Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
THORNE
The muscles in my wings burned. Each thrust drove me faster than I’d flown in years. Serafina and I had flown all day and into the night without stopping. I hadn’t pushed my body to this degree since I woke on the floor of a tavern, gutted by the news that Pyrrhus had fallen.
Because of Alaric, I thought, teeth grinding hard enough to fracture stone.
Carcerem took shape on the horizon, caged by craggy rock and turbulent sky.
“Look. Over there.” Sera leaned low over my neck and thrust her arm forward.
The walls of the colosseum burned. Eager flames formed a fiery crown upon the earth. Sparks darted to neighboring houses, setting thatched roofs aflame. Smoke coiled through streets filled with panicked villagers.
“Do you think—”
“Alaric,” I growled.
“And there, in the field outside the castle walls.”
Not far from the colosseum, menacing images skulked across the landscape—bony spines hunched, limbs scrabbling the ground. My ears rang with the clang of metal, throaty battle cries, and bellows of pain. Ash floated in the wind, filling my nostrils.
“It’s The Dark One’s army. We’re too late,” Serafina cried. “The city is lost.”
“As long as the sacred arbor survives, there is hope. Slyborn Castle was built on solid stone. The wendigos will find it difficult to infiltrate. We must end this battle before they get inside.” The Dark One would not destroy Carcerem as he had Pyrrhus.
“Did you see that flash of magic?”
I narrowed my eyes. Two glittering fighters defended the main road to the castle.
“It’s the king and queen, Victor and Runa.
” Side by side, they held off a wave of snarling monsters, hurling balls of energy at their targets.
Their once fine clothing was scorched and stained with blood, the queen’s dress little more than ragged scraps.
“They’re losing ground.”
“Once I get you to safety, I’ll circle back to them.”
“Oh, no, you don’t. I’m here to help.” The flash of Serafina’s glowing palm flickered in the corner of my eye.
The hell she would. I knew all too well the destruction The Dark One could wreak. I’d not risk losing her as I had Pyrrhus. This time, I wouldn’t survive. “Absolutely not. I—”
A black mass launched out of the clouds, slamming into me. Oxygen exploded from my lungs, my ribs cracking.
Sera hurled off my back. Her scream ripped straight through my heart.
“Sera!”
“Hello, Brother,” Alaric’s teeth snapped before my face. We tumbled tooth over tail.
Stars streaked through my vision, followed by the ground. Stars. Ground.
Terror seared my nerve endings.
Serafina. I had to catch her.
I slammed my talons into Alaric’s stomach and shoved. His roar pierced the night. I tore free, twisted my spine, and flared my wings with a thundering crack.
My mate plunged toward the rooftops. I dove after her, wings tight, darting like a comet.
Wind shrieked past my ears. The buildings drew closer.
Closer. Closer. Sera’s terror-stricken face peered up at me.
Crimson curls clawed at her cheeks, arms flailing.
I stretched out my claws, reaching with my talons.
Beneath me, a dark shadow rocketed. Turbulence slung me from my dive. Alaric’s tail exploded against my skull.
Pain shattered my brain. “Sera! No!” I roared, the cry wrenched from my very soul.
My shoulder slammed against the side of a building, and the wall exploded. I wrapped my wings around my body. Scales scraped from my flesh, stones battering my bones, until at last I came to a stop.
While the landing failed to crush my body, panic threatened to break me. I sucked air into my deflated lungs and scrambled to push free of the rubble.
“Sera!” Her name erupted as a bellow of anguish.
“Thorne!” Sera’s answering shout brought tears to my eyes. That sweet sound had come from overhead.
I twisted my neck, spotting her precious form clasped in Alaric’s claw.
“Let me go, you overgrown lizard.” Colorful curses echoed through the streets.
“As you wish.” Alaric’s deep grumble shuddered in my mind, and every part of me tensed.
He circled the bell tower while I held my breath. “Damn you, Alaric. Harm her, and I pry off your scales one by one.”
Sera’s screech of fury rang out as he tossed her onto the roof. She skidded down the tiles, fingernails clawing at the shingles until she caught the edge. “Alaric, you turd-sucking twat!”
One slip, and she was done for.
I launched into the sky, pumping great gusts of wind that leveled the buildings I’d damaged. As I banked to circle the tower, daggered talons raked down my back, filleting my flesh. I roared my fury, forced to dart in the opposite direction, away from Sera.
“Too late. Too late. You’re always too late,” Alaric taunted.
“Sera, are you okay?”
“Fine. Just focus on Alaric,” she ordered.
“Don’t worry, Little Brother,” Alaric said. “I won’t let her fall. The Dark One has plans for her.”
Once I leveled out again, I threw out my senses. “Where are you?”
