Everything transpired too fast for my mind to catch up—for one alarming second later, Remycah was wounded from an attack by Ohtar’s hand, and then to the astonishment of all, leapt over the side of the ledge. Ender’s panicked voice rung out through the atmosphere, and as I eliminated my opponent once and for all, I was overcome with that same horror I had heard in Ender. For my poor younger brother was overtaken by N’taurn.
“No!” I screamed as I ran to him. N’taurn was about to deal the lethal stroke that would end my brother’s life, but Cathar was saved without a moment to lose. My beautiful Calen attacked N’taurn’s head with a body aflame as she dug her claws into his face and knocked him backward.
To my horror, he whipped a backhanded hit at her that bashed her into the mountainside. Tears were there instantly, stinging my eyes, for I had felt her pain.
Dropping to Cathar, I was in desperate need to verify if he lived or died. Once I felt his pulse, I closed my eyes and let out a steady breath. My eyes found N’taurn’s as he advanced near me with vicious intent. Rising slowly, I held my sword into the air and readied myself for revenge. For he would indeed pay for what he did to my brother and Fëa.
Chapter Thirty-Two
~Nari~
“Ed’ i’ear ar’ elenea,” Ohtar exclaimed into my face, like the sight of me disgusted him. He kept my head pulled back by the hair. “Mani marte, amin Fallaner? Nae saian luume’.”
“You know I don’t speak gibberish, Your unRoyal Ugliness.” I twisted my body so that my face was downward and locked my jaw closed to bite back the pain from my hair getting ripped out. In one swift motion with the spin, I had karate chopped Ohtar’s arm at the bend of his elbow. He dropped my poor roots, only to grab me by the neck with his other hand.
“You are quite rude, Fallaner. I simply inquired about your obvious ill health.” He tightened his grip around my windpipe, lifting me off the ground.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I hurt your feelings?” I choked on the words from the pressure around my throat, but forced them out regardless. “Well, hate to break it to you, but it’s none of your business.”
An arrow cut through the cold wind and stuck into Ohtar’s wrist. He released me immediately as he grunted something in Elvish and tore the arrow from his flesh. I had landed on my knees as I heaved in precious oxygen. “Nari, run!” Rydan ordered.
I shot up into a sprint away from Rydan’s vicious uncle, but he yanked the hood of my jacket and launched me twenty-feet backward into the solid rock of the mountainside. My skull cracked against the unforgiving surface. The sensation of a warm liquid slid down to the nape of my neck, and I knew right away it was blood.
“Pathetic,” Ohtar murmured. “And here I had high expectations for you, Fallaner. A rare hybrid? The combination of our two races should most certainly create in you an unstoppable force. And yet, here you are, a crumpled mess no stronger than my right pinky.”
He held up his gloved little finger and looked at it like it was special. More special than my entire existence. I dragged myself to a standing position using the jagged wall of rocks behind me. “Nope. I’m a nobody. You’re right.”
“You lie,” he barked, his eyes growing big as they drank me in. “The deceit is heavy in you, my Fallaner. You hide a great secret. One you try so desperately to conceal from my reach. But I will extract it from you.”
A slow, slithering stream of desire pooled in the recesses of my mind like a broken pipe leaking water. Subtle at first—I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn't already expected Ohtar to try something like this—then it saturated within, a weight dead set on making me vulnerable.
He wanted me to be his puppet. I could feel his desire invading into my own. A malicious will that was bent on wielding my dormant powers as a weapon. Had I been someone else, perhaps a regular servant or one without inner strength, I would have been instantly lost to him.
It was a dark force that snuck into your subconscious like a thief in the night, eager to claim every bit of your most prized possession—your self-control.
Oh, but I wasn’t just anyone. And I was done playing around.
“You won’t be getting anything out of me, Ohtar.” Tension coupled with aggression hung thick in the atmosphere as we stared each other down. Lómë stalked quietly from behind, then stretched up on her hind legs and sunk her claws into Ohtar’s back, dragging them downward. I threw my hand upward into the air and flicked my arm down to send a dozen icicles off the mountain, using Ohtar’s face as my target. He ducked just in time as he tucked himself into a ball with a strong force that pitched Lómë into the sky. With a final crash against the rock-face, she sagged to the frozen piles of snow that lay below, not moving. My heart closed in on itself, but I had no time to weep.
