Chapter 2 #2
I needed Callum there, and with every passing hour that he didn’t appear, the more I feared that he wouldn’t come.
That I was doomed to fight in this battle alone without him.
That I wouldn’t be able to look at him every time I was scared and draw on his strength.
And I was also worried about him, wondering if he needed help, but I was unable to do anything about it.
“I’m worried that I’ll fail.” Heat slowly began to burn behind my eyes, a warning of tears that wanted to be shed, but under no circumstances would I show such weakness.
So I kept those tears locked inside a vault made of dragon scales.
“I’m worried that I’ll lose my kingdom to soulless assholes, that they’ll kill everyone I know and love, that I’ll fail everyone who believes in me.
That perhaps that belief was misplaced.” I looked at the sea again, hiding my face from Zehemoth.
It was not misplaced, Sunieth.
I felt the warmth of the torches on my cheeks, smelled the salt air from the ocean down below. Tried to savor these final moments of peace.
I’ve watched you prepare for this battle. I’ve watched you fight vampires. I’ve watched you carry the kingdom alone on your shoulders. I believe in you without doubt, Lily—and I know everyone else does too. He gently tapped me with his snout, trying to get me to look back at him.
I turned, feeling my eyes start to smart from his affection.
I don’t say these words because you’re my best friend.
I say them because I believe in them with my talons and scales and also, my heart.
His dark eyes reflected the torchlight, looking at me with the same love as Khazmuda.
It would be an honor to fuse with you, Queen Lily Rothschild of the Southern Isles.
I ran my hand gently over his snout, feeling the smoothness of his scales closest to his face. Different areas of his body had sharp scales and spikes, so his face was the only way to show emotion. “The honor would be mine.”
I saw them arrive on the sea in a line of fire, their ships ablaze with torches all around their galleons—like they wanted to be seen.
Dozens of our soldiers were tasked with protecting the castle grounds in case the enemy made it this high.
They weren’t there to protect me, because I didn’t want to waste men serving me when I had an army of the dead at my command.
Zehemoth was beside me, on his belly so we would be as close to eye level as possible.
I stared at the lights on the fleet of ships, seeing them glide over the flat surface of the calm sea, in a rigid formation like they were expert seamen.
They could control an entire fleet of ships in unison with just their sails, even when they were unable to communicate with each other over such a large distance—and in the dark.
“Their strength is at sea.”
There are many ships. More than I can count.
“I assumed their attack from the sea was the distraction, but perhaps the vampires are the distraction.”
They’re at a disadvantage against the cliffs.
“I agree. I feel like I’m missing something.”
A loud horn called into the night, coming from behind me, in the direction of the village.
Hawk and I were both fused with sibling dragons, so we were able to communicate with each other. They’re here. My brother’s deep and calm voice sounded in my head, with a hint of resignation. They carry no torches, but we can see them approaching our bonfires.
If they carry no light, that means they can see in the dark.
Yes.
Their fleet approaches. At least fifty ships, maybe more. Hundred men on each…that means five thousand.
Which means I face the other five thousand.
I decided to remain on the top of the cliff where the castle was located to watch the scene of the battle unfold, to have an aerial view on both sides, to communicate with Khazmuda and the other dragons. How far away are they from you?
Close. Two hundred feet.
Send in the dragons.
Ahead of you.
I stared far past the village and then saw the streaks of fire that erupted in the darkness, coming from different directions in the air and raining down on our enemies. That should kill them quickly.
Hawk was quiet.
I didn’t pester him, knowing he needed to concentrate on what played out before him.
The fires continued for another moment until they disappeared…and didn’t return.
Were they really defeated that quickly?
I gave my brother another minute or two to report, to tell me that they’d been vanquished or chased off.
Then his voice sounded in my head. They don’t burn.
My heart dropped faster than a boulder from the edge of a cliff. What?
They’re immune to fire.
But that’s not possible. They aren’t dragons.
I see what I see. And now their archers are firing off arrows of gold.
Oh fuck.
There was another pause before my brother came back to me. They’ve broken the front line. It’s going to be a massacre.
I turned back to the sea, seeing how much distance their galleons had covered in the brief amount of time I had looked away.
They’d covered an unbelievable distance as if a hurricane powered their sails.
Mighty roars sounded in the sky from the dragons, and the battle by sea began.
My fleet fired at their ships while streaks of fire started to rain down on all the boats. I’m coming.
What happens at sea?
Their galleons have just arrived. I turned to Zehemoth. “Hawk needs help.”
Zehemoth lowered himself farther so I could easily climb up his side. We shall go to him.
I climbed up the saddle and strapped myself in before we launched into the air. The sky was dark except for the stars, and a blur of darkness swept across my vision as we moved past nothingness.
Zehemoth used his full strength to carry us across the village at breakneck speed, sprinting like a falcon at the bottom of the drop about to catch his prey. I leaned over the saddle and grabbed the horn as we sliced through the air like a knife.
I saw the light of the bonfires and the sea of men who marched for my kingdom, their clothes and armor burned and covered in soot but otherwise perfectly fine. There were so many of them, all marching to kill us.
Zehemoth dropped in the open section between the first and second wave so I could dismount. We can’t burn them, but that doesn’t mean we can’t rip their heads off. The second I was safe on the ground, he launched into the sky and released a mighty roar. “Roooaaaaaaarrrrrr!”
“Lily.” Hawk pushed through the ranks of soldiers and reached my side. “Raise the dead. Many of our own have already fallen. Some of my best soldiers are at the front of the line, and they’re no match for these creatures.”
