Page 47 of Reigning
I lift my hand at the same time as the person turns with a pretentious posture.
And I come eye to eye with King Barron.
A man I once loathed so much.
Now we’re on the same side. What is my life coming to?
He eyes me even as I start to stride past him.
His voice rings about among the screams and the fighting.
“He’ll protect her. He wants her dead, but you and I both know he’ll protect her in the end.” He coughs harshly, billowing cold puffs of air out and wheezing so hard he doubles over.
It’s painful how tight I’m clenching my jaw just to keep the nerves within me from rising all over again. I block out the words the King of Minden just said to me, but it’s all I hear in my mind now.
He’ll protect her in the end.
Roars come to life on the far side of the valley. Big wings glide down, and hot fiery liquid pours out on the men below. The new creature soaring above sends the demons into a frenzy. Some shoot bright lights into the sky, missing the inky dragon by mere inches. Hundreds of others run. They rush toward the castle, sending me down to the ground. My fingers sink into the freezing snow. Ice slices across my skin while several men kick at my arms as they run. A foot steps on my back, pushing me facedown even farther into the painful frost.
A roar chases after the fleeing demon, and I feel the chill bite into the air just before ice rains down on us in spears of pointed glass. I cover my head but I’m more likely to die from the stampede than I am from the ice above.
None of it touches me. The breath is lost in my lungs, and a heavy blow pounds into my spine as another man climbs over me and keeps on going.
One more boot lands on my shoulder before it all builds too high for me to contain.
My magic sears out of me in a bloom of pure colors. It flashes like a bomb, sending showers of heavy snow and flailing men right off of me until nothing surrounds me within a twenty-foot radius.
My fingers tremble, but a calm finally finds me. I can breathe again.
“Arrie,” Sinister says my name, but it’s a muffled sound that’s too far away.
Boots crunch into the snow at my side. Warm fingers push down my spine, and he lifts me, pulling me to his lap as he kneels in the snow. Dirt lines his cheeks, and there’s a thin slice dividing his brow, sending a small trickle of red blood down the side of his face. Big crimson eyes search my face, and he pushes back my hair and looks over every part of me.
He seems unaffected by the small wound, though.
“Fuck, Arrie.”
I slide out of his arms, stumbling just slightly before I stand.
“I’m fine.” Cuts are all along my fingers, but I brush my hand across my numb cheeks nonetheless, and my palm comes away bloodier than before. “I’m fine,” I say once more.
I can’t feel my toes or fingertips. Magic churns through me to try to find some heat, but it’s all lost in the back of my mind. There are a thousand other things racing through my thoughts that are much louder than the coldness of my body right now.
Like the serious look Sinister gets just before he tells me exactly what I want to hear.
“I found her.”
Seventeen
The Last Remaining Mages
Pain shootsthrough my side with every step I take, but I can’t stop looking for her. Every soldier we pass, every daunting cloak, every wave of magic, I search for that bitch.
I’m ready. My mother and Seara are trailing a bit behind us, Sin is at my side, and my mates are soaring the sky. I just need to catch her off guard.
“Kain is following her. If she roams anywhere, he said he’d let you know.”
“You left Kain with her?” My voice is a croaking tone that only makes my heartbeat drill harder.
