“I would never leave you…”Vyper whined, jerking against Raithian, and sending a fire stream at him, only for the fire to curl away from his body.
“Choose, Braxton. You cannot save them both!” the Warlock shouted.
Fucking bastard. He was torturing Vyper just to get to me.
“Yes, I can!”
Abandoning the spear, I thrust golden power towards Vyper with my right hand, trying to protect him. It spread over him like it had done with Evie, but I wasn’t as strong as before to fully block the Warlock’s attack on him.
“I won’t let you take another father from me…” I growled, splitting myself in two.
Desperate, I tried to bring Kingston close enough to the ground to let go of him, and continued pouring my energy into Vyper, attempting to cut off the green whip pulling at his wing. My teeth gritted, insides shaking as the veins strained against my skin from the effort, unable to let either of them go.
A cold feeling slowly captured my being through the struggle, my wound worsening.
To my horror, Vyper’s efforts suddenly stopped, Raithian’s magic freezing his form but letting his terrified eyes look from his captor to me. Crimson blood dripped freely from the scaly skin ripping from his back, and Vyper screeched in pain, bringing burning tears to my eyes. I pushed harder to free him, sending everything I had left, but it wasn’t enough.
The energy was swiftly leaving me, and Vyper was seriously injured from all his attacks.
“Choose!” Raithian demanded.
The sound of Vyper’s wing bone snapping sliced through my heart; its cracking sound only surpassed by his roar of agony. A second later something massive crashed against the Warlock King, freeing Vyper.
Luna.
She rammed him off the ground with her head, sending him soaring towards the lava moat, until he landed near the edge. Luna rushed to her son, using her connection to begin healing his wounds and wing.
The chilling numbness began to spread over my chest and arms, but I focused on bringing Kingston lower. Thankfully, he was just a few feet from the ground now, so I let him go. Still, a grunt of pain left him as his form collapsed onto the packed earth. He was awakening.
My mouth open to call on him, ask if he was okay, tell him to get away, but something caught in my throat, making me cough. Its warm, metallic taste enveloped my tongue. Blood. Glancing down, I gripped the spear, trying to use my magic against it but only soft strands of power poured out of me. I was drained.
Being impaled hadn’t killed me yet, but it was well on its way. Desperation awoke inside me, and I pulled at it with whatever strength was left in me.
No one came to help. No one could, they were all fighting for their own lives.
I was not going to die like this. Raithian wasn’t dead yet, and I hadn’t saved Caelisium. My death would not be in vain. I refused to accept it.
Spitting a mouthful of blood, I gathered what magic was still there, and held the handle as close to my stomach as I could, sending it all into it. The handle melted under my touch, sending half of it to crash below me.
“Aaah!” The scream ripped from me when I began kicking the wall behind me, pushing myself off the spear instead. With each kick darkness closed around me, but I refused to fucking give up.
I crashed harshly onto the ground a moment later, writhing on the dirt from the agony. My trembling hand covered the gaping hole in my stomach, calling on my healing to take over. As I turned on my back, my gaze lifting to the sky to find two possessed Dragons falling to their deaths against the mountain, one of their bodies ripped open from Draco’s horns.
Venom jolted in the air when another Dragon sliced through his back with sharp claws. His form whirled swiftly, a lightning bolt bursting from him and frying his enemy until he crashed too.
Blood still seeped down my sides even though my healing had finally begun. My father’s ability had answered my call, but without Devenish magic to enhance it…
“Please, Sky Gods, help me…”
Flutteringmemories captured my mind suddenly, and I realized it was true that our life flashed before our eyes when we were dying… Except, the images and voices flashing in my head weren’t what I expected.
"The legends of old considered Dragons our gods,”Evie’s voice echoed.“The Celestials… They retired to the secret corners of Caelisium, to a place none of us has ever found…”
Four Dragons. Four Dragons. Four Dragons. Four Dragons.
The vision of the massive snow-covered mountain slammed against my consciousness. The same mountain where I found the Truth Teller.
“Do not forget to feel…”Her voice boomed in my mind like it had that day—right before I was captured by Fire, Water, Earth, and Ice.
