He bellowed the fire command once more.
And purple and black fire poured onto Arbina’s limbs.
Draven stood in the Throne Room and watched the purple and gold Noctuan flames engulf her. He watched Arbina flee and cripple herself into the poisoned waters she so prided her tree with.
He stood at the edge of the room and stared down the side of the sloping cliff, allowing the flames of the Wyverdraki as they poured their fire onto the shops and homes below.
Magnice was burning.
But the noise of feet bolting up the steps startled him. He did not think anyone would venture out into the open of the castle.
So when he turned and found Rhaif standing at the top step, an adrenaline pulsed through his body and made his heart constrict.
His fist clenched at his side. His chest began to heave.
Rhaif’s hands turned black, and he lifted his shirt off his head as the lightning streaks of ash climbed up his body. Blue flames erupted on his muscles. Rhaif cracked his neck and crouched low.
“You will scream just as she did…Hunter,” Rhaif snarled.
A gust of wind wrapped itself around Arbina’s tree and blew the flames out.
And then the phoenix landed behind Draven.
He felt its beak nudge his neck, and a chortle emitted from its throat. Draven reached up and gave its great nose a soft pet.
Rhaif’s flames flickered as his eye darted between the two. “Fight me like a man, youcoward!Not with your creatures.”
Draven almost laughed as he handed the horn to the phoenix. “Is that what you want?” he asked, slowly stepping towards Rhaif. “To finally have the chance to fight me as you have so wished to do for twenty years now? To finally prove yourself just as good as your sister?”
“Leave my sister out of this.”
“If you wanted your sister left out of it, you shouldn’t have burned she and my child.”
“Your child…” Rhaif’s nostrils flared, and he shook his head. “A creature that would have ruined our would.”
“Since when have you ever cared about this world?” Draven growled. “You sit on your throne, ignoring the reality of the war on our shores, the troubles of your own people. You know nothing of what your brother and sister have done to secure the safety of your kingdom from—”
“Your kind?” Rhaif spat.
Draven’s fist curled in on itself. “The Infi are not—”
“You are no better than them. You brought your curse onto my family, onto my sister. You are the reason she is dead!”
Draven lunged.
Wind whipped around him and blew Rhaif’s flames to a minimum as Draven launched into him. He grabbed his legs in his arms, picking him up off the ground and then slamming him into the floor. Rhaif jerked upwards at the break of his back, crying out with a wail rivaling that of the dragons’ around the castle. Draven launched himself on top of him, beating Rhaif’s face with his bare fists.
He could feel the heat of Rhaif’s flames trying to grow again, but the wind ensnared them both, and Rhaif struggled beneath Draven. Rhaif’s knee kicked up into Draven’s injured back. Draven yelped, his attention averting just enough that Rhaif could get a punch in.
Draven felt the agony sear through his bones. He grasped Rhaif’s throat in his hands and picked him up, just to throw his head back into the stone. Once. Twice. Blood trickled on Draven’s fingers. His entire body shook as he screamed in Rhaif’s face.
And then he pressed his thumb into Rhaif’s remaining eye.
The noise of Rhaif’s shrieks bounced into the night sky. Blood pooled beneath Draven’s finger. He moved his hands to Rhaif’s throat and pressed into his trachea.
“Beg, Sun boy,” Draven growled. “Beg as you wanted her to.”
Rhaif cried out in agony, his flames attempting and failing to come to the surface as the wind whirled around their bodies. Draven could feel Rhaif’s pulse beneath his strained fingers, feel as his life drained towards the Edge and his flames begged for air.
