Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
I ’d never been this deep into Luska before. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Snowcapped mountains surrounded most of the northern border in the distance, and the moon above us lit up a lush green landscape filled with farms and gardens. We passed a decent stretch of the Wilds where the fire sky above it trickled ember down onto the land.
The Luskins bonded with a lot of Talanagi, so that meant they would have flyers too: dragons, griffins, and all the like. I kept my eyes peeled to the skies, but they probably didn’t expect a sky attack from us. Amerseans didn’t have Talanagi until Kohen and I came along, which gave us an advantage.
Kohen and I flew about two hundred feet apart so that we didn’t draw attention moving so closely together. Liana had been fitted with a special two-person saddle, and Lieutenant Colt sat behind me as his hawk creature flew alongside us. Onyx and Liana were in constant mental communication, and we were all well-versed in the plan. I’d expected to be more nervous but I wasn‘t. I was in enemy territory, about to carry out a revenge plot so grand that if we succeeded, it would go down in history books. My father would not die in vain.
We moved under the cover of night for two reasons. One, it would conceal us, and two, so the Red Palace would be empty of tourists, occupied by only a few soldiers who guarded the perimeter. I wasn’t trying to kill a bunch of innocent Luskins; I was trying to make a statement. You kill my father… You attack our training center for imperial soldiers… I take out the one place you hold dear.
The Red Palace was Luska’s pride and joy, a masterpiece of architecture with spires and arches painted in red and gold that would make your jaw drop. I’d seen paintings of it over the years of my schooling. It also held all of their parliament meetings and war councils and some famous artwork they revered. But most importantly, it was the office of Prime Leader Vlek. We had little intel on the man. We didn’t know where he lived or how many children he had. But we knew from an Imperial Fleet prisoner who had broken free that Vlek worked in this building and that they held daily tours open to the public, including schoolchildren. Taking out his office at night would send a message to the people of Luska.
You are not invincible, and you’re going to pay for what you did to my father . But I wasn’t a monster and wouldn’t hurt children.
I peered down at the payload clutched between my creature’s claws, an explosive made of some of the most powerful dynamite we had in Amersea. This thing could blow the side off of a mountain. Dropped directly into the center courtyard of the Red Palace, it would flatten the structure completely.
‘Kohen says that when we get close, we will have to act quickly lest we be spotted by guards. He will wait for your command.’
I sent her my acknowledgment through the bond as we headed due north. We were getting close now. I could see some lights of the city still on. It was late, just past midnight, so most people would be asleep. I hoped my father was among the stars, looking down on me with pride. I wouldn’t let Luska get away with what they’d done. For Nikhil and everyone else who’d died, we’d get revenge.
I peered down at the city as Liana began her descent and spotted the giant red building on the horizon. It was all lit up, floodlights beaming on their pride and joy, and for a moment, I ached to ruin such a masterpiece.
As we got lower and grew closer, I had to admit it was more beautiful than the pictures. Every inch of the building had some piece of hand-painted art, a pattern of swirls, a man blowing a trumpet, a soldier flying a creature. All painted in red and gold, it was breathtaking.
‘Now or never!’ Liana cried. We were about to be directly over the center courtyard. I peered below to see two guards dressed in their red uniforms patrolling the space with their creatures behind them. I didn’t relish taking a life, but I thought of all of the lives they’d taken from us, how they wouldn’t stop until our lands were expunged of Amerseans and they’d stolen all of our ember.
I gave the command: ‘Drop it.’
Liana released her claws and the payload dropped like a rock just as she veered to the right and out of harm’s way. Kohen and Onyx veered with us, and moments later the bomb ignited, sending a shockwave through the sky so powerful it rattled my chest.
It happened too fast. I gave the order and it happened. It was done.
“Holy stars!” Lieutenant Colt said from where he perched behind me. I’d forgotten he was even here. I was so lost in my thoughts.
I peered over my shoulder to see the most magnificent explosion I’d ever laid eyes on. A ball of fire reached for the sky; the bricks of the building were blowing outward in all directions. The structure was torn apart and then collapsed in on itself in seconds.
