“Let’s hope they’re on the backside of the tower.” Caiden chokes up on the reins, his knuckles going white.
I brush my fingers across the hilt of my sword, reassuring myself that it’s still there. Caiden’s eyes track the movement. “You think she lost control again?”
“It’s possible.” I glance at him. “You know your wife will never forgive you if her best friend is dead.”
“I know. But you’re the one who keeps telling me your sister isn’t a monster.”
“What would I know of that? I’m as bad as her,” I say.
“I don’t think that’s true at all. You have a conscience,” he counters.
“She’s not evil, Caiden. She’s what your father made her,” I reply.
“As are both of us, old friend. He created his greatest weapons during our training.” He’s staring at the tower. “But she wasn’t honed like us. She justis.”
I clench my jaw, biting back all the things I want to say to him in return. We haven’t seen each other asfriendsin a long time.
“It’ll be dark soon,” he says.
I nod in understanding, then urge my horse forward. Darkfall obeys, but I can feel his tension. “Come on, boy. You know Rosalyn. She’d never harm you.”
Caiden and I ride side by side, approaching with caution. We’re close enough that I can hear the surf hitting the rocks onthe cliff below. I scan the area for any guards. There should be at least five stationed outside the tower at all times. There’s twenty of them who live in the base of the tower, rotating through the various duties. I’ve never arrived to nobody.
My horse whinnies, then rises, nearly knocking me from the saddle. I grip his sides while soothing him until I finally coax him back down. Then I see the cause of the alarm.
“Is that an arm?” Caiden asks. “And a leg?”
My stomach churns when I see the head, just a head. The eyes have been pecked out by birds already and a maggot squirms in one of the nostrils. “It’s been there a while.”
“I don’t think they all belong to the same person, either,” Caiden says.
The entire field that surrounds the tower is littered with body parts in various states of decay. My pulse climbs. I don’t want to believe it, but I know exactly who is behind this.
Screeching cries tear through the air, sending adrenaline pumping through my veins. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch the edge of a black wing before the monster dips below the cliffside.
More screeching. Then earsplitting, unnatural cries. My horse nearly throws me again. I hurry to calm him, then dismount, smacking his rear to send him away.
Caiden’s horse is already racing away. The emperor moves closer to me, sword drawn at his side. Dark shadows billow up around him.
Power thrums in my veins, hot and sharp. I grip the hilt of my sword and prepare.
The cries and screeches escalate like a group of overexcited birds. Then the monsters explode from behind the cliff’s edge, the creatures rising into the sky with a cacophony of chaos. Sharp claws and vicious fangs, leathery wings, and ear-splitting cries.
Shadow dragons.
The monsters are a ghost of what were once powerful creatures. Unlike their original forms, these are the tattered remains of what once was. They’re smaller than their forefathers, but their wingspan is still twice my height. And luckily for us, they can’t breathe fire. These creatures are all claws and teeth and rage.
And they don’t die easily. Whatever realm they come from must be pure hell because if you don’t kill them correctly, they regenerate and come at you again.
There’s dozens of them. Creatures of skin and bone and shadow and light. Beasts summoned by my sister.
And they’re all diving toward us.
Power sizzles in my veins, my magic responding to the familiar thrum of the creatures, as if we’re the same. The monsters circle us, then dive. My blade glows, igniting like a beacon and I charge, slicing the wing clean off. The shadow dragon bellows, an ear-splitting sound that grates inside my brain like two stones scraping against one another.
Before the wing can grow back, I stab the creature to subdue it, then slice off its head. It solidifies instantly but when my boot meets it, the monstrous effigy crumbles, the remaining ash blowing away in the wind.
Another beast slashes my arm with its claws as it flies past me. I spin, then lift my hand to send a surge of light. The creature glows white-hot, then stills, when it hits the ground, it explodes, scattering more dust to the wind.
