Vaesarra’s stare scorched her like a living flame. “Careful, mortal. Or I’ll make you bleed before I kill you.”
Yeah? Well, I’m not done with you, you pompous lizard.
“What did you mean when you said you sold your soul to Malcarion?” Ash asked.
The she-dragon’s lips thinned. “Do not speak of what you know nothing about, human.”
“You sold Race out, didn’t you?” she baited. “He told you it was over after your pathetic power ultimatum, and you, what?Went running to the nearest dragon lord with the hots for you, with your woes—so, you gave Malcarion the palace?”
Vaesarra’s face turned parchment white, then twisted red with rage. “How dare you?”
Oh, dear God!
The truth hit Ash like a punch in the stomach. Bile rushed up her throat. She’d been grasping at straws, expecting Vaesarra to say Malcarion blackmailed her or something. Not this.
“Oh, I dare.” Fury scorched Ash’s blood at what her mate had suffered because of this bitch. The clouds above churned in response. “You power-hungry slag! You were furious that he discarded you like yesterday’s trash. So, you ran to the bastard who promised you a throne, didn’t you?” Lightning spat from her fingertips, striking the woman’s flag dress. “Tell me, V, was it worth it?”
Vaesarra shrieked and backhanded her, the blow snapping Ash’s head sideways, pain ricocheting through her jaw and skull.
White-hot anger raged. Ash summoned her dagger and hurled it. Obsidian steel flashed, burying deep in Vaesarra’s chest.
The she-dragon froze, blinked in disbelief, then wrenched it free and flung it aside, shrieking. Scales erupted along her jaw. Claws burst from her hands. She swung.
Ash ducked, pain tearing through her throbbing side. Power surged to her fingertips; she thrust both hands upward, drawing on the storm. Lightning flashed over the tower in a fiery blaze, striking Vaesarra in a sizzle of electricity. The thunderous explosion of crashing clouds drowned out her scream.
“Mortal filth!” The bitch struck hard, her deadly talons slicing Ash across her already injured ribs, sending her crashing against a broken pillar. Agony flared white-hot.
Ash gritted her teeth, breathing through her pain as she straightened.Blasted hag!She lifted her hands, letting herpowers surge into the churning clouds. Lightning forked again, searing the air between them.
Vaesarra’s wings burst free.
“Pathetic,” she hissed. “Eracier is of the old gods’ line, a sovereign. And you—you’re nothing but human vermin. Storm Summoner or not!”
The blow hit like a shockwave—a massive wing slamming into Ash. The air blasted from her lungs as she skidded across the damp, charred stone and slammed into the broken rampart.
“Shit!” She clawed at the crumbling edge, fingers digging into loose rubble?—
Terror consumed her. She lashed out with lightning, the bolt snapping upward and coiling around one of Vaesarra’s wings—pure instinct, a drowning person’s desperate grab at anything?—
The stone gave way.
Ash fell with a sickening speed down, toward the jagged bottom.
A scream split the storm as Vaesarra was wrenched over the edge seconds later, her wing aflame, lassoed by lightning.
Race, help me!Ash shrieked through their mind-link.
Just silence. And the winds howling in her ears.
“Oh, God, oh, God—Race, please!”she cried out, her voice breaking.
I’m coming, heart-fire… Hold on!His faint voice finally reached her.Where are you?—?
She crashed into granite, her head cracking against the rock. Agony ripped through her left arm, and she cried out, scrambling for a handhold with her right, fingers clawing at the surface and catching the narrow shelf. She clung to it with the last of her strength as her vision dimmed at the edges.
And it hit her hard.If I let go, I’m dead?—
No. Race must know the truth.V…betrayed…Mal?—
