by ERIN BEDFORD
20
Leaving the room, we encountered our first set of guards. They took one look at our group before shouting for help.
“We’ve got this,” Raijin said as he and Fujin readied their weapons and stood in front of us. “You go the other way. Raiden?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful.” Raijin gave him a meaningful look before charging at the guards.
Raiden took a step toward his brothers, but I grabbed his hand, forcing him to turn from the fight. “Come on, we’ll see them again.”
“Right.” Raiden nodded before hurrying us down the hallway and out a side door. A spiral staircase laid before us, and we rushed down the stairs until we heard a commotion from the bottom. Pausing mid-step, we tried to turn to go back, but before we could, the shouts of the guards above filled my ears.
“We have to keep going,” Firestar commanded, taking the lead, his kusarigamas clenched in his hands. “We’ll have to fight our way through.”
Running down the stairs, Firestar lashed out at the coming guards, knocking them back down the stairs and hopefully into the rest of the enemies. I held tightly to Raiden’s hand as Jack brought up the rear. The sound of quickly approaching boots behind us made the ice dragon urge me forward.
“I don’t want to accidentally hit you with this,” he explained, holding his hammer in his hands.
I hurried away from Jack as he stayed behind to stop our incoming attackers. Firestar continued forward with Raiden and I close behind. The sound of fighting surrounded us, and magic filled the air. Blasts of flame leapt from Firestar’s weapons as he smashed through two guards, reducing them to charred corpses in a split second. The smell of burned flesh hit my nose as Raiden pulled me past the bodies.
As Firestar reached the bottom, he stopped, waiting for us to catch up. The moment we neared him, he cracked open the door leading to the courtyard, and when no one attacked him, peered through the narrow opening.
“How’s it looking?” I asked, handing Raiden the bag his brother had given us. “Do you think we can make it out?”
“Hard to tell, the king’s men are fighting the ones aligned with the queen, but I can’t tell who’s fighting for whom.” He sighed and shook his head. “Our best chance is to try to get out unnoticed in the shadows.”
Nodding my head, I chewed on my thumb in thought. I didn’t expect it to be easy. We’d already encountered so many men, I had a hard time believing it would be easy enough to hide in the shadows. Plus, the twins were fighting for us. I didn’t know them well, but I didn’t want them to die for us. It was bad enough Raiden's mother was rebelling, but to lose his brothers too? I didn’t know how he would cope with it.
Feet pounding on the stairs made us tense, and the guys shoved me behind them. Weapons at the ready they prepared to attack whoever came at us, but when Jack came around the spiral corner, we relaxed a bit.
“Why are you waiting?” Jack asked, still coming at us at a quick speed. “Let’s go, there are more coming.”
Not having to be told twice, Firestar pushed the door open and ushered us through.
The courtyard was a mess. Lightning dragon fought against lightning dragon, making the ground a dangerous place to be. Too focused on their own battles, we were able to get out the door and along the wall of the palace wall. Now we just had to find a way out of the palace and into the city. From there, maybe we could escape before anyone noticed.
“Maya,” Raiden hissed at me, and I realized I had started to lag behind while lost in thought. Shaking my head, I quickened my footsteps to catch up with them all the while keeping an eye out around us. From the way it was looking, someone was losing, and I had a bad feeling it was us.
“Stop,” Firestar commanded in a hushed tone.
We’d come to the corner of the wall and would now have to find a way out. We were only a few feet from being out in the open and out of the safety of the shadows. The gate even further away. I didn’t see a way we were getting out without a fight.
“Raiden,” Firestar said, grabbing the lightning dragon’s attention. “Any ideas?”
Frowning, Raiden stroked his chin. “We can’t fly over, they have dozens of men on the walls that’d shoot us down in a second.” He became quiet his eyes scanning all around us. Shaking his head with a dejected sigh, he said, “The only way out is through the main gate, but with how many men are out there, it’d be suicide.”
“What we need…” Jack started, drawing our attention to him. “Is a distraction.”
Without warning, Jack’s wings sprouted, and he took flight. Zipping toward the fighting, he drew most of the guards toward him, leaving the palace gate free and clear.
As they charged him, Jack threw a blast of frost through the air, fast freezing the first two guards, and as they started to plummet toward the earth, he doubled back, arcing through the air, warhammer raised high. The guards, temporarily stunned by their leaders turning to ice sculptures, hesitated, and that was all Jack needed to press his advantage.
