Chapter 51 The Queen #2
I took a firmer grip on the blade handle and prayed God would forgive me for—
‘No, Bren!’ Akhane shrieked in my head. ‘Do not let him make you a murderer.’
‘But—’
Overhead, a dragon roared with such anguish and rage, the air seemed to tremble. Then everything happened too quickly.
Kgosi screamed.
Ruin’s head jerked up and his eyes went round. “No!” he bellowed.
I shoved Ruin sideways, scrambling to my feet as he rolled—but my brothers had already tackled him again and were holding him.
Donavyn stood, just feet away, his head tipped back and both hands in his hair, his face lined with worry.
‘What’s going on?’ I could see the silhouettes of the dragons circling above us—Carnage and Kgosi the only large shadows, because the others had circled high once the challenge had been called, to stay out of their way.
Kgosi pursued Carnage, but the blue dragon was… writhing in the sky.
Donavyn shook his head. ‘Kgosi broke into his mind. By force. And Bren… God, it’s worse than we thought.’
Akhane gave an ear-shattering shriek and I whirled, instinctively bringing up the blade.
But Akhane hadn’t launched into the air.
She stood on the earth behind me, her wings high and head up, shaking.
She trembled like a leaf in the wind, and when I reached for her, it was as if I broke into an already flowing river of thought.
‘…these men are an infection… a blight on the land and its people. He didn’t only violate you, Bren, but others as well.
Their brotherhood was forged in blood and betrayal, and they reveled in it—using the power given to them by the honorable, to use in dishonor.
Worse… to use in evil. And their dragons…
first tempted, then forced to swim in the cesspit of these evil men’s minds…
oh God. They… Bren they violate, and create fear, and seek control—not only over your kind, but over mine.
The wild ones were taken young and… conditioned to accept, taught there was no other way—they have been trained to this…
this… depravity. They do not trust, because trust has never been earned. They are bought with a price and—’
My dragon broke off. Snapping her head high, she screamed, then turned in that flash of impossible speed the dragons all seemed to call on at times, whipping to face Ruin, her wings snapping high as she opened her mouth and bared her fangs.
Overhead, Kgosi responded with a roar that made the earth tremble.
“Akhane, what—”
Ruin gave a hoarse bellow and grabbed at his hair like he’d lift off his scalp if he could—then he began to whimper like a child, and writhed on the ground in a parody of Carnage’s agony in the sky.
“Donavyn… what’s happening?” I breathed.
“Judgment,” he whispered back. But even though my mate gripped my arm, pulling me to his side, he never took his eyes off his dragon in the sky.
All around us, the dragons of Vosgaard began to call and sing. An eerie song that raised the hair on my arms.
I looked to Akhane, but Donavyn’s arm around my side tightened, pulling me away as Akhane’s ears pinned back against her skull and her head snaked out, towards Ruin, those teeth bared, and dripping in whatever it was that the dragons ignited in their throats to make fire.
“Akhane!”
“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Donavyn screamed at my brothers, gesturing wildly at Ronen and the others who held Ruin.
My four brothers leaped to their feet and ran, scrambling backwards as my dragon strode towards Ruin—who remained on his back on the ground, trying to crawl from her, to escape, his eyes wild, but hands shaking, clawing through his hair, then pushing him on the ground, then gripping his head again.
“No… NO!”
“Step back, Little Flame. The Primarch has commanded: This little bastard is mine.”
“What—?!”
‘Ruin Galdec, the destroyer, you will answer to me,’ Akhane intoned, and to my shock, her words echoed through every mind in the hollow.
Dragons flinched and men startled. A trill of fear and hope jangled in my chest, but I couldn’t take my eyes off my dragon.
With fire in her eyes and smoke pouring from her nostrils, she stormed to Ruin, shaking her head and hissing through an open mouth as he scrambled weakly in the grass.
Then she stomped with one front foot. One talon pierced his thigh, while the other two dug into the dirt either side of him, pinning him to the grass. Ruin roared with pain and half-sat up, grabbing for her—but unable to move, his eyes so wide they were white all the way around.
“No! No! Please! Don’t let her—”
‘I am the Primarch’s mate. I am the Queen of the Vosgaarde dragons.
And the Bonded One of Brennan Kearney who was violated, and almost taken from this world by your selfish, evil actions.
You are judged, Ruin Galdec. You are measured in the eyes of the Creator and found wanting.
Blessed, you were. Equipped—for strength and speed and success.
Yet, your God-given gifts have been twisted, used for selfish gain and perverted satisfaction.
You have no remorse, and reject wisdom. Your life is forfeit to the judgment of the Primarch—who will deliver the same to the dragon who led you in this vile pursuit.
I stand in his stead. Prepare to meet your maker, you sick little fuck. ’
I gasped. Donavyn’s arm whipped around my waist and he dragged me further backwards, shouting at everyone in the vicinity to back away as Akhane inhaled audibly, then opened her maw and vomited liquid flame over Ruin.
The scream that rose told me he hadn’t been flamed—not the white-hot outpouring a dragon was capable of, that would keep their flame deadly for a range of up to one hundred feet.
No, my dragon had held her weapon in check so Ruin felt the fire consume him.
And he screamed—though, only for moments before the burning reached his lungs.
And then, as we stood, transfixed by the sight of a man, now silent, being burned alive, then Akhane gave her flame the heat and intensity that could burn through the seams of his dragonhide leathers and reach the rest of him.
And high over our heads, Carnage screamed as his rider died.