Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ember
I swept into the Rift Room like a raging bull, furious with everything. I was furious with Albright, not just for being a traitorous piece of shit but also for picking the worst time possible to make his move. My fury ran unabated, though, also fueled by my personal disdain.
Someone else was taking Dela home. Someone else was making sure she was safe.
That someone should be me! I still had no idea what the fuck had gone on at the end there.
How had our wires gotten so twisted when things were going so well?
I knew that I had found my mate. There was no doubt in my mind.
Others would have hesitations or outright suspicions, of that there could be no doubt. I could not just bring her back to Fire Castle and proclaim to the entire clan that I was mated to a human and things were all settled. No, I would have to do it the formal way.
We were going to have to take the Test.
“Everyone here?” I barked at Pyre as we assembled in front of the Rift.
I’d forbidden them from going on their own.
Albright would be ready for that. We had to go as a group and arrive in strength.
It would take more time, but the impact would be stronger.
We just had to hope the defenses would hold until we got there.
“Everyone but Ari,” Pyre replied smartly, doing a double-check with his eyes.
I snorted. “That one? She wouldn’t—”
“I wouldn’t what?” Ari asked, strolling through the door. “Wouldn’t fight for you?”
“Something like that,” I said, waving a hand and signaling to get everyone moving after me toward the Rift.
She smiled sweetly. Almost falsely, in my mind. I didn’t have time for her distractions, but I made a mental note to keep her in my eyesight while we were flying. If she were going to betray us and take Albright’s side, that would be the time to do it.
“Let’s move out!” I shouted, stepping through the Rift.
Everything glowed for a moment, and then I was in the gigantic cavern below Mount Drakonus. Fire blazed from my hands instantly in a defensive shield, and I dove to the side, moving before I reacted to what was there.
A stream of fire hit the stone floor right where I would have been standing and then started to track my direction.
I grinned—but it vanished as something physical hit me from behind as I got to my feet, staggering me.
I bent over, put my hands down for support, and donkey-kicked the fucker as he tried to blindside me again.
My size-twelve foot hit square against his sternum, cracking bone and hurtling my attacker backward. He slammed off the metal frame of the Rift and cartwheeled away in a spray of blood. I shook my head, reorienting myself, just as the stream of fire tracked toward me.
“Not this time,” I growled and, with a gesture, flung up a wall of fire in front of me that absorbed much of the attack while shunting the rest away from the Rift and me.
Surprisingly, Ari was the second one through the Rift, and she leaped into the air, her wings the first to sprout. The huge membranes shot her tiny but growing form at the fire dragon hovering above us.
By the time she got to its side, she was in her true form and latched on to Albright’s supporter, shredding his wings, dropping him to the ground where she took the fight out of him by pinning his head between her jaws. Just like that, the chamber was secure.
I detailed two of my escort to deal with Albright’s injured men, making sure Ari was forced to stay close to me.
I didn’t know what or if she was planning to betray me, but I wanted to be ready if it came.
Someone was going to do it. I found it hard to believe that after all his efforts to overthrow me, Albright wouldn’t have planted a supporter in my midst. Someone who had turned against me but stayed close by in order to betray me at the worst possible opportunity.
Pyre came up to me. “We’re secure here.”
“Good. Let’s move out.”
Pyre nodded, but before he could get far, I grabbed his shoulder. “Thank you, Pyre.”
He cocked his head at me.
“For staying loyal to me,” I said as others began to change. “It means a lot.”
Pyre smiled. “I’ve always told you, Ember, I’m loyal to the throne.”
I grinned. “And I’m not the throne, I know, I know. But I will be, Pyre. Soon. I can feel it now. Something is different.”
Pyre’s eyes shot back to the Rift and then to me.
“She’s the one,” I said confidentially, grimacing. “Though I have to win her back, but Pyre, it’s her. I don’t know how or why, but it’s her. I’m convinced of it.”
“Right.” Pyre nodded. “Well, let’s find Albright. Then you can tell her all about the Test. That should be fun.”
I frowned at him. He wasn’t happy for me, which I’d expected. Instead, he seemed rather uneasy at the proposition. Was he going to miss this little back and forth of telling me I’m not the Throne?