His warhammer lashed out in a brutal overhead swing that shattered the skull of the next guard in line, and as his corpse plummeted like a bloody comet, he whirled, flying into the crowd of men and lashing out with the haft of his weapon. As the blow caught the closest guard under the chin and snapped his head back with a brutal crack, I realized what he was doing. Using them for cover to keep the others from blasting him.
“That brilliant idiot.” Raiden shook his head, and I couldn’t agree more even as my heart sank to my stomach. At the end of the day, Jack was surrounded, and even though the ice dragon seemed a great warrior, numbers had a way of getting the upper hand given enough time. We just had to make sure they didn’t have that much time. As bolts of frost sprang from my suiter’s hands, dropping more of the guards, I pressed forward, urging Firestar on.
“Let’s not let his sacrifice go to waste.” Firestar bounded forward not at all worried about his words. Sacrifice? Jack was just distracting them, that was all. He’d come back. He had to come back.
I told myself this over and over as we made it to the gate. Raiden rushed up the ladder of the gate tower. A moment later a latch clicked loudly, and the gate rose. Not waiting for Raiden to return to the ground, Firestar grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me through the archway and into the city.
With a firm hold on my hand, Firestar wouldn’t let me slow down for a second. As he shouldered aside one of the guards outside, he shoved me forward. As the guy hit the ground, Firestar whirled, driving the blade of his kusarigama into the second guard’s chest. Blood spurted from the wound, and as the guard collapsed to his knees clutching his gushing chest, Firestar moved to my side.
“We have to hurry,” he said, urging me onward. I tried to keep pace with him as best I could, but I kept looking back to search for Raiden or Jack. When we finally made it far enough away from the palace itself, we paused to catch our breaths.
“Do you think…?” I started to ask, but Firestar cut me off.
“Don’t think about it. We have to get you out. That’s what’s important.” When I opened my mouth to argue, he grabbed me by the shoulders. “Maya, they are doing this for you. Don’t let their sacrifices be in vain.”
My eyes pricked with tears and I was on the verge of a meltdown when Raiden landed right in the middle of us. Laughing through my tears, I wrapped my arms around Raiden’s waist, holding onto him as if he might disappear at any moment.
“Sorry for the delay, I got stopped on the way down.” Raiden patted me on the back and then nodded at Firestar. “Has Jack…?”
“No, not yet,” Firestar answered and then for us to keep going.
With Raiden at my back and Firestar at my front, we dodged behind houses and market stalls. It was quieter here, most of the fighting near the palace. In fact, we didn’t see a guard until the city limits were in sight.
“It doesn’t seem like the fighting has made it this far yet.” Firestar pointed out the lack of extra guards on th
e outer wall. “But I doubt it will stay that way for long.”
“I agree.” Raiden nodded toward the gate. “Though, getting through the main gate will be a bit harder than the palace. You remember how we were stopped before. At night time, it will be even worse.”
“So, how do we get out?” I sighed exasperatedly. I couldn’t believe it was this difficult to get out of a city. I didn’t remember my father’s palace being that hard to leave. Then again, I’d never been there while we were under siege.
“Leave it to me,” Raiden said, touching the side of his nose with a wink.
Before I could protest, Raiden started toward the gates as if he had no care in the world. I was getting tired of them leaving me. I had no way of knowing if they were coming back, and if I didn’t have them, then what was the point of it all?
Firestar inched us closer to the gates, but we couldn’t make out what Raiden was saying to the guards. A few minutes later, he came back out of the shadows and waved us forward. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, we hurried over to him.
Not meeting their gaze, we followed Raiden through the gates and out of the city. We didn’t dare look back or say anything until we were on the hill where we had first seen Raiden’s beloved home.
“What did you say to them?” I asked when we could finally breathe.
Raiden smirked and rocked on his heels just exuding self-satisfaction. “My mother might be a vicious, conniving woman, but she doesn’t know the first thing about warfare.”
I raised a brow not sure what he meant.
“She focused all her effort on closing down the palace and didn’t think to bother with the front gate. They didn’t even know we were under attack.” Raiden chuckled and shook his head. “So, I told them that the raiders had gotten loose and were attacking the palace.”
“And?” I coaxed him, not believing the guards could be that dumb.
“And that if my brothers or a guy with long white hair comes this way to let them out immediately because they are supposed to help us against the raiders.” Firestar opened his mouth, but Raiden held a finger up to stop him. “But wait, this is the best part.”
Firestar and I exchanged an impatient look and then turned our attention back to the boasting lightning dragon.
