Page 54 of Vathia
What’s shocking though is they don’t attack, but instead signal for us to land in the clearing below. My gut twists with unease, not liking this situation at all, but Talyn mimics the signal and we begin our descent.
“Clearly that bastard wants to volunteer his other eye,” Nero hisses, not taking his eye off the black dragon with Bracken sitting upon it. How the fuck did he survive?
We land on one end of the field, Jesper and Killian glued to my side so closely I could touch their beasts, while Aemon and Talyn are in front of us. But even from here I can feel the stares of Cresida and Bracken and it makes my skin crawl.
“Talyn,” Hemmings yells. “Word has gone out that Lord Craven is looking for you. We are under orders to take you and the other Lords’ sons in. You have a lot to answer for.”
“I knew they were working for the enemy,” Jesper mutters, “See, Tisur, I had good reasons to be paranoid.”
Talyn chuckles. “The Lords are traitors to the crown. You know exactly what a purple dragon picking a rider means. I suggest you fly back and tell them to stand down.”
Featherington laughs this time, the noise slightly high pitched and grating on the ears. “Stand down? To this nobody?” He gestures towards me. “Like void we will. You think youknow what’s going on but you really have no damn clue. Forfeit yourself or we will kill you and take the bitch to your fathers. I’m sure they would love to meet her.”
Killian growls, and Voissor shifts to stand more in front of me.
“I’m sure Lord Craven would even let me play with the fake royal, isn’t that right Ravina? If you come now I’ll forgive you for what you did to my eye,” Bracken yells across the distance, licking his lips. He adjusts the eyepatch over the eye Nero captured and his dragon hisses.
“Ugh, seriously Bracken? She’s probably so broken-in that even a slum brothel wouldn’t touch her. I always knew she was a whore,” Cresida snaps. “Are you happy being a mate thief? You stole Evera’s happily ever after and you don’t even care. You think you’re so fates damn special—”
“Enough!” Hemming seethes. “This is pointless. Kill them. The Lords don’t care what happens other than that they want her alive.”
My knuckles turn impossibly white with unrelenting rage as our wings growl and rumblings grow louder.
“We have a problem,” Vasari states as she settles low, getting ready to pounce. “These dragons’ minds are not their own—they can’t communicate with me. I fear the Phixmery dragons are falling to this darkness.” She growls again but I don’t have time to question her on what she means.
I know those two will be gunning for me, and I need to stay focused. “I have a lot of questions about what you just said but it will have to wait until after.”
Aemon doesn’t wait to strike, pulling shadows from nearby foliage while Evisdor latches onto Hemming’s blue dragon’s neck and shakes violently.
“Get out of here,” Talyn mouths at me, and I know he’s yelling, but over the sounds of dragons fighting I can’t hear the words.
I shake my head. No, I’m ending these two here and now. Vasari hears my idea and she approves. I have access to so many different kinds of magick and so does Vasari. This should be a piece of cake, I just need to get far enough away from my mates to do this.
We take off into the sky above the others and they follow me. I know they are cursing up a storm because taking this fight to the skies means that things become more chaotic, which is exactly what I’m banking on.
Cresida takes the bait first, her dragon speeding towards me. A sadistic grin spreads widely across her face, thinking that I will be an easy target, but she doesn’t know. None of them do. All she would probably know is what Bracken knows, so she’s in for a rude awakening.
I pull from my Szellemi magick and force my way into her mind, not taking my eyes off her. When I have a firm grip on it, I push in images of Vasari and I appearing and disappearing from around her, and watch with glee as she begins to panic, searching for me. Unfortunately her dragon doesn’t fall for it, but Vasari handles the smaller beast with ease, blasting it in the head with a quick burst of shadow flames.
The beast’s screams are quickly silenced as its head turns to ash and its body plummets the small distance to the ground. Its rider will survive the small fall, so I urge Vasari to follow after it.
As soon as her claws hit the ground, I’m off and running full speed towards the burning dead dragon. Cresida rises from the saddle, falling to the ground before she climbs back onto her feet, her body wobbling as she tries to get her bearings and escape the flames before they consume her as well. Tears streamdown her face as she sobs, yelling for her dragon to get up. The cries are heartbreaking, but it doesn’t deter me from what I know I need to do. She wouldn’t have hesitated to try to kill me. She never has.
All the times back in Shalo where she tried to drown me, belittle me and encourage them to torture me at the fucking whipping post—no. This ends here. The realm won’t miss her. Maybe I’m just as bad as she is, but years of anger have boiled over the brim.
My smaller form collides with her as I rain down punch after punch.
“Stop,” she screams. “You stupid bitch. I should have killed you while I had the chance.” She manages to get the upper hand, her fist glancing off my chin as I blast her with air, sending her flying over me.
Touching the earth, I force it to wrap around her body, holding her in place much like that time during our second trial, but this time,this time,that’s where she’s going to stay.
“Any last words?” I hiss through my teeth, pulling a blade from my waist.
She bares her pointed canines at me, hissing back in response. “My father will kill you for this. All the villagers will hunt you down, flay the skin from your bones and leave you tied to the whipping post for the scavengers to feast on.”
An unexpected laugh bursts from me. “Oh, Cresida. Didn’t you hear? My mate burned that village to the ground and everyone in it.” I know he let some fae go, but she doesn’t need to know that. She’ll be dead in a moment anyway.
Her eyes widen in shock as I slide the blade across her throat, her blood spraying me, but I couldn’t care less as I watch her life pour out of the wound, seeping into the ground. Within moments the light fades from her eyes and I know that Cresida Fellowes is dead. With quick precision I pry an eyeball from herskull, knowing that Nero would be pissed if he didn’t get at least one eye from her. Especially after everything she put us through. Using the same trick I used at The Choosing, I create a little box made from rock nearby and dump some water into it from the canteen at my hip.
