Page 6 of Kiss of Death
Ahead of you.
I stared far past the village and then saw the streaks of fire that erupted in the darkness, coming from different directions in the air and raining down on our enemies.That should kill them quickly.
Hawk was quiet.
I didn’t pester him, knowing he needed to concentrate on what played out before him.
The fires continued for another moment until they disappeared…and didn’t return.
Were they really defeated that quickly?
I gave my brother another minute or two to report, to tell me that they’d been vanquished or chased off.
Then his voice sounded in my head.They don’t burn.
My heart dropped faster than a boulder from the edge of a cliff.What?
They’re immune to fire.
But that’s not possible. They aren’t dragons.
I see what I see. And now their archers are firing off arrows of gold.
Oh fuck.
There was another pause before my brother came back to me.They’ve broken the front line. It’s going to be a massacre.
I turned back to the sea, seeing how much distance their galleons had covered in the brief amount of time I had looked away. They’d covered an unbelievable distance as if a hurricanepowered their sails. Mighty roars sounded in the sky from the dragons, and the battle by sea began. My fleet fired at their ships while streaks of fire started to rain down on all the boats.I’m coming.
What happens at sea?
Their galleons have just arrived.I turned to Zehemoth. “Hawk needs help.”
Zehemoth lowered himself farther so I could easily climb up his side.We shall go to him.
I climbed up the saddle and strapped myself in before we launched into the air. The sky was dark except for the stars, and a blur of darkness swept across my vision as we moved past nothingness.
Zehemoth used his full strength to carry us across the village at breakneck speed, sprinting like a falcon at the bottom of the drop about to catch his prey. I leaned over the saddle and grabbed the horn as we sliced through the air like a knife.
I saw the light of the bonfires and the sea of men who marched for my kingdom, their clothes and armor burned and covered in soot but otherwise perfectly fine. There were so many of them, all marching to kill us.
Zehemoth dropped in the open section between the first and second wave so I could dismount.We can’t burn them, but that doesn’t mean we can’t rip their heads off.The second I was safe on the ground, he launched into the sky and released a mighty roar. “Roooaaaaaaarrrrrr!”
“Lily.” Hawk pushed through the ranks of soldiers and reached my side. “Raise the dead. Many of our own have already fallen.Some of my best soldiers are at the front of the line, and they’re no match for these creatures.”
“Roooaaaarrrr!” One of the dragons swooped down over the first line of the enemy, knocking them all down with their gargantuan size. Then came the teeth and talons, ripping and shredding. Other dragons started to follow suit, direct combat the only way to slow the enemy’s progression to the kingdom.
I reached for the aura of the dead, a distant beam of light that I could feel and not see. It usually took a second or two to find it, but my mind continued to search endlessly for the end of the rope to tug.
“Raise the dead,” Hawk ordered like he was the king and I was the general.
I continued to try, to find the connection between my power and their obedience. But I never found it. Didn’t feel the spirits of the dead to raise. I felt…nothing at all.
My expression must have changed because Hawk’s eyes suddenly dilated, and he looked pale.
“I—I don’t have it.” I tried again and again, tried to command the dead who didn’t recognize me as their ruler. They lay there, unable to hear the call that I continued to scream. “It’s gone.”
Hawk looked even paler, his eyes dropping momentarily. “We’re on our own, Lily.”
