by L J Andrews
Where is Teagan? He shouted in my mind.
Coming, I hissed in return, snapping my jaws as a mage blasted energy against my heart. With a single puff of my breath, it dissolved and returned violently against the mage until her body crumbled and bent in an unnatural way.
Mitch ducked as a mage tossed a dagger. Rochelle rolled over his back, thrusting her blade through the mage’s chest before Mitch threw a knife with accuracy and cut the throat of the mage behind the first.
Amber moved to my side, her fiery golden eyes locking with mine for a moment.
You cannot be here if my father comes, I insisted, snapping my jaws over the arm of a dark mage. It tasted horrible, like raw flesh curdled in my mouth, but at least the limb was useless.
You try and get me to leave you, Amber hissed, encircling four mages in her powerful elemental pyre. They were trapped, blasting her white flames with dark energy. Mitch and Rochelle swooped in, soon killing every single one.
Amber, I warned, feeling probably the same desperation Teagan felt for Jade to see her out of harm’s way.
When will the men learn we women can fight just as fiercely? Laina screeched, her claws shredding a dying mage at the waist. It was gruesome but effective. The remaining mages near the lindworm woman darted away.
Thank you, Amber said, her eyes locking with mine again.
I had my protest prepared, but roared in agony instead. A mage’s cursed blade ripped through my lower ribs, the point cutting through all my layers of scaly flesh. Amber roared in fury as another mage attacked at my other side. I snapped my jaws, flinging my long tail and knocking my attacker to the ground where Laina devoured him whole, but his blade was still lodged inside me, and I felt the energy attacking my own. I scratched my claws at the blade, but couldn’t reach it. Amber tried to reach me, but a lindworm dove for her. She dodged as the long serpent tried to snap at her throat. Thane attacked my father’s warrior, snapping his powerful fangs into one wing, but more came to join the dark mages.
I blasted a ring of fire against a lindworm, who only chuckled.
Little brother, he hissed. You’ve chosen the losing side. I will enjoy watching you meet your fate.
I snarled, feeling my body weakening, though I wouldn’t show it, not to my brother. Malum, you will find we have more strength than you know, brother.
Malum—my oldest brother and the heir to my father’s throne. He had just as much interest in winning the war as Nag. And I had my suspicions that once the war ended, Malum had no intention of waiting for a natural death from the current king to take over the throne.
Malum growled while laughing wickedly through my thoughts. Strength! You align yourself with broken down warriors and a mate. I’m simply trembling, Ced. I always hated you. You’re weak, you know. You cared so much. Perhaps I won’t wait for our father to deal with you. I think I’d be much more creative.
Malum snarled and lunged for me. He roared in fury when Amber’s pyre struck him between his eyes. I could have laughed loudly. She remembered the blind spot of the larger lindworms. Malum roared and turned his attention toward the royal. Amber blasted toward the clouds when three warriors darted after her. Rochelle followed them from the ground with furious energy that blasted jagged rocks shooting to the sky. Only one warrior felt the fatal points of the mage’s attack and fell from the sky. Amber disappeared from my sight the same moment Malum sank his fangs into my neck.
Laina struck him against his wings while Thane and Mitch attacked at his rear. Thane was pummeled by a large warrior, but Mitch slipped through. The points of his knives in my brother’s tail forced Malum’s jaws to open as he roared in pain. Slashing my larger wing against Malum’s jaw, I shoved him away. Malum was larger than me, but carried much less natural energy than me. I blasted a string of night toward my brother—at the very least, I wanted to bind him, but I was weakening to a dangerous level with the blade still lodged in my side.
Ced, move, Thane bellowed as he jabbed his claws into the lindworm warrior’s throat.
“What’s wrong with you!” Mitch bellowed, slashing another knife at Malum, but being forced to roll out of the way when my brother blew a long river of molten pyre at the human.
I stumbled, and Laina nudged me steady with her snout. Her eyes were trained on my brother.
