Chapter Forty-Two
Ember
I was going to kill him. I was going to fucking kill him. The bastard had taken Dela, and he was going to use her to get to me.
So I was going to burn his body to ash and scatter it to the winds.
“We’re leaving them behind!” Ari gasped as she labored to keep up with me.
In response, I looked deep inside for another ounce of speed. Another burst. Anything that would get me to Dela faster. There was so much I hadn’t told her, so many things left for us to say and talk about. It couldn’t be the end. It couldn’t. She was my mate, and I would save her.
Somehow.
I also knew, as Albright’s compound came into view, that I couldn’t risk the entire princedom just for her.
If it came down to it, I would have to sacrifice myself.
Perhaps I could do that while also saving her life.
Word was already on its way to Ashe, my younger brother, notifying him that he was to return.
Just in case I died, it would be his fight to finish.
There would be no surrendering today. One of us would die.
If I relinquished my right to the crown, Albright would seize control, and the Fire Realm would find itself in a terrible state.
However, if he killed me, the next in line would step up.
Ashe preferred to live among humans and took much ridicule for it, but I knew he had a strength deep down that few expected of him.
He would be a good Prince of Fire.
I angled downward, the sun setting in the sky behind me and to the right.
Fire swirled around me, the very air shimmering and beginning to burn as my fury fueled the descent.
Beside me, Ari came on, the only one of the dragons from Fire Castle who’d been able to keep up.
We would be vastly outnumbered, but I didn’t care.
All that mattered to me was Dela.
I slammed into the roof like a fireball sent from the heavens, flames rippling outward, heat melting the stone around me.
“ALbrIGHT!” I bellowed, the noise shaking loose pebbles from the foundations of the building. “Show yourself, you coward!”
“Now, now,” a voice tsked from behind me. “There’s no need for such dramatics, Ember. A simple hello would have sufficed.”
I whirled, moving surprisingly fast for a dragon. My eyes blazed with yellow fire as they lit upon Albright.
“Ah-ah,” he admonished, one hand holding the blade to Dela’s ribcage, the tip angled upward to slide between ribs and puncture her heart.
Trembling with fury, I searched for words but was unable to find them, thanks to his display. The slime knew how I felt about Dela. Instead of simply threatening to slice her throat as most would, he was going for the heart. The place of love.
He knew how that would sicken me, would know I would see the threat to our … our whatever it was between Dela and me. Did I love her? Maybe. I wasn’t sure. Was I? I had just burned a hole in the atmosphere while trying to get to her.
Regardless, it was not the time to dwell on that. It wouldn’t matter if he killed her. None of it would. So step one was to ensure that Dela stayed alive.
Beside me, Ari came in for a much statelier landing, barely stirring up the air before tucking her wings in tightly. She swiftly assumed her human form, leaving me as the only dragon.
“I’ll get you out of this,” I said to Dela. “I promise.”
“I believe you,” she whispered.
“You really shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep,” Albright said, pressing the blade tighter into Dela, making her cry out and try to squirm away from the pointed end.
“If you kill her, I kill you,” I growled. “I will burn you and this entire place to the ground. I will wipe out every mention of your bloodline from every history book. You’ll have never existed.”
I could only go as far back as his father, of course, but I would erase all mention of them. In time, everyone would forget they ever were.
Albright’s eyes blazed yellow-red with fury. He was so vain, so concerned with his reputation and how he would be known, that to be threatened with erasure was one of the worst things he could imagine. Not even death topped that.
“You will do none of that,” he said, shaking his head, forcing calm.
“You will relinquish that necklace and the Throne. I will take Tindy, and we will go to the God-King, and there he will proclaim us as mates, and we will rule Fire. Not you, Ember, or Ashe. No more weaklings on the throne. It is time for strength!”
I glared at him.
“If you don’t,” he said casually as if he didn’t care, “I will cut out her heart and burn it while you watch.”
“If you so much as draw a drop of her blood, I will burn your legs off and make you watch as I melt this place to the ground,” I snarled.
“Then I’ll take your arms for toothpicks.
Finally, I’ll fly you high up into the sky.
And drop you in the Endless Ocean, where I can watch you drown.
Then I’ll retrieve your body and burn it, too. ”
Albright twitched. The Endless Ocean was the sea that surrounded our mostly circular island.
Its stormy skies raged around us, preventing even the tidal dragons from straying more than a few miles from the coast. Its waters were rumored to be home to all manner of unfathomable creatures, though the tidal dragons never spoke of what they saw in the depths.
Threatening to drown him in it was a scary thought indeed, for dragons could hold their breaths a long time, and the pressure wouldn’t bother him. He would sink quite far before he died. Who knew what horrors would overtake him?
