Chapter Fifty-Two

C HAPTER F IFTY-TWO

A mass of chaos unfolds before me when I return to the castle. I see Niamh, with a few other past Venators, running with their weapons drawn as they mount the shifters’ backs and take off from the windows.

Time seems to slow as Darius stands across from me in the centre of the throne chamber, his eyes spotting me instantly. We begin running towards each other, my shoulders knocking against Venators before I reach him. He catches me in his arms, pressing me tightly against him. There is only a moment spared for us to look at what each of us is wearing: him in a gorgeous black jacket with silver thread, and me in his mother’s old gown.

‘Aurum,’ I say, my voice hoarse from screaming at everyone out in the fields to run.

He rests his palm on my cheek and nods, his jaw firm. ‘I know.’ He looks past me as the bells in the castle’s tower ring. ‘Come on, we need to get as many people as possible out of here.’ Grabbing my hand, he leads me towards the exit. I start to search for my brothers, but the ground cracks beneath Darius and me.

We stumble to a pause, feeling the earth shake and crumble.

‘Darius,’ I say, before his name on my lips is drowned out by the deathly shriek of a dragon landing on the balcony – a dragon belonging to Aurum. I whirl my head, my heart hammering as the creature shakes the debris from its head and spots us. Soulless eyes dripping in black substance lock on us as it screams again and charges at us.

Its large wings catch against the pillars, but they’re no match for the dragon as it breaks through them within seconds.

Venators run at it with their swords but are swiftly slammed against the walls as the dragon’s ferocious roar reverberates through the chamber.

Darius tightens his grip on my hand, his eyes set on the dragon ahead. When the dragon leaps towards us, Darius rallies his power, startling the creature as fire descends upon it.

‘We need to find Freya!’ I shout before the dragon can regain vision. Darius immediately abandons his jacket and shifts. Seeing that I can’t do anything other than rip my dress as I climb atop him, I reach for a sword right as Darius takes off.

We weave through the chaos, aiming for the balcony. But the dragon is now hot on our trail, trying to scorch Darius with a green mist that emerges from its mouth. The scent is suffocating as the air fills with that same smell of decay I noticed before.

I glance back to see a group of Venators, including Niamh, aiming their weapons at the dragon again, their faces set with a determination that reminds me they’re still hunters – dragon hunters – at heart.

Stretching my palm out, I unleash a blast of light, sending the dragon sliding against the ground with a painful cry. This gives us enough time for Darius to break through walls and stone, destroying the entire balcony in his wake. I clutch on to him, gazing at the expanse of Emberwell and the fields below us.

When I look up at the skies, dragons – both ours and Aurum’s – paint each other with streaks of fire and rotting shadows. I glance back at the ground, making out figures of people battling against these creatures. Amidst them, I catch a glimpse of orange fur moving quickly through the crowd.

Relieved, I say to Darius, ‘They’re down there—’

Without warning, one of Aurum’s dragons collides with Darius. The impact is so sudden and brutal that it knocks the sword from my hand and tears me away from Darius as I’m flung off his back. I shout his name in panic as I twist in the air, desperately reaching out for something, anything, but all I can see is the blur of green and brown beneath me.

I can only catch glimpses of Darius and the dragon, locked in a deadly embrace, as they claw at each other and spiral away from me. Their roars fade into the distance of forests just as I plummet and crash through the canopy of dense branches and leaves, and finally land on thick grass.

For a moment, the world stops screaming.

I lie there, staring up at the sky, my body aching and my head throbbing.

‘Darius,’ I croak out as if he can hear me from wherever he is, and as I try to sit up with effort, a sharp pain shoots up my leg, almost blinding me, a wave of nausea following afterwards. I grimace in agony, glancing at the skirt of my dress, shredded and dirty now, and I hike it up to assess the damage.

Horror twists my gut, and I bend over to the side, dry heaving. Nothing comes up, not even when I want it to.

Peering down at my leg again, I wince, seeing it twisted in a way limbs should never be.

I grit my teeth and reach down with trembling hands. I can already feel my body trying to repair itself, but the pain coursing through me is like no other. I can’t wait for it to heal, there’s no time.

With a deep breath that feels like drawing daggers into my lungs, I grasp my leg just below the knee with one hand, placing the other hand above the broken bones.

‘One, two, three—’ A cry mingled with what sounds like a howl, tears from my throat as I pull at my leg. The pain I feel right now is a white-hot explosion, obliterating my senses. I can hear the grind of bone echoing throughout the fields as I breathe harshly through my teeth. For a second, all I see is dark spots swirling in my vision before the pain slowly ebbs away, and I push myself to my feet.

My body protests at every movement, but I will myself to limp forwards and out of the trees.

There, where the fields seem to stretch on for ever, stands Aurum, waiting for me.

I freeze.

‘Nara.’ He dares to smile. ‘There you are. You didn’t think I was going to miss your big day, did you?’ His ruined face sends a shiver down my spine before he notices what I am wearing. ‘That dress,’ he murmurs, studying it with hatred in his eye. He quickly douses that flame of rage with a cruel grin. ‘Pity it’s ruined.’

