Black Crown

by Kelly St Clare

  A vice squeezed my chest, and I screeched aloud as his tail connected with my aunt’s head. She rolled upside down over his back, her wings scraping over his ridged spine, and then she toppled, plummeting to the hard ground.

  I couldn’t waste the opportunity she’d given us. I threw everything I had into breaking his hold. Triumph surged from within as I felt his grip loosening on one of the Drae, feeding my confidence and my power. She fell and then a second. I couldn’t fathom how my aunt’s move had distracted him so much, yet I refused to let that distract me as I drilled my powers at the last barrier, shattering the final ring of control on the female Drae.

  Ryn, Tyrrik said. Your aunt took the Phaetyn from Draedyn. Kamini and the children are no longer on his back.

  Yep, that would’ve distracted him.

  I grinned at my mate, but my breath caught as I faced the massive green Drae before us. Draedyn was monstrous, and my stomach turned.

  You did it, my love. You freed them.

  I hoped my mate was right, but I was too fearful to share his elation. I cast my powers to the eleven females, checking first that they were unconscious and no longer a danger. Unwilling to risk them joining the battle again, I wove a thin layer of my powers around each, hoping it would be sufficient to give me a warning, even if the barrier couldn’t keep Draedyn out entirely. My aunt was still conscious. I darted a look at her and saw her fighting the three Druman who’d held Kamini and the children at knife point.

  I hate Druman, Tyrrik said. He blew out a breath of flame, torching the Druman farthest from the Phaetyn.

  It was all the help we could give her. We’d have to rely on my aunt and Kamini to kill the others.

  What’s our plan? I asked. I’d felt him assembling a strategy as I freed the females.

  Draedyn unleashed another jet at the army, and my heart wrenched with the cries and screams as the rebels caught in the flame disintegrated into ash, their lives over in a single breath. Druman attacked the front lines of Phaetyn, and roots burst from the ground, spearing the Druman on the spot. Swords and arrows and spears coated in golden Phaetyn blood flew through the air at the mules.

  As I watched, a catapult launched from our side at the Druman, and countless throwing stars dipped with Phaetyn blood soared through the air, killing the Drae side of any Druman they scratched.

  The plan is that I attack him physically and you attack him mentally, Tyrrik said in a rush. Get your Phaetyn veil up again.

  I did so in a second.

  Keep it around me if you can, he said. It gives me an advantage against him.

  I will, I said, my heart thundering. My mate was about to go into battle, and I so desperately wanted to tell him no, to go in myself, to force him away south to where we could hide.

  But we’d both made the decision to fight. To be here with those we loved.

  We were in this.

  I’ll need you to watch my energy levels, he added as the remaining distance closed with awful finality.

  I will, I said firmly. And I’ll attack his mind. As best I can. This was it. Fear coated my insides.

  Ryn, Tyrrik whispered as my father turned to face our attack.

  Draedyn’s emerald scales and sword-like fangs glinted in the morning sun.

  Tyrrik’s determination was set, but his nervousness leaked through our bond too. I love you more than my life.

  My heart shattered; to hear him say such things felt like accepting failure. I couldn’t bear to hear it. This talk of love and lives when we were here on the cusp of losing everything we’d fought so hard to achieve. Without Tyrrik, I had no love, I had no life. My future was with him.

  Always with him.

  He knew that. He would feel my anguish, my pain, just as I felt his. But his courage to act in spite of fear made me love him more. And so I told him simply, I love you. You are my mate, my soul, my life. You are my future.

  I banked sharply to the right, peeling away from Tyrrik’s side, diving to a position from afar, and hearing dreadful twin roars at my back and the whining groan of talons and fangs locked in battle.

  37

  I didn’t dare speak to Tyrrik, only sending images of Draedyn’s spiked tale when I thought my mate might not see it coming. Draedyn was a third larger than Tyrrik, but my Phaetyn power gave Tyrrik an advantage. While Draedyn could see through my veil because of our familial bond, like Tyrrik before we fully mated, judging by my father’s delayed reactions, he was having trouble. Keeping the veil completely over Tyrrik with his constant unpredictable movement was impossible, so Draedyn was still attacking, but we’d evened the playing field. I hoped.

