Chapter 161: Not Enough

Draven

Dad was not happy to learn that Varynth had built an army to battle his own.

Ashthorn wasn’t forthcoming at first, but after dad ripped his limbs off, more than enough information spilled from his lips.

I sent messengers back to the palace. We needed more soldiers, more men to fight off the impending army that Varynth had hidden away on his land.

How this slipped beneath our knowledge was a problem we would have to deal with after Layla was safe again.

After Varynth’s head hung from the gates of our home.

We didn’t stop moving. The branches snapped in our wake as we made our way toward the manor.The ground shook beneath us, disturbed by the weight of so much more than just the three of us.

The men who had ridden to Ashthorn followed close behind. They weren’t the full force of our army, but enough to offer support once we arrived at Varynth’s manor.

The rest would come as soon as my messenger arrived at the palace.

We needed them, if we believed the numbers that Ashthorn confessed.

I could already smell the salt in the air, hear the crash of waves as they landed against the rocky shores. We were close, and the tension, the anger in my shoulders, was almost painful.

Kai moved ahead of me, gliding over the ground as if he were flying. I could feel the magic as it radiated from him. He was hot, like the sun itself were rooted in his chest.

He still could not feel Layla’s bond, and it was killing him inside.

He stopped first, and I followed, keeping a distance between us. Dad stopped beside me, lifting his hand to signal to the men behind us that we had reached our destination.

Kai moved one step further before he stilled completely, tilting his head to the side. I knew he was listening to what the wind could tell him. He dropped to one knee and buried his hand in the soil.

I wished I could understand the earth as he did. That I could get any indication that my little sister was alive.

“Kai,” I whispered, already inpatient with his silence.

He turned to look at me over his shoulder, eyes shining. “She’s here.”

I swallowed, stepping toward him, slipping between the last stretch of trees until the forest finally broke.

“But so are they.”

I froze. The manor stood at the edge of the cliffs, massive against the horizon. It was the largest of the Lord’s houses, but that wasn’t what had me still. No, I had been here before. The size wasn’t surprising.

It was everything around it.

Tents. Rows and rows of them, stretching across the open land. It was as if a second city had been planted into the ground. A soft breeze passed us, and I could smell the fires that burned low and between the tents.

Soldiers moved between them, their armor clinking.

I could tell that they moved quietly, trying to mask the sound of their existence.

“Fuck,” I whispered. “How the hell does this happen?”

Dad didn’t answer, the rage coming off him in waves. His eyes overlooked the manor and went straight to the sea spread out before us.

My gaze followed his and caught sight of the white sails against the setting sun. There were dozens of them, bobbing as the waves rolled beneath the hulls.

They rose from below the cliff side, barely visible from where we stood. Ships sat anchored in the harbor, hidden from the inland entirely.

No patrol would have seen them.

No scout would have thought to look, not when we believed Lord Varynth had been watching the border.

“He’s been bringing them in by sea,” I said.

Kai stepped back, turning to face dad head on. “You had no inclination of Varynth’s betrayal?”

Fuck.

Dad tensed, his jaw clenching as his eyes turned black, and he growled. “You think I would allow him such privilege if I did?”

Kai studied him for a moment, particles of dirt flying around him as if he could not control the magic beneath his skin. “Did he oppose you?”

Dad scoffed, shaking his head. “Every vampire lord with the exception of Jaime, opposed me. But they knew they would have no place here if they did not fall in line.”

“Makes sense why he would feign his loyalty,” Kai inhaled, turning back to look at the manor. “Layla is alive. She’s healthy. A bit tired from the sound of her heartbeat.”

“You can hear it?” I asked, bewildered.

He shook his head. “No, but I feel the vibrations through the ground. She has a specific frequency I’ve attuned myself to.”

Dad watched him for a second longer, letting go of all sense of control he thought he had. “What do we do?”

The question shocked me. I’d never known him to be anything other than commanding, demanding. Angry.

“You clearly know more of what is going on in there than I or Draven,” he added when Kai had not answered him.

“Varynth is expecting us. I’m assuming he wanted us to see his army and run with our tails between our legs.”

My eyes shifted back toward the tents. “That is a lot of men.”

Kai shrugged as if none of this phased him. “Not enough.”

The words settled wrongly in my chest. Not enough?

I stared back at the rows of tents, at the sheer number of bodies moving between them, at the ships lining the coast. Not enough?

It looked like more than enough to me. It would cost us a great deal of death to finish them, not to mention that they had Layla’s life to leverage against us.

Before I could argue, the wind shifted. Familiar scents washed over me.

I turned sharply toward the trees just as the forest moved.

Dad straightened beside me. “They’re here.”

Drima was the first to break through the treeline behind us, followed closely by Iza. The both of them were observant, already looking past us and toward the manor.

I could hear the rest of the men who had come with them. Hundreds in number, but they stayed behind. They fanned out behind the trees, remaining hidden and quiet.

“What in the fucking hell?” Drima’s expression darkened as he eyed the tents, the scale of the army Varynth had built.

“So Ashthorn wasn’t lying, was he?” Iza sighed, but I could see the glint of amusement in his eyes. He never liked Varynth, nor vampires that opposed our new way of life.

“No,” I said, not even trying to hide how upset I was.

“Kai!”

Isidora ran from the treeline and straight toward her son, cupping his face as she asked him how he was.

Fen watched them as he approached us, and then his gaze swept to the manor, the tents, and over the sails. He seemed unfazed, just like Kai.

“What’s the plan?” Drima crossed his arms over his chest. “We have the men to fight this. We will lose some of them, but I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about Layla.”

Dad’s fists tightened at his side, and he gave a barely perceptible nod. “She’s all that matters right now.”

Kai moved away from his mother, who was quietly assessing the number of men down by the tents. “Varynth has known of our arrival since the moment we got here. He’s got a powerful witch at his side.”

“She’ll have to be one of our first targets,” Iza said, looking at the manor, as if wondering where they would be holed up. “It’s one line of defense that’s too unpredictable.”

“But how would we draw them out?” They all turned to me. “They have their army out here, why would they come out?”

Kai looked right at dad. “Varynth will make a play for the throne. He took your daughter. Built an army to fight yours. You’re the only reason he would leave his manor.”