AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Brenn shouts and jumps, becoming so small as we fly up and then Hyde dives down back toward him, slicing through the air like it’s nothing. His eyes grow wide as he stumbles, then turns and starts to run, one side dropping heavily with every step.
I barely hear him scream before we snatch him up in our mouth, and it’s not until he squirms around on our tongue that I know he’s alive. Together we soar through the clouds, shredding them with their wings as they beat the air, heading toward the crystal castle. A crowd has already gathered, some sort of contraption is rigged with a harness large enough to fit a dragon. The guards move three little blips, all strung together. Loric, Mira, and Jepser. They drop down to the ground next to the contraption.
As we circle overhead, my guts spins until my nerves fray. Anger until I’ve ever felt drips into my veins and Hyde beats her wings a little faster…We aren’t going to make it.
Chapter 39
Loric
We’re shoved to our feet, the stone slab biting into my knees. Mira fights, and then all of our collars zap, making our spines bow as white hot pain sears through our necks. The collars are similar to what the solarians wear, what their king uses to control his people, laden with gemstones that keep us from using their magic–our gifts.
Breathing hard, I survey the crowd, looking for dark hair, for golden eyes. For Brenn. Yet, I don’t see them. Instead I come face to face with a silent crowd. The dragon shifters of the kingdom have gathered, but no one cheers for this execution. Not when it’s the king’s son. Not for the bastard son of the Lord of Lythanar. Not even for Mira.
It’s somber. Eerie. It almost makes it worse. Lightning zaps as they test what our kingdom calls the Vetrias. It channels electricity into a rod of lightning that will zap at the very center, where one of us will be chained down. It forces the shift if the criminal isn’t willing. It rips their dragon out, piece by piece if it has to, just so their wings could be cut off. Then the bottom willopen up and the criminal will be dropped to their death into the ocean below.
I’ve seen it countless times. It’s been our way of punishment for the worst of crimes for years.
King Everand shouts, despite the unnerving quiet, listing out names and crimes as he stands before his throne. His dark robes stand out against the shards of crystals that surround his throne, matching the crown on his head.
He’s barely spoken to me. The only time he came down to the dungeon was to see for himself that his traitor son was still alive and to rip Mira’s ring from her neck.
How dare he offer to mate Calamity… My mark is still on her fucking neck and he offers something like that… If it weren’t for the chains around my wrists, I’d strap him down to the Vetrias myself. Shifters don’t touch others’ mates. Regardless of species, it’s a crime punishable by death. He should’ve known that until that mark fades, he had no right. Unfinished bond or not.
My father finishes his manifesto, telling the crowd how I’m responsible for my sister’s death, that we nearly broke the treaty between the rebels in the outer realm and Solaria, by being in the Realm of Monsters. That we’re traitors of the crown. That the punishment for these crimes is death.
Guards yank me up from the ground, dragging me faster than my feet can move as they shove me onto the Vetrias. I barely get to my hands and knees before they’re ripped out from under me, attached to the four posts that arch into a point above me.
“We will not cooperate. They will not toss us through that hatch.”My dragon slithers under my skin as he grits out the words. For once, we’re on the same page.
A metal dome dangles from that point, and I don’t get a warning before a blast of lightning shoots through it, pinning me to the ground. The sheer force could crack my teeth. My heart doesn’t beat, my lungs inhale air, and my spine contorts in waysI didn’t know were possible. My dragon screams inside my head so loud my ears bleed. Crimson spills from my nose and mouth, dripping onto the ground as the power is cut.
I collapse, gasping for air, my dragon silent. My teeth bared for everyone to see, talons gutting from my fingers as I look up at my father, seated on his throne. The perfect image of royalty as he smiles at me.
Bastard.
I push up to sit on my legs. “You will not take my wings… If you want to kill me,you’llhave to do it. You’ll have to see my face, not watch my body plummet to the ground below.” My throat is so dry, there’s not enough spit in my mouth to wet it. Only blood.
“Again,” my father says, and the guards start to move.
I drop my head back, closing my eyes. Waiting.
The air whistles, growing louder by the second. My heart is so erratic, I fear I’m imagining it. I can barely force my eyelid to open, the Vetrias seeming to spin as I fight the urge to pass out.
Then I catch a black blob in the sky, bursting through the clouds. As it nears, wings lash out on either side of it, sending the wind blowing so fast that people fly. If it weren’t for the chains, I would’ve too.
It lands to my right, spitting something out of its mouth right before its claws hit the ground. That something rolls off the fabric awnings, tumbling to a stop on the ground. It lurches up, blond-haired and violet-eyed.Brenn.
He takes off toward Mira and Jesper as Calamity’s dragon tucks its wings, its claws scraping over the stone as it crawls over the ground toward me. It’s huge… Our dragons are supposed to be a manifestation of ourselves. Their kinds, ice, ground, fire, lightning, are all determined by heritage, but the size and the display of their scales are a direct representation of the person that houses them. And Calamity’s dragon is no exception to the rule. Sharp, taloned wings, blade-like teeth, scales that arepractically all spikes in themselves. She’s ferocious, and fuck it makes me love her more.
She crawls closer, and the crowd flees, and screams fill the air. Then she opens her mouth, flashing long pointed teeth, light building in her throat. I glue myself to the ground as hell flame explodes forward.
I barely get a glance at my father, half-shifted like he stands a chance at fighting her. His guards have abandoned him. They have no intentions of fighting a fury. Calamity’s flames level him tocinders in seconds. All dragons can withstand fire, but only furies can breathe and walk through hellfire unscathed.
The moment they’re gone, I jerk upright, checking over myself. Not a single burn.
I turn toward her, her dark scales flare as smoke spills into the air from beneath them, her golden eyes pierce through the dark haze of shadows that are coiling around her like snakes. The only guard still remaining is frozen in fear, but she snaps her head forward, chomps her teeth around him and chucks the body so far, he flies into the clouds.
The lords scramble from their thrones, having just had a front row seat to the king being fried, but Calamity's head reels back and this time it’s not flames, but the darkness she wields that bursts forth and snatches them up. The coils spin around them and before they hit the ground they’re dust.
