Chapter 45 Nyte
Nyte
When my body began falling rapidly through air, I thought I’d made a foolish error in attempting to mount Eltanin using the void. He was darting too fast through the night sky. But he saw me, felt me, and twisted to catch me in a fearless dive.
I was barely able to get a tight grip on the saddle horn and brace my legs on Eltanin before he roared at the tip of Rastaban’s claws tearing his chest. It wasn’t too deep, as he’d almost glided completely out of range, but his pain lanced through me.
The brave younger dragon didn’t falter in his flight, and, now that I was with him, we were going to end this together.
The clouds were thick and rolling with the dark anger we expelled up here. We lost track of my father, but it gave us a moment to think and brace. I extended every sense I could through the sharp wind slicing past.
Eltanin sensed his father before I did mine, diving suddenly with a shrill cry, and I twisted a look up to find the horrifying sight of Rastaban, his jaw wide, revealing every razor tooth, diving after us.
Twisting in the saddle, I barely got into position to throw out a shield against his breath.
My teeth clenched tight, and a roar tore from me this time, straining with every dreg of strength I had against the mighty, shadowy power ramming into my shield made of similar essence. I was slipping …
The pressure eased, and when my magick cleared, I saw that a stroke of red was my saving grace. The sight of my brother on the back of Athebyne, who clawed and snapped at an equally vicious Rastaban, stilled my whole fucking world.
The two dragons fighting viciously in flight was a sight of pure carnage and terror.
Flipping back into riding position, I spoke to Eltanin. “We fight. Until the end we fight.” We shifted course, heading back toward the battling duo.
Eltanin heaved a breath of starry darkness, which slammed into Rastaban’s head. The giant black dragon emitted an ear-splitting roar, flailing in his attempt to maintain his strong flight.
Even against two dragons Rastaban was an undeniably powerful dragon. My father, much to my displeasure, remained on his back.
No matter. I wanted the last dregs of his life to be spilled by my hands.
Rastaban kept falling, and blood poured out of several wounds caused by teeth and claws. I watched until the dark clouds swallowed him.
I exchanged a wary look with Drystan. The silence vibrated.
My heart started to calm until, slipping past our notice, Rastaban surged up from beneath Drystan, and all I could do was watch with horror and complete helpless terror as his jaw clamped around the base of Athebyne’s throat.
The red dragon cried as it was dragged up while Drystan was thrown off her back.
It all happened so fast I didn’t have time to debate. I couldn’t help Athebyne, who used her back claws to shred deeply and brutally into Rastaban’s chest and neck, spilling his blood, but he didn’t let her go.
I dove after Drystan.
Clamping my legs and leaning over the saddle, I reached out an arm for my brother when we were close enough. He reached back, gripping onto me when I pulled him to me with everything I had, and he made it onto the saddle behind me.
“No,” was the first word he spoke in a breath of pained disbelief.
As I glanced up at the chaos in the sky, to my surprise and awe, Athebyne had managed to get free from Rastaban, and she was still fighting back.
“She’s too injured,” Drystan said, pure agony and anger in his voice.
He was right: she wasn’t going to last much longer, and it was a miracle she still held herself in the sky.
Eltanin was already gliding up, heading toward them, but we wouldn’t make it. Rastaban’s jaw opened and he lunged for the smaller red dragon again.
“NO!” Drystan yelled.
The scene of horror would haunt him forever. He would never recover from the loss of Athebyne, and my soul tore for him.
Just before Rastaban’s mouth could rip Athebyne apart, a lightning flash of blue slammed into his head.
“Is that…?”
“Edasich,” Drystan filled in.
It was unbelievable. The dragon appeared like a blue spirit of the night, and I couldn’t fathom why she would risk her life for this fight.
Eltanin cried, torn to witness his kin fighting so ferociously.
Edasich sank her claws into Rastaban’s eye, blinding him on one side, but the black dragon always had the advantage of size.
His huge wing slammed into Athebyne, and that was the end of her fight.
Not dead yet, but so severely wounded I didn’t know if she would be able to survive or even catch herself as she fell from the sky.
Drystan yelled, and I didn’t expect him to leap off Eltanin’s saddle and fall after her like a damned fool. I snarled, about to dive to catch him again, but, to my shock, he gripped the horn of Athebyne’s saddle, managing to haul himself onto it even in a vertical drop.