Ohtar advanced with a deadly glare and a sharp blade at his disposal. My sword had gotten lost somewhere from the scuffle, leaving me armed with only my wits. “Try that again, filth. You will need a great deal more than mere ice as your pathetic weapon,” he taunted.
“Don’t say you didn’t ask for it.” One of my favorite but familiar tricks was to call upon lightning, and so I steadied my breathing and begged for aid. I again reached for the sky and pulled downward with a bolt of light striking at Ohtar’s body. It caught him off guard, faltering for a brief moment, but then he was right back to being his usual, vile self.
I knew Ohtar was immune to Mycah’s abilities and not mine, but yet, nothing I was capable of doing seemed anywhere near strong enough to keep him down for the count.
Unexpectedly, Rydan threw himself into Ohtar, who was quick to counter the attack by shouldering Rydan away. Their swords met in a crash that echoed off the mountain walls. Sarqua charged forward, eager to settle the score. I took over for Rydan, who had taken over Ohtar for me, and deflected Sarqua mid-stride using my newly found sword.
He smiled at me. “Mmm, I will take great pleasure in this.”
I hated the sound of his voice. I hated the look of his face. I would never forgive him for what he had done to me. “Oh, I will be enjoying this, too. Just so you know.”
Just then, Dúlin skyrocketed into view, grabbing everyone’s attention. Mycah jumped down onto the flat surface of the plateau while the dragon continued flying above everyone’s heads. I understood there wasn’t much Dúlin could do when we were all fighting together—it’d put us all at risk having a dragon attack in such close quarters. If he used his flame, then we’d be set on fire along with Ohtar’s henchmen. If he did any sort of thrashing or physical attack, we’d be hit as well. And therein lay the downside to battling on the top of a mountain despite having a dragon on your side.
Rydan continued to fight with Ohtar, and Sarqua didn’t wait to come at me. I held my sword high, ready for his first move. But before he could charge, Mycah marched in and clobbered Sarqua with a punch across his jawbone. He spun to the ground with a heavy thud, and Mycah straddled him instantly, nailing fist after fist into the guy’s face.
“You know very well what this is for,” Mycah grunted, testosterone and anger exuding from him like a palpable force. Sarqua remained silent, probably because he couldn’t speak even if he wanted to. “I know there’s an abyss of darkness in your heart, Sarqua. You were never under Ohtar’s influence, were you? You didn’t need it.”
I had to look away once Mycah started bashing his head into the ground until it sounded as if it cracked like an egg. It bothered me, but I understood his anger. Sarqua enjoyed torturing others. He was sick.
That was when I noticed Lómë had returned to her feet, and I thanked the stars above. She must’ve only been knocked unconscious. At the same time, Ohtar dealt Rydan a blow that sent him sliding to the edge of the cliff. Lómë had recovered in the nick of time, and she immediately took off in his direction.
Ohtar had his eyes set on Mycah, and they engaged in combat once more. I took off to help one of the others. I was afraid of getting in the way, but needed to help somehow. Then to my horror, the Isil
soldier Cílon battled with impaled him with a mighty thrust. “No!” I screamed, mourning the loss of yet another one of my kin.
That same soldier advanced toward Ender and whoever it was that he fought, but I wouldn’t stand for it. I sprinted in his direction and thrust my blade at his neck. As I dodged his attack, I noticed Cathar was badly injured and Naminé was barely holding on as she dealt with N’taurn. I didn’t see Calen and prayed she was alive.
“Rydan!” I called as he sat up from his place near the edge. “Help Naminé!”
I sent a barrage of ice, snow, and rocks into the night elf’s face, giving me a chance to then kick him in the gut. Rydan had got my message and was on his way to assist Naminé.
