CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
ADRENALINE RAMPAGES THROUGH MY BODY as we run as fast as we can towards the open field where our dragons are waiting for us.
The sounds of bloodcurdling screams and clanging metal echo in my ears reminding me of that night when my world collapsed all those years ago, and I can’t help but let anger fill me.
Killian’s words from training sit at the forefront of my mind, keeping the full effect of my rage from consuming me.
“Your Vopn Fo magick feeds on the rage in your blood, but without control, it will control you and you risk hurting the people you care about. You won’t be as aware, driven with your bloodlust. Control it, Ravina.”
Nero soars above our heads as we weave through the numerous tents and his excitement quivers through our bond.
“Finally. My collection will grow tonight. I can taste it.” He was elated when I gave him Cresida’s eye and it’s now back at Kraryn Castle with the other two he’s acquired. They’re his most treasured belongings.
“Just stay close to me,” I tell him firmly. If something happens to either one of us, we die, and with him nearby if I get injured, I can draw strength from him and vice versa.
He catches onto my thoughts. “Of course, Rav. You know I won’t let anything happen to you. We will get through this just like everything else we’ve been through.”
As we get to the field our beasts rush towards us, the ground shaking with their size, and I swear if I wasn’t so accustomed to working around them I would have ended up on my ass.
“Come, Lost One, we must take to the air. You’ll be safer there,” Vasari urges, nudging me towards her back. “And make sure that bird is locked away. We don’t need him getting caught in the crossfire. Roasted rat is not a part of my diet but I won’t waste sustenance either.”
Nero scoffs. “I will not be caged like a damsel in distress. I will fight for glory and eyeballs, and there is nothing you can say to stop me.”
“He will be fine,” I reassure both her and myself.
As I go to climb up Vasari’s leg, I find myself pinned between two males.
Jesper’s finger and thumb lift my chin so I’m forced to look at him. “You will do as you’re told up there, Beastie. Do you understand?”
The familiar coolness of Aemon’s shadows wrap around my body, noticeably stronger in the night. His lips whisper against the point of my ear. “Don’t make us worry, or it will be you paying the price. Let’s listen to our grouchy Elemi bond-mate, shall we?”
“And if I want to pay the price?” I mutter, knowing exactly what Aemon’s brand of punishment entails.
Their growls entice me to keep teasing them, even if I have no intention of putting myself purposely in harm’s way. This is my first battle and I will listen, at least… I think I will.
The dragons roar in warning. “Get on. NOW,” Vasari rumbles.
With urgency pushing me I give both Jesper and Aemon a kiss before looking quickly for Killian. I find him a second later sitting on top of Voissor, his gaze already locked on mine. The moment lasts only a split second before I’m rushing up her leg but not before a tendril cracks against my ass.
“Stay with us. No funny business,” Aemon states, his voice floating through my head, our connection as easy as breathing.
“I will stay with you,” I tell him as Vasari takes to the air, and what I see below me has my heart clenching with fear. My stomach is tightening as my flesh freezes. If we’d stayed on the ground any longer we would have been overwhelmed.
Where are Talyn and my friends? I’m not sure where exactly they are other than that they’re down there somewhere fighting for their lives. “Aemon…” I start.
“Talyn knows what he’s doing and we will find your friends once we deal with this,” he states just as the dragons take over, blasting the enemy with fire and water.
I can’t help but look down around me in horror at the carnage befalling the camp. Fire, hallucinogenic gas and smoke fill the night coming from every side of camp.
“They have us on all sides,” I tell the three of them, reaching out with my Szellemi magick. It takes a second longer, waiting for both Killian’s and Jesper’s mental walls to drop just enough to let me in.
Aemon only takes a moment to assess the situation, happy to let our dragons handle things for the moment. “Tell Killian to take the north, I will go east and you go with Jesper west. Tell them to keep an eye out for our family and make sure they are safe.”
I nod, even though he can’t see me, and I quickly relay the message. Killian doesn’t waste a second, taking off and flying low enough over the tents to help but stay out of danger. Aemon does the same, while Vasari saddles up next to Tisur and Jesper.
