Dragons slash and snap at him from all sides, and it’s all he can do to defend himself.
I yank out my dagger as I rush the final distance out onto his tail.
“Selena!”Draven screams, his voice breaking with fear and panic.
“I’m sorry,”I reply.
Then I close the union bond and leap off his body.
Winds rush in my ears as I free-fall through the sky.
Above me, Draven bellows in panic. But the mass of dragons yanks and tears at him from all sides, and he can’t get free of them.
Silver wings and a glittering silver dress flutter below me as I plummet downwards.
Raising my dagger, I grip it tightly and brace for impact.
Jessina only has time to jerk her head up and stare at me in shock and fear.
Then I slash my dagger right through her gleaming silver wings.
She screams in agony as I rip through the thin membrane of her wings before my body slams right into hers. Throwing my arms out, I wrap them around her torso, clinging to her thrashing body as both of us plummet towards the ground far below.
Blood runs down from the massive tears in her wings, and she flaps them furiously. But with the holes, they no longer bear her weight. I summon my magic and slam it right into that huge flame of pain in her chest before she can concentrate enough to shift into a dragon or summon her own magic.
A cry of pure agony tears from her lungs as I flare the violet flame into a wildfire.
She shoves at me with furious rage and panic while we tumble around and around as we fall through the sky. But I cling hard to her body, keeping a firm hold on her while I try to maneuver my dagger into place.
“Get off me!” Jessina snarls at me, pain and fury crackling in her voice. “I will fucking kill you for what you did to my mate!” Insanity flashes like lightning in her pale gray eyes as we tumble through the sky. “Where is he? What did you do with his body?”
“I buried his body face down in a grave of worms!” I scream back at her and flare the pain in her chest.
Fear pulses across her face at my words even as she screams from my magic.
Releasing the grip on her pain, I slam it into that bone white flame of fear instead and flare that wide. She thrashes hard,trying to break my grip. Winds rip at my hair and clothes as we flip over and over in the air.
“Liar!” Jessina screams back at me. “You can’t touch him! You are slaves! You are all slaves! You can’t kill me. You can’t kill him?—”
“We already did!” Yanking my knife up, I ram it towards her throat.
She throws her arm up, smacking her forearm into mine and stopping the blade before it can reach her. I growl and push it towards her, but we keep rolling over and over through the air, which removes my leverage time and again.
“We killed Bane and now I am going to kill you!” I bellow, trying to force the blade down into her chest.
Her wings flutter uselessly on either side of her, blood staining the air around us as we fall. The terrible pain from her shredded wings makes her eyes slide in and out of focus and prevents her from concentrating enough to summon her own magic. So instead, she yanks her other arm up and drives her fist into the side of my ribs. Air explodes from my lungs, and I almost lose the grip on my dagger.
“I am over six thousand years old!” she snarls back at me, slamming her fist into my side over and over again. “I am immortal. I am an empress. I rule this entire world. You cannot kill me!”
I yank up my dagger and slam it down again. Her forearm sinks lower, but not low enough for the blade to hit home. She beats the side of my ribs furiously. I release the grip on her fear and instead slam it into the violet flame of pain. A cry tears from her throat, and she stops hammering my ribs as pain flares through her every nerve. I drive the knife farther towards her chest
“You might be an immortal empress,” I growl into her face. “But you made a mistake. You killedmyparents. And now, I am going to destroy everything you have ever touched.”
Winds rip through my hair as I throw my entire body weight to the side, straightening us out and stopping our constant rolling so that I am instead straddling her hips. And now that the world has stopped spinning, I can see how close the ground is.
Above us, Draven roars.
A shadow of death shoots down through the sky heading straight for me.
