Untamed- House of Berserkers
Page 17
As I step over the body, I see that Emory is cutting Kiera free. She grabs her axes from the crumbled body on the ground and resheaths them, kicking the body.
And then I’m there, pulling her into my arms, my heart soaring.
Kiera was safe. We’d gotten to her in time.
Climb onto my back. The voice that rolls through my mind is different from Princess’s. It’s louder, angrier, a twisted version of Drake’s voice.
We look at him as he lowers himself to the ground. Kiera doesn’t hesitate; she climbs up his body and onto his back, and so I follow, sitting behind her. Emory pauses, resheaths his sword, and then joins us.
“I thought you couldn’t fly,” I say.
I’ve been practicing.
“So you can?”
We’ll see.
He begins to flap his massive wings. I stare at them, seeing the scars that connect the delicate tissue. Wondering if, in all his practicing, he’s had a successful flight.
Ahead of us, I hear the sounds of magic exploding. I look beyond the flaming, broken gates, and spot a group of men standing around a car. In the center of them, I know, is Maxen. There’s something about him that reminds me of an evil version of his brother. Something I can’t quite put my finger on.
Behind me, I feel a tremble wrack Emory’s body, and I wish I could say or do something to take away his fear. But then we launch into the air. Drake’s big wings flap and flap, but the launch is anything but elegant. He struggles, his flight uneven. But we manage to pass the school gate, skimming just above the trees.
I sense more magic exploding behind us, but Drake continues forward. With every second I think we’re going to crash, that we’re going to drop into the trees below, but Drake keeps us safe.
“You can fly,” I hear Kiera whisper from in front of me. “You can really fly.”
Drake says nothing, but I can feel his pleasure.
Never before have I dreamed of flying. But now that I am, I find that I like it. I like the fresh air. I like the feeling of nothingness and everything around us.
“I like flying,” I say.
“It’s like a dream,” Emory whispers.
And then I have that terrible feeling again. The feeling of dark magic. I turn around and spot a massive ball of black flames rushing toward us.
“Drake, watch out!” I scream.
As Drake turns, twisting in the air to avoid it, we all slide and nearly fall from his back. But the ball of darkness slips past us. Drake begins to right himself, and we have one moment of relief before the black ball turns back around.
“Drake!”
You’ll fall, he says, and even though he tries to twist the other way again, I can tell he’s trying to keep us safe.
Which is his downfall.
The black magic strikes one of his wings, and he screams, a horrible sound worse than the final sounds of a dying phoenix. He plummets to the ground, and I take a deep breath and try to do something I haven’t done since the scientists made me. Because this time, we’ll die if I don’t.
I push out the force around me, trying to protect us all from the impact. The blue glowing ball expands around me, and out far enough that I pray it will protect Emory and Kiera too. But when I try to push it out to protect Drake, we hit the trees.
His massive body crashes, smashing into tree after tree before he slowly comes to a stop. Unmoving.
“Drake!” Kiera screams, and the ball of blue around us fades.
She scrambles off of his back and comes to his face. Her hands touch his scales gently, but his eyes don’t open.
I try to go after her, but I simply collapse. The shield… I never liked it. Afterwards I was as weak as a babe. And being weak with the scientists was dangerous.
“What’s wrong with you?” Emory asks, sounding breathless.
“The magic…”
He grunts, and suddenly he lifts me onto his shoulders before sliding down Drake. I can feel with Emory something that I’ve never felt before. The way his body trembles. The way the wounds on his body aren’t even attempting to close.
He’s weak. Weaker than he’s letting on.
“Drake,” Kiera whispers, and tears slide down her face.
“We need to keep going,” Emory says.
Kiera looks back at him. “We can’t leave him like this.”
“He needs to shift. If he can go back to his human form, we can take him with us.”
I’ll be too weak, rumbles in my mind.
“We have to do this. Before they reach us.”
“Put me down,” I tell Emory.
He does so, but my legs collapse beneath me. It takes me a few tries to stand. But when I do, I finally see the group of us. We look like hell. But Emory was right, we needed to run before the bad men found us.
