Nismera was an accomplished warrior and otherworldly fast. We had sparred many times throughout our lives, and I knew that it would be a challenge to defeat her even if I were at full strength. Every hit or kick met air. Nismera dodged as effortlessly as she moved, and every attempt I made only seemed to stoke some ancient hunger in her. She was too fast, too strong, and too skilled. I couldn’t fucking touch her. I didn’t know anyone living who could, and that scared me.
“You’re going to kill us both in front of your precious Legion.” I spat blood onto the floor after she landed yet another blow on me.
“Obviously.” Nismera laughed. “I’ll paint you both as traitors to the crown. Trust me, I’m very convincing.”
Nismera’s knee collided with my stomach, hitting the stab wound from earlier. My body felt weak, and I realized I was not healing as I should. Beneath my armor, blood ran from my midsection and down my leg.
She inhaled deeply, her nostrils flaring. “You returned from the dead, but you’re not fully whole, are you?” She tsked. “You disappoint me, Kaden.”
I threw a punch, my fist flying toward her face. She knocked my hand to the side and countered with another hit to my side, slamming once again into the aching wound. I hissed and struck out, but she dodged. She avoided everything I threw at her while landing hit after hit. Nismera was a goddess of war, and she proved it.
She grabbed me and tossed me over her shoulder, slamming me down hard. “You truly think your power could ever rival mine?” she asked, following me down to the floor. Her hands pressed heavily against my throat, and she forced one knee deep into my side, the sharp spike on her armor impaling me once more. She twisted her leg, shredding deeper into my abdomen. I grunted in pain, and she sneered at me.
“How does it feel, brother? To know you don’t matter and never have? You didn’t matter to Unir or your false mother, and most certainly not to me. You and Isaiah were always meant to be weapons, Kaden. You were always just tools. Once I’m done with you, the truth of the matter is, no one is going to think of you, much less miss you. Either of you. I pity you. All your life, everything you did was just wasted and useless.” She frowned, but it held a mocking edge. “Must suck.”
Nismera raised her hand, calling her death spear back. It landed in her palm with enough force that her shoulder reared back. She dragged the tip down the side of my face, splitting my cheek. Her smile was so unkind and uncaring that I wondered if evil had always lived beneath it.
“I have to say, I’ve gotten really good at this slaying family thing,” she said, positioning the gleaming tip over my heart with a sharp twist of her wrist. “Say hello to Father for me and tell him I’ll send the res—”
Her body was knocked to the side by a scaled beast. They flew across the room, destroying everything in their path. They crashed through the wall in a clatter of broken beams and raining stone. I scrambled to my feet and rushed after them, reaching the balcony just as they sailed over the edge.
A scream rent the air.
29
KADEN
Isaiah’s roar of pain propelled me forward, my body shifting as my Ig’Morruthen surged forward. I dove from the broken balcony and followed them down to the courtyard where they’d landed. I settled behind Isaiah, careful to avoid the column of flames he was bellowing at Nismera. The fire raged against the shield made of silver light she held between them. The cream-colored stones on either side of her radiated heat, the blood splattered over the walls and floor starting to blister and boil. Isaiah’s beast form was massive, but he was already battered. His wing was torn, and blood dripped from the side of his face as if she’d tried to stab his eye out mid-fall.
Isaiah let out another agonized scream as light shot toward his side, ripping his wing in half. Nismera smiled behind her shield, and I lost it. The claws on my back feet dug into the ground, stones crumbling to dust beneath the pressure. I roared in defiance, ready to protect Isaiah as I always had. Nismera’s eyes widened, and she glanced between us, resignation settling into her gaze. I wondered how many centuries she had manipulated to avoid this exact moment.
My claw-tipped wings scraped ominously as I stalked forward, shifting around Isaiah. The spikes along my head and neck rose, flames rotating in my throat. Isaiah moved to her left, and I went right. Nismera adjusted her position, shifting so she could watch us both. Her shield may be strong enough to cover a part of her body, but only one side.
