68. Oz

68

Oz

I 'm really worried about Kami.

It's all I can do to keep the bastards around me from ending my life. But then, I know they're toying with me. With the numbers they have, and my wounds and fatigue, I should have been dead a while ago.

But they're bleeding me slowly, taking turns stabbing at me while avoiding the death I've bestowed on so many.

Bodies lay everywhere, like bits of discarded pollen shed by angry bees.

Malkar and I buzz and kill and claw. I've bitten through throats and ripped off heads.

And still they come.

These are Rilitar's chosen. Enwiss too. And Beyrthnel uses him like wet tissue, now a picture of a strapping war god who's killing my dryad.

Shoving one fae into a fireball meant for me, I watch him burn and avoid a slash to the throat. Unfortunately, my ability to draw on my ogre strength is gone. I used it too much already and need time to recharge .

But I'm still powerful enough to stay alive.

Long enough to?—

The roar that fills the space distracts me and everyone nearby.

We all stare as a large and growing larger beast crushes bodies under him.

Until he's fully formed, taking up half the cave.

Malkar is a fucking dragon .

Yes, I'd guessed before, but seeing him in this form, fully fleshed out with blue and silver scales, a mane of pure white hair along his head and winding neck, seeing the flash of magic in his eyes and horns, coating his body. It's nearly unfathomable.

His talons are the size of my hands. He's probably small for a dragon, the size of an old-fashioned box truck, yet still so much more vivid than most pictures of dragons I've seen.

No one sees a dragon in real life. They have been hunted to extinction.

Or not.

But Malkar's also part demon. Is that even possible?

I can reason it out later, though, and take advantage of the distraction. While everyone advances on him, hoping to take him down and strip him of his scales, his magic, I grab a pike from the ground off a fallen fae and get to work.

I can't help watching him decimate those around him.

We need to kill every last being in this cave. No one can know what he is. Except, doesn't Folas know? But if he did, he'd already have stripped Malkar down to the bone.

I'm so confused.

But there's no time for that. I'm fighting my way back to Kami, not allowing myself to think about how still she's become, or how there's no way I can overpower a god when I can't grow my ogre-toughened skin .

I ignore my worries, focusing on ending the threat around us.

Even when Kami cries out, her pain piercing my heart, reminding me she's mine.

I've let her down so much already. I can't let my mistakes take me from the present.

From my path to destruction.

I will end everything around her to save her, Malkar, and the others, if they're even still alive.

I hurt, deep inside, because I'm to blame.

I led them all to this. My hubris allowed me to imagine I might have a chance at defeating the monarch and my mother.

How many times does she have to defeat me before I admit I'm beaten?

Enraged at the thought, I skewer more fae, ignoring the shocks, ice, and fire that scour my body.

I dodge a knife that catches the corner of my eye, and I roar as I shake free from the slash of pain and blood obscuring my vision.

Kami's too still; she's not crying out anymore either. Her legs are no longer on fire, but they're horribly covered in blisters and charred flesh.

"Get her," Malkar roars at me as I get within striking distance of the last of our enemy.

They're panicking. A dragon has raged through them all, and they know they have little time left in this world.

I'm surprised I'm still on my feet. I've lost a lot of blood, so much that I'm sliding in it and the rest of the muck pooled on the ground.

"I'll get her," I promise and rush to Beyrthnel.

I stab the pike at his midsection. It sinks inside him.

And stops .

He finally pulls back from Kami, who sags in his hold like a ragdoll, made of nothing but fabric and thread.

Beyrthnel tosses her to the ground, where she falls in a heap, unmoving.

"Ah, Daleyne's monster comes to play. Finally." The war god grins, yanks the pike from his body and my hands, and throws it at me.

So fast it's a blur, but I'm moving before it hits. It goes right by me and bounces off Malkar.

Beyrthnel nods. "This is by no means a fair fight, but you might give me a bit of a workout after all, boy. You and the baby dragon."

Malkar stomps over to us, having eviscerated the rest of the fae trying to kill him.

He is heads above me, his breath a cool wash of power tingling where it touches. "You don't belong here. You call yourself a god?"

Beyrthnel bares his teeth. "You call yourself a dragon?"

"I do not. I am your Better." Malkar smiles, showing huge-ass fangs. His lack of fear seems to piss off the war god, because Beyrthnel attacks.

Me.

He shoves a lance he grabbed from out of nowhere through my gut, and it rips through me like I'm paper.

As the god laughs with glee, Malkar rushes past, knocking me back.

His attack is fast and sure, and he strikes the god several times before Beyrthnel shouts and engages.

The fight is in earnest, but I can't focus much because I've been seriously wounded.

I don't think I'll come back from this, sadly. My biggest regret should be that I failed my father, that I haven't killed the woman who betrayed us both .

But I'm surprised to find more shame in the fact that I disappointed Kami and the others. That I couldn't do enough to save my sweet dryad from Beyrthnel.

I drag myself to her. "Kami." She doesn't move.

Oh fuck. I don't think she's breathing.

And I will, with all my might, whatever is in me into her. "Take it, Kami. My life for yours."

I take her into my arms, gently stroke her hair back from her face, and look down into her lifeless face.

I don't know how everything went so wrong, but one thing I won't regret is getting to know Kami. Even for a brief time.

I drop my forehead to hers. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart."

Then I kiss her, and with everything I am, I wish her back to life.

I feel something pass through me into her. I know it.

But no matter what I do, she doesn't move.

And then Malkar crashes into me with all that he is, and I fall into the despair that is my death.