Page 78 of Hearts on Fire

Lifting my hand, I struck.

The sharp arrowhead went into the flesh smoothly. Warm blood sprayed my hand. The king’s emerald-green eyes widened. He was shocked I fought back.

Red sparks of Nerifir iron burst from the wound around the arrowhead. Releasing his grip, the king staggered back. I dropped to my knees, coughing and rubbing my neck.

I couldn’t leave the arrow in his wound. I couldn’t allow the iron to poison his blood.

I couldn’t kill the king.

Unsteady on my feet, I lurched after him and grabbed the arrow, yanking it out of his neck. He pressed his hand to the wound, blood pulsing between his fingers.

Fae weren’t easy to kill, were they? He couldn’t die.

“Live, asshole,” I spat out, breaking the bloodied arrow over my knee.

The king snarled. Spreading his arms, he grew in size, shifting back to his dragon form. Opening his wings as far as the walls allowed, he lifted off the ground.

A battle cry suddenly came from above, in a high, feminine voice. A dark figure leaped off the wall—muscular and graceful.

Isar!

She shifted into her salamander mid-jump and collided with the dragon in the air. Her curved claws pierced the scales of his underbelly.

“Isar, no!” I yelled.

But there was no stopping her. She growled and tore at the king-dragon. Golden-red scales rained down like shards of sunlight. Blood sprayed the black rocks of the walls. Her teeth glistened with poison when she sunk them into the king’s flesh.

The dragon lurched to the side. His wings broke their rhythm. He crashed to the cobblestones between the walls, taking Isar with him. They rolled on the ground, locked in a deadly embrace.

I splayed myself against the wall, trying to get away. The dragon’s tail lashed out, sweeping me off my feet. In a last desperate move, he threw Isar off him. And stilled.

“No, no…” I got up on all fours as the dragon’s body turned into a man.

The naked king lay on the black cobblestones. His dragon horns morphed into the royal crown, and it rolled off his head, clinking on the stones. His torso had been ripped open. Shimmering steam of the venom was rising from the wounds.

Dead.

The king was dead.

“Elex.” I pressed a fist to my chest. Inside it, the spark of him had lived, a part of him. Was it still there? I wasn’t sure I could feel it. Was it buried deep in the rubble of the cold terror and ache?

Or was it gone?

As the dragon shrank, the black and gold salamander came into view just behind him. She shifted into a woman.

Was she dead too?

“Isar.” I crawled past the dead king to her.

A long gash from the dragon-king’s claws gaped on her side. Red blood glistened like rubies against her dark skin. Her eyes were open, staring straight up into the bright spring sky. A smile played on her lips covered with blood and poison.

“Isar…” I cupped her cheek gently.

Sunshine filled her brown eyes with so much gold they looked amber. She turned them to me. Recognition warmed her expression. Her smile spread wider.

“I got my revenge, little human. For both Ertee and me…”

“For all of them, Isar,” I whispered as tears welled in my eyes. “You avenged them all.”