Selena studied her for a moment, then nodded. “You know her best.” She took a deep breath, let it out in a sigh. “What was the message?”

She’d forgotten about the message. She pulled it out of her belt, broke the seal, and read. “The Black Coats army in the south has been defeated. And the…the warships that were sent to attack the west were also defeated.”

“Then this is it. It comes down to us and the Witch’s Hammer. It comes down to what happens on that field today. If we win, it’s over.”

Ashk refolded the paper and tucked it into her belt. Not quite, she thought grimly. Not quite.

Chapter 51

waning moon

Adolfo watched swollen, putrid flesh push through the rotted skin on the prisoner’s chest—and smiled. A bite to the shoulder, something a healer would think of as a simple wound. But whatever was in a nighthunter’s bite that tainted a wound had spread so swiftly, the black rot had already crept down the prisoner’s arm, crept toward his heart, crept up his neck.

All it had taken was one bite from him. One. The nighthunters he’d made from small animals would kill a man if there were enough of them, but a man could live after being bitten in a limb—if he was willing to sacrifice the limb. But with his bite, the rot spread too fast. A simple bite became a mortal wound.

A scratching on the tent flap. “Master?”

Adolfo pulled up the hood on his cloak. He’d torn off his tunic hours ago, no longer able to stand having the web of skin that had grown out of his side and the underside of his arm trapped by cloth. The cloak would cover him sufficiently until he was ready to reveal himself to his enemies.

Obeying his terse reply, the young Inquisitor peered into the tent. “Is there something you need, Master?”

“Have my horse saddled,” Adolfo growled. “Today I will lead our men to victory. And you can throw that next to the dung pile. Let the flies have it.”

He strode out of the tent, amused at the way the young Inquisitor pulled the tent flap back and held it in front of him as if it were a shield.

There were no shields from the glory he’d become. He would fill the battlefield with pain and fear. And then he would feast.

Crouched on the top of the rise, Ashk looked over the field. How many bowmen were already tucked among that tumble of huge stones? How many Fae would die today? How many humans? She, Selena, and Liam had agreed that the companies and Clans that had fought yesterday wouldn’t be asked to step onto the battlefield again unless there was no other choice. Some of the Fae still hadn’t returned to their human form, and she wondered if some of them ever would.