It all happened so fast I didn’t have time to debate. I couldn’t help Athebyne, who used her back claws to shred deeply and brutally into Rastaban’s chest and neck, spilling his blood, but he didn’t let her go.
I dove after Drystan.
Clamping my legs and leaning over the saddle, I reached out an arm for my brother when we were close enough. He reached back, gripping onto me when I pulled him to me with everything I had, and he made it onto the saddle behind me.
“No,” was the first word he spoke in a breath of pained disbelief.
As I glanced up at the chaos in the sky, to my surprise and awe, Athebyne had managed to get free from Rastaban, and she was still fighting back.
“She’s too injured,” Drystan said, pure agony and anger in his voice.
He was right: she wasn’t going to last much longer, and it was a miracle she still held herself in the sky.
Eltanin was already gliding up, heading toward them, but we wouldn’t make it. Rastaban’s jaw opened and he lunged for the smaller red dragon again.
“NO!” Drystan yelled.
The scene of horror would haunt him forever. He would never recover from the loss of Athebyne, and my soul tore for him.
Just before Rastaban’s mouth could rip Athebyne apart, a lightning flash of blue slammed into his head.
“Is that…?”
“Edasich,” Drystan filled in.
It was unbelievable. The dragon appeared like a blue spirit of the night, and I couldn’t fathom why she would risk her life for this fight.
Eltanin cried, torn to witness his kin fighting so ferociously.
Edasich sank her claws into Rastaban’s eye, blinding him on one side, but the black dragon always had the advantage of size. His huge wing slammed into Athebyne, and that was the end of her fight. Not dead yet, but so severely wounded I didn’t know if she would be able to survive or even catch herself as she fell from the sky.
Drystan yelled, and I didn’t expect him to leap off Eltanin’s saddle and fall after her like a damned fool. I snarled, about to dive to catch him again, but, to my shock, he gripped the horn of Athebyne’s saddle, managing to haul himself onto it even in a vertical drop.
Athebyne tried to use her wings again, and my adrenaline pumped so hard witnessing their violent plummet. A tumble of wings and pained cries. Until it was my belief that, because of Drystan, because of his devotion to be with her even if their fate was to die, she found enough will to fly. It wasn’t any kind of smooth descent, but they were slowing. Drystan could survive the rough landing; Athebyne would make sure he did.
Even if it meant sacrificing herself…
My rage amplified with my deep inhale at the thought, and I set my target back on my father.
“This ends now,” I said to Eltanin. He didn’t need the push of my dragon’s voice but he roared in fierce agreement. Eltanin didn’t just obey; he was as determined as I was to emerge triumphant. To cut his own father from the sky and keep his rightful place reigning over the dragons.
Pride to be facing this with such an unexpected companion in my life swelled in me. There were three things worth saving this world for. Three things I would always be glad to have the world brand me the villain to protect.
My mate. My brother. And my dragon.
What stood in the way of our freedom and happiness was not so easy to defeat, but I had bled this much, suffered thus far, and I was going to fucking win this time.
Eltanin charged with unfaltering bravery, and shadowy starlight diffused from his feathers. We were a stroke of black death cutting through the air.
Just as we reached Rastaban, his jaw crushed through the small blue dragon’s throat. Edasich’s sapphire eyes stared right into me, as if they spoke to my soul, and I didn’t know why she delivered her last farewell to me. Tragedy speared me, watching her innocent eyes glass over and slowly slip shut. Moonlight electrified the blue of her scales as she fell alone… an image of beautiful tragedy I would never forget.
Her death granted the distraction for Eltanin to sink his teeth into Rastaban’s neck, and the giant dragon thrashed to shake him off. At the same time, Eltanin’s claws slashed again and again over his already gravely wounded chest. Rastaban was incredibly durable.
I waited for my chance, holding on with everything I had as the dragons fought wildly. Eltanin sustained a few deep claws to his wings, legs, and neck, but my fearless dragon didn’t relent in his onslaught of attacks.
When Rastaban’s head turned to the angle I needed, I had no choice but to let go of Eltanin, knowing I would be thrown off his saddle. Conjuring a spear of dark power, with a battle cry I sent it right into Rastaban’s only good eye.
The dragon wailed and we were both falling. I could barely make out my father yelling, holding onto Rastaban with desperate hands, but the giant dragon couldn’t find his flight again.
