40. FORTY

forty

REBELS

I don’t have to ask her to know who.

Rebels.

“Then let’s get you to them.” I link my arm with hers and help lift her to her feet.

We burst out of the healer’s quadrant into chaos. Archie is nowhere to be found, nor the soldiers who were assigned to stand guard outside of the healer’s quadrant. Cries and screams mix with the roar of metal on metal. Flashes of silver glimmer in the night, soldiers dash by us as they race toward the thickening mob near the northern part of the outpost. My heart skips to a gallop, my skin unbearably hot as I scan the throng. All I can think about is the terrifying possibility of someone I know dying.

I lead the rebel woman toward the western part of camp toward the wall, ducking under the cover of tents and tables as we make our way there.

“If you’re near the outpost, Daeja, retreat closer to the lake. We are being attacked!”

“What! And where are you?”

“Making my way… ” I glance at the rebel woman. Drops of blood trail in her wake with each limp. I pull her tighter into my side, trying to tug her into a faster pace. “ I’m moving a little slow—”

“Doesn’t surprise me. I’m coming to get you.”

“No! Don’t you dare — ”

“I’m much faster than your two little legs,” she snorts.

“Technically, right now, I have four.”

“Huh?”

The woman stumbles forward, and I catch her before she can fall. Her breath is heavy, despite the noisy chaos swimming around us.

She glances over to me. “You have to let me go. Leave me. I’m slowing you down—”

“No. If I leave you, you’ll die.” I tug her again.

“Why do you feel the need to save me? You don’t even know me.”

“It doesn’t matter—”

“Listen, you stubborn girl.” She rips her arm out of mine. “We can’t afford for you to die. Leave me. I’ll tell the rest of them to fall back. You can meet us north near the river.”

I scan the cloud of bodies surging in battle. My heart sinks as I pick out Cole’s flame red hair against the darkness. He swings against another rebel armed with a club. Surveying the rest of the throng, I recognize Melaina struggling against two men.

We are severely outnumbered.

I nod, a shaky breath escaping my lips. Taking my dagger out of my thigh sheath, I place it into her hands. “Okay. Take this. Just in case.”

She meets my panicked stare with a dip of her head and hobbles off, edging dangerously close to the thick of the battle.

A rapid thunder of footsteps tears my attention away from her. A man rushes from the shadows and charges me with a double-sided spear. He swings the spear, and I duck and slide, narrowly avoiding a slice to my leg. I’ve never practiced fighting outside of hand-to-hand combat, archery, and a sword. And I’m terrible at all of them. I’m not quite sure how to work with this.

Fuck.

He swings again, wicked fast, before I can unsheathe my sword. I fall back, barely in time to dodge his next attack. Catching myself on the ground with one hand behind me, my other is extended in front of me as if it’ll stop him from delivering the killing blow.

An eclipsing shadow looms over from behind him followed by an earth quaking growl. Daeja’s daggered teeth glint in the moonlight mere seconds before she snaps forward and snatches the man’s shoulder into her mouth. She tears him back away from me, her cat-like eyes slanted in fierce determination. The screaming man writhes in her grasp and frantically stabs the tip of his spear into her outstretched wing. Daeja’s roar rips out across the night. She clamps down harder on him with a sickening crunch, and the man falls limp in her mouth like a doll. She flings him off into the night.

“Daeja!” I cry and jolt forward for her.

The spear pierces the thin webbing of her wing, ripping through the membrane and poking out the other side. I stop myself from removing it, knowing that doing so in a human could mean bleeding out. For dragons, I’m not sure.

“Can you move it?”

She glances at the spear, flexes her wing, and cringes with a high-pitched shriek.

I brush a tender stroke up and down the ridge of her nose to comfort her. The spears has to come out if we need to fly. Eyeing the dark sea of the battle, I guide her back toward the healer’s quadrant. She tucks her wings into her side with a cry and squeezes her shoulders through the door frame. I hold out a hand to pause Daeja from entering further.

Marge freezes in her furious gathering of bottles tucked in the locked cabinet. She spins, positioning her staff in a defensive stance. When she realizes it’s me, she relaxes. Slightly. Because her gaze shifts to Daeja behind me, her mouth drops open in a silent gasp.

Panic creeps into my voice. “Marge, please. I need your help—she’s injured.”

Marge abandons her stash of bottles, clears the space between us, and reaches a shaky hand out to touch the spear lodged in Daeja’s wing. Daeja growls and snaps at the air near Marge’s hand. In the same second, Marge swings her staff and smacks Daeja on the head.