“Can you truly handle it,” Albright said, slowly getting a hold of himself, “knowing you’re the reason she’s dead? That her body will bleed out, right here, because you were too stubborn to do what was right?”
“Don’t do it!” Dela cried out. “You can’t, not for me!”
Albright tightened his grip, and she whimpered, the blade nearly piercing her skin. I fought down the rush of fire and flame that threatened to overcome me. If I weren’t careful, I would burn the entire landing pad down, taking Dela, Ari, and Albright with me.
“You must do what’s right!” Albright shouted.
“This isn’t right,” I countered. “I am the rightful heir. You are a traitor.”
“He’s doing what’s right for the princedom,” a new voice said.
I turned, staring in shock as someone came from the tower to stand next to Albright.
“Pyre?” I gasped. “What are you …”
And then I got it. Everything clicked into place, even as I noticed the other dragon I’d sent with him was nowhere to be seen.
“Always for the Throne,” I said sarcastically. “Aren’t you, cousin? Loyal to the Throne. Which you took great pains to remind me wasn’t me, despite my legal right as heir.”
“I do what’s best for the Throne,” Pyre said stubbornly. “And in this case, that’s Albright. He’s a better choice to lead than you. I’m sorry.”
“I was wrong,” I said bitterly, the sting of betrayal cutting deep. “Albright isn’t the coward here. You are. And I’m the idiot for trusting you and not seeing the truth in front of me. God-King, I was so dumb.”
Several other Albright loyalists came out, facing Ari and me down. I wasn’t sure why at first, but it became clear as the rest of my retinue arrived, setting down and taking up positions around me.
“Quite the showdown we have here,” Albright said, some of his cockiness returning as I struggled to process the fact that Pyre had been working against me the entire time. Funneling info to Albright while pretending to be one of my loyalists. One of my friends.
I felt like a buffoon. How on Earth had I been so blind and unable to see what he was saying?
Loyal to the Throne. I had thought that meant to me because I was the next in line, the rightful heir.
But no, he’d been doing what he thought was best for the princedom the entire time. Which meant Albright.
“It’s come down to this,” Albright continued.
“After today, we will have a new prince. If you wish to be on the right side of history, then all you have to do is walk across. Walk over to my side, and you will not be cast into the dustbin of history. You can all see it, can’t you?
That I am the true, rightful fit for prince?
Not this one, who would prefer to be mated to a human over a dragon? ”
“She is my mate,” I said stubbornly, not backing down.
“As crazy as it might seem, it’s true. I don’t know how or why, but things are changing.
If you side with him, you will be setting us back and showing that you aren’t worthy of trust. If you change sides now, why would he ever let you live after it’s over?
He knows you can’t be relied on. He’ll kill you, too.
Our entire princedom will fall apart under his tyranny.
And make no mistake, he will not rule. He will destroy.
Stand with me, brothers and sisters. Let us stop him now and rectify this mistake. ”
“Pretty speech,” Albright said sarcastically.
“But not pretty enough,” Ari said heavily, stepping away. “I’m sorry, Ember.”
“The surprises keep on coming,” Albright chuckled, acting as if he genuinely hadn’t expected that betrayal.
Unlike with Pyre, however, I’d been ready for it the entire time. I’d known Ari wasn’t loyal to me. It was simply a matter of when and where she would betray me.
I watched her as she went to stand on the other side of Dela from Albright, careful not to interfere with his sword.
She stood still, staring right back at me as if willing me to feel more pain.
I could almost hear her now in my head, If you had just chosen me, Emb, this wouldn’t have happened.
You did this to yourself. Or something like that.
“Fine,” I snarled. “So be it, enjoy being a traitor.”
“I told you how I felt,” Ari said dryly. “Many times, Ember. Were you not listening? Not even once?”
Albright chuckled. “You should always hear a woman out, Ember. You never know when not doing so might come back to bite you in the ass.”
I frowned. “I did listen. That’s why I’m not surprised. I saw this coming from far away.”
Ari practically pouted. “Then you weren’t actually listening, Ember.”
“I wasn’t?”
The female dragon turned to Dela. “You see what you’re in store for here?”
I watched as Dela looked at Ari, then me, then back to Ari. “What? I’m so lost.”
“Me, too,” I added, wondering what the fuck was going on.
Ari was right up near Dela now. “If either of you were, you would have known that I support the law, which states that Ember is the true heir to the throne, not this backstabbing traitorous piece of shit!”
Then she yanked the sword away from Dela’s ribcage, grabbed my mate, and ran for the edge of the tower.
“Hold on!” Ari bellowed to Dela, and then they plunged over the roof's edge.
For a second, nobody moved. Then pandemonium erupted.