See what I mean? You’re weak, Ced. This was too easy, Malum rasped. There was deadly malice in my brother’s eyes when he lifted his front claws. Malum and I were some of the only princes that had limbs, and Malum certainly had me beaten on length of talons.
I braced for the strike. I couldn’t move as the corrupted energy spread through my veins. A wash of crushing disappointment filled my heart. I’d planned to face my father, I’d needed to stand against him. Falling to the cold heart of my older brother was not what I’d wanted. Fate had a twisted sense of humor.
The ground rolled like waves on the sea.
Malum shook, his claws dropping as he steadied his footing on the rocky earth. His hateful gaze glanced up, and he roared. Peering over my shoulder, I wished I could smile. All I could do was breathe a final blast of flames in my relief. Teagan stood from where he’d knelt on the ground to shake the earth. His eyes were still red from his anguish, but his narrowed gaze and fierce stance made it clear he was prepared to fight until his last breath. He ran toward us, both the jade blades clutched firmly in his hands.
Malum lifted his claws, but Teagan waved one hand and Malum stumbled backward. One of the swords slashed against Malum’s scales. Mitch laughed almost maniacally and soon joined in the attack. Mitch slashed one of his knives across Malum’s ribs, leaving Teagan enough time to rush to me.
I leave you for five minutes and you’re already dying, he snapped through my thoughts as he wrapped his hand around the hilt of the cursed blade. He winced—Teagan risked taking on the power himself, but after a shocking burst of energy, the metals crushed beneath his hold and the blade was nothing but silver dust.
Don’t rub it in, I chuckled through my agony.
Resting his hand over the wound on my side, I felt the rush of darkness bleed out in clots of my own blood. Teagan’s hand was coated in steaming black blood by the time he rushed away from me, back to help Mitch, who rolled precariously beneath Malum’s body. I stood straighter, my energy restored as I breathed a powerful blast of night against my brother. Malum roared, arching his neck back. Teagan didn’t wait, and I didn’t care anymore. With a swift thrust, both the jade swords lodged deep into my brother’s throat.
Malum’s eyes widened. Black molten pyre dripped from his jaws when Teagan ripped his swords out again. Amber was missing still, lives would still be lost, and a rage that reminded me more of my father shocked through me as I slashed my claws against my brother’s dying body. Malum fell in a heap. The warriors who’d come with him dashed to the sky, apart from one unlucky serpent caught by Thane’s powerful jaws. With one snap of Thane’s fangs, the lindworm warrior was dead.
I shifted back to my human form, my body burning still in the rage. I stood over my brother’s bleeding body and bellowed a guttural cry of all my hatred for my family in his open, dead eyes. Teagan stood at my side until his gaze slowly drifted to a distant part of the raging battlefield.
Thane stomped next to his son and they spoke to one another. Though I couldn’t hear what they said, I knew. I felt the same power. Teagan clambered onto Thane’s shoulder, Mitch not far behind. They were going toward the unearthly darkness—the dark High Priest.
“Teagan,” I shouted before Thane left the bloody scene. He glanced at me; his jaw still set in fury. “Live. Live for Jade. This is not where you end. There is power inside you waiting for you to accept it. Embrace it and live!”
Teagan’s lips pressed together, but he actually smirked. “Only if you do the same.”
Thane beat his wings and rushed toward the sky. I wondered if I would ever see the dragon mage again. I had hope.
“Ced…” a trembling voice drew my attention aw
ay from the clouds.
My heart sank when I turned to see Amber clutching her bloodied arm. She was struggling to keep her balance. Wrapping my arms around her, I steadied her. The golden gown around her shoulders was soaked in her own blood, and her forehead was coated in sweat. “Amber, what happened?”
“I was surrounded,” she gasped. “There were so many lindworm warriors. Leoch…and Onyx found me—they helped me, but I think…they’re going with…Thane now.”
