Chapter 45
CHAPTER FORTY FIVE
I watched as Drake and Austyn kissed with the passion of two lovers driven together by fate, their want for each other a tangible thing that set off a painful tearing feeling down the centre of my heart.
Drake claimed the princess’s first ever kiss with hungry movements of his mouth, lost to her and all the desire she clearly had for him.
My hand shook around the hilt of my sword, the pain of seeing her possessed by another man turning to a violent envy that made me lift my blade, my teeth baring as a hateful anger burned along the core of my being.
Kyra moved closer to me and the gentle presence of her drew clarity to the edges of my thoughts before I could act on that primal instinct and attack the man who held Austyn in his arms.
“Ow,” she breathed to herself. “Do kisses always hurt the people close enough to watch them?”
I didn’t have an answer to that, embroiled in my own tempestuous thoughts as I tried to hold onto the single sliver of restraint she had returned to me.
I could not attack Drake for this and give away my own feelings on the matter.
She wanted him, that I could not deny. And I had no right to be jealous of him, even if I didn’t believe him worthy of her affection.
He was a street rat deceiving her, but I was playing my part in that deception, so if I were to resent him for that, then I had to resent myself in kind.
After what felt like an eternity, their lips broke apart and perhaps that was worse, because the lust-filled look Austyn gave him hollowed out my chest and left it barren.
His thumb skimmed down her neck and his eyes moved to Kyra, his throat bobbing for a second before he looked back at the princess.
I couldn’t quite decipher what he was thinking, but as a smirk lifted his lips, I had no doubt it was something depraved.
“How did you know it was me up here?” Austyn asked as Drake scooped down to pick up her helmet and hand it back to her.
“I would recognise you even in the darkest of nights by the simple beauty of your aura alone,” Drake purred, and my spine straightened as I recognised those words as my own. So his thievery extended to speech now too? Would he steal the very essence of my soul if it was of use to him?
Whatever bond I had thought was forming between us was a filthy lie I’d fallen for. Drake had only come to rescue me from Magdor because of the dragon scale now sitting in my pocket. I was just a tool for him to use to gain as much power, wealth and beauty he could lay his hands on.
Austyn looked flushed from what Drake had said, biting her lip as she backed up and yanked her short sword out of the side of the dead fire drake.
She took a moment to tuck her hair up and placed her helmet back on just as a deafening roar echoed across the city followed by the words of a dragon seeping through the inside of my head.
“Bring the oath breakers to me and the slaughter will cease.”
“What is she talking about?” Austyn gasped. “Who are the oath breakers? Who would be fool enough to break a promise to a dragon?”
“Someone with really big balls, I’d bet,” Drake said with a knowing nod.
I shot him a cold, accusing glare and he shrugged innocently at me.
I spotted Azurea descending from the clouds above the city, fire pouring from her open jaws and screams echoing up from those unlucky enough to be caught in her blast.
“No,” Austyn gasped, running to the edge of the roof closest to the destruction. “How can we get to them to help?” She gazed over the palace grounds to the two walls ringing it, keeping us contained within it.
Drake moved closer, checking on Kyra who was holding a hand to her heart and frowning like she was confused about something.
I took a moment to extract my sword from the dead fire drake, wiping the blood off on its flank as I prepared to continue in this fight.
I had danced with death only minutes ago, yet now I was whole again, not a single wound on my flesh.
Kyra’s magic truly was powerful, and I had to be grateful she was on our side in this battle tonight.
I turned to thank Kyra, but found her staring intently at Drake.
“Did you enjoy your kiss?” she asked him, her tone a little too bright and I wondered if I was a fool to believe I heard a note of jealousy to it.
“Yeah, sure,” he murmured, eyeing her face closely.
“She must like you very much to kiss such an ugly man,” Kyra said, and Drake scowled.
“Not everyone finds me as unappealing as you do, it seems,” he bit back, ever touchy about any disparaging comments on his appearance.
I left them to bicker as I ran to Austyn’s side, looking out to the city as I buried the feeling of my shattered heart and focused on what needed to be done.
“If you remain concealed, perhaps the guards will let us out to fight, Your Highness,” I suggested and I felt her eyes on me through her helmet, but I refused to meet her gaze.
If I did so, I would crack, and I had to become what I was born to be now.
A warrior with no other purpose than to serve her and the empire.
“Do the women of Carubai fight alongside men?” she asked.
“Some do, My Lady,” I said, though I wasn’t sure if the words were a lie. I certainly needed a reason to cover for the fact that I was not protesting to her fighting in this battle, and that Kyra was fighting alongside us.
I had seen Austyn’s proficiency with her blades, her metal Affinities were well spoken of in the palace.
I knew that she’d been trained in her youth, but her talent had been left to stagnate since the emperor’s mind had been addled by his new wife.
It was clear from what I had seen of her skills that she would make one of the finest soldiers this land had seen if she were only given proper training.
“So will you follow my orders if I give them?” she asked.
“I would follow you to the moon if you commanded it,” I said quietly and I felt her surprise at that comment, but a fire drake swept overhead and stole all of our attention before she could respond.
The drake opened its jaws, its eyes pinned on the princess as she raised her sword, ready to meet it, but I could see the blaze of fire building in the back of its throat.
I lifted my own sword, my animal Affinities suddenly tingling as I set the beast in my sights, and its gaze shifted onto me.
