Chapter 41 #3
He releases an arrow and narrowly misses Rhydra. She looks back with ferocity painting her face as she swerves.
The archer is already getting ready to release another, and in the blink of an eye, it hits its target. Right through the left side of her back.
Meela falls from her horse.
I cry out in horror.
Raef looks back and a feral expression takes over. “MEELA!” He shouts, his desperate cry echoing across the field.
He throws the dragon sword at Rhydra, who catches it while still atop her horse, screams something at her, then hops down and runs to Meela’s side, blocking her. Rhydra rides on.
“Raef!” Daegan screams as the archer begins to ready another arrow.
He shifts into a massive red and black dragon, vicious-looking and taller than the inn. It only takes a blink of an eye.
He stands with Meela between his front legs and roars so loud the inn shakes.
Meela still doesn’t move.
The guards all close in on me and Daegan. I try again to break free of all the holds on me, but it’s hopeless.
The archer lets another arrow fly. It hits Raef and flops to the ground, not puncturing anything.
The guards are shaken. One of them trembles as he holds me, and that gives me hope.
“Go ahead and torch us, beast! But your friends will burn with us!”
The arrogant guard stands at the front of the group, facing the wrath of Raef. But he’s right. Raef won’t do anything with us among them.
Vines begin to grow from the ground as the guard in front uses his power. Another one blasts water at Raef.
There’s a pause, then Raef, with his giant red eyes, looks down at Meela. He touches her gently with his large talon, and my heart drops.
A roar even louder than the last one shakes the ground. When he finally stops and his massive teeth are hidden back inside his closed mouth, he looks directly at me, and my heart crumbles to pieces as he slowly shakes his head.
Flames are being thrown at him and vines are crawling around his legs, but he doesn’t seem concerned about that at the moment. He leans forward, protecting her body even though it’s too late, and he roars in our faces. He roars so hard I feel moisture hitting me along with a gust of air.
A sob escapes me, and I would’ve fallen to the ground, but the guards catch me. Raef holds my gaze, and something like agony swirls in the large red orbs.
“No. No. NO! You fucking assholes! I’ll kill you!” I scream at no one and everyone, looking sideways at all the guards.
“Raef, go!” Daegan yells at him from somewhere nearby. I hear Raef stomp off, but I can’t see anymore. My eyes are blurry from the moisture filling them.
“We have to get back. Let them go. For now,” someone commands.
My blood turns to ice as recognition consumes me. That voice.
Adrian.
I try to turn, and the guards let me, still holding onto me. I blink rapidly in an attempt to clear the stinging tears from my eyes.
The asshole has the audacity to stand there and look at me with pity? Sorrow?
“Elle—” he starts.
“Don’t you fucking dare.” My voice is low, filled with ice. “Don’t you ever talk to me like that again.” I’m shaking with anger as I look at him with so much loathing I tremble. “I will kill you,” I whisper.
He has the nerve to jerk his head back. To look shocked at my reaction.
“THEY KILLED HER!” I scream at him, shaking with rage. I take a breath, then two. He evens his gaze as he watches me. And then, more quietly, I say, “It’s your fault.”
“We’ll talk about it when we get back home,” he says, turning away from me.
I glance over and find Daegan not far, glaring at Adrian with frightening intensity. He looks over at me, and his gaze softens.
“It’s going to be okay.”
I shake my head, tears filling my eyes again. “How?”
“I’ll find you. I promise.”
I let out something between a whimper and a sob as I look at him, my source of calm and peace.
They begin to rip him away from me, and it feels like something is being physically pulled from deep within my body. I panic. And sob.
“Elle, look at me.”
I immediately shake my head, because I don’t like his tone. Something in it feels almost like surrender.
His gaze doesn’t waver as he steps backwards with them.
“I will love you with my whole fucking heart, not just until the day I stop breathing, but beyond that. I will find you. I will incinerate this entire world until I find you. I promise.” His gaze grows more murderous.
“And every single person involved in taking you from me will beg for the mercy of death by the time I’m done with them. ”
I sob more.
“I love you,” I say back as he’s loaded into a carriage. I don’t even know if he heard me or not.
And then he’s gone.
The emptiness that fills me is immediate and overpowering.
I don’t even have the energy to direct more rage at Adrian, who’s holding another carriage open. They begin to lead me to it.
I don’t meet his eyes again. I won’t.
I sit in the carriage with my hands secured behind my back the entire ride, quietly crying to myself until all that’s left is an empty void.
Meela is gone.
I hope she’s with her love now.