by Raven Storm
“WHY DID YOU DO THAT?” Benedict roared, and I ignored my bleeding, ignored the pain.
“He has information we need! He knows he shouldn’t have mentioned the soldiers, and he distracted you!”
Benedict’s eyes finally took in the blood soaking my upper body, and he immediately offered his wrist. I shook my head in refusal.
“You need all your blood.”
A loud cry made us turn around. Thad laid on the ground, convulsing on the floor while covered in my blood.
“What’s wrong with him?” I cried out, reaching down to try and steady him.
Benedict grunted, picking Thad up despite his writhing and moaning. A shout of warning went up from the rebels inside the palace, and moments later a surge of the remaining demons and vampyres emerged on the rotunda, their eyes greedily seeing the three of us isolated and injured. The rebels on the other side rallied, racing to us. Benedict easily made it to them, handing off Thad to his men and turning back to find me. Kieran’s red hair was easily identifiable through the mob, and I gasped as thirty drakens appeared behind him, charging into the horde’s lines with gleeful shouts. Kieran yelled at me to move. The demons were right behind me, along with a few lykos who hadn’t gotten the alliance message.
Benedict admitted he’d lied to get the sea witches to save us. He didn’t have the time or ability to search for the missing witches—it would be suicide. When they found out, they would break the alliance. That couldn’t happen. We needed the witches on our side if we were going to wage war and win.
I looked up, realizing there was only one true way to find out where the witches were.
I stopped and turned, facing the oncoming horde head on. Benedict’s screams sliced the air as I turned away from the rebels, my back to him. He was starting to know me as well as I knew him, but I pushed away the rising guilt. When the stampeding horde saw drakens—many of them—rushing towards them, they turned tail and ran. Most threw themselves over the balcony and walls, abandoning the palace altogether. The lykos snapped a growled order at a small band of a dozen who were left, and the largest lykos transformed back into his human form. He stalked forward with his unit, as quick as a striking snake. Their target: me.
It was at the moment that everything around me stilled. I could see each choice laid out before me, and each consequence hovering in the palm of my hands. Benedict couldn't hunt the witches; he didn't have the time, or the resources. We needed the witches to openly fight with us. We suspected where they were, but we needed certainty. I knew a way.
I turned back and caught Kieran’s eyes, my hands unstrapping my daggers from their sheaths and letting them drop to the ground. The demons would take them otherwise. This way, Kieran or Benedict could retrieve them. They would be waiting for me when I emerged—if I emerged. I looked away, and Kieran's eyes went wide in understanding. He screamed, but I couldn't hear him over the din of the fight.
Kieran's scream attracted Benedict's attention, whose eyes bulged as he instantly deduced what I'd planned. Panic blared from his every movement and muscles, as demons and vampyres fell in bloodie heaps around him as he fought his way towards me. It wouldn't be enough. In his fervor to reach me Benedict didn't see the vampyre jump out from behind a pillar, and didn't see the hilt of sword racing downwards. Benedict's eyes were trained on me the entire time. Kieran took his eyes from my when Benedict’s body fell, and he ripped into the vampyre and killed him easier. He dragged Benedict's unconscious form out of the meles, trying to shout orders at the other rebels. All around me, vampyres were screaming, running away. The lykos and his band were almost to me. I met his golden and silver gaze head on. Kieran's face looked so torn between Benedict and me that it physically hurt to see, my heart ripping for the both of us.
I looked away from my mates. I wasn’t afraid—I was resigned. I knew they wouldn’t kill me, just as I was sure I knew where the missing witches had gone. The quickest way to find out would be to go there myself, as a prisoner. As the demons pulled back, my side raced forward. They wouldn’t reach me in time.
I didn’t resist as the first demon reached me, hunger stretching his features into a grotesque mockery of joy. He ploughed into me and I fell, taking the blow to my chest. A hand covered in fur smacked the vampyre away and flung me into the wall. My head cracked against the stone, and I fell into a crumpled heap onto the floor. The vampyres and demons crowded around me, saliva dripping down onto my body.
“Severn wants this prisoner unspoiled,” the lykos-turned human grunted, his voice barely distinguishable from a threatening growl. The vampyres and demons backed off, hissing and spitting.
I grunted in pain as my body lifted, thrown across his broad, furry shoulders. Hands that ended in short, thick claws curled around my body, and I didn’t feel bad as I threw up blood down his back. He laughed, and I pushed myself up to see his face. Cruel, eyes looked back at me. I would not look back at Kieran, or Benedict. I would not, because that meant goodbye, and it was taking all my strength just to stay still, to let myself be taken—
This was the only way to get into the Overlord’s fortress, which was really the old palace of the mountain men, if Georg’s Supa was to be believed. This was the only way to find out what happened to the witches, to get them allied to us. This was the only way. The only way.
Fresh screaming came from my left, and Thad was there, cutting down everyone in his path. The demon hordes and the rebels pulled away from each other, each having achieved what they set out to do. Shackles went around my ankle and wrists, and I wouldn’t cry.
A sharp blow landed on my head, and I jerked. Unconsciousness raced up to greet me, one last thought bringing me a sense of comfort.
