Page 49 of The Dragon Queen
Instead of looking at me, Barron’s eyes glanced to the sky.
“Roooooaaaaaaaarrrrrr!” I knew Khazmuda’s roars just the way I recognized Calista’s voice—and I knew it wasn’t him.
Constantine appeared in the sky, enormous and powerful, breathing a streak of fire aimed directly at me.
I dodged out of the way and avoided the flames, but the fire was so hot the heat was felt through the thick plates of my armor.
“The only person you have left is your dragon,” Barron said. “And now you’ll watch him die.”
Khazmuda crashed into Constantine in the sky and knocked him away from the courtyard, cutting off the next line of fire that was directed at me on the ground. The two titans collided, and the world stopped for a split second.
My anger was shattered when concern replaced it.
Defeat him. I’ll handle Constantine.
I felt the surge of his power explode inside me, immediately setting my veins on fire. I inhaled a deep breath when it filled me, when it heightened my focus and my strength. But the second I felt it, I pushed it right back.I don’t need it. Kill Constantine if you must. His life is not worth yours.
Barron and the others will use their dragons’ strength.
Keep it, Khazmuda. Trust me, I don’t need it.There was no force in the world more powerful than the rage that had grown inside my body these last decades. The ferocity was unmatched, the blood lust insatiable. I felt his strength leave my body, and I didn’t miss it when it was gone.
I turned back to Barron, whose eyes were on the sky, watching the two dragons fight in the air. Jairo and Kael were just as mesmerized by the battle that was taking place in the air. I moved back toward them, some of the trees in the courtyard ablaze from Constantine’s fire. “This is for my mother.”
Barron turned his gaze back to me.
“For Rosella.” I marched into battle, the dead restrained on the edges of the courtyard, my dragon protecting me from the sky, the hilt of my blade in my ironclad grip. “For Silas. For King Bolton Rothschild—my father.” I moved faster, furious, angry, vibrating with all-consuming hatred. Barron finally unsheathed his black blade and took his stance to meet my attack. His sons did the same, remaining behind him. I could taste their blood in my mouth, taste the ferocity that had burned in my veins all these years. With angry tears in my eyes, I raised my blade and prepared to strike him down. “And for Vivian and Lena—my wife and daughter—the people I loved most.”Tears streaked down my cheeks as the greatest strength I’d ever known filled me, as if they were both there with me, gripping the pommel of the sword squeezed in my hand. “You took them from me—and now I’ll take everything from you!”
Chapter 9
Calista
It was chaos.
The dragons were released from the vault and launched into battle, the dark elves in black armor as their riders. Roars filled the sky, layered on top of one another like endless screams. Our dragons reached the battle, and there was a collision in the air, dragons attacking one another while the riders aimed for them.
Macabre landed beside Queen Eldinar and dropped his belly to the earth.
The queen quickly climbed up his side into his saddle. Before she had him take off, she looked at me. “The higher in the sky you are, the safer you’ll be.” She grabbed on to the pommel, and then Macabre launched into the sky, rising to the height of a mountain in just a few seconds.
I SENSE YOU.
I’m on the east side of town.I stood there alone, seeing the people of the village burst into the alleyways and look at the horror in the sky. Shouts and screams were already audible from both the sky and the ground. When I looked to the top of thecliff, I couldn’t see anything because it was too far away and too dark.
I saw the red scales from a fiery dragon appear in the sky then swoop down to where I stood on the ground. There was a tremble in the ground from where he landed.HURRY.He lowered his body so I could climb up his scales and drop into the saddle. He’d barely given me a moment to grab on to the pommel before he launched straight up and nearly knocked me off.
I gasped for breath as I felt my hair whip me in the face. A dragon passed just feet away from us, and I thought we would collide. Inferno continued to rise into the sky, leaving the ground far behind.
It felt like an eternity before we leveled out in the sky. Inferno flattened and glided, and when I looked over his side, I saw the dragons locked in battle directly over the village, roars and screams and fire filling the night.
“There’s so much happening. I don’t know what to focus on.”
WE HELP THE DRAGONS THAT ARE FREED, AND WE KILL THE RIDERS OF THOSE ENSLAVED.
“I told Talon I would stay out of the fight.”
BUT I MADE NO SUCH PROMISE. HOLD ON.Inferno dove down, the wind rushing past us to hit us in the face as the ground came ever closer. I grabbed on tight and kept my boots in the stirrups so I wouldn’t be knocked off Inferno.
Two dragons were locked in battle, and Inferno swept down with the grace of an eagle and snatched one of the dark elves straight from his saddle. I watched in awe and horror as Infernocrushed him with his talons and muffled the screams and sound of crushing bones before he flung him aside. One down. Now we need to speak to the dragon. Inferno made a sharp turn then moved back where he’d been. The dragon who had attacked the enslaved beast had gone off to its next target, while the newly freed dragon hovered there, clearly confused and unsure of what to do next. With scales the color of aquamarine, he was a beautiful dragon…except for the scars from the chains that had been wrapped around his body for so long. The chains had been so tight and secured for so long that they’d cut directly into his scales, making a deep crater that ran over his shoulders, over his neck, and around his snout. He’d lost his strength because I could see he struggled to stay in the air with his own ability.