Kohen and I both grinned at each other, thrusting our fists in the air. We did it. We’d brought down the freaking Red Palace of Luska! Something even my father couldn’t achieve in his time. The thrill quickly fled as I felt Liana tense beneath me.
‘Incoming.’
I craned my neck to see a shadow bolt across the sky.
It was a dragon with a rider; I could tell by the wings.
Liana inhaled through her nose and tensed even further. Smoke leaked from her nostrils in long white tendrils, and she glanced up at me with flaming yellow eyes.
‘Permission to seek revenge for my mate,’ she asked, and a shock went through me.
What did she just say?
Our escape plan was to fly east and then head south, low over the Wilds until we hit the Wall. Liana increased her speed, super-fast, aiming east as she began to descend over the Wilds of Luska, which they called the Forbidden.
‘What do you mean revenge for your mate? ’ I asked her, casting worried glances over my shoulder as Colt pulled a bow. The shadow of the dragon was in the distance now.
That’s when I was hit with a montage of images that flashed from Liana’s mind into mine.
Her mate, Aldan, a male firebird with black and blue feathers that faded to white, had died protecting her from the very dragon that was in the sky chasing us right now. Liana had been in a vulnerable position at the time, wounded and healing from a territorial battle, when Drak, the alpha dragon behind us, took out her mate. Normally, Liana protected her mate in such battles since she had an infinite lifespan. Aldan was a powerful fighter, but he was not immortal. But that time, she could not.
My chest heaved, and I fought to keep from sobbing as Liana replayed Aldan’s final moments to me in vivid detail.
Drak, a green dragon, ripped Aldan’s throat out right in front of an injured Liana. She was so heartbroken that she burst into flames and died right then and there, but Drak, being impervious to flame, was uninjured.
The images stopped, and Liana landed on the ground inside of the Forbidden.
“Why are we landing here?” Lieutenant Colt hissed from behind me.
“Get off,” I growled at him, unable to contain my rage at Drak. He did as ordered.
Liana had waited years to see the green dragon again. Tonight we would get revenge, not just for my father, but for her mate as well.
‘You understand why I have to do this?’ Liana asked me.
‘Of course. Permission granted. Let’s cut him into a thousand pieces,’ I declared and pulled my blade.
Liana sighed.
Forgive me, Aisling,’ she said, and then she bucked me. I went flying, a scream of surprise ripping from my throat as I dropped the blade so that I didn’t accidentally stab myself with it. I hit the forest floor hard, landing on my shoulder just as Liana kicked off and took to the sky.
‘No!’ I shouted after her.
‘I would never be able to live with myself if you got hurt,’ she shared.
‘He’s dangerous. You need my help!’ I shrieked as I scrambled to stand.
I’d just learned that Drak was an alpha dragon, which meant he was very powerful—stronger and faster than any other male Talanagi. His power was something she was hiding from me. It scared her.
‘I’m immortal. You might not be. We do not know,’ Liana said as she pumped her wings higher and higher. ‘And I have help. Onyx is with me.’
A second shadow joined her side, and I recognized the black dragon as Onyx. But there was no rider on him.
Kohen? Finn, Jade?
A twig snapped behind us and both Lieutenant Colt and I spun.
I relaxed when I recognized Kohen and the two other special-ops soldiers.
Kohen looked pissed. “Onyx kicked us off for some suicide mission against a rival dragon.”
I pursed my lips. “That rival dragon killed Liana’s mate.”
Kohen nodded. “And Onyx’s parents. I know. But I want to help.”
I shook my head. “We can’t.” I peered up at the sky and the two fading figures. “We can’t fly without them.”
“What the hell is going on here?” Jade looked winded. A few leaves were tucked into her long red hair, and her entire left side was covered in dirt. It seemed they got bucked off in a hurry, too.
I sighed. “It’s complicated. Can you give us a minute?”
Jade nodded, pulling out her map. “I’ll plot us a course home.”
The three of them walked away about twenty paces to a flat rock where they could spread their maps, giving Kohen and me some privacy. They began to speak in hushed tones about a way back when Kohen frowned. He was clearly still upset we were not helping Liana and Onyx.
Moving closer to Kohen so that we could not possibly be overheard, I leaned into him. “Kohen, did you see this? How this will end?” I whispered.
