CHAPTER 48
We are awoken by screams. I sit upright in bed thinking at first, I imagined it, that it was all a figment of my imagination.
But the blood curdling sounds coming from outside could not be mistaken for anything else but pure horror and carnage.
Silas and Matitus take off in a blur. I go to chase after them, to find out what the hell is going on when Dragus’s arms wrap around me, tossing me back on the bed.
“Wait here!” he screams, rushing out after them. Running for the door, I quickly throw on the first thing I laid my hands on, jeans and one of their shirts. Running for the door, only to open and find Marian rushing towards me and shoving me backwards into the room.
“They took him, they took Aldrin,” Marian says, frantically locking the door.
My heart is hammering in my chest so hard I feel like it is going to explode. Suddenly, pain rips through me, bringing me to my knees. It is Dragus. Dragus’s pain smashes into me and takes my breath away, as a red-hot feeling tears through my back.
I stagger trying to get my footing as I rush for the door, Marian grabbing my wrist.
“You can’t go out there, there are more than we first thought,” she says, her hands visibly shaking as she tugs on me.
“We have to help them, we can’t just sit here Marian pull yourself together, where is Abbie?”
“She is, she was…”
“She was what, Marian?”
“She was trying to get to Claire,” Marian breathes, and I throw the door open, rushing down the stairs, Marian hot on my heels as she chases after me, trying to keep up.
My sword slips between my fingers as I race toward the front of the castle, that can’t be a good thing, it means danger is close.
I look down at the sword now in my hand, smooth and cold to touch as it glows subtly like a beacon in the night, illuminating everything in front of me in the darkened castle.
The floors are cold under my feet as I see the doors.
Orange lights flicker in the dining room, the sort of light that left shadows as it burnt its way through everything, fire.
I gasp, the castle is on fire! Black smoke billows out the archway toward us, slowly consuming everything in its path.
Marian throws her hands forward in the air, silver light, so bright I had to squint to stop it hurting my eyes bursts from her fingertips, my feet feel wet and I realize she put out the flames, now white and black smoke as the fire dies.
I look back at Marian who has her hands braced on her knees, trying to catch her breath. I rush over to her, grab her arm, and pull her against me as we continue for the doors.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, turning to her. She is panting, her hair turning white in patches.
“I’m old dear, magic is hard for me to use now, that’s why I don’t use it,” she says between coughing. I take her to the library and sit her down on the chair.
“Stay here,” I tell her, running toward the doors leading outside when I hear her staggering after me. “Marian stay,” I tell her, but she ignores me, following me anyway.
“Marian!” I snap at her.
“I am not letting you go out there by yourself,” she gasps.
Stubborn old woman. But I know there is no stopping her.
I shove open the doors. And to my utter surprise, I see the entire city on fire, sounds of panicked screams echoing through the night, making my heart rate spike.
Werewolves and Vampires are fighting everywhere, tearing each other apart. It is chaotic.
“Oh no,” Marian gasps as we both stare around in panic.
Werewolves are attacking our men, alongside the half beasts.
Buildings caught alight everywhere when I see a green Dragon thrown into the side of the castle beside us, narrowly missing us as its body hit the stone walls.
Pluto rushes over and shoves us toward the doors.
His newly-healed body is now covered in burns. “Get inside my Queen,” he says.
The green Dragon gets up, shaking off, scales gleaming though. I notice that most of its scales are missing like they are falling off revealing meaty flesh underneath. He roars breathing fire directly at us, and I raise my sword.
My sword cuts straight through the flames, diverting them away from us as my magic ignites. Then, the thing charges at us, Pluto rips me out of the way, but Marian is slow as its tail whips through the air, smacking her in the chest and sending her flying.
I scream as I watch her body hit the ground with a sickening thud as the Dragon advances on her.
I raise my sword and cut through its tail, making it pivot, snapping its bare teeth at Pluto and me.
Behind me, I hear another menacing roar.
But I don’t look, my eyes fixed, focus on the Dragon in front of me.
I nod at Pluto to go and deal with whatever threat is behind us.
My instincts kick in, and I move just in time as its teeth snaps toward my face, my sword biting into its neck as it comes down.
I am thrown back as Pluto flies into me.
I brace myself for impact when I see his hand reach out ripping me toward him as he pivots taking the brunt of the impact as we smash against the ground.
I hear the air leave his lungs, and his eyes snap open panic coursing through him as his eyes dart behind me and he rolls with me on top of him, just in time to see a foot come down where we had just been.
I jump off him, scrambling to my feet, when pain tears through my shoulder.
The green monster sinks its teeth into my shoulder, and I see my sword flicker, the light dying out for a second as my blood oozes down my arm.
I try to move but its teeth are embedded in my flesh.
It flings me into the water fountain in the middle of the courtyard, my head smacking the ground so hard black dots dance start to steal my vision.
My head feels like it is exploding, thumping to its own beat.
I reach around for my sword but it’s gone, no longer clutched in my hand as my magic fizzles.
I look up to see the green beast stalking towards me when it suddenly drops, writhing and shrinking as it starts changing back to its human form.
I don’t have time to watch when I feel claws biting into my flesh making me cry out.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see what appears to be a black wolf tackling me as I try and hold its head away from my face as it snaps its jaw dangerously close.
I use my legs, trying to throw it off when its weight suddenly disappears all together.
Dragus is there, ripping it away, and I see his skin is littered in burns, onyx eyes burning back at me, as he tosses the Werewolf into the fountain.
It jumps up, attacking and biting anything it can as Dragus holds it. I watch its claws slash across his stomach, the pain dropping me like a sack of potatoes.