  Now, I planned to tip it in our favor. I couldn’t spare a thought for what was happening below, despite the cacophony of battle. I could hear them, but every ounce of my attention was finely attuned to the person who meant the most to me. I could only see, feel, think of the danger to my mate.

  Circling around the fighting Drae, I flooded my mind with Phaetyn power and then coiled my Drae and Phaetyn tendrils as before.

  This time, I aimed for my father.

  I’d never attacked him. As I blasted beam after beam of my power at him, I felt like I was slamming my energy against a brick wall, and I realized with stone-cold certainty the enormity of our task.

  His power was smooth. I couldn’t find purchase. My powers were like hands trying to scramble up a slippery, vertical wall. I groaned as my mind screamed with protest, but renewed my efforts as I noticed, finally, they were having some physical effect.

  Draedyn’s movements slowed, and he faltered as I continued the assault on his power. That was encouragement enough. I roared in triumph, and Tyrrik slashed his talons over the base of Draedyn’s wings. Black blood sprayed from the wound, and my father’s pain-filled screech was deep, outraged.

  Tyrrik spun, whipping his tail across Draedyn’s snout.

  I continued blasting the slippery wall, desperate to see this through. I wanted a life with Tyrrik. I wanted it so bad that I would do anything to make it happen. Draedyn sunk his fangs into Tyrrik’s side, and I screamed with my mate, immediately diverting some of my power to healing my mate until I felt his energy return to full capacity.

  As Tyrrik righted himself, the emperor dove for the ground behind his lines of Druman.

  What’s he doing? I asked, feeling safe to do so as my father landed.

  Changing tactics, Tyrrik panted. Are you okay?

  Never better. I tried to roll my eyes and snorted at myself. How can Drae not have the eye-roll? Do you need more energy?

  Not at the moment, but I have a feeling this is just beginning.

  I had to agree with him. Hours and days could go by as they slowly chipped away at each other’s strength.

  The air around Draedyn’s form shimmered. He’s changing! I said. Why would he do that?

  Tyrrik and I circled above.

  I’m . . . not sure. It doesn’t make sense. He’s hiding behind his Druman.

  Yes, we need to take them out. Just be careful. They fight dirty.

  My stomach twisted with the gruesome fight, and surprise punched me in the gut. Hundreds of Druman swarmed through the ranks of humans. Men from Verald and Gemond mixed with the silver-haired Phaetyn as they battled.

  Let’s end this.

  Of course, Khosana.

  Tyrrik twisted, and I followed suit, angling toward the battle below. The stench of smoke and fire grew, burning wood, metal, and . . . flesh. Screams mixed with the clash of steel, the chaos beating mercilessly against my ears, growing in intensity the closer we came to the mêlée.

  Look at that group of Druman to the left, Tyrrik said, sounding a mite too pleased about seeing them clustered in a convenient group for execution. I’ll blast them. There’s a contingency of Azuli behind them. If you land there and put your tail to good use, I’ll mete punishment to the mules.

  I glided past him, catching the glowing heat in his chest out of the corner of my eyes. A moment later, he bellowed an
d then spewed liquid-blue death on my father’s progeny.

  I landed, my legs colliding to the earth, and roared at the humans siding with Draedyn. Enemy. I swung my spiked tail through the clustered groups of men, not pausing as I stomped my way deeper and deeper into their ranks to administer justice. Men screamed as I sliced through their paltry armor. Like hay ready for harvest, the Azulis fell under my wrath.

  My deafening roar carried across the plain, and suddenly, the ground reverberated with the pounding steps of a mass of humanity. A giant troop of young men crested the horizon, shaking their weapons in the air, and I grinned wide and toothy as I recognized the assassins at their head. These soldiers were the young men returned from the emperor’s offshore battle. They were here to help us!

  I batted away a small number of the persistent Azulis. Ahead, a shimmering golden web reappeared, and I chuffed, recognizing Lani’s shield. Everyone was here.

  I continued my advance, confident that Tyrrik had my back. My triumph radiated through our bond, and his bounced back to me.

  Whatever plan Draedyn had no longer mattered. I surged forward, knowing the scales of justice had tipped our way. To my left, the assassins and our young men from Verald and Gemond washed over the few remaining Azulis as they fought for freedom.

