Chapter Forty-One
Tor
“Get back!” I barked at Mia, energy blazing from my fists to intercept the nearest Vorgan.
However, I needn’t have said anything since my mate was already backpedaling away. I neatly blocked a snapping shadow-head, but before I could rise, its partner darted in and raked a claw across my chest, spinning me around and across the parquet dance floor of the ballroom.
“Keep her safe,” I snarled as Ty and Surge appeared at Mia’s side. “No matter what, she lives!”
They nodded, taking Mia by the shoulders and disappearing into the mass of dragon shifters, many of whom had summoned their powers. Flames and steel mixed with lightning and miniature tornadoes of raging water, their currents barely restrained.
None attacked. They only formed a defensive line behind the other three princes and me.
The Vorgans would mow through them if they attacked.
The dragons would probably emerge victorious due to sheer numbers, but too many would die.
It was up to those of us with the noblest of blood to stop the enemies.
A Vorgan shrieked nearby as I got to my feet, and Vil advanced. His skin had become pure silver while he clutched a sword in both hands, the steel of its blade matching that of his skin. He made no sound as he fought back his opponent, his blade more than a match for its striking paws.
Ember, meanwhile, stood opposite another Vorgan, beckoning it on. Fire lined his hands and bare forearms, but as the shadow beast came at him, he snarled a challenge, fire bursting forth from his very core, turning him into a living torch.
Of Rip, I saw nothing.
A Vorgan shrieked a challenge at me as I reentered the fight, closely watching while circling its master. Rica, meanwhile, was grinning maniacally as her pets attacked my fellow nobles.
“Enough of this,” I barked at her. “End it now, Rica. Before you’re hurt.”
“It’s not me that you should fear being hurt, little brother!” she shouted.
Lightning surged down her arms and out both palms as she flung them up. I braced myself for the impact, but the twin bolts flashed past me. I didn’t dare take my eyes off her, but a shriek of pain behind me made it clear she’d targeted one of the other dragons, wounding them.
“That was a bad choice, sister,” I growled, stepping toward her.
The Vorgan moved like the wind, interposing itself between us. It shrieked a challenge at me, its shadow-teeth biting at empty air, a promise of what it intended to do to me when it got me.
“Enough of your games, Rica,” I said, walking forward, summoning power with each measured step. After the first one, my arms tingled with lightning as miniature bolts jumped from hair to hair.
By the second step, my vision turned brighter, my eyes filling with a silvery-blue glow. The third step saw lightning begin to swirl around me in an oval pattern as I bent the energy with the sheer force of my will.
“Last chance!” I howled over the growing tempest around me, harnessing all my powers. “Surrender!”
The Vorgan leaped at me, all six legs extending forward. It intended to rip me to shreds. It would have worked … if I wasn’t prepared for it. They’d given me too much time to channel power. Far too much.
I extended a single finger and made contact with the snout of the Vorgan as it came for my neck, intending to sink its teeth deep into my skin. In that instant, I discharged every joule of energy I had summoned, sending it all into the shadow monster.
The Vorgan lit up like an oversized Christmas tree, its entire body becoming visible and coherent in that one moment. Then it hurtled across the room and partially through the wall before slumping to the floor. There was no further movement.
“You killed him!” Rica shouted and hit me with a blast of lightning far stronger than I’d thought her capable of.
It was my turn to fly backward. Wings shot out from my back mid-flight, stabilizing me as I dropped to the ground, breathing hard, my hair all sticking straight out, while residual bits of energy skipped between my teeth and fingertips.
“Why won’t you die?!” Rica shrieked, coming at me in a continual onslaught of lightning bolts, each strong enough to seriously hurt one of the other dragons in the room.
Because of that, I couldn’t deflect them aside. Not without being sure where they would hit. Mia was in the crowd somewhere, and I had to protect her at all costs. I would rather die than know that my actions hurt her somehow.
So I accepted each blast, absorbing them into me, and shunting their power up, through the roof and into the sky above.
Debris rained down around me as the energy peeled the ceiling and roof back.
Plaster, pieces of wood and framing, shingles, and more clattered down around my feet, many of them hitting me and bouncing away.
The sky rumbled ominously as I messed with the weather system by dumping so much energy into it. Rica just kept coming. I’d expected her to be untrained, but it seemed she’d found a way to learn the strength of her powers.
I didn’t shrink under her onslaught, but the fury with which she attacked meant I wasn’t on the offensive at all.
