Page 160 of Shadowborne: Reckoning

My dragon broke off. Snapping her head high, she screamed, then turned in that flash of impossible speed the dragons all seemed to call on at times, whipping to face Ruin, her wings snapping high as she opened her mouth and bared her fangs. Overhead, Kgosi responded with a roar that made the earth tremble.

“Akhane, what—”

Ruin gave a hoarse bellow and grabbed at his hair like he’d lift off his scalp if he could—then he began to whimper like a child, and writhed on the ground in a parody of Carnage’s agony in the sky.

“Donavyn… what’s happening?” I breathed.

“Judgment,” he whispered back. But even though my mate gripped my arm, pulling me to his side, he never took his eyes off his dragon in the sky.

All around us, the dragons of Vosgaard began to call and sing. An eerie song that raised the hair on my arms.

I looked to Akhane, but Donavyn’s arm around my side tightened, pulling me away as Akhane’s ears pinned back against her skull and her head snaked out, towards Ruin, those teeth bared, and dripping in whatever it was that the dragons ignited in their throats to make fire.

“Akhane!”

“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Donavyn screamed at my brothers, gesturing wildly at Ronen and the others who held Ruin.

My four brothers leaped to their feet and ran, scrambling backwards as my dragon strode towards Ruin—who remained on his back on the ground, trying to crawl from her, to escape, his eyes wild, but hands shaking, clawing through his hair, then pushing him on the ground, then gripping his head again.

“No… NO!”

“Step back, Little Flame. The Primarch has commanded: This little bastard is mine.”

“What—?!”

‘Ruin Galdec, the destroyer, you will answer to me,’ Akhane intoned, and to my shock, her words echoed through every mind in the hollow. Dragons flinched and men startled. A trill of fear and hope jangled in my chest, but I couldn’t take my eyes off my dragon. With fire in her eyes and smoke pouring from her nostrils, she stormed to Ruin, shaking her head and hissing through an open mouth as he scrambled weakly in the grass.

Then she stomped with one front foot. One talon pierced his thigh, while the other two dug into the dirt either side of him, pinning him to the grass. Ruin roared with pain and half-sat up, grabbing for her—but unable to move, his eyes so wide they were white all the way around.

“No! No! Please! Don’t let her—”

‘I am the Primarch’s mate. I am the Queen of the Vosgaarde dragons. And the Bonded One of Brennan Kearney who was violated, and almost taken from this world by your selfish, evil actions. You are judged, Ruin Galdec. You are measured in the eyes of the Creator and found wanting. Blessed, you were. Equipped—for strength and speed and success. Yet, your God-given gifts have been twisted, used for selfish gain and perverted satisfaction. You have no remorse, and reject wisdom. Your life is forfeit to the judgment of the Primarch—who will deliver the same to the dragon who led you in this vile pursuit. I stand in his stead. Prepare to meet your maker, you sick little fuck.’

I gasped. Donavyn’s arm whipped around my waist and he dragged me further backwards, shouting at everyone in the vicinity to back away as Akhane inhaled audibly, then opened her maw and vomited liquid flame over Ruin.

The scream that rose told me he hadn’t been flamed—not the white-hot outpouring a dragon was capable of, that would keep their flame deadly for a range of up to one hundred feet. No, my dragon had held her weapon in check so Ruin felt the fire consume him. And he screamed—though, only for moments before the burning reached his lungs.

And then, as we stood, transfixed by the sight of a man, now silent, being burned alive, then Akhane gave her flame the heat and intensity that could burn through the seams of his dragonhide leathers and reach the rest of him.

And high over our heads, Carnage screamed as his rider died.

52. Freedom

SOUNDTRACK: Written in the Stars – Epic Version by Vince Cox, EpicTrailerMusicUK, and J. None.

~ DONAVYN ~

I curled myself over Bren, holding her, curling around her so she was shielded from her dragon’s flame. But as Ruin screamed, and his agony was echoed by his dragon in the skies above, my dragon reached out. I dropped to my knees, still holding Bren, shuddering as Kgosi roared in our bond and consumed my thoughts, my own sight overwhelmed by the deluge of his…

Carnage, twisting like a snake that wrestled in the grass, his tail whipping, wings snapping, frantically clawing at the air to flee Kgosi who’d just passed judgment on his bonded rider.

‘Do not believe you will escape your fate. You who have darkened our herd with pain and perversion, and who fed a man’s bloody, selfish ambition. I see you, Carnage. I see your true heart—and I call judgment!’

The dragon shrieked, his pain and rage ringing in my ears, but it was with Kgosi’s ears that I heard his voice—deep and sly, now tight with pain.

‘You call yourself a Primarch, yet kill a Furyknight? How dare you!’

‘I dare because I know my purpose. If you have complaints, take them up with the Creator,’ Kgosi snarled in response, whipping through the air, diving suddenly, then ascending with a roar from the other side of Carnage’s shuddering, wobbling flight when the dragon twisted again.