His red hair blows behind him, unusually bright with only fire from below lighting up the night.
He winks, looking far too excited for the situation we’ve found ourselves in.
I feel his presence press against my mind—something he wouldn’t have to do if we’d bonded.
All things considered, I’m glad his magick still lets us communicate mentally, even if it doesn’t feel as natural as Aemon or my bonded creatures.
I lower my mental wall enough to let him in. “You look fates-damned gorgeous riding a dragon into battle, you know that?”
My head shakes in amusement. “Fae are literally dying around us and you’re flirting?”
“Battle is a great time for flirting. You know I love watching you handle a sword.” There’s a teasing lilt to his voice that hints towards something else and I find my cheeks heating, and it’s not from the dragon fire.
I focus on the battle below, watching as Vasari’s flames consume groups of the enemies seeking to wreak even more havoc on our camp.
Jesper’s amusement floats through my mind as he pulls away, leaving me with an emptiness that has me rubbing my chest and the mark along my side.
I need his bond. As soon as we have some free time, we’re completing it.
If it wasn’t for this battle happening around us, I’d take him right here.
“You could always make him take you on the battlefield. There’s nothing like a bloodlust-induced mating,” Vasari adds before flames erupt from her again.
“That sounds overly dangerous,” I tell her, but she doesn’t miss the subtle hint of intrigue that lingers on my words.
She laughs. “Sometimes I forget how innocent and withdrawn from your baser instincts you are.”
My body grips to her instinctively as she performs evasive maneuvers to avoid some flaming arrows headed our way. “A little warning next time,” I growl. “And I’m not that innocent.”
Nero surprises me by laughing as well. “I may not ever agree with the lizard, but yeah, yeah you are.”
I ignore them, deciding to keep my eyes peeled for my friends. However, with the air quickly filling with smoke, I lose hope in spotting them. Maybe one of the others have found them already?
I’m not sure how long we’ve been flying, looping around as we deal with clearing out our camp, but the air becomes still and sounds of battle become increasingly quiet.
My mind reaches out for Jesper but he’s already there, asking for entrance again. “Are we done? Is it over?” I ask, not seeing any enemies below.
Vasari and Tisur growl, my hair standing on edge as the realm seems to take a breath and hold it.
“I don’t think it is,” Jesper states, and something about his voice puts me on edge. “They’ve retreated but the dragons are still restless. Something isn’t right—”
An un-fae-like screech rends through the air and an uncontrollable fear courses through me.
I know there are dark things in our realm, things that prefer to stay in the ancient forests.
Stories are told to fledglings to keep us from wandering where we aren’t supposed to, but this?
This noise vibrates through my body like an omen of death, like my nervous system has gone straight into flight mode.
There’s nothing I want to do more than urge Vasari away, to fly as far as we can get.
To find those I care for and run for the mountains.
I force myself to take a few deep breaths. My knuckles are white as they grip onto the saddle. “We need to find the others.” I’m not sure who I say it to, or if I say it out loud, but for some reason Vasari listens to me without argument.
She soars low and I vaguely hear Jesper yelling my name but I know he’ll follow. I need to find my mates. I need to find my friends. As we reach the north side of the encampment the screeching is louder and that’s when I see them.
Ten shadows of moving smoke, gliding above the ground heading into camp. I watch as a few fae warriors charge the smoky beings, only to fall victim to a soundless death. The screeching gets louder and the creatures become faster with every life they take. At this rate they will wipe out the camp.
“Fuck, this must have been what demolished that town, which means…”
“That these must be the shadow wraiths born from the Soul Stone,” Nero finishes what I couldn’t.
Jesper pushes on my mind again. “Ravina. You need to take Vasari and go. I will find the others and meet you back at the castle in Kraryn.” The fear in his voice almost makes me listen. But I can’t just run and abandon my warriors. This is my fight too.
I shake my head. “No, let me help. We don’t have time for this!”
