They'd run out of time. Maeve had advanced much quicker than they'd hoped she would, drinking the magic of the land of Prythian like faerie wine. As they prepared for their last standoff against her, Callie felt sick from the anxious roiling of her gut. Fear twisted her insides, eating away at her resolve.
She watched Azriel as he strapped his weapons to his body and couldn't help but attempt to memorize every last detail of him. She planned to hurl herself in the path of danger in his stead, but she had no clue if her plan would actually work. If it didn't...
She physically shook the thought from her head. She didn't have the time or energy to wind down that pathway of thinking yet again. She'd mulled it over plenty in the last few months. She knew as well as anyone the risks of this plan. The weight of responsibility was unbearable on her shoulders.
She and Rhys had spent many midnights staring at the Elentiya Stone, hoping some answer would magically come to them. Nothing had. They had no fucking clue how to use it, and now, they'd run out of time to figure it out.
Pulling on her boots and tying them tight, she stood and brushed off her leathers. She let Azriel know she'd be back and left him to converse battle strategy with Cassian. She bolted as quickly as she could down the hallway, trying to lighten her footfall to make as little noise as possible.
Stepping into Rhysand's office, she found him frantically bustling about, attempting to make all the arrangements he could to keep as many of his people safe as possible. When he saw her, his anxiety seemed to peak. He marched over to his desk, shuffling through his top drawer until he pulled out a necklace.
Callie's brow furrowed. He placed it in her palm, and she looked it over. Wired metal crossed across the small orange stone, keeping it trapped inside the necklace. The stone had the same texture and coloring as the Elentiya Stone, but was much too small. Had he broken it? Would that tamper with its effects?
"It's charmed," Rhysand said, his voice strange and hoarse. "The stone is inside. Once you remove the metal bindings it will return to its original form. You can't put it back once it has been removed, so be careful." A pit formed in her stomach. She nodded and secured the necklace around her neck.
She tucked the stone beneath her fighting leathers and checked to be sure it wasn't visible. Of course, it wasn't. Rhysand had taken care to make the jewelry small enough to not be easily detectable.
"I won't let you down," she assured.
"We don't even know how to use the stone, Callie," he sighed. "Please let me change the plan. We can figure something out, find more time-"
"There is no more time," Callie argued. "When the time comes, I'll know what to do. I just need you to trust me." He stared at her for a minute before looking down at his desk and the litter of papers and maps that were nearly useless by now.
"We owe you our lives," Rhys managed to get out, looking pained.
"I owe him mine," she said solemnly. "Please take care of him." Rhysand nodded. She knew she could trust him to watch out for Azriel. She couldn't imagine her death would put him in a good place mentally.
"You'll come home," Rhys said, not even sounding like he believed himself.
"Maybe," she nodded.
She gave him a long, hard look. The two didn't speak, but they didn't have to. Their eyes communicated everything they should have said. They said thank you for saving the people I love. I understand the burden you carry. I hope to see you on the other side of this.
Before tears could well in her eyes, Callie turned and left, shutting the door behind her. Surprisingly, she wasn't afraid for what would happen to her. All of her fear was centered around losing Azriel. She was sure he likely felt the same, which made her heart squeeze painfully in her hollow chest. It was worth it, she thought, to know she had done everything she could to save them from harm. It had to be enough.
The stress on Feyre's body had caused her to have an early birth, delivering her son just last week. Rhysand had hidden her away somewhere to heal and care for their child as far away from the battle as possible. He wouldn't tell anyone where she was, but Callie had a feeling it was wherever Azriel had been planning to take her when he'd begged her to leave.
Cassian, Azriel, and Morrigan were to hold the front line. Amren right behind them, almost as a failsafe. Elain had gone to care for Feyre and Nesta had refused to be kept from the action. She and her friends had formed a female fighting unit that Cassian and Azriel had personally trained. They would fight.
