Kara drew up beside him, blood on her blade, hair tangled in her face. “We’re holding, Sebastian.”
“Just,” he said, glancing down at her. “We need to start pushing them back.”
If the day ended with a Vallennan victory, it would come at a cost. They’d lost hundreds, thousands even. Ones the healers hadn’t been able to reach in time. But they were still here. Still fighting. But then the sea turned black. A shadow spreading across it like poison. Heavier than any that had come before it. Another ship struck shore and a figure leaped from the stern – seven feet tall, maybe more. Broad as a wall, and every movement radiated raw, brutal strength. His armour glowed with an otherworldly mist, and veins of black crystal pulsed across the metal. Shadows coiled at his heels, and when his head lifted, the battlefield hushed. Even the dying stopped screaming.
Who in the hells is that?
His face was hidden behind a helm of the same black crystal, but his gaze – it wasn’t empty. Or mindless. No, it burned with something the other Drakens lacked. Intelligence. Hatred. Purpose. Sebastian’s instincts screamed.
Fuck. This one’s different.
He raised his sword.
He felt Kara reach for him across the bond, but something else stirred in his chest. Something older, ancient. Sebastian startled when he heard the Arcanth speak in his mind – its voice not sound but bone deep certainty.
That is not steel. That is the Dracanth itself. Shards of its body, forged into armour.
Cold dread settled in his gut. They had brought the Dracanth to war. And this was the moment they’d face it. Kara’s shoulder shifted closer to his, fear rolling off her but she gazed unflinchingly on the monstrous figure as the Drakens parted for him. Her breath came ragged, blood smeared across her face, but golden magic had already erupted across her skin – powerful and ready.
“Stay with me,” she said urgently. “We’ll fight him together.”
Sebastian looked down at her face. Memorised every line. “Together,” he vowed.
CHAPTER 45
THE COST OF WAR
Together, or not at all.
-The Arcanth
The battle had become a haze of bodies, blood and steel. Hours, maybe more – Kara couldn’t tell. The sun had dropped low, turning the smoke above deep red, like the sky itself was bleeding. Kara, to her own amazement, still stood. Her whole body ached, her arm was bleeding, but she stood. Around her, the Vallennan line refused to break. They were holding their line. She’d started to believe they could do this.
Then he appeared.
The monstrous figure, that mountain of a man cloaked in darkness and ebony magic, strode across the field. Kara knew without explanation, beyond doubt, that he was worse than all that had come before him. A ripple moved through the Draken ranks at his approach. The snarls quieted. Their heads bowed for the briefest instant, as if compelled, then rose again. But now, with renewed fury. Not respect, not loyalty – it was blind submission. Fear. But the man’s gaze was fixed on her and Sebastian, even as he cut down any that got in his way with terrifying ease. The shadows twisted tighter around him as he approached, armour pulsing with streaks of black crystal. He stopped a few feet away from them. Black veins ran across his hands, darker than the others, raised like scars, pulsing with the Dracanth’s power.
When he spoke, his voice carried, deep and resonant, but with an undertone of the same unnatural hiss his soldiers bore.
“I am Prince Silas, heir of Draknor. Remember the name of the one who puts you in the ground.”
Kara’s skin crawled but Sebastian only tilted his head, a smirk twisting his bloodied mouth. “Prince, huh? Must be a small kingdom if you’re bragging about it here.”
Fear radiated through their bond, but she couldn’t see a trace of it on his face; his gaze stayed locked on Silas.
Sebastian glanced around the halted Draken line. “If you wanted to impress me, you should’ve brought an army that could actually win.”
Silas didn’t flinch. His lips curled, not into amusement, but something colder. “Jests. Smirks. Fear in disguise.” He stared at Kara with his black hollowed eyes and the emptiness in them made her shiver. Then he inhaled deeply, as if tasting the air. “Ah... that bond of yours. I can smell it. Two souls tangled together, all that...feeling.” He moved towards her. “How touching.”
Sebastian stepped in front of Kara, blade raised. “Get away from her,” he spat.
Silas eyed him curiously, taking in the crimson cloak on his shoulders, the sigil covered in dark blood on his breastplate. “Ah, that’s Thorne, isn’t it? So brave, so protective. But tell me... how brave will you be when I carve the life out of you?”
She felt Sebastian’s rage surge white-hot at Silas’s words but he only flashed a smirk. “You can try.”
Kara knew he was seconds away from striking.
Silas’s gaze lingered on Kara again, voice dropping to a low hiss. “You’ll watch him bleed. Feel him fall. That is the gift of your bond, isn’t it? To suffer twice.”