  Surrender. Their chant tickled my ears, the song of Draedyn’s defeat thrumming through my veins.

  But where is Draedyn? Until my father was dead, the war still raged.

  Up ahead, Tyrrik replied. In the center of his minions.

  I turned to see where my mate was looking, and my breath caught. A Druman loomed behind Tyrrik, wielding a dagger dripping with silver. Tyrrik! Behind you!

  The Druman swung his dagger downward in a slow arc. And sliced through my mate.

  Blistering pain stabbed through our bond, and my vision wavered. Tyrrik? I gasped. Frozen, panic pressed from all sides as I felt the poison course through his body. I screamed, Tyrrik!

  I reached through our bond as desperation flooded me. I screamed his name over and over. Phaetyn poison pumped through him, carried by his bloodstream to kill him. I screeched and lashed my tail wide as I spun in a circle, leveling everyone within reach. I crouched and then bounded into the air as I extended my wings, pumping as hard as I could.

  Tyrrik’s pain consumed me, yanking me to him. I tried to focus through the blinding panic. Tyrrik needed me to focus. Hold on, my love, I begged him.

  At the bottom of the valley laid my mate, right where Azule met with Draedyn’s lands. Throughout the area, only small skirmishes remained. The army might think the battle was won. How wrong they were.

  There. In the center of a mixed cluster of Phaetyn and humans were three Drae. In a blur I could barely decipher, my mind absorbed the scene. Tyrrik and Draedyn were in their human forms. And one of the female Drae lay still in the dirt. The once vibrant amethyst color of her scales was now gray and ashy. The lack of movement from her rib cage indicated the end of her suffering, and as I drew near, the coppery tang of blood wafted into the air from the gaping wound on her side. Druman surrounded her body, their weapons dripping with her blood.

  They were killing my kin. And yet, despite what I knew through my bond, that my mate was dying, a small part of me hoped I was wrong, that only this female had been slaughtered and not the other half of me.

  Three Phaetyn were on the ground . . . Two of the three silver-haired healers lay prone and unmoving, their skin sliced to ribbons and their heads twisted at an unnatural angle. Kamini knelt between her two dead compatriots, her face buried in her hands as her small frame shook with her sobs.

  I didn’t care. If my mate was safe, I would’ve felt grief on their behalf. But my heart lay torn and exposed on the ground, and as my gaze fell to Tyrrik, what was left of me disappeared.

  In front of Kamini was my mate, his back riddled with small blades.

  High in the sky, my vision tunneled, a strangulated groan escaped through my snout, and I swept closer, vicious determination filling me. He would not die.

  I would save my love.

  I had to save him.

  The closer I flew, the more the crowd funneled in. As if they believe that by closing ranks, they could prevent my landing. I bellowed in warning, but the group refused to heed my caution. Red crept in on the edges of my vision and then flooded my every sense. I barreled forward, pulling up at the last second.

  Only one thing could have stopped me in that moment. How had Draedyn known?

  Terror squeezed my heart. Dyter stood in the midst of the cluster and, next to him, the Verald servant he’d disappeared with, clinging to his arm. Behind Dyter, a Druman hovered, holding a knife to my oldest friend’s throat.

  And yet, Tyrrik was dying.

  I pulled up when the Druman inched the blade over Dyter’s neck, and he cried out. I couldn’t make sense of my thoughts. Instinct screamed at me, and my mind was desperately, furiously, attempting to figure this out. Or maybe my mind knew there was no solution.

  I circled wide, and the Druman released his pressure on the blade. Keeping Dyter in my line of sight and Tyrrik in my periphery, I angled to the left and landed. Swinging my tail wide once again, I cleared the area around me.

  Empty space surrounded me for a heartbeat, and then the crowd converged on me. I roared and whipped my tail in figure-of-eights, the mace-like weapon plowing into the Druman and humans alike. Screams rent the air, and the tang of blood increased as the spikes tore into my attackers. Crimson warmth splattered as I raked my talons through a group of humans foolish enough to attack now, when my mate was breathing his last breath and my true father was at knife point. I’d kill them all!