Callie wasn't a fighter, but for her plan to work, she needed to make it onto that battle field. She'd just barely convinced Azriel to allow her by telling him she would be working as Madja's assistant to help patch up wounds and provide medical care to their warriors. He'd only agreed because he knew how far away that would be from the action. She had no skills to offer Madja, but she would help with cleaning wounds and wrapping bandages.
Azriel found her before she went to find Madja. He wordlessly pulled her into his chest, leaning his head down to rest on top of hers as he held her. Callie blinked the blur of tears from her eyes, a few escaping down her cheeks.
"I love you," he said as he held her.
"Why does that sound like goodbye?" She said into his chest, fighting to keep herself from falling apart.
"In case something happens to me, I just need you to know," he said. She pulled back, looking up at him and the pain that had become so familiar with his beautiful features. She missed the light in his eyes and the way his laugh sounded. She missed the playful way he would joke and all the times they'd argue about something silly. She missed the boy who climbed through her window at night to hold her until she fell asleep. The boy who secretly loved lemon squares and who'd kept a stuffed animal from his childhood because it was sentimental to him.
The man in front of her was void of everything that made Azriel who he was. He looked like he hadn't slept in months. His alight eyes now just looked exhausted and hopeless. He'd lost himself in this war. The thought of it threatened to rip Callie's heart in half. He deserved so much more than this. He'd deserved to find his happiness and get to have peace, and now she wasn't sure he ever would. But she would fight with everything she had to give it to him.
She placed her hands on his cheeks and looked up at him with so many things she wanted to say to him but couldn't find the words. He turned his head to kiss her palm.
"I love you more than I think I will ever be able to tell you. If this is the ending, I would still choose you over and over and over just to have gotten the time I had with you. It never would have been enough time, but you opened up something in me I hadn't even known was there. I'm not sure 'I love you' suffices anymore for all that I feel for you." He leaned his forehead against hers for a moment before Cassian bellowed down the hallway that it was time. Azriel's entire body stiffened and he pressed a kiss to Callie's lips so softly she wasn't even sure she hadn't dreamed it.
"Come back home to me," she whispered against his lips. He nodded, pulling away and kissing her forehead before turning his back and walking down the hallway, clenching his fists and opening his hands to spread his fingers. He didn't look back at her, and she was almost thankful for it.
She got to the medical tent a few minutes later. She helped Madja begin to prepare by sectioning out bandages, cutting cloth into strips that could be used to staunch the bleeding. She set out the bottles of disenfectant and any other supplies she thought the healer may need as she worked.
She heard a horn somewhere in the distance, likely signaling the beginning of the fight. Callie chewed at her nails, bouncing her leg in the chair she sat in. Madja placed a hand on her arm and gave her a mournful look that told her she knew how she felt. Callie couldn't even begin to imagine the things the healer had seen over the years of working for the High Lord.
Rhysand had told her he'd give a signal when it was time for her to make her move. He hadn't told her what the signal would be, but said she'd know it when she saw it. Screams and howls filled the air along with the clanging of metal against metal. Blasts of power echoed from both sides as they fought for their lives.
Callie felt like she might be sick when she smelled the tang of copper in the air, letting her know someone, somewhere was bleeding out. A pair of fae raced over the hill with another between them on a makeshift gurney. Callie swore, leaping up to help Madja with her supplies as the fae lay the man on the ground near their tent. The man gurgled and groaned in pain. The wound on his chest was unlike anything Callie had ever seen.
From the center near his heart, a charcoal black wound had been inflicted with tendrils of black poison radiating from the spot and throughout his entire body. Callie felt lightheaded but fought it back and fell to her knees beside Madja, attempting to help her clean the wound, but within moments, it was clear that the man wouldn't make it. They had no idea how to reverse the poisoning that had been done once it had spread to far.
More people ran back over the hill and down the bank to the med tent, all with similar wounds and similar fates. The bodies began to pile up and Callie's chest was aching. It felt hopeless. Their efforts to save these men were futile and unsuccessful. What kind of creature was inflicting such wounds?