The sounds of fighting continued around me as the other princes battled their Vorgans.
I dared not risk looking to see how the battles went.
I had to trust in my comrades to do the job I’d asked of them.
“Rica!” I bellowed over the near-constant crack and boom of lightning and thunder. “Cease this madness. You’ll kill us all!”
She either didn’t hear me or didn’t care.
The wind whipped around her wildly, catching her hair, tugging it out behind her.
Her eyes, normally as pale gray as mine, were filled with blue-white energy.
Her mouth was open, though no further screams came from it.
All she was doing was pouring every ounce of energy she had into her attacks on me.
“I don’t want to do this!” I shouted at her. “You’re my family!”
“Tor!” a voice shrieked.
The Vorgan I’d electrocuted came hobbling back into view. Its body was crusted and burned, with some parts still smoking. But it was still mobile enough that it had somehow gotten into the crowd and snatched Mia. She now hung in its jaws, her face white as snow.
Glancing behind me, I saw a path of bloodied and battered dragons. At their center, Ty was leaning over Surge, helping him reset his arm. Ty’s entire left side was covered in blood, and his right leg didn’t seem to be working properly either.
Turning back to Rica, who had paused in her assault to gloat, I shoved my anger to the side. It was not the time to act irrationally. If I did that, Mia would die.
“Here’s my offer to dear brother,” Rica crooned. “You give me the throne, and she’ll live long enough to be a crone. Ha!”
Lightning gathered in my left palm. The sound of battle still filled the room, as did the moans of the wounded behind me.
“Ah-ah-ah!” Rica admonished, waving a finger. “Do that, and she gets it.”
The Vorgan brought one of its foreclaws up, resting it on Mia’s belly. She whimpered in fear.
“Tick-tock, Torrent. Tick-tock. Make up your mind,” Rica said. “I don’t have all day. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seve—”
Vil came soaring through the air, sword in hand. Silver flashed.
And the Vorgan’s head fell from its body, depositing it and Mia to the floor rather roughly.
Rica screamed in fury, and power gathered anew in her hand. There was no way I could gather enough of my own power to stop her before she struck Mia down. So I didn’t bother.
With a howl, I thrust my hand skyward. Using what little power I had, I reached into the sky, merging my strength with the wild storm raging overhead and calling its power to me.
Then I slammed my hand into the ground. Lightning followed my command, a bolt as broad as my shoulders struck Rica in the head, flowing through her and into the ground, where it dissipated through the floor and walls. Many dragons were thrown from their feet, struck momentarily numb by the blast.
The blast washed over the decapitated Vorgan head, finding nowhere to go and continuing on, leaving Mia, who wasn’t touching the ground, uninjured.
In the silence that followed, Ember finished pouring fire down the throat of his Vorgan, its carcass falling to ash around him as he returned to human, the fire-being calming.
I looked around, while above me, the storm rumbled, dissipating now that I’d robbed it of its force. Everything was still. Nobody moved. I counted only three Vorgan corpses, but the smug look on Rip’s face told me that whatever he’d done to his foe, I didn’t have to worry about them.
In a flash, I was at Mia’s side, prying her free of the jaws.
“Are you okay?” I asked as she thrust herself into my arms. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay. It’s over, Mia. It’s over.”
She was trembling, and I continued to hold her tight.
“I’ve got you,” I rumbled. “And I’m never letting go.”
The ballroom was coming back to life as the uninjured helped those who’d taken injuries from the Vorgans, my sister, or my final attack. Some set to work clearing the bodies of the monsters, though nobody touched my sister’s corpse, leaving it where she’d fallen.
“Tor,” Mia whispered.
I leaned in closer. “I’m here. Are you hurt? I need to know if you were injured in any way.”
She shook her head. “No. Maybe some new bumps or bruises. Nothing serious.”
I sagged in relief. “Good. Good. I’m sorry. I … I didn’t realize how strong they were. I should never have let you come back in here.”
“It’s okay,” she replied, finally turning to look at me. There were tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Tor. I am. I really tried, but I couldn’t …”
“Couldn’t what?”
“I couldn’t save it,” she said, moving her arms to reveal the jagged tears in her dress. “I’m sorry, all that money, and now, it’s ruined!”
I stared at her. All that had gone on, the danger to her very life … and she was worried about the dress?
“God-King, I love you,” I said with a laugh.