He glanced down at my lips and moaned a little. “Stars, I want to kiss you right now,” he whispered back.
I smacked his chest hard, and he caught my fingers, stroking my palm with his fingers. “Focus,” I chastised him but secretly loved that he was seemingly infatuated with me. Knowing Caruso had interrogated him with her power and found him innocent had made me care all the more for him, trust him all the more.
“So long as those lips are attached to that face, I will never focus again,” he said.
Damn. His smooth talking got me hook, line, and sinker. I couldn’t help but grin.
“Have you seen our creatures die or anything horrible?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “In the future, you ride Liana, and I ride Onyx. Same as always.”
I relaxed at that. “So this will probably be okay?”
He shrugged. “Probably.”
He was still holding my fingers, so I pulled them back to my chest before the others could see.
“Except…” he added with a wince, and my whole body tensed.
“Except what?” I asked.
“I mean, I have visions where Liana isn’t around you… Is she dead or just off hunting…? I don’t know.”
My mouth went dry. “Well, if she dies, she can rebirth,” I whispered because that wasn’t something I liked to advertise.
He nodded. “But she could be held captive or tortured…”
“Kohen!” I hissed.
“I’m sorry. I’m just learning that glimpsing snippets of the future doesn’t always make sense in moments like this.”
I scoffed. “Like when you supposedly glimpsed me as your wife.”
It flew out of my mouth before I could take it back.
He went very still. “I shouldn’t have told you that. I don’t want that stuff to interfere with the natural progression of our relationship.”
Relationship? We were in a relationship? Why did that excite me?
“Too late, Kohen, especially for you,” I told him. If he really did see our future, then he knew everything about where this would lead.
He grinned then, and it made my knees weak. This man had become my weakness, which my father would not have tolerated. Which I shouldn’t tolerate.
“I was a goner the moment I laid eyes on you, Aisling,” he confessed.
That was before he got his future sight gift. That was all the way at the Lottery.
“Empress?” one of the soldiers asked, and I took two huge steps away from Kohen.
Focus, Aisling, you’re the leader of the largest country in the world.
I spun. “Yes, Lieutenant.”
“We think that if we head—” Colt stopped and cocked his head to the side as if speaking to his creature. The hawk flew down from the sky and landed off to the side, perching on the top branches of a tree directly to our right.
“My creature says that there are over a dozen flying Talanagi circling the skies now. She’s going to stay low so that we aren’t found. They will send out ground troops soon to?—”
He gasped just as I saw something blue move to our right, where his hawk was perched. I pulled my father’s sword just as a griffin leaped down from where it must have been hiding in the thick branches of the tree and gobbled Colt’s hawk into its mouth. One second, his creature was perched on a branch, and the next, she was… eaten .
The griffin cocked its head to the side and peered down at us with one of Colt’s hawk’s tail feathers still poking out of his mouth. My heart broke as Colt let out a silent wail. It was the most soul-crushing thing I’d ever seen. The soldier opened his mouth to scream but knew he couldn’t attract anyone right now, so he just shook with rage as agony contorted his face.
The griffin leaped from the tree and landed before us, cocking its head to the side.
Kohen pulled his blade, stepping in front of me protectively. Finn and Jade did the same. But the griffin didn’t seem to have any interest in me. He was staring right at Colt.
It was horrifying. One moment to have your creature alive and well, and the next… gone. Murdered.
There was no human jumping out of the thick woods to attack us.
“I think he’s unbonded,” I breathed, feeling crushed after witnessing what had just happened. The Wilds were brutal in that way. We needed to get out of here.
I knew they called them the Shadow Blades for a reason, but I’d never seen them in action until now. One second Colt was standing with unbridled rage, fists shaking as he clenched his jaw, and then in a blink he had pulled his knife and thrown it into the griffin’s wing. The blade sank into flesh and the griffin shrieked, staggering backward, and I swallowed hard. We all took a step back, and in another blink, Colt was at the griffin’s throat with a second blade. He was incredibly fast, but before he could slice into the creature, the griffin made a clicking noise with his tongue and then we were all flying backward. Some kind of shockwave had emitted from the creature. My butt hit the ground first as Kohen threw himself over me, pinning me to the ground.
