the tree’s still-scorched trunk. “Mercedes?”