I sent a message to Alluin: What is Stag Court if not its people? I will not sacrifice the army to save the Court. When the time comes, the gates to the Antlered Palace will be open for you. Bring the army home. Yours in friendship and fidelity, Leah

And I sent the message to every one of the leaders of the armies—every Leftenant, every Commander, every General: The gates are open. Bring your people into the heart of Stag Court, and we will defend you.

I almost didn't send Dain a message. I knew he was fighting, and probably wouldn't have the chance to read it, but at the last moment my resolve broke. Scrawled on a slender strip of paper, I wrote, I'm waiting for you. I didn't know what else to say, or if I could say it without breaking.

I had to be strong. War was almost at my door.

Kamharida put me into steel chainmail, the kind worn by human soldiers on fae battlefields, and a black tunic over it with the golden antlers of the palace guard. I wore steel greaves and bracers, the golden signet ring of the Regent on my finger, and my iron coronet, the spikes polished to deadly, gleaming points. In the mirror, I looked like a warrior, the shadows under my eyes and the worn lines on my face only making me look more like I would not hesitate to put a knife through you.

Of course, I'd never been a very knife-y person. I had a sawed-off shotgun loaded with iron shrapnel for buckshot, instead.

The army fought like wildcats, despite their long engagement with the enemy. I thought – I hoped – that the knowledge that the Antlered Palace would not leave them to die gave them the ferocity that only came from knowing that someone had your back, and would sacrifice everything to protect you. Every foot the dead gained up that rocky slope was hard-won, and when the first explosion rumbled through the palace, I bared my teeth with feral anger, imagining the scene. We'd told the armies that we'd laid traps, but it was surely one thing to hear that, and another to stage an uphill, fighting retreat against an unkillable enemy, and then see them get blown to smithereens by C4 and iron nails.