Chapter 20

If you have read this far, all the way to the end, know you are from the Twilight Dynasty and a royal of the oldest blood. Your red and black hair is a promise from the only deity left free in the sky…

T he Silkvir are brutal, disgusting creatures, and they swarm my dragon the moment we take off. I don't know how the king made these things, but they are nothing compared to the beauty of a dragon. They are made of mostly bones and rotting flesh, and they stink too. I almost gag on the smell as one of their bodies slams into Brythan's wing and leaves a line of blood that is as black as the night sky. The Silkvir don't fly in groups or formations, they just attack like wild, desperate animals. It might give us the upper hand if we can take them out one by one instead of a controlled group.

There are so fucking many of them. I can't see through them to see where Maeve is with Story and Hettie. I fucked up and Story hates me. I did the right thing, but I should have told Story. I shouldn't have let my fear of losing her cloud my judgment. Because the way she looked at me…fuck, I was crushed.

Brythan snaps his teeth around the bony neck of a Silkvir, the vampyre rider falling off the saddle on its back and into the forest. For every one my dragon tears into, five more appear. I sent my riders to protect the fae escaping, and I don't regret my choice now as I watch the chaos at the front lines of the war. The barrier is gone completely, and the beasts have just torn through it.

My dragon is fast enough to get out of the crowds of Silkvir and into the sky, gliding into a clearing. My eyes are drawn to a row of Sun dragons fighting the Silkvir at the front line, and Daegan's dragon is easy to spot in the middle. Ten Silkvir dive on us from above, and I'm fucking done. I pull moonlight from the ground, from the sky, and send them into the Silkvir's disgusting bodies of rot, tearing them apart. Their bones fall and shatter in the sky, and their vampyre riders scream as they fall or burn. Breathless, I nearly fall forward on my dragon.

Story. I need to find her and make sure she is safe. As long as she gets away, nothing else matters to me. We search the skies from above, but I can't see her. Maeve is big enough that even with the hundreds of dragons flying around, I should see her. Where the hell are they?

I check the forest, looking round the forest floor by the entrance to the dragons' home, but it's empty. I see Catherine's dragon being chased by dozens of Silkvir, and she dives to the sea to escape them. Maeve isn't there. A shiver goes down my neck, and I look around.

An old enemy flies on his Silkvir towards me. A face I haven't seen in hundreds of years, and time hasn't been good to this ugly fucker. The Dawn king used to be a young king with the world at his fingertips, but he chose to change himself into this vampyre for more power and time. It is going to cost him everything. I'm not locked in that mansion anymore.

His Silkvir is much bigger than my dragon. The king's Silkvir is as big as a fucking mansion, and it flies as fast as a shooting star. Brythan doesn't blink and charges to meet this new enemy head-on, fire breathing out of his mouth. The king's Silkvir moves fast, diving to the side and its claws sinking into Brythan. The sickening crunch of bone and cutting skin will stay with me as time freezes for me. I see the death hit, the way the Silkvir claws are so deep, and he flings Brythan away into the skies. Time speeds up as fast as the wind around me as I shout, clenching my legs and holding onto Brythan with everything I have.

We both smack straight into the forest, with Brythan on his stomach, knocking over a line of trees until enough of them stop our descent. My ears ring as dust, dirt and leaves blow around me like a storm, and I slide from his back.

When everything settles, I get a good look at my dragon. The dragon I've been bound to for hundreds of years, who knows me better than anyone, is dying. "No!" I half scream, half shout. The maddening scream that echoes out of me reminds me of the same feeling I had when I held my sister as she died. I can't lose him too. I fall to my knees with a thump. There's a massive gaping hole in his chest, blood pouring out into the dirt. I can actually see his heart beating in his chest.

He turns his head on his side with a cry that breaks me. I crawl the final distance to him and rest my head on his nose. "This is my fault. Fuck, this is all my fault."

There is no way known to save a dragon, and no amount of magic will help. Moonlight wraps around me in my anger, in my hate for the vampyres and the vampyre king. He fucking did this. I run my hand up to under his eye. I feel the goodbye in his words echoed in my mind, "It's over for me. I was only ever meant to be your first dragon."

"My only dragon!" I echo back. "You can survive this, Brythan."

"I will not, King Ziven, but you will. I chose you because you are strong. You are strong and you are good. I chose you because you will make any decision to save your people. The next dragon that chooses you will see that in time. You are the last king of the Moon Dynasty, and it has been my honour to serve."

Embers dance out of his mouth as he takes his last breath, and I scream, my forehead pressing into his nose. I scream and scream for the deities to hear me, but they don't. They won't bring my dragon back. My heart shatters as I stop and lean away from his body. My dragon's dead. The hollow pain I feel in my chest takes over.

A roar, a dragon's roar, makes me look into the sky. It's not Maeve. "Story." The king will be after her next, and Maeve…she might be taken down like Brythan. Story isn't safe. With one more look at my dragon, I make myself stand. "May the deities ride you now, my old friend. I will fly with you once again."

I remember my father saying those words to his dragon before he died, and I never once imagined myself saying them. Or how it would feel. My chest feels like it has a hole in it where our bond should be, and it's just gone. It kills me to walk away from him, but he's only a body now. His soul, the one that I spoke to, that is gone. I barrel through the forest, straight towards the feeling of where Story is. I have to warn her, even if she hates me. I can't save my dragon, but I can save my mate.