I shift in front of Daeja, arms outstretched, and ready to block any further blows. “You will not do that again,” I warn.

Daeja shakes behind me, clearing her head from the shock more than the actual blow. If anyone were to attack a dragon and not flinch, it would be Marge.

She stares past me at Daeja. “I need you to trust me, if I’m going to help you.”

I glance back at Daeja, who stares back at Marge. Daeja’s pupils flicker back and forth between slits and rounds, her upper lip twitching.

“Katerina, the green bottle over on the counter.” Marge still won’t take her eyes off Daeja.

Hesitantly, I slip past her, grab the bottle, and return.

“You’ll need to pull that spear out quickly. It doesn’t seem to be laced. As soon as you remove it, pour half the bottle on her wound,” Marge coaches.

Taking a deep breath, I do as she instructs, ripping the spear out of Daeja’s wing first. Daeja roars, her long tail sweeping across the room and smashing into the beds. I move quickly, pouring the green swirling liquid onto Daeja’s wound as she hisses through gritted teeth.

I pull her head into my chest and scratch under her chin. “All done…it’s all done.”

Marge taps me with her staff. “You both need to get out of here before someone sees you. They’ll kill you both.”

I look away from Daeja and toward her. “Come with us.”

She shakes her head. “No. It was foolish of me to ask you to take me there. You go.”

“I’m not leaving you. Have you seen what’s going on outside? You’re in danger here.”

Marge snorts, “I can defend myself.”

“Hate to break it to you, Marge, but your razor-sharp tongue isn’t going to save your ass from a rebel.”

She slams her staff into the ground. With one hand, she clutches the staff’s neck, and the other she twists the head, pulling the two pieces apart. The light shines on a metal blade as she unsheathes it.

My mouth falls open. “What the fuck—”

“Watch your mouth, woman.” She glares, lowering the blade and pointing its sharp angled tip at me.

I clap my hand over my mouth. “You mean to tell me you’ve been hiding that this whole time?”

“I didn’t know we were attune to sharing all of our secrets.” She flicks a look at Daeja, then back at me.

“I thought you were crazy when you asked me to give you your staff when those rebels attacked last time.”

She tilts her head to the side as she lowers the blade to her side. “Is this where you admit I have a lot more sense than you seem to think?”

“No.”

“Well, you should.” She sheathes the blade back into the staff.

“I thought you wanted to go to the Dragon Lands? This may be your only chance.”

She considers me for a moment. “I’ll just slow you down.”

“No, you won’t.” I grab her and pull her out the door with me.

The sound of the battle roars back to life again as we leave the healer’s quadrant behind. The three of us slink toward the trees. But Marge is right.

She isn’t fast enough.

“I need you to get on her back,” I whisper and pull Marge to Daeja.

Daeja narrows her eyes at the proposal. “ How about she gets on your back instead?”

“You might not like her or know her, but I do. And I need your help. Please.”

Daeja blows out a breath and lowers her body to the ground. “ Fine.”

“I can’t,” Marge says. It’s the first time I’ve ever noticed a hint of fear in her voice.

“Yes, you can.” I help Marge up over Daeja’s neck, my weak arms straining under her weight as I lift her up and over. At least this way she will be safer off the ground and on a dragon. And faster.

We slip into the trees and edge closer north, my hand pressed against Daeja’s shoulder, and my other wrapped around my sword’s hilt. My attention is locked into the chaotic surge of the battle, each warring side advancing and retreating like an ominous tide. They are much farther north now, pushing back between the trees of the forest. The rebels have managed to cut the squad off from camp, forcing them back north step by step. Bodies are left slumped on the ground in the wake, a clear trail of how much land the rebels have gained on them.

A shine of red hair ripples in the sea of black before it disappears again, snatching my heart and holding it in a choke- hold. Cole’s voice echoes in my mind as a soft trickle until the dam breaks, and I’m flooded with his rugged voice, drowning out everything else.

You are single-handedly the strongest person I know...

Wonderfully in love with every piece of you, broken and whole...

Because for me, it’s always been you...

And it always will be you...

I am fearfully yours, my love...

I love you, Katerina Blackwind...

I freeze mid-step, locked in on the spot where Cole vanished into the throng. Waiting for him to get up, everything slows. Each second ticking by parallels my thundering pulse.

Promise you’ll stay with me...

Promise you won’t leave without me...

I drag my attention up to Daeja, and she turns her head to me, her white glowing eyes meeting mine. She blinks in understanding. My gaze is drawn toward my hand resting on her shoulder. The cold, metal ring wrapped around my finger—Cole’s mother’s ring he gifted me, with the full intention of letting me go.

