Page 77 of Hearts on Fire
AMBER
An explosion boomed through the air. The mountain shook. I cowered under the wall. Splinters of wood, rocks, and metal rained down, hitting the walls and getting stuck in the stone.
I knew it was Elex wreaking havoc. I hoped it was him. But my mind just couldn’t comprehend how one person, no matter how royal or magical, could cause so much noise and devastation.
The battle cry of his men announced the attack of the castle. From every door and any window they could reach, the men of the Desolate Peak were storming in.
My back pressed to the outer wall, I looked up at the black mass of the castle. All its shutters were gone. The windows gaped open, like sightless eye sockets. Against the bright, sunny sky, the black walls and towers of the king’s castle appeared especially dark and evil. With no glass in the windows, the Bozyr Peak looked like a skeleton of a building. Soulless and neglected.
A large shadow stretched across the rocks, moving from the castle. Instinctively, I grabbed my bow and drew an arrow out of my quiver.
A dragon flew above me. With the sun directly behind him, I didn’t recognize him. I couldn’t even tell what color his scales were.
Until he flew past the sun. Then, I knew exactly who he was.
King Edkhar’s crimson scales reflected the sunlight, blinding me for a moment. I hid my eyes behind my arm. And when I looked at him again, the dragon-king swerved off his course, soaring my way.
He’d seen me.
No, no, no…I backed away from the approaching dragon.
Fear seized my heart with cold, bony fingers. But my hands didn’t shake when I nocked the arrow and lifted the bow.
Sunspots still flashed in front of my eyes. I blinked to chase them away and squinted, taking aim.
I’d killed a dragon once. I could do it again.
Only I couldn’t kill this one, could I? If the king died, so would Elex…
Now, my hands trembled.
The dragon plunged toward me. I retreated all the way to the wall, pressing my back against the cool stone. He couldn’t snatch me from here. The space between the inner and the outer walls in this part of the castle wasn’t wide enough for his wingspan.
The shape of the dragon-king shrank and shifted. The man, not the dragon, landed on the cobblestones in front of me.
“You!” King Edkhar launched my way.
Fury rolled off him like a cloud of heat. He was angry, so angry that burning me from afar wouldn’t be enough. He itched to end me with his own hands.
I jumped out of his reach. My bow dropped to the cobblestones. The arrow caught, dangling in my fingers.
“You’ll pay for your sick little joke, human pest,” the king gritted through his teeth.
He hadn’t forgotten my leashing him. I didn’t think he ever would.
With a giant leap, he caught me by the throat. I gasped for air, gripping his hand with mine. His hold was unyielding, like a tight iron collar around my neck.
Iron…
I had the arrow in my hand. My fingers tightened around it, gripping it just past the arrowhead.
Elex’s voice echoed in my mind, the words he’d said as he’d held my hand with his dagger at his neck,“Aim it here where the blood pulses, carrying the fire of life.”
Holding me by my neck, the king lifted me off the ground. “I’ll enjoy squeezing every last drop of life out of you, wretched little rat.”
My feet kicked uselessly against the wall behind me. My lungs burned, starved for air. My vision blurred as I tried to focus on that one spot on the side of his neck.
Where the blood pulses…