But could Drake shift in this bad of shape? Anyone would tell him not to. That his shifter body would heal faster, and that he’d be stronger should he be attacked. But we couldn’t exactly drag a dragon with us.
So what will he do?
I’m still not sure when his body begins to shimmer and shrink. Within seconds, the massive dragon has been replaced by Drake. Only, it’s not Drake.
I gasp and go to him, kneeling beside him. There’s nothing left of his skin. He bleeds everywhere, and one of his arms and his leg are definitely broken. And given the harsh way he breathes, his lungs can’t be much better.
“We have to go,” Emory says, and he limps forward and gently lifts Drake into his arms.
The dragon shifter screams, and the sound makes tears prickle my eyes. That kind of pain…most people would never know that kind of pain, but I do.
When this is over, I wouldn’t eat off his plate. I wouldn’t hold his hand. And I wouldn’t tell him my feelings so much.
I would pat him on the back. A lot.
Kiera rubs away the tears that race down her face. “Which…way?”
Emory doesn’t answer, he just picks a direction.
Kiera presses a hand over her injured arm, covered in deep gashes, and I stagger along behind. Emory doesn’t have to tell us that we need to get as far as fast as we can from the dragon-sized imprint in the forest.
But still, our going is slow.
Hours pass. We’re all breathing hard. Emory’s eyes keep closing as he stumbles forward, and Drake is in and out of consciousness.
And yet, there’s been no signs of Maxen. So maybe we’ll get free? Maybe Kiera will be safe.
Hope blossoms in my heart.
And then we’ll be free. From him. From the reform school. And it’ll just be us.
Who says mutants don’t get happy endings?
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kiera
The sun is setting when we reach a hill. We all know we need to slow soon, that we can’t just keep trudging forward, and that we need to find a place to hide until morning. But so far, fear has kept us going.
The thing is, we need to rest. Not just because we can’t go on much longer, but because we need to heal. And we heal much faster when we sleep.
Which Drake needs, desperately.
My heart twists. I have never seen injuries as bad as his. I knew shifters could heal from almost anything, but I didn’t have a clue how his body could fix what had happened to him.
And then there was Emory. Most of his wounds had stopped bleeding, but he was a mess of cuts, bruises, and injuries. Most berserkers would have to sleep for hours after enduring something like that.
But not Emory. He just trudged on.
Something in my chest warms. I hadn’t been happy about how cold he’d been after we’d slept together, but I had to accept that even if Emory wasn’t the same boy I knew, he was still a good man. A man I was lucky to have at my side.
My gaze moves to Adam, and then back ahead of me as I try not to stumble. Adam had used a power I’d never seen before. And in doing so, he’d saved us. I didn’t know what he’d done, but when this was all over, I was going to ask him about
it.
“After…this hill…” Emory says, gasping in breaths. “We find…a place…to stop.”
We all move a little faster after that, but when we crest the hill Emory freezes. Adam and I come up behind him and look down in shock. A road stretches out before us, and sitting in the middle of the road are three black cars, and the same men who shot us down.
One man smiles.
Maxen. The asshole himself. A chill rolls down my spine, and I glance at the half a dozen men that stand around him. I knew some of them were mages. Powerful mages. And some were vamps and berserkers.
I feel sick as sweat rolls down my back. We can’t outrun them. I guess we’d have to fight them.
I’d have to fight them.
“It took you all long enough.”
“No,” Adam says, and the word sounds tortured, echoing the feeling inside of me.
“It was a true test of your will, but the spell my warlocks weaved was always going to lead you here. To me.”
“You bastard!” I scream, drawing my axes from my back and standing in front of my men.
This time, I would face him head on. This time, I would fight with my dying breath.
His gaze runs over me, far too slowly. “Kiera Frost of the Winter Berserkers, I’m glad to meet you. I am King Maxen Wolff of the House of Berserkers, and your future husband.”
“I’ll die before I marry you,” I growl.