‘How?’ I swallow. ‘How did you get out?’

‘I already told you, Nara.’ He takes a step towards me, and I glower. ‘You freed me. It turns out that when you healed that tree, a rift opened in the Isle.’

My heart drops, and as if he can feel it himself, he stares at me with a cruel vengeance in his working eye.

The nightmare I had. It was real . . . and the silhouette I saw between the volcanoes . . . it was him. All of it.

‘And now ,’ he whispers with a chuckle, ‘thanks to you and my nephew, I’m finally out.’

I shake my head and charge at him, healing leg be damned. ‘You bastard—’ I hiss, but he raises his hand, and somehow, I stop.

He grins and cups his ear. ‘Do you hear that?’

Through what I thought was silence, I soon start hearing the screams of others coming from the city, the castle, the castle gardens . . .

‘It’s the sound of your people dying.’

No.

I must have said it out loud because he nods. All I feel is blinding rage as I summon my powers. I send them his way, parrying one of his strikes as the fabric of my dress tears.

Aurum chuckles, finding all of this amusing. ‘You should have prepared yourself, Nara. Was my visit to you not enough warning?’

A guttural cry escapes me, and I conjure up a sword of light – something that I have never done before. Aurum stops laughing, and I run at him, swinging that blade in every direction.

Today was supposed to be my special day.

I was supposed to be holding a bouquet of flowers, not a weapon.

And I should have been walking down the aisle in the back gardens of the castle alongside my brothers.

Every swing and hit that I manage against Aurum is useless, his rotting body only fixing itself back up, as shadows dance around him, reeking of the dead. The one thing that makes him stumble back is when a swarm of bees and wasps come out from behind me. They fly around Aurum as if to protect me, and I use the distraction to spiral out a sharp force of power towards his chest.

He grunts, locking his gaze on me.

One moment, he is far away from me, and then the next, he is right in front of me, leaving only a slither of shadows behind him.

I don’t have time to dodge him as he grabs me by the neck and lifts me into the air before slamming me back down onto the ground. Searing pain echoes throughout my head, and I try to fight back, but his foot comes down on my neck, pressing until I start to gasp for air.

‘You really are a waste of a reincarnation,’ he seethes. ‘Even the Aerian and Undarion rulers despise you.’

I scratch at him, pushing all the power I have to my fingers to force him off me.

‘I guess it is a good thing that they are now on my side.’

My power draws back into me, and I stop fighting him.

Aurum’s smile crawls across my skin as he gets the reaction he wants out of me. ‘You didn’t think it would be my army alone, did you?’ he croons, and I scream. I scream for my friends, my brothers . . . for Darius, but my voice is so hoarse, so . . . quiet . ‘It was so easy to get them on my side once I was out.’

Blood bubbles inside my mouth, and I glare at him. Then, out of nowhere, my eyes drift behind Aurum, spotting Idris as he cries out and raises a dagger over Aurum’s head.

‘Idris!’ is the single thing I say as Aurum releases me and turns, grabbing Idris’s arm before the blade can hit. He punches my brother in the face, knocking him back a few paces, but Idris doesn’t give up. He never does.

He lunges for Aurum, engaging in a fight that I know my brother cannot win.

‘Get away from him!’ I try to yell, my vision blurring as I stand and take stumbling steps towards the two figures.

They’re on the ground, Aurum pummelling my brother with dark powers swirling within his palm. When Idris swings his other arm around, I hear the sound of bones breaking, and his scream pierces the skies. I rage, seeing red, and blast my power out blindly at Aurum.

As my sight begins to clear, I find myself in a surreal scene where the ground has crumbled beneath my magic, and on the other side lies Aurum, slowly regaining strength from my blow. Without hesitation, I run towards Idris. His face is stained with blood, and I gently shake my head, trying to help him rise with one arm.

‘I’m all right,’ he says with a groan before I can ask.

‘He broke your wrist—’ I reach for it, but he moves, hiding the injury from me.

‘It’s nothing,’ he promises, but there’s an odd look in his eyes.

‘That wasn’t very nice,’ Aurum spits, now standing and trying to hold in place the flesh of his hanging cheek. ‘I guess I underestimate you sometimes.’

My fingers curl as I will whatever power is left at my fingertips.

Aurum just laughs, like my attempts amuse him. ‘Save your powers, Nara,’ he says. ‘This is just the beginning.’ His eye slithers from mine to Idris’s, and even in this state, Idris clings to me in a protective embrace. ‘I only came by to warn you.’

The cries from the city subside, as does the chaos up in the sky.

‘You have five days to decide, Nara,’ Aurum declares. ‘Fight me for the kingdom, or die along with the rest of Emberwell.’

Never.

Never. Never.

I grit my teeth. ‘Fuck you.’

‘Hm, I would think it over, Nara . . . you might change your mind sooner than you think.’ His lips curl into a smile dipped in malice, and he glances at Idris once more. ‘One week,’ he says again, then calls to his dragons, flying past us like a storm.

Idris and I hold on to each other tightly, my heart pounding as the deafening cries of Aurum’s creatures fill the air before he vanishes along with them.