71. Jace

Chapter seventy-one

Jace

Lia was hurt.

I could feel it with every fiber of my being that she was suffering at the hands of our enemies, and there was nothing I could fucking do about it.

A guttural scream left me. Grunts escaped through desperate breaths with every heave of my blade as I plunged it through enemy soldiers.

I called out to her. Begged for her to answer me as I slammed my fists against her mental shield she placed so I couldn’t reach her, and all that managed to slip through was her saying I love you .

I heard it for what it was—a goodbye.

I wouldn’t fucking accept that. Lia was wounded and terrified—likely alone, too, since Nox was here. I felt it. I felt fucking all of it, and I couldn’t bear it.

In that moment I decided I would get her my gods-damn self, and started pushing through the enemy’s army, aiming for the city’s gates.

My eyes lifted to the castle on the eastern side of Isla. They had my queen in there, and they were torturing her. I would climb the city’s battlement with my bare fucking hands if I had to—I would make it to her before it was too late. I didn’t care what it took, even if it was offering myself over in her place.

It was as if something else had taken over my body entirely—a beast that wouldn’t be satisfied until he had his mate in his grasp once more. My strikes into enemy soldiers were fueled by pure adrenaline and rage.

A male stepped in my path then. The look on his face made it known he didn’t plan for me to take a single step further. He certainly wasn’t expecting me to throw myself at him, sending my sword deep into his neck.

The air was thick with the metallic scent of blood as chaos raged on in every direction I turned. My eyes flashed to Gage, watching him cut down everyone in his path, but I hadn’t seen Zaela in only the gods knew how long, making me panic. I forced myself to push forward, aiming for the gates to get to Lia.

Suddenly, a scream sounded through the air. My gaze whipped in its direction from farther down the battlefield. I watched as my cousin tripped over a body and fell to the terrain, swiping her blade desperately as multiple males pursued her in an attack.

“Fuck. Zaela!” I screamed, hating that I had to turn away from my pursuit of Lia, knowing I could never live with myself if something happened to Zae because I didn’t turn back.

My scream caught the attention of Leon, who, thank the gods, was significantly closer to her. His eyes locked on his lover’s daughter, and he took off in a sprint in her direction .

Blood sprayed, and screams sounded, but I worked to get to my cousin, who continued to scoot back on the ground, unable to push to her feet as they relentlessly cornered her.

Leon arrived then, swinging his blade in the air at them as he leapt over her, landing before her feet. Zaela’s eyes widened as she looked up at General Vern while he worked to protect her.

One soldier succumbed to one of the swipes of his blade, falling to the ground with a scream cut short—the other two backed up a step as they beheld him.

“Not her daughter! You will not harm her.” He lunged then, his words leaving him in a triumphant bellow.

Then two more arrived, and then another…and another. A moment later, Leon was surrounded by endless enemy soldiers as he continued to push them as far away from her as possible.

When I reached Zaela, I hauled her to her feet—my gaze meeting Leon's as he turned towards us, still engaged in the fight now thirty feet away.

My lips parted as our eyes remained on one another while everything around me slowed, knowing— dreading —what I knew in my gut would happen next.

Zaela lashed around in my hold, her screams filling my ears as she watched Leon lead them away from us.

Leon was a proud man and a strong warrior. He had lived the life of a combat general who was forced to watch all of his friends perish on the battlefield, dying with honor. Yet, he was also a man who lived long enough to know the love of a good woman—a woman whose daughter he now knowingly sacrificed himself for so she could live.

“No!” Zaela cried in my arms, snapping me from my stupor as we watched our enemy’s blades plunge into his flesh.

“Get her out of here!” he roared at me right before he fell to his knees in the dirt.

Blinding rage consumed me. My hold on Zaela fell, and her wrath mirrored my own as I locked eyes with Gage as he crept up on Leon’s murderers from behind them.

With a mirrored battle cry, the three of us lifted our blades and charged at those who had just killed our general.

And we ended them all.

Kellan

I stood atop the cliffs beyond Castle Isla, and my entire body was riddled with stab wounds, making it difficult to breathe. My injuries weren’t healing nearly as quickly as I needed them to, and it pissed me the fuck off.

I let out a roar of fury into the smoke-filled sky. How the fuck had I let her get the upper hand on me again ? And this time, she nearly killed me.

The bitch jumped onto my wyvern—she free-fell through the air and landed on top of us, blade out. I hated that I had to give her credit for the brave stupidity that worked in her favor .

My gaze moved from the sea, still riddled with blood-stained warships, to the battlefield that raged on beyond the gates and then to my beast.

My hand went to above my right lung, where the worst of the stab wounds were. When I lifted my hand, it was drenched in my own blood.

“ Fuck !” I bellowed into the sky.

I felt the piercing stare of my wyvern's red gaze as it eagerly waited for my command. “Let’s fucking end this.”

I pushed through the agony of my wounds as I stormed up to him and climbed onto his back. Once ordered, the beast took off into the sky, barreling towards the armies that continued to fight for their lives.

Bodies were piling everywhere, their outlines clear even from the sky. “Let’s have a little fun, shall we?” I said to myself and then ordered the wyvern to send a blaze of hellfire down to the terrain.

Screams sounded from all sides, bodies flailing as they ran in all directions, engulfed in flames.

We landed in the center of the chaos; the roar of the other wyvern sounded in the far distance, from where it was defending the healers’ tent. That’s what I should’ve blown up from the sky when I had the chance, if only just to piss her off.

“Adler!” My name was called to me over the deafening sounds of war, and my gaze snapped in its direction—only to land on the most perfect fucking gift I could have imagined. Elianna’s husband .

A growl rumbled through my chest as my nostrils flared. The moronic man was sizing up my wyvern, blade held high, as I sat upon its back, staring down at him.

The man was bloodied and beaten, covered in the gore of my soldiers. My lip snarled as my mount dug the tipped claws of its wings into the terrain and let out a deafening screech at him—the force of it blowing his hair back and causing his steps to falter. However, the fucker continued to move toward me, unphased.

“How about you fucking come down here and fight me, man to man?” he taunted me with a blood-stained grin.

I smiled down at him, giving him one that matched. “How about I just turn you to ash where you stand and then find your wife and do the same to her?”

His grin morphed into a hate-filled scowl that promised death. The veins in his neck looked as if they would burst, and his grip on his sword tightened.

He took a step in my direction. “You will not touch her. However, it appears she’s already gotten you pretty good herself, asshole.”

My face dropped at his words, but as my eyes looked him over, my smirk returned. “Oh, Commander. What makes you think she even still lives?”

“I sense everything about her, Adler. I feel her in every fiber of my being because not only is she my wife and queen…”

My gaze narrowed in on him through furrowed brows. There was no way in any hell this fuck was about to say what I thought he was going to …

“Elianna Valderre, rightful heir and queen of the realm, is my mate! ” he roared triumphantly. “And now, for all you have put her through— you will suffer me .”

An all-consuming rage overcame me at his words, and then I commanded the beast to release its fiery blaze upon him.