My own voice echoes in my ears, the words I uttered to Cole all those nights ago. I promise.

I explode into a run toward the battle.

I can’t leave Cole. I can’t leave any of them. Not Archie, not Melaina...not Darian.

Not like this.

“I just have to warn them,” I murmur to Daeja as I race away. “ If the rebels push them any further north, they’ll trap them at the river. And they’ll all die.”

“Katerina!” Marge shouts after me.

“Tell her I’ll be back,” I murmur to Daeja.

Daeja snorts, “I’m not sure she’ll understand me.”

“Just keep her with you, don’t let her out of your sight.”

“You’re putting me on babysitting duty?”

“One of these days, I’ll owe you a whole farm of chickens.”

“Now you’re talking.”

My feet pound against the ground as I push my legs as fast as they’ll go. Trees zip by me as I leap and stride over shadows, sticks, bushes, and rocks.

Cole’s voice whispers back into every edge of my mind.

Single-handedly...

I run along the edge of the tree line until it thins out near a wicked dark river. Affording myself short glances toward the battle, I search for Cole’s flash of red hair amongst the shadows.

...the strongest person...

Relief floods me when I finally spot Cole at the front of the squad. I cut into the battle, gunning straight for him. Sucking in a breath, I duck, spin, and slide out the way of stray swings and weapons as I dash for him.

...I know.

Cole swings in a series of attacks against a rebel, his red hair whipping with him in each strike. He knocks the rebel’s weapon out of their hand before they turn tail and run.

“Cole!” I’m almost out of breath a few strides away from him. “They’re going to trap you! You have to fall back!”

Cole turns to me, blood spattered on his face. I realize in horror I’m not sure if it’s his or someone else’s. His face is strained, broad chest heaving up and down in effort.

When he realizes I’m sprinting toward him, in a war he can’t stop from raging around us, his relief to see me melts to fear. “What are you doing here? Get out of here, Kat!”

A rebel rushes in behind Cole with a raised axe. My heart drops as I realize I’ve distracted him, leaving him vulnerable. With a grunt, I slingshot forward, closing the gap between us and colliding into Cole’s waist, tearing him down. The rebel’s downward swing of his axe barely grazes my side, his blade slicing through my shirt and whispering an inch from my skin.

Cole and I crash into the ground, and the rebel rears back again for his next attack.

“Kat!” Cole cries. Tugging me into his chest, he spins over top of me, rolling the both of us out of the way as the rebel swings again. Cole pushes up to his forearms, bracing himself over me, his nose brushing mine and eyes swimming in my panicked gaze. His attention darts away to the right where my sword is on the ground. He snatches it.

But he isn’t quick enough.

Cole’s body lurches forward, his forehead bumping against mine when the rebel’s axe connects with his body. Every bit of air in his lungs saws out in a single breath. Gritting his teeth, he musters every ounce of his strength and slashes my sword out against the rebel’s legs, severing them.

The rebel screams and collapses to the ground.

But it doesn’t matter.

None of it matters.

My hand shakily grazes down Cole’s side to confirm. An axe is lodged into his armor. When I pull my hand back to hold his face, to force him to look at me, I smear his cheek with fresh blood. My hand layered in thick crimson.

The gravity of the situation steals every pulse of my heart, every breath in my body.

He.

Can’t.

Die.

“Cole. Cole! Look at me. Cole, look at me!” I cry.

He drags his warm honey eyes to mine, his head tipping up and down in a slow nod. A visible tremor shakes up and down his arms. “I’m okay,” he wheezes.

Getting up off my back, I pull him into my arms, cradling him. With trembling hands, I gently assess where the axe is. The vile blade is jammed deep into his armor where his ribs are. My panic overflows when I realize how much blood there is. I can’t even tell where it’s all coming from. My hands soaked in the warmth of it.

Tears spill from my eyes, my voice a cracked whisper, “Remember that night you didn’t want me to leave your room? How you made me promise not to leave you? I need you to promise me now, Cole. Promise me you won’t leave.”

He still struggles to pull in a breath, his eyes fluttering as he braces a hand on the axe’s handle. But a smile cracks his lips, and he laughs.

Of all fucking things, he laughs. “You’re not getting rid of me that easy, Kat.”

“Just fucking promise me!”

He looks up at me and nods. “I promise.”

His face contorts as he tries to remove the axe.

“Stop it!” I cry and snatch his wrist.