Wrapping my arms around her injured arm, I marveled how she’d been able to shift. I didn’t know if she returned to her wyvern form if the injury would be to one of her legs, or her wing, either way it was a feat she hadn’t fallen from the sky. I pulsed every ounce of energy I could muster into her wound. Amber breathed a sigh of relief and leaned her head against my chest. I clasped her face in my hands and eased my mouth over hers. I wanted Amber, I had since the first moment she’d been brought to my father’s manor, but this was the first time I’d actually kissed her. She tasted like sweet fire and a fresh breeze. She smiled against my mouth, the weakness she’d had fading the longer I held her.
I pulled back, nerves rippling down my spine. If anyone in my father’s army saw, Amber would be slaughtered just to get to me. She smiled at me, her gilded eyes brightening until she glanced over my shoulder. Amber released a terrified cry and covered her mouth. Whirling around, my stomach fell to my feet. Laina trembled, her eyes filled with fear as the cutting edge of the sword ripped along her throat. She choked for a few moments on her own blood before she collapsed on the stones.
I was too stunned to move for a moment, but slowly, my gaze lifted to meet my father’s twisted snarl. He smiled like I imagined a true demon might grin. My arm flew in front of Amber. “Go,” I snapped. “Please, go now.”
“I’m with you, Ced,” she insisted. “I’m not afraid of him, and neither are you.”
Guilt ravished my heart as I stared at Laina’s body. If I’d been more focused, if I’d kept her close, maybe…I would never know.
“You seem surprised, son,” Nag hissed, wiping the sword with Laina’s blood along his leg. “You shouldn’t be. I have the right to dispose of mates as I see fit. Especially ones that fight against me. Let me teach you a final lesson—females are meant for one thing. If they act up or disobey, their purpose is no longer needed, and they should be disposed of. Like the one behind you will be disposed of—after she gives me a few sons, of course.”
The fire in my lungs raged in the back of my throat. I guess I’d expected Amber to emit some kind of fear at my father’s words, but I only sensed her strength and fury. Slowly, I took the blade she handed me. Nag grinned, his black eyes reigniting my hatred as memories of my own mother dying at my feet filtered through my mind.
“Yes,” Nag said. “Let us face each other as men. You’ve disappointed me, Ced. I had great hopes for you with all your forward thinking as of late.”
“You’ve disappointed me every day of my life, so I suppose we’re even,” I snapped, my grip curling around the hilt. Nag wouldn’t fight fair—I stood on edge waiting for his attack.
Amber shifted—good, I would rather her be ready to fly if she needed to escape quickly. Nag laughed, studying the royal. “Blood should not fight blood. Perhaps there is still use for you, Ced. Why can’t we live peacefully with each other? You are my son, and blood matters, even if you think I don’t value such things. I will allow you to have your elemental mate after I am through, and I can have my access to the stones. Put down your weapon and we both can get what we want.”
I chuckled. “I don’t want what you want! I want peace, not fear, not death, not complete control. You don’t deserve the power of the elements, just as you don’t deserve the power of the night.”
I opened my arms wide and blasted a stream of energy at my father. Nag was swift and blocked my attack. He snarled, the blackness of his eyes matching the night sky. He attacked quickly, but didn’t aim at me. The blast was fired at Amber. I’d never been more grateful for elemental mages than when Rochelle burst from seemingly nowhere and shielded her royal from my father’s attack. I darted across the space, my father squaring his shoulders. I took note of his warriors standing guard, though they seemed to be under command to stand back. This was between the two of us.
My blade slashed down against his, the force of it jarring my shoulders. “You should shift, Ced. I would love to slowly cut off each wing and watch you fall from the sky.”
“Funny, I was going to say the same thing to you,” I snapped, releasing my sword from his hold.
My father wasn’t a warrior, but he was skilled with the sword even still—more skilled than me. He slashed, I blocked. He approached, I backed away. With a fierce swing of his blade, the point slashed across my stomach. I groaned and rushed away, pressing my hands along the ground. Black power wrapped around my father. He tried to resist, but this is where I was stronger. My energy held him in place as he struggled.
