When we arrived at the king's personal study, Dominicus spoke. “Your Highness, Nikolas is here to speak with you.”

Maya stayed blissfully asleep in his arms. Ater a nod from Silas, Dominicus left with a careful bow.

Once it was just us, Silas's hopeful gaze landed on me. “Have you come to your decision then?”

I nodded. “I have. I'm going to try and help you all, but I need information. I'm not strong enough to take out an army alone, but maybe we can lure them into a trap.”

Silas heaved a sigh of relief and nodded. “Of course, of course. We will offer whatever aid you deem necessary to ensure my people's safety. What do you need?”

A tense knot in my stomach eased at his easy acceptance, and I chose my words carefully. He thought he'd summoned me, and I didn't want to make him think otherwise. The last thing I needed was people asking how I'd gotten here. For all I knew, Karma had enemies, and announcing myself as her chosen would slap a target on my back.

No, better to be safe in this case. I was entirely too squishy to be taking on unnecessary risks.

“How long should this summoning spell last? If we're on a time limit before I disappear again, that's important information.” I asked, and Silas waved a hand.

“The old texts claimed the spell was indefinite. If you want to go back, you'll need to find a spirit powerful enough to do so.” A twinge of guilt twisted over his features. “I… apologize if this disrupted your life, but there was truly no other option.”

In my case, I hadn't been leaving much behind, but if I'd had a kid or something waiting on Earth, I would have been livid to find myself here. I waved his apology aside, not responding, lest he try to dig into my past. Instead, I focused on the present.

Alright, no time limit, that was…potentially bad. If what he summoned was the catalyst, it wouldn't go away on its own. I should have expected that. Things were never easy, especially potentially world-ending things like this.

With any luck, it wouldn't be a problem until after we dealt with the more prominent threat. I'd have my hands full dealing with the army.

Rubbing a hand through my hair, I continued the line of questioning. “How far away is the army?”

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His skin took on a gray tint, and he gestured toward the window. “Look and see for yourself.”

I did, my stomach souring at the seemingly never-ending sea of armored bodies slowly making their way towards the castle.

They stuck to the forest, hiding in the massive trees’ shadows as they inched closer. The sun was rapidly sinking overhead too. They wouldn't be trapped in that area for much longer.

No wonder Silas had been desperate for my help. It wouldn't take long before they were on us, maybe a few hours. If we were lucky.

Facing him again, I ignored the ember of panic fighting to grow into a blaze. This was so above my pay grade, but I'd just have to make do until Karma or Time made contact with me.

Taking a deep breath, I settled my nerves and spoke. “We don't have time to waste. You said they're undead; what kind of weaknesses do they have? Can we lure them into a smaller area and corral them in place?”

Silas straightened, his eyes sharpening with the look of someone who'd survived years in this corrupted world and had the intelligence to show for it.

“Undead are weak to light magic, but that affinity type is rare. Do you have it?”

Flashing back to my conversation with Karma, I grimaced. “No, my affinity is nature.” I almost regretted it now.

Silas shook his head, determination clear. “Fire is another weakness of theirs. Corpse bodies have been drained of most water and are more flammable thanks to that. Perhaps we could have oil and flaming arrows prepared?”

It was better than anything else I could come up with. “Perfect, but where should we lead them so no civilians are hurt?” I asked.

He gestured to a spot outside the walls, “There. It's a dead end between them and us. They'll either have to run back the way they came or into the fire we'll drop on their heads.”

It was as good a place as any. Though that still left one problem…

“What can we use as bait to lure them in?”

If the undead were drawn to any flesh to feed on, we could gather dead animals and place them inside. Hopefully, the disease spreading through Nexus hadn't caused a shortage of animals…

I offered the tentative plan, only for Silas to shake his head with a grimace.

“Unfortunately, undead hunger for human flesh and no other. Animals do not satisfy them.”

I gritted my teeth. “There has to be something they want.” I wasn't giving up, not now that we almost had a plan hammered out.

Silence passed for a long second before finally, Silas's features hardened into a diamond mask. He nodded, coming to a decision. “There is something they'll want. Me. I will act as bait. Those monstrosities will not lay a single decrepit finger on my subjects. Not while I still breathe.”

Immediately, I tried to cut in. “You're too valuable. If you die, then the kingdom will be thrown into chaos, and they're going to need a leader after the army is dead.”

He ignored that and offered a determined smile.

“I appreciate your want to keep me safe, but this is my duty as king. I refuse to stand back while my people are slaughtered.”

That was admirable, but still a bad idea. He was king, did he seriously not see the problem with him potentially dying? Frustration welled through me, and before I could think it through, I spoke.

“Then let me be bait. I'm not one of your people so you don't need to feel guilty if something happens to me.”