Chapter 29 #3
The growls and snapping jaws halt. The noise quiets. Smoke clears. Three hellhounds look up at me with big blood red eyes. Nyra’s tawny wolf looks to Vanitee in the shadows. Vanitee tilts her head up high until we’re holding each other’s gazes. She nods only once to me.
And then I know.
“She’s killed the queen!” Someone screams out.
Roars of all kinds erupt. A fury of batting wings take flight around me as knifelike pain hits me from all angles.
“Get her! Get her!” The words of the fae are a vengeful chant among the screams of violence.
Their daggers of magic slice against my scales, burning, stinging, paining me in a thousand tiny pinpricks of agony. My tail lashes in a flame of fire that burns the smell of flesh and wings into the midnight air. Those screams slice the air with fear, anger rising with each crashing second.
I break through the layer of creatures clinging to my feet and hovering above my head.
My talons claw out at anything within reach as my wings push down furiously, and I fly up in a panic to escape the pressing feel of those thousands of nails sinking into my scales.
Their bodies tumble off of me, but their magic continues to sear into my flesh until it burns right through.
A roar so loud it shakes my lungs as it leaves my body is all I can think about as my flight falters, and the throbbing sensation of cool wind flitting through my right wing is all I feel.
Another big gush of wind forces through that wounded space, and I nearly tumble right to the dirt.
Sharp teeth snap at the onslaught of violence as several wolves and beasts try to keep the fae at bay.
There are too many. I have to get away. I need to save myself from them before they rip me apart little by little.
With a huff of hot coals in my throat, I throw fire out at them blindly.
The smell of smoke is thick in the air. With all my might, I push myself to soar higher.
A stumbling pace lifts me little by little as I blaze out more and more fire, and soon a meager amount of space separates me from the others.
I search the ground for those intense hellish eyes of the High Hell.
Where are they? Where are they? Where are they?
It isn’t a mane of inky fur or crimson eyes that draws me to them. It’s the way he says my name. It’s a vow of a sentiment. It’s the sweetest voice I’ll ever hear as long as I live.
And it’s spoken with the breathlessness of death clinging to his tone. I hear it … I hear it within myself even.
“Cers. Cersia,” Avian whispers so faintly but so peacefully, I’d recognize his gentle voice even among a war zone.
Which we’re currently in.
Flames of fire and broken bodies litter the ground. And there among all the death and dying lies a naked shifter. I can’t see his beautiful features, but I know it’s him. I especially know it’s him by the other two men surrounding their friend.
Avian.
The creatures I nearly stomp over as I land and come barreling toward them are nothing more than an afterthought as I lean in so close my snout brushes his chest. His breath fans my face in shuddering exhales of pain.
His hand lifts but falls to his side before he ever touches me.
And his heart . . . his fucking heart beats so slowly, it hurts my own soul to hear the pause of silence between every thud.
“Creatchin struck him. Her magic it’s deadly. He’s hurt. He’s hurt.” Roman’s lifting his friend, one arm thrown over his broad shoulders as he staggers toward me.
Zilo lifts him carefully on his other side, and the two of them fling Avian over my neck with a grunt that leaves the poor man in a breathless cough. Then they, too, are climbing up my wing and onto the large space upon my back.
“We have to go. Calm your mind, beautiful,” Roman says in a rush. “Fly us out of here, and calm your mind. Avian can get us out of here with your help. Avain, stay with us,” Roman whispers and my heart thunders in my ears.
Beasts: wolves with two heads, demons with long horns, and fae with frightening teeth are all hurtling toward us with flames, magic, and swords all pointed our way.
“Get her!” someone yells out from somewhere in the distance.
It’s no longer my future on the line.
It’s Avian’s life.
I wanted so desperately to destroy their queen when I was so certain I’d be saving realms and worlds of people. Now, I can’t help but think about what this world would feel like without Avian in it.
His shy smile and warm voice shiver through my mind.
My wings shove hard, and with every move they make, agony strikes through the wound in my right shoulder that’s stabbing through my spine. I fight through it and carry us higher. Higher and higher until I can smell the peace of the clouds and feel the light of the stars upon my face.
It feels like hope.
It feels like he’ll be okay.
He’ll live.
He has to.
My thoughts slip away, and I calm my mind just like Roman said. I let it all drift into silence until his rumbling tone kisses the back of my mind.
You did it. We’re almost there now. His tone shivers all through me and I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to their words within my mind.
Where are we going? I ask the voice skimming along my thoughts.
To see a powerful mage about some deadly dragons, he says rather mysteriously.