“Fine, but stay close. We swoop in, grab the others and leave. Do not get off of Vasari. No one knows how to destroy these things.” The devastation is clear in his voice.
My head dips and we take off. It doesn’t take us long to find Aemon, Killian, Roz and Ember. The latter two took to the skies as soon as they realized what was going on.
I begin to panic when I don’t spot Melissandre or Lennox anywhere, nor their gryphons. I almost give up hope when I see them and about a hundred of our warriors fighting in the center of the camp, slowly being closed in on all sides by the ten shadow wraiths.
“Mel! Lennox!” I scream, urging Vasari to fly faster.
Shadow wraiths hit the front line of warriors and my magick pulses inside of me before my shadows engulf me. For a split second I’m weightless, and then I’m on the ground in the fray next to both of my friends.
They’re covered in blood, their eyes wide with the adrenaline of the fight and fear for what’s coming to us. I grab their hands and try to pull back on the shadows that got me here in the first place but to no avail, they don’t come. It’s like fate herself has trapped me here.
I turn, facing my incoming death, my friends gripping each other for a moment. “I’m here. We live or die together, but let’s not go down without a fight,” I yell towards them.
My body seems to have a mind of its own as I hop onto the boulder next to me, almost like it’s not me controlling myself.
My limbs feel foreign, even as the fear from Aemon’s and Nero’s bonds pounds at my mental barriers.
Vasari, feeling almost as entranced as I am, lands behind me, crushing the tents that were still somehow standing despite everything.
As the wall of warriors opens up, I find myself standing nearly face to face with this creature of death and despair, as it closes in fast with maybe twenty feet in front of me.
I unsheathe my sword and raise it above my head as Vasari’s shadow flames glow in an immaculate purple stream above me, hitting the two wraiths in front of me and lighting my sword ablaze.
Their screeches shatter through the air, making me wince as my own control finally snaps back to me and I realize what happened.
I barely have time to contemplate everything before I’m swinging my blade at the next shadow wraith.
It crumples in on itself making the same horrifying noise as the other two.
My feet move with practiced ease, although exhaustion is consuming me quickly. Bursts of purple light up around me as I swing my blade over and over again.
The realm is silent for a moment. Nothing but my heaving breath and pride comes through my bond from Vasari, even though it’s tinged with annoyance. Something to ask her about later. I just can’t believe I’m alive.
Cheers erupt through the air seconds before Mel and Lennox have their arms around me.
Mel’s sobs break through my fight-induced focus, and I hug them back.
“I thought we were dead,” she says, clinging to me.
Even Lennox’s eyes are filled with emotion, leaving streaks of dirt and blood down his face. “We told our gryphons to take off. We couldn’t get out of the fight and it wasn’t safe for them to land so close to us.”
Mel hugs me tighter. “And then you and Vasari showed up looking like something not of this realm…”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
Before they answer, I’m being spun around and gripped tightly by my shoulders as Talyn, of all fae, looks me over intensely.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” he yells, shaking me a bit. “You could have died. You almost died!” he bellows again, his normally stoic face gripped with fear.
“I’m alive,” I state as calmly as I can.
His head shakes. “You were supposed to stay in the fucking air, Ravina. You are supposed to make it through this war and lead everyone. You’re so fucking reckless.” His lips land on mine roughly, full of so much emotion and longing, before he rips himself away.
He staggers back and I can’t help but stand there touching my lips where the echo of his still tingle against mine.
Without a word he storms away through the crowd of tired soldiers.
The cheers don’t last long. Not as the sun rises and we find ourselves amidst a burial ground.
Out of the ten thousand warriors we had, only a few thousand survived because of the wraith taking lives with no way for the living to fight back.
Our army was almost completely destroyed, but we discovered something that could change the tide of the war: shadow flames can defeat the wraiths.
But even with all this going on, for some selfish reason, I can’t stop thinking about the rage-induced kiss Talyn gave me.
I shake my head, forcing it back. I need to help my warriors. We need to come up with a plan– but first I need my mates.