He grins. “Too bad I’m not giving you the choice.”
“The bond can’t be forced,” I tell him, my heart racing.
“Oh.” His smile widens. “Who said anything about forcing you?”
I take another step forward. “I challenge you, Maxen, false king of the berserkers. One warrior to another. Winner takes all.”
He laughs. “That challenge is for males, Kiera.”
“Are you afraid?”
“No, my sweet, I simply don’t wish to hurt you.” His gaze slides to Emory. “Is that the dragon and the mutant I’ve heard so much about? We’ll bring them with us, Emory. One never knows when a life might have a use.”
My hands tighten on my axes. “If you think for one second—“
Emory steps out in front of me, still carrying Drake, and heads down the hill.
“Emory, no!”
For a moment, I’m too shocked to react. In another time or another place, I might have dug my axe into Emory’s back and saved Drake. But something in me can’t process it, can’t believe it, when Emory walks away from us and joins Maxen’s side.
Adam is beside me in an instant, and we both stare in shock as Emory dumps Drake’s body in the trunk of one of the cars.
“Emory. We’re friends,” Adam says, and his voice is so damned innocent.
Emory comes to stand beside his brother, and Maxen sets his hand on the berserker’s shoulder. “I’m afraid that’s what Emory had to pretend to be to bring me my bride. But he isn’t capable of friendship. He isn’t capable of anything. Now, are you coming with me willingly, or should we separate your dragon from his head?”
“He would want you to run,” Adam whispers in my ear.
He would. But I can’t. “Go, Adam. Run. They won’t go after you if they have me.”
I don’t turn to see if he obeys me. I resheath my axes and come toward Maxen, my stomach twisting. Hating him more with every step I take.
When I stop in front of Maxen, my gaze slides to Emory. His expression is blank. He simply stares ahead without even the hint of guilt.
And something breaks inside of me at that moment. I realize that even when he walked away, I hoped this was a trick. That he had some kind of plan up his sleeve to save us all.
But now, I see. And I hate myself for it. Emory never pretended to be anything he wasn’t. He never pretended this was anything but trying to make us even.
I should have listened.
“I can’t believe I trusted you,” I say, and hate how heartbroken I sound.
Maxen sets his hands on my shoulder. “You aren’t the first to be fooled by him.”
I jerk back from the man, and anger flashes in his eyes.
“Careful, Kiera. We wouldn’t want to get off on the wrong foot.”
“Fuck you!”
He smirks. “Get in the car. We’ll clear this up at home.”
Suddenly, two of his men step forward, and Adam is dragged forward. I whirl around and stare at him in shock.
“I said to—“
“I could never just leave,” he whispers softly.
Maxen’s eyes seem to drink in Adam. “A talking, walking mutant… Oh, you are going to be fun. Put him in the trunk with the meat bag.”
I’m shoved into the back of the car, even as I struggle to see Adam. In his face I see fear, but not surrender, and steel uncurls in my spine.
Maxen might have won this round.
But we would win the next.
And when we were done? I swore I would watch as the life drained from his eyes.
We drive away from the Wicked Reform School, me squeezed between Emory and Maxen.
I could feel Maxen’s eyes on me, and so I smile.
Let him see. Let him see that Kiera Frost of the Winter Berserkers would not be defeated. No matter what he did to me, I would never be like Emory.
I had the heart of a berserker. And berserkers never gave up.
Did you enjoy Untamed? Enjoy the next book in the Wicked Reform School, Narcotize! And if you want to preorder the next book that follows Kiera and her men, preorder your copy of Unknown.
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About the Author
Lacey Carter Andersen loves reading, writing, and drinking excessive amounts of coffee. She spends her days taking care of her husband, three kids, and three cats. But at night, everything changes! Her imagination runs wild with strong-willed characters, unique worlds, and exciting plots that she enthusiastically puts into stories.
Lacey has dozens of tales: science fiction romances, paranormal romances, short romances, reverse harem romances, and more. So, please feel free to dive into any of her worlds; she loves to have the company!
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