by G. Bailey
This is not going well.
“Let him go!” I hear Queen Isola shout, and I gulp as they remove the spears, and she comes running out of the doors in front of me. “Mich? I remember you from Earth. Why are you here?”
“I came with Jonas, but—” I stop as we all see a white dragon fly around above and move to land in the field next to the academy before shifting back. A dragon guard offers Jonas a cloak, and he wraps it around himself, doing up the ties as he comes over. Isola grins so happily at him.
“Where did you go?” Jonas asks as Isola pats his shoulder, smiling at him.
“I landed on a dragon, you?” I reply, and Jonas laughs.
“I shifted after I hit the treeline, and it damn well hurt,” Jonas replies. “Aunt Isola, we need your help.”
“A dragon shifter army, by any chance, son?” a woman I think is the queen’s sister, Melody, asks as she walks over to us. Jonas runs to her and hugs her tightly as Isola steps closer to me.
“How did you get here?” she asks.
“Adelaide has worked out how to open portals. Will you be able to help us?”
“Of course,” she replies with a big smile. “Adelaide is a good friend I haven’t met yet.”
“You’ll like her,” I reply, and she chuckles.
“You best not be flirting with my mate,” King Dagan says, jogging over to us. He holds his hand out for me to shake as he wraps an arm around Isola’s waist.
“No, just begging for an army to save my mate,” I reply, and he nods.
“We have been ready for a while,” Dagan replies. “Ever since Melody told us to be.”
“Then having an army ready to go in a few hours is possible?”
“If we get to work, yes,” Queen Isola says, and we all look back to Melody and Jonas as Melody holds his face in her hands, and an ever so sad expression marks her face.
I just don’t understand why.
17
“It’s time,” Casella states as she comes into the bedroom just as I finish plaiting my hair and tying it up in a bun so it is out of the way in this fight. I stare at myself, hardly recognising my reflection if I’m honest with myself. I’m wearing skin-tight brown leather clothes with daggers clipped to either side of my hips in a belt. As well as my dark red hair, the autumn brown leather is for my court, and what every solider of the autumn court will be wearing. What is left of us. I look towards Casella, who wears all light blue leather, with two large swords on her back, and I know she is fighting for her court.
“For our fallen courts. For our parents who fell to protect us,” I softly say to her. “Our parents will be watching us, blessing our fight. I know it in my soul.”
“For our future and our parents,” she sadly replies, and I nod as Josh offers me his hand. Josh is dressed for war; his outfit is littered with weapons from the swords on his back, the daggers on his thighs, and the sexy leather outfit he has on. His black wings spread out as I call my own with only one thought, and we all head towards the balcony. I jump off first, flying straight up and out of the top of the academy with Josh and Casella right by my side. I look over the forest and, in the distance, I see them.
Lilyanne’s army is like a black wave across the distant hill, the shoulders still as statues as they wait to attack. Lilyanne herself can’t be seen, neither can her bird, which makes me nervous. Josh takes my hand, leading me down past the sea of boats and into the forest. We pass dozens of wolves and soldiers walking towards the front before we come out to the clearing where our line of soldiers waits. Every line of our soldiers stands tall in the face of a knowing death, and I couldn’t be prouder to be a Fray right in this moment. This is what my parents died for, what so many of our families died for.
For Frayan and its people.
“Can you make the portals open?” Casella asks me as we land on the leaf covered ground, and the wind whistles around us in the silence. Utter fear fills every single bit of my body as I look around and take three steps forward, and every single Fray in the line looks towards me. Making my voice as loud as I can, I say what little I can do.
“I am Queen Adelaide Autumn of Frayan, and I will lead you into this battle. I’m not asking you to fight for me, I am asking you to fight for the people who cannot in this world. For the people who have died before us all at the hands of the fake queen, Lilyanne. Her bitterness and cruelty are like a plague on this beautiful world, and with your help, we will make sure the light can once again shine! We will win this war for our children, for our people! We will make Frayan a world that anyone would be happy to live in! Will you fight for our future? For the entire world of Frayan’s future?” I can’t smile wider as so many cheer in agreement, blocking out the sound of Lilyanne’s army altogether.