Ender finished his opponent once and for all, but then from my peripheral, I caught Ohtar about to kill Mycah. His damaged body lay flat on the ground as Ohtar stood over him, a foot slammed on Mycah’s throat. With his blade held high, all he had to do was thrust it downward. My breath was stolen away from me and the world stopped spinning. I couldn’t move, and I had no idea if I was about to be killed alongside him, because my gaze was ripped from my duel and glued to Mycah.
But then in a flash of light, Ender—my father—was suddenly in between Mycah and Ohtar, taking the hit for himself. A scream left my lips before I could stop it, mixing in with Mycah's own cries of sadness, and I lurched to the side in his direction. The soldier I had been fighting sailed passed me, not expecting my sudden retreat. Ohtar’s sword remained fixed in my father’s back, but he didn’t leave it there for long. He sacrificed himself for Mycah, and a part of my heart crumbled into despair. Ohtar pulled Ender’s body off of his weapon and went back to slicing away at Mycah, who had wobbled to his feet.
I hardly even noticed when Rydan took out the guy I had been battling with, since my focus refused to leave the actions of Mycah and Ender. That was when I noticed Ender was not dead. He lived. Tears pricked my eyes at the realization. But he was badly wounded.
Mycah fought harder than ever as he delivered an onslaught of attacks at Ohtar. I could see the fear and uncertainty suddenly ripen in the false king’s eyes as his feet reached the end of the mountain. There was nowhere else for him to go but down. Rydan said, “Give it up, Ohtar. You’re alone.”
Ohtar flung himself over the side of the ledge once he had realized all his men were dead or unconscious and it was now three against one. I ran to the edge to watch—rocks and snow getting flung over the side from my boots—as he descended the mountain like a mountain lion. Scraping, sliding, and leaping kept him alive and in control of his descent like a pro. I was seriously impressed. But also incredibly aggravated.
Darn him, escaping yet again.
“Let’s go!” Mycah ran to his dragon and leapt onto his back in one fluid motion. Rydan was right there behind him, and Lómë shifted into a mouse mid-jump that landed on her counterpart’s shoulder.
“We’ll come back for you all, I promise,” I called over my shoulder to Naminé, Cathar, and Ender. “I’m so sorry!”
“Go, we will be quite all right. It is more important you do not lose him,” Ender managed to breathe out. I wished we had time to heal them, but every second spent up here meant a greater chance of Ohtar fleeing, and then we’d have to start this entire battle over again. We had to end this. And it had to be now.
Rydan helped me up into the middle position, with him claiming the spot behind. Dúlin didn’t hesitate for a moment. My butt barely touched his back and already we flew in a downward spiral. I held onto Mycah with a white-knuckled grip and closed my eyes tightly. I wasn’t looking, but I assumed we searched for Ohtar with the intent of catching him before he reached the bottom. Only, it didn’t seem we were finding him. I risked a peek and realized we flew back and forth, up and down, and over the side of the mountain. Oh, god, when will this roller coaster end?
“There,” Mycah announced after a while.
“Yeah, I see him,” Rydan agreed. My focus, on the other hand, got stuck on the castle of Aselaira not far beyond our current position, but still in the distance. Ohtar had taken us closer to it, and a lot farther from where we had started this whole thing.
We swooped to the bottom, and the instant we did, Ohtar blew a blaring horn. Massive arrows were set loose into the sky, all aiming for us. They lacerated Dúlin’s wings and neck like stickpins, and Mycah groaned in agony. Dúlin lost altitude until we crashed to the ground and flew apart. My body was tossed into the air like a crash dummy mannequin and smashed into the grass.
It all transpired so fast, I had no idea what happened to Rydan and Mycah before a dozen Isil soldiers overtook me. It felt like a leg and possibly my ribs were broken.
And here was the trap. It just wasn’t what we had expected.
Encircled by a beaming white glow, Lissë barreled out of the trees. She shone brighter than lightning and galloped with the same speed of it toward my enemies. They were blinded and confused by her light. Like a stampede, she trampled over their bodies until she reached me, all while kicking and head-whipping any who tried to stop her. I had no idea she could do any of that, but I was beginning to understand that our powers had been growing and increasing in strength. I climbed onto her back with sickening pain shooting throughout my body.
