It Won’t End Here #2
“You’re here now, aren’t you? Did you even bother to put your military on alert or draw them in closer to the cities that would be attacked first?
” I countered, seeing his expression fall.
“I didn’t think so. You left your kingdom, and now it’s ripe for the picking.
You would only do that if you are stupid or confident you had backup such as a flight of dragons at your disposal, thus making the Lost King think we have an alliance, and we are celebrating it here and now. ”
“That, Your Majesty, is the biggest benefit you get from an alliance with Sheca, Queen Cassarah herself. A mind unlike any other you’ve ever witnessed before,” Gavin responded, lifting my hand to his lips.
Smiling at him, I noticed something caught his attention as he looked past me out the windows to my left.
Fear flooded his gaze, having me twist in my chair just in time to see a dragon outside the window—one that I’d never seen before.
It was once blue, but its coloring seemed to have faded to an almost white color.
Its eyes were completely black, void of any expression.
Acid seeped out of its mouth as it all but grinned at us before letting out a roar, hurling flames at the glass windows.
They held under the first hit, but I wasn’t sure it would for a second.
“Everybody out!” I bellowed. “Get out of here now!”
“Vasin, where are you?” I screamed in my head. “Xotha is here, but I’m not sure he’s alone, and there is something definitely wrong with him.”
“I’m coming, Cass. I don’t know how he slipped through. We’ve been looking for him, but we can’t feel him like we can other dragons. It’s like he’s a ghost.”
“Ghost or not, he’s real and pissed.”
The second attack came, and I grabbed Princess Amelia who was scared stiff and unable to move, and tossed her out of the way and toward the door.
Glass shattered everywhere, and the room filled with flames.
A hand reached out and grabbed me, dragging me under the stone table for protection behind the support that ran down the middle of the table.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you, Cassy-bear,” Dayson assured me. “Wait ’til he takes his next breath and run for the door, you understand? I’ll be right behind you.”
The flames died out, Dayson scooped me up, and we made a dash for the door.
Just as we were about to make it, a white dragon tail wrapped around us and yanked us back.
Dayson’s grip on me faltered as he slammed into the table, slipping from the dragon’s hold.
I fought with everything I had to get this damn dragon to let me go, furious I didn’t have any weapons until I remembered I was always armed.
Using my Birthright, I manifested an arrow and stabbed it into the flesh of the dragon, making Xotha scream at the pain.
Still, he didn’t let me go, and I was almost at the edge of the window, and past that was a drop that no one would survive.
This couldn’t be it. I refused to die this way.
I was the one who was going to rid the world of the Lost King with my men at my side no matter what.
I drew on my magic again, wrapped it around my body like a shield, and thrust out with it, hoping it would loosen the hold around my waist. It seemed I used too much power, and it went off like an explosion, freeing me from the dragon but also knocking me off my feet and out the window.
Flipping head over heels, I reached out to grab anything I could to stop my downward descent until I could be rescued.
I sobbed as my hand caught hold of a rock jutting out of the cliff, bringing me to an abrupt halt that hurt just as much as I imagined landing on the ground would. There I was, dangling from a cliffside in the darkness of the night alone.
The screech of a dragon sounded above me, and I dared to look up, seeing Xotha diving right at me, his jaw gaping at the promise of snapping it closed around my body.
Just when I thought all hope was lost, Vasin slammed into the dragon, smashing them into the ravine wall opposite me.
Their battle was brutal, claws and teeth latching on to anything they could manage, making me fear Vasin might not survive this encounter.
I thought a crazed dragon might be easier to deal with, but when it doesn’t give a fuck about pain or anything but the one task it was given, it was even more dangerous.
Xotha broke free and surged at me again, but Vasin latched onto his wing, pulling him to the left and slamming him into the rock wall again.
The damage was already done, though. I’d tried to get out of the way, causing my fingers to slip until the stone crumbled under the last finger, tossing me back into a free fall.
As I looked up, watching Vasin do everything he could to save me, Xotha got in his way each time, keeping my black dragon from saving me.
As if to protect me, my eyes fell shut of their own accord, and I was transported back to a time when I experienced something like this before.
It was my first dream of Miranda, the day she lost everything and died protecting her people, the moment I felt what it was like to truly love someone enough to give your life for them.
Now, like her, I had people I loved that much, and even if it looked like there was no way out of this, I had to try.
I had to get back to them. There’s no way we were finished with this battle.
My eyes snapped open. I wasn’t going to let this be the end of it all…
To be continued in The Final Battle