“That was one hell of a speech. Now open the damn portals,” Casella tells me, and I smile at her.
“Yes, I’m going to try, my good friend,” I reply, just as a horn sounds in the distance and the ground shakes as Lilyanne’s army heads our way.
“Then do it,” Casella softly suggests before flying into the air, glowing like a bright star as it starts to snow all around us. I close my eyes and try to call the portal, but nothing happens like before.
“You need to connect to Mich, Rick and Nath to pull the portals open,” Josh suggests, having to shout over the loud noise of thousands of Fray and wolves fighting together. The noise is deafening, and I can do nothing but fear for the outcome. “I will defend you, so just focus on the portals.” I open my eyes to see the soldiers running towards us, and feel the five guards come to surround me with Josh in the front of them all. I have to pray that they are strong enough and that the wolves in the trees are a big enough surprise.
I only have hope and my dark prince. That should be more than enough.
“Be careful,” I tell him, and he looks back at me with a cheeky grin.
“Always.” I shake my head and close my eyes, doing the best I can to block out all noise, but it’s not working. Lilyanne’s army crashes into us like a wave, and all the noise makes it impossible to concentrate. I fly up in the air and out of the trees only to pause when I see Lilyanne’s bird flying towards me, it’s deadly gaze hard to miss. It stops suddenly and turns to the side, and my heart falls. Every second feels like it is frozen as I stare at Sophie and Lilyanne, two people I never wanted to meet here. Every second, I hear my mum and dad’s voice in my head, telling me to always protect Sophie.
Sophie. My Sophie is here in Frayan, and she looks terrible. Dirt covers her clothes, she has cuts on her arms and cheeks, her hair is all but cut off, and the only clean part of her is two lines of tears on her cheeks. My heart breaks into tiny pieces as anger fills me. No way am I losing Sophie to this psychopath.
Lilyanne holds a dagger to Sophie’s neck, her arm gripping her waist tightly as she smiles at me. Sophie cries and whimpers as my heart breaks, and I hold my hands in the air.
“Give her to me, Lilyanne,” I plead, gritting my teeth together.
“Why would I do that?” she asks me, her voice carrying over the sounds of the battle below. She presses the dagger harder against Sophie’s neck and catches her throat. I feel frozen in the air as a tiny bit of blood trickles down Sophie’s neck.
“PLEASE!” I scream at her, wanting to fly closer, but I know I can’t. “Don’t!” I gasp right before Josh slams into the bird, knocking Sophie and Lilyanne off, and they fall into the trees, thankfully apart from each other. The bird fights with Josh, snapping at his face as I hear all the screams of everyone around us, and it becomes too much.
“It’s time. I will help you.” I hear the voice of the fate in my head, so clear, like she is literally by my side.
Everyone is going to die if I don’t do something. Anything. I stretch my arms out at either side of me, and I think of my mates. I want to see my mates. Power like nothing else I’ve ever felt in my life blasts out of my chest and down both my arms, my fingertips feeling like they are on fire. Pain bursts into my
chest as I struggle for every breath, and then the power is gone, like a switch being turned off, and I fall to the ground.
18
Josh
I wrap my hand around the bird’s throat and hold down just as the bird uses its power to disappear out of my hands.
“Fuck,” I look around and pause. Adelaide. She has her arms stretched out, her head thrown back, and gold light is bursting from every inch of her body, so bright she is hard to look at. Suddenly portals burst out of her hands on either side like waves of purple water. I cover my eyes as dust and air blast against me, nearly blowing me away in the wind, and when I open my eyes, there are two portals as big as a castle on either side of Adelaide. In seconds, dozens of dragons fly out of the one portal at the same time angels and witches in cloaks fly out of the other portal.
I look back at Adelaide just as she lets go of the portals and starts to fall down. I fly as fast I can, just catching her in the air before she hits the trees, and I hold her body to my chest as I look around. The dragons are setting fire to the forest and freezing other parts, and the witches are directing the fire.
