Chapter 360 Atlas Green, River Pink, Willow Fucked

River entered her father’s study where he was supposed to be.

A scroll sat on the desk. The wax seal on it was green, pressed with the imprint of a tree.

The Willow Seal.

River’s heart stopped. Her body went cold. She turned to the guard stationed at the study door. “Where is my father?”

“He didn’t say, Your Highness. He left with his personal guard half an hour ago.”

“But this wasn’t supposed to happen until tomorrow…”

Her voice trailed off. The guard was looking at her with polite confusion.

She didn’t explain, sprinting out of the study, through the hall, running straight into something solid.

“River? What’s wrong?”

His tone was of genuine concern.

She looked up, eyes wide.

“Lucian? I didn’t know you were back.”

He opened his mouth. Closed it. No words came.

“Please excuse me,” she said, already trying to move past him.

His hands caught her arms. “Hey, slow down. Answer me, River. What is going on?”

“I think my father is walking into a trap right now under false parley.” The words tumbled out of her mouth.

Lucian’s face rearranged from warmth into king in under a second.

“You think,” he repeated. “How do you know this?”

River didn’t answer. The knowledge was sacred. The Goddess had said it could never be spoken to mortal ears. She had already said too much.

“Lucian, either you let go of me, or I am dragging you with me. But I am moving in the next three seconds regardless of which one you choose.”

Lucian let go of her.

“Lead the way.”

She ran into a private room, then her hands came up. Pink magic split the air in a vertical line that expanded outward, widening into an opening that showed forest on the other side.

“Since when can you make portals?” Lucian asked.

“My first one,” River breathed already running through it.

Lucian followed.

✦✦✦

AELINDOR OUTER FOREST

She ran faster than Lucian had ever seen her run. Then she stopped abruptly at the edge of a clearing, and crouched down. Lucian knelt beside her, staying hidden in the trees.

Atlas was already walking towards General Willow at the center of the field.

“Why would he come here if he knew…” River mumbled.

“If he knew what, River?” Lucian whispered.

“He knows Vesper is using dark magic. Why would he agree to meet her father?”

Lucian didn’t answer for a moment. He sniffed the air.

“Willow has men surrounding the area. They are using magic to conceal themselves, but I can smell them. If I were to guess, at least one hundred are spaced out.” His gold eyes scanned the forest behind them.

“Since when can you smell concealed soldiers?” she whispered.

“Since always.”

“You never mentioned that.”

“You never asked.” He smirked. “You also never mentioned you could make portals.”

“We all have secrets, Lucian,” she said, moving her gaze back to the field.

“These are not equivalent secrets, River. Nobody wakes up one day and randomly makes a portal. That takes training,” he said flatly. “How many did your father bring?”

“His personal guard. That’s it.”

Lucian was still for three seconds. The stillness of a wolf calculating distance, threat density, angle of approach, and the specific math of how many seconds stood between this moment and the one where everything went wrong.

“I’ve mindlinked my men. They are on their way.”

River knew what mindlinking was because Lucian had explained it to Tristan once in passing. But that was the first time he’d mentioned it to her, and she made a note to ask him how it worked after this.

That’s when she saw movement. A flicker in the tree line, forty yards east of the clearing. A hand was glowing with dark magic.

They had angled themselves to hit her father’s blindspot. They were clearly about to ambush him. White-hot certainty burned through every rational argument to wait for Lucian’s wolves.

“River what are you-“

“Stay here.” She stood up.

“River,” Lucian hissed, reaching for her arm. His hand closed on air. She was already in the clearing.

General Willow spotted her first. “It would appear we have a visitor.”

The Fae King turned from him and found his daughter. The surprised expression on his face lasted only a millisecond before it vanished. But River knew, she would be in trouble after this. She could feel his anger radiating from his magic loud and clear.

“River?”

General Willow’s mouth curved.

“Even better. Father and daughter on the same field. This will save me some time.”

He raised his hand lazily.

Soldiers emerged from the tree line. Fae warriors, blades drawn, hands glowing with dark magic.

River had been expecting this, but her stomach still dropped. In hindsight, she probably should have asked Lucian for his blade.

“An ambush under a parley flag, Willow,” Atlas said, voice low. “I have endured your posturing. I have tolerated your daughter’s theatrics. But this, is beneath even the meager standards your house has maintained in my service. You will be remembered for this. Long after the victory you imagine, this is what the histories will record: the General who butchered a sacred law because his pride was wounded.”

General Willow’s expression didn’t change.

“A daughter for a daughter, Atlas. You locked mine in a dungeon. Yours can die beside you on this grass. The symmetry appeals to me.”

“That’s where you are wrong.” Atlas drew his blade. “You will not be touching my daughter.”

General Willow’s hands came up in a blur. River dashed in front of Atlas on pure instinct as pink erupted from her palms. The kind of magic with the intent to kill the person on the other end.

Pink intercepted black three feet in front of her face in a shockwave that hurled every person on the field back ten feet. Everyone except for River and Willow who were locked in place.

The collision was a stalemate that would hold until one of them broke.

Atlas was off the ground first. His hands came up. Green magic, bright and ancient, the magic of the oldest Fae bloodline on the continent, poured from his palms and joined his daughter’s pink. The combined stream hit General Willow’s dark magic with a force that drove the black column back three inches.

More of General Willow’s men emerged from the trees.

One extended his palms, aimed at River.

A black wolf tore through the clearing at Alpha speed, knocking him to the ground and ripping his throat out before any magic left his hands.

The field erupted.