Colt gave a battle cry, clearly no longer caring about making noise, and ran at the creature. Somehow, he’d pulled out a cord and lassoed it around the beast’s neck. Then he was on the creature’s back, pulling the cord tight to choke him. It was an incredible sight, and as much as I knew we should get away and move to safety, I couldn’t stop watching the battle before me. Another clicking sound reached my ears and another shockwave shot out from the creature, this one rattling my lungs, but Kohen seemed to take the brunt of it since he was lying on top of me. Trees shook, but Lieutenant Colt stayed on him. The griffin kicked off the ground in a panic, and they both went skyward.
Holy crap.
I understood the desire to retaliate for his dead bonded, but right now was the worst possible time for this. There were over a dozen Talanagi in the skies. Colt was going to be seen.
“We need to get the empress to safety,” Kohen said, standing.
Seargent Finn and Captain Jade eyed the sky where their friend had just gone and only hesitated about leaving him behind for a brief moment. “Of course,” they said, and then I was yanked to my feet, and we were all running. Kohen, Finn, and Jade created a circle of protection around me.
I knew the motto. No man left behind.
“We should stay and wait for Lieutenant Colt.” I slowed my pace, trying to wrap my head around how this had gone south so fast. We’d lost our creatures, and now Colt’s hawk was dead and he was riding an unbonded creature into the sky on the night we blew up the Red Palace. If he was caught, the Luskins would torture him to death.
All three of the soldiers shook their heads. “That’s not protocol when protecting you, Empress,” Jade said as her long, red ponytail bobbed behind her. “We leave him. We can send an extraction team at another time if he survives.” I could hear the quiver in her voice, though. She didn’t like the rules.
If he survives.
I hated that. I did. But she was right. If Liana were with me, I’d fly up and help him take down the griffin. What could we do staring up at the sky? He was on his own.
“Let’s head south and take the river around the Wall. I’ve done it before,” Kohen stated and got a few raised eyebrows. I knew he’d done it before because I’d gone with him during our time together in The Wilds.
There was no argument, though. By Jade’s calculations, it would take roughly two hours jogging on foot as we were pretty deep into Luska and far from the border, but travel on foot was our only option. We agreed that if we got split up, we’d meet on the other side of the Wall in the Wilds in Amersea. We’d run as fast and far as we could without stopping until we were out of enemy territory.
As we ran, my mind was with Liana and Onyx. Were they okay? I couldn’t sense her at all—she’d completely shut me out. I wanted to reach out to her mentally, but I also didn’t want to distract her if she was in a fight for her life.
I knew how important it was for her to get retribution for her mate, how long she’d waited to see Drak again. I just couldn’t believe it was happening on the night that we took down the Red Palace. I also couldn’t believe she’d left me behind. It hurt, even though I knew it was out of protection.
After about thirty minutes of solid running, I slowed, trying to catch my breath. The others matched my pace. I had a stitch in my side, so I grabbed it, pinching hard as I turned our run into a slow jog. No one questioned it. They just slowed to match me and kept their eyes peeled on the forest. The pain in my side eased, and I was about to say that we could run full-out again when Jade suddenly stopped, holding up a fist. The sign meant pause and be alert .
We all froze, and I heard it: the snap of a twig to our right.
Ever so carefully, I reached up to pull my blade and held out my free palm with the other. Kohen did the same, and fire began to build his palm as he suspended it there, waiting to attack.
It could just be another unbonded creature. We were in the Wilds, so it was teeming with them.
Jade moved then, tucking herself into a roll and hitting the ground just as a knife whizzed past where she was.
“Get her out of here!” Jade yelled and popped up, running into the woods as Kohen shot a ball of fire in the direction of where the knife had come from.