“I told them if any rumors are going around that don’t make sense, not to believe them. The raiders are trying to split the kingdom, and those here on the wall are the last stronghold against them.” He smacked his leg and laughed at his own cleverness.
Shaking my head at him, I didn’t even bother to explain how not funny it was. Jack and his brothers’ safety relied completely on the guards believing his tall tales. Not a pleasant thought.
Turning back to the fighting city, I rubbed the back of my neck. “So, what now? Do we wait to see if your brothers and Jack make it or go on?”
Firestar and Raiden looked at each other a silent message passed between them before Firestar turned back to me. “We need to keep going, put as much distance between us and the palace as possible. Then we can stop and wait for them.”
“But what about Jack or your brothers?” I asked, still not convinced. “We can’t leave them there. They could get killed.”
“Mother won’t kill my brothers.” He shook his head before continuing. “Even she’s not that callous.” He paused, mulling over his next words. “I also doubt my mother will want Jack dead now that you’ve escaped,” Raiden said, meeting my eyes. “He’s too useful as collateral.”
“You mean?” I asked, dread filling my stomach.
“Yes.” Raiden nodded solemnly. “Even if they do manage to capture him, he’ll be okay, at least until my mother can reach out to bargain with you for his life.” He took a deep breath. “The best thing you can do for him is to keep going.”
Not happy with the decision but knowing it was for the best, I inclined my head slightly.
We made our way down the other side of the hill, leaving the warring city behind us. Keeping on foot, so not to be seen in the sky, we didn’t stop until we were deep into a thick gathering of trees. I focused on putting one foot in front of the other and not what I was leaving behind. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to keep going without breaking down.
I had to be strong. That was what Jack would want. What all of them would want. Plus, I didn’t want to be a burden to them, and a hysterical woman would definitely be a burden right now.
“Let’s stop here,” Raiden stated after another hour of travel. “We are a few miles from the city, and my mother doesn’t know this place. Fortunately, both Jack and my brothers do,” he inclined his head to Firestar who nodded.
“This is where we set up camp before heading after the bandits,” Firestar affirmed.
“Exactly, so if they manage to escape, they will come here to check first.” Raiden gave me a satisfied look.
“Are you sure?” I asked, surprised.
“Yes.” Raiden nodded. “Trust me.”
With that, Firestar and Raiden went about making camp while I dug through the bag. I found a bundle of wood but put it aside so we could save it for when there wasn’t an abundance of trees. I pushed aside several other items not needed until my hand found a metal flask.
Withdrawing it from the bag, I didn’t even hesitate before unscrewing the top and chugging the contents. Hot fire ran down my throat and settled in my belly. The Dragon’s Tears worked as fast as I hoped, numbing my emotions enough so I didn’t feel like I was falling apart.
I lifted the flask to take another drink, but it was snatched from my hands. Jumping to my feet, I yelled, “Give that back!”
“Do you have any idea what this could do to your child if you were really pregnant?” Jack asked me, holding the flask high above my head as he gave me a chastising glare.
“One drink won’t hurt,” I argued, standing on my tiptoes trying to get it back before it registered who was talking to me. Eyes wide, I scanned over Jack’s form to make sure I wasn’t drunk hallucinating, but I wasn’t. It was really him. Throwing myself on him, I knocked him back a step, his arms coming down to wrap around me.
“It’s all right,” Jack soothed, running his hand through my hair. “I’m here. I’m fine.”
Suddenly, I shoved him back and smacked his chest. “Don’t you ever do anything like that again, you stupid, stupid man!”
“My apologies.” Jack chuckled, holding his hands up in defense. “I did not mean for you to worry.”
“Well, I did,” I snapped back and then threw myself into his embrace once more. “I was scared I’d never see you again.”
“Me too, my love. Me too,” he murmured into my hair.
My heart swelled. We were safe, and I had all three of my men with me. Nothing could have made me happier at that moment.
Sure, we were surrounded by enemies with even more coming daily, and I didn’t know what would be waiting for us in the north. What I did know beyond a shadow of a doubt was that as long as I had Firestar guarding my back and Raiden and Jack at my sides, we’d be able to take on anything that came at us. Together.
Thank You for reading!
Curious about what happens to Maya, Raiden, Jack, and Firestar next?
* * *
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Author’s Note
Dear reader, if you REALLY want to read the next Starcrossed Dragons novel- I’ve got a bit of bad news for you.
Unfortunately, Amazon will not tell you when the next comes out.
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