I try to breathe through it as my eyes find Marian’s limp body still laying on the frozen ground. I hear growling and the sound of ice cracking. I look up to see Dragus in the fountain as he holds the Werewolf under the water, it thrashes as he drowns it until it stops, hanging motionless.
I rush toward Marian, shaking her shoulders when Pluto suddenly throws himself over the top of me, dropping me to the ground.
I land heavily on my hip, just as flames rush above me and a mighty roar cuts through the night.
The gold glint of its scales from the moonlight reflect on the ground as it flies above us.
Flames are decimating the earth around us, the sound of howling screams making me look up to see the huge Dragon flying above, we were completely surrounded by wolves before they were burnt alive by Silas, his maw unleashing fire burning everything it touches.
The smell of burned hair and charred flesh fills the air making it difficult to breathe.
“Pluto, get her out of here!” Dragus bellows.
I feel myself being ripped to my feet, his huge hand clutching mine as I try to pull away, desperate to reach Marian’s crumpled form on the floor.
“No! I need to help Marian!” I scream, struggling against his iron grip.
He tosses me over his shoulder.
“She is dead my Queen, I am sorry, but she died the moment she hit the ground. I heard her heart stop,” Pluto says as he takes off in a run, heading for the cover of the forest and away from the city and the castle.
“No, I can help her, stop, put me down!” I scream, tears pouring from my eyes as I thrash on his shoulder.
“I need to get you out of here, get you and your baby to safety,” he says, refusing to let me go as he runs.
The scenery around me blurs black, air rushing past at his intense speed.
Wooziness takes over from the motion.
Suddenly, I am placed on my feet, the frozen ground beneath me.
Pluto bites into his wrist, offering it to me.
“Your mates won’t like it. If that wound doesn’t stop bleeding, you may lose that arm. Please, my Queen,” he says, thrusting his wrist toward me.
I refuse.
He wraps an arm around my waist, pressing his wrist to my lips, forcing his blood down my throat.
Instantly, my shoulder heals where the beast’s teeth sank in. The claw marks down my back disappear.
I rip his hand away.
Pluto steps back, watching me.
“I’m sorry. At least my scent will mask you for a bit,” he says, grabbing my wrist, pulling me into the trees.
“We need to go back, we can’t just leave,” I tell him as he continues pulling me, dragging me through the forest.
“I’m sorry but I can’t risk it, I promised your mate, I would keep you safe and that’s what I intend to do.”
I feel my magic surge. I wasn’t leaving them behind before it suddenly died out, fizzled out like water to a flame. I stare at my hands, trying to figure out why I suddenly had no magic.
“Your magic is weak because you got injured, don’t worry my Queen it will come back when it recharges.”
“Recharges?”
“Yes, you are Fae, a creature of light, it is now dark,” he says.
“What?” I ask, confused.
“You still have magic, but you have exerted yourself, kind of like what Marian did, usually your magic would be infinite, but you exerted yourself each time you got hurt, your magic was not only protecting you but the baby you carry in your womb. At the moment, it’s left to you to protect your little one.
You have taken a few blows, yet your baby’s heartbeat is strong, yours erratic.
Didn’t you know when a Fae is pregnant, its magic is shared to protect their young? ”
I shake my head, I didn’t know that but that would explain why every time I got hurt I could feel my magic flickering. It wasn’t cutting it out, it was diverting it to protect my child.
We stop, hiding amongst the trees, as Pluto tells me to sit on a log.
I do, my entire body shivering from the cold and my own shock.
Marian is dead, she died and yet it doesn’t feel real, like a nightmare I just hoped I could wake from.
Abigail is on my mind as Marian’s words echo in my head.
They went off to get Claire. I feel stupid sitting here and hiding amongst the forest while a war is breaking out at home.
I can feel their pain pulsing through me.
Dragus is injured, that much I knew for sure because he was on the ground.
Silas and Matitus are burnt and I feel my skin is burned too, but nothing compared to the ache in my heart.
The pain of so many lives lost all because of my blood and Aldrin’s.
Being Fae is everything magical, and terrible, truly a curse for anyone forced to be around us.
The screams start to die down, Pluto is watching with eagle eyes as he looks back on our burning city.
I hear the sound of wings in the air, wishing I could use mine, even just to fly up and see, to make sure they are okay, yet I can’t feel anything, can’t feel my magic.
I feel as bare as the day I was brought to the castle.
The sounds of wings up above makes me look up.
I see a black shadow fly above us, my mind goes to Matitus and his black Dragon.
”Matitus,” I breathe running for the clearing we just ran through, Pluto screams at me to stop and I realize my mistake.
I assumed it was Matitus or Silas, I thought they were the only ones that could fly, thought the black shadow was my mate.
But it’s not Matitus. Instead, I see the dark green beast above me, I freeze spinning on my heel, rushing back toward the tree line, Pluto runs toward me, how is it possible, that’s when I see him.
The man from outside the borders sitting atop the Dragon my blood had healed him in the courtyard.
Its talons wrap around my body, lifting me off the ground.
Pluto narrowly misses me as he reaches out, too late.
I rise higher and higher, the temperature dropping.
A man’s menacing laugh fills the air, his words making my blood run cold.
“Burn the city down!” he commands.
The rumble shakes through me as the talons cage me in.
Below, red and orange flames spread, flying from its chest and out its mouth, setting the city alight.
My scream dies out as its claws tighten, restricting the air in my lungs, suffocating me in its grip.
Pressure builds in my chest as I struggle for breath, vision blurring, eyes watering.
My mouth falls open, desperate for air.
The last thing I hear before darkness takes over is the deep voice of a man.
“Not too tightly she is no good to us dead Malika.”