My heart hammered in my chest at the sight of Captain Jade disappearing into the forest. Kohen and Finn were now the only two left. They each hooked a hand under my elbow and guided me into a thick outcrop of trees. We ran in complete silence, other than the sound of our shoes pounding on the forest floor. A mere hundred feet away from us, I could hear Jade fighting an unseen intruder. Grunts, metal clangs, and fists hitting skin reached my ears, but we kept moving southeast. It felt wrong to run away from a fight, but I was empress now. If I was killed, it made Valor empress at fourteen. That was unheard of. There were protocols in place for a young heir, but they were less than ideal. Valor was still reeling from my father’s death. She wasn’t ready for this.
No, we had to keep going.
Jade knew what she signed up for. But even as I said it, I wondered if I could sneak away and help her. To use the thrall to subdue her attacker.
Yeah, right.
Then Jade would tell the Imperial Fleet, and I’d be hanging from a tree by morning.
I shook my head to dislodge the wild thoughts running through it. The mission had been a success, which was great, but I was na?ve to think that we’d all just get home safely.
As the moments ticked by, we ran in the eerie pinkish-orange light the fire sky gave off. We were completely silent, slowly inching our way towards the Wall. It was all going according to plan when the breath was suddenly taken from my lungs. My lungs cinched in my chest, and I clawed at my throat as panic washed over me.
Red dragon rider.
I heard Kohen and Finn sputter for breath. We all skidded to a stop and faced each other. They beat on their chests in confusion, and I glanced upward, watching the red dragon circle above us. The Luskin rider with the blonde hair peered down at me, hovering twenty feet above, wearing a sadistic grin.
Without Liana or Onyx, we couldn’t reach her.
Panic seized me as I found my lungs frozen, and Kohen peered at me with alarm. He aimed a fireball at her, but she dodged it easily, laughing as she coasted to the right on her dragon.
Finn threw a blade up at her, but it didn’t reach, and I knew what needed to be done. We couldn’t run away, not without oxygen. She was forcing me to use my hidden power.
I’d done it before in front of her. Maybe she wasn’t sure and wanted to see me do it again. Either way, she was surely toying with us.
“This is for killing my father,” she screamed down at me, lowering herself a little more, but still out of reach.
Her father? I didn’t know who her father was.
Finn fell to his knees. Black dots danced at the edges of my vision. I didn’t want to do this. I glanced at Kohen, whose lips were purple, and he just nodded to me once.
Dammit .
Pulling for that power within me, I threw out my hand. ‘Stop!’ I thought, but never said out loud. The word was an action, and it flew from me in a physical force. The silver cord soared from my hand and wrapped around the red rider’s head. Precious oxygen returned to our lungs as we gasped for air.
“I knew it!” she said as she peered down at me with wonder.
“I’m not done,” I growled between ragged breaths. “Jump,” I said, out loud this time, pushing my power. A little white glowing bead ran the length of the cord and rushed into her. She shook her head in panic, rearing her dragon to escape, but once the bead hit her head, she leaped off of her dragon and landed on both legs. From thirty feet away, I heard the bones snap. Her wails of agony cut into the night.
“That was for my father, for Nikhil, for all of Riverine,” I told her.
“Holy shit!” Finn screamed. “You can… you just… that’s forbidden .”
Oh crap . What was I thinking?
I snapped my head in Finn’s direction at the same time Kohen lunged for him.
Finn was wide-eyed, pale, and ashen. He ran, and Kohen took off after him.
No. No. No . I did not think that through. Finn seeing me use that power could ruin everything.
Without a second thought, I left the red dragon rider and ran after Kohen. The cord connecting me to the rider snapped and sucked back into me as we pounded through the woods.
“Seargent Finn! Stop! That’s an order!” I yelled, watching him fly through the trees in a blind panic. He didn’t stop, which meant he feared me and was no longer loyal. He’d tell everyone what I could do, and then I’d be?—
Kohen threw a fireball at Finn’s retreating back and it crashed into him, knocking him forward, covering him in flames.
I skidded to a stop, in shock at what Kohen had just done. Finn screamed a horrible shrill of pain as Kohen pulled his knife from the sheath at his side and ended Finn’s agony quickly by dragging it across his neck.
No. No. No.
Kohen had just killed one of our own in order to protect my secret. I stood there in shock as Kohen wiped the blood off his blade, sheathed it, and came to stand before me. He reached for me and I tensed, so he withdrew.
“Aisling, if you hadn’t used your power, we’d all be dead,” he said.