Sophie is down there. Shit. I fly into the trees near the portal to Earth and look around for my pack, not finding anyone until Rick’s wolf runs out of the portal in the distance.
“Rick!” I shout, and he shoots his head towards me before running over as I move behind a tree to avoid the chaos around us. Rick shifts back when he gets close enough and places his hand on Adie’s cheek.
“What happened?” he demands, his voice half a growl.
“She opened these portals and passed out,” I explain to him.
“The war will be won—” he starts to say, but I have to stop him. We have a big fucking problem.
“No, Sophie is here. Lilyanne had her, and they fell into the forest. Take Adelaide, I’m going to find Sophie,” I tell him.
“I should go, I can scent her,” he replies, looking panicked.
“Both of you go, I will protect Adelaide with my life,” Jaxson says, coming over to us and clearly overhearing the conversation. “If anything happens to either of you, your hormonal mother is going to kill me. Be fucking careful,” Jaxson warns as I hand over Adelaide into his arms. I don’t like leaving her with Jaxson, especially as the fucker doesn’t like me, but he is a good man. He will keep to his word and protect her.
“I’m trusting you with the most important woman in my life,” I tell him, meeting his gaze and holding it, which is difficult to do with an alpha as strong as Jaxson.
“You have my word as alpha. Go!” he demands. “I will find Dabriel to heal her.” Jaxson flings Adelaide over his shoulder and pulls out his sword before walking through the woods, almost easily fighting off Fray in his path. Rick shifts without another word and searches the ground, while I fly into the air and search from the sky.
We have to find her.
19
When I wake up, all I see is bright white light for a moment before hands come into view. Then I see a familiar white haired angel hovering over me, and then the sounds of the fight coming blasting back into my sore ears. My entire body hurts, and my mouth tastes of blood as I try to make myself come back from whatever happened.
“Do you remember me? Dabriel?” he asks, helping me sit up as every part of my body hurts still, and I know I’m going be sore for a while. Around us, all I can hear is screams, explosions, and dragon roars. The scent of fire fills my nose as I cough on the smoke. It takes me two seconds more before I remember what happened.
Sophie.
I push Dabriel away and turn around as I stand up, looking around the forest and the chaos around me. How will I find her in this?
“You need to rest, lass,” Jaxson tells me, and I only remember him as the scary wolf mate of Winter’s. He rests his hand on my shoulder. “I promised a pretty scary man that I’d protect you; don’t make me go back on my word.”
“I need to find my sister. Don’t get in my way, wolf,” I warn, pushing away his hand, and he shakes his head.
“They had to choose a stubborn one, didn’t they?” I hear him say as I start to walk away, feeling a pressure in my head that really hurts. “Wait, lass, we will help you.”
“No, you can’t. Stay and heal people that need it,” I say before flying into the air and pushing through the trees that are on fire. Above the trees, the sight is even worse. Dragons are setting fire to everything, while Fray are fighting back with lightning to hit the dragons and crash them down to the ground. Everything is so dark as I spin around, looking for Sophie, for my pack, for anyone familiar.
I pause as I see a flash of blue light and recognise Lilyanne’s bird in the far distance. I fly over to her, spinning around a dragon that flies under me, and as I get closer, I see the bird is fighting with Jonas. At least I think it’s Jonas’s dragon from the little I’ve seen of him in dragon form. The bird claws at Jonas’s dragon’s back, and just as I get closer, the bird manages to grip Jonas around the throat and hold him up in the air. A scream escapes my lips as a beam of light shoots through Jonas’s dragon’s chest and through the bird, killing them both. I lock eyes with Jonas’s dragon, and I feel like time has stopped in this last moment with him before he falls down into the trees, and a part of my heart breaks with him. Tears fall down my cheeks as I look down to the trees where the light came from, and I fly as fast I can, landing on the burnt ground that hurts my feet to stand on.
“Adie,” Sophie whimpers as I turn around and see Lilyanne holding her, the same way she was on the bird, with a dagger to her throat.