Isaiah’s eyes met mine as we prepared to extinguish her. Our jaws opened, and I tasted the building flames at the back of my throat. Nismera glanced behind us, and I saw victory spark in her eyes. I had been so focused on her that I hadn’t felt her legion. The ryphors growled just before launching at us.
Pain radiated through my thigh, my back, and tail as they bit at me. Their riders stabbed, searching for any weakness in my scales. I heard Isaiah yelp and knew the disgusting creatures had converged on him as well. I reared up, flaring my wings wide before twisting and slamming onto my back. The spikes along my spine drove into the legless ryphor behind me. It squealed and twitched before going still.
I rolled back to my feet and shook the gore from my back. The ryphor that had been gnawing on my thigh backed up. They had never intended to take us down. They were just giving Nismera time to escape. Her long white hair whipped behind her as she disappeared into the clouds on one of the beasts. The ryphors and riders that were too slow to escape died beneath Isaiah’s jaws. He tossed the pieces aside, turning the courtyard into an abattoir. One look at me and we both shot to the sky, clouds separating beneath our wings.
In unison, Isaiah and I took to the sky with powerful flaps of our wings. The three ryphors who had trailed her turned to face us, raising their silver spears. I saw the gauntlets they wore. They were the ones she had designed as a weapon against Dianna, and I knew they could cause us serious and permanent harm. It was all so clear now, and I wished I had heeded my instincts when Camilla and I had discovered those hidden rooms. This had always been her plan. She did not just want a way to destroy Dianna, but us as well, once we learned the truth.
Silver light burst toward us, and Isaiah and I split. I dipped heavily to the right, and he to the left. We used the clouds, disappearing silently from sight. All those boring years we’d spent in Yejedin with nothing to do but survive. We had spent countless hours soaring in the skies, training for a war we knew we would never be a part of. But it had paid off because she did not know what we did. She didn’t know how to move in the open air. She didn’t know how to use the sky or the sun to our advantage.
I hovered in the air, listening below the beat of my heavy wings for the predator that stalked the air currents. My lips pulled back, serrated teeth dripping in a smile as I heard the death cries of not one but two ryphors. I knew Isaiah had ripped them to shreds. Above me, a pair of heartbeats escalated, the legless beast and its rider rushing to follow her and escape us. I raised my head and gave a powerful beat of my wings, shooting up in pursuit. My talons thrust forward as I passed, raking along the side of the ryphor, mortally wounding the beast and sending its rider tumbling. They both fell toward the ground as Isaiah and I broke through the surface of the clouds.
Nismera continued to pull further from us with the swish of the rhyphor’s mighty body. We charged after her, the clouds below us, the fluffiest of plains, and rolling hills. She looked back, and I could see the smug smile even from here. It did not fully register before she pulled the reins, dipping beneath the surface of the clouds.
We followed, the clouds swirling off our wings as we leveled out, skimming the peaks of mountains and trees. Nismera dropped into the forest, the ryphor’s smaller body able to maneuver the tight fit. We flew overhead, tracking her as she cut through the trees. Fire rained from Isaiah and me. She laughed as the flames followed her, eating up the ground and trees below, leaving a path of destruction in her wake.
The sick, twisted bitch was enjoying this.
Isaiah and I sucked in another tidal wave of air to fuel the flames, and I choked. Isaiah let loose, the tunnel of flame following her. She broke the treeline, casting a taunting glance back at us. My wings beat harder, and I blinked as the environment seemed to close in, specks of black clouding my vision. I huffed and shook my head as we chased after her. Nismera’s laugh grew louder as she flew.
My wing hit first, the force of it slamming and breaking a treetop off. I curled my long, serpentine neck beneath me and saw why she laughed, why she was feeling so smug. The wound she had inflicted on me earlier was still open, and I realized I had left a trail of black blood the entire time we’d been in the air. Adrenaline seeped from me along with my blood, and my body finally gave up. The world darkened as I started to fall, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Isaiah follow.
30
MISKA