Warriors began charging back over the hill in retreat, so many of them that they looked like ants. Callie's eyes widened and she looked back to Madja, who stood frozen. Neither of them knew what to do.
From the back of the crowd, men and women started to fall, appearing to be hit in the back by something that sent them toppling forward. Callie realized with horror that the bodies weren't getting back up. She stumbled a few steps back, eyes widening as she covered her mouth with her hands and watched as the Night Court started to become eradicated.
A heavy slam rattled the earth behind her and she turned to see Azriel, fuming with rage as his chest rose and heavily fell. His face was splattered with blood, his hands stained red and his siphons blazing their cobalt blue light. Before Callie could speak, he scooped her up into his arms, launching into the sky and beating his wings roughly as he took her away from the squalor.
Callie looked down at the battlefield, now littered with bodies as Maeve's men chased behind, climbing over the bodies in an effort to ensure they killed every last one of the Night Court citizens. She felt like she couldn't breathe.
Azriel landed a bit away in the tree cover, dropping Callie with a huff. He looked her over to make sure nothing had happened to her and then held her face between his blood-stained hands. He looked more serious than she had ever seen him.
"Callie," he warned. "Do not leave this spot. I have to try to find Rhys and Cass. Do not fucking move an inch. Do you understand me?" He was yelling at her, his voice taking a tone that made her flinch. He'd never yelled around her before.
Callie nodded, brows furrowed.
"Callie, this is not a fucking game. Do not fucking move. I'll be back." He kissed her forehead and then with a single forceful wing beat that nearly stole her breath, he was gone. It was exactly then that Callie felt the metal against her skin begin to burn. The necklace that Rhysand had given her to hide the Elentiya stone was radiating heat, singing her skin. Rhysand's signal.
Panic flooded her body. She knew Azriel likely wouldn't forgive her for what she was about to do. She'd come to terms with it by now. So before she thought too hard and stopped herself, she bolted straight toward the battle field. Pumping her legs as fast as they would go, she heaved air into her lungs and urged her body on. Her muscles burned with the effort.
She cleared the tree line and ran towards Maeve's side of the battlefield. She made it a hundred yards before she was tackled. Her face smacked into the hard-packed dirt and she winced, feeling pain radiate from the impact on her spine. She felt like she couldn't gulp air down quick enough and the weight of the man who'd tackled her pressing down on her back was suffocating.
"Now, what do we have here?" The man laughed, his breath and flesh smelling rotten. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. The man's hand forcefully pushed her face back into the dirt. "Looks like you're special, aren't you? Got the High Lord's inner court symbol on display." Rhysand had done that on purpose. She'd needed a way to get close to Maeve and not killed before she got there. If Maeve thought she could use Callie as leverage, she'd keep her alive.
"Please," Callie wheezed under his weight.
"Let's see what my mistress would like to do with you," he purred. "I hope she lets me have a turn with you before she kills you." Callie's gut roiled at his words and their insinuation. He stood off her, yanking her up harshly by her arm and dragging her deeper into Maeve's territory. He took her into a stone building with at least ten burly men standing guard outside of the entrance, and several more inside.
Down a back hallway and into a side door, Callie was trying to memorize their route in case she needed to get out quickly. Not that she'd ever make it past all the guards, but she could hope. All of them smelled... wrong. The gash on her captors head from the battle leaked black ichor instead of blood.
"I've brought you a gift, my Queen," the man said, shoving Callie roughly to her knees and bowing himself. The Queen turned, her deep scarlet gown like a beacon of doom. She smiled down at Callie, the sadistic flash of teeth sending a chill up her spine. On her head was a spiked golden crown. It was dangerous and sharp, opting to look menacing rather than beautiful.
"Great work, Leitch," the Queen praised, her voice high and melodic. "Take her to the dungeons until I'm ready to deal with her." She dismissed with a wave of her hand, turning to look back out the window where she watched the battle dwindling now, as she eradicated the Night Court.