Page 93 of Blood of Dragons
Khazmuda lowered his body over mine, like a bird perched on her hatchlings, and the Behemoths parted to run around the dragon, sprinting away like someone chased them.
I could see the army of the dead that Talon had conjured, skeletons with torn uniforms and armor, eyeless elves who had died and been buried in the cemetery in the forest. Without an enemy to fight, they remained, swaying slightly, like their weary bodies could barely hold up their weight.
Talon lifted his hand slightly and raised his voice. “I release you. Go be in peace.”
The dead immediately turned away from the battlefield and slowly walked into the tree line, returning to their earthy graves deep in the forest. Their progression was slow, shifting and swaying on broken bones. Some were even headless.
It was hard to watch, so I focused on Talon only, who stood with his sword still gripped in his palm, looking kingly even without his cape billowing in the breeze behind him. He looked unharmed, the Behemoths no match for his speed with the blade.
I lifted the front of the cape off my feet like the hem of a gown and ran to him, barefoot because my boots had been lost whenGeneral Titan had removed them. I maneuvered around the pile of bodies, both friend and foe, and made my way to him.
He turned to look at me, his gaze hardened by the battle he’d just fought. But there was a hint of gold there, a single speck in those dark eyes.
I made it to him, colliding with his chest but not setting him off-balance.
His arm immediately hooked around my waist, and he rested his lips at my hairline.
“Thank you.” He saved me. He saved the forest. He saved the elves. Single-handedly.
He gave no response, his fingers remaining deep in my hair like they belonged there.
“I need to check on my uncle.”
“Your uncle?” He pulled away to look at me.
“Yeah…long story.” I turned away and walked through the debris of battle, the fallen bodies of friend and foe, the blood that soaked into the ground, the blood that my bare feet had to touch.
It was nearly dawn, light coming into the sky and turning it blue and slightly purple. It made the world easier to see, for faces should have features rather than shadows. It didn’t take me long to cross paths with Queen Eldinar. Her beautiful white armor was covered in dirt and blood, and her beautiful blond hair had come loose from its braid. The battle was over, but she still wore that same look of rage.
I walked up to her. “Where is Ezra?”
“He’s with the healers. He’ll live.”
I inhaled a deep breath of relief. “I’m so happy to hear that.”
“Where is he?” For someone who just won a battle she was doomed to lose, she looked deeply pissed off.
“General Titan is dead.”
“Not him. You know of whom I speak.”
My heart had sprouted wings moments ago, and now it dropped into my stomach. “He—he saved us.”
“Here I stand.” Talon came from behind me, stepping forward to meet Queen Eldinar face-to-face, just slightly taller than her because she was a tall woman, possessing the height of a man and the rage of one too.
She stared him down like he was no different from the Behemoths we’d just fought. “The Death King.” She said every syllable with disdain, her eyes livid and wild, looking him over repeatedly like she couldn’t believe her misfortune to meet him in the flesh.
“Talon, this is Queen Eldinar?—”
“Do not speak for me.” Her eyes remained on Talon. “You seem to have forgotten you’re still a stranger in my lands. No relation to my husband will grant you power you did not earn. Just as I feared, the Behemoths marched on our lands because ofyou.” She finally turned to look at me, the sheer rage making her eyes wet. “My kin water the soil with their blood—because of you.”
The guilt and pain started to throb inside my chest. I’d been so relieved that General Titan was finally dead and the battle was over that I’d forgotten everything else. “I’m sorry?—”
“I don’t want your apology,” she snapped. “They burned our forest and killed my soldiers because you wouldn’t disappear. And now the Death King stands on my borders, bringing a darkness that will shroud the light forevermore?—”
“In case you missed what just happened, I saved your forest and your people,” Talon said calmly. “I have no ill will toward you, Queen Eldinar. But if you continue to speak to Calista this way, that could change.”
Just when it seemed like Queen Eldinar couldn’t look angrier, she did. “You came for her. Not for us.”