She knew I urgently needed Mycah, and while she took me to him, I searched for Rydan. My arm lay across my ribcage to hold back the pain, but each bump of Lissë’s step had me almost crying out over my apparently broken leg. Once I spotted Rydan, I breathed a sigh of relief. The soldiers Lissë had just rescued me from surrounded Lómë and him.
He must have been coming to my aid but my Fëa got to me first. Now he was left dealing with them. I felt horrible and overwhelmed with worry for my best friend, but I had to get to Mycah, quick, so that he could heal me.
We raced forward until finally he was in sight. An arrow came whizzing out of nowhere toward his face, but he caught it in the air with his bare hand before grabbing the bow off Ohtar and shooting it immediately back at the guy who had sent it in the first place. Mycah had fired it with such power, it tore the enemy’s head clear off his shoulders. Ohtar barreled into Mycah’s stomach and slammed his already broken body into a tree. Mycah kneed Ohtar in the gut and tried breaking his neck, but Ohtar elbowed Mycah in the face, knocking his skull into the hard trunk.
I flinched and covered my face, and then groaned in pain from the movement. I had had enough of this. A roar burst from my lungs as some powerful force exploded from somewhere deep within me. It came out whenever I was pushed past my breaking point, and this time, I thought I could control it.
Ohtar went catapulting in reverse, giving me time to slide off Lissë like deadweight the instant I reached Mycah. I lay writhing on the ground while he placed his shaking hands over my ribs. Dirt and sweat were smeared over his face and forehead that creased in fear and concentration, his hair a deeper black than usual. I gazed into his swirling, multi-faceted blue eyes as he healed my injuries with speed and precision. I could see the guilt and pain that shone there. He didn’t hide it from me. He wanted me to know his remorse.
I slid my fingers along his jawbone and he closed his eyes at my touch. A tear unforgivably escaped down my cheek, and I bit the inside of my mouth to hold back all the things I wanted to say to him in this moment, but shouldn’t. That I loved him. That I didn’t regret anything, and if either one of us perished today in this fight, we’d live on in each other’s hearts and souls for all eternity.
A slam to the side of Mycah’s head had his neck cracking the other way, and his body lay sprawled over the grass. I leapt to my feet, feeling fully recovered from my wounds, and defended the love of my life while he regained his composure. I hurled a violent wind that picked up leaves, rocks, and broken twigs at Ohtar’s dominating figure. He tossed it away with a force of his own.
“You will not take this kingdom from me, nadorhuan,” he swore. Fissures and cracks broke the surface of the ground at his feet that felt like the foundat
ion shook at its core. The veins gained momentum and stretched toward my boots. Mycah hopped up within seconds and held his palm out to the fractures beneath him, stopping them in their place.
A fist full of arrows suddenly punctured Ohtar’s chest, one just whizzing past his head by a hair. It would’ve made its mark if Ohtar hadn’t moved at the last second. Rydan stood from afar like an angel ready for battle. Lómë came charging toward us with beautiful grace, her muscles flexing as her giant paws pounded into the earth. Rydan took off in a run next, and I swept my gaze to Mycah.
Ohtar seemed flabbergasted by the arrows sticking out of his body. But he did not let it deter him from the fight. He ripped them all out at once, but Mycah was suddenly in his face. He seized Ohtar’s throat with one hand as the other clenched a heap of his clothes at his shoulder. Mycah drove the wicked elf into the base of the mountain until I heard a loud crunching sound.
I sprinted over to them with all my speed and watched them struggle against each other. Ohtar was pushing Mycah away with all his strength while Mycah forced him in the other direction, appearing to expel all he had so that Ohtar wouldn’t budge. They grunted and groaned from the effort. “No! I won’t let you do this,” Ohtar said through gritted teeth. He head-butted Mycah and shoved him to the ground, landing on top.
As I ran, I threw my elven dagger I had kept hidden in my boot through the air, and it struck Ohtar in his breastplate. I gathered up every ounce of strength contained in my body and from every blade of grass, soul of the mountain, and stars hanging above our heads. Mycah yanked out the dagger just before I reached them and erupted my energy into Ohtar. He flailed backward into the rocks. “Long live King Remycah,” I vowed firmly.
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