“Roooaaaarrrr!” One of the dragons swooped down over the first line of the enemy, knocking them all down with their gargantuan size.
Then came the teeth and talons, ripping and shredding.
Other dragons started to follow suit, direct combat the only way to slow the enemy’s progression to the kingdom.
I reached for the aura of the dead, a distant beam of light that I could feel and not see. It usually took a second or two to find it, but my mind continued to search endlessly for the end of the rope to tug.
“Raise the dead,” Hawk ordered like he was the king and I was the general.
I continued to try, to find the connection between my power and their obedience. But I never found it. Didn’t feel the spirits of the dead to raise. I felt…nothing at all.
My expression must have changed because Hawk’s eyes suddenly dilated, and he looked pale.
“I—I don’t have it.” I tried again and again, tried to command the dead who didn’t recognize me as their ruler. They lay there, unable to hear the call that I continued to scream. “It’s gone.”
Hawk looked even paler, his eyes dropping momentarily. “We’re on our own, Lily.”
Devastation racked me when I realized I’d lost my greatest ability, the ability to raise an army from the dead—by land or sea. I couldn’t protect my own soldiers with the fallen. I couldn’t raise the kraken to sink the ships that attacked the cliffs.
I was powerless.
“He wouldn’t abandon me…”
Hawk looked away, and his throat shifted when he gave a painful swallow. He watched the battle before him, the dragons scooping down to attack the vampires and break their ranks, but there were so few of them and so many of the Barbarians.
I wanted to break down in grief. Icy cold terror flooded through me when I realized my greatest power had been stripped from me.
I wanted to cry because I hadn’t realized how much I needed it until I didn’t have it.
But the battle raged on, and I didn’t have the luxury of mourning.
“Have the soldiers finish off those wounded by the dragons. I’ll move to the front of the line and cut down as many as I can. ”
“You’ll get yourself killed, Lily.”
I reached for the heavy blade that sat across my back, feeling how weightless it was in my grasp.
“I still have it…” I stared at my steel gloves as I turned the hilt, seeing the blade reflect the light of the torches.
“His strength…” I didn’t understand how I possessed one gift but not the other, but the supernatural strength was undeniable. “And I also have Zehemoth’s.”
“Why do you have one and not the other—”
“I don’t know.” But he was still there with me…at least a part of him. “Let me handle what I can, reduce the number of men who make it through to the rest of you.”
His eyes flicked back and forth in hesitation, almost as if he wanted to beg me to stay, but he quickly conceded. “Please don’t get yourself killed.”
“Same to you.” I turned away from my brother before he could say more and moved through the next wave of men as I made my way toward the front. The dragons still dropped from the sky as they ripped apart our enemies.
When I made it to the very front, it really was a massacre.
Piles of bodies of my men were everywhere, the blood spilling so profusely that the dirt had turned into red mud.
With golden arrows sticking out of their necks or their chest plates cracked into pieces, the men lay there with eyes that were open and lidless, staring up at the night sky but unable to see it.
There wasn’t time to mourn them because the vampires turned their attention to me the second I was on the scene. One of them wore the smuggest look I’d ever seen. He had a soldier by the throat and was about to slice his head off when he shoved him back instead.
The soldier immediately crawled away.
I gripped my sword made of Khazmuda’s scales and spun it around my wrist, just the way my father always did when we sparred together. I was painfully aware of the fact that Callum wasn’t with me, that he wouldn’t be able to warn me about an attack from behind.
I was entirely on my own.
“Pretty girl wants to dance?” One slice from his golden blade could be the death of me. He stepped through the mud as he came for me, his smile growing in intensity, more of the vampires beginning to converge.
It’d be a dozen on one, and I’d never done that before.
Then the vampire pounced for me and struck his blade down with both hands like he wanted to split me in two.
My strength was the same, the strength of a six-and-a-half-foot-tall behemoth king of the dead.
But now, I also possessed an unparalleled level of focus, the ability to react before I could think or even breathe.
As if I’d just woken up from the deepest sleep of my life, I was faster, stronger, and more aware than I’d ever been.
I sidestepped the blade that came for me then punched him in the face with my gloves made of steel. Stuck him so hard that he collapsed in the mud, either dead or knocked out cold, wasn’t sure which.
The other vampires hesitated when they saw their comrade fall from a single hit.
“Who’s next?” I yelled, the battle going on around me.
That was when the rest rushed me, at least a dozen of them with lethal blades.
A simple slice to the cheek would leave me to bleed forever until there was nothing left of me.
But the first one barreled down on me, and I parried his blade before I slammed my shoulder into his chest and sent him to the mud.
I stabbed my blade clean through his stomach before I sliced off the head of the next foe.
They were all around me now, slipping when they lost their balance in the mud, and I felt like I had eyes in the back of my head with Zehemoth’s clarity.
I caught blades in my vambraces and flung them away, headbutted others until they dropped, stabbed my blade clean through throats before I moved on to the next opponent.
But I never tired.
The bodies quickly piled up around me, and the dragons continued to demolish ranks. More of the vampires began to realize I was the biggest threat to this battle and converged on me instead of the others.
I handled the next wave of vampires, using the strength of a god who never tired and the mental clarity of a mystical being. Those two properties made me feel like both a dragon and a god…a dragon god.
The anxiety left my body as I continued to demolish my foes, my superior abilities making them seem like novices with wooden blades. Blood from my opponents splattered on my face and my armor, and I continued to build the pile of dead around me.
My brother’s voice sounded in my head. We’re behind you. We’re catching the ones who make it past you.
Watch my back, then.
Always.