  Weapons bounced off my vibrant-blue scales, impenetrable without the aid of Phaetyn blood. I lashed through the foolish and stubborn mortals, ending their existence without remorse. I turned my pain and anguish upon them; they’d been complicit in Draedyn’s reign.

  A sharp sting pinched my back, followed by a bolster of energy. I reeled to see who was so foolish and couldn’t stop my broad smile as I faced several dozen of my father’s mules. I charged.

  Lunging forward, I snapped my jaws through two of the men and rose up on my hind legs to toss their bodies wide. I roared again and swung my forelegs in an arc, letting my talons carve through those who remained. I brought my front legs back to the ground as a group of Druman moved as a pack toward me. Wielding my head as a weapon, I reared back and then hurtled down. The horns atop my thick skull hit the group, impaling three of them and sending two more airborne.

  I stomped the ground and bellowed, challenging anyone. Everyone. I would not stop until I reached my loved ones’ sides.

  I could feel my mate as I shifted back to my Phaetyn form. I couldn’t see him, but he was still alive, his pain consuming. His vitality was draining rapidly. I tried to burn out the golden Phaetyn blood, but with the number of distractions to still deal with, I couldn’t give him the singular focus needed. I sent waves of my healing power to him during the brief silence as additional enemies sprinted to attack, but they were too far away to stop me. I shoved more power at him and pleaded, Hold on, Tyrrik. Hold on . . .

  I had to kill Draedyn. Only then would this madness stop. I stepped in the direction of his emerald power, my fangs and talons lengthening on their own accord as I prepared to fight.

  My father stood in the center of the clearing. I froze as the scene before me bludgeoned my chest; my breath completely stolen. To Draedyn’s right were Kamini and the two dead Phaetyn; to his left Dyter stood with the Veraldian woman, a Druman behind him with the knife.

  And in front of my father was my mate. Tyrrik lay face down, unmoving.

  “No,” I cried. My heart shattered, and I screamed, “No.”

  “Ryn?” Dyter moved his head slightly to the right and flinched. His face was covered in bruises and dried blood. The Druman pressed the blade tight against Dyter’s throat, and he froze. His split lip oozed fresh crimson horror to mix with all the other ev
idence of pain he’d had to endure. Next to Dyter, the servant from Verald wept incoherent pleas for assistance. Behind the Druman holding a knife to Dyter stood a row of Azulis, their weapons aimed at the Druman.

  I blinked, trying to understand . . . Was this a stand off? If so, why were the Azuli’s turning on the Druman?

  My gaze returned to Dyter again and saw what I had not seen before. The gore smeared over Dyter’s face was merely the remains of his now-empty eye sockets. I growled and swung my attention back to my father.

  His talons lengthened, and I screamed.

  The Azulis released their arrows into the Druman, and the Veraldian woman pulled Dyter into the dirt as the mules fell behind them. I had no idea why the Azulis were helping, but Dyter was out of immediate danger.

  Draedyn turned, his neck elongated, and his head morphed as he opened his mouth and blew a stream of molten flame at the archers. The men disappeared, and their ash gusted, rising and falling on the breeze as the wind swirled around us. Eerie silence fell as the powdery residue of the men settled.

  Then there were the six of us. At the end, Draedyn, Kamini, Dyter, and the Veraldian servant, me, and my dying mate.

  Draedyn grinned. “Hello, heir-daughter.”

  I couldn’t answer. My voice was twisted and hiding in the mess that was my heart, and I couldn’t be bothered to find it for him.

  “I did my best to save your mate.” Draedyn kicked the assassin’s body back with his foot and waved me forward. “You better heal him.”

  Was this another trap? Probably, but it didn’t matter. The compulsion to heal Tyrrik was overwhelming. My body trembled with the need to go to him. I dropped to my knees and pulled the blades out of his back, letting the Phaetyn blood buoy my own power. As I started to burn the golden power out, I gasped as Tyrrik pressed images into my mind. Draedyn shredding the Phaetyn children’s bodies with the small daggers before giving them to his Druman to finish Tyrrik. Even now, Draedyn was trying to keep me at his side with his lies. Rage swelled within me. He’d hurt my mate.