“You killed Jonas!” I scream at Lilyanne who only holds her head high, a cruel smile on her painted red lips. She is ever so beautiful to be ever so cold. I now know nothing means more to her than the throne, not even a bird she loved. She doesn’t know how to love.
“You are killing my army and taking my throne! You don’t deserve anything, especially not your sister or that dragon friend of yours,” she spits out, and I meet Sophie’s eyes, seeing her desperation and fear. So much fear.
“I never wanted revenge! I never wanted to be queen and to have to kill you!” I shout at her. “Sophie is innocent in all this; it was my choice to set down this path, not my sister’s.”
“You may never have wanted it, but it is your fate, nonetheless,” she replies. “And no one can be innocent with a sister like you!”
“The sad thing is, my fate was always to rule, and you couldn’t handle it. I wish our lives went in a different way, that they followed another path, but here we are,” I reply.
“Adelaide Autumn, heir—” she starts to say, and I laugh, making her stop.
“No!” I shout, interrupting her. “My name is Queen Adelaide Autumn of Frayan, and it is time to end this war.”
“You’re right, it is,” she agrees with me. “But it is time Queen Adelaide Autumn of Frayan dies for her sister’s life. I will let your sister go, unharmed, and promise to never lay a hand on her if you stab yourself with one of your daggers.”
“No, no, no!” Sophie cries, fighting against Lilyanne, cutting her neck more with every movement. “Don’t do it!”
“Shut up, you silly child,” Lilyanne demands.
“I love you, Sophie. You are my sister, and you need to live a damn good life for me. You got that?” I say just as I see Josh flying straight towards Lilyanne, but he is a good distance away. I need to distract them. I slide a dagger out of my belt and walk forward, but Lilyanne holds Sophie back a step. “I just want to kiss my sister’s cheek. Just once, please.”
“Fine, but don’t you dare pull anything,” she hisses at me. I take a deep breath, wiping my tears away with the back of my hand. Five steps and I’m in front of my sister just as Josh stabs Lilyanne through the chest with his sword as I let go of my dagger to grab Lilyanne’s hand. As I pull her dagger away from my sister, a sharp pain slams into my stomach. I shakily look down to see Lilyanne holding a different dagger in my stomach, and I gasp as she lets go and we
both fall to our knees.
“Adie!” I hear Sophie and Josh shout as I stare at Lilyanne, seeing the light leaving her eyes ever so slowly as I feel myself bleeding out.
“The prophecy said only one queen can live. I g-u-ess the-r-e will b-e no—” She can’t finish her sentence as her dead body falls to the side, and so does mine, but Josh catches me in his arms. I lift one of my bloody hands to his cheek as I taste blood in my mouth.
“I love you, you can’t die on me!” he pleads, and tears fall from his cheeks onto my lips, the salty taste a nice change from the metallic. “Sophie, don’t move! There are enemies around,” he shouts at her, and she comes to my side, crying her eyes out. “Help us! Someone fucking help us!” I look up in the air as angels, dragons and witches fight the elements and the storms around me.
It’s a pretty sight to close your eyes to and let the world disappear.
20
Rick
Feeling your mate dying is the worst pain I have ever felt. My wolf runs as fast as he can, knocking enemies and anyone out of his way, his eyes clouded in pain as much as my own are. When we see her in Josh’s arms, his wings burnt and dragging on the ground, he is carrying Adelaide, who is covered in blood and clinging onto life. Sophie is next to him, looking fragile and broken as she cries, holding Adelaide’s hand. I run over, shifting back when I’m close and kneeling down.
“Look away,” I hear Isola say, appearing out of nowhere and taking Sophie to the side. I bite into my wrist as Josh lays Adelaide down on the ground, and I place my wrist over her mouth.
“A vampire or she is dead. I won’t let her die,” I tell Josh.
“I’m not stopping you. Where are Nath and Mich?” he asks.
“Here!” Mich runs over with Nath, both of them crashing to their knees as we wait in the noise of the war around us. Adelaide looks so small and broken as blood pours out of her chest, all around her cloak. All I want to do is fix her, because losing her is not an option.