“I never said you were!” Ash pressed his hand to my cheek, peering at me intently, silver eyes bright. “I never meant to imply that,” he continued in a softer voice, running his thumb over my skin. “It’s just…you’re carrying our child now, Meghan. I can’t risk anything happening to you. To both of you.”
My anger vanished. It was impossible to stay mad when he said things like that. But still, I was the Iron Queen. I would not let those I loved put themselves in danger while I watched from the sidelines. I’d done far too much of that already.
“Ash,” I said, meeting that bright, soulful gaze. “I can’t. I can’t hang back and do nothing. Not anymore.” He let out a quiet breath, and I placed my hands on his cheeks, gazing up at him. “Our life, our world, is always going to be dangerous, and there will always be something that wishes us harm. But if this is for the future of our child, and the future of our kingdom, I will stand with you and fight. That is my promise, and my duty as queen. I won’t let anything come between us or stand in our way.”
Ash’s eyes grew smoldering. “As you wish, my queen,” he said in a low voice, bending close. “If this is your will, then I will fight beside you with everything I have.” And he brushed his lips to mine.
We kissed until Grimalkin’s impatient sigh filtered through the brambles around us.
“Goodfellow is getting uncomfortable,” the cat said, as we reluctantly pulled away. “And the guardian is waiting for you. Perhaps we can refrain from celebrating until after it is defeated.” He sniffed as I rolled my eyes, grabbing my sword from where I’d jammed it into the earth. “Also, I feel obligated to point out that the sentinel is very near invincible now. Its scales will turn away most sword blows, and it is impervious to magical attacks. A frontal assault would be most unwise.”
“Okay, so how are we supposed to kill the thing?”
Grimalkin sniffed. “How was Achilles finally defeated? How did the dragon Smaug meet his end? There is always a chink in the armor, human. It is small, but it is always there.”
A piercing hiss rent the relative silence of the glade, making me flinch, and Grimalkin disappeared. The huge snake had uncoiled, and was towering in front of the tree, its tongue flicking the air rapidly. And then another arrow-shaped head rose up where the tail should’ve been, identical to the first and just as frightening. The two-headed serpent hissed again, sounding angry and defiant, flashing twin pairs of very long, curved fangs.
“Uh, guys?” Puck glanced over his shoulder at us. “Not to be rude and all, but this thing is starting to eye me like I’m a big tasty mouse. I hope you two are planning to join the party soon.”
I shared a glance with Ash, who waited quietly, not looking at the snake or Puck or Grimalkin, but at me. “Ready for this?” I asked him, and he nodded, gesturing with his sword.
“Lead the way, my queen. I’m right beside you.”
We left the trees, walking calmly across the field, side by side. The monstrous, two-headed snake hissed a challenge and reared up into a coiled S, ready to strike.
“How you wanna do this?” Puck muttered as we got closer. The sentinel’s beady eyes followed us as we approached, never blinking, and it had gone perfectly, dangerously still. I felt the tension lining its huge body, like a rubber band stretched to breaking, and my heart pounded.
“You take one head,” Ash replied, his narrowed gaze on our opponent. “I’ll take the other. Meghan, that will give you enough of a distraction to look for the weak spot. And let’s hope Grimalkin knows what he’s talking about.”
“Weak spot?” Puck echoed, looking confused. “What weak spot? Last time we fought this thing, we just hacked it to—”
One snake head lunged. Insanely fast, it darted in, jaws gaping, a dark blur that took me by surprise. Puck, however, was ready for it. He leaped straight up and, as the snake’s jaws snapped shut in the place he had been, landed on the flat, scaly head.
The sentinel hissed and reared back, shaking its head, trying to dislodge its unwanted passenger. Puck whooped loudly, clinging like a leech, dagger flashing as he hacked and stabbed when he could. Where the dagger edge met scales, sparks flew, but the blade was unable to pierce the thick hide. Still, it must’ve pissed the snake off royally, because the head went crazy trying to dislodge him.
“Meghan, watch out!”
I jerked back, cursing myself. In the split second my gaze had been on Puck, the second head had streaked toward me. Ash lunged in front of me and met the attack with his own, the ice-blade slashing down to catch the serpent in the eye. The snake screamed, in pain this time, and recoiled. Hissing furiously, it turned on Ash, who stepped forward to meet it, his blade held up before him.
Too close, Meghan. Focus, dammit.
I took a deep breath and felt the glamour of Summer and Iron rise up in me. With Puck and Ash keeping the sentinel busy, I closed my eyes and sent my magic into the ground, into the wyldwood itself. I felt the roots of the ancient Wishing Tree, extending deep into the earth, the power that hummed through it and all the Nevernever. I could even feel the heartbeat of the sentinel itself, the sudden fear as it realized the two warriors it fought were just a distraction. That the small, insignificant human on the ground, glowing with sudden power, was the real threat.
“Meghan!”
I heard Ash’s warning shout, sensed that both heads had broken off their attacks and were now coming for me. I felt the speed of the heads as they darted in, lethal fangs extending to pierce me and swallow me whole, and smiled.