“We cannot save them!” he snapped, voice coming out harsher than he meant. Nyssa’s eyes widened as she backed away. He nearly broke at the sight of her. His shoulders slumped, and a cold sweat chilled him as his words replayed back in his mind.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, enveloping her in a hug.
While their kingdom fell to ruin around them, he held the only person he cared about at that moment. “I’m sorry,” he repeated into her hair. “I know your instinct is to help them, but we can’t.” He pulled back and brushed her hair off her face. “We have to get to that beach. These dragons do not know us, and I’m not losing you too.”
Nyssa nodded, the reality settling in her tear-filled eyes, but she still didn’t speak. As though she had forgotten how to or couldn’t manage it after all that had happened that day. He wasn’t used to her silence and agreement, and it broke his heart more than it already was. Dorian knew the tears in her eyes were not just because of their people screaming around them. Not just because he was sure she was seeing flashes of their sister dying in front of them. But also because the creatures’ voices were filling her ears at every turn.
Someone shoved them.
Lex—A roof collapsed to their left. Nyssa screeched. Lex shouted, “Let’s go!” and they clung to one another once more.
It was all Dorian could do to not kill his own people as they continued to grab at them. It took all his willpower not to pull his sword and slice their throats instead of telling them where to go. But with every grasp on his arm, he pushed their betrayal to the back of his mind. He finally urged them to either the Highlands stronghold or beneath the Belwark Temple for safety. There were too many to stave off, as he had done the first woman.
He wished he’d thrown cloaks over their heads to hide.
The four dodged more falling structures as they bolted down the streets, sometimes jumping over debris. They couldn’t stop. The Wyverdrakis’ fire surged over the town, every scream and bellow as agonizing as the last. They were nearly at the beach wall when Nyssa suddenly dropped to her knees.
The Rhamocour’s cry had cut the air, and whatever it cried had caused Nyssa’s entire body to buckle. Nyssa wailed and held her hands to her ears. Dorian had never seen such terror and tears on her face, not even earlier in the day when they had watched Aydra burn.
This was different.
This was the voices and anger of every creature in the air pulsing through his sister’s body. He crouched down, knowing they couldn’t stop, irritated with himself that he hadn’t thought to carry her earlier.
“Get on my back,” he told her.
Nyssa forced her body to move, and Dorian lifted her from the ground. Her limbs wrapped around him, her head buried in his neck. Dorian held himself together as she shook against him.
They descended the last stretch away from the chaos.
The quiet beach swallowed them as they emerged onto the sand. Dorian’s hearing numbed with the contrast of how loud the crumbling kingdom had been. The light from the burning castle cascaded all the way to the surf. They stopped when their feet hit the water, and Dorian released Nyssa.
She fell to her knees, her hands back over her ears. Dorian crouched down at her side as Lex and Corbin took watch around them.
“Are you okay?” Dorian asked Nyssa.
Nyssa’s trembling hands slowly fell from her ears. She forced a silent nod and whispered, “Fine,” to him.
A great roar swept through the air then, causing the four to look back to the castle.
Dorian’s stomach sank. The Rhamocour had wrapped herself around the highest tower again. Purple fire filled the sky as the rocks crumbled beneath her claws.
“NO!”
Nyssa bolted forward. Dorian lunged to grab her. Her feet kicked into the air, but she continued to charge in the direction of the beast.
“Draven!” she screamed, nails digging into Dorian’s arms. “DRAVEN—NO!”
Draven was back in the window.
And Dorian couldn’t look away.
“Oh no,” he heard Lex mutter. “No—don’t—”
But she wasn’t fast enough to turn them around.
“No! DRAVEN!”
The world stopped...
