It didn't take much. Raven had told me to stay beside him, and I had, even as he fought Nahel. So, it was only a matter of spinning between them, my wings flaring wide and my heart pounding in determination instead of fear. There was no doubt, no hesitation. I wasn't a warrior, but I would be for Raven. To save my mate's life, I would be anything. I would do anything. Knowledge didn't matter. It was all about intent. And I intended to protect my man.
With a cry of rage that had been building through all the years of my captivity and abuse, I dove into Nahel’s side. There was no technique to it, just blind fury. It sufficed. Nahel's aim went wide, and the tip of his sword grazed the Dragon King's arm instead of piercing his heart.
We landed in a heap, me on top, our wings woven together. Nahel snarled and shoved me, sending me tumbling away. Pain flared through my shoulder, but I pushed it aside and scrambled up to put myself again between Nahel and Raventar. That's when I saw the dagger in Nahel's chest. I must have stabbed him as we fell. But I hit him too high, near his shoulder. And now, I was weaponless.
“Stay away from him!” I shouted, my breath shaking, but my wings flaring open like a warrior's.
Nahel’s eyes lit with cruel delight as he pulled the dagger from his chest and tossed it aside. “You would stand againstme?” He looked pointedly at the wound and laughed. “Little bird, you should be on your knees.”
“I kneel only for the Dragon King, my mate!”
Nahel struck.
Instinctively, my wings shot forward. The bone-thread blade skittered across my feathers and slipped past to graze my arm. Magic crawled like icy insects along my skin, and I screamed as the paralysis tried to take me. I wouldn't fall! I was stronger than this magic! I had to be, to protect my mate. I planted my feet into a wide stance and refused to fall. Still, I couldn't move when Nahel slid his arm around my waist.
“I told you, you'd be mine.” Nahel nuzzled my neck even as the battle continued to rage around us.
Dragon knights went berserk as they tried to reach their king, their shouts echoing off the stone. But there were too many Okon. As soon as one went down, another took his place. They kept streaming in, an unending tide that would surely drown us.
Behind me came a roar.
Raven's will, fury, and love surged into such magnitude that it echoed down our link. I felt his paralysis shatter. As my love had overcome the silk ribbon, his overcame the bone-thread blade. The Dragon King surged forward and drove his lava-glass sword straight through Nahel’s shoulder, right above where I had struck him.
Fire exploded from the wound.
Nahel screamed, staggering back, his blade dropping from nerveless fingers. “No!” he gasped, clutching his burning flesh. “He's mine! You cannot take him from me!”
The Dragon King stepped in front of me, blood streaking his arm and eyes blazing turquoise. “Love doesn't take, it only gives—something you will never understand.”
I wanted to stand beside Raven and confront Nahel together, but the cold had me. I had managed to stay on my feet, but I couldn't move. All I could do was watch, my eyes darting around the hall.
As Raven faced Nahel, his knights closed in. Sir Foxren leapt to tackle an Okon from above, driving both of them through a table in a storm of splinters. Sir Neriver brought his blade down in a blazing arc that split another Okon from shoulder to hip. Sir Lohawk barreled through two enemies, sending them crashing into the stone wall where they slid down, feathers smoking. One by one, the Okon fell, their cold fading as Dragon fire consumed them. Still, there were more to replace them—an army of warriors against ten Dragons. But the Dragons didn't falter. They closed in around the King and me, facing out to protect us while Raven protected me.
Nahel, wounded and desperate, staggered back, eyes wild as he saw Sir Vanoak blocking his path. His shoulder smoldered, the flames out, but the flesh blackened. Shuffling away from Vanoak, Nahel's foot hit my discarded lava-glass dagger. Grinning, he picked it up.
Raven nodded as if he approved. “Thank you. Now I don't have to kill an unarmed man. And just so we're clear, you will die today, not because of what you did here. You die because you tried to buy the man I love as if he were property, then you abducted him and forced him to touch you. You were going to rape my mate and call it love. For that, I have no mercy.”
Seeing Nahel holding my dagger sent a surge of anger through me. I gasped as I broke out of the paralysis and staggered forward.
Raven glanced at me. “Eliel?”
I opened my mouth to say I was fine when I saw Nahel use the opportunity to rush the King. Instead, I shouted, “Look out!”
But Raven reacted as soon as he saw my eyes widen, spinning even as I shouted. His sword arced out, the reach further than Nahel's dagger. It sliced through Nahel's neck. The Dragon King's momentum carried him through, leaving him facing left as he stood between Nahel and me. Nahel's head slowly fell, his eyes wide, and hit the floor.
Raven didn't even glance at Nahel. He lowered his sword, spun to me, and pulled me in against him with one arm. “Are you hurt?”
“No.” I glanced at Nahel's crumpled corpse. “My cut is already healing. You?”
“I'm perfect, Mate. Although annoyed.”
“Annoyed?”
“I promised you that I would tear him apart slowly.”
“Circumstances demanded a change in plans. It's all right. I'm satisfied.”
Raven grinned and cupped my cheek. “You saved me.”
