Chapter 67
Soldiers carrying torches begin to emerge from the trees.
Dozens of them.
Daegan appears at my side as if pulled by some invisible force and grabs my hand.
One look behind us tells me we can’t escape back that way either. They’re ascending from every angle, surrounding us. Where the fuck did they all come from?
Full of terror for Daegan, my sister, Raef, and Kezra, I meet Daegan’s eyes.
I know he’s tough and never cracks under pressure, but I’m still surprised to find him looking so confident.
It calms me a little. Gives me a little confidence.
His face has taken on a feral, vengeful look, but he doesn’t look afraid.
Not one bit. I’ve never seen him afraid, I don’t think.
“Morne,” he says quietly to me, to our group, and it’s layered with meaning.
The way he says that single word, it’s as if he believes in all of us, that we’ll all get out of this alive and reunite again soon.
I can’t think of any other alternative. He didn’t have time for a pre-battle speech, but that one word and the look in his eyes has us holding our shoulders high again, nodding at each other.
Rhydra glances at me, her eyes resolute and determined.
Raef wears an eerie, almost evil-looking grin that makes me incredibly glad I’m not his enemy.
The dozens and dozens of elven soldiers are still a safe distance away, but they’ve completely encircled us. I notice one person on a horse riding ahead, heading straight for us. The figure is in no rush, and just two soldiers walk on each side of him.
Daegan and Raef draw their swords, Rhydra draws her staff, and I hold my knives. Kezra flutters close to my shoulder.
“It’s the king,” I announce glumly.
Rhydra stiffens, holds her head even higher, and pulls her shoulders back more.
My father stops a short distance ahead of us. Not too close. He squares his shoulders, glaring down at me. I can’t tell what he’s thinking, what that smug expression on his face is really saying. I am ashamed and full of disgust for ever thinking there might be some good in him.
“Elysande. You’ve come home at last.”
“I will die before I call this place home again.”
The king has the gall to look at me with disappointment. Just a little. “I don’t want it to be this way. Hand over what you’ve come here for, along with the other relics, and your friends may go free.”
“No,” Rhydra says, loud and steady.
“Also no,” Raef agrees. “You really need this big of an army to take on five of us? I’m flattered.”
My father pinches his brows together, assessing us. Surprise lights his expression for a flash. It’s more than I’ve ever seen from him, I think.
“A fairy,” he mumbles. “Interesting.”
“Yes, I am.” That’s all she says, and she says it proudly.
He shakes the surprise away. “Hand it over, or it burns.” I watch as he pulls something out of one of the saddlebags, then cold dread washes over me.
“No,” I gasp. But I won’t take a step forward. He’s a fool if he thinks I’d give up everything for this. I’m not that selfish. But I hate him for putting me in this position, for forcing me to choose.
“No?”
I meet Daegan’s eyes as he lets his hardened expression fall for just one moment, flashing me a supportive glance. It’s gone in an instant as he faces forward again.
“Okay, then.” My father hands the small item to the soldier on his left, giving him a curt nod.
Sorrow and anger fill me as Lemakis is torched before my eyes by a powerful burst of elf fire. A faint, hollow, wailing fills the air, and my insides twist, threatening to come up. I can’t rip my eyes away. I look on in horror as the flames quickly consume every leaf. Then everything stills.
The sound will stick with me forever. I’m sure of it.
Lemakis is dust in the soil of the pot, which the soldier now tosses to the ground.
It doesn’t even break, just thuds and rolls away.
I look at the soldier, tall and pompous and hateful, and then to my father.
Fury and rage consume me as I look at him.
Whatever love I used to hold for him has long been extinguished.
Lemakis was my mother’s.
My father releases a sigh of disappointment, like a parent whose child has acted out one too many times. Then he glances at Raef with a flash of annoyance. “We heard rumblings of full-grown dragons nearby. Interesting news, indeed. But nothing we haven’t squashed before.”
Daegan tenses with anger beside me. We all remain planted and don’t address the king again.
“We’ll do this the hard way, then.” He looks around the clearing at the small army surrounding us, as if to reiterate what we’re up against. “I would have intercepted you inside, but my army and I were only just returning when I heard word you were sneaking into the castle.”
How is he always a step ahead of me?
I glance around me, trying to formulate a plan, before I return my gaze to my father, smirking. One hundred magic-wielding elves against the five of us doesn’t seem great, but they don’t realize what they’re up against.