I knew Benedict—knew him better than he probably knew himself. He needed a purpose, something to fight for, or he was utterly lost. Benedict leading the drakens in a revolt against the Overlord would be effective, but a king and his people fighting to take back their queen?
Unstoppable.
The story continues in The Lost Kingdom: Rise of the Drakens, Book 3. May 2021.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my close friends who put up with reading all the early drafts and sticking with me to see the full story come to fruition. Thanks to Jen and your keen eye, and Becky.
Thank you to my husband for putting up with my long hours of intense focus and making sure our children aren’t running around feral in the process. Thank you for believing in me and supporting my dreams to write.
Thank you to all the readers who support me. YOU are who I write for.
-Raven Storm-
THANKS
Thank you so much for reading The Lost Alliance. If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review on GoodReads and Amazon.
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Scroll for a sneak preview of the next book in the series, The Lost Kingdom.
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SNEAK PREVIEW
The Lost Kingdon: Rise of the Drakens, Book 3
AVAILABLE SOON FOR PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON
One.
It’s cold here.
I haven’t been cold since I lived in the breeding house. I wasn’t back there, was I? I shifted, feeling the dirty stone floor underneath me. It was dark, the only light the barest glimmer of a torch in the hallway, throwing flickering shadows through the slats in the iron door.
I was in a cell.
That had been my plan, but fear nestled in my heart as I found myself actually here, taken and trapped inside the demon’s stronghold. I swallowed heavily, willing myself not to panic. My eyes closed, and I stayed in my human form. People would underestimate me more. It was like being a slave all over again, wasn’t it?
Except this time, I had a goal. Find the blood witches, find the sea witches. That was the plan--what I needed to do in order to secure their alliance with us and the humans. I just had to make sure not to die before getting them out.
There was a groan next to me and I jerked, balling myself into the corner and refusing to shift to my draken form. Instead, I called my claws forth and pressed down on my chest, activating my blood magick. My eyes sharpened, and exhaled in disbelief when I saw who laid across from me.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed, poking him in the side. Thad groaned again, rolling over. His black eyes cracked open, his hands going immediately to his side. I tracked his movements, noticing the blood pooling around him.
“I s-said I would protect you.”
I growled in frustration, and would have slapped him had he not already been injured.
“I got captured on purpose, you cockmuffin. I’m trying to find the witches!”
He rolled back over, presenting me with his back. I scowled.
“Try not to bleed all over my side of the cell, would you?”
He coughed wetly and I tried not to wince.
“You really don’t like me.”
I rolled my eyes in the darkness, hugging my knees to my chest. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of any more conversation. There was a loud thump, than a strange, muffled sound. I peeked over my hands at him, concerned despite it all.
“T-Thad?”
I turned fully, watching in horrified fascination as his body twitched and writhed on the ground, even as he tried to vain to keep from screaming, a piece of leather wedged in his mouth. I disregarded all my vows to let him rot, and was at his side in an instant.
“What’s wrong? What causes these attacks?”
I laid a hand on his shoulder, but it only made his writhing worse, and the bleeding from his wound worse. I clutched my head in frustration, and ran to the iron door, pounding hard enough to bruise my hands.
“HEY OUT THERE! HE’S DYING AND NEEDS HELP! HELLO!”
No one came, and I gritted my teeth. My draken form slid out, and I called upon my voice magicks. The leather fell from Thad’s mouth and he screamed, long and loud. The kind of scream that made your hair stand on end, and your soul temporarily leave your body. I screeched as loud as I could, the sound reverberating through the entire mountain. In minutes footsteps were pounding towards the cell, and I shifted back to my human form just as the door was wrenched open and arrows were aimed at my face. I mutely pointed to Thad, who continued to scream louder as I had called for help.
“Dracken trash,” the demon hissed, his misshapen head giving him the appearance that someone had tried to dent it from the outside in, and nearly succeeded.
“I don’t think the Overlord would appreciate it if the Cantradian heir died his first night in captivity.” I bit out, acting as unconcerned as I could manage with so many weapons pointed at my head.
The demon's eyes narrowed to slits, but he gestured to three smaller demon imps who loped forward, picking Thad up under his armpits and dragging him out of the cell. His blood left an ugly smear along the dirt and stone. What would they do with him? I hoped that would heal him, but it wasn’t guaranteed. My plan was to get captured for information, not to get the heir of Cantrada assassinated. How would we rally the human slaves without him?
The demons dragged him through the door, rounding around the corner. At the last possible moment, his eyes flickered open.. He caught the glimmer of the fear and uncertainty on my face, and began to struggle against the demons. Impressively he managed to fight them all off temporarily, until another seizure hit him hard. Then he was gone, he screams echoing off the corridor. My cell door slammed shut, and I was alone.
I wouldn’t cry.
I backed into the corner again, blinking away tears. I could just shift away at any time, couldn’t I? The thought helped keep my panic at bay, and I gathered my knees to chest. It was so cold here. I wished for once I had worn more clothing. I wished for a lot of things, but mostly, just to lay my head against the chests of my mates one last time.