Amber flew overhead. Nag glanced up and snarled. He shifted, and despite my hold on him, his enormous body took form. My father was a lindworm, but he looked like a black elemental dragon. His wings rivaled even Thane’s, the horns on his head spiraled two feet over his skull, and he had four legs, but his tail and neck were long and serpent-like.
Nag shot a blaring stream of fire toward Amber, which she dodged with her own flames. My palms pressed harder into the soil. The earth shifted, splitting and cracking beneath Nag’s feet. He snarled at me, snapping his jaws toward my head, but my raging energy struck against his skull with the wave of my hand.
Amber dove again, distracting my father’s focus once more. He roared, and I watched the warriors creep closer. Rochelle rushed toward them, blasting her earth energy in the form of tumbling boulders the size of a small dragons down the cliffs. The warriors darted off the ground to avoid being crushed and turned their deadly attention toward the mage. My father roared when I finally got close enough to press my hands against his scales. He resisted my power, I could feel the night wrap around my palms, but eventually I forced the king of lindworms to peel back into his human form.
Nag gasped for breath, his dark eyes locking with mine once his scales faded, and he was left draped only in a black cloak, his weapon strewn at his side. Amber landed next to me, her steaming breath heating the back of my neck. I clutched my sword tight in one hand, stalking closer to my father, my other palm held out as I filled him with night energy he couldn’t defeat.
“What will you do, Ced? Kill me and then what? You cannot stand against the High Priest, my warriors. What good will it do?” Nag hissed.
“You defeated an elemental king, you broke our people,” I sneered. “I suppose you must have thought you were invincible. You should have stopped having children. You were bound to create one more powerful than you—just without your twisted soul.”
Nag tried to shift again, but I was filled with too much strength. Drawing in a deep breath, I offered one final glance at my father, helpless at my feet. Did I care for him? There was a moment’s hesitation as I considered the thought. Glancing at Laina’s body, I shook away my doubt, thinking of Amber, thinking of my mother, and all the other pain caused at the hands of King Nag. In a flash, I let my blade fall.
Nag bellowed a screeching cry toward the sky. The warriors battling against Rochelle stopped. I leaned forward, my jaw clenched tight as I drove my blade even deeper into my father’s chest. Our faces were only inches apart, and I watched as the life slowly, painfully faded from his eyes.
Silence surrounded us when my father’s head slumped forward. The warriors seemed too stunned to remember they were standing against a mage, and Rochelle took the opportunity to jut thick, jagged pieces of the rocky earth through their hearts. Releasing the hilt of my blood-soaked blade, I stumbled backward. Amber shifted into her human form in time to catch me from behind. Her arms encircled my shoulders as we both stared at the dead king.
I’d survived. I’d killed King Na
g—his penance for his ruthless crimes against all the races of the earth. My breath caught in my throat as I clutched one of Amber’s arms. After several silent moments, a smile spread across my face. One dangerous piece of this battle was over. For the first time since fighting began, I truly believed we would end up victorious. Only the High Priest remained. If I survived King Nag, I would see to it that everyone—even Teagan with his stubborn insistence he would die—would survive the brutality of Bron.
Chapter 29
Jade
My shoulders trembled after pulsing energy into Ced’s night barrier along my cage for a final time. I’d never stopped trying to break through since Teagan left. And though I knew it had only been a few minutes, the time that had passed since I’d seen his face felt like hours. My cheeks had crusted in salty tear lines, but I’d cried so much it seemed the boiling fire in my soul had evaporated any remaining tears. I was lost in a haze, Teagan’s words echoing in my mind in such a way, I feared I was slipping away into madness.
Ced’s energy finally crumbled. I could be free.
“Jade,” Eisha’s soft voice reminded me I was not alone. My son whimpered, bringing my reality crushing around my feet violently.
Whipping my gaze over my shoulder, I rushed next to Eisha, my arms reaching for Malik’s calming, powerful body. Eisha didn’t protest and released her hold on my child. I breathed in the natural sweetness of my son’s feathery hair, smiling as my lips brushed along his forehead. His powerful gaze locked with mine, and if the child weren’t so young, I might think he was speaking directly to my heart.