My eyes narrow, but he never says more. I’m just about to ask him more when warm sparking magic fills the night air.
Then . . . the world spirals away from me. The darkness of the sky bleeds into the shining stars. It all goes black with a crackle of fiery magic that feels oh so similar to Avian’s.
And I just know.
I just know he’s taken us away from the kingdom of Hell.
For now.
Epilogue
Four weeks later…
“Mails here!” Roman sweeps my hair away from my neck and presses a lingering kiss slowly along my skin.
My lashes flutter closed as he drops a scroll in front of me only to slide his big palms across my stomach. He holds me from behind and the biggest smile consumes my features. It’s a happiness that isn’t surface level. It goes deep and spreads until it’s warming every single inch of me.
“Don’t stay up late tonight with the neighbors,” he pleas with quiet whispers along my neck. “You have a den of hell hounds who want desperately to break in our new home by fucking you every night, beautiful. What could be more important than that?”
Our new home. It isn’t a den. Not really.
It’s more of a warm bungalow that’s just big enough for our bedroom, washroom, and the cutest kitchenette that faces the sunrise every morning.
We sit on a small hill that basks in the sunlight of the Kingdom of Minden.
My old pack is miles away but there isn’t much of anything left there for me these days.
Not when my baby sister is so busy ruling the Queendom of Hell.
I arch a brow at Roman as I stare up at his ridiculously handsome face.
“Gee, I don’t know,” I say with sarcasm dripping from every word. “Maybe making sure the other dragons know we like it here. That we enjoy being a part of their community and want to be included for the rest of forever?”
“We know you like it here, Cersia,” my neighbor, Arlow, sing songs as she walks by our open window.
“Let your mates love you. The one only just got off of his crutches only a few days ago and has been looking like he wants to literally jump you every time you so much as smile his way. Literally just throw the dog a bone, girl!”
Zilo strides in on booming steps that rattle the old wooden kitchen table that I sit at.
Warm fingers drag across my upper arm as he slides into the chair next to mine.
Avian drifts in behind him with a flush of pink kissing his high cheek bones.
The bruising along his face is all gone now.
He healed nicely but that doesn’t mean I want to hurt him the very second his doctor gave us the okay for me to bounce on his dic—”
“Are you blushing?” Roman barks out with a wolfish smile engulfing his entire face.
I think they may have overheard the neighbor’s talk of Avian jumping me.
I hope he does, if I’m being honest.
I drag my attention away from the three men as they take turns grabbing warm blueberry muffins out of the bread basket on at the center of our table.
From just out the open window, Arlow’s green big eyes smile down at me and pure unstoppable happiness floods me entirely.
I didn’t think I’d ever find a place like this.
Roman and Avian knew exactly where to take us though.
The rumors were true: there was a small clan of dragons in a faraway village from my own.
Not many, sure. But three massive dragon shifters, a hellhound, and a mage named Arlow have welcomed us into their little community.
She’s expecting now. Her belly is swollen with what may very well be a dragon inside her tiny body.
Or maybe not.
Maybe the rare breed of deadly creatures is meant to die out with us being the last of our kind.
I never wanted a litter of my own, but a ping of sadness hits me dead center in my chest with the thought of my father’s lineage ending.
I shake the sentiment away as I remove the black twine from around the mail and begin reading the scroll from the top. It says …
Dearest Sister,
I hope life has found you well after everything it’s put you through.
I must admit I’m finding my days difficult in the Realm of Hell without you.
Things change so quickly. We’re not kids any more.
You’re no longer waiting for my bullies after class every day, and I’m not the little sister of the most beautiful (and terrifying) woman in all the Realms.
I’m a Queen. I have subjects, and laws, and an entire Queendom who watch and wait for my every word.
And yet, the only person I want to share any new news with … is you.
Vanitee is by my side always, of course.
Her people love her. She reminds them of their King from long ao.
She’s my everything. She knows how important family is to me.
Her name, and her father’s name are just as important to her.
Her legacy—our legacy— is something people will tell tales of centuries to come.
Strange but magical things are happening, Cersia. I wish you could see it all here with me.
So, consider this my formal invitation to you, dear sister. If you’re ever in the mood for a new adventure, I’d like to welcome you back to Hell. Come any time you like, though I do hope it shall be sooner rather than later. Because I have one more special announcement sealed within this scroll.
You’re an aunt once again. A blessed surprise to us all, she was born in the late hours of the full moon last night. She’s beautiful just like her brother was. Strong. Fierce.
But this time it isn’t a wolf I delivered into this chaotic world…
She’s a dragon.
My Eternal Love, Always,
Nyra