Yes, Rune had that feeling as well. “It’s time I deal with this prince.”
“I need to go back,” Alora said, rushing to gather her satchel. She spotted the spindle in the grass and picked it up, her expression saddening before she tucked it away. “Let’s go.”
They had come here to discover more about the curse.
But the mirror didn’t show them how break it?—
Rune stilled as he gazed at her now standing within the red glow of the spider lilies in the twilight. And something in the air pulled at him, hauntingly familiar.
A memory of her, standing beneath a crimson moon.
Alora had smelled of these flowers the day she died. And for a moment, he could see it—her terrified eyes when she looked at him. Her running away through the forest as he chased her. Then finding her lying still in the dark forest where her heart stopped.
Her lips pale. Eyes closed. Dead…
—or cursed.
His pulse kicked, breath stalling.
“What is it?” Alora asked.
Before Rune could answer, the air shifted. A sharp ripple of magic. Then a blast of white light split open behind her and hit him square in the back, knocking him across the clearing. He rolled mid-air, landing on his feet.
A Calveron cavalry appeared on the hill. With them came wagons lined with polished bronze plates. He had seen those before, on the battlements of Stormwatch Keep.
Alora’s beacons.
She gasped, her panic rattling his chest. “Rune, flee!”
“No,” he growled.
A commander made a call. Their hands lit with bright, burning magic. Summer Court light. Rune shielded his eyes against the searing heat, shadows rising automatically to cover them both. His skin blistered and smoked.
Gritting his teeth, Rune summoned Saeroth and the shadow horse emerged beside Alora. “Go, now.”
“But I can fight.”
“I will not risk you,” Rune snarled, keeping his eyes on the soldiers. “Ride to the forest. Make another portal.” At her silence, he glanced over his shoulder at her wide eyes. She was frightened … forhim. His anger softened. “I will find you.”
Alora nodded shakily and quickly mounted the saddle. “Help him,” she commanded Nexus then snapped the reins and galloped for the trees.
Screeches echoed in the night as Hydras slithered down the hill for them. Their bodies were knotted with scales and too many heads. Nexus surged forward in a blur of black fur and smoke, slamming into the first serpent and ripping its throat out with a snarl. A noble gesture, but Rune had no need for aid.
Shadow coiled across his limbs as his body reshaped and grew. Scales burst along his arms and spine. Wings unfurled, blotting out what little sun the cursed Calveron magic granted.
The soldiers and beasts recoiled as the dragon rose to full height, domineering heat rippling the air. Nexus drew back, giving him room.
Rune roared. The trees shuddered from its might. The soldiers drew on their magic, making the beacons flare bright. The light seared and burned, but he hardly felt it.
No pain compared to his ire.
Rune exhaled and flame poured from his jaws.
Men and beast filled the field with screams, fire consuming all. Their bodies blackened. Screams cut short, turning silent as bodies crumbled to ash. Even the beacons melted on the hillin heaps of molten bronze. When the fire dimmed, blackened husks remained, steam curling over scorched earth.
He waited for the next cavalry, for the next attack of magic or strategy but he sensed no other.
Was this the extent of Eldrik’s forces?
