by BJ Hanlon
Edin skidded to a stop and looked around for whoever said that. Then he looked at the dematian king near his legs. His eyes were a reddish purple and they looked about as evil as eyes could look.
The dematian king held up a sharp, clawed hand and pointed to the sky.
In the gray billowing cloud he saw it, the dark giant shape of a wyrm. “I am not afraid.”
‘It is not my beast that you should be worried about. It’s what is strapped to its back.’
Edin swallowed and then he saw the wyrm break from the clouds and began to fly down toward the ground as if it were on a twister.
Edin caught glimpses of what was on its back and each one set his heart burning and soaring. Blonde hair and pale, formerly ivory skin. He couldn’t be sure, but the cloak looked like the one he’d last seen her wearing.
The wyrm dropped down next to the dematian king and spread its giant mouth. There were great teeth inside.
They looked like wolf’s teeth only ten times the size. The dematian king did something and ropes that had bound Arianne separated and she slid, almost like she was on a slide, down the side of the wyrm and onto the wet grass next to the wyrm.
The king stepped back until he was near Arianne.
“Let her go,” Edin growled. He gripped his sword as tight as possible and readied ethereal knives. They’d cut this demon in half and with the force he’d put in them, he was sure he could cut the wyrm in half too.
“The stone, give it to me.” The end of the dematian king’s staff turned a bright red. It was the beam that nearly tore the building in two. And it was pointing at Arianne’s chest.
“No,” Edin shouted and summoned an ethereal bubble over Arianne.
In that moment, the dematian king turned the staff toward Edin and fired the beam. Edin barely had time to shield himself when he was struck.
There was a blankness to his mind. It hit Edin in the chest and took him off his feet and into the air and he corkscrewed at least five times before his back slammed against something hard. Breath escaped him in such force he was left wondering what happened. Edin dropped to the ground and barely caught a glimpse of three dematians coming toward him from the right. If they got him, she was dead. Though they’d be disappointed with not getting the stone. At least not yet.
He couldn’t let them win. He couldn’t let her die. Edin barely had the strength to do so but he rolled to his side and summoned three ethereal knives.
He whipped them at the dematians who seemed extremely shocked to be split in pieces.
“Ahh!” the dematian king yelled in his head and Edin turned toward it, summoning more knives to his hand.
“Let her go.” He screamed.
“The stone and she will live. I will tell our lord that you were helpful. He may make you a pet rather than destroy you.”
“Never!”
Then he heard her cry. Arianne’s voice rocked him, nearly off his knees where he was currently. Her wailing, tear-filled and terrified scream struck him to the center of his being.
Edin waivered.
‘Don’t.’ A voice said in his head. It was the abbot in his mind. ‘You will murder my brother and the world.’
Edin gritted his teeth. He was in a standoff and there was only way to live and fight another day.
‘Do not do it. I ordered your companion to take it. I ordered him to.’ Edin cut the voice from his head.
“I do not have it,” Edin said.
The dematian king growled and the light grew redder. Arianne screamed, more pained as if the dematian were doing something to her.
“No, I sent it down the river before you arrived. A monk has it.” Edin quickly sheathed his sword and reached into his pockets and pulled them out. “I swear on the gods.”
‘Traitor!’ Somehow the abbot got through his mental barrier.
The red light faded and a moment later, the dematian king leapt onto the back of the wyrm and they flew off down the river.
A brief second of thought made him want to send ethereal knives at them, but he didn’t have the strength. Edin stumbled to his feet and ran to her. He dropped and skidded on his knees on the wet grass and stopped a foot from her torso. She was still tied at the hands and knees and her eyes were wild as she stared up at him.
Her jaw trembled. “What? Where?”
Edin bent down and kissed her. He hugged her and pulled her to him as deep and as strong as he could. He didn’t know what else to do.
He heard soft feet padding near him and then a whimper and looked up. Coming toward him was Bliz. Blood covered much of his fur and he was limping.
They were alive for now. He looked to the sky above the river and saw the black outline of the dematian king on his wyrm as they followed the waterway.
They were alive, but for how long?
Soon, the final battle would start with Yio Volor rising from the underworld to destroy them all.
A book or two for you
Book offer + List signup
If you didn’t get it before here’s another link to your free books.
The first is Dephina’s last job. A party is being thrown for a merchant. A grand party at his newly built estate. He’s wealthy and has everything… even a contract on his head.
Then journey with Merik, the Por Fen Justicar, through the western state of Porinstol as he hunts the report of a mage.
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Thanks,
BJ
About the Author
Link to next book if available or date it will be available or you can check out the ‘site or my Amazon page!
The Abomination of Yaultan
The Timeless Keep
The Isle of Mists
The Rise of the Dematians
If you want to reach out to me for any other reason, check me out at [email protected]
A little favor to ask
Hey there, I am an independent author with no access to the big publishing mechanisms that drive people to the top of best seller lists and buy them luxury boats or whatever rich people do… I do have you though. My readers and hopefully friends. If you could just do me a favor and write a review for me, I’d be super grateful. Just overwhelmed with the amount of grates.
Here is the link to the page where you can be super awesome and write that review.
BJ
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places or events are entirely coincidental.
First Edition September 9, 2019 Copyright BJ Hanlon
Cover by Covermint Design
Edited by Beth Doward
Created with Vellum