Suddenly, an angry scream pierces the air, and my father leans to the side, dodging one of Rhydra’s knives.
He smirks, his chest bouncing with a short laugh.
She’s a trained warrior, why would she do that?
“Keep your emotions in check, Rhydra,” Raef says quietly. “We need you.”
“Well, let’s not waste any more fucking time,” Daegan says so that only the five of us hear him. He glances back at me one last time, giving me a reassuring look. “Keep yourself guarded with water and try to stay to that side, please.”
This clearing is about to become a battleground—a fray of flames, steel, and death.
With one last lingering look, my whole heart transforms before me into a deadly, lethal beast that dwarfs everyone on this field. Raef is already transformed beside him. black and red and just as menacing.
I watch as my father jolts back. Shock, fear, and uncertainty cross his face. Now that is the most shock I’ve ever seen paint his features. It’s one thing to hear about the ancient dragons and see the old illustrations. It’s another to see them in their terrifying form, towering over you.
Good.
The dragons don’t wait.
With two ground-rumbling roars, they light half the army on fire from all the way across the barren land, and the battle begins. I’m surprised they didn’t immediately go for the king, but maybe it’s because we’re still too close to him.
The army begins to scatter as water, ice, arrows, and twisting vines and plants are all sent after the two dragons in the middle of the onslaught.
None of that is causing any damage. So far.
They might call for reinforcements, though, if they’re not already on their way. We need to clear out of here quickly.
I turn and create some distance from the dragons to avoid everything being thrown at them, and to stay out of their way so they can fry anyone near them.
Kezra remains by my side, buzzing with palpable energy.
“Come on,” I say to her and Rhydra, running at the army that’s now scattered. Half of them appear absolutely terrified, and half of them are so focused on throwing everything they have at the dragons that they’re not even paying attention to us.
With my knives in hand, I grit my teeth as I encounter the first group of soldiers, all focused on the dragons’ backsides from a distance. This is the moment I can’t come back from. I grew up around these people. Some of them, I might know. But I have entirely too much to lose.
Maybe I can try, just one last time…
“The king is the bad guy in this, you know… and so are you if you fight with him.”
A dozen armored heads whip toward me. I sense Rhydra’s confusion beside me.
“You don’t have to do this,” I continue.
“Fuck those filthy dragons. They want to destroy us. They want our land,” one of them yells.
“They’re dying! They only want to survive!”
“Yeah. Survive and see our castle burn to the ground.”
“You’re wrong!” I shout, though no one is hearing me.
“Elysande,” Rhydra says with surprising gentleness.
“Stay out of it, princess,” one of them hollers. They ignore us and face the dragons again, throwing all their elements at them.
I can’t let them hurt Raef and Daegan. I won’t.
I stride closer, staring at the side profile of the first one, his slender face and red beard imprinting on my mind as I thrust my knife into his throat, spraying blood.
And still, no one around him notices us.
I feel the heat of the blade as Kezra brings it to life, guiding me like a legendary warrior that moves with an ease and speed that I never earned. I’m not complaining, though. I’ll use every advantage I can.
I grunt as I slice a throat, refusing to look into the male’s face this time. Actually, as I glance away, I think it might have been a female.
It doesn’t matter.
I release a battle cry as the small group around me begins to take notice of us, and I see Rhydra doing damage close by. I steal a sword off one of my fallen kills.
It was calling out to me.
It feels right as I raise it, and Kezra jumps over from the dagger I sheath. With a graceful swoop, I ram it straight through a soldier’s armor, right into his chest.
With my left hand, I shoot a wall of water out, protecting me as I see a barrage of fireballs coming my way.
Once my power douses those I immediately turn the water into a thousand tiny icicles as I ram the sword into another body, and I release them onto the soldiers to my left with my other hand. Some of them block them. Some didn’t stand a chance.
I risk a glance back, relief hitting me as Daegan and Raef tear through the battlefield and Rhydra clears out a group beside me.
She really is skilled with her staff and daggers, holding her own against every element thrown at her—and somehow, she’s still surviving.
Still, I don’t stray far. She could easily be overrun.
I see a soldier near me trying to flank her, and I drop my sword, reach for a dagger, and thrust it in his neck before the flames gathering in his hands touch her.
I pick the sword back up.