I gritted my teeth, extracting air from the space around him. Using all the force I dared without over-extending myself to push every molecule away from him.
The fae shuddered and fell to his knees, gasping and clawing at his throat. But that wasn’t all, he blinked, eyes clearing and the trance breaking. He opened his mouth in a silent scream, but it was too late for him. The air around him was mine, and I deprived him until he shook and flailed in the last throes of life he possessed. Around him, the undead changed. They were still a clambering sea of evil, but they scattered like cockroaches in the light. As if someone had turned off their direction. They were no longer fixated on the palace and instead roamed without aim.
I doused them with my fire, trying again to burn them, but it only scattered them further.
I turned, barking a command to Nyx with a head tilt that indicated I needed his dark fire here. He flew in, breathing his darkness over the scene and burned up all the undead that were no longer under the control of the trance.
Fuck me, it had worked!
I let out several roars and took off for another of the transmitter fae, stealing their air and their life from them before moving on to the next. Nyx and Zaria flew in my wake, incinerating the army of undead left to flounder on their own. It was working.
I flew over the palace, horror dousing my veins with ice when I saw undead crawling within the walls. I knew if they were inside, then she was potentially under attack. I spotted the fae on the top of the wall controlling those on the hunt in the palace, and I took great pleasure cutting off his air supply. I bellowed a roar to Nyx as the fae fell from the battlements, and he joined me over the palace to stem the flow of undead.
I had no idea what was going on inside, but we still had too many to defeat out here to go in and find out. Screams of fae reached my ears, and my gut pulled.
They were inside.
Close to her.
I roared my objection, beginning to descend into the fray, but then dark fire erupted from inside the palace.
Kol was with her.
It would buy time.
But would it be enough?
TWELVE
CALYTRIX
Fae screamed around the table, and chairs fell as they all scrambled to get away from the bellowing beast in our midst. I hauled Nova away from his thrashing tail, and we clung together as the mournful sound of Kol’s unresolved fury ripped through the hall. Alaric stared up at Kol as if he had never seen his friend this way.
“Move,” I screamed at the frozen prince as Kol unfurled his wings and shook as if he’d been restrained but was finally set free. This was the palace’s grand ballroom, but even given the cavernous size of it, the massive dragon filled almost all the space, leaving hardly any room for the fae inside. They shrieked and fled behind the girth of the dragon.
Finally, Alaric snapped out of his trance and ducked under Kol’s wing, joining us as we flattened against the wall. At the other end of the room, guards circled our father and drew weapons against Kol. Before I could think, Nova pulled from my arms and ran between Kol and the guards who tentatively neared, swords aloft.
“He’s protecting us, you fools!” she shouted. “Stand down immediately.”
The fae huddled together behind the guard looked as petrified as anyone who’d never seen one of the King's dragons before would. None of us had, at least not this close, I’d wager, but the fact remained this was one of the King's most elite, and he would protect us, if father’s idiot guards would put their swords away.
I stepped up beside my sister, and to my surprise, the prince flanked her other side. There was very little a small group of sword-wielding fae could even do to a dragon in reality, but the three of us would stand against them if they tried.
“Stand down,” Father commanded from behind them, and their swords were lowered.
I breathed out my relief until Kol shifted sideways, and everyone in the hall tensed once again. He turned towards the door and stared for a long moment, head tilted, while the rest of us held our breath. His guttural growl caused several females to cry and huddle in the arms of their males. I ignored them all and watched as Kol heard things we could not. I didn’t want to imagine, and it pained me to know that this magnificent beast had been tortured and was perhaps about to face his captors again.
Guards beyond the door yelled and clattered around. Not knowing what was going on was the worst thing. I could only imagine the chaos, and I was too afraid to envisage what these so-called undead creatures looked like.
A shriek, the likes of which I never knew could come from a fae, sounded from far away. Then the screams seemed to multiply, and I realized with horror that this must be the call of the undead. It was not natural…and it was too close. They were here.
Kol shuffled and backed up, growling, but even in his dragon form, I could hear the fear in his warning. He was all we had,and he could not go back to that faraway place in his mind if the enemy was upon us.
“He’s panicking,” I said to my sister and the prince. “We have to help him.”
Nova stared at Kol, lost in her own terror, so I turned to Alaric, only to find him already bravely approaching the agitated dragon form of his friend. I knew from a life lived among horses that to approach a disgruntled beast was to take your life into your own hands, and I had to concede in that moment that his actions suggested this prince at least was not the pampered blue-blood I’d pegged him for.
He moved around Kol’s flank and stepped up to his lowered face. Strands of his hair wafted from the dragon’s labored breathing, but he was undeterred. He reached out a hand and settled it on Kol’s muzzle, looking at him with unwavering strength.