“This breastplate is from the King…” he wheezes. “It’s stronger than normal armor.”

My words tremble in hysteria. “Oh, fuck the King!”

But he rips the axe free from his armor and tosses it to the side, leaving a deep, angry gash tearing through the metal.

“You fucking idiot!” I rip my cloak off and shove as much of it as I can into his wound to slow the bleeding. Forcing all my strength through my compressions to slow the flow of blood, I beg every god and deity to save him. Willing him to live. My gaze catches on the two rings around my fingers. The dark ring tattooing my finger from when I met Daeja and the metal of Cole’s mother’s ring.

“I’m still here.” Daeja’s voice caresses my mind, calming my terror.

Cole finally catches his breath and starts to sit up. His hand grips my shoulder, forcing me to listen to him. “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s not my blood, Kat. I don’t know whose it is, but it’s not mine. I’m o-kay!”

The horror eases enough for me to survey around us at the chaos of the battle. As if in slow motion, I recognize everyone around me. Melaina. Gavin. Nolan. Archie. Darian.

Darian takes on three men, and at his back is Carlisle who fights two others. I stiffen as one of the rebels strikes Carlisle. In one moment, Carlisle’s fighting back, and the other he slumps to the ground.

Dead.

Now there’s five on Darian—and my heart stutters at the impending danger. Archie and Melaina roar to his defense, swinging swords and screaming.

I tear my gaze away to Cole and snatch his arm, demanding he listen to me. “You have to tell the squad to fall back. We are outnumbered, and they’ll trap you against the river.”

Cole hesitates.

“Trust me!” I scream over the fight.

Cole relents and yells out across the battle, “Fall back! Fall back! Fall back! ”

Everyone pauses, confused, but then they turn and run north toward the river. I turn my attention toward Daeja, the pull of our bond directing my gaze toward her shadowy silhouette hidden near the tree line.

I spent so long terrified of flames and fallacies, but it transformed into something bigger in this moment—something deeper than any level of consciousness I could comprehend.

I am no longer afraid.

The only thing I am afraid of now, in this very moment, is the people I love dying. And not doing everything in my power to prevent it.

I tilt my head down, eyes connecting with Daeja despite the vast distance separating the two of us.

“Daeja, now!”

A thunderous roar rips out across the battlefield, and the night flares to life as a jet of fire bursts from Daeja’s jaws. She shakes her head back and forth vigorously as she releases a torrent of flame, igniting everything it touches, and digging a hard line of dragonfire between us and the rebels. It’s only mere seconds before the heat of the fire constricts the air around us.

I hold up a hand to temporarily block out the blinding light. When I dare a peek, a wall of flame separates us from the rebel silhouettes. The shadowy figures fade as the fire thickens and intensifies. My jaw slackens as I watch, my hand lowering from my face. Chants whisper in the back of my mind.

Fire incarnate.

Flame in flesh.

Blood of power.

The flames follow the direction of my hand—the more I lower it, the more it bows to my will. I reach out, inching forward until I'm a hair's breadth away. The wicked red-orange flames slither and slide, calling to some innate part of me.

I raise my hand up.

The flames stretch and lick into the night sky above us, stretching like claws. Nothing but flame and power. It’s terrifying, and in an odd way… beautiful.

The light in the shadows.

Cole tugs at my arm. “We have to go! Everyone across the river!”

The flames flare and spread, reminding me of the way water splits and rivers into pools, veins of power off the source, until a dam bursts.

I turn away from the fire, and together with Cole, I race for the river. Smoke fills my lungs and catapults me into a fit of coughs, and I stumble. My legs slow. My muscles scream, my head swimming and mouth drying. Cole helps steady me as I fumble through the river’s cold water foaming around my legs.

My vision sways, my mind dizzying at an alarming speed.

“Daeja? Where’s Marge?”

“She’s safe.”

I collapse into the river, but Cole catches me before I can dip completely underneath. An icy cold spreads over my body.

Something isn’t right.

Cole lifts me out of the water and into his arms, clearing the last few feet of the water’s edge. Once we get to the other side, my vision blacks out as another coughing attack steals my breath.

“Kat?” Cole lowers me to the ground, his face draining of color as he pulls his hand back from my side. It’s soaked in blood.

My blood.

Whatever adrenaline was masking my pain vanishes in an instant, and a burst of agony ruptures in the side of my ribs.

Daeja’s roar rings out around me before everything settles into a deafening silence.

The last thing I see is the reflection of the flames in Cole’s eyes, and a star dusted sky over his head.

Such beautiful, beautiful stars.