Page 75 of Kingdom of Spirits

A jagged line of boulders marked the ground below Maiwenn. Claudia and Justus shouted her name.

Marius held his breath. They weren’t going to make it. Maiwenn was going to die.

Ragewing angled to swoop below Maiwenn, and Donan dove straight for her.

Katk shouted as if in triumph, and rage poured from Marius’s very pores. He pressed his palm against Ragewing’s shoulder.Please. Faster.

I’m trying, rider!

Donan roared, the sound splintering the air. Katk broke free of the dragon fire and lunged at Ptol and Titus.

Marius’s entire life was being ripped to pieces, like a crumbling piece of parchment left in the sun and wind too long. He needed his knights. All of them. They were the only ones he trusted to help Tahlia, to help him if she couldn’t be saved.

The rocks flew toward them and Maiwenn was tumbling like a corn husk doll, her limbs taunted by the wind.

Donan stretched out his long neck and snatched Maiwenn from the air. But they were going to hit the ground and Maiwenn wouldn’t be able to handle the crash.

Under them!

Ragewing veered harshly and came up just under Donan’s tipped wing. Ragewing bumped the other dragon, the rocks so, so close. With the aid of Ragewing’s bump, Donan rose sharply into the sky with Maiwenn secured between his teeth as dragons did with the very young of their kind.

Ragewing followed Donan, and Marius shouted orders, “All units, stop Katk! Turn him around!”

A sheep farm appeared beyond a crevice in the lowlands. The giant was heading that way, of that Marius had no doubt. Either with the golden plague or with simple fists and feet, Katk would kill everything in sight. These folks in the foothills of the Shrouded Mountains had Mistgold blood just as he did. And he had sworn an oath to protect them.

“Three! Unit three, take the lead!” His voice boomed off a bank of clouds shifting between Ragewing and Ewan on Angus’s spiked form.

Ewan raised a fist to indicate he’d heard and would do as ordered. His dark, bald head reflected the scant sunlight as Angus dove toward the giant. Brutus on his Spikeback followed close behind, flanked by Cyrus and Lucius on their Heartsworns. Their fire rippled across Katk’s face and the monster droppedback, his foot crushing a bridge spanning a broad and spring-muddied river.

“Unit two! Back them up! Southward until we hit the pit, then we push him northwest!” Marius ordered. “Unit three, fall back! We will fill in there!”

He waved to his unit behind him and they circled unit three, flaring fire as unit three filtered in between unit one, flying between them in expert-level formation. He was proud of these riders. And crushed that Tahlia wasn’t among them.

A dark shape burst through the scattered clouds and every thought shattered.

Ophelia. Her cheeks and chin glistened as if she had been… No, she couldn’t have been weeping. Ophelia didn’t cry, not even once since he’d known her. And they had seen a great deal. Including her father’s death.

Had she truly killed him? Was this all her doing?

Tahlia believed that. Marius didn’t want to believe it, but Ophelia had never been a good person. She’d followed orders. Well, except concerning those damned gloves of hers. She must have felt so terribly desperate to be cruel to her dragon.

He couldn’t even imagine what he was thinking when he had thought to be her mate, to wed her and have younglings with her. He’d been an idiot. A fool. Ophelia was even worse than he realized. Not just cruel to a creature because of desperation. But cruel in general. She, like Katk, was a monster.

Ophelia lifted her hand, and black and gold magic spun from her fingertips like she was casting a net.

The world’s edges fogged.

Marius couldn’t seem to recall what he and the others were doing here, up in the air, above the creature designed to enact proper revenge.

Chapter 32

Tahlia

Tahlia felt hollowed out, weak, and unsubstantial. Her strength came and went in unpredictable waves. Focusing on the battle wasn’t easy as her vision blurred off and on. She was a cracked remnant of something that was once strong on the back of a dragon that wasn’t hers.

But she wasn’t quite useless yet. Not during her now-and-again alert periods.

Wasn’t it just lovely that Ophelia showed up as her eyes opened again?

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