I felt my mind link to its own in that way I had only felt with docile creatures before, and its furious, hungry thoughts burst into my head.
“Kill, devour, burn!”
I forced my will against it with a roar of effort, trying to twist its mind elsewhere and I staggered forward as I felt its desires shift beneath the power of mine.
“ Turn, fly, retreat,” the fire drake’s voice filled my head once more.
The drake tucked its wings, sweeping past us on the roof and someone fisted their hand in the back of my shirt, yanking me backwards as my foot met nothing but air and I realised I’d nearly fallen off the roof.
I found Austyn there, looking out at me through the slit in her helmet with shock and confusion pooling in her amber eyes as she released my shirt.
“What just happened?” she asked.
“I have a slight animal Affinity,” I said.
“Slight?” Drake boomed as he joined my other side. “You just stopped that fire drake from burning Austyn alive, mate.”
The drake shrieked as it flapped its wings, rushing back up towards us, my grip on its mind now gone and its own wants returning. And its wants were clearly aimed at devouring us.
“Do it again,” Austyn urged. “Make it fly us out beyond the palace walls.”
“That is insanity,” I said, shaking my head, but Drake’s hand slammed down on my shoulder, turning me to him.
“You can do it, Cass. Or are you gonna show the princess how small your balls are? Oh wait, they cut them off entirely, right?”
“Fuck you,” I gritted out, the challenge in his eyes making me determined to prove him wrong as I sheathed my sword.
I jerked his hand off of my shoulder, still furious at him over kissing Austyn, knowing he was just out for his own damn skin tonight as usual.
But we had to call the dragon to us and doing so here on top of the palace would be damn foolish while the grounds were teaming with guards.
Anyone could see us, and expose us as the oath breakers who had brought this plague down upon the city.
The fire drake snarled and I focused on how I had made the connection with it before, trying to find a way into its head before it could attack.
“Burn – burn – burn,” its thoughts burst into my mind before I took them into my grasp.
It wasn’t entirely effective and the effort of forcing my will upon it took all of my focus as I made it turn in the air, just close enough for us to climb onto its back.
Austyn dove onto it without a flicker of hesitation and the beast shrieked angrily while I worked to keep its hunger for us subdued.
Drake leapt on next, and I threw caution to the wind as I dove after them, grabbing onto the scaly back of the animal as it flexed its black wings and took off.
I had to keep my mind entirely locked with it as I fought to stop it from bucking us off every time its will battled with mine.
But somehow, impossibly, I got it to fly forward, sweeping over the palace grounds and beyond the walls which ringed it, closer and closer to the raging dragon who was flying low, burning the streets with huge plumes of flames.
I could feel the heat of them as we closed in on her and my throat thickened as I glanced back to check on Kyra. But she wasn’t there.
“Fuck – Drake, we left her behind,” I gasped, losing my mental grip on the fire drake and it bucked sharply, launching us off its back.
I cried out as we fell, smashing into a slanted roof and skidding down it rapidly. Drake stopped his own fall, slamming a dagger into the tiles and holding on while I went tumbling towards the edge with Austyn crashing after me.
I skidded off of the roof with a curse, grabbing onto the edge of it and hanging there by one hand.
Austyn went flying over the edge beside me and I grabbed her wrist, her whole weight dangling from my left arm as I gritted my teeth and held on.
I used her momentum to swing her back up with a roar of effort leaving me, using every scrap of power in my muscles to toss her onto the roof.
She scrambled forward, grabbing my shoulders and heaving as she helped to pull me up.
Drake skidded down the roof towards us, probably by accident considering he had no good motives in his bones, and grabbed hold of me, helping to drag me back up.
I moved onto my knees between them, and my heart lurched at the sight of the giant ant-like creature that scuttled over the rooftop ahead of us.
It clicked its pincers and charged forward, the three of us breaking apart and one hard kick of my boot sending it flying over the edge of the roof as it got close.
“Fuck you, you fucking ant thing!” Drake called after it.
Austyn got to her feet, raising her sword as she gazed up at Azurea who loomed over us in the sky, her eyes sharpening on the princess. No .
“I am Austyn Lunarelle and you will leave my city in peace and return to the dark you came from!” Austyn screamed before sprinting up the roof to meet the dragon head on, her sword discarded as she pulled her silver bow over her shoulder, nocking an arrow and loosing it into the air. By the fucking Fallen.
Azurea roared as the arrow sliced through her hind leg and fire plumed in her mouth in a twisting inferno of hell that would incinerate anyone and anything it touched.
“Austyn!” I cried in panic, knowing I couldn’t get to her in time, and even if I could, it would only equal both our deaths.
“Azurea!” I bellowed to get her attention, but the beast could not see me. There was only one thing I could think of to protect Austyn as I snatched the dragon scale from my pocket, placed it in my palm and thought her name. Azurea .
The flames stuttered out in the dragon’s throat, her head lifting and her eyes snapping directly onto me. Yes, she saw me now. Kyra’s magic was peeling back and allowing the beast to perceive me once again, and I raised the scale in my palm as it began to glow blue with some ancient magic.
“Oath breaker,” she snarled.
I turned as Drake stared at me in shock at what I’d done, but I didn’t waste a moment to explain that I would gladly die to save the woman who had been so close to meeting her end.
Austyn released another arrow, but Azurea knocked it from the sky with her wing, her gaze not moving from me as she bore down from above, and I had no choice but to fucking run, leading her away across the rooftop.