Athebyne tried to use her wings again, and my adrenaline pumped so hard witnessing their violent plummet.
A tumble of wings and pained cries. Until it was my belief that, because of Drystan, because of his devotion to be with her even if their fate was to die, she found enough will to fly.
It wasn’t any kind of smooth descent, but they were slowing.
Drystan could survive the rough landing; Athebyne would make sure he did.
Even if it meant sacrificing herself …
My rage amplified with my deep inhale at the thought, and I set my target back on my father.
“This ends now,” I said to Eltanin. He didn’t need the push of my dragon’s voice but he roared in fierce agreement. Eltanin didn’t just obey; he was as determined as I was to emerge triumphant. To cut his own father from the sky and keep his rightful place reigning over the dragons.
Pride to be facing this with such an unexpected companion in my life swelled in me. There were three things worth saving this world for. Three things I would always be glad to have the world brand me the villain to protect.
My mate. My brother. And my dragon.
What stood in the way of our freedom and happiness was not so easy to defeat, but I had bled this much, suffered thus far, and I was going to fucking win this time.
Eltanin charged with unfaltering bravery, and shadowy starlight diffused from his feathers. We were a stroke of black death cutting through the air.
Just as we reached Rastaban, his jaw crushed through the small blue dragon’s throat.
Edasich’s sapphire eyes stared right into me, as if they spoke to my soul, and I didn’t know why she delivered her last farewell to me.
Tragedy speared me, watching her innocent eyes glass over and slowly slip shut.
Moonlight electrified the blue of her scales as she fell alone …
an image of beautiful tragedy I would never forget.
Her death granted the distraction for Eltanin to sink his teeth into Rastaban’s neck, and the giant dragon thrashed to shake him off. At the same time, Eltanin’s claws slashed again and again over his already gravely wounded chest. Rastaban was incredibly durable.
I waited for my chance, holding on with everything I had as the dragons fought wildly. Eltanin sustained a few deep claws to his wings, legs, and neck, but my fearless dragon didn’t relent in his onslaught of attacks.
When Rastaban’s head turned to the angle I needed, I had no choice but to let go of Eltanin, knowing I would be thrown off his saddle. Conjuring a spear of dark power, with a battle cry I sent it right into Rastaban’s only good eye.
The dragon wailed and we were both falling. I could barely make out my father yelling, holding onto Rastaban with desperate hands, but the giant dragon couldn’t find his flight again.
My body cut through the air at a deadly speed. I couldn’t see Eltanin anymore as dark clouds swallowed me. The ground closed in fast.
For a moment, I let go of the fear. The panic. I erased everything from my mind, and my only wish was that I could see the stars.
It wasn’t Eltanin who saved me.
Hands gripped mine with a touch that felt descended from the heavens itself.
Astraea’s wings splayed, and she cried out, trying to stop this rapid descent. Fuck, there was no sound I hated more than her pain. The clutches of gravity were too powerful for her to defy now. Instead of letting her keep attempting to pull me up, I reached to pull her down.
The sight of Astraea’s desolate eyes made me ache, and I held her around the waist. She unglamoured her wings, and I didn’t scold her for it.
The stars were dying, and we were the brightest of them.
There would never be a limit to how much my love could grow for her. When every time my sights set upon her I had to remind myself she was no dream though every part of her embodied the peace of one. She was no fable though her power was unmatched for this world.
She was Astraea Lightborne, and she was mine.
Eltanin roared above us, but there wasn’t enough time for him to catch us.
Instead I felt magick growing around us, creating a sphere of starry darkness from the dragon’s influence, and Astraea’s light reinforcing a second shield despite her pain.
I wasn’t sure if it would be enough to spare us from the impact of hitting the ground, but I held her tighter and we braced ourselves.
It was like the world exploded and we plummeted deep enough to reach its molten core.
Yet … I wasn’t too badly harmed.
I caught my breaths of disbelief, staring up at the cloudy sky from within a deep crater as the shields of light and dark broke away like stardust.
“Astraea,” I said her name as she lay so still against me, head resting against my chest.
“Nyte,” she croaked in reply.
My body slumped in relief, still furious about her suffering, but at least she was alive. With the thought, my father filtered back to the forefront of my objectives and I pushed up to sit, not letting her go.
“I need to finish it,” I said, absolutely torn to leave her again.