I knew that. But did I need to make the dragon rider jump off? Break her legs? And maybe her back. She killed Nikhil . What was I thinking? Of course, I didn’t care what happened to her. It felt like I was going insane, a war going on inside my own mind.
I looked at Finn’s smoking, lifeless body. “But he was one of us,” I croaked, feeling on the edge of losing it. Too much death, too close together, too fast. I needed to process it, and I needed more sleep.
Kohen shook his head, and this time, pulled me into his arms. I let him. He cradled my jaw and forced me to look at him.
“My love, it will always just be you and me, not us and them.”
Those words sounded romantic in a way, but I knew he didn’t mean them to be. He meant it was he and I who knew about my gift, and then everyone else. Us against the world.
“The red dragon rider knows,” I told him.
He nodded. “Let her. If she lives, she will take that information back to Prime Leader Vlek. He will fear you. It might end the war. You could force him to surrender.”
I could? Why hadn’t I thought that? Why didn’t I do that?
“But only for a little while. We don’t know how long your powers last,” he added.
True. When I lost concentration, they broke. I couldn’t end the war forever, but I could change it drastically.
“What do we do?” I looked at Finn’s dead body, feeling a tidal wave of guilt wash over me. I was supposed to protect him, I was his empress, and I’d just led him to his death.
“We go to the meetup spot and see if Jade is there?—”
“And if she is?” I asked, unable to tear my gaze away from Finn’s dead, still-smoking body.
Kohen directed my chin so that I met his eyes again, and I finally looked away. “Aisling, he didn’t follow your command. He would have told Commander Ledger, and you’d be put to death.”
I knew that was true. I knew that, but… it didn’t make it any easier to take. How many people had Kohen and I secretly killed together? First, the imperial soldiers in the Wilds, then the ones who were holding Liana hostage and keeping us from bonding. Now… this. It was too much.
“If we see Jade, we tell her of the red dragon rider. Finn died a hero trying to save you,” Kohen declared.
I nodded. That was a good cover story, and his family would get extra pay for him dying in battle. “Okay…”
I needed Liana. I couldn’t process this. I needed to know more about my gift, the one her grandmother had. I didn’t want it anymore. I wanted to give it back.
“I wish I didn’t have my power,” I told Kohen.
He nodded, chewing at his lip and peering down at me anxiously.
“What? I asked.
He said nothing, but there was a look of compassion in his gaze.
“Kohen Badshah,” I warned. He’d seen something. Some vision related to my power?
“You don’t always have this power, Aisling,” he said sadly, stroking my cheek.
Fear washed over me, fast and hot. “What do you mean? How?”
“I just know that you lose it, that there is a time you need it, and it doesn’t come to you—for a short time or forever, I have no idea.” He shrugged. “I wish I could fit all the puzzle pieces together, Aisling, I really do. But there are so many holes.” I could see the agony written on his face as he tried to recall things in his mind, and I nodded, appreciating that he was being honest and sharing.
“When I really need it and don’t have it… what happens to me?” I asked, suddenly fearful. This power felt like a curse, but not when it was saving my life.
His face became fierce. “Nothing you need to worry about because I will always protect you.”
My heart fluttered. Kohen’s loyalty and protectiveness and adoration was… overwhelming in the best way. I’d never sought safety from anyone, not even my father. I’d been taught to fend for myself, but with Kohen, I felt like I could lean on him and trust him to carry me through hard things.
He reached up and brushed his thumb over my bottom lip. “There’s so much I want to say, Aisling, but I can’t.”
I swallowed hard, tendrils of heat rushing down my body at his touch. I wanted to hear all of the things he wanted to tell me, but I also knew that him speaking about the future before had freaked me out. About us. I wanted to live it, not hear about it and wonder if he was guiding me into it.
“Do we ever fight? Or are we blissfully happy forever?” I smiled up at him.
A dark shadow crossed over his face, and he eyed the tree line behind me. “Come on, we should get going.” His hand slipped into mine and he pulled me forward, towards the Wall, but my mind was spinning. Why didn’t he answer me? And why did I care so much?
Oh Kohen. He might be my undoing.