“Find me if you can. Remember when we used to play hide and seek as youths? You were always too quick to tire to best me—smaller, weaker.”
“Because even then you cheated, you bloody traitor.”
“Traitor?” Alaric’s voice rumbled through our connection. “That’s rich coming from the dragon who abandoned his kingdom in its darkest hour, leaving all within to die.”
I scoured the rooftops, every shadow mocking me. “Never again will you hold that over me. Not after you betrayed us all, allowing The Dark One to infiltrate Pyrrhus.”
“Ah. She told you, did she?”
“Why, Alaric? Why did you do it?”
“The sacred arbors are a plague to this land. Once I became king, I was a slave to its power, to the voices within. Father’s voice, the loudest. Even with his death, I couldn’t escape his judgment. The Dark One offered me a way out.”
Alaric’s voice wasn’t strained, as if he rested somewhere. But where? “That’s why the goddess cursed you. She knew what you had done. All this time, you let me believe it was my fault.”
“Because it was!”
Alaric’s roar boomed from the west, and I wheeled in that direction, flame seething behind my sternum.
“You were meant to share my burden. Instead, you abandoned me for your whores and your drinking while I was left to run the kingdom. Alone.”
“Because you were better at it!” I snarled. “The perfect son, while I was the screwup.” My fire burned hotter, guiding me. He was close. “You know, he used to beat me when I lost those games. Even when you didn’t play by the rules.”
“And still it failed to make a man out of you. Serafina was mine,” he barked, his declaration stirring my beast. “My only chance to live as a man and not a monster, and you stole her. If Hathor’s handmaiden had loved me, the goddess would have forgiven me.
She would have broken the curse. Instead, I was forced to go to The Dark One. ”
“I can’t steal something you never had,” I spat, fire licking my teeth.
“It’s time you paid for your crimes. I won’t spare you as I did in the past. This time you will watch while the kingdom falls, the sacred arbor withers, and the one you love dies.”
There he was. Perched on the roof of a towering building was an inky pool of scales.
“You are wrong, Brother,” I growled, rage a snarling volcano ready to erupt. “This time, I will be there to stop you.”
SERAFINA
My calves burned, my arms shaking as I clung to the roof. And yet shame seared hotter than my straining muscles. Shame that I’d ever felt an ounce of pity for that stupid back-stabbing dragon.
“Serafina?” a smoky voice shouted.
Wait. I knew that voice. “Drazen?”
“Holy hell. It is you.” His laugh was half incredulous, half horror. “I didn’t believe my eyes when I saw you tumbling out of the sky. I take it Alaric has switched sides?”
“You could say that.” I risked a glance at him then wished I hadn’t. Flark, it was a long way down. Clinging to a roof was nothing like soaring on the sturdy back of a dragon. My head swam. Toes slipped.
Falling!
“Serafina!” Drazen shouted.
I screamed, my body shooting over the edge. At the last instant, my fingers snagged the ledge where my feet had been. Pain snapped through my shoulders, a white-hot jolt that left me dangling, legs kicking at air.
“Blessed flames. Don’t move,” he barked. “I’ll find a way up to you.”
“No time! I’m slipping,” I cried out, the strain on my hands unbearable. I wouldn’t last long.
I craned my neck, eyeing my options. The tower wall was sheer, with no footholds. Below was a flowerbed, ivy spilling over its borders.
“I have an idea.” I dared to release one hand. Golden light flared in my palm, and I shot a bolt of energy at the bed.
The earth rumbled, and the vibration hummed throughout the building.
“Holy hell, there’s green shit crawling up the walls,” Drazen said. “Please tell me you’re doing that.”
Clawing branches tickled my ankle, and I yelped, the sensation like a serpent slithering up my leg. Before it could entangle me, I guided my foot over the top of the foliage, urging it to grow between my body and the roof. Now, to carefully test if—
My grip failed.
I shrieked, fingers scrabbling. Ivy scraped my hands, caught my boot, tangled my leg. My frame jerked hard against the greenery, but Blessed Hathor, it held.
“Serafina!” Drazen shouted.
“I’m okay.” I clung to my makeshift trellis. “I’ll meet you on the ground. Once my legs stop shaking.”
Like a youth sneaking out past bedtime, I made my way down the ivy. As my feet touched down, I fought back tears. I’d never been so thrilled to have both feet on the earth.
“Well done. You okay?” Drazen asked.
“I’ll live,” I wheezed, though my arms and legs said otherwise
In the distance, a deep-throated roar rang out. Flames flashed on the horizon. The dragons battled. While I ached to see how Thorne was faring, I couldn’t go to him. Not yet.
“We need to head toward the castle,” I said. “I spotted your king and queen from the sky. They’re in trouble.”