“Ember, let’s go!” Ari shouted from high in the cavern, her wings flapping to keep her steady. “Your Throne won’t save itself!”
I waved at her to acknowledge the point, then gave Pyre’s shoulder a harder squeeze. “Either way, thank you.”
He grunted and then moved off, gathering space while he shifted. I gave him a last glance, then put my own body through the change, feeling the power of my true form infuse me. The cavern seemed to shrink as I grew in size, my limbs thickening, becoming covered in dark red scales.
Wings sprouted from my back, and a tail curled around my hind legs, rust-colored claws protruding where toes had once been.
My head shot away from my body, and I stretched my neck to the sky, spreading my wings wide.
Muscles flexed, and I leaped high into the sky.
My wings swept downward, propelling me even higher.
They beat again, faster, and again, and I gained altitude swiftly, making a beeline for the exit.
The others came after me, and we winged hard for the other end of the entrance tunnel, moving faster than normal.
We shot out of it like bullets from a barrel.
If Albright had posted any more guards there, we would have blown past them.
But there were none. He’d left just the two, expecting me to send my dragons through the Rift piecemeal, where they could be dealt with easily.
Idiot.
Of course, that meant most of his forces were attacking Fire Castle.
So perhaps his little blocking maneuver was designed to do nothing more than buy him time.
Either they attacked the first few dragons through and saddled me with injured and casualties, or they forced me to wait on the other side and come through en masse.
Either way, it bought Albright more time. Fuck.
Maybe he wasn’t such an idiot after all.
We winged hard for Fire Castle, Ari, Pyre, and I at the front of the formation, chomping at the bit.
We could all go harder and thus faster, courtesy of our heritage and royal blood.
Ari was a more distant relation, and her scales were closer to the usual crimson than even to Pyre, who was a shade or two lighter than me, but she was still damn fast.
However, we needed to arrive in force. So I seethed internally at the delay as we flew as hard as our slowest member. Arriving together would be a hammer punch into Albright’s forces, assuming the castle still held.
It will hold. The defenses are strong. Seary is a strong commander. He’ll hold the defenses. You must trust him.
Fire Castle was no easy peach for the picking.
There was a reason Albright had waited until then, when many of us were away, before attacking.
The defenses were formidable, and it would be costly to invade.
Albright needed the best chance he could get.
I felt like an idiot for thinking he would come after me instead of the throne itself.
I should have heeded Pyre more when he needled me for not being the Throne.
I could have seen more clearly what Albright would do.
Without realizing it, I started to pull away from the others.
“Let’s stick together,” Ari suggested, sliding in next to me. “Come on, Ember. Keep it together.”
I glanced at her. She surprised me. Her willingness to fight, and her attempt to ensure we arrived as one, instead of letting me string us out. What the fuck was she up to?
Regardless, I slowed. The landscape was changing from the blasted, rocky foothills around the base of Mount Drakonus into the green-covered fields that supplied much of the food to the various dragon holds dotting the countryside, including Fire Castle and its surrounding settlement.
Soon, I thought, my eyes focused on a particular speck on the horizon.
“There!” Pyre shouted not long after.
I’d already seen the movement, but now I watched as the dragon dove, a cone of fire easily visible as it lit the sky at this distance, striking down at something.
“It still holds!” I bellowed. “The castle still holds. Let us ride to aide our fellows! The usurpers shall pay for this betrayal!”
The wordless roar of a dozen dragons behind me echoed across the landscape, and we charged to meet the dragons attacking our home.
I flipped over on my back and tucked my wings tight, dropping from the sky like a stone. It was my castle, and I would be the first to strike against the invaders. I landed on the back of a fire dragon just before it could wreathe one of the watchtowers in flames.
My strike drove the air from its lungs. The long neck whipped around, and its yellow eyes blazed with hatred as it noted who was attacking it.
His lungs inflated, and I grinned, darting my head forward and clamping my jaws tight around its snout.
The dragon’s eyes went wide, and it coughed, smoke and fire belching from the sides of its mouth.
Then I released it entirely, flinging myself free and snapping my wings to the side. The dragon grinned victoriously, drawing another breath to wreathe